"Expelliarmus! Could this be more boring?" Persephone Bourgoyne questioned with a huff as she addressed her childhood friend, Alphrad Black. "Next!" She called absently. Our heroine was currently on her second week of training. While she usually reveled at the thought of toying with others and showing off her gifts, she quickly became bored at combating her peers who were soon found to be woefully inferior.

"Oh, I don't know," Alphrad, more affectionately known by his childhood sweetheart as 'Alphie,' said in a casual tone, "it all depends on your perspective. I, for one, rather enjoy sending my dear, sweet brother frozen with that ever-endearing look of stupidity on his face. Stupefy! Next!"

"Ah, look! And here comes your dear sister. A little payback for tearing my dress, yes? Perhaps I'll put her in the state where she's the most enjoyable: invisible. Evanesco!" Persephone stated as she smiled once her sworn enemy vanished before her. "Next."

"That happened when you were six, dear. You're really going to have to learn to get over that. And you're forgiven for abusing her sister. Finite Incantatem. Next!"

"Stop with the act, please, Alphie. I'm in no mood for you false sense of chivalry. Furnunculus!" As her opponent ran away in tears at the boils that had just covered her body, Persephone adorned the famed Bourgoyne smirk.

"Well, aren't we particularly charming today? You know it'll take weeks for her to remove those boils. What has gotten into you, Seph?" Alphrad asked, turning his full attention to Persephone.

"Nothing. Pay attention or you'll be hexed." Persephone stated without removing her eyes from her opponent.

This answer, rather characteristically, was a lie. What was uncharacteristic about her words, however, was the source. While Persephone found no qualms with lying to get what she wanted, she almost always was honest with Alphrad, particularly when it came to her feelings. Her current disagreeable manner was caused by internal factors.

It had been nearly two weeks since her rather bizarre contact with Tom Riddle, or Voldemort, as he was known. This was hardly a promising development in her task.

Charged with a task that involved her bettering others and enslaving men, she was almost too eager to excel. And in the moment in the meeting room, she had. She had been so close to victory she could have tasted it. Yet since that day, the object of her mission had been aloof and standoffish, to put it lightly. She had been so certain she had captured his attention, yet he had not addressed her since save for a nod when she filled his cup. To someone who had so easily captured the hearts of men in the past, this was a great disappointment. She could not think of what she had done, and she could barely take the increasingly angry inquisitions her uncle had been eliciting since.

"Well, perhaps something to put a smile on your face, then?" Alphrad offered, knowing full well that if one pushed Persephone into confiding in you, you would only be pushing her away. "Densaugeo!" Alphrad called as his opponent's teeth enlarged to thrice their size. The spell had the desired effect, and Persephone began to laugh heartily.

"I'm never one to criticize theatrics, but why are you even doing this? We both know how you feel about this cause. I doubt you'll be going onto the battlefield anytime soon." Persephone stated as she again disarmed her opponent.

"I told you. I'm protecting you." Alphrad stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world as he too disarmed the person standing across from him.

"Ignoring your insulting and incorrect insinuation that I need protection," Persephone said in voice that reeked of defiance, "you never told me that."

"Yes, I did," Alphrad began, "on the day I told you I love you." He said as he turned toward Persephone, seconds before his current opponent, Abraxas Malfoy, yelled "Crucio!"

Alphrad immediately fell into the floor, seizing as if he had only moments of life left.

"ALPHRAD!" Screamed Persephone in horror as she flew down next to his pained corpse. It has previously been stated that Persephone, when afraid, quickly becomes angry. The same is even more pertinent to when she feels sadness. Here, she felt a mixture of both. Her normally calculating eyes were enveloped in the deepest shade of fury as she turned her head towards Malfoy. "Do you like pain? How about the most painful mode of death?" She asked as she shouted "Incedio", causing Malfoy to burst into flames in a horrific cry.

"Enough." Bellowed a calm voice from above as a former wall slowly evolved into a mirror with a singly figure behind it. Persephone, in her agitated state, could not hold in the gasp as she recognized Voldemort as the voice that had just spoken. The entire room immediately fell into bowing in unison. With a quick wave of Voldemort's wand, the flames that had engulfed Malfoy became extinguished, and Alphrad halted his wavering. "Now," he stated as he walked through the door. "What is the cause of this?"

"I was just doing as instructed when-" begun Malfoy until Voldemort silenced him with a single raised hand.

"I was not addressing you, Malfoy. I was speaking to Ms. Bourgoyne." He said maintaining a stance that resembled that of a statue, with his arms crossed behind his back and his gaze fixed upon Persephone.

"My Lord, Malfoy used the crucio curse on Alphrad." Persephone explained resolutely, her eyes searching his for the first time since their previous encounter.

"That much I saw. Continue, Ms. Bourgoyne."

"It's an unforgiveable curse, sir." Persephone stated as she began to furrow her brow in confusion.

"Ms. Bourgoyne, are you aware of my education and placement?" He asked calmly.

"Yes, sir. You graduated first in your class from Hogwarts." She answered, beginning to feel distress over the turn in conversation.

"Then what would make you presume I do not know what the unforgivable curses are?" He asked, his voice raising a simple octave.

"Forgive me, sir. I did not mean to insult your intelligence. I was just-"

"You were just undermining the whole point of this training. The purpose of this is to prepare you all for not only combat, but also for victory. Crucio is an imperative spell in overcoming one's enemies. Malfoy made use of this, as he also made use of Black's distraction by your conversation." He stated with the smallest hint of anger that would be evident only to those who had made an intense study of the man. At this, Malfoy began to smirk uncontrollably.

"Thank you, My Lor-" He began to speak, before being cut off once more by Voldemort.

"That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Malfoy." He said, his anger being redirected. "While I am aware you were brought up with the notion that you are the center of the universe, you must come to learn that you do, in fact, have superiors. One of which is Ms. Bourgoyne. Even in her altered state of mind she managed to perform a dangerous hex on you in a fit of loyalty that you have not shown to a soul."

"Yes, My Lord." Malfoy stated as his white cheeks were covered in the deepest shade of pink.

"Now, I think that's quite enough for the day. Go to your next posts." Voldemort finished as the room silently bowed and began to exit through the door.

While the other people began to leave Persephone remained, her gaze fixed on Voldemort. As he watched them leave, she watched him. Finally, the last person left and his gaze turned to hers.

After seconds of studying each other, Persephone, realizing with disappointment that he was not going to speak to her, broke the contest with a bow as she too began to exit the room.

She was stopped by a masculine hand on her wrist. She noted how strange it was that a hand so cold could cause the skin it touched to feel so hot.

"Careful not to show such emotion, Ms. Bourgoyne." Tom Riddle stated in a silently silky voice. "It makes you appear weak."

"Careful not to guess at emotions before you get to know your subject." Stated Persephone as she moved her wrist out of his hand. "It makes you wrong." She said as she began her course back to the door. As she reached it, she turned around once more, said "My lord," with a bow and exited.

Her exit left Tom Riddle alone in the room. His eyes regarded the door for a minute more before he turned around and shouted a spell at the opposite wall that was full of such force that it created a large hole in the wall. He breathed heavily for a moment before he became so silent that if he were not standing, one might suspect he was dead. Sliding his hand over his hair to put it back in its perfected calmness, he fixed the wall and left the room.

Tom Riddle demanded two things in life: answers and perfection. In his quest to discover perfection, he used any means necessary to find answers that would help him to his end goal. This led him to obsessively take on different missions that varied largely both in scope and difficulty. He had found a new mission in that room as he watched that Black boy stare adoringly at Persephone. His new mission was simple: discover Persephone's past. She had challenged him to gain more knowledge about the subject of his interest. So he would. And he would be sure to punish any imperfection that may exist in the answers he would undoubtedly find.