Young Tom Riddle stood over the weeping teenagers at his feet ignoring their whimpers of forgiveness. He could feel the power coursing through his veins as the older boys pleaded for mercy. Sparing a glance down he saw the garter snakes he was controlling slithering over the boys body, repeatedly biting with their fangs.
Hearing footsteps approaching the room they were in he manipulated his power and madder the two boys vanish from sight along with their whimpers and the snakes. After a gentle knock on the door, Mrs. Cole a thin and nervous woman entered and flinched at the sight of Tom's cold gaze. Unbidden memories of previous meeting s with the boy came to mind.
A belt slammed down onto a young boys back as he yelped in pain, joining many other similar marks.
"I hope you have finally learned your lesson about respecting your elders, you worthless brat! You're lucky your worthless mother gave birth to you here or else you would be dead! You should feel grateful to me!" Then all of a sudden her body locked up and the boy slowly stood up his head bowed. As he raised his head she thought she saw a flicker of red pass through them.
Then with a shriek he leaped onto her and started flailing with his tiny fists, unknowingly enhancing his blows with an amazing power. When he finally calmed down he looked down at her beaten form and spoke in a hiss.
You will pay for what you did before later" Tom walked out of the room shrugging on his shirt, not wincing as it dragged across the fresh welts.
She stared in shock at the sight of the rabbit hanging by its neck from the rafters in the attic. At the front of a small crowd of boys watching her try to take down the rabbit was Tom Riddle. She could see his malicious grin as he watched Billy Stubb cry into the shoulder of one of the social workers. Turning completely to face the children she adopted a stern face, "Does any one have any idea who could have done this?"
Hearing a chorus of 'no' she did see many trying to take a step from Tom who was still grinning at Billy. "Do you know who did this Tom?"
Instantly his unwavering gaze swiveled over to her and she felt a shiver run down her spine. Almost instantly she felt detached from her body, almost as if she had no more control of it.
"Why of course not Mrs. Cole, why would I ever do such a thing? I mean I can't even get up to that rafter." Nodding at the logic in his statement, she couldn't help but imagine all the other weird stuff she had seen him do and realized that levitating wasn't that farfetched for him. After all speaking the language of snakes, and able to create pain with a touch…
She watched as Ms. Watcher led Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop towards the bus, both tightly wrapped in heavy blankets. She glanced at Tom who had a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't suppose you'll know what happened to them Tom, but I must ask."
" We were just exploring the caves at the bottom of the cliff, they fell in and hit their heads on a rock. They were fine until we got back up here and you saw us" Tom replied smoothly. However she saw the subtle hints of a smirk and the now familiar brief flash of red across his eyes. The familiar shiver went down her spine as their eyes met.
She sighed as he broke the gaze and wandered over to the group of younger kids that gathered around him. She was concerned about the level of awe he got from the boys, almost followers or servants. They gave him all but a small portion of their food, keeping just enough to survive. They had even taken to drawing tattoos on their skin with ink in the shape of a serpent coming out of the moth of a skull.
However there was nothing she or the other women working at the orphanage were completely and utterly scared of the boy and the one time a priest had visited and tried an exorcism he left stark raving mad.
"Tom? You've got a visitor. This is Mr. Dumberton--sorry, Dunderbore. He's come to tell you--well, I'll let him do it."
"How do you do, Tom? I am Professor Dumbledore."