Petunia lay on her bed, arms folded behind her head, eyes fixed on the ceiling. The morning sun made golden streaks across her small room, yet all she could see was the ledger floating behind her eyelids, numbers, tabs, and warnings cascading in neat, impossible order.
She had been thinking about Tom Riddle all day.
As Fiona Bay, she had understood patterns. As Petunia, she now understood time. Both taught her the same lesson: You cannot save someone all at once. You cannot rewrite a life in a day.
The system responded to her focus.
[SYSTEM ALERT: STRATEGIC TIMELINE REVIEW REQUIRED
Suggested Action: Identify earliest safe observation point.]
Petunia blinked. She had spent hours reviewing the Doctor Who tier locks. Temporal mechanics, paradoxes, and ripple effects stared at her like a warning etched in neon.
Vortex Manipulator usage came with strings attached — permanent temporal signatures, ripple accumulation, causality friction. Notably, the ledger flagged Paradox Accumulation Risk.
She exhaled. That was fine. She wasn't going to intervene yet. She was going to watch. Learn. Guide from the edges.
The ledger offered a recommended first mission: [Observe Tom Riddle as a child without altering his trajectory.]
[PURCHASES CONFIRMED]
[Strategic Pattern Recognition (Marvel Cinematic Universe)— 12,000 SC
Effect: Enhances long-term cognition, pattern detection, and probability calculation.]
[Multilingual Assimilation (Doctor Who) — 3,500 SC
Effect: Instantly understand and communicate any language, including non-verbal codes, technical systems, and alien dialects.]
[Vortex Manipulator (Restricted Use)(Doctor Who) — 45,000 SC
Effect: Allows limited time travel to pre-approved points. Temporal jumps carry paradox risk; system monitoring required.]
[SC Remaining: 1,936,300]
Petunia let the ledger fade, replaced by a faint hum in her mind. Her heart ticked steady, thoughts sharp. She was eight. She would observe an eight-year-old Tom. The alignment was almost poetic.
She got up and got dressed in a simple blue dress and mary janes that could easily blend in with his time.
She wrapped the Vortex Manipulator around her left wrist and then punched in the coordinates. Wool's Orphanage, January 1, 1935.
Tom would have just turned eight at the end of December. Observation only. No interaction. No risk.
The system confirmed:
[TEMPORAL JUMP CONFIRMED
Mission Active: Observe Tom Riddle (1935)
Paradox Accumulation Level: Low (Observation Only)]
The room blurred. The walls, her bed — all twisted and fell away.
When her vision cleared, Petunia stood in a sunlit orphanage courtyard. Children ran about, some laughing, others pulling small toys along the gravel.
And there he was.
Sitting slightly apart, his dark hair falling into his face, eyes glinting with a cold, calculating intelligence far beyond his age. Tom Riddle, alone, small, observing the others like a chessboard already mapped out.
Petunia felt a strange tug in her chest.
She activated Strategic Pattern Recognition. Patterns emerged in his posture, his attention, his minor gestures — an early blueprint of the man he would become.
The system whispered a gentle reminder:
[WARNING: TEMPORAL OBSERVATION MAY ACCUMULATE PARADOX IF INTERVENTION OCCURS]
Petunia nodded to herself. She would not interfere. Not yet. Not until she had more understanding, more certainty that she could guide him without creating disaster.
She crouched behind a low wall, invisible to the children around her, and watched as Tom picked up a stick, tracing shapes in the gravel.
He paused. Looked around. For a heartbeat, it felt like his dark gaze brushed her own.
The system flagged it:
[SOULMATE BOND TRACE DETECTED — DISTANT
Status: STABLE / MONITORED]
Petunia exhaled. Ducking behind the stone partition wall before peeking over to make sure his attention was elsewhere.
For now, she would watch. Learn. Catalog every pattern. Every decision.
Time was on her side. She just had to play it carefully.