Suddenly,a searing pain shot through her head. Madonnalooked at Riddle who stood with his dark gaze frozen on her, below the stone archway of the gloomy common room inside Hogwarts castle.

''Why have you fixed your grave orbs on me?" the girl asked."What areyou doing? Have you lost your mind?"

In a span of two seconds, Tom Riddle's mood seemed to have swung dramatically. His eyes unglazed, and suddenly the pain in Madonna's head left. With a flick of his long robe, the boy turned and left without a word to the surprised girl. Madonna stood like a statue as she listened to his footsteps recede down making echo-y down the hall. 'What the heck just happened?'

She has studied that legilimency is practised to see through people's minds, but could Tom be skilled in that fieldat this minor age... butwhat did he want to know from her? She had observed Riddle, him always sitting solely and examining everyone around him. Maybe he wasn't a skilled legilimens,but he was learning it. And Madonna was his test subject.

Madonna went inside the library to study forher upcoming Year End Exams. As she was passing by the corner of a shelf, her eyes suddenly went to a book titled The Prophets of the Magical World.An unknown curiosity suddenly built inside her, she stopped there and opened the book, briskly her gaze went on the name of Jacob Phillipsaddressed on it. It was addressed in the book that Jacob was one of the most famous magicians of his generation and so was his wife, Isabella Phillips.

As Madonna went through the book she had a sudden feeling that she could somehow connect the title of 'Phillips' with her, but she was born from a muggle family and there weren't any relationships between them. And how could such a great wizard ever know her family? As she started reading the book she became more inquisitive and revelled in it. After reading the book keenly as if it was a part of her entity, she found out that Jacob and his wife were suddenly attacked by theirmost infamous and terrible adversaries and were forced to go inhiding to a secluded place, but no one had ever heard fromthem after that.

Madonna didn't understand what made her feel so attached with this book, but she felt some dark secrets were keeping her connected to them. She wanted to get further information about Jacob Phillips and his wife. Suddenly the huge bell started ringing from the clock tower courtyard, signalling mealtime, disrupting her thoughts. It was time to go to the Great Hall. The thought reappeared into her mind that she had to prepare for her upcoming exams really hard. She too remembered that she had promised Henry to meet him in the Great Hall.

Till now she used to sit alone with Sophia Myrtle in the hall, aside from all other Slytherins. But today she went to the Gryffindor's row and sat beside Henry which was not liked the Slytherins at all, especially by all the Slytherin prefects. But Madonna warmly came and sat beside him and the two started conversations cheerfully with each other. Madonna's mood was brightened up while talking with Henry and listening to his humorous jokes. Henry succeeded in making her happier, in just a five minutes talk, but once she caught sight of Riddle in the corner or her eye, the jokes were up.

Riddle was staring at them with the same stony look in his eyes as he did when he was alone in common room with Madonna. She has noticed that Riddle didn't show any interest in talking to anyone but he was observingeach and everyone very carefully. This was the weirdest thing she found in Riddle: that he didn't communicate with anyone but he observed everyone very carefully from the far, and that he wanted to learn something about a person without letting them know that he wanted to know.

Three more days passed and it was the time for their Year End Exams. Both Madonna and Riddle tried their best to score excellent marks in the exams. Both of them worked extremely hard for it. They both expected to get highest marks in the exams, and after the exams were over Madonna got some leisure, she also made time to chat with Henry for a bit as he was the only person to appraise all her feelings.

Finally, it was the time for their results. So who's the one who has topped the exams? Would it beRiddle or that strange girl Madonna every student wondered about?Madonna wasexcited about her results but Tom didn't seem to be excited about anything. Riddle and Madonna both got their results and both of them were satisfied with what they got. But Professor Slughorn enthusiastically announced the topper of the exams in this year, despite the student's unspoken plead. Both Madonna and Riddle became silent for a moment and the teacher finally announced: "Oh very well done, Riddle, my boy you have topped the exams!In second came Miss Phillips... Well done all of you!"

Madonna was not happy to hear Slughorn's comment, despite herworking sohard. She failed to beat Riddle in the exams. She thought that she should work harder this time to beat him.

It was finally the end of this year at Hogwarts. Only one week was left for their vacations. She was feeling a bit sad to leave Hogwarts but she noticed one thing that Riddle's face was becoming paler as the days were arising for the students to go to their home. She wondered why was Riddle so annoyed to go to his own house. She thought of asking Dumbledore something about him as she knew that Dumbledore also found Riddle as strange as she found him. And the truth that Madonna learned really shocked her. The reason behind Riddle's such strange and rude behaviour was that he was an orphan and brought up in a muggle orphanage where he isn't respected by anyone. Madonna partially felt the pain of being orphan although she was with her so-called father. She realized that she had mistaken for speaking harshly with Riddle for his unpleasant behaviour after knowing the condition he is going through. She thought she should do something to cheer up his mind or make him happy in order to apologize to Riddle for all the past incidents