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TURNING: Chapter 10

Tom Marvolo Riddle. He hadn't killed a person yet, the worst he'd done thus far was kill animals. No one would believe he did even that. I don't believe he had intentions of murder for his family though, not at this point in time.

I had spent my first week just observing everything in Slytherin. I tried to mimic their actions, and avoid my Gryffindor instincts. The house honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, yet the fact I was a pureblood masquerading as a Black might have made things far better for me.

There were people in Slytherin who didn't treat Riddle that great. The upperclassman. The ones who didn't look at the charming half-blooded boy as a threat. The ones who would probably be bowing at his feet in the coming years, I'm sure down the road as Dark Lord, he'd laugh to himself about how things turned down... but I was here to hopefully prevent this.
His robes were shabby and a little too big on him. You could tell where tares in the fabric had been restitched. His trainers were well worn, most likely magicked to stay together. Everything he had was like this though. His little group of peers seemed to look beyond this though; I was certain that they were already terrified of him. He'd probably given them reason not to tease him anymore. Any trouble from the upperclassman would probably slide, as he could play it off as the victim and see the professors deal with things.

I hated that I could almost relate to him. For the first time in my life, I wasn't wearing all second hand clothes, and using second hand books. I was an actress now, and playing the part of wizarding royalty. Too bad for me, the Black girls already obviously hated my guts.
Riddle was the one to keep an eye on me.

In my first week as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Walburga and Lucretia went out of their ways to make my life miserable. Lucretia wasn't as bad as Walburga though. Then again, maybe she had been the worse of the two. Walburga made her dislike for me obvious from the moment she heard who my 'father' was. Lucretia was sweet as can be when Walburga wasn't around, then absolutely horrible when paired up with her cousin.

It was the first Tuesday I had been a student, when Walburga tried to send a hex my way. I hadn't been paying much attention to my surroundings, and had luckily side stepped the blue sparks sent my way. I hadn't been as lucky with what Lucretia had done though. My hair went from red to a bright purple.

It was at that moment in time when I realized Riddle was pulling the strings of his little band of puppets. Latimer Nott and Cannan Avery seemed to come out of nowhere. Nott walked me to class, and tried to fix my hair color... that resulted in my hair changing to blue, which caused him to become rather flustered and apologetic.
I can't say exactly what Avery did, but the following day, there were no hexes sent my way. Though that morning I had been woken up at 5:15am, to freezing water being dropped on me by buckets charmed to refill themselves.

It amazed me that these two girls were two years my senior in this time period, yet they acted so immature. I couldn't help but smile at the thought that prejudice Walburga would end up blessing the world with one Sirius Black. Proof that there was justice in the world.

Lucretia on the other hand would mellow out in the coming years, marry a Prewett, and send lovely holiday cards to my mother, up until her death in 1992.

Albus Dumbledore knew how to manipulate. Looking through the tiny trunk, I realized that the man was probably even better at manipulation than any Slytherin could have been. The man had been meticulous with every document and item placed inside the little trunk. There were documents relating to me in one compartment in the trunk, that included pictures throughout a life I never lived. Then there were so many different things relating to Riddle. I probably knew more about the would-be Dark Lord right now, than he knew.

For example, he'd been born in the orphanage he currently resided at (he of course would be very aware of this fact), and that he wasn't truly an orphan (I don't think he knew that though). His father was very much alive and living it up in a big fancy manor, with his parents. Tom Riddle Sr., was really Thomas Riddle jr. His parents, Thomas Sr., and Mary Riddle currently owned more than half the property in the town of Little Hangleton. The Riddle's were pretty much the muggle versions of the Malfoy family, though Mary and Thomas Riddle were noted to be tad bit less horrible than their son (which I don't think could have been said for the Malfoy's I knew).

Diary Tom once told me that he hated his father, that the man walked out on his mother and him before he was even born, all because he'd discovered his wife was a witch. Dumbledore's notes on the other hand said otherwise. I summoned parchment, a quill, and some ink over to myself in my spot on my bed; then I started writing down notes.

I'd had to speak to Dumbledore right away, an idea was starting to brew in my head and it couldn't wait to be done. Unfortunately it was Saturday, and the other Slytherins would probably notice me going off to speak to their least favorite professor.

Minerva McGonagall, my former and future head of house, was currently a 5th year and a prefect. McGonagall was a little less strict in her youth, but just as fair as she'd be in the future. Despite being sorted into Slytherin, the prefect had gone out of her way to offer any help to me. My homesickness eased up a little bit at the kind gesture.
After the Chamber of Secrets incident, McGonagall had felt absolutely terrible about what had happened to me. Due to that, she'd looked out for me like a hawk all through my second year.

Currently I was walking down to the Great Hall with Minerva, listening to her go on about Quidditch. It was difficult for me to discus, as I did happen to know relevant events that had yet to happen, and wanted to correct some of the things she was saying. Of course at this point in time, everything she was explaining happened to be valid, so I just nodded along and smiled.

Unfortunately for me, or maybe it would be unfortunate for Walburga, but anyways. Walburga happened to notice me from down the hallway Minerva and I occupied. The brunette sent a Jelly-Legs Jinx my way. Walburga's aim happened to be a tad bit off, hitting Minerva. LeStrange just happened to be nearby at this moment as well, and I must confess, it was rather amusing to watch the dark haired, pale eyed Slytherin's eyes widen to the size of saucers. The scene almost played out in slow motion. He was probably there to prevent me from getting hexed in the first place, but was too late to prevent anything from happening.

Once said hex hit Minevra, Walburga stood frozen in place, seeming to realize that there were consequences from hexing a prefect. Sure, a Slytherin would have no problem with a hex hitting any other Gryffindor, but it went against some unwritten house policy to attack a prefect or head boy/girl for no reason.
Walburga took the opportunity to run, all the while Minerva started shouting and taking house points away. LeStrange was the one to preform the counter-jinx. He would also go on to lose a handful more of house points for Slytherin, after trying to bribe a prefect to 'forget about the situation'.

McGonagall left LeStrange and I, causing me to apologize for the stupidity of my 'cousin'. She'd accepted my apology, and then head off in the direction which we had just come from. She was going to have to report Walburga for the hex. Personally I didn't blame her, if anything, I was hoping this would keep the girl off my case for a while.
LeStrange 'guided' me the rest of the way to the Great Hall, then took a seat beside Riddle once we'd made it to our houses table. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the boys exchange a look. Then Riddle waved me over to the table, he then proceeded to point to the empty seat across from him at the table. No other person looked up at me, and I felt funny not taking the seat.

Tom Riddle had a very healthy appetite, that I couldn't help but notice. The plate in front of him reminded me of what Ron would be eating right now. Two chicken sandwiches, chips, carrots, and some stew.

"You know you could fill your plate up, right?" Riddle said, glancing up from the sandwich he was now holding. It was rather comical, he had it right in front of his mouth, had his mouth wide open to take a bite out, and just paused to inform me of the obvious.

"Of course." I replied, feeling pretty stupid.

He took a bite from his food.

I grabbed a ham sandwich, and piled my plate with mashed potatoes. One thing about Hogwarts that never changed was the delicious food.

LeStrange started to tell Riddle the story of what happened with Walburga and Minevra, which brought a very amused look to Tom's face.

"Walburga really does not like you." Riddle said shaking his head. "Just know that a few of us are trying to make sure you don't end up in the hospital wing, due to that girl."

LeStrange then added in "Every year she chooses a new person to terrorize. You can sort of feel, I dunno, flattered that she chose you."

I gave the two boys a flat look.

"I don't think flattery fits here, LeStrange." Riddle said with a chuckle.

"I just wish she'd quit it already. Orion and Cygnus don't seem to have any issues with me..." I said looking down at my untouched food.

In front of me Riddle and LeStrange glanced at each other.

"Lucretia doesn't even seem that bad when Walburga isn't around." I added.

Riddle nodded. "Well, for the time being, just be on guard. Don't trust anyone."

I wanted to choke on my pumpkin juice at that comment.

"Right now we're being pretty lenient on you, since you're new and all. But by next month, you'll have to learn everything it took us all three years to learn." LeStrange said.
Of course Slytherin house would be overly paranoid (and I guess, rightfully so).

This first week, I have had very little interaction with Riddle. At most it's during meals, and then he is nothing but the perfect polite boy from the diary. It's almost tempting to want to be his friend, but I know better. I just wish I knew why he was being so nice to me in the first place. Not everyone in our house is going out of their way to acknowledge my existence. It's just my four 'cousins', then Riddle and his little group of cronies. I don't think any of them would even bother getting to know me if not for him.

It's difficult to be around him. Every night I'm scared of drifting to sleep, only to end up back in the Chamber of Secrets with him mocking me. Threatening me.

But I can't help but wonder if this Tom is anything like that Tom. Did he become that twisted by his sixth year or was he always this way? I guess that's what I need to find out now. I'll have to get to know him better, this mission depends on it. Maybe Hermione would have been the better person for Dumbledore to send. At least she'd have gotten further into research and everything.

I sighed. I missed Hermione. I was wondering how things were going back in my time. Hermione had confided in me that Viktor Krum had asked her to be his date for the Yule Ball. I was both jealous and extremely happy for her, and wished I could see both Ronald and Harry's reactions on the night of the dance.
Another sigh escaped my lips as I rolled over in bed, and pulled a heavy green comforter over myself. The matching drapery around the four poster bed had already been let free for the night, and I was blanketed in complete darkness.

Had a bit of inspiration and wrote this chapter up in about two hours. I'm rereading the Potter books right now, so more inspiration will probably come from that. I feel so bad that I haven't updated since last year, I had 3 different versions of this chapter written up before this one. I just couldn't seem to get what I wanted done, but alas, I managed!
I can't wait to get a couple of more chapters into this, so the real fun can start!
:R-S: