Hello again! I am writing this on the same day that I published Chapter 9, so let's see if I can get this out on the same day or if it's going to keep me up all night. Alina Rosier being annoyingly good at everything simply because she tries hard. That is the big difference between her and her brother. He does not need to try to be good at a subject. He just strolls into lessons already seeming to know everything. Regis is one of those annoying people who does no revision before an exam and still does the best in the class. It is Alina's conditioned determination to perform to the best of her ability which makes her shine above most of the first-years. While all the other students are giving up or falling asleep, Alina is making the most out of her education already. I truly admire that, myself being a little more like Regis (though I'd never say that I have ever been the best in my class. I just manage to do well despite chronic laziness. Honestly, I think it is a serious medical condition!).
The usual disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe. No matter how much I would love to be her, I really don't see that happening any time soon. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
By the time the final lesson had ended, the potions classroom felt like a furnace. The children all had their cauldrons on and the fires that made the potions bubble heated the room up so slowly that no one had noticed. It wasn't until they were met with the cold air of the dungeons outside that they realised how hard it had been to breathe with all the condensation. Alina had taken her initiative, starting to clear her things just before the end of the lesson. She had given herself enough time to pack up and be entirely sure that there was not a single drop of potion left in her cauldron while also ensuring that she was not left with Slughorn in order to exacerbate the Gryffindor students' already poor image of her. She did not want to be seen as a teacher's pet on her first day of lessons. Nor did she particularly want to have to deal with Slughorn's greedy, excited stare any longer. As much as she enjoyed the praise, she could not help but feel like the professor was trying to recruit her into some weird club or cult with the way he looked at her.
Plus, she had somewhere to be. She remembered she had promised Tom to accompany him on his search for the library and she wanted him to be happy with his finds long before dinner so that she would not be late to eat like this morning. She checked her watch. It was four o' clock, which meant that they had two whole hours before they were expected to be back in the Great Hall. She was among the first of the students to file out of the classroom. Moving quickly and quietly, she passed as many of the first years as possible and ran up the stairs to the Entrance Hall where she had promised to meet Tom. The students around jostled each other, all walking in entirely different directions, laughing and joking about the lessons they had had that day. The Entrance Hall was alive with hubbub and splashes of colour. She could see an array of different tie colours along with the occasional glint of a prefect's badge. Cloaks were flapping as students made their way up the stairs or opened the doors to the Entrance Courtyard, being caught by the blowing wind outside. There was a certain happiness to be in school which had not been present in the muggle schooling system. Every one of her non-magical friends could not wait for the summer holidays and dreaded the starting of term. Here, everyone seemed to be having fun. There was a sense that everyone was returning home after a short hiatus or a quick vacation.
Tom had not arrived yet. Alina made her way through the river of Hogwarts students to the Grand Staircase and sat on the far left of the fifth step up. If there was any chance of seeing Tom in this maze, it would be from above. However, she found herself being pushed further and further to the right, her shoulder up against the cold stone, as students tried to make their way past her on their way to some other section of the castle. A gaggle of children pushed their way into the Great Hall, a chess board under one arm and a small felt bag of pieces under another. That must be the chess club, she thought. I wonder where my brother is? He loves chess.
Then, she felt a tap on the shoulder. Turning around, she saw Tom Riddle leaning lazily against the walls, looking so bored that he might take a nap propped up like that by the stone. Tom was very quickly perfecting the trademark stance of a privileged member of Slytherin, and Alina couldn't help but picture her brother standing there in the same position. Nevertheless, he smiled warmly at her and offered her a hand, which she accepted quickly, blushing for no reason as he towered over her. She pulled herself up and then dusted off the back of her skirt.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked, grinning at her new friend. She turned to face the hundreds of flights of steps, walking up the first slowly and with caution. As of yet, she was not particularly keen on the whole moving thing.
"Yeah. One of the third-years said it is on the first floor. Let's go and see." Tom passed Alina swiftly, leading the way. He had even mastered the bored voice to match the expression and the posture. He could have fooled anyone into thinking he was a member of one of the most ancient families known to the wizarding world. Alina wondered how much studying Tom had done of her own siblings. His current attitude fit in with them perfectly. Maybe Slytherin wasn't the perfect house for her after all.
The library was easy enough to find. It was large and open and contained what must have been thousands of books. Alina could not help a squeal of delight as she rushed over to the nearest shelf and started pulling out random books. She was rewarded with a tut from the librarian, to which she smiled apologetically. I'm just annoying everyone. I really need to calm down, she thought.
Tom, on the other hand, had made his way to the back of the first room of books and was peering past a set of black gates which guarded another library section. Inside, he could hear some of the books moaning. He just had to get inside and discover what the books were doing. They sounded as if they were in pain or deeply upset. There was something about the noise which drew him towards it. He pushed hard, allowing the gates to swing open with a loud creak, and made his way inside.
The librarian rushed forward, placing a hand on Tom's upper arm and guiding him back towards the main section of the library. He was brought immediately back to reality. For a split second, shock danced across his face until he managed to regain the bored expression.
"That is the restricted section," she explained. "Only students who have expressed written permission from one of the professors are allowed in there. I highly doubt that a first-year has that?" Tom shrugged and shook his head. There was no reason to fight with this librarian when there were so many other books to read in the main section.
"I'm sorry. Could you help me please? I would like to find out about the history of the school. Do you have any recommendations?" Tom smiled at the ageing woman, who smiled back in spite of herself. She guided him to a bookshelf three rows down from Alina in which there was a whole section dedicated to Hogwarts. Immediately he found a book titled Making the Castle: The Story of the Founders of Hogwarts. Bringing it to a large table nearer the centre of the library, he sat down and studied the index.
Alina discovered Tom's table after a few minutes of searching for him. She hobbled over, laden with four heavy volumes of dusty old books, dumping them on the table opposite to Tom and reading with much excitement on the art of wandwork. The book contained detailed descriptions of different wand movements and explanations on how to successfully move one's wand when doing basic spells. Within a few minutes, Alina had pulled out her own wand and was practicing different movements, gradually appearing neater and more controlled. She found it unbelievable that such minute movements can make a huge difference, slowly understanding what it was that made her first attempts in Transfiguration so disastrous.
Tom, on the other hand, did not seem to notice Alina's presence at all. He was deeply engrossed in a passage detailing the life of Salazar Slytherin. The more he read, the more excited he became. Much like Tom, Slytherin seemed to have much control over his own abilities from a very young age, being able to perform simple magic even before he had bought a wand of his own. Slytherin too could speak to snakes and get them to do his bidding. What he found most interesting was that it also took Slytherin some time to understand how wands were to be used, having been so used to his own brand of wandless magic. Alina was right. The Slytherin family were in fact the only known people who possessed the ability to speak to snakes, which raised Tom's hopes greatly. As Alina had said, Slytherin did have an issue with the idea of teaching muggle-born students, regularly using the phrase "mudblood".
So being from non-magical parents is a bad thing! Tom felt a sudden rush of clarity. It was if someone had shed light upon his whole life. He had not seen a single muggle-born Slytherin since he had been at Hogwarts – and he had been listening very carefully to people's conversations. There was no way that he was the only one in the whole of Slytherin who was a muggle-born. Salazar Slytherin did not like them, believing that they did not deserve their magic, even arguing that they stole the magic instead of being gifted with it. Tom remembered learning about the witch hunts at school. If that is the way muggles always treated witches, there was a very clear reason as to why the children at his orphanage disliked him so much. They saw that he was different from them. That he was better. Their jealousy caused them to lash out on him and make him an outcast all his life. The muggles had always been programmed to treat wizards badly, no matter how innocent they were.
However, he remembered the muggle-born girl from the night before. There was no way she was evil. There was no way that she had stolen her magic from any unsuspecting witch or wizard. She did not look smart enough to do that. One thing was certain, though: she was inferior in comparison to the other children in Slytherin. They were proud and smart and articulate. They looked nicer. Their teeth were in the right places. There was something about being a proper wizard which made them more appealing than the muggle-borns. The muggles who ran the orphanage had always been pleasant enough to him. He could not hate muggles. They were not all bad… were they?
That he did not know. One thing was for certain, though: there was no way that he was a muggle-born.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I don't know why but I found this one extremely difficult to write, strangely. Please review! I'll love you forever!
Thank you,
AndThatsShannii x