On this day in a small town not long ago, a small girl runs along a cobbled street with a group of children running after he shouting names, laughing and throwing small stones at the fleeing girl. These children are not bad they just do as they were taught to do, to hate that which is different from them and this girl is very different. The differences were obvious from a superficial point of view, she had no father, and her mother is crazy everyone said so. She came to school in worn clothes that stayed the same year after year. In truth, these children may have forgiven her these deficiencies in character had she herself not been so different from them, so set apart. A child of 10 with big dreamy untouchable eyes of starry royal purple. A child that preferred her own company to that of others. It is wrong to want to be alone, so they laughed at her calling her names guessing as to her father could be, the devil perhaps? Maybe that is why her mother had gone mad, knowing she had spawned a child of the devil. They followed the girl all the way to her front gate, and as she stumbled through to safety, they yelled their last insults to her shaking back. As they left the girl watched them go waiting silently a few minutes more before turning around wrapping her thin bruised arms around her around her thin body shivering against the cold. She sat down on her doorstep, she did not desire to go in, for she knew what was waiting for her. A cold bed and very little dinner, with distant eyes starring into space rarely acknowledging her or ever showing love. She felt tears begin to slide down her cheeks she felt so alone. She cradled her head in her arms and sat quietly in that position until a voice startled her from her reverie. "Excuse me," it was a man, the girl was nervous at once no one ever came to their house except an old man that brought a check once a month that kept them from starving. "Is your name Persis Riddle?" Persis stood to her feet very quickly he knew her name, so he was not some common sales man that had wondered on their property by mistake. She was ready to flee into the house. She had very little trust in people especially those who knew who she was. Her experiences had taught her one thing people were cruel especially those she knew. "Please don't be afraid, I am not here to hurt you. I.I am an old friend of your fathers. And you are your father's daughter those eyes no one else could have those eyes." Persis stopped herself from fleeing, turning to face the man completely before speaking," You knew my father?" The man smiled at her reassuringly, "Yes, I knew your father" Persis stepped from her porch and walked cautiously to the man. She had noted his use of the past tense "knew" and the way his eyes cast down when he spoke, a look of regret and sorrow. Persis noted all these things for she was an observer of people and took note of many things others would forget or overlook. And as she stared at this man, she took note of his appearance, everything from the strange looking glasses resting on a crooked nose, white hair tied up in a ponytail. Her nervousness began to fade she cocked her head to the side looking up into his eyes as the sun began to sink in the horizon; it cast his face in shadow making it difficult to see him. "What was his name?" she asked, for a name would be nice a name to stick to the face she had imagined her father might have. The man answered right away and with no hesitation, "Tom, Tom Riddle. And he was a man of great power." Power? What sort of power, she wondered this idly, she who had always felt so powerless knew a certain excitement at the fact that at least her father had been a powerful man. "What happened to him?" "He was murdered." The man answered in a harsh voice filled with anger, "murdered by a babe" he laughed at this and Persis grew angry how dare this man laugh at her father's death. "What do you mean" she demanded already she had grown bolder. "I would love to tell you, over a bowl of ice cream perhaps. She grew angry at this, as though she were a child to be placated by ice cream, and yet the idea was tempting. She had never had ice cream before and the prospect excited her. "Will you come with me?" he asked once more, and Persis looked over her shoulder to the house curious if she should tell her mother or not. She had never left the house for anywhere but school before and yet she didn't think her mother would even realize if she was gone. And so she made her decision, walking slowly and deliberately she opened the gate took the offered hand from the older man and followed and as he led her to new possibilities.