Quick note before we get started here: the first chapter is intentionally disjointed; it's purpose is to hint at things that will be explored in more detail over the course of the story. Oh, also, I don't own Harry Potter. Shocking, I know.

Harry Potter's body was working on autopilot. Duck under that curse, spin to avoid that one, sidestep that binding spell, leap out of the way of that purple-ish flame spell and into-

Oh dear, Harry thought miserably, crashing through the glass filled with time that they had passed earlier. This will only end badly.

"Where's Harry?!" Sirius demanded, throwing curses pell-mell into the battle.

"I don't know!" Hermione cried back, sending a neat stunner directly at Bellatrix Lestrange, who had been making her way over to the pair of them with a maniacal glint in her eye. Had Sirius been less focused on his missing godson, he would have figured out that Bellatrix was particularly keen on killing him to "purify" her family, him being the shameful traitor that he was.

"He fell through a giant time turner! We haven't seen him since!"

Sirius didn't quite know how to respond to that, given the fact that they were in the middle of a battle.

"A year?!" Sirius demanded, nearly apoplectic with rage.

"A year," Dumbledore confirmed gravely. After examining the time turner through which Harry had (hopefully) unintentionally leapt, he was quite certain of what had happened: Harry had been transported back in time (how far, he could only guess) and would be returned to where he belonged in a year's time. Luckily, he knew that Harry couldn't alter the past while he was in it, or else he already would have and events would have already started to change.

Unless, of course, their memories had already been altered in accordance with new events . . .

Dumbledore started rubbing his temples, trying in vain to stave off a headache. Sirius, who continued to rant at him, was not helping.

"Unnngh," Harry grumbled, staggering to his feet uncertainly. It wasn't until he looked around him that he realised exactly where he was or how much trouble he was in: while he was still in the same room that he been in previously, it was now filled with people whom he could only assume were Unspeakables. That, however, wasn't the problem

The problem was the abject fascination with which they were regarding him.

"Err . . . Hi?"

"Everyone, we've a new student transferring today. He's a transfer from Beauxbatons, so please make him feel welcome. Everyone, let's give a warm welcome to Hadrian Everclear!"

Armando Dippet, it seemed, was actually a kindergarten teacher at heart. Perhaps that's why he had seemed so pliable in the memory Harry had seen in the diary.

"It's Harry," Harry grumbled, placing the sorting hat on his head with visible irritation.

"Everclear!" a voice called out from behind him.

"Hmm?" Harry asked, not bothering to turn around. He knew to whom that voice belonged, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Do you need someone to show you around the school?"

"I know where I'm going."

"How could you? You've only been here a-"

"I'm fine, thanks, Riddle."

That complete bastard.

That utter bastard.

"Everclear."

"Riddle."

"I noticed you've been doing well in classes, lately."

"Only three."

"You've only been excelling in three; you've been doing well in all of them."

"If you're after what I think you are-"

"And just what would a Gryffindor think they know about what I'm thinking?"

"More than you might expect."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Everclear."

"Riddle."

"You've been avoiding me."

"It only seems that way because no one else can leave you alone. I haven't been paying you enough attention to avoid you." It was a lie, of course, but the first bit, at least, was perfectly true.

"One of these days, Everclear, I'll have you wrapped around my finger," Kathleen said confidently.

"I'll look forward to it, Riddle," Harry said taking care to sound as bored as possible.

Several months later, Harry swallowed his pride and approached the one person whom he had sworn to avoid at all costs; he had been having a problem lately, and she was the only one who could help.

"Riddle."

"Everclear."

"Can I have a word?"

"You want a word with me? What about your upstanding Gryffindor nature? Are you certain you can be seen associating with a Slytherin like me?"

"You know that's never been the issue."

"Do I? And isn't it?"

"Considering that you've been using Legilimency on me-"

"Guilty."

"-I would guess that yes, you do and no, it isn't."

"Still, though, I do like to watch you squirm."

There was a brief silence before Harry spoke up again.

"I'm still looking forward to it, Riddle."

"Oh? Looking forward to what?"

"Being wrapped around your finger."

He sounded a lot less disinterested this time.

"Kat? Kathleen? Where- Bollocks."

Harry knew precisely where he was and, more importantly, when.

He was back in his own time.

You don't get to do that, Potter. You can't just waltz into my life, sweep me off my feet, then run off back home. I'll see you soon, and when I do . . . There'll be hell to pay.

A very angry and very worried Kathleen Riddle stormed outside the Hogwarts gates, silently thanking Dippet for the lackluster security. She had a will and a boyfriend who hadn't yet submitted to it.

That would soon change.

"Welcome back, Mr Potter," an anxious voice said.

"So I'm not 'attention-seeking liar' anymore?" Harry replied, frowning at the uncomfortable-looking Ministry employee.

"Well, no . . . sir?"

"Save it. I haven't forgotten last year; I won't be in any hurry to, either. I do appreciate the sycophancy, though. Now, can I use your floo, or not?"

Dumbledore stood before his students, beaming at all of them: for the first time in a long time, he had a genuinely happy announcement to make.

"It is with great pleasure that I announce the return of one of our students! He has been missing this past year, but has finally returned, no worse for the wear. Please join me in welcoming back Harry-"

"POTTER!"

"Oh dear," Harry muttered. This will only end badly.

AN: Well, that's just about the most disjointed set-up chapter I've ever written, possibly even read. Yeah, it was fully intentional, but still. Anyways, for clarity's sake, I should probably point out that, while Tom Marvolo Riddle is a sociopath (inarguably so), Kathleen Mariah Riddle isn't. She's controlling, manipulative, and possessive, but she isn't actually evil; she mostly just wants to set up alliances with all of the most usefully (or potentially useful) students in school so that she can more easily do whatever she wants as an adult (be it politics or teaching), hence the reason she was after Harry. This takes place in an AU where Harry, like Dumbledore and Voldemort, is a prodigy, so she figured he'd be useful to have around.

Also, to explain the time travel mechanic, Harry jumping through the time turner sent him back into an alternate dimension (obviously) where he spent a year. It happened to send him back exactly 52 years (conveniently), so he wound up in June of 1944. I have a piece of head cannon that says that OWLs end on the first Friday of June (that was the seventh in '96 and the second in'44) while school ends on the Summer Solstice, so he spent two weeks in school before leaving for the summer (he lived in the Leaky Cauldron while he wasn't at school). Harry returned to his own time after a year (on 06-07-45) and Katheryn stormed over to the Ministry so that she could use whatever toys were hidden away in the Department of Mysteries to follow him and give the poor bastard a piece of her mind.

When Harry first arrived in the past, the Unspeakables gave him some money and a fake identity in exchange for information about time travel and the future in general, which he considered a fair deal. Dumbledore knew from the start that he'd be back in a year and told a few people high-up in the Ministry about it, and the Unspeakables were able to work out the same thing in the past, so they told Harry about it. Shame he eventually forgot about it, what with his mind being on other things and all. Cough cough attending to Kathleen's every whim cough.

I know that this is really short, but it's just a prologue/teaser/still-a-prologue, soooo . . . deal with it? Seriously, though, future chapters will be longer. Lemme know what you think, since "Harry goes back in time and meets teenage Voldemort" stories are fairly common, while "Harry goes back in time to an alternate dimension where he meets the teenage version of someone who is very similar to Voldemort while still being different enough that she'll never grow into him" stories aren't. At least, not to my knowledge, I could totally be missing out on a huge portion of the fanbase. That said, I kinda doubt it.

PS: To be clear: Voldemort in this story is a man. Kathleen is not a teenage Voldemort, she's a teenaged version of what Voldemort could have been had he not been a sociopath. Also if he were a girl, which is probably important, too.