Chapter Two

"I trust that you also noticed that Tom Riddle was already highly self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless?"


"Ron Weasley," Tom repeated. "That is a strange name."

The redhead giggled again, face still on the floor. Scoffing in disgust, Tom rolled him over onto his back and examined him for any obvious injuries. From the corner of his eye, he saw the rod fall out of the boy's hand and roll between two boxes of books.

As far as Tom could tell, Ron didn't have any fatal injuries. There was a bruise was beginning to form on his right cheek, but aside from and that a few cuts here and there he was fine. The blood from the mouth was a bit concerning so he grabbed his chin and forced him to lie still as he examined it. The blood was already drying and apparently the bleeding stopped. Tom, unfortunately, was no doctor so he didn't know what he would have done if he still was bleeding. He used Ron's sleeve to wipe the blood off of the boy's face and turned away to move the boxes in order to retrieve the rod he dropped.

"Alright, Ron, do you know where you live?"

"Burrow… burrowing in the Burrow…"

Tom looked around when he heard his morose tone. It was much different from his excited giggling a moment ago. He almost sounded tired and confused, like he had been knocked out a little while ago and was just waking up. Perhaps his condition had been temporary. This was a relief because that meant he would probably be back to normal soon.

"Where the bloody hell am I?" Ron finally asked. Tom sat straighter and opened his mouth to reply but the boy's head dropped back down onto his chest and he apparently fainted.

Tom huffed and reached forward to pick up the rod. His fingers just barely brushed the wood when it shot off painful sparks. Tom's body pitched forward and he gasped, just barely managing to catch himself. Many of the items which had been resting on shelves had fallen down onto the floor, missing him and Ron by inches.

His body trembled and he felt strangely… tingly. Tom flexed his fingers uncertainly and then stared at the rod reproachfully. Slowly, he extended his hand toward it again, hovering over it uncertainly. A tiny spark shot out from between it and the rod and he flinched back, heart pounding in his chest although he didn't know why.

Was that part of the "not normal" things Ellie mentioned when she said she was too scared to come back in? Tom frowned and waved his hand at a thin box a few feet away on the floor. It flew toward him and dumped out its contents before landing in one of his hands. He did the same with the rod and it flew into the box so that he would be able to carry it around without touching it.

"What happened?" Ellie asked when he left the room with the sealed box tucked into his deep pockets. "How is he?"

"Based on the unprofessional opinion of a sixteen-year-old dishwasher, I've concluded that he's fine. His name is Ron Weasley. His mental state is questionable since he sounded lucid just before he went unconscious," Tom replied.

"He's unconscious? Did you get a chance to ask him where he lives?"

"He said the Burrow, but I've never heard of such a place. I think it's best if you just kept him here or at your home for a day until he wakes up and is well enough for you to take him back home, ma'am."

"Here?" she repeated, mortified. "Can't you take him?"

This time Tom didn't bother to hide his sneer. "I live at an orphanage, not a homeless shelter. Or is that what I look like to you? A common tramp?"

Ellie eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Oh no, Tom! No, I didn't mean that at all!" She was blushing furiously. "I j-just forgot! But I can't – "

Now tremendously irritated, Tom glared into her eyes. "Do it," he commanded. Her mouth clamped shut and she immediately left him. He took a shuddering breath, annoyed that he had used another one of his "talents" when he knew he shouldn't have. Occasionally, he was able to force people to do things he wanted against their will but if he did it too often they would notice and the results usually varied from bad to disastrous.

Tom sighed and shook his head. Perhaps Ellie would look past this. Already he spotted her locking the door the boy was in so that she would be able to deal with him later. Williams was so busy talking to a woman who had just entered that he didn't notice a few people waiting for somebody to take their order. Tom quickly grabbed a notepad and pen to take the orders himself.

"I'm sorry for the wait," he said to an old couple who had been waiting there the longest.

"It's quite alright," said the old woman. "We're in no hurry."

The old man was staring at him with narrowed eyes. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

Tom forced himself to smile. "No, sir," he replied. "Now, what would you like today?"

After writing down both of their orders he ripped the page off and put it on a hook for Ellie to review and make. Tom turned around to take the orders of a few more customers but stopped when he saw he was beat to it by the woman Williams had been talking to. A new employee? That wasn't good – not for him at least. How old was she? Worried that he would have to find a new job, Tom circled her from a distance, trying to decide how old she was.

She was fair skinned with a white buttoned shirt and a tight black skirt. If Tom didn't know better he would assume she had picked those clothes out of a charity bin. It wasn't that they looked bad or shabby; they just did not seem to suit her. Her hair, though tied up, was extremely bushy and seemed as though it would be untamable if she was to let it loose. It was difficult for him to decide how old she was, but he was pretty sure she was between sixteen and twenty.

"Hello," she said when she spotted him. "Can I help you?"

He smirked. She thought he was a customer. "I was just wondering why a pretty young lady like you is working in a dingy place such as this." Now that she was so close to him, he could see she wasn't very pretty at all. It had more to do with her not bothering to put on makeup than just being ugly. It wasn't a bad thing. Just different.

"You work where you can," she said, looking nervous. How interesting.

"True. How old are you miss…?"

She pursed her lips, all nervousness vanishing. "It's not really any of your business, is it?"

He opened his mouth to tell her it was because it would determine whether he would still have a job by the end of the day. Unfortunately, he was cut off by William's shout.

"Tom!"

Tom twitched and looked at Williams. He noticed the girl now looked a little confused and seemed to slowly be coming to the realization that he worked there.

"Sir?"

"Take the rest of the day off. I want to see how this girl works. I'll tell you tomorrow if you should bother coming back to work anymore."

"Of course, sir," Tom said. He turned to the woman again. "I'll take a mint tea and a dozen biscuits."

Her mouth was slowly dropping open and he smiled charmingly. "I'm not working now, so I might as well be a customer. It should not take long, Ellie usually has a fresh batch by this time." He thought about his visit to Hypatia. "I'll take the tea now. The biscuits are to go."

"Er, what kind would you like?"

He shrugged. "Surprise me."

She nodded dumbly and scampered to the back. After giving him his tea, she went back and forth to give out the orders she and Tom had taken. As soon as he finished his tea she came back with a box and the bill. He paid it without comment and left the building to walk to a pet shop where Hypatia and probably Jasper were.

In the pet shop there were only small animals that needed to be contained such as birds, reptiles, fish, and rodents. There used to be a dog once but he wasn't completely sure what happened to it. It was shabby but kept surprisingly clean compared to the outside where almost every building on the block was severely damaged or destroyed.

"That was fast," Jasper said from a chair next to a counter when he saw him come in. A flicker of worry crossed his face. "You… didn't get fired, did you? Because I totally wasn't serious when I said that and if I jinxed it then-"

"I wasn't fired," Tom said, rolling his eyes and placing the box of biscuits onto the counter. The other boy eyed it hungrily. "Now… Hypatia?"

Jasper nodded and slid off the stool, grabbing a ring of keys hanging underneath the counter. Tom walked to his side and waited for him to unlock the door leading to the back. As soon as it was open, Tom slid past Jasper and winced at the cool air used to control the store's more hostile or sick reptiles. He quickly scanned the room.

"Where is she?" Tom asked.

"Around the corner," Jasper replied. "I think it's because she doesn't like any of the snakes here."

Immediately Tom spotted a corner he hadn't noticed before and went around it, coming face-to-face with Jasper's sister. She opened her mouth to greet him but he pushed past her to the large aquarium that was against the wall. Inside was a ten foot long black mamba, Hypatia.

The snake was being kept in the pet shop illegally. The only reason she was there was because Tom couldn't bear to return her to where she had come from, a venom lab which had done multiple tests on her. Taking her to the orphanage that he lived in was simply out of the question. It was Jasper who offered the pet shop his sister owned as a sanctuary for her. However, she was a very aggressive snake, striking at the slightest movement, so the back of the shop was kept cool in order to make her sluggish and more docile so that she may be fed without the feeder being bitten.

Tom placed a hand against the glass and the snake pushed its body against it for the warmth.

"Have you been treated well?" he asked her. From the corner of his eye he saw Jasper's sister, Sylvia, give an odd twitch when he spoke. It was another part of Tom's "talent" and the only one that did not seem to fade over time. Tom didn't know what it sounded like to other people when he spoke the language of the snakes, but it must have been unnerving if Sylvia wasn't used to it after so many years.

"The cold irritates me. So tired…" she hissed back.

"They do not trust you. You are much too powerful for them to control." He had explained it to her many times before.

"Free me."

"One day." Tom glanced at Jasper who was staring in silent fascination while his sister looked terrified. They had learned the hard way not to disturb the snakes when Tom was speaking to them. "When I leave this place, I will take you with me. You will be free."

"They will kill me."

"If they show any ill intent, I will make sure they are punished. For now, they shall not be harmed." He removed his hand from the side and lifted the heavy lid so that she could slither out and up his arm to drape around his shoulders. Sylvia twitched when her tongue flicked out and the movement immediately caused Hypatia to hiss and turn her head at her.

"Do not bite," Tom hissed a little more viciously than he intended. She lowered her head so that it rested on his collarbone.

When Jasper realized their conversation was over, he grinned but kept a careful eye on Hypatia. "You're so freaky sometimes," he said good naturally.

Sylvia cleared her throat and both boys turned toward her. "Tom… would you mind feeding her? I'm just too… too terrified of her." She laughed nervously.

"Of course," he said, giving her a charming smile. He didn't dare mistreat Sylvia in any way, even if she was annoying sometimes. As long as she kept Hypatia safe, he was willing to do most things for her that he would not do for others. Besides, he usually fed Hypatia anyway. "Oh, and help yourself to some biscuits. I left them on the counter in the front."

"You suck up," Jasper said with a snort when Sylvia left. "Now are you going to tell me why you're out early?"

"I was not fired," Tom repeated from before, stroking Hypatia's head with his thumb. "But it seems I may be soon. Somebody is after my job and Williams saw it fit to test her potential for the rest of the day."

"Her? Oh man, you're so fired," Jasper sighed. "Williams would love to have eye candy around. Was she pretty?"

"Average."

"Have you thought about… you know… getting rid of her? It would take forever for you to find another job! You've said it loads of times."

"Getting rid of her," Tom said, as if tasting the words for the first time. His eyes wandered down to Hypatia for a moment.

Jasper coughed and Tom found himself flinching.

"Remember what happened last time?" Jasper asked.

"I don't want that to happen ever again," Tom agreed sullenly. "My abilities may make me superior to everyone else, but they won't solve all of my problems." Hypatia shifted and placed her head on Tom's shoulder instead, flicking her tongue up at the air curiously. "Or anybody else's for that matter."

"You would have been a great serpent," Hypatia hissed suddenly. "If you were not so damaged."

Tom stiffened and glared down at her. "Damaged?"

"You know what I speak of."

"I do. Say nothing more of it." Tom walked to where some large rats were caged to feed the snakes and pulled one out by the tail. He unceremoniously knocked it unconscious and tossed it into Hypatia's aquarium. The snake slithered down his body and back into the aquarium to feed as Tom and Jasper watched.

"Aside from the girl, did anything interesting happen?" Jasper asked.

"Yes, actually," Tom said. "Ellie found a boy named Ron Weasley. We thought he was mentally challenged but he seemed lucid before he went unconscious. He was injured and Ellie thought I would be able to diagnose his condition and decide what to do with him."

"In her defense, you are unusually smart," said Jasper. "So what'd you do with him?"

"It seemed he would be fine so I told Ellie to let him either stay there or at her home for a night or until he wakes up and can tell her where she's from." Tom pulled out the thin box and opened it to show Jasper its contents. "He was playing with this."

"It's a stick… A sanded stick, look how smooth that is," Jasper said with a raised eyebrow. He reached forward to pick it up but Tom moved it out of the way.

"Don't touch it. When I did it…" Tom trailed off, not completely sure what happened. "It sparked and it hurts."

"It looks like a really big chopstick."

"A very painful chopstick," Tom said bitterly and Jasper laughed. Tom closed the box and placed it in a cabinet behind some rodent food. He did not want to take it back to the orphanage where one of the children might touch it and hurt themselves.

Jasper waited until he was done to say, "Come on, let's go back to the front. I want those sweets."

"I didn't buy them for you," Tom said, but did not stop him from leaving and helping himself to a few.

Sylvia was eating her own share slowly, her eyes on the door to the entrance of the pet shop, obviously hoping for any customers. Of course, with this part of the city mostly destroyed not many people would actually be out shopping for pets and only an idiot would waste money to buy food for their pets. Tom wouldn't be surprised if the store closed down soon, he just hoped he would be able to get Hypatia out before then.

It was almost eleven by the time Tom arrived at the orphanage where he lived. The matrons there were already used to him arriving very late, but they still locked the door, knowing he always somehow found a way back inside. Strangely, they never bothered to ask him exactly how he broke in.

For as long as Tom could remember, the orphanage wasn't a pleasant place to look at. He was sure that if there wasn't a war it would merely look run-down, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The building was square, blackened from smoke and surrounded by high rusty railings with overgrown weeds growing through the cracks in the concrete of the courtyard. Chunks of brick and broken glass was scattered in front of it, covered with dirt and ash.

Tom walked up the steps to the door and waved his hand in front of the door and heard the click signaling he had successfully unlocked it. He slunk into the orphanage and looked around to see if anyone was still awake and wandering the halls. It wasn't much of a surprise to see Mrs. Cole sitting on an old chair in a corner, swirling the contents of a wineglass slowly. Running an orphanage overrun with children during a war was finally taking its toll on her.

"Tom," she greeted softly. It was not too obvious that she was straining to keep her voice clear of a slur she probably already had, but he said nothing of it. It was late in the night and he didn't blame her for trying to relieve some of her sorrows with cheap wine.

He inclined his head. "Mrs. Cole."

"Billy and Adam ran away," she said.

He stood straighter, rolling his shoulders to banish the whisper of sympathy he felt for her. "It's not because of you," he assured. "They were turning eighteen soon, they were scared." Many of the older children were running away before they turned eighteen. Eighteen-year-old orphans were expendable in this time of war.

Nobody would miss them.

"And you? Do you plan on running away?"

He said nothing because he knew she already knew the answer.

"I'm going to bed," Tom said instead. She nodded and allowed him to go up to his room.

Unsurprisingly, his bed was already occupied by two children. There was a time when Tom would have been furious and drove them out of his room, but now he learned to tolerate intrusions such as this. He just moved them over to one side of the bed, changed into his night clothes, and laid down on the other side.

Many children were orphaned because of the war. The bombings claimed many parents, fathers died in battle, mothers would kill themselves or be forced to give up their children because they were unable to provide for them. Personally, Tom didn't see how sending children to the orphanage would help in any way. The orphanage had trouble providing for the overwhelming amount. There wasn't enough food and clearly not enough beds for each individual child. Most children would share beds with one another. When it had first started, everybody steered clear of Tom's bed since it was rumored he would curse you for touching it and it was well known that Tom did not like sharing.

After The First Blitz, a flood of children arrived at the orphanage. Unfamiliar with Tom's habits, a few began sleeping on his bed no matter how many times he got rid of them. Eventually he got used to it since for some reason when he accompanied them to bed they stopped bawling which was a relief to him and Mrs. Cole. He also couldn't punish them much because of the incident that happened before; he already had too many strikes against him and did not want to risk getting kicked out of the orphanage before he was ready.

Tom scowled when one of the children (Hamish, he believes) rolled on top of his legs. He shifted uncomfortably and attempted to move out from under it.

Hamish groaned and opened his eyes sleepily. "Hi, Tom," he greeted.

"Get off of me before I gut you," Tom replied.

"Billy and Adam left," Hamish said.

"Yes, I know." He bounced his legs a bit to give the boy a hint.

"Billy wanted me to tell you that he still hates you."

"Good to know," Tom sighed, letting his head fall back onto his pillow. Hamish eventually rolled back off of his legs and Tom vaguely remembered he had red hair like the boy at the shop. He allowed himself to wonder how Ellie dealt with him before eventually drifting off to sleep.