It was December the thirty-first, New Year's Eve, and the weather was icy and cold, as it had been for a while. In the heart of London, there was an orphanage, where a young woman, more commonly referred to as Mrs. Cole, had just started working.

Another young girl, this one more commonly referred to as Ms. Gaunt, though she would much rather be Mrs. Riddle, stumbled up the frozen steps. Her clothes were ragged and worn, although not much could be seen through the snow that covered them, and if a person was so nosy as to notice anything, they would have noticed her large, bulging stomach; Ms. Gaunt was going to, very clearly, have a child.

She knocked desperately, though weakly, on the door. Luckily for her, the former young girl had been scolding a child who had wandered downstairs to celebrate New Year's, and could hear her faint knocking.

"Hello, dear," she said, and saw the woman's large stomach. Even in the short time Mrs. Cole had been working here, she had already received many cases where a woman stumbled in, ready to give birth.

"Well, don't just stand there, come in," said Mrs. Cole, not unkindly. The latter young woman, who Mrs. Cole now saw was very pale, hobbled in meekly and collapsed on the nearest chair.

"How are you, honey?" asked Mrs. Cole, trying to make polite conversation so that the woman would feel more comfortable during the last moments of her life. She knew that not many survived their child when they came to the orphanage; that was why they came in the first place.

The girl simply nodded, and lowered her hood, clearly getting warmer in the orphanage, which was not anything special, but the children here were reasonably well-cared for and comfortable. She seemed to approve the place her child would be growing up; she had not grown up anywhere better.

She leaned back, and relaxed. "And yourself?" she now replied.

"Fine, thank you. You are here for the child?"

"Yes," she said, fondly, though a little sadly, rubbing her stomach. "I hope he looks like his papa."

Mrs. Cole did not disagree; with the girl's uninteresting, unkempt brown hair, sallow face, and gaunt features, Mrs Cole hoped for the child's sake that he was like his father as much as possible. Unless the father was somehow worse, which, while not impossible, thought Mrs Cole, was highly unlikely.

"Was his father handsome?"

"Oh, yes," said the girl, sorrow in her eyes. "I'm going to name him after his father. Tom, Tom Riddle. That'll be his name. And," she paused for a second, seeming unsure, then said, "and Marvolo, for my father. Make sure that's his name!' she said firmly, as though Mrs. Cole might forget.

Marvolo? Thought Mrs. Cole. That's a weird name –like from a circus or something!

"Tom Marvolo Riddle," repeated Mrs. Cole.

"Yes," she said, the sorrow still in her eyes. There was a pause, until she started gasping. "He's coming," she said simply.

Mrs. Cole helped her give birth. When she did not die immediately after that, Mrs. Cole began to hope that perhaps this child was not to be an orphan after all.

But Mrs. Cole was proved to be wrong, the little baby's mother died less than ten minutes later."Rest in peace," she said, before picking off the crying baby, wrapping him in his sheets and picking up the phone to call a contact who buried people. These people didn't even get a funeral –if someone cared enough about you to come, you would leave your child to them instead of dropping it off in an orphanage.

Next she called a person who would get the child's documents sorted out; like his birth certificate. She made an appointment for him to come the next day, in the afternoon.

It was an ordinary day, even this woman dying wasn't out of place, at the orphanage.

AN: so, what do you think? I thought it would be interesting to have a story for just Voldemort, but comment if
you disagree. And if you agree, comment that and tell me when the next chapter should take place; I'm not
going to write 365 chapters about each day of the year as Voldemort is a baby, I thought about skipping till
he was a bit older? Review, please!

Also, I can't think of a name for the orphanage. If you have any ideas, please tell me!