Albus Dumbledore barely acknowledged the new first years. His attention, like several others, was drawn to the Gryffindor table where Harry Potter sat with a younger James Potter and Lily Evans. He couldn't help but to notice Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew as well. The only one missing was Sirius Black. Though the man had apparently escaped from Azkaban leading to more questions than he had answers to.
Severus Snape felt his heart hammer away in his chest. There across the room was Lily Evans, supposedly back from the dead. She looked younger, the same age she was on the day he had ruined their friendship irreparably with a few words. Rage replaced the longing as he noticed who else had returned from the grave. Potter and his gang of miscreants were sitting next to Lily. Laughing as if they had never left Hogwarts halls. Laughing as if they had never ruined his life.
Minerva McGonagall fought tears as she watched what she hoped were nothing more than the ghosts of her favorite students. It was as if she had fallen through time. James and his friends laughed while Lily Evans glared at their antics. The only thing that didn't fit in the picture and reminded her that this was reality was young Harry laughing along with his father. She felt the guilt bubbling up again and promised herself that she would find a moment to apologize to the Potters for failing them.
Remus Lupin was surprised to get the teaching job at Hogwarts. He was even more surprised to spot a younger version of himself laughing along with a joke that James Potter had said. A James Potter that had returned from the dead. He wondered if he had gone insane. Looking along the head table he realized that he wasn't the only one that saw the revived Marauders along with Lily Evans.
'Well if they see it then I'm not losing my mind.'
Tom Marvolo Riddle drifted around trees deep in the forests of Albania. After his embarrassing defeat at Potter hands three years ago he had been relegated back to being a disembodied wraith. Quirrell had proven himself to be a disappointment on many ends. Unfortunately he was short on followers to possess so he was stuck, for the moment.
He heard a twig snap and his ghostly eyes shot in the direction of the noise. A lone hare bound from the bushes and scampered away. He had contemplated hijacking an animal's body so that he could escape the blasted forest but found the idea repugnant. There was a flash of light and a figure appeared before him. He wondered if he could possess this man.
"Hello Tom." He shoved down the rage and surprise.
"Who are you?" The figure chuckled and he grit his teeth. If only he had a body to attack the man.
"Doesn't matter, I just wanted to let you know that I've destroyed all your horcruxes. Every last one." Fear gripped his cold dead heart for the first time in nearly half a decade. This was impossible, there was no way the man had found every single one. "Oh yes, I got every single one. The diary, though Harry got that one, the ring, the locket, the cup, the diadem, I even got the one you accidentally left in Harry's scar."
His fear grew with each word from the man. Somehow all of his horcruxes had been found and destroyed. He had been separated from them for far too long to really sense them anymore but he knew. He knew that the man wasn't lying. He felt a strange chill as he continued to observe the man.
"I guess all that's left is you. Any last words Tom?"
"Why?"
"Not even going to beg for your life? Color me impressed. Why? I guess because it was necessary. Now… goodbye Tom."
Voldemort felt pain flash through his ethereal body before the world darkened and he knew no more.