Written for THC round 3

Ravenclaw House

6th year

Standard: [Character] Tom Riddle

Word count will be at end.

AN: As like my last story for THC, this will also be a little bit of an AU and it sort of doesn't follow canon.

Tom Riddle had never felt love.

Growing up into the orphanage, most of the kids stayed away from him. They were too scared to befriend him because he could speak to snakes. To make it worse, the patron always told the kids to steer clear of him because of the strange things that happened to others around him.

The patron also told couples who had wanted to adopt him about the strange things he had done. She made sure that they knew that he could speak to snakes so that they didn't want to adopt him.

He had a room all to himself because no one wanted to share with him. He was fine with it, because it meant he could try out his powers whenever he wanted to. It might have been lonely all by himself, but he had the snakes that he snuck inside the orphanage as his friends.

He never knew love, and he didn't think he ever would.

Until he met her.

She was glowing, he thought, when he saw her the first time. It had been a cloudy day when he ran met her. He actually had noticed her because of her hair, which was blonde. Most of the people on the streets had dark colored hair, so to see a bright eyed, blonde-haired girl on the streets was kind of shocking.

In a time of war it was rare to see people as happy and optimistic as she was. She was like a bright light in a world of so much death and chaos.

She wasn't scared of him, either.

"What's your name?" she had asked him.

"Tom," he told her.

"Hi, Tom," she replied. "I'm Felici, and it's nice to meet you." She held out her hand, an expectant look on her face.

He stared at her hand, then looked to her, confused. "Why aren't you scared of me?"

She tilted her head. "Why should I? You haven't hurt me or been mean to me. There's nothing really scary about you."

"The others are scared of me."

"And why's that?"

"I can speak to snakes. And I . . . I can do bad things to people who have been mean to me."

He expected her to jump away, screaming that he was a freak, an awful person, but he never expected her to gasp and go, "Oh golly, really? How do you speak to snakes? What can you do? Can you show me? Pretty please?" Her eyes grew wide, pleading with him.

He blinked. "I . . . can't. I'd get in trouble."

"Oh, pretty please? Tom, please? For me?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why aren't you acting like I'm some . . . some freak?"

Her mouth opened wide, like she was shocked. "I don't think you're a freak," she finally told him. "I just think you're special. That's all."

"But what if I show you and you think I'm a freak?"

"I won't. Promise me."

He looked into her eyes and saw that she was telling the truth. He sighed, then whispered, "Alright. I'll show you."

She squealed excitedly in response.

She came by the orphanage every day that she could.

The other kids always tried to tell her to stay away from him, that she would get hurt, that he was scary and freaky and could do odd things. Felici just told them to leave her alone and that she was his friend and that they couldn't tell her what to do.

And Tom, Tom was happy. He finally had a friend, someone to talk to, to play with. Someone who wasn't afraid of him.

She always brought something with her. One day it was a pastry, the next day a book, the day after that a card game. Felici brought books, toys, newspapers, anything and everything, to him. She would give them to him and say, "For you, the best friend a girl could ever have."

He'd always hold them gently, like they were precious to them. And they were precious to him; they were the gifts his only friend had given him. They made him happy.

She made him happy.

Then, something bad happened.

Felici was late arriving to the orphanage, so Tom was outside, waiting for her. He had one of the books she had brought him in his hand, opened to a page, but not reading it. Instead, he was watching the crowds of people on street, looking for the blonde-haired girl.

He didn't see her, but he did see a car driving up to the orphanage and come to a stop. He clambered to his feet as one of the doors opened and he saw blond hair and a yellow bow atop it.

"Felici!"

She looked up, eyes red and puffy. "Tom," she whispered.

"Felici?" he asked, worried.

She ran over to him and fell into his arms, sobbing. "Daddy's gone, Tom," she cried. "I'm being sent to live with my family in France, and I'm here to say goodbye, because I knew if I didn't I would feel guilty."

"Wait, you're leaving?"

"Yes." She pulled back, still crying. "Daddy has family in France, so I'm being sent there to live with them."

"But . . . that means you have to leave the country!"

She nodded. "Yes, it does."

"But . . . but . . ."

"I know," she sniffed. She grabbed his hands and looked him in the eyes. "You'll always be my best friend. My number one. Always."

"As will you."

She gave him a watery smile, let go of his hands, and made her way back to the car. She grabbed something from inside it, then turned back to him. "This . . . this is for you," she said, placing a box in his hands. "Don't hurt it, okay?"

"I won't."

She smiled, leaned up, and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. "I love you, Tom, and I'll miss you."

Then she turned, climbed back into the car, and the car started up again and drove off down the road, leaving him all alone in front of the orphanage.

He looked down at the box in his hands.

Tom never told anybody that Nagini had actually come from Felici, a girl he had met before he came to Hogwarts.

He never told anyone that he had fallen in love with a blonde-haired angel who didn't care that he would do what he could to get ahead, only that they were friends.

He never told anyone that she was his first love who had taken his heart.

[word count: 1077]