A/N: Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Year 1.
Ghoul Studies, prompts: phantom, madman, freak, seedling, deliberate
Magical Theory, prompts: egg, ant, fun, mud, sad, Tom, wet
A Childish Tom's Revenge
It took breaking a few eggs to create an omelette. It took a phantom to turn the orphanage into a delicious circus of screams.
Tom was patient though. He wanted payback. He wanted them all to suffer: suffer like he'd suffered in that hell-hole. And then, once they'd suffered enough, he was going to crush them like ants under a hard-heeled boot – and he was going to enjoy it.
It was satisfying, the feeling of the madman in him taking over, filling his head with ecstasy and bliss. Yes, they'd pay for calling him a monster, for treating him like a freak, for throwing mud at him like he was a dirty thing not worth the scrappy rags they were forced to wear.
Yes, they'd pay. They'd pay dearly. Starting with the frightened screams of little boys unable to get to sleep from the corridor haunt. He'd savour those tears as he watched his seedlings sprout – deliberately setting little traps along the way when they ran from their beds for the rooms of their older friends. And he'd laugh quietly as they tripped over invisible things and fell to the floor, hard. Sometimes that would be enough to get them to give up, and their sad little faces would trek back to their room. Or they'd cry harder and wet their pants, and Tom would have a hard time keeping his laughter in as the irate matrons came.
The memories kept him entertained until the morning.