Rec List: Tom Riddle | Voldemort Rare Slash Pairs

Tom Riddle, Voldemort—and I will never forgive the AO3 tag-wranglers for separating these two—is a character who rarely gets to shine in his own right. He’s more myth than man. But he is something unbelievably special when an author digs past that surface and presents something of the person he might have been. How better to do that than through romance?

This week sees the end of Ouroboros, one of the most widely-known recent fics to take on his character. That story pairs Tom with himself to deliver a beautiful deep dive into his mind from all sides: what was Voldemort like after two wars? What would Tom have been like if he’d been raised differently? What does it mean for Tom to care about the people in his life?

You’ll see those questions, and more, reflected in each of the stories below. I’ve selected 14 different pairings, all rare (so no Harry), that run the gamut. There are dark fics which merit archive warnings (noted in my summary), there are light-hearted stories, there are Toms and Voldemorts who don’t feel affection, who deeply feel affection, and whose emotions can’t be determined for sure. These cover his boyhood and his young adulthood and his wars and after his wars. There are Voldemorts at the height of their power and Toms without anything, paired with peers and subordinates and authorities. I’ve hit the major tropes of his character, so you will find something familiar if you go looking.

What unites all of these recs is that the stories say something about Voldemort as a person. He is a man, his motivations are questioned, his thoughts and feelings are at the heart of each of these. Reading all of them would give someone a very solid foundation for thinking about his character, and I would encourage anyone to consider a pairing, a time period, or a premise that they haven’t before.

My selections include mostly stories on AO3, but not all were initially found there. I’ve been collecting Tom Riddle fic for months, and I claim no impartiality—these are stories that were meaningful to me in my journey with the character. There is one self-rec, please skip “Beautiful Sleepyhead” if that bothers you, and there are two stories with strong content warnings in their summaries. The following fics are ordered alphabetically by pairing partner.

You can find the AO3 bookmark collection for these recs here.

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