Danielle made her way back down to the Great Hall, meeting up with Dylan and Alyssa on the stairs leading up from the dungeons. Alyssa looked relieved as soon as she saw Danielle. "Clara!" she called. "Where were you?"
"Patrolling," Danielle answered calmly. "I woke up early."
"With Riddle?" Dylan asked curiously. "He was already gone when I got up."
"Yep," said Danielle as they walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherin table.
"Ooh!" Alyssa giggled. Danielle gave her a withering look.
"Alyssa," she began. "I do not, nor will I ever like Tom Riddle. He's a stuck-up, attention-seeking prat who sweet-talks everyone and manipulates people into getting his own way."
"What a colourful description," Alyssa said, grabbing an apple. "But methinks someone is jealous."
"J—I am not jealous!" Danielle said, perhaps a little bit too firmly because Alyssa gave her a knowing smile.
"Tell me, Clara, you pride yourself on being smart, don't you?" she asked. When Danielle didn't answer, she nodded. "Yes, you do. And when you realized you might have competition with Riddle, you immediately hated him. Which is completely understandable but irrational."
Danielle glowered at the tabletop instead of Alyssa. The thing that bothered her the most was that her new friend was right. Her hatred of Riddle was spawned by jealousy and the way all of the teachers loved him. She was so used to having teachers say that about her, that she was their best student. It was a great injury to Danielle's pride that someone might actually be more intelligent than her. Besides, everything about Riddle drew her in. She knew that she would begin to develop a pointless crush on him if he continued to act the way he did, and that was ridiculous. The last thing she should be doing was becoming infatuated with a boy who was old enough to be her grandfather. She needed to find something about him to dislike.
But I'll prove them all wrong, she thought suddenly. I'll prove I'm smarter than Riddle. He'll be in all my classes anyway—But that train of thought was interrupted when she remembered the ditzy girl she was playing. How would it seem if she played dumb and then got top marks in every class? That would certainly ring some alarm bells.
She just couldn't win, could she?
"Clara?" Dylan asked. "Are you going to eat that omelette or just glare at it?"
Snapping out of her reverie, Danielle grinned apologetically at him and pushed the plate away. "Sorry, Dylan. I'm just not hungry, I guess."
"Well, can I have it instead?" he asked, staring hungrily at it.
Danielle laughed. "Sure."
At that moment, dozens of owls came swooping down into the Great Hall with the post, circling around the room and locating their owners.
A large barn owl landed in front of Dylan. He untied a roll of paper from the bird's leg and gave it a small piece of toast before it took off again. Danielle saw the familiar insignia of the Daily Prophet as Dylan unfolded it.
"Ten more Muggles killed in Germany as Grindelwald gains power," Alyssa read over Dylan's shoulder. "That doesn't sound good."
Grindelwald? Danielle had only read about the legendary Dark wizard in textbooks…wasn't he supposed to be dead now? She frowned, then a look of realization dawned over her face as the answer came to her. Of course! Dumbledore didn't defeat him until 1945. There was a wizarding war as well as a Muggle war in the 1940's. She dimly recalled a History of Magic lesson in her fourth year…
"Miss Bailey," Professor Binns called out to the sleeping class, "What were the correlations between the wizarding war and the Muggle war in the early nineteen-forties?"
Danielle blinked sleepily as she struggled to remember what Binns had been teaching. "Er…many wizards believe that Grindelwald was behind Hitler and was using him as another device to kill Muggles and also…Grindelwald and his forces could safely kill many people and blame it on the Muggle war?"
"Correct, Miss Bailey," Binns said. Danielle breathed a sigh of relief and let her head slump back onto the desk.
"Now, with the knowledge that the magical world and the Muggle world were both in turmoil at the time, do you think wizards and Muggles found a way to help each other through this difficult time without realizing it? Was the demise of Hitler a key point in getting rid of Grindelwald? I want you to write a thirty-inch essay on this topic, due Thursday…"
The memory ended there, probably because Danielle had fallen asleep again. She blinked rapidly, trying to bring herself back to the present…or past.
"Clara?" Alyssa asked, snapping her fingers in front of her face. "Did you hear me? I asked if you were scared."
"Scared?" Danielle asked blankly. "Why would I be scared?"
"Because of Grindelwald," Alyssa said. "Aren't you afraid he's going to invade Britain? He's already started on the rest of Europe."
"Oh. Yeah, I guess," Danielle said. The truth was, Grindelwald would invade Britain and there would be a brief time of fighting. But that wouldn't be until June or July 1945, and Danielle would be long gone by then. Dumbledore would have the Time-Turner fixed in February at the very latest.
"I'm sorry!" Alyssa squealed, clapping her hands over her mouth. Danielle looked at her in confusion. "What?"
"You must have so many family and friends in Holland that are under Grindelwald's reign!" Alyssa said. "I'm so sorry for bringing it up!"
Danielle blinked. "It's okay. Most of my family is—er—already dead."
"I know but I'm still so—" Alyssa gave Danielle an awkward sideways hug.
"Stop it, Lyssa. You're making it worse." Dylan said out of the corner of his mouth.
"I am?" Alyssa asked, releasing Danielle. "But I was—"
Dylan rolled his eyes. "Never mind." He let his breath out in one long sigh.
"So, what class do we have first?" Danielle asked after a few seconds of silence.
"Transfiguration with Professor Dumbledore," Alyssa said at once. "Most of the Slytherins hate him, but I don't. He's really nice."
"And weird," Dylan muttered. "He says so many things that don't make sense. When you try to have a conversation with him, he just keeps on asking you things that don't even relate to the conversation, until you stomp away with ten more questions."
Danielle laughed.
"You know what? I heard he's queer," Alyssa said in a carrying whisper.
Danielle knew he was, but she kept her mouth shut as she glanced nervously up at the staff table. Dumbledore sat at the end, closest to the Slytherin table. He caught Danielle's eye and a smile appeared on his face. Danielle could imagine his light blue eyes twinkling. Blushing, she looked away, praying he hadn't heard their conversation.
"Yeah," Dylan was saying. "Alphard told me…"
They continued speculating, but Danielle wasn't listening. Her eyes were fixed on a tall, dark figure who had just entered the Great Hall.
Tom Riddle strode over to the Slytherin table and sat down between Abraxas Malfoy and Walburga Black. Danielle noticed how they shifted aside to make room for him, as though he had silently commanded them to.
Riddle said something in a low voice to Malfoy—Danielle could see his lips moving—and then turned his head and looked straight at her.
She sucked in a quick gasp of air and turned back to Alyssa and Dylan, pretending she was talking to them.
"You know, Professor Dumbledore was—is—in love with Grindelwald," she said, acting as if she was enraptured by their conversation.
Both Alyssa and Dylan gave her funny looks. "Um, Dumbledore and Grindelwald are enemies, Clara," Dylan said gently, as if talking to a small child. "They've been trying to kill each other for decades."
Danielle blinked. How on earth was she supposed to explain that they'd been best friends when they were younger? "Er, right. I just heard someone saying it in the hallway," she finished lamely.
"They must have had one too many bottles of Firewhisky," Alyssa said, shrugging, and then resumed her conversation with Dylan. Danielle felt her cheeks burn as she realized they had changed the subject long ago.
She cast a sideways glance down the Slytherin table, feeling her heart skip a beat as she realized Riddle was still staring at her. As she watched, he caught her eye again and a corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk.
Danielle hurriedly looked away again, inwardly smacking herself. She'd just been caught staring at him twice in a row! She would have to be more careful if she wanted to let his guard down. Now he probably thought she fancied him.
Ugh. Danielle stabbed at a sausage with her fork and shuddered. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Then she wondered who he was, really. Who had he become in the future? Why did his name sound so familiar?
Danielle racked her brains for the name Tom Riddle. But no; she couldn't think of anything. Maybe he had left the country, or just become another random wizard that her parents had mentioned. That was the most likely story.
Or…what if he had died long before she was born? That idea didn't seem so far off either. Danielle looked over at Alyssa and Dylan—what if they had died too? Or were they still living in 2011?
There were too many mysteries here. As she ate, Danielle made a pact to ask around once she got back to her own time to find out who these people became. Someone had to have heard of them. Maybe they were the grandparents, or even parents, of people she knew.
Maybe they became famous.
Who knew?
Half an hour later, Danielle was standing outside of the Transfiguration classroom with the rest of the fifth-year Slytherins, waiting for Dumbledore to arrive. Danielle had heard from many people, both in this time and the future, that he was an excellent teacher. From what she had seen of him, she didn't doubt that.
They had Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs. Danielle watched them cast furtive glances toward the Slytherins, as if they would hex them at any moment. This surprised Danielle, who was used to all the Houses getting along. Hmm. There seemed to be a lot of inter-House rivalry in this time. I wonder why? Danielle mused. There were so many questions she had, but unfortunately couldn't ask.
"Good morning, class," Professor Dumbledore said, striding up to the group of students. "I trust you all had a good summer?" He pointed his wand at the door to the classroom and it swung open.
There were murmurs of "Yes, Professor Dumbledore," from the Hufflepuffs. None of the Slytherins spoke.
Danielle followed Alyssa's bobbing red hair into the Transfiguration classroom, which looked almost exactly as it did in her time, right down to the strange symbols on the chalkboard and the animals hopping around in their cages.
She made to sit down beside Alyssa, but stopped when she saw Dylan had already claimed that seat. In fact, all of the Slytherins were sitting down beside someone…Alyssa and Dylan, Olive Hornby with Angela Greengrass, Walburga Black with Orion, and Abraxas Malfoy with Alphard Black. The Hufflepuffs were all sitting together, too.
A terrible suspicion was beginning to form in Danielle's mind. The only empty seat left in class happened to be right beside none other than…Tom Riddle.
"Ah, Miss Ashford," Dumbledore said thoughtfully as he swept up to the front of the class. "Why don't you have a seat next to Mr Riddle?"
"Yes, Professor," Danielle mumbled. The entire class stared at her as she walked up the aisle and collapsed into the chair next to Riddle's. He moved his books to make room for her, but Danielle didn't look at him.
Dumbledore began talking about what they would study for their O.W.L. year, but Danielle found it hard to concentrate. Beside her, Riddle was writing down everything Dumbledore was saying with long, elegant strokes. Out of the corner of her eye, Danielle watched his pale hand moving across the page. Something about it hypnotized her. It was almost as if she couldn't look away.
He has long fingers, she thought, almost like a pianist's. The blue veins stood out as he wrote.
For a split second, Danielle wondered what it would feel like if he were to stroke her face—
NO, NO! her mind screamed at her. Why were you thinking that?
Ashamed, Danielle slid down in her seat, finally tearing her eyes off of Riddle, but not soon enough to get a glimpse of his writing, which could have passed for calligraphy: it was sophisticated and perfect, like the rest of him. Well, I guess I'm not surprised. She grimaced, feeling her dislike of him rush back.
"Miss Ashford?" Dumbledore asked, and Danielle's eyes immediately snapped back to the front. "Yes, sir?"
"I asked if you think you could keep up with the O.W.L. work. Forgive me for asking, but have your parents taught you enough so that you can understand the curriculum this year?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at her.
Danielle was about to say yes, but then she remembered her façade. "Er—I'm not sure, sir. They tried to teach me fifth-year work last year, but I didn't feel like learning it." She shrugged.
Alyssa snorted from the row of desks beside her. Danielle shot her a warning glance.
If Dumbledore was surprised, he didn't show it. "All right. Then if you have any problems with the work, Miss Ashford, come to me or any of your other teachers. We'd be more than happy to assist you."
"Thank you, sir," Danielle said brightly.
Dumbledore nodded and turned back to the rest of the class. Danielle concentrated on his lecture for a while, but it was mostly about how the O.W.L's would be conducted and where they would be writing the exam and blah, blah, blah.
Danielle would probably have to sit through this lecture or something like it once she got back to her own time, so what was the point of listening anyway?
As soon as she thought that, she was immediately shocked at herself. Danielle Bailey, saying that listening to teachers wasn't important? She never would have believed it.
Had being in the past—albeit for only a day—changed her?
She sat up straight in her seat as she realized that yes, she had. In her own time, she never would have pretended to be a whiny brat, no matter what the reasons. She never would have purposely set spiders on anyone, no matter how much she hated them. And she would most definitely not manipulate people and pretend to be their friend. This didn't sound like her at all.
That's why the Sorting Hat put you in Slytherin, then, said a little voice in her head. Dumbledore was right. You are a different person here than in 2011.
But why? Had time-travel messed with her head? Did everyone who went back in time change?
She'd have to ask Dumbledore as soon as possible. Right after the lesson.
Cheered by this thought, Danielle grabbed her quill lying on the side of the desk and pulled the piece of parchment toward her. She would take notes, like Positively Perfect Prefect Riddle was doing, and prove she was just as capable as him of doing the work. Nobody would suspect anything if she decided to take notes.
Danielle's quill poised over the paper, and her eyes darted sideways to sneak a peek at what Riddle had written:
The first Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards was Pierre Bonaccord. His aptitude for Transfiguration was surprising to the head wizards. However, he never got to attend his very first meeting in France because of the Gobin Rebellions of Liechtenstein…
Stupid Riddle with his stupid faultless handwriting, Danielle thought mutinously as she copied down what he had written in her own chicken scrawl:
The first Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards was Pierre Bonaccord. His aptitude for Transfiguration was
Danielle stopped writing as she noticed Riddle was looking over at her paper. She felt her cheeks burn as Riddle's eyes scanned the words.
He looked up at her, arching one eyebrow. Danielle gave a tiny shrug.
Riddle's eyes burned into hers for one more second before he turned back to his paper, nonchalantly shielding it with his arm. This didn't escape the notice of Danielle, who let a smirk cross her face as she turned back to the front of the class.
The remainder of the lesson went by with only one more incident: when Dumbledore asked which member of the four founders had been skilled in Transfiguration.
"Godric Gryffindor," Danielle said without thinking. She realized her mistake too late, and nearly clapped her hands over her mouth.
Dumbledore smiled at her. "That is correct, Miss Ashford. Five points to Slytherin."
Danielle felt Riddle's intense gaze on her, but she didn't look at him. She would have to be more careful from then on—how on earth was she supposed to explain how she knew that?
When the bell rang, Danielle instantly bolted out of her seat before Riddle could even gather up his books. She hurried out of the classroom and strode as fast as she could across the Transfiguration courtyard without running, hoping Riddle wouldn't catch up to her. She knew exactly what he would ask.
Unfortunately, she'd forgotten all about her promise to ask Dumbledore about her apparent personality change. Oh well. She could always ask him tomorrow.
"Clara!" two voices called out from behind her. Danielle didn't react, but then when the voices yelled again she remembered her new name and turned around. Alyssa and Dylan were jogging towards her.
"Merlin, Clara, what made you run out so fast?" Dylan asked, running a hand through his hair. "It was like Riddle'd set you on fire or something."
Danielle smiled and shook her head. "He was giving me creepy glances all through class. I had to get away from him," she lied.
"Oh." Alyssa said as they began to walk again. "Well, that's unfortunate. You'll probably have to sit next to him for most or all of your classes. No one sits beside him, for some reason." She shrugged, as if this wasn't the most obvious thing in the world.
"Gee, I wonder why," Danielle said. Alyssa didn't seem to notice the sarcasm.
"We have Herbology next with the Gryffindors," Dylan said as they pushed open a door and entered the greenhouses.
"Hey, what classes are you taking?" Alyssa asked. "And how did you know the way here?"
Danielle cringed. "Er, I got here early yesterday and Dippet took me on a tour of the school. I have a photographic memory." That sounded really lame…
But Alyssa believed her. "I wish I was like that—I almost never showed up in classes first year, I always got lost."
"You still get lost sometimes," Dylan pointed out.
"True."
The rest of the fifth-year Slytherins began to file into the humid, muggy greenhouse. Riddle came in just before the bell rang. Danielle purposely avoided looking at him; she knew he was staring at her.
Luckily, the greenhouse didn't have desks to sit down at, so Danielle could squeeze in between Dylan and Alyssa without having to avoid awkward conversation.
About halfway through the lesson, when they were plucking Venomous Tentacula roots, Alyssa giggled manically in Danielle's ear. "Tom's looking at you," she whispered.
Danielle didn't take her eyes off of the plant. "That's nice," she mumbled.
"He's frowning. It looks like he's trying to read your mind or something." Alyssa's eyes darted furtively around the greenhouse.
Uh-oh. Danielle mustered all her powers of Occlumency and fought to build her mental barriers. Dumbledore had been right about Tom Riddle, she decided. He was not what he seemed.
She tried her hardest to keep her thoughts on her work while still keeping her mind closed. This was much more difficult than it sounded.
And then, to her horror, her head began to pound. Danielle kept her eyes on the table, but inside she was terrified. Her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook had said the surefire way to see if someone was trying to invade your mind was to see if you had a headache or not. If you do, and it feels like someone is stabbing your brain with a knife, then chances are someone is using Legilimency against you, the passage had said.
Well, it certainly felt like she was being stabbed. Remembering that eye contact was fundamental to Legilimency, Danielle now had even more reason not to look at Riddle. Perhaps he'd stop if she kept very still…
All of a sudden, the pain stopped and Danielle felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her. She stayed tense, though. It could be a trick. "Alyssa…" she said out of the corner of her mouth. "What is Riddle doing?"
There was a pause. "He's not looking at you anymore," Alyssa said. "He's doing his own work."
Danielle carefully let her guard down. She felt no foreign presence in her mind, so she assumed Riddle must have stopped using Legilimency.
Cautiously, her gaze flickered over to him. His head was down and he was bent over his plant. Danielle felt herself shaking as she tried to relax.
"You okay, Clara?" Dylan asked. "You look sick. Maybe you should go to the hospital wing."
"No, I'm fine," Danielle said, even though her hands were shaking.
Tom Riddle knew Legilimency. How was this possible? He'd said he lived at a Muggle orphanage, so how could they have possibly taught him?
Something about him unnerved her. Something about him unconsciously told Danielle to stay away from him.
She was sure of one thing now: whatever was going on with Tom Riddle was none of her business, and she had the sinking feeling that she was getting in way over her head.
"Clara…Clara…Clara Ashford!" The voice snapped Danielle back to attention and she looked up from her dinner. Alyssa was staring at her, looking rather annoyed.
"What is it?" Danielle asked.
"I've been calling your name for the past five minutes and you haven't even looked up! It was like you were in a trance or something!" Alyssa angrily tucked a strand of carroty hair behind her ear.
Danielle shook her head, trying to clear it. "Sorry. I was just thinking."
The day had gone by fairly quickly. Riddle, surprisingly, hadn't spoken to Danielle or used Legilimency on her again. Even though they'd had to sit beside each other in their other classes (except for Muggle Studies, which Riddle didn't take), he hadn't spoken to her. It was all very…strange.
"About what?" Alyssa was asking. Danielle lapsed out of her thoughts again and blinked at her.
"Erm…Prefect duty tonight." It was true. Danielle was trying to think of ways to get out of it and not have to face Riddle. So far, all she had was telling him she felt too weak to walk around.
Yeah, because that would really work.
"Why are you nervous?" Dylan asked quietly.
"I—I don't know. I don't trust Riddle. Something about him unnerves me," Danielle admitted.
Dylan looked at her thoughtfully. "I know. He's quiet and gets perfect grades; and he's also nice to everyone, even the Gryffindors and the Muggle-borns."
"He's a nice person!" Alyssa argued.
But Dylan shook his head. "No, Lyssa. I know what Clara means. There's something about Riddle that's just not quite…right. He's too nice, almost. Do you get my meaning?"
"No," said Alyssa, but Danielle agreed with Dylan. Alyssa was too blinded by her enormous crush on Riddle. She didn't see him clearly, just as the rest of the school didn't. Well, with the exception of Professor Dumbledore, perhaps.
"I'm scared of him," Danielle admitted, lacing her fingers together. "When I…when I was acting like that air-headed idiot, there were a few times when he just looked at me…and it seemed like he wanted to…to kill me." There was no other word for the dangerous flash in Riddle's eyes.
Alyssa scoffed. "You're just paranoid. Why would Tom want to kill you, or anybody? He's a gentleman!"
"Also," said Danielle, ignoring Alyssa, "When I first came here yesterday, Professor Dumbledore told me to be careful of Riddle. He said…Tom Riddle is not what he seems."
There was a shocked silence from her two friends. Dylan stared at Danielle. Even Alyssa wasn't arguing.
"Professor Dumbledore told you that?" Dylan asked. "That's weird. I mean, I know he doesn't seem to like Riddle as much as the other teachers, but…" He trailed off.
"He doesn't?" Danielle asked.
"No. It's bizarre," Alyssa said. "Even though Tom's never done anything to Dumbledore."
"Maybe Riddle did do something," Danielle mused. "And now Dumbledore doesn't trust him…"
"What could he have done, though?" Alyssa asked. Danielle could tell by her skeptical tone that she still didn't believe her.
Danielle shrugged. "I don't know." She sat up straighter. "But I'm going to find out."
