Chapter 1

Arianna Abel

The sun had long set as silence could be heard from all around. Everyone was asleep, all but a girl fresh of the age seventeen who stared wide-eyed at the ceiling her thoughts running through her mind. Her gaze shifted towards the clock that was enchanted to illuminate the time on her night table that flashed 1 AM.

"Today's the day," She spoke into the darkness.

With a sigh, she shifted from her laying down position to her elbows as she stared up at the ceiling once again. Her nerves were jumbled all together at the upcoming school year and how much had happened since she had begun her first day of Hogwarts.

She could freshly remember standing in the Great Hall with her own thoughts clashing in the back of her mind as everyone stared in agape at how amazing the Great Hall was. Yet, all she could do was wring her hands together and stare down at her feet.

"Arianna Abel,"

With great courage, she raised her eyes to meet the professor who had called her name as the hall was deathly silent. With great difficulty, Arianna closed her eyes and slowly, but steadily marched up the Great Hall and grimaced when everyone's eyes were on her. Dejectedly, she sat on the stool as the professor who she had yet to name, placed an old battered and ragged hat on her head.

"Another Abel eh."

Arianna almost yelped as she jumped slightly at the sound of a voice that spoke inside her very mind.

"Wh-What?" Arianna stuttered quietly when she saw many who were waiting to be sorted, eye her warily while some seemed to quietly giggle.

"Quiet, Shy, naive, yet outspoken in your thoughts. Perhaps you would do well in Hufflepuff..." The hat grunted.

"Slytherin, please..." Arianna quietly spoke as she crossed her fingers internally in her mind.

"Many generations of your family have always been in Slytherin..." Hat mused quietly as Arianna bit her lip.

"Please just put me in Slytherin... Please!" Arianna pleaded silently in her mind.

"Hmm... persistent aren't you?" The hat grunted once more. "Better be..."

Arianna shut her eyes tight as she pleaded in her mind to beg the hat to place her in Slytherin.

'Slytherin, please. Slytherin...'

"Gryffindor!"

Arianna's eyes popped open as she gasped, tears were close to making their way to her eyes. Quietly as she wiped at her tears with the sleeve of her robes, the hat was taken off her hat as she quickly, yet dreadfully dragged her feet to the Gryffindor table as she casted a longing gaze at the Slytherin table.

Applause could be heard from the table of her house as she sat down in a seat near the end of the table, as far as she could be away from anyone. She brought her eyes down, once again to her hands as they were once again wringing as nerves consumed her.

Many names were called after she was sorted which she did not bother to remember nor would she want to. All she knew was that she was going to be in trouble as soon as her parents had caught word of their own pathetic daughter being sorted into Gryffindor.

Tears were brimming as her vision steadily became more of a blur with each second that passed. She should have listened to the Sorting Hat and let be in Hufflepuff. At least then the punishment wouldn't be all that bad, any other house would have been much better than the very house her parents despised.

She felt her tears hit her hands as she refused to wipe them away, she didn't care anymore if anyone saw them as long. If only someone could wake her from this dreadful nightmare.

"Hey, I'm Owen Finnigan. What's your name?"

Arianna nearly jumped out of her seat as she stared at the hand that had entered her field of vision. She slowly blinked the tears away as she hesitantly allowed her eyes to trail up the hand to stare at the very friendly, yet concerned face when he finally noticed her puffy red eyes.

She slowly opened, then closed her mouth, unsure whether she should speak to him or not.

"It's alright, I just want to be friends," The boy spoke again.

Arianna bit her lip as she studied him, his messy sandy blonde hair that had a hint of red in it if she looked closely enough, with hazel coloured eyes that were smiling across from her, he had a slightly round face as his smile was wide.

"I-I'm Arianna Abel," Arianna spoke quietly as she hesitantly took his hand and shook it.

Owen's smile brightened, "It's very nice to meet you!"

With that Arianna finally felt herself give a small smile back to the boy.

Arianna smiled as she saw the sun rise as light slowly hit her walls, revealing her small messy room where quills and parchment were scattered all around her. Piles upon piles of books were stacked all over her room while some were torn and scattered in places and corners of her room. Her bed, which was the dismal size of a single bed had some more pages of torn parchment as she walked towards the window that lit her room. She turned and glanced at her room, pictures of her and Owen were everywhere on the walls, all of them were filled of their bright smiles.

She could never forget that day.

She could remember, it was her very first year it had been a week since she had been sorted into Gryffindor. She had been slowly starting to accept that she was stuck in this house and she would have to deal with it, no matter the consequences.

She felt a familiar presence sit beside her and she knew Owen Finnigan was scooping a large amount of breakfast onto his plate. She could feel his gaze on her out of curiosity. She had been trying so hard to ignore his presence since the very first day at the Great Hall.

"That all you're going to eat?" he asked her, his accent heavy as his voice was heavy with concern.

Arianna didn't answer him, but merely nodded.

Her face was as she knew in a grimace as she gave his plate a sweeping gaze to see his plate was completely filled and piled on and to compliment it was his cup of pumpkin juice. Which she quite vividly remembered him telling her on the first day of their "meeting" had been his favourite beverage of all time and reminded him of home. Apparently his mum had always made the best pumpkin juice that Hogwarts could almost compare to.

She slowly brought her eyes back to her plate as she merely eyed the toast and grabbed it as she nibbled at it. Once she was almost completely done eating her slice of toast, there was a screech which Arianna felt her stomach drop at the sound.

She with very great hesitance glanced up to see a whole bunch of colourful crowd of owls make their way into the Great Hall. Arianna paid no attention to the others as she finally spotted the dreadfully familiar beautiful black owl that swooped down in front of her.

She trembled as she noticed it had a very distinct red envelope in its beak as it nudged her hand roughly with the envelope. Owen nudged her hand with his and she flinched at the feeling of his skin contacting hers.

She trembled as she slowly grabbed it and as she slowly broke the seal with great doubt, came great regret and humiliation.

"HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT OUR FAMILY, YOU ARE A DISGRACE! LANDING YOURSELF IN SUCH A DISPICABLE HOUSE! HAVE YOU NO PRIDE IN YOUR OWN HERITGE LET ALONE YOUR OWN BLOOD! YOU LOATHESOME PATHETIC CHILD. JUST YOU WAIT TILL YOU GET HOME! YOUR FATHER AND I WILL DEAL WITH YOU."

With that, the red howler burst into flames as what ashes remained laid on her now empty plate.

With great difficulty, Arianna couldn't breathe, she could see and hear everyone whispering, some even chuckling as what was once a hall full of great chatter and laughter had fell into complete silence at the sound of the howler that had emitted her very mother's shrill angry voice.

Arianna stood as she slowly walked towards the giant doors of the great hall as she kept her head low. Feeling the burning gazes of her peers, she felt herself pick up her pace as she began to feel herself break out into a run as she ripped open the doors and out of the Great Hall.

The doors slammed behind her as she felt tears prickle her eyes as she finally let herself go. All the disappointment and anger that her parents had felt when their disgraceful daughter had landed herself into the wrong house and all the disappointment and loneliness she felt over the past week. It was all too much.

Tears were streaming down her face as a voice broke through the sound of her sobs.

"A Howler, huh? Those are pretty nasty little creatures if I do say so myself."

She turned and tried to wipe away the evidence of her tears as she felt a hand grip that very arm. Owen gave her a small smile as he wiped away the tears with his very hand.

"It's okay to cry you know," he spoke sullenly, the small smile still on his face. "It's better to cry then to hide it all the time."

Arianna merely blinked at him.

"What would you know..." She asked quietly.

Owen smiled as he reached out and held her hand.

Arianna stared at their hand with a small frown as she casted a tiny curious glance at his face and was not shocked to find him smiling. His smile was not the usual wide grin that he usually gave others, it was not a smile of pity.

It was a smile of understanding.

Arianna without a single trace of doubt gave him a smile as she squeezed his hand back.

She had finally met a real true friend.

I honestly have never written fanfiction so this is my very first Tom Riddle/very first fanfiction ever. I thought of this story from a sudden inspiration from the song Ice Nine Kills – Build Your Own Disaster. I figured it in a way would remind me of what I had in mind from Tom/OC. Hah.

Anyways my appologies for having no tom in this chapter yet or with all the memories and such but I thought it would help build Arianna up as a character so you can kind of see things from her point of view as well as learn about her character.

You'll noticed many familiar characters in this story as they come and go such as "Owen Finnigan" I had to add a finnigan in... I love Seamus Finnigan haha.

I may make a Draco/OC if things go well... since I already have an idea for that one already. Well without further ado, thank you for reading and Reviews are very much appreciated.