Written for: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments) - Speed Drabble
Prompts used:
(word) soil
(word) airplane
(word) mountain
He always knew he wasn't normal. Not because Mrs. Cole seemed to rant about 'the devil's spawn' whenever he was around or the children cowering in fear if he so much as looked at them, but because of his gift, his God given ability.
Tom Riddle could talk to snakes, make objects float in the air or hang people's bunny rabbits by the attic rafters. Mostly everyone thought he was a beast. He could make things happen by pure will and if he was angry or upset, strange and odd things would happen around him.
He was the local freak, the only one who wasn't allowed to put a step in the church because he apparently hosted the devil in his body. The said the great Lord God wouldn't want such a nuisance visiting his son, the Lord Jesus. Tom thought this was ridiculous. It was a mere statue; what could it do to Tom? Tom had great powers, he could destroy, kill, seek. Jesus was a statue. Inwardly, he laughed to himself whenever he saw the children going to the Sunday service with Mrs. Cole and pitied them for their innocence.
Tom was never allowed to go Christmas parties, and he wasn't even allowed to go to the adoption parties the orphanage held every Saturday. Mrs. Cole said he was too freakish to be adopted by anyone decent, so why did he have to go anyway?
Tom detested Mrs. Cole with a passion. He wished into the deepest recesses of his heart that she would die, that she would fall off the stairs and break her neck, that she would get stuck in an air raid and die from the assault of a bomb. He wished she would disappear and never return. He would move a mountain if it mean't he'd never see her again. Heck, he'd probably start dancing with joy if he got wind of the news that she'd died.
He hated her because she was the one who'd turned the children in the orphanage against him. Everyone had been so curious to see what magic tricks little Tommy Riddle could do, before Mrs. Cole got wind of it and poisoned them all against him. They took him to the attic those first few days, tried to beat the magic out of him. But every morning, when they came to check on him, all his wounds were gone and he was as good as new. Finally, they were forced to admit defeat, but that didn't stop Mrs. Cole from estranging him.
One of the frequent things that happened in the orphanage was when someone else made a mistake and he was blamed. He was sent to wash dishes with scalding hot water and they made one of the older girls, her name was Rosalie, watch over him. But what they didn't know was that she was the only one who treated him decently, kindly. She turned down the temperature of the water for him, even occasionally helped! Sometimes, curiosity got the better of her and she would ask to see one of his tricks. She thought it amazing that he could talk to snakes, sometimes even petted his pet snake, the one he'd found in the garden, even though she was deathly afraid of the reptiles.
When he was sent to tend the garden, she would sneak outside and help him if she could. She wasn't afraid of getting dirty; she wasn't afraid to muck in the soil with him. He quickly found out she was a special girl, and he couldn't find anyone else like her. Rosalie admitted at first she helped him because she felt pity, but then she grew to like him and loved him like the little brother she never had.
Tom thought it was nice to have a big sister who would protect you. The absence of his mother was all too clear and when he'd found out Rosalie remembered his mother stumbling into the orphanage, he begged so much until she told him her story.
"I was three when your mother came here. She looked so frail and weak, and I think that was primely why Mrs. Cole took her in. She begged with her last strength and finally when Mrs. Cole relented, she came inside and one hour later, you were born. I remember she said some things about your family, your father, your grandfather ..." she would say whenever he asked.
She was fourteen when he got the invitation to go to Hogwarts. He told her all about the magic school and she was delighted, so happy. She made him promise to get her a souvenir, sneaked him some money and when he told her the currency there was different, all she did was shrug and say 'well, don't they have a currency exchange?'.
He got her a book called 'Hogwarts: A History' and she was absolutely fascinated by it. She thanked him and said 'I always knew you'd be something special, Tom.'. She was the only one who said that and he believed her.
The summer after his fourth year, he returned to the orphanage, looking forward to seeing Rosalie, only to find out she'd been killed in an air raid. Back then, it was still the muggle war and they still had to depend on airplanes to deliver them food and rations. The war mean't air raids and sometimes, they were as frequent as two or three a day. He'd been in the sanctuary of Hogwarts in Scotland, so he'd been mostly safe. But Rosalie, his sister Rose, was caught outside and when the bomb came down, she died instantly.
Seeing Mrs. Cole's uncaring face when she explained that to him made him go over the edge and within himself, he vowed revenge. Muggles had killed his sister. The muggles would pay.