Crystal was sitting at the end of the Slytherin table secluded from the rest of the house. She didn't seem upset or irritated but more indifferent and maybe even...pleased?
Her mysteriousness caused Riddle to spend the remainder of dinner trying (and failing) to not stare at her. Higgins somehow knew this and caught him in the act which seemed to be enough to cause him to hold back from the urge of looking in her direction.
Soon, dinner was over and everyone made their way out of the hall to their respective houses dorms. On his way out he was pulled aside by Professor Slughorn, Slytherin head of house. And standing right beside him was none other than Crystal.
"Hello, Mr.Riddle. This is Mrs. Crystal Higgins, a witch whom has proved herself to be on her way to become one of my favorite students, alongside you of course." Slughorn rattled off before turning and smiling toward Crystal, "Tom is by far the most intelligent young man I have ever had the courtesy of meeting and he is also the head prefect of Slytherin. I was hoping he would be able to give you a tour of the castle and show you the ropes of our prestigious house. Or perhaps you would prefer me to give you the tour?"
'How ridiculous, Slughorn is making more of a fool of himself than usual with all this ass-kissing' Tom thought while giving the two one of his signature fake smiles.
Suddenly Higgins spoke up, "Oh Professor Slughorn, it's quite all right. I'm sure Tom here will be a perfectly suitable tour guide. You should probably get to your quarters soon, teaching is hard work and you must need your sleep."
After stating that last part Riddle was quite sure she was trying to get rid of him. Maybe she was more Slytherin then he initially thought?
To that note Professor Slughorn agreed with her and bid them both a polite farewell. A couple awkward moments passed and Tom was unsure how to break the silence but Higgins did it for him.
"Wow, does he always ass-kiss that much?"
Tom chuckled at that. 'Wait, did I just almost laugh?!?' Riddle internally screeched.
"Ah. Yes he does tend to do that, acts like Hogwarts is his own networking playground." Tom let out.
"Oh well, I get it a lot so it may irritate me quite a bit. Shall we get on with the grand tour?"
With that, Riddle guided her through the castle and showed her the classrooms on her schedule. To his surprise her schedule was quite similar to his. Everything was going smoothly until she suddenly stopped him.
She hesitated before saying, "Can we maybe stop by Dumbledore's office for a minute?"
She had once again surprised him.
"Oh ummmm, I'm not sure if he'll be there, but we can stop by"
With that said, they walked side by side for 5 or 10 minutes in complete silence. For some reason, Tom couldn't think about facts about Hogwarts like he normally would tell during tours. All he could think about was the enigma he was walking with.
His thoughts were interrupted by their arrival at the office. "Well here you go Higgins."
"I'll be out quick," her words stumbled out fast as she walked in and was greeted by the professors smile and outstretched arms. Then the door closed.
Of course, Tom wouldn't miss an opportunity to listen in on the private conversation. So he put his ear to the door. This proved absolutely useless as, to his annoyance, the room had a silence charm protecting their exchange of words.
Inside the room where Riddle couldn't hear, Crystal and Dumbledore said their hellos and exchanged words on how their comrades in the war against Grindelwald were.
"How's Trindle doing? He was hit with that nasty dark spell that was still healing when I left." Dumbledore questioned.
Sadly Crystal shook her head before saying,"Healers couldn't stop it from spreading to his head. After he went crazy, his family thought it best to hand him over to a facility".
"That's disappointing, he was such a good man. Is everyone else doing well?"
"Mostly. A lot of rebuilding is going on and most of ya are still trying to deal with all the loss. Some of Grindelwald's followers still randomly attack in unorganized raids, so others are protecting cities."
"Ah. Sounds like everyone is doing much better than when I left. But I'm guessing you're here for something other than catching up?"
"You've caught me." Crystal stated while easing her arms into her robes, "I'm here to give you this"
She placed the elder wand on the table. Albus was shocked.
"I thought it was lost or destroyed. How did you get it?"
"I knew he had it before the duel so I simply kept an eye out for it. Apparently, he gave it to Repongus before he died," Crystal said before he asked more questions.
"You saw Repongus? Are you alright?" To that Crystal nodded so Albus moved on. "Well thank you for retrieving this for me, I think we should talk about this later. You do have to get back to your dorm and get some rest."
"I think you're right Albus...I mean Professor Dumbledore" she giggled before standing up and saying good night.
Tom was annoyed. He had thought that bringing her here would at least satisfy his curiosity a little, but as it turns out it only fueled it.
Suddenly, the door opened and Higgins emerged. She didn't look either sad or happy. Her indifference was back and did nothing to make him any less annoyed.
"Well, I think it's time to get to the dorms, all these new things are causing me to feel quite tired." Higgins sighed out.
Riddle nodded and escorted her, as politely as he could manage in his irritated state, to the dorms.
"This is your stop. The girls dorms are charmed so wizards cannot enter."
"Thank you, Tom. It's been...interesting."
With that she left into the room leaving Riddle standing there shocked at 2 things. One, she had called him Tom, which absolutely no one did. And two, what did she mean by interesting? He had done everything in the manner he usually did! At this point, most witches would be throwing themselves at him!
Yes, this year was definitely going to be much more interesting then he previously thought.