Tom Riddle Sr. takes one look at Ari and sends his son to his room without supper.
The boy grins in the silence of his room and strokes his snake's scales. He may have wanted to buy the serpent for his own sake, and for hers, but it is certainly an added bonus that he can irritate his father (safely) by the action.
"How much do you know about wizards, Ari?"
"Not much, master, although I do know that you are the only one I have met who could understand me when I speak."
He decides he likes the title his pet has given him. It reminds him of his father, but in a way that makes everything so much better – like his father gone, or never hurting him again, or apologizing to his mother and buying her an entire lemon cake.
His fingers find his wand, and the boy is amazed at how easily the magic flows through him now that he has a channeling agent for it – before, it had been a wash of energy, of power, flowing through him, ebbing and surging like the tide, and it had required such self-control to corral it into a desired effect.
He lights his room effortlessly, like sunshine, not candlelight, and pulls out one of his new books.
Tom will be up here for a while, so he might as well start to catch up on everything his mother did not tell him. He is glad she let him buy one or two (or seven) extra books at the shop, because otherwise the boy would have felt rather unprepared entering an entirely new world.
Visiting the alley earlier today had truly impressed upon the boy how different the Wizarding World would be.
"Magic Throughout History, a compendium by Quintus Mercer. To those who quest for knowledge, let it be known . . ."
Note: A History of Magic was written by Bathilda Bagshot and published in 1947 for the first time. Therefore, as Tom attends Hogwarts in 1937, he could not have used her book for History of Magic class.
~ TheAlabasterPhoenyx
Thank you for favoriting, following, and reviewing!