Differences

After the pentagon was prepared, Hadrian knelt in front of the silver basin and started reciting the Latin words of the ritual.

First, he prayed for the departed souls.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Obitus.

Et lux Perpetua luceat eis.

Fidelium animae, per misericordiam Mors, requiescant in pace.

Second, he prayed for all the blessings he had received from Lady Magic.

Bénedic, Magicae, nos et haec

tua dona quae de tua largitate sumus sutuous.

Per Magicae Dóminum nostrum.

Third, he prayed that the entities that be would grant him mental peace.

Fidelium animae, per misericordiam Dei,

requiescant in pace

"I call upon all those who have departed, I wish you eternal rest and peace, and may your souls find renewal. I wish you well and honour you tonight with these offerings—with the hope that you realise that you haven't been forgotten, even though you have departed from The Land of The Living, you are alive in my heart of hearts."

Hadrian's voice echoed as if he was in a deep valley and he bowed his head in remembrance and meditation.

Half an hour later, the Master of Death opened his eyes that gave off an eerie shine.

It was as if at that moment he had discarded his mortal body and had become what his title entailed - The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse.

The Grey Magic in the air was so thick that no Pure Light Lord or a Pure Dark Lord could have sustained themselves for longer than a second in the room.

Wizards who were Grey at their core could have entered the room for a few scant seconds.

The ones who had packed and compacted their power and magic into some semblance of obedience would have been the only ones who could strain themselves to the maximum to enter the room and stay for a few seconds or minutes - depending on their core.

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Meanwhile, Tom Riddle was in the Hogwarts Library.

He had heard his peers talking about ancient practices and Sabbath rituals that were performed by the old pureblood families on All Hallows Eve, Summer/Winter Solstice, etc.

This had piqued his interest and he had come to the library to read about them.

After all, it wouldn't do to appear ignorant in front of others if they questioned him about such things or if he couldn't participate in the conversations going on around him.

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He read in 'Important Rituals for Different Occasions' that magicals shouldn't forgo their traditions and all the more, shouldn't stop performing these rituals.

Participating in them actively increased a person's connection to their own magic.

Many times a wizard/witch would make astounding discoveries about themselves or their magic during the ritual.

There had even been reports of a handful of magicals through the ages who had increased their magical cores during these instances.

The author of the book further explained that the pure-bloods shouldn't disdain the ceremonies that had been invented and practised extensively by their ancestors.

After all, during The Dark Ages, magicals had been even in more danger from the muggles and because of these rituals, Lady Magic had many times helped them to escape the notice of vengeful or envious muggles.

Reading the excerpt from the book, Tom Riddle thought back to how the children at the orphanage used to treat him.

The Church mostly called witchcraft a sin and the people who practised it were branded as heathens or pagans—people who were too backwards and supposedly, weren't progressive in their thought process.

However, thinking about it from another perspective, why was the ministry pandering to the whims of the Muggle-borns?

Wasn't it better to pray and beseech help from Lady Magic?

It was an entity/god that was more tangible.

Why pray to an imaginary God who had sent his servants and his son on earth for the salvation of the world?

If that was true then why was there still so much misery in the world?

Rampant discrimination, murders - homicides, patricides and there were even laws dictating some murders as justifiable homicides and various other vices in the muggle world.

Tom Riddle didn't think that The Wizarding World was a paragon of virtue.

No. It wasn't good-plain-old heaven by any stretch by any means.

Yet, it was a far better place than its Muggle counterpart.

At least, there were some ironclad rules in this world that were governed by Lady Magic and Chaos which nobody dared to violate on pain of death.

Case in point - nobody hunted for Unicorn Heart's even though they were the purest and lightest form of magic at the core.

The Unicorn horn and hairs used in rare potions were either freely given or the potion collectors picked those things off the ground - when those parts had been discarded by the Unicorns themselves.

Had it been the Muggle world, muggles would have somehow started poaching Unicorns for their hearts and selling them on the black market.

Tom had even heard hushed whispers from one of the caretakers in the orphanages that some people even sold little children on the so-called black market.

There were many other things that Magical Britannia was better at than the other side.

Magicals coexisted peacefully with various creatures that were as different from them as day and night - Werewolves, Goblins, Vellas, Vampires, etc whereas mundanes found the stupidest of reasons for not accommodating others - their skin colour, their country of origin and even the person they loved.

Tom Riddle hadn't known this but he had heard Heir Black and Malfoy talking about how gay marriages were legal and even celebrated in their world.

Apparently, magicals didn't feel that loving someone of the same sex was abhorrent in some way or that it was unnatural and the pair involved some kind of freak of nature.

Ha!

Those muggle-borns had the sheer gall and audacity to come into this new world and spout off their own rhetoric that the magicals weren't progressive.

Yes. Yes.

It was you and your waste of space family members on the other side of magic who were truly progressive.

So progressive that they can't tolerate a grain of sand in their eyes.

Ha!

Even muggle children who were too small to understand the realities of the world had the innate ability to hurl insults at others their age without thinking that those childish insults. 

They didn't think that the things they had said to belittle someone, could leave a large psychological shadow on them for the rest of their lives.

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The thing is that Tom Riddle had gone through a few harsh realities of the world.

He had already experienced the dog eat dog world when he had to fight others for even a single bite of edible food. He had already seen the greed that was prevalent in a human heart.

So, on some level, he was more mature than others his age which was the primary reason why he couldn't connect with his peers.

He thought about things on a deeper level.

He viewed the picture as a whole and wondered about the consequences of his actions before he took them.

He wasn't like other children his age who were thoughtless in their actions—more the mundanes than the magical kids.

Maybe it was due to the fact that the magical children were taught etiquette and societal behaviour from a very young age.

All these things resulted in one aspect of Tom Riddle's life that would forever define him, no matter what time or dimension he was born in—he took pride in his heritage.

He had a burning desire to better himself and learn everything about the wonderful magic that courses through his body.

He wanted his world. The Wizarding World, the world he was a part of to be a better place to live in for everyone.

He didn't want any of his magical brethren to go through the kind of experiences he himself had gone through.

Though in some dimensions, Tom Riddle would become lost in his path to achieve what he had so badly desired in his younger years.

However, no one could deny that when he had stepped foot on this path, his intentions had been pure.

It was still to be seen what would become of this small child in this dimension.

A dimension where he was unknowingly living with the Master of Death and the dimension which would become not only the playground of Light Lords and Dark Lords but would also become the land where entities would fight for dominance in the future.