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Chapter Four: Spice Up Your Life
September 1, 1996
Tom approached the doors that led into the Great Hall. He took a breath and calmly arranged his face into a careless expression. He opened the doors and walked in.
As he expected, everyone turned to look at who was entering the Feast late. Tom strode over to the Ravenclaw table confidently and sat down next to some random girl. She had long, sleek black hair and smelled of Pumpernickel.
The girl looked at Tom and quickly flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Hi. I'm Cho Chang. I'm a 7th year. You are?" The girl's voice was very quiet and Tom didn't like the way the girl - Cho - looked him up and down like he was a Cauldron Cake.
"I'm Tom Slytherin, I'm a 7th year, as well, and I'm a transfer from Durmstrang." He kept his voice cold and hoped that would be enough information to calm her curiosity.
Apparently not. "Oh, we've never had a transfer before. Why did you leave Durmstrang?" Her voice had gotten slightly louder and a few other people looked in their direction. Tom sighed and thought, this is exhausting.
"I left Durmstrang because my parents died." He said it quite rudely and then turned and looked at the front of the room where the Sorting was taking place. The girl didn't bother him again during the Feast.
Tom paid little attention to the Sorting and the Feast. The only first year he recognized was the little girl from the train, Kitty. He frowned when she was Sorted into Gryffindor. She really did have the cheekbones of a pureblood. She would have done wonderfully in Slytherin.
When the Feast was finally over, Tom stood quickly. Cho stood up and looked at him. "I'll show you how to get to the Common Room. Hogwarts can be quite confusing for the first few days."
Tom scoffed internally, he knew where everything was. In fact, he probably knew more about Hogwarts than this dimwitted girl. However, he had to play dumb.
"Why, thank you, Ms. Chang. I'm so relieved to have someone be so kind to me," Tom could barely speak the words. Being civil is so much harder than being rude. The girl smiled brightly at him and grabbed his hand. Tom resisted cursing her.
She led him to the spiral staircase that led to Ravenclaw Tower. As they walked up the staircase, Cho kept talking, but Tom ignored her. After a minute they reached a solid door, with no knob or handle. The only object on the door was a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.
"Instead of a password, we have to answer a riddle to enter," Cho told him. She walked up to the door and knocked with the eagle three times. Then, a voice spoke- "What is it that's always coming but never arrives?"
Cho looked at Tom and said, "I have an idea, but I'd like to know what you think the answer is." She looked at him expectantly. Tom sighed again and thought through the riddle quickly.
"Tomorrow," he said.
Cho looked over to him, confused. "We have to give the answer today, Tom. Not tomorrow." Her voice was drowned out by the loud opening of the heavy door. Tom looked at her surprised face and smirked. He walked through the door and looked around the large, circular room. It seemed to be the complete opposite of the Slytherin Common Room. It was very airy, with large windows all around the room and a domed ceiling. The midnight blue carpet was a stark contrast to the silver tables and couches. There were bookshelves all along the wall, some overflowing with all sorts of different books.
Cho pointed to a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw and said, "The dorms are on either side of the statue. The boys' are on the left." Tom nodded and started walking toward them. It seemed like Cho wanted to say more, but Tom was already too far away for her to say anything.
September 2, 1996
The Great Hall seemed like an entirely different room from the Ravenclaw table. Everything was flipped, it seemed. Tom had received his schedule right after he sat down and it was very similar to his old one, except of course, for the new Professors. Also, there was a handwritten note at the bottom from a Professor Flitwick asking him if he was interested in joining the choir. He wasn't.
Tom's day passed quite simply. He had only had two of his classes that day and now he was in the library, trying to study. After all, even though he's a spy, he had to be top of his class.
Tom sat at a table, reading a book peacefully, when he heard the Granger girl speak, "How was your first day, Tom?"
He groaned inwardly, not wanting to speak to the chipmunk girl. However, he had to get on her good side, so he said, "It was alright, thank you. How was yours?" Apparently people don't ask her that often because she smiled and sat down.
Two hours later, she was finally done dissecting her day, second by second. Tom didn't know if his calm facade was still in place because listening to her talk for two hours was harder than anything he had ever had to do before.
"Oh!" said Hermione, "It's nearly dinner time. Would you like to eat with my friend and I tonight, Tom? They all loved you on the train yesterday." She looked at him hopefully.
Tom shrugged, "Sure, I wouldn't mind that." As long as you shut up, he thought.
They quickly gathered their things and began the walk to the Great Hall. She was quiet while they walked there, thankfully. As they walked to the Gryffindor table, Tom was able to spot Potter and his friends very easily due to the red-headed siblings. Hermione sat down next to Harry and motioned for Tom to sit next to her. And Kitty.
Kitty looked at Tom and said, "What are you doing here?" She definitely has what it takes to be a Slytherin, he thought.
"I'm eating. What are you doing?" The little Gryffindor had a large piece of parchment in front of her and was scribbling on it with a quill.
She looked at him like he was stupid. "I'm writing to my dad about my first day. He and Uncle Remy wanted to know everything." And with that, she kept writing.
All of a sudden, owls came rushing in. A letter was dropped in front of Harry, he gasped loudly, and said, "No." He handed the letter and a clipping from the Daily Prophet to Hermione.
"Peter Pettigrew Tortured to Death by Mystery Group"
The headline had everyone talking, they must've known him, Tom looked at the picture and realized the man had been the same one he saw Snape kill. He didn't read the rest of the clipping or the letter, he just handed it on to the ginger that was consuming food as if he'd never be fed again.
"Who is that?" He asked Hermione. Hermione shook her head and looked at Harry.
"He was a friend of my parents. They weren't super close friends anymore, but I assume my father wanted me to find out from him now, rather than Rita Skeeter tomorrow," He said the name with disgust. Potter shook his head and tucked the letter into his pocket.
"Well, don't be too down, Harry. We've got Fred and George's opening in Hogsmeade tomorrow," said the apparently starving ginger between huge chomps of food.
Harry nodded, "Yeah, but it's still sad, I mean, I've known this man my whole life." The group fell into a respectful silence as they picked at their food; Kitty was the first to talk.
"In other news, Tom over here is a klutz, did you know that he tripped on his way off the Hogwarts Express the other day?" Weasley snorted into his plate and it took everything Tom had in him to not make a rude comment to the boy.
Tom turned to the first year, "I only tripped to make myself seem less attractive than we all know I am. I just couldn't live with myself if I made another person pass out due to my handsomeness." He turned and winked at Hermione and he was satisfied to see a slight blush creep up her neck.
Harry cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable, "Anyway, Tom, if you want to come with us to the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes grand opening in Hogsmeade, I'm sure Fred and George would love to meet you. We managed to convince Minnie and Dumbledore to let us go down, even though it's not an official Hogsmeade day."
Ginny nodded at her boyfriend's invitation, "Yeah, and I'm sure mum and dad would be delighted to see that we've included another person into our circle. They're always pushing us to make new friends, 'broaden your horizons' they always say."
Tom was conflicted by the feelings he had at her statement, we're not friends, he thought, we'll never be friends.
A/N: Sorry for the shorter chapter but sometimes these things happen.
Haha, so anyway Peter is dead. We don't like him so we thought, "LETS KILL HIM". He was never given the chance to betray them so he was still friends with Harry's parents but since he was always the weak link of the Marauders we thought they probably wouldn't be close anymore. Fred & George were able to open their store because the Weasley's have a "bit" more money in this world than in the other one (this will be explained in Chapter 6) and because we like to think that James and Sirius would love to help them open a joke shop.
Illusion Idony: Thank you for your review! We're glad you're enjoying the story so far! We have about 42 chapters planned and it covers about two years.
To the Guest who asked why Hermione, Harry, and Ron are friends even though the troll thing never happened: we could explain it to you right now but that particular question will be answered in detail in Chapter 8. For now, we can tell you that it may not have been a troll but something did happen to bring them together. Thanks for the question!
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