Edge of the Earth

You know enough to know the way
Six billion people just one name

Two, straight lines of first years were led out though the main doors of the Great Hall. All heads in the large room were automatically fixed on them as they were lead up the centre by Professor McKenzie, the latest charms teacher; a tall, strict-looking woman who had a no-nonsense air about her.

An old, ragged hat was placed on a small wooden stool as the first years began to gather in a cluster at the front in their new uniforms. It seemed that everyone was focused on the hat, so the first years began to stare at it as well.

A crease in the hat opened, and, to the shock of those first years, it began to sing.

'The founders, they were best friend.
I've seen none better that those four.
A school they built, together,
That one that no one could abhor.

Said Gryffindor, 'Let's make a school
For those brave and pure of heart.
But Ravenclaw wanted those with brains,
Those wise and those smart.

Slytherin picked those cunning,
With qualities he had.
And Hufflepuff, he took the rest,
Such a kind and carefree lad.

They built the finest magic school,
For students, an array.
They called the school Hogwarts,
And here we are today!

So that is how Hogwarts,
This fine, old school came to be.
Now put me on, and I shall tell you
Where you ought to be!'

The seemingly never-ending roof of the Great Hall was lifted with the thunderous applause, leaving a few gob smacked first years staring at the hat wondering how it spoke; the muggle borns, most likely.

Professor McKenzie stood up behind the hat and addressed the first years as she had done many times before. 'When I call your name, I want you to come up and put the Sorting hat on! Avery, Caspian.' A small, sandy-haired boy walked up with poise, in an indifferent manor.

'Slytherin!' the Sorting Hat called to the hall as soon as the hat hit his head.

In the shadows, only a few metres away from the action, there was a rather small figure standing watching. It was almost as if she was invisible to everyone else in the large room, as no one spared her a glance. Her straight, dark brown hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall or malted chocolate, and was straightened to perfection. It framed her face perfectly, while a section of hair formed a small side fridge. Like everyone else, she wore a uniform, her green and silver tie standing out against the black robes that clung onto her figure.

She watched with interest, as every few names a familiar one came up, which caused her to pay even more attention to those people.

'Riddle, Tom!' Professor McKenzie called, causing the girl to advance slowly forward towards the fair-haired boy, who walked towards the stool with a confidence that didn't seem to belong to the situation, almost as if he already knew that answer that he was seeking.

'Slytherin!' the hat boomed before it had touched his head, causing Tom to smirk as he made his way down the hall to the Slytherin table, where the gang of followers he had already collected were sitting, waiting for him.

[X

Iris found herself thrown onto the ground; a rather rough landing. On her four-poster bed lay a small, black marble bowl filled with a silvery substance; her pensive. The dormitory was empty now, but when she awoke had been full of her sleeping roommates. The only signs of life, other than the girl lying on the floor, were the unmade beds and various discarded items of clothing waiting to be cleaned up by the house elves.

Picking herself up from the ground, she brushed a few creases out of her school skirt before leaving the room. Swiftly, she left the familiar Slytherin Common Room and headed towards the Great Hall for breakfast.

The Great Hall hadn't changed since her first day at Hogwarts, with the exception of the ever-changing roof overhead. As usual, she took her seat between Eileen Prince and Aimee Burke, who were unusually awake for the hour.

'Morning,' she greeted, stifling a yawn.

'Hey, Iris!' Eileen greeted, her usual grin plastered over her face. 'You're up early this morning.'

'Couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to put my pensive to good use,' Iris explained.

'Sounds like fun,' Aimee added, subconsciously staring down the Slytherin table as she ate her food.

'Looking at Riddle again?' Eileen asked with a menacing laugh hidden in her voice.

'Sorry Eileen,' Aimee said, turning away. 'I just can't help it! You know that Iris is the only girl in the school that can't keep their eyes off him!'

'Eyes off who?' Caspian Avery asked with a smug expression, squeezing in between Eileen and Iris.

'They were talking about Riddle, if you must know,' Iris replied.

'Well everyone knows that Iris doesn't have her eyes on Riddle, because they're always on me,' Caspian said, slipping his arm around her shoulder in one, fluid motion as he managed to squeeze in between Iris and Eileen on the bench, much to the girls displeasure.

'In your dreams, Avery,' Iris said, shrugging his arm off her shoulder and shifting down the bench.

'You know it! Want to go to Hogsmeade with me at the weekend?'

'If I say yes will you quit harassing me?'

'Of course I would!'

'Then fine; I'll go,' she said reluctantly.

With a smirk on his face, Caspian stood up and joined his friends further up the table. She could hear some rather loud, excited whispering coming from the group of boys Caspian had just joined, but chose to ignore them, not wanting to know the subject of their conversation.

'You said yes?' Aimee asked, despite the fact that she had been listening to the conversation; she was looking for confirmation from Iris herself, unable to believe what she had just heard.

'Yes. I said yes,' Iris replied slowly, taking her words in. 'Why did I say yes!?!'

'Because you wanted him to stop asking you out every day?' Eileen offered.

'Because you secretly want to go, despite what you've said?' Aimee said.

'Aimee, what's in that cereal you're eating?' Iris asked. 'Because you are absolutely nuts!'

'Sorry,' Aimee mumbled.

'Potions, anyone?' Eileen asked, getting up.

The three girls left the Great Hall together, followed closely by a small group of boys.

'Go on in!' Professor Slughorn greeted the small group of seventh years gathered outside his classroom.

The small group seventh years entered the classroom in an orderly fashion and began to sit down at the desk, two to a desk. The three Slytherin girls were last to enter and found themselves with a problem; there were only three seats left, one beside Caspian Burke, one beside Tom Riddle and one beside a Hufflepuff none of them knew. Aimee headed automatically towards the Hufflepuff, taking the safe option, as she did not want to sit beside Caspian and knew that Eileen would certainly kill her if she sat beside Tom.

'Don't make me sit beside Avery!' Iris hissed to Eileen, who reluctantly answered.

'Fine, I will! But you owe me big time!'

The look on Caspian's face fell as Eileen sat down beside him and Iris continued towards the other free chair nearer the front of the room.

'Can I sit here?' Iris asked to be polite; though she planned on sitting there regardless of the answer she received.

'Sure,' Tom replied nonchalantly without taking his eyes of the blackboard where their work was being written with a levitated piece of chalk.

'Welcome back after a long summer!' Slughorn boomed, smiling as he saw some of his favourite students sitting in front of him. 'Your work in on the board. Work in your pairs. You have one hour!'

'I'll get the ingredients, and you can set up,' Tom ordered. His voice showed power she had never heard and she didn't particularly like it, but followed his orders nonetheless.

The pair worked in silence, each working at their own particular tasks without conferring with the other. Around them, other pairs were laughing and joking as they worked, but a stony silence lingered over Iris and Tom.

'You were early for breakfast this morning . . . considering,' Tom said out of the blue, causing Iris to stop slicing her gurdyroot, the knife dropping onto the bench with a small 'clang'.

'What's that supposed to mean?' she spat as soon as she had regained control over herself.

'Nothing; merely a passing comment,' he replied with buoyancy.

'You're not like other girls,' he said again, this time looking up from his work to watch her slice the gurdyroots in front of her viciously into thin strips. 'No,' he continued after a short pause where she remained silent. 'You're very different. Not over confident, and certainly not just another idiot.'

'Thanks?' Iris said with a small laugh. 'You really are perplexing Tom.'

At the sound of her laugh, his lips turned into a small smile that could easily be mistook for his trademark smirk.

'Shit,' Iris whispered, breaking the short silence. Their potion was slowly turning a darker shade of green, instead of the midnight blue it should be.

'Add the gurdyroots!' Tom ordered in the same tone he had used earlier, and she quickly did, careful not to drop any. Their potion turned a light blue, which again turned to the midnight blue it should have been almost instantly.

'Sorry, I wasn't paying attention,' she said quietly.

'Then you're lucky you have me,' he replied smugly, the beautiful moment they had shared ruined with a simple, snide comment.

'I'll see you around, Riddle,' Iris said as the bell rang, stowing her books in her bag and thrusting it on her shoulder before leaving him to bottle a sample for Slughorn and clean up.

[X

It wasn't until that evening when Iris saw Tom again. She had tried to avoid him, which had proved difficult considering she shared a lot of classes with him, but somehow managed to stay out of his way.

After dinner the Slytherin Common Room was full of students starting their homework or just relaxing after dinner.

'Oi! Iris,' Tom called, pushing past some younger students to the couch in front of the fire she was sitting on with Eileen by her side and Aimee on an armchair beside them.

'Yes?' she asked innocently.

'You left me to clean up in potions!' he simply said, towering over her in an attempt to look intimidating.

'Sorry; I guess I was in a rush to get somewhere.'

'Don't mock me,' he said seriously. His tone softened as he spoke again 'Look, can I talk to you?'

'Talk away.'

'In private?'

Slowly, she rose from her seat. 'I'll be back in a minute,' she told her friends, before following his out of the common room and into a nearby empty classroom. She sat on the clear teachers desk at the front, her legs hanging over the edge, hitting the hard wood to form some sort of rhythm.

'Do you want to go to Hogsmeade?' he asked as he sat on a table in the front row. The upfront approach had always been his favourite method when he wanted something, not wanting to beat around the bush unless for fun.

Iris merely blinked in disbelief. Tom Riddle, the most sought after boy in Hogwarts, was asking her to go to Hogsmeade with him!

'I –' she stuttered, unsure of what to say, but she managed to make a full sentence on her second attempt. 'I said I'd go with Avery . . .'

'Avery? Caspian?' he repeated in disbelief. 'But you hate him!'

'I know, but he said he'd leave me alone if I said yes, and after two years of invites to Hogsmeade I was running out of plausible excuses and it was just getting annoying.'

'I understand,' he said quietly and slowly.

'Sorry,' she whispered, before slowly getting up and leaving him alone in the room to brood over his thoughts.

[X

It was the weekend. Finally. As usual, Iris woke up earlier on Saturday morning than the Slytherin's in the dormitory. Quickly, she got dressed, and entered the Common Room to find it empty. The fire was already lit, so she decided to make use of it's warmth and curled up in a large, overstuffed armchair beside it.

Her thoughts began to drift to the day that lay in front of her, and the prospect of an afternoon spent with Avery. But, now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen Avery very much since he asked her out. In fact, she had only seen him very briefly in the corridors a few times since he'd asked her on Monday.

Weird. But he must have a good reason . . .

'Mornin' Iris,' a voice behind her said; the familiar voice of Tom Riddle.

'Morning Tom,' she replied as he sat down in the armchair next to hers, stretching out in front of the fire.

'You're up early,' he commented.

'Yeah, I tend to get up early at the weekends, but sleep in late of weekdays, unless of course I have nowhere to go. Ah, the irony!' She laughed as she spoke, shaking her head slightly as she did so, causing her soft, chocolate brown curls to cascade out of the loose ponytail it was fastened in and down her back.

'You curled you hair,' he said again, only noticing that her, usually straight hair, now fell in ringlets as it fell out of it's bind. 'It's nice.'

'Thanks,' she replied quietly, then decided to try to spark a conversation. 'Going to Hogsmeade today?'

'Yeah, I have to get a few things for school and stuff,' he said, mumbling the last bit. 'Still going?'

'Yep, but I haven't seen Avery around a lot. Have you? Is he sick, or something?' Her voice sounded hopeful as she said the last sentence, but her face showed no emotions.

Tom was silent for a moment, almost as if he was carefully choosing his words. 'No, I haven't seen much of him either. I suspect he's been busy with school work, that's all.'

His explanation seemed good enough for Iris, who just shrugged it off before continuing.

'Do you know if he still plans on going to Hogsmeade? Or if he's too busy?'

'I think he said something last night about having homework and not being able to go, but I'm not too sure. I might have misheard. Sorry.'

'Don't worry about it; if he's not at the gates at two I'll go by myself,' she explained, though by her tone he could tell that she didn't like the thought of being stood up – even if it was by Avery.

[X

Iris was waiting by the Hogwarts gates at ten to two, the time they had planned to meet up, with the intentions of waiting for only ten minutes. Happy couples walked past her hand in hand along with laughing groups of friends, no one sparing her a glance. She was oddly jealous of all the groups, however big or small, it was just the company she yearned.

'May I escort my lady to the fine village of Hogsmeade?'

Irish turned around to see Tom in an awkward bow that made him look even more handsome that imaginable. As he rose, he took her hand and placed a single kiss on the back of it before taking it in his.

'It would be my honour,' she replied with a smile, following him as he led her out of the gates and down the path towards the fairly small village of Hogsmeade.

They walked in silence most of the way there, and it wasn't until they were passing the first few houses on the outskirts of the village that a conversation started.

'Avery didn't show up?' Tom asked sounding unsure of whether or not to bring the subject up.

'No,' she replied matter-of-factly. 'But I can't say I mind too much.'

'Want to get a drink?'

'Sure.'

He led her though the main street of Hogsmeade, ignoring the multitude of evil glared Iris was receiving from the Hogwarts girls that spotted the couple walking hand-in-hand. Eventually, they stopped outside the Hogs Head; not a pub Iris could say she had been in before, but Tom seemed to be pretty familiar with it, so she followed him inside.

There was a lingering smell of filth, which she noticed immediately, and the small pub was filled with a strange, and very unsettling, array of people. By the time she had let it all sink in, Tom was already at the bar ordering drinks.

She took a seat at a free table near the door and waited him to return, which didn't take too long.

A cloudy glass was set in front of her before To took the seat across from her, setting his drink in front of himself.

'What is it?' Iris asked quietly looking at the substance in the glass in front of her.

It certainly isn't butterbeer.

'Firewhiskey,' he replied, taking a large gulp from his glass.

'What a great example out Head Boy is showing; drinking alcohol while at Hogsmeade.'

'You're not my mother!' Tom said, obviously bypassing the joke and taking her comment seriously. 'Anyway, I'm of age.'

'Let's just drop the subject,' Iris said quietly, embarrassed by the stares his outburst gained them, and she took a large mouthful of her drink to keep him happy. As she swallowed it seemed to burn her throat, leaving behind a tingling sensation, but also caused her to choke on it, leading to a large outburst of heavy, throat splitting coughs. She could feel Tom pat her on the back harder that was necessary, obviously uneducated in the form of caring for people.

'I'm fine!' she choked, coughing one last time before pushing the drink away from her.

'Not a firewhiskey person?' Tom asked, clearly amused.

'And here was me thinking that was obvious,' Iris replied sourly.

She was starting to wonder if it was such a good idea going to Hogsmeade with Tom, as opposed to going alone and getting back to Hogwarts as quickly as she could.

'Can we just go?' she asked quietly.

'Sure,' he replied softly, rising from his chair before offering her a hand to get up, which she took graciously. He didn't release her hand as she rose, merely held it in his as they walked back out into the main street of Hogsmeade. 'Where do you want to go?'

'Well, I'd like a few new quills; the quill shop in Diagon Alley isn't as good as this one,' she replied.

'The quill shop it is!'

She spent twenty minutes browsing the large display of quill, before deciding on a peacock quill, an eagle one and a few cheep quills for schoolwork, as well as a few different colours of ink, before she headed up to the counter with those things she planned on buying.

'That's . . . a galleon and seven sickles,' the woman behind the counter replied. She reached into her bag to retrieve the money she was looking for when Tom, who stood behind her, placed it on the counter.

'You don't have to,' she said quietly.

'But I want to,' he replied, giving the woman a look that told her to hurry up.

They left the shop together, Iris's punches safely tucked away in her bag.

'It's getting late; I have to get back,' she told him. 'I have a few things to do before dinner.'

'I'll come with you,' he said as she started to walk down the road on her own.

'You don't have to. Anyway, you said you have things to get this morning.'

'Yes, but I don't want to leave you to walk back alone.'

'I'm a big girl, Tom,' she said with a laugh. 'Seventeen, nearly eighteen. I think I can walk back to Hogwarts on my own. Don't feel you have to drop everything for me because I'm a girl, because I'm not exactly defenceless.'

He listened in silence, before saying, rather reluctantly, 'Fine. But I won't be long. Meet me for dinner?'

'It's a date,' she replied, starting to walk backwards a few steps, but stopped quickly as she stumbled on the uneven path. She turned around and walked down the street, following the small groups Ravenclaw's, who were also making their ways back to the castle.