Born to be Bald
Part 1: Golden Ringlets
Tom Riddle smirked slightly as he stalked up to his dormitory, Oh, it was hard for any Slytherin who was not pure-blood, but he was already gaining a reputation as a Slytherin who should not be crossed. Those sixth years would need some time to recover from that hex.
If Tom had been anyone else, the sound escaping his lips might have been called a giggle, but of course Slytherin boys did not giggle.
For a moment, Tom felt slightly light-headed, and wondered whether he'd kept a close enough eye on his pumpkin juice at dinner. And then the moment had passed, and he decided that his imagination was simply being over-active. Again.
In the dormitory, he gazed at his reflection in the mirror. Hmm... his robes were a very severe cut. Maybe a frill or two...? Or if he lowered the neckline slightly? Come to think of it, his robes did feel awfully tight here and... here.
To his shock and slight horror, Tom blushed. Boys did not blush! It was a well-known fact! Why was he blushing?
Hurriedly, before he caught himself doing anything else too girly, Tom had a shower. He wondered, as he did so, whether he should buy some other shampoo. One with a more pleasant smell, like lavender... or roses...
---
The next day, Tom woke up with a barely-stifled scream. He felt... wrong. Not that it was a particularly unpleasant sort of wrong...
He hurled that thought out of his brain before it could do any more damage. Surely he wasn't supposed to bulge there!
Carefully, almost afraid of what he might see there (although Slytherins never showed weakness), Tom looked in the mirror.
---
There were several wolf-whistles as the girl entered the Great Hall. Her ringlets cascaded down her shoulders in a pale gold waterfall as her dark blue eyes scanned the Slytherin table for a seat. Several boys tried to leer down her cleavage, but she got rid of them with a casual glare.
A fellow smirk from a fellow Slytherin girl decided her seat. She sat down, careful not to crease her robes, and turned to the girl... what was her name again...
"I'm Lacerta Zabini." She flashed a rather cold smile at the ringletted girl.
"Tatiana." And 'Tatiana' proceeded to tuck into her breakfast.
---
Nobody seemed to care much that Tom Riddle had disappeared – not even the teachers. But then, they were a little distracted with the appearance of Tatiana Maria Rigoletta.
Tatiana was not only beautiful, but very intelligent, too. Slytherin won a lot of points thanks to her prompt answers in class that day.
Several boys – and not just Slytherins – wasted no time in asking her out, but her answer was always 'no'.
And then a Gryffindor, Mark Fletcher, asked her.
"Hey, Tatiana! Look, I know I haven't known you long, but, well, you know... I really like you. Are you busy on Friday?"
Tatiana smiled gently. "Mark, I really like you too, but-"
A huge grin split Fletcher's face. "Great! Thanks! I'll see you at seven, in the Entrance Hall!"
Tatiana opened her mouth to protest, but the red and gold blur had disappeared into a crowd of fourth years. "But-"
Tatiana groaned and put her head in her hands. What had she got herself into?
---
The Slytherin Common Room was possibly the least private place in all of Hogwarts. Nevertheless, Tatiana had decided to sleep there, in case any funny things happened during the night.
It was a good thing she did, thought Tom when he woke up the next morning. And it was lucky that Hogwarts robes were unisex. And that 'Tatiana' had said she was "just visiting" Hogwarts. If Tom had anything to do with it, she would never be back.
And then he remembered that there was still the Mark Fletcher problem to solve.
He swore.
---
Lord Voldemort inspected his new body. It wasn't that different from his original one, although he wasn't sure that Wormtail could be trusted to do anything without botching it up somehow.
He reached up to his head.
Good. No ringlets.