September 1, 1942
Hattie dragged her trunk down the overcrowded walkway to the Hogwarts Express. Her prefect badge glistened, shiny and new against her Slytherin robes.
She'd stayed the summer holiday in France with her Aunt and Uncle. Both relatives worked which gave Hattie free range to go wherever and whenever she pleased. Hattie made weekly trips into the coming years, pushing her limits as far as she could handle. Because of her accelerated schedule, she was constantly ill and her Aunt threatened more than once to send her to St. Mungo's.
A pepperup potion did nothing but linger in her stomach, revitalizing the waves of nausea and dizzy spells.
The week before vacation's end, Hattie's Aunt and Uncle reached their wit's end. They unceremoniously hauled her to St. Mungo's. Hattie would have put up a stronger fight but at the time, her vision was so blurred she saw six people instead of two.
The healers were flummoxed. Of course they were, they'd never seen anything like Hattie's case.
When her symptoms subsided she was released to return to Hogwarts.
On the platform, Hattie's Aunt fussed over her pale skin and sunken eyes but she brushed it away.
As Hattie climbed the steps, she vowed to either find a remedy or lengthen the time between her trips.
There was no feasible way to handle her O.W.L.S and other responsibilities while sick each weekend.
As she turned to wave goodbye, her family looked sullen and exhausted. Sometimes Hattie forgot that it wasn't just her that lost a mother, her Aunt lost her twin sister and was stuck raising the broken teenager she left behind.
Hopefully this year Dippet wouldn't write home about her inappropriate outbursts. They were worried enough about her as it was.
"You harlot," Charlotte Prewett smacked Hattie's arm playfully. "You didn't tell me you got prefect."
"It slipped my mind," Hattie tossed her trunk in the overhead bin in a compartment near the end of the train.
The shock was palpable at the arrival of Hattie's Hogwarts letter with the prefect badge. She had assumed her behavior the previous year had disqualified her for the position.
Hattie flopped down casually across from Charlotte. "Where are Andrew and Ada?"
"Don't change the subject," Charlotte pulled a potions textbook from her messenger bag and opened to a dog-eared page. With a quick glance at the door, she continued, a devilish grin on her face. "Care to tell me who the male prefect is?"
"Don't play coy, you know the an-" Hattie started as the compartment door flew open.
A tall, pale boy stood still as a statue looking directly at Hattie. Every muscle in his face was relaxed and his eyes were unnaturally empty. A chill raced down Hattie's spine. She crossed her legs and turned as nonchalantly as she could muster to Tom Riddle.
"Any reason you're disturbing our peace, Riddle?"
Charlotte sighed before collecting herself and diving into her book. Hattie refrained from rolling her eyes at her friend. Charlotte was a long time Tom Riddle admirer. Too many people were in Hattie's opinion.
Hattie took in his form. He'd grown over the summer holiday. He'd gotten taller, and paler somehow. She hadn't thought it possible. Tom's prefect badge was also infuriatingly shinier than hers. He just had to be the best at everything, didn't he?
Tom cocked his head and a charming smile overwhelmed his handsome features.
He'd seen her eyes trail over him.
"Don't be late to the prefect meeting, Ms. Selwyn," Riddle drawled, "I don't like to be kept waiting."
It sounded too similar to a warning for comfort. More than once, Hattie had almost been caught by Riddle on her escapades.
He was bloody everywhere.
She had made it a year with no one knowing, but more time with Riddle was on the horizon and she intended to keep him out of her way enough to keep working.
Hattie scoffed, "I'll ensure I'm a minute late for every second longer you stand in that doorway."
A couple seconds of contemplation passed between the pair, as if they were sizing up the other. They hadn't spent much time with one another previously. If they weren't competing in class, they were ignoring each other while they studied in the library.
Charlotte looked from Tom to Hattie, suppressing a small smile. They were always like this when they interacted and it was utterly amusing.
The side of Tom's mouth twitched. "I see you still have no control of your tongue." His hands were clasped tight behind his back as he looked down his nose at them.
"How perceptive but I have more control than you think, Riddle." Hattie's wand hand itched at her side.
His soft chuckle chilled the room.
Tom knew there had been something off about Hattie Selwyn from the start, but after her mother's untimely death a year previous, she had gotten exponentially more interesting.
Her tongue was sharper and her temper more volatile.
She was also clearly less impressed with him than their schoolmates. Tom wasn't accustomed to peers refusing to back down from his domineering stare.
Tom couldn't pinpoint what was occurring with Selwyn, but he would figure it out. He knew all about her oddly timed outbursts and sudden disappearances last year, even the ones he didn't witness himself.
Having eyes everywhere proved useful in times like these. He could learn anything with his sympathetic ear and charming smile.
"Half an hour, Ms. Selwyn." Riddle nodded to Charlotte who burned red under his stare. His gaze lingered on Hattie once more before he silently shut the door.
Charlotte stared at Hattie wide eyed and open mouthed.
"Don't you even start," Hattie waved Charlotte away as Ada and Andrew Bellchant slipped into the compartment.
Ada, Charlotte, and Hattie chatted while Andrew looked anxiously out into the corridor every few minutes. He fiddled with his robes and feigning interest in the array of candy on his seat.
Hattie pulled a piece of parchment from her bag and scribbled a note to Ada, nearly toppling the ink bottle at her side.
What's got his wand in a knot?
Shock flashed across Ada's face before smiling and snatching the quill from Hattie's grip.
I think he's seeing someone. He's waiting for them.
Hattie read the note, "A Gryffindor?" she whispered as Andrew craned his neck for a better look at the passersby.
"Most likely," Ada shrugged off the comments about her brother and continued a conversation with Charlotte about their respective family trips.
Hattie begrudgingly left her friends thirty minutes later.
As much as she would revel in infuriating Riddle, she needed a good first impression with her fellow prefects, especially after the previous year.
The halls were overwhelmed with people greeting one another after the extended holiday. Hattie moved gracefully through the crown until running directly into Abraxas Malfoy. He'd stepped heavy footed into the corridor.
Hattie rolled her eyes and pushed past as he spewed a few choice insults.
The prefect meeting was inconveniently placed at the very front of the train. It was minimally more peaceful than the midsection of the train. Lack of bodies made for a chillier trek through the train.
Hattie wrapped her cloak tightly around herself as she peeked through the curtains of the compartment.
Great.
Only one person was present as of yet.
"I see you decided to arrive on time," Tom removed his textbooks at his side and leaned back in his seat. His eyes bore into Hattie, willing her to sit dutifully by his side as his fellow Slytherin prefect.
The otherworldly blankness of his stare drove Hattie's heart rate higher. Her fight or flight instincts flashed a predator warning but she smothered it with a soothing breath.
Tom caught her pause and smirked.
Of course he'd noticed, Hattie cringed. No matter what, she refused to be one of his many lapdogs.
"Again," Hattie scoffed. "You're exceptionally perceptive. No wonder you're just behind me in class rankings. Why not try harder this term? I do enjoy a challenge."
He gazed slowly from the spot beside him to Hattie' chosen seat.
With a slight shake of his head he placed the textbooks back in place and watched Hattie look anywhere but his direction.
The air in the room was crushing.
Hattie's bones ached. Tom's stare persisted but she refused to show weakness. Anything she let slip could and would be repurposed and used against her.
Why did he have to be this way with her? He was a quiet, charming boy with everybody else. What about her set him off? Hattie had barely ever spoken with the man.
It was precisely this that made him so irrevocable dangerous. Nobody would ever believe Tom Riddle had been anything but a perfect gentlemen. He could do and say anything in her presence and it could never be repeated for fear of looking like a lowly gossip.
Hattie was at least above that.
Charlotte had seen glimpses a half hour previous, but swore on her wand that Riddle was simply shy and flirtatious.
Hattie knew better. Riddle was never vulnerable. Every move, every word, and every action was calculated. Nobody was as perfect as Riddle. And nobody ever would be. It was an excellent and risky maneuver and Hattie wondered if he spoke to his followers how he spoke to her.
"I seem to recall a very different state of events." Tom's voice was nary more than a whisper that amplified in the cramped space.
Hattie's head snapped back to Riddle, "Perhaps you should get your head checked at the hospital wing."
Riddle leaned forward and placed his arms on his knees. This time Hattie hadn't looked away.
"Perhaps," Tom growled, "You should keep your nose out of issues that don't concern you."
Something seemed to click in Riddle's eyes and his lips played at a smile as he leaned back, challenging her.
Hattie straightened her spine and cocked her head, giving him an exaggerated display, as if trying to figure him out.
They both knew better than to believe that, though.
A surge of cold air broke their concentration as blue cloaks entered.
Tom reverted into his pleasant self as the Ravenclaw prefects entered the compartment. Ruth Davis repositioned Tom's books to sit scandalously close to him. She flashed him a toothy grin and he responded with a whisper in her ear. She giggled and blushed before her attention was pulled by the rest of the prefects flooding the room.
Tom smirked at Hattie before gazing out the window, bored with the current state of affairs.
Hattie's pulse shuttered against her neck. Riddle wanted to be in control of everything and Hattie just happened to have one very interesting way of ensuring he didn't have the upper hand against her.
Her mother always warned against making their work personal, but there was something unnerving about Riddle.
But her mother had also imprinted that Hattie should keep an eye on anything she deemed interesting. And Riddle was fascinating.
Hattie considered why she had never encountered Riddle in her travels. Admittedly, she hadn't been traveling for long. But charming, persuasive, handsome Tom Riddle was nowhere in anything she had seen. What would he be up to in five years, maybe ten?
Where did he go?
Hattie shook her head and ran her hands over her eyes. She couldn't fixate on a single person. That was a recipe for disaster and distraction. She wouldn't give Riddle the power to distract her from fulfilling her mother's wishes.
The hair on the back of Hattie's neck prickled and her eyes refocused in front of her. Riddle's eyes were on her again and there was a mischievous glint in his blue eyes..
She glowered which seemed to please him more.
Hattie wanted to scream; there was clearly no winning with him.
Hattie clapped politely as the sorting ceremony concluded. She had Advanced Defensive Spells propped on one knee and watched the front of the room from the corner of her eye.
Tom sat at the very end of the Slytherin table, surrounded by some of his most avid admirers. They looked deep in conversation, hanging on Tom's every word.
Did Riddle speak to them the same way he spoke to her or did he charm their pants off?
"So how did it go with Tom on the train?" Charlotte leaned across the table and pulled the book from Hattie's gentle grip.
Ada covered her face with her hands, "You don't need to say it that loudly." She was exhausted with Charlotte's Riddle obsession.
A few of the surrounding students tuned into the conversation at the mention of Tom's name. One being Vera.
Hattie flushed slightly and glared at Charlotte who's face dropped to her plate, not wanting to catch Vera's wrath.
Hattie would have a conversation with her later about shutting her mouth around Vera.
"Like you would have anything to say to Tom," Vera played with the food on her plate, reveling in the sniggers of a few younger Slytherin girls around her. She had developed quite a following the last few years. One to rival Tom's if Vera did say so herself.
And she did. Often.
"I'll let you know since clearly you've gone blind," Hattie spat, "We're both prefects so we'll be spending quite a lot of time together. Alone."
Vera sobered at the intonation of the last word. She pushed out her bench in a huff and shoved her way through the crowds of students to sit right next to Tom.
Vera's posse bounced with energy, pushing on each other's shoulders for a better look at the other side of the table.
Tom looked up at Vera with slight interest as she pushed Abraxas Malfoy to the side to take the seat directly beside him. Malfoy tumbled into Avery who shoved him away with a look of pure loathing.
"She's jealous," Ada crossed her arms, "Don't concern yourself over it."
"I wasn't planning on it." Hattie yawned, "I have no reason to care."
"Hear that girls," Ada leaned over to the young Vera admirers and flicked peas in their direction, "You're little queen is jealous of Hattie and Tom. Disappointing, isn't it?"
Hattie dropped her head to the table. More people were staring now, including Tom.
The younger Slytherins grimaced, wiping squished peas from their pristine robes. They whispered amongst themselves and suddenly were all smiles and giggles. Fingers ran through their hair and they sat up straighter.
Suddenly, benches scraped against the floor as students rushed out of the Great Hall towards their common rooms.
Hattie raised her head and held out her arm, motioning for Charlotte to return her book.
As it passed across the table a hand shot out from behind Hattie and snatched it.
Ice crept through Hattie's blood as she turned to Tom standing behind her, perusing her book.
"This is quite," Tom contemplated his answer, "fascinating." He licked his finger and flipped through the pages, glancing over each one.
Hattie stood to pluck the book from Tom's hands but he was faster. He closed the book in her face and strolled out of the Great Hall.
