Prologue
If there was one thing he hated, it was noise.
It prevented him from doing anything productive and sometimes it even managed to give him a headache of some sort.
Today happened to be one of those days.
It had been two days since the term started and everyone was happily chatting away to one another and being unnecessarily loud. Particularly those from the Gryffindor table.
The Slytherins at his table were slightly more tolerable- they at least knew their boundaries and made sure they never fell out of place. Even the newly sorted Slytherins knew when they stepped out of line although some of them still needed a reminder. But even then, that still didn't mean they wouldn't shut the hell up when he wanted them to. The only thing preventing them from talking any more than needed was the food they were quickly gorging down.
"So Tom," he looked ahead to find the blond idly tracing the rim of his cup, "how does it feel to be head boy? I'm sure even with all the responsibilities laid on you, there's still some glamour to it."
He forced himself to smile. "Yes, it's true that being head boy comes with a great deal of work and it can sometimes be a bit hard to handle, but it becomes easily manageable after a short period of time."
He resisted the urge to rub his temples to ease the pain.
His headache was getting worse.
And the old man tapping his spoon against the damn cup wasn't helping either.
The crowd silenced as Armando Dippet demanded their attention.
As he rose from his chair, Tom could feel the pain worsening. "My dear students, I would like to once again welcome you all to Hogwarts. Today has been your second day…"
He couldn't focus.
The original twinge of pain he previously had had now become a throbbing one- as though each beat his heart made was amplified as the blood travelled to his brain and it seemed that the harder he tried to pay attention, something was trying just as hard to distract him.
Everything was beginning to slip out of focus and the only thing he could hear was the muffled beat of his own heart. Or what he thought was his own heart. He wasn't too sure what was happening, but he swore that he could hear another faint heart beat gradually becoming louder and louder.
He barely noticed how his body swayed as the world started to fog over. He barely noticed the questioning concern of the person beside him. He barely noticed that everything was about to fade black, until a light suddenly started to permeate through the darkness.
The dark faded to light.
The fog cleared and as he started to regain his sight, Tom saw the questioning looks he was receiving from the surrounding Slytherins.
The sound of heartbeats disappeared and all he could hear was the voice of the headmaster echoing in the great hall.
Tom barely had time to register what had just taken place for just as silence began to fall, it was shattered by the deafening sound of fragmenting glass as something flew across the hall.
Time suddenly slowed down.
He ignored the screams that filled the air.
He ignored the panic that took control of each individual present, not aware that his heart was one among those that were racing.
He focused on what was important and that was the object flying towards the table of Ravenclaws. But as he took a closer look, Tom saw that it wasn't an object- rather it was a body.
He watched as it collided with the table, knocking off the food and drinks that they had just finished eating. As it slid further and further down, it eventually slowed to a complete halt.
And the last things Tom saw were the dark brown eyes of a girl devoid of life.
Author's Note: Starting a new story was probably not a good idea for me.