Prologue.

In an absolutely black space, shining cosmic multicolored glow, one single golden clot of energy in the form of a ball soared - this is concentrated divine energy. I hovered around the space for a long time, as if curiously inspecting her new location.

Time has passed, and how much the soul spent there, and it was she, is not known for sure, because the concept of time in the void does not exist as such. But nothing can last forever, and after a while a funnel glowing with crystalline white glow appeared in space, which began to draw the soul of the hero of this story.

Usually, neither demons, nor gods, nor any other creatures could resist the complete purification of the soul in the void after death and falling into this place: any creature will be cleansed of everything. They undergo full reincarnation, starting their existence completely from scratch.

But there are cases when souls appear in the void that can preserve their memories, personality and abilities that they had during life, which happens very rarely, and the chance for it is very small, but it happens! True, such amazing souls appear every trillions of years, and this unique number includes this soul.

******

Vula Shelter, 1945.

In one of the rooms of the shelter, in complete darkness and on one of the three old wooden beds, sometimes rotten, there was a boy with aris-tocratic facial features. He had smooth white skin and brown hair, cheekbones and slightly plump cherry lips, which completed the beautiful face of this five-year-old-old-looking boy. His whole appearance indicated that in the future he promised to break many female hearts.

But now his face was overshadowed by an expression of indescribable pain: with his eyes closed, he held on to his head and shuddered strongly on the bed, pouring on the bed, pouring sweat. But after a time of long hellish torment on a creaky bed, the boy stopped moving abruptly, as if the pain that tormented him, finally passed. This confirmed his smoothed peaceful face. . He relaxed lying on his old dirty-hole bed linen with a little sad smile.

Oh," he sighed heavily, "who would have known that I would die in such a banal and template way," he thought, unable to move now.

*****

I lived in the twenty-first century and died saving the life of a small child who almost got hit by a car, but I managed to push him away, and in the end I got under this car. I was only eighteen at that time, my name was Alex. I'm an ordinary guy who doesn't stand out from the crowd. Except for hobbies - anime, TV series, fanfiction, books and all that.

I didn't really live, I didn't get a girl, there were only sexual relations without obligations, no more. I think it can't be considered a relationship. I was sure I had a lot of time ahead of me. My life was boring or ordinary, depending on how and for whom. But unfortunately, it certainly seemed gray to me.

studied at the university, I had no friends. But not because I was an outcast or something like that, I was just always on my own, and I was quite satisfied with it.

I lived with my aunt - my parents died in a plane crash when I was twelve. Then the plane exploded because of a suicide bomber, taking the entire crew with it. And in the end, they died, and I was an orphan.

I could have been sent to an orphanage because I had no other living relatives. Thank God, my aunt took me to her place and took care of me reverently, after all, she also had grief then.

Her husband passed away either - he died of illness, and her aunt became a single mother with a small five-year-old daughter in her arms. Financial problems began - the money that she had spent on her husband's treatment, but nothing helped. He caught the coronavirus on a business trip to China, the treatment, alas, did not save.

She couldn't work in her arms with the child, there was no money, and then there was another hungry mouth, but she still didn't give me to an orphanage, for which I am very grateful to her. She then pulled herself together. It was really difficult. But she coped and found a good job, I could look after the child myself, because I was more responsible and smarter than my peers. That's how my gray everyday life continued, until I died.

I saw a car rushing at me, as if in slow motion. Then I thought that was all, the end.

"I haven't had time to do everything I wanted in my life yet, and I no longer have any chance to fix it flashed in my head before the inevitable death.

But no, what a surprise it was when I reincarnated to the world of the BBC series Merlin in the same main character. Did you probably think that I would start a life full of adventure and magic because of saving the life of an innocent child?

In the world of one of my favorite series, where I will use my knowledge of the canon, use them to become an archimage, master of the world, and make my any characters Nimue and Morgana my wives, and then we will have little emresics? No way.

I had to roll up my lip. Unfortunately, both I and not me lived this life in a sense at the same time, or rather my new personality - a guy named Merlin, lived almost canonically in an almost canonical world. There were significant differences between the series and reality, but he died, that is, me. Damn, I still lacked identification problems! No divisions "he" or "I", we are united! So, I died at the moment when Arthur was supposed to die in this world at Morgana's hands. I saved him, but at the cost of my life. It's still trembling at Morgana's words:

"I'll send you to a place where you will disappear once and for all. You shouldn't blame me, blame yourself for choosing the wrong side. Goodbye, Emris"

After that, on my last breath, I heard Morgana cast an unknown spell, and then I was swallowed by darkness. It was when I died in the Merlin world and resurrected in another world, namely in the Harry Potter world, that I immediately received memories of five-year-old Tom, a snake-like impotent in the future, the dark Lord Voldemort.

My memory and personality from the twenty-first century only now woke up; I perceived the existence of Merlin's life as memories of the past, not vice versa. Merlin was my life in the form of memories, and Tom's memory was the same, although it was strange.

Perhaps many people think, if I was Mary Susan Merlin, that I'm the strongest here now!

No way!

According to memories from the Merlin world, I didn't know so many spells, a maximum of a hundred, somewhere like that. Well, what did you want? I studied magic from one book that Gaius gave me, maybe I would have become that Merlin if I lived until the twenty-first century in this world, collecting knowledge of magic and improving my abilities, but alas. And I defeated some enemies with a huge magical reserve, which is not available now, but fortunately the potential remained, so I'll pump up. It's a pity, of course, that the knowledge of magic from the series is fake, and in general a lot of the series did not coincide with reality, but still those narlings that I know may be superior to many of the Harry Potter world! Although not a fact, maybe this world is not a canon at all.

Oh yes, do I still have the powers of the dragon lord? There are still, yes, but they are different, because, as I said, the world was not quite canonical.

Once the dragon told me that I am a distant descendant of True Dragons - magical creatures that lived many centuries ago, in fact, here the ability to speak dragon language is used without even knowing it. This is my true language of soul, and the soul, if not the whole, then half like dragons, has changed because of my ancestors and the awakening of heritage, which has not yet fully awakened.

Unfortunately, I don't know all the consequences of these changes, but I learned a lot from dragons. I got from my glorious ancestors not only the change of the soul, which is stronger than the human one, but also much more! For example, great magical potential, telekinesis ability, talent for light and dark magic, fire magic, and air. Well, spells cast in dragon tongue a little amplifying them. And as I understand it, almost any dragon will consider me a brother, and some, if they are weaker than me, will obey. Although if the dragon is strong and reasonable enough, it may not be repaired to me, but they will not attack me first of their own free will anyway.

Can you say that thanks to my heritage, I am already MS in the world of Potter? Nifiga! Few people or what is in this version of the Potter Universe, and even more so to develop your abilities, you also need to live, learn the relevant knowledge that I do not have. It's good that the dragon explained something to me about my origin, although he wasn't obliged to obey and teach me something. I couldn't order it, but he wasn't a weak dragon, he just helped me several times in gratitude for his release, no more.

From my rebirth as Tom, I got, again, great magical potential and ability to talk to snakes, or rather parseltang, I also have an amazing memory! I can remember everything I've ever seen or heard if I want it myself, and I also remembered everything from birth, even my mother Meropa on her deathbed.

When I was just Tom, I often liked to remember this - episodes where my mother pressed me against her and said that she loved me more than life, and that she was very sorry that she left me alone in this cruel world, and in her last breath gave me the name Tom Emris Riddle.

I was very surprised.

My middle name in this world is the name I was called by the druids in the world "Merlin". But I don't mind, I like it! Again, knowledge of the canon is useless. This world is definitely not a canon. Most likely, these abilities and memories are a manifestation of the gift of legmentia and occumition, eh, because I received not only memories, but also all the feelings of my other reincarnations.

Mrs. Cole, the only teacher of the shelter, went to this evil devil's offset, boy Tom. She was about thirty, but she was already with wrinkles on her pale unhealthy face, black-haired, blue-eyed, with bruises under her eyes. She always walked with a face that she was a noble lady who stepped into dog excrement, and for her dog excreta were all the children of the shelter. A very nice person, as she thought about herself, because a woman with her last strength all these years is trying to make ends meet and keep the shelter entrusted to her during the war, which, thank God, is already over!

The constant poverty, the need to look after all the owner's, medical and pedagogical problems themselves made Mrs. Cole somewhat cynical and pushed her to the bottle. But even alcohol doesn't help her relax and forget the feeling of the looming threat that has been hovering in the shelter since the orphan Riddle appeared there.

"Little child," strangers would say when meeting him, but she knew who he really was - Satan's offland! From the moment he appeared here, all sorts of devilishness began to happen in the shelter. The glasses were broken by Tom's crying, the light went out on its own, the bulbs burst like soap bubbles. Then other employees said that she had overworked and needed rest, or that she was cheating herself and it was just a coincidence!

It was only a year after Tom appeared that the oddities stopped. But only until she once saw a boy on the street, away from other, "normal" children, sitting and hissing as if talking to a snake.

Then she punished him with rods in fury and fear and closed him in the pantry without food and water to weaken the devil! The icon of the Almighty and the Bible that she gave him, having ordered him to read, otherwise he will never get out of there. She thought she could expel a demon from him on her own!

Alas, everything was in vain, the obscurantism around Tom only began to intensify, and then she was not believed! And to her great regret, she could not make a decision herself, without any good reason she could not kick this devil out into the street, because he skillfully pretended to be a quiet, ordinary, cute and diligent boy, so he had to endure.

After a while, in the garden behind the shelter, Riddle again "fighted" with the older children, or rather, he was just beaten, which often happened, and to which Mrs. Cole closed her eyes, because it helps to weaken the demon.

As a result, one day the "children" overdid it. Tom was lying on the floor in a deadly state. The woman did not even have time to be scared, because even if she is not imprisoned because she did not look after the orphans, her guilt will be small there; but also about the sponsors of the shelter who donate at least some money for their reputation, you will have to forget, because with such "glory" to the shelter no one will sacrifice anything, but she works and lives at the expense of these donations.

But it turned out that I was worried in vain. His almost breathless body was shrouded in a golden flash, which made Cole close his eyes so as not to go blind. When she discovered them, what a surprise it was when all the wounds on her body in front of her eyes were healed and broken bones fell into place!

When Tom looked absolutely healthy, she began to feverishly, with a fanatical face, think about how to get rid of this offset Lucifer, she wanted to kill him right away! In the name of the Lord, because she could not weaken the demon! But she couldn't, because no one saw him wounded and healed by devilish magic, they won't believe her! She will just be imprisoned like a murderer or a madman! If anything, to use as an excuse the same "witnesses", who beat him many times, and someone from the shelter will definitely surrender them, and in their noble act, like ridding this world of a demon, in order to justify murder? But no one will believe them.

When this demon woke up the next day, she took him to church with fear, but still! But her efforts turned out to be useless. Days passed, but after that incident the demon became even more sinister, his gaze got colder, became like an iceberg, the boy looked at everyone around him like a wolf at a bunch of sheep. And he also got a huge snake and always now wore it around his neck and hissed something quietly under his nose.

The guys who beat Tom a few days later began to be haunted by failures. Someone got poisoned, someone slipped on the stairs, breaking their bones, someone began to dream of nightmares that made them afraid to sleep, because who would want to sleep with the idea that snakes would eat you alive again in a dream?

After all this, the teacher began to be even more afraid of Riddle, and she already lacked the spirit to punish him, she did not want to experience the same thing as the same "children". Like the rest of the orphans, she just began to ignore and stay away from Tom, try to avoid his attention, but sometimes she has to cross paths with him.

While the woman thought about it, she herself did not have time to notice how she was already standing at the door to Tom's room. Sighing hard, she gained courage and knocked weakly on the door.

*****

I slowly opened my eyes, wrinkling from knocking on the door. My head was dizzy, the sound was cut through the ears. I got out of bed leaning against the wall, otherwise I would have fallen to the floor. They knocked on the door again, but apparently the visitor got tired of waiting and the door opened, and Tom was faced with <i>she</i> - Miss Cole, a crazy teacher at Vula Shelter.