Tom Riddle has always been a little bit weak, a little bit pathetic. Bullied from the start he wished with all his might how he could be 'more'. One day, he slept and suddenly woke up to the many faces of fear. He was unsettled, but he wasn't bothered as much, so he let it be... Until he, once again, slept and woke up standing in front of Billy Stubb's dead rabbit. Tom fell back in horror as the rabbit floated towards the rafters.
'It's floating! How is it floating?!'
Terrified of what was happening, he scrambled up the stairs uncaring whether he was caught in the dead of night. He slammed the door to his room and hid under the worn, petty covers of his bed.
'It was a dream,' he thought with tightly closed eyes, 'It was all a dream.'. The mantra kept repeating in his head even as he heard children chattering and Mrs Cole grumbling outside.
He was asleep before one of them began to scream.
There was something wrong, Tom Riddle knew. The children had started avoid him like the plague. Always whispering, always with their frightened faces. Whenever he so much as glanced at them, they run away like their lives depended on it. He knew there was something wrong, but what he did not know was 'why'.
For all he's known, he's never changed. He's still the same old Tom Riddle that he's been since the beginning. He was well behaved, he was soft spoken, he hasn't so much as done a bloody thing! Even Mrs. Cole looked at him like he was... wrong, but he's done nothing! He's 'sure' he's done nothing!
Maybe it was the older children again; trying to put blame onto him without notice. Surely, he'd remember it if he'd done something, surely! If he explained it to Mrs. Cole, he'll be cleared of his name again. She wouldn't be so critical and the other children would probably get over it.
Mind made up, he jumped off of his cot and made his way through her office.
It was nearly curfew, so most of the rooms' occupants have already gone into them. The children's stares as he passed their opened-door rooms made him hunch awkwardly. He quickened his pace. They were uncomfortable and he wasn't used to them looking at him like that. As far as he could remember, no one has ever noticed him. He'd always been left to himself. Sometimes he's felt it to be a tad too lonely, but he'd never had the courage to approach anyone. Once past the children's rooms Tom heaved a relieved sigh and started to worry. He didn't know what it was that the older children had blamed on him, but if it amounted to this much attention, surely it can't have been good.
Tom walked down the stairs glumly, thoughts spinning through the worst outcomes for his talk with Mrs. Cole. On the second to last step, he unconsciously skipped over the last stair, knowing it causes an annoying squeak. Unknowingly, a girl was just turning to go up. She shrieked and fell down in fright at Tom suddenly in front of her.
"Sorry!" Tom immediately went to help her, but she backed away and shrieked again.
"Tom!" Mrs. Cole came out of her office hurriedly, "what do you think you're doing?!"
"Mrs. Cole!" Tom looked at the frightened girl in the floor, then back up to their caretaker. "She fell and I was trying to help her up, but-"
"She fell? Is that right?" Mrs. Cole glared at him in disbelief.
"Well, I-"
"Don't bother," Mrs. Cole grabbed onto his ear painfully. "I know what you were up to! Trying to harm the rest of the children now, are you?!"
"Ow!" Tom was led by the ear to Mrs. Cole's office. "I don't know- ow! Ow! OW!
"I know what's right for you," Mrs. Cole abruptly let go of Tom's ear and went in search of her cane. "The cane should teach you to behave!"
"The cane?!" Tome backed up, then reached for her arm desperately, "but I didn't do anything! I was trying to help! I swear-"
Mrs. Cole snatched her arm back and took up the cane leaning on the side of her desk. She faced Tom and sternly pointed a finger at her desk.
"Lean your arms on top."
"Please, I swear! I didn't do anything!" Tom started to heave, his eyes glistening over, "it's those older lot! They always blame me for everything! I swear it!"
Mrs. Cole not to be moved, pointed at the desk again.
Having no other choice, Tom sobbed and shakily placed his arm on the desk.
The first strike had him crying out. The pain burned and burned at his arm. He saw Mrs. Cole raising his arm for a second strike. He closed his teary eyes and the second... the second...
He waited... and waited... Soon the awkward position, hunched with his arm on the desk was getting as uncomfortable as it was dealing with the pain on his arm. And he waited.
Tom squinted his eyes open and saw Mrs. Cole was gone. Confused, he hesitantly took his arm from the desk and waited for the reprimand. When it never came, he gingerly cradled his throbbing arm to his chest and looked around.
'What happened?'
Tom took a step and 'clack' his foot bumped into something. Looking down, he paled. It was Mrs. Cole's cane.
And it was broken.
He crouched down to pick it up with his good arm and saw something that made him paler. It was a shoe. More specifically, it was Mrs. Cole's shoe. Dreading what he would find at the other end, he held his breath and slowly wormed his gaze up to his caretaker's body. Thankfully, he saw nothing wrong other than her passed out on the floor.
"Mrs. Cole," Tom shook her gently, then roughly when she wouldn't wake up. "Mrs. Cole!"
Mrs. Cole jerked awake and gasped at seeing him. She pushed him away like he was a demon and quickly stuck her back to the wall. Tom shuffled and gave her a wide space, then he noticed.
She stared at him.
She'd stared at him like he was wrong; like she's recently done, but now...
She stared at him, frightened.
Like he was a monster.
What had he done?