Tom sighed while he made his way through the masses of people on platform 93/4 towards the front of the train. All parents tried desperately to cling one last time to their precious children before they were shipped off to Hogwarts until Christmas break. It annoyed him quite a bit honestly, not that he would ever tell anyone. He was the Golden Boy, the perfect student, Slytherin Prefect. That last one had him smirk proudly and he brushed his finger over the silver pin on his robes. It had been much too easy to charm his way into the hearts of his idiotic teachers and peers.
Tom slowed his pace when he felt a heated glare aimed at his back and turned around to find a boy staring hatefully at him. The genius teen quirked an eyebrow at the other male whom he had never seen before but seemed to be related to the Potters if he had to guess, and glanced towards the brown haired girl and four redheads, three boys and a girl, and an adult man who looked an awful lot like an older, unkempt version the young Orion Black the year below him. They too looked unfamiliar to him, though the redheads looked an awful lot like the Weasley family. Those last few made him narrow his eyes a bit. Being a Slytherin and a close family friend of the Malfoys, he wasn't a big fan of the wide spread family of noisy redheads.
Deciding that it were most likely the new students that would enter Hogwarts this year and their guardian, Tom smiled as friendly as he could with such evil glares on him and waved at them. He felt accomplished when the two youngest boys and the red haired girl turned away from him and the brunette girl waved back shyly and uncertainly. The man and the two older redheads just narrowed their eyes at him in suspicion.
With a genuine smile on his face this time, Tom continued on towards the first carriage of the train before entering and walked towards the Prefect cabin with a purposeful stride. On his way, he was greeted by some other students and replied politely every time, while he would usually disregard most of them with indifference. He was in a too good mood for that now though.
When he and Lucretia Black, the Head-Girl, entered the Prefects' compartment, they found one other person already present there. Tom smiled and nodded towards the platinum blonde, silver eyed 7th year Ravenclaw girl. Lucinda Malfoy, Prefect and his old housemate Abraxas' little sister, looked up from her book and greeted him back in the same way before resuming to read. The girl simply loved to read, she could barely ever be found doing something else, except during classes.
"How was your summer?" Lucretia asked the platinum blonde politely.
The Blacks and the Malfoys were close family friends for generations already and always formed a strong front together. Added to this, Lucinda Malfoy was best friends with fellow Ravenclaw Cedrella Black, who might not be the most liked in her family, being a Ravenclaw instead of a Slytherin, but she was still of the oldest pure-blood family in the country.
It took a little while before the girl looked back up to answer, but when she did, she did so with a gentle smile on her lips.
"Not much to say really," she replied calmly.
"We simply spent it at home."
"That sounds rather lovely to me," Tom said, smiling sadly, a fake sentiment of course.
"I would very much like to be able to do that with a family of my own."
"I suppose you're right, it was nice to have so much time to spend with my father and brother," Lucinda nodded.
"Speaking of which, how is your brother, Lucinda?" he asked, more out of politeness than actual interest in the subject.
"He is very nervous about his engagement with Ravina Lestrange, but other than that he is fine," the near-white haired girl replied chuckling.
Tom nodded and looked away. He cared little for communicating with this girl as she was rather shy and naïve, but she was also the daughter of one of the most powerful pure-blood families in England and her brother had proven most useful to Tom in the past. He had long since decided that she was worth the effort, if not for her dull conversations, than at least for the connections she and her family provided him with.
"Ah, but Ravina is most certainly very excited about it," Lucretia told her.
"I just saw her at the platform while she was showing off her engagement ring to everyone who wanted to see."
Loud bickering outside the glass sliding doors warned the two of the arrival of some of the other Prefects and indeed, the door opened again. Tom barely repressed a sigh when he saw the 7th year Prefects of Gryffindor, followed by the 5th year prefect Lyall Lupin and Huffelpuff 5th year, the beautiful and radiant Rosetta Diggory.
Hanging out with the Slytherin elite, Tom had learned to look down on the Gryffindors, and he was well aware of the fact that they weren't fond of him either as Andrea Longbottom narrowed her eyes at him. Tom ignored her glare and took the Daily Prophet of the table to read it, showing the dirty blond girl that he wasn't impressed at all.
The girl huffed and dropped down next to Malfoy, who didn't even so much as looked up from her book to greet the others, while the other one, Septimus Weasley, plopped down on his fiancée's other side. This time, Lucinda did look up and she smiled at him, blushing a bit when Weasley kissed her cheek. The large, red haired male glared at Tom before restarting the argument with Longbottom, but in a much softer tone.
"I think we best start discussing the patrols before anyone else arrives and it becomes too busy in here," Lucretia told the others firmly.
The other Prefects all nodded in agreement and shuffled closer to the Head-Girl and to see what she was doing. Tom simply chose to ignore them and started planning along with his fellow Slytherin.
. . . . .
"He looks a lot different than I thought," Hermione told the others while they entered an empty compartment.
She was clearly talking about Tom Riddle, whom they just saw walking on the platform. Harry still looked upset, and Ron and Ginny were downright horrified. The twins both were scowling thoughtfully. Though never having gotten near Riddle when his diary had terrorized the school, they still remembered what the boy had done with their baby sister.
"Yeah, I never thought he'd look that normal!" the youngest Weasley boy mumbled.
"What did you think? That he had a snake face in school already?" Fred asked jokingly, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"… Kind of…"
"Don't be ridiculous, Ron!" Hermione laughed.
"All information pointed that Tom Riddle was a handsome and intelligent student. I just never expected he'd be this good-looking…"
"Great! Now my 'twin sister' has a crush on the enemy!" Ron cried dramatically.
"Aww! Is Ronikins jealous?" George teased.
"Jealous little 'sis' is falling in love?" Fred laughed, giving his younger brother a noogy.
"It's not funny!" Ginny growled.
"He tried to kill me in my first year!"
The others looked away guiltily and sat down, trying to find happier conversation topics. When nothing really came up, they just decided on silence. With a deep sigh, Hermione grabbed her schoolbook of potions and started reading. Sirius had been approached by one of the teachers before they all entered the train and was led towards the front, where the other professors were seated so he could be properly introduced to them as the new school's Caretaker. They had said their goodbyes and Sirius had promised to meet with them later that day.
Before long, the train reached Hogsmeade. The six time-traveling friends left the train in a nervous silence and walked up the platform, unsure of what to do. Fortunately, someone seemed to be waiting for them.
"Mr. Potter, Misters and Misses Weasley," an auburn bearded professor Dumbledore greeted them, his light blue eyes shining with delight and mischief.
"I am professor Dumbledore, deputy Headmaster and teacher in Transfiguration."
"A pleasure to meet you sir!" Hermione responded smiling.
"We heard some great things about you, and Hogwarts of course."
"Thank you very much Miss Weasley, but I do think we're best off now. We can't have the other students waiting for you lot, as I'm sure they all would love to meet their new classmates," professor Dumbledore said smiling.
The friends nodded and followed their old headmaster towards the carriages. Black, skeletal, bat-winged horses snorted and stomped their feet when they walked past, entering the very first of the coaches. Harry stopped, staring at the creatures in shock as he turned to look at the others. His three friends were looking at him with confused expressions while Dumbledore smiled sympathetically at him.
"I take it you have seen someone die before?" the auburn haired man asked softly.
Harry blinked in surprise and frowned.
"How'd you know?"
"The Thestrals can only be seen by those who have seen death, my dear boy."
Six pairs of eyes widened in shock and the other five looked at where Harry was watching, squinting to try and see what he was seeing. Harry scowled and lifted a hand, carefully allowing one of the scary looking horses to smell his hand before he petted it's nose.
"I suppose I'll have to give my condolences young man. Was it recent?"
"About two months ago, professor," Harry whispered.
"He was a good person, a schoolmate of ours."
"It must have been a horrible experience for you," the professor mumbled.
"It was," Harry agreed.
Ginny's hand came to rest on his shoulder and the redhead gave him her most comforting smile she could muster being a bit shaken up herself. It wasn't much, but Harry still smiled back, being grateful for his friend's support.
"I'll be fine Ginny, don't worry," he told her softly.
"I know," the youngest Weasley replied in a whisper.
After that, the group stayed completely silent during the ride, tense with nerves and saddened by past memories. Professor Dumbledore tried to ease their minds a little by explaining how the Sorting Ceremony worked. Harry couldn't help but give a slight smile when he remembered Ron telling him in first year that they would have to battle a troll. He couldn't believe how naïve they had been at the time for actually believing such nonsense.
"We're here," Dumbledore told them, giving them a reassuring smile before exiting first.
The twins Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione followed shortly after, looking up at the grand castle towering before them. The last time they had seen the magnificent building, they had grieved over the death of a very kind and brave student. Hermione took hold of Harry's left hand and he looked over to see her do the same with Ron on her other side. Ginny slipped her small hand into Harry's right around the same time and smiled at him. Fred and George both stood next to Ginny's other side, the closest of the two having put his hand on her shoulder. Harry's eyes met his friend's and with a determined nod, they entered the castle.
