Chapter 3

The gentle sun upon her cheek woke Claidi the next morning earlier than she had expected, but she didn't mind.

This way she could think as she packed the last few things into her trunk.

Who had that figure been? Would she meet him today?

Her hands slipped as she was putting the last of her socks away and she cut her finger in the edge of the trunk.

The gash on her finger was small, but beads of blood appearing on it told her it was deeper than it appeared.

Claidi watched the crimson liquid flow down her finger, almost fascinated by its movement and its contrast to her pale skin.

She came back to reality in a single heartbeat in which a slight bit more crimson coated her finger. Claidi needed a bandage.

She scrabbled clumsily around her room looking for anything to stem the flow, but found nothing.

Claidi stood up and pushed open her door determined to wake Mrs. Cole.

Upon entering the hallway, however, she came upon a barrier of trunks obviously generated by the figure down the hall.

She sighed.

It was going to be a long day.

She tied a sock around her finger and finished packing just as Mrs. Cole came to get her and load her into a cab.

Claidi remembered everything that Dumbledore had told her about Hogwarts and shivered as Mrs. Cole shut the door of the car.

The taxi sped along to Kings Cross station and she left it after thanking the driver in the parking lot.

Her journey was about to begin.

***

Claidi didn't have a clue where a girl such as her was to sit on a train such as this.

She was new, and she could already tell that people knew it.

They stared at her all the way down the train and she couldn't return any of their gazes.

This was probably one of the most frightening things she had ever done, save destroying that car, but that was out of anger. Never had she inflicted such discomfort upon her self willingly.

Pair after pair of eyes locked on her as she moved along the train hoping to find a seemingly nonexistent compartment to sit in.

Claidi turned around and around as she tried to find a pair that was friendly enough to speak to, but got no such luck. Most of the eyes were purely curious, hostile, or cold.

But one pair that stood out from all of the others was none of those things.

Curious, yes, but also intense in a fashion Claidi had never seen before.

The eyes were a smouldering grey-black that seemed to smother all thoughts inside, but were deep enough to show Claidi that there were very deep thoughts within them.

They were the saddest, most beautiful eyes she had ever seen and they almost cancelled out the rest of the face they belonged to, though they weren't overly protuberant.

They were set into a remarkably handsome face belonging to a boy of about sixteen. He had slightly wavy dark hair to match his eyes and was tall with the stature of a man.

Though all of the others in the hall shied away from him, Claidi felt an inexplicable draw to him, as if she knew him well and they had already met.

"Hello" he said, surprising her by making the first comment. His voice was velvety and at the perfect pitch. It matched his looks and tortured eyes perfectly.

It was almost as if Claidi had heard the voice…it was familiar…

"My name is Tom Riddle. I wonder what yours is and how you came to be here. Also, I wonder why you're not in your compartment with your friends as the train is about to leave."

Claidi didn't feel embarrassed or angry by his comments as she would have under any other circumstances.

"I do not have a place to sit Tom Riddle. Have you any suggestions?"

He smiled slightly, and Claidi felt her heart melt with that smile. It was just too perfect.

"If you wish, you could sit with me. Please follow."

Claidi hesitated, wondering if she really wanted to, but it seemed that she had no other choice.

She walked fluidly down the train's length as she followed Tom, earning a few admiring stares from the males on the train.

He stopped at a compartment whose door seemed to be of darker wood than the rest. A sign on it read "Prefects".

"Normally, only prefects would be allowed into this compartment, but you have nowhere else to sit and the other prefects are with their friends. I doubt that they would take offence to your presence."

Claidi nodded with a jerk of her head.

Tom opened the door and gestured for her to enter first.

She complied.

The two of them sat facing each other, their eyes locked. Claidi found herself unable to look away from those intensely dark eyes and began to speculate about his life story and what could have made him look so utterly pained.

He seemed to be analyzing her in a similar fashion as he penetrated her poisonous eyes.

They were silent for a full fifteen minutes before Claidi broke the trance with a yawn.

Tom smiled again, but his eyes seemed to could over as if he was retreating deeper into his own thoughts.

Claidi wanted to say something witty and intelligent that would pull his eyes out of the clouds to focus entirely upon her.

She wanted him to notice her like she had never wanted anything before.

The funny thing was that she had only just met him but she seemed as obsessed with him over the course of these few minutes as she should have from being in love with him for decades upon decades.

This was way too much. She should be sitting here waiting for Hogwarts to come into view by herself and not giving a thought to what some boy said, even if he did have tortured eyes and a handsome face.

Claidi turned her face away and surveyed the compartment rather than Tom.

The panelling on the walls was a dark wood that had a sheen to it, probably some sort of varnish…she didn't know what to make of it. The place smelled of parchment and ink, but another smell inhabited it that didn't seem permanent at all. It was the smell of pine and expensive cologne, of rain and morning dew, but all combined into one complicated scent.

It was the best thing Claidi had ever smelled, but it almost seemed inhuman, as if something so pure could only come from an other-worldly creature.

She looked back at Tom, only to find his dark eyes unclouded and fixed only upon her.

Claidi froze, acutely aware of every hair on his head, every movement of his chest as he inhaled and held his breath.

Her attention was trapped by him yet again, and it almost frustrated her.

"I seem to be bothering you, Tom Riddle. Shall I leave?" Claidi said when he did not speak.

"No! No, you needn't leave on my account. In fact, I'm still rather curious about you."

Claidi shrugged. It wasn't like she wanted to leave.

"What is it you wanted to ask exactly?"

"Well, let's start with your name since I don't know what to call you yet," said Tom, smiling slightly.

Claidi remained unsmiling. "I'm called Cladissa Newton, but please only call me Claidi. Cladissa is such a strange name, and, although Claidi isn't much different, it sounds less old fashioned and I actually like it."

Tom's smile was still in place. "Alright, Claidi. Have you always been here at Hogwarts, or are you here for the first time?"

She hesitated, wondering if this was a wise question to answer truthfully.

"What about you Tom? Do you always ask these questions of girls without friends?"

Tom's smile faded into a slight frown, but not an overly angry one.

"Why do you take interest in me, Tom?" Claidi asked, pushing for an answer.

"I don't know," he whispered, "I have no idea why I even looked your way, Claidi."

She should have felt insulted by his words, but for some reason, the way he spoke prevented her from feeling anger. It was almost as if he was saddened or troubled by his lack of understanding his attraction to her.

Claidi was desperate to bring this strange conversation back to normal subjects and feelings, so she resorted to desperate measures.

"How about this weather we're having?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

His sad eyes turned into unreadable orbs for a fraction of a second, then, miraculously, he laughed.

"I can see you aren't comfortable with that topic; shall we switch to something more suitable?"

Claidi rolled her eyes. The spell was broken.

"Why don't we just sit in silence? I think that would probably please you most."

"If you like," he replied.

She nodded and the two of them did indeed sit in silence for the rest of the train ride past neat green fields and gargantuan blue mountains.

Claidi was lost to the beauty she stared at out of the window, for with the silence crept the spell that had held her for the first segment of the trip.

Tom's every movement made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, his every breath made hers stop.

As the train ride finally ended, Tom stood up to open the compartment door for her and their arms brushed against one another.

An electric current seemed to run from his skin to hers though they were both clad in long-sleeved robes. Chills darted up and down her spine and her cheeks went suddenly rosy as her green eyes locked on his dark ones.

The two of them stood there for a full minute before they realized that the rest of the world was still real.

"I hope to see you again, Claidi. We had a very…pleasant train ride and you seem very intelligent. Are you in Slytherin?"

Claidi didn't know what to say in reply, but was spared having to answer by another, more familiar voice calling her name.

"Cladissa? Ah, there you are! I had hoped to catch you before you joined your…friend on the carriages. I need a word," said Dumbledore. He turned to Tom.

"Good evening, Tom. I see you've met Ms. Newton. She is a transfer from Bauxbatons, though her French is not very good. We will see you at the feast."

Claidi noticed with some puzzlement that his tone had turned clipped and rather cold. Though Tom clearly wasn't very popular with the students of Hogwarts, she had thought that teachers would appreciate his excellent vocabulary and manners…

Tom leaned close to her and whispered very close to her ear, "We will speak again, Claidi. I should like to acquaint myself with you further… maybe we could have lunch. I'll keep in contact in any case."

She felt her lungs contract rapidly as his hot breath touched her earlobe, for even being in close contact with him gave her a high that she could not get enough of.

"Off you go, Tom. The carriages are waiting for you," Dumbledore said sharply.

Tom nodded in his direction and gazed upon Claidi one last time.

"I will see you again, I hope. I've never met anyone who is so… unpredictable."

She nodded mutely and looked directly into those bottomless black eyes.

"We will meet again. I can feel it."

Dumbledore's eyes widened as he watched Claidi turn from Tom to enter the carriage.

She didn't even know where that had come from, but it was very odd… it had felt like she was prophesizing for a moment there…

She flung her blood red hair over her shoulder as she stepped up to sit with the headmaster.

Tom's eyes stayed locked on her the entire time that the carriage pulled away from Hogsmede station, his forehead wrinkled slightly in a frown.