Chapter I.
The times I was used to, the playful childhood we had shared, they were all thrown away by your cruel hand. I had tried to stop you from making it happen, but I do suppose the future was really my fault. That poor boy, those poor families, they all could have been saved had I been a better person.
Then why? Why did I feel no guilt, no pain?
-*o~o*-
"Tommy? What're you looking at?" Mrs. Cole asked. I couldn't help but smile a little as Tom looked up sharply, his clean brown hair rebounding through the force.
"N... Nothing. I was just a little spaced out I s'pose. Sorry, Mrs. Cole, won't happen again."
Tom blinked his large dark green eyes a few times, never once did his mouth even twitch. He was a proper lad, always standing straight, always paying close attention to every thing and everyone. With such well kept hygiene, you'd hardly believe he was an orphan.
Mrs. Cole cast a smile, first at him, and then in my direction. She had very sharp, distinct features, but her cheeks still blushed with her ripe age. She was skinny, far smaller than any of the other workers, and she stood tall and determined.
As soon as she retreated to go prepare lunch, Tom walked over to me and cracked a small smile. "You think she noticed?" He began walking away, and I quickly followed, trying to keep up with him.
"I'm sure she didn't! Thank you..." We walked along side each other, like always. He had grown so much taller than me in the 5 years I had been at the orphanage. He took one stride for every two I took. "You're such much more skilled than me with all this stuff. I can't even raise a cup much less a whole chair!"
"You just need to practice, Justine. Come on now, lunch won't be ready fer another thir'y minutes or so, why don't we have a short lesson by the shack?" Tom replied, already on his way without my saying anything. I hurried behind him, for his strides had become much faster.
"Do you really think I'll ever be able to be as good as you?" I asked, smiling at the thought. I wished I'd be able to help myself with all the teasing kids gave me. At least whenever I moved to this orphanage after the 'accident', Tom helped. The other kids seemed to respect Tom, they never bothered him. I was a different story. No matter how hard I tried, they would find something to say about me, or some way to get me angry. But I swore, after that day, I would never overreact again.
"O' course. If I've learned how to control my powers, so can you. You just may take longer, because you're afraid. You just need to let go." His voice always reassured me. I just nodded, even though I didn't want to.
"I don't want to hurt you, even by accident." By that time we were at the shack. It was just a wooden box, big enough only for one person to walk into, like a storage for tools. It had been a long time since anyone used it, however, and because of this it had become overgrown with foliage, and even had a very large tree growing to the side of it. The best part of it was that it was still on the orphanage's grounds without anyone in the building seeing what was going on behind it.
"Don't worry 'bout that, Jay-Jay. Now, you see that feather? Do what I do."
He raised his right hand in front of him, his hands were clean and there were no imperfections, save a small burn in between his pointer finger and thumb. His eyes were focused on the feather. In two seconds it burst into flames, and then, as quick as the fire had come, it was gone. He looked over at me, and gestured for me to try.
I tentatively raised my own hand, the same as he had done, and focused on just the feather, which was now slightly black around the edges.
Light. Light. Fire. Common...Don't make me look stupid. I began to grow impatient. How could I be the same as him? He could control everything he did, and what I did only happened when I was angry. My eyebrows began to twitch from the strain. Fire. My eyes began to water from lack of blinking. Please? My fingers began to flex and curl, and I could feel myself growing more and more impatient and angry.
"Light for bloody sake!" I screamed, and just as soon as I had, everything became enlightened. Everything but the feather. I jumped back, and Tom moved swiftly, moving his hand in front of him, clearing everything of any traces of the flames that had begun to spread.
"You've got to be careful, Justine. You've got to control yourself." Tom said softly, smiling. He knelt to the ground and picked up the feather, that had completely escaped the fire's lick of light. He placed it behind my ear and looked into my honey eyes. "We'll try again tomorrow."
I looked down at the ground. "Actually, Tom, tomorrow is..." I thought about it for a couple seconds. But decided to disregard it, it wasn't important, "Never mind."
I ran after him, for he was already half way to the building, and didn't say a word after.
-*o~o*-
"H-happy birthday to... you. Happy birthday dear... Jay-Jay... Happy birthday to you..." I sang to myself early in the morning. The sun had yet to rise, and I spoke very softly to make sure I didn't wake anyone. I smiled once I was done and blew out a candle I had lit and pretended it was on top of a giant cake. I then proceeded to cover myself up with blankets again and allowed my eyes to fill my thoughts with dreams once again. Finally eleven, the same age as Tom now.
-*o~o*-
I approached the shack, and saw Tom creep out from behind the tree, arms folded.
"I've been waiting for you, Justine." He didn't look happy. I looked down carefully, "Where 'ave you been?"
"Well, uh..." I stuttered softly, eyes moving wildly looking for an explanation, "Mrs. Cole, you see, she wanted... She wanted to speak with me..."
"About...?" I looked up and Tom's dark eyes were looking right at me, unwavering.
"About my hair..."
"And what's wrong with your hair?" I could feel him growing more and more impatient, and I began to get afraid. I hated when he was in this mood. He would get unreasonable.
"It was singed from yesterday... She asked me if it was you who burned it..." I coughed out finally. "I told her I just had an accident with a candle last night. Left it at that."
Tom looked down, and then seemed to change his attitude completely, "I'm sorry. I should 'ave stopped the fire sooner. I didn't know it was that close to you..."
I looked up and now he looked at me with a more earnest looking expression, almost sad. I just shook my head, "It wasn't your fault, dummy!" I flashed my teeth at him through my smile, and he nodded.
"Well come 'ere! I have something for you!" Tom said quickly and ran behind the tree to our spot.
I hurriedly followed, and saw him sitting on the floor, covering something with his hands.
"What is it?"
He uncovered what he had to reveal a small bird. It was just a baby, and it was squeaking adorably. It's face was flat and it was covered in white fuzz. "Happy birthday, Jay-Jay." He said, smiling. The bird looked up at me, it's face was heart shaped, and it's eyes slanted. It made an effort to bounce away from Tom's hands and closer to me. I dropped to my knees a couple feet away from Tom and smiled the biggest smile I could muster, and started choking out a few laughs. My eyes started to tear up, and I quickly wiped them to try and hide it from him.
"You remembered..." I laughed as the bird hopped closer and closer to me. "But... Where did he even come from?"
"Well, I found something out recently. Take a look..." Tom pulled out a feather and placed it on the ground. "I'm still pretty new at this, but I think I've gotten it down, it just takes a while..." He held his hands out, both of them, and sat there looking at the feather hard and concentrating.
It took a couple minutes, and the owl that Tom had given me had now hopped right in my lap and started cooing, as if it had known me for years, but I never looked away from the feather, because it was starting to do some very weird things.
It was floating in the air, and starting to take the shape of a bird. Even growing a beak. Whatever Tom was doing was magnificent. After only about ten minutes, it was complete, and flapping it's wings to fly away. "So far, I believe this stage to be final. Only the very first three I tried turned back into a feather."
I just sat in awe at what Tom was capable of. "That was incredible." He just laughed and scooted closer to me to pet the small creature that now sat in my lap.
I named him Tom Marvolo Riddle.