Meet the Parents? Kinda. Mostly scheming kid does scheming.
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Tom wasn't sure if he should be exasperated or just happy that he might be adopted by the two geeky potential parents who had decided to come visit the orphanage that day.
Sure, judging by the fact that they had come in clothing that could barely be considered a step above casual, they might not have been the most prepared couple for coming to a decently upper-class orphanage, and the way they had to admit that they would be using the special government subsidies for gifted children to help pay for continuing his higher education might have slightly alarmed the matron as well. But he could tell they were honest, hard-working people that just wanted to raise a family while they were still young.
He even tentatively approved of them for showing up with all the documents needed to prove they had done their research and were actively working on improving their own lives at the same time, so that he would be able to enjoy himself a little more as he got older, with the potential mother working her way to becoming head chef at a local pub, and the maybe father working as an accountant at a car dealership with the potential for a better position later on.
"Well, as long as he can keep up with the accelerated learning pace, I don't see why he can't get school done and out of the way with at his own pace, and then have more time to play around when he gets older, haha!" Jerry, the nearly thirty yet already graying man with a neatly trimmed beard, claimed with a jolly laugh. It looked so natural on him, as if he was made for happiness, which was quite nice to see.
People like that were far more pleasant to be around than people he associated closely with in his past life, simply because they were the types of people who would see a suffering man on the side of the road in the rain, and offer them a ride to the shelter, even if it would make them a few minutes late to work. Perhaps he wouldn't offer direct monetary help to those in need, or perhaps he would. It was still admirable, even if Tom could never see himself doing so without some guarantee of fair compensation.
It was the nature of who he was at his core. A greedy, selfish man who wanted nothing more than to have a large family and settle down somewhere safe and happy to allow them peace.
Who knows, if he managed what he wanted to do, perhaps he would take them along. If they treated him kindly at least.
Turning to the mother, she seemed much more shy. She blushed a lot, stuttering lightly when asked to speak, and mostly having to be prompted to say more than a few words at a time. Tom wasn't entirely sure why she seemed so intimidated by the matron's admittedly somewhat intense stare, but he was sure that she would be just fine once she realized that she wasn't being judged, but rather, the matron was probably trying to decide if it would be polite to hug the poor woman.
"I-Is there something wrong?" the mother, a young red-haired woman by the name of Ashley, asked with a hint of confusion, concern coloring her voice with a strange tone. It wasn't her fault for thinking there was, really. The matron had been staring.
The older, slightly rotund woman shook her head with a small smile, handing out the last of the forms they'd need to adopt Tom and have him become a part of their family. "Nothing dear, I was just reminded of an old friend of mine. She was quite timid as well, you see," she claimed with a light chuckle, patting the young four-year-old boy on the head.
Clearing her throat, the matron decided it would be a good time to bring up the potential schooling options they had gone over that had accepted him for being quite a bit above the norm compared to other children in this world. He was quite well known among them already as a once-in-a-lifetime genius, one that might in fact, become the next great scientist in the world if given the attention he deserved. Or so they claimed. "There are three major schools in the U.K. that might just be able to accept him for a full scholarship, considering he had passed the exams necessary for entry."
Well, if he was being honest, he had somewhat cheated. It wouldn't be fun to have to go through schooling from scratch all over again, so Tom had made sure to check the syllabus of his older roommates and visit the library to check what the answers to all the possible questions that were usually asked on the tests would be. Even then, he still had to rely on his past life knowledge, so he did feel a little like he hadn't really earned such special treatment in this life either way.
Would he use it to his advantage? Most definitely. But he obviously wasn't about to deliberately hold back his knowledge to look like he was a normal child either way, so that was a given.
For one, that would look incredibly suspicious if he did. For two, he genuinely did not remember how to act like a child.
He specifically remembered how embarrassing it was to have to relearn how to talk, let alone how to walk, and his bladder control was still an issue during long outings. Each step in his path had to be carefully measured at first, lest he overestimate his stride and fall flat on his face.
Once he had learned how to talk and walk, he was rather quick to grab the first thing he could see to learn how to read the local languages. His native language in his last life was English as well, but it was American English, which was a whole different beast when compared to British English.
This wasn't even accounting for the brain rot of the twenty-twenties where people seemed to think memes such as amogus and skidibi rizz were the peak of entertainment, and that they should be allowed to make their way into the common tongue during casual conversation. Such foolishness had thankfully not infected him as well before the end, but it did make it rather hard to find intelligent conversational partners for a while, in the years leading up to his unfortunate demise.
He had plenty of time to think about it, and though he couldn't say he missed his previous life, he simply wished he had not been reborn into the world he was. Even if it was with the meta knowledge he had of the series as a whole.
As a result, while it took Tom a bit longer than he would have liked, he became fluent in the local language once more and was quite confident in saying he was at least passible as a ninth grader in terms of average schooling level by the time he was four again. Which is what led to the matron looking into schools that could accept him in on a scholarship while keeping him ahead of the rest of his peers. A private school that would assign him a personal tutor and help him test out as early as they could legally allow.
The other orphans were a little jealous of him at first, seeing him as a potential rival or some snobby brat that must surely be looking down on them at first, but he managed to win over quite a few of them when he mentioned that it wasn't as if they didn't have their own talents as well, and that he would help them discover them if they wanted to reach out to him in return.
Tentatively at first, some actually did. He would keep in touch with them when he was adopted, and perhaps they could be useful down the line.
"Well then Mister and Missus Harrison, congratulations. He's all yours." She told them with a small smile, causing the look on Tom's face to turn from pensive to slightly sour. His blue eyes narrowed as he realized he wouldn't be getting rid of his somewhat silly name any time soon. At the same time, he wasn't truly old enough to ask for a change of legal name, so he supposed he would simply have to deal with it for the time being.
"Thank you Ma'am! We'll be sure to take good care of him!" Jerry told the woman with a bright, sunny smile as he stood from his seat, the chair nearly lifting with him in his hurry to shake her hand. It wasn't like the man was what Tom would call obese, but he was a rather large man, and very jolly by the looks of things over the past few visits.
Either way, the young, black-haired boy figured he would be in good hands indeed, and was already contemplating ways to help them take care of him so that they wouldn't feel the strain of taking care of him as much as they might otherwise have. It would help him more in the long run if he didn't have to move homes too many times, and he was well liked in his community after all.
The more personable he seemed, the better off he would be if something went awry and people found out about his plans early on. Even Dumbledore, a renowned wizard that was well known to be kind and caring by the masses had some serious skeletons in his closet; so, he was under no illusions that if he were to be considered a threat to anyone that he wouldn't just quietly disappear. However, by making himself a valued member of society simply by acting as if he was a much better person than he truly was, he would be able to have others alleviate any concerns for him passively by saying that he was kind and caring or other such things, and that he would never do something that would bring others harm.
While this was far from being the truth, he desperately needed it to seem as such for his long-term plans barely formed in his youthful mind to come to fruition. He could only hope that he ended up at Hogwarts, because that would only help him in the long run for a lot of his plans going forwards.
The room of requirement would definitely be a necessity for him going forwards after all.
AN:
Kitsu: Here we have another chapter! If y'all like this one, check out my carrd for links to my social media and potential commission options or other ways to support me! There are already a few stories that are at least a chapter ahead for y'all to read if you are supporting me on my 5 dollar tiers and up, and have your discord linked in my exclusive channels there, so come check it out!
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Any comments Asdo?
Asdo21: Sorry if the chapter is a bit monologue-y, but there is only so much that can be done as a 4 year old and so much a kid would be allowed to say during a meeting between adults. Beginning chapters are a bit slow, but please have patience and just enjoy the ride. Again any feedbacks or complaints feel free to direct them to me.