Over the next couple of days, Tom noticed the glances that Annabeth gave him. They seemed full of pain and confusion. He'd always look away, pretending that he never noticed her or anything about her. I'm done with caring and being concerned about people. I thought that Annabeth understood me, but she doesn't seem to understand that I only did this to find out what was bothering her to help her. Maybe I was wrong to use Veritaserum, but my motives were good! But it seems that if someone doesn't do something the 'traditional' or 'right' way, people hate him. Well, the end mostly justifies the means, especially since no one was hurt or harmed. But if she doesn't realize all of this and apologize for overreacting, then I don't see any reason to apologize to her for using Veritaserum. I don't need to apologize. With these thought running through his head, he ignored Annabeth easily. Now that he was alone in terms of actual friends, he decided to have some fun with flirting with some of the other girls in his classes. It will be interesting. Tom thought about techniques which he could use to portray himself as an innocent boy who had no idea of his intelligence and brilliance. He also thought about how he should look at girls who'd ogle at him and how he'd politely respond. He considered the way he'd smile. His smile would be a light smile with no teeth, a smile that would only reach halfway to his ears. Yet, the smile would ooze charm.

In Potions, when professor Slughorn asked a question, Tom hesitated for a moment before putting his hand up in the air. That hesitation was necessary to avoid seeming like a completely annoying know-it-all. If it seemed like he took a minute to consider the answer, his genius would seem more natural. When he put his hand up, he put it up calmly. He didn't race to try to put his hand up in the air as fast as he could for the same reasons as before. Tom also made sure that his arm was relaxed, bent a little, and in front of him a little instead of raising it up straight into the air and having his arm be perpendicular to his shoulders. That was to make sure that he didn't seem like an overeager little child dying for the professor's approval at his right answer, and to help him look more sophisticated.

"Yes, Tom, what do you think is the answer?" Professor Slughorn asked in a jolly tone.

"Root of asphodel, sir," Tom said in a quiet voice.

"Excellent Tom, ten points to Slytherin!" Tom smirked. That was part of his usual plan. It was what he had been doing since he came to Hogwarts, and there was nothing new about it. However, now he turned to a group of giggling girls at his right a couple of seats down. They were staring at him, and when he saw them, they giggled again. Inside, Tom was retching. They barely have brains the size of peas, and they would hardly be able to understand my intelligence, merely being impressed by it and my good looks. Yet, the hopeless girls still vie for my attention! On the outside, though, Tom smiled his charming smile and winked at them. He didn't look at any one girl in particular, though, so he was sure that the girls would start an argument about who he had smiled and winked at. Sure enough, the girls were whispering loudly amongst themselves about who Tom had looked at. Tom wasn't sure if the girls were even trying to be quiet.

"Girls, will you quiet down or will I have to put you in detention?" Professor Slughorn boomed. The girls seemed to sober up a little. Tom smirked, applauding himself silently at his performance. Then, he heard coughing from beside him. He looked to the left a little. Annabeth was quietly coughing. She was attempting to cover up what seemed to be laughter with a cough, but her smile gave her away, for people usually didn't smile while coughing. Tom rolled his eyes.

Later, he was talking to his Slytherin 'friends'. It was amusing to see them practically worship him, simply because he was the Heir of Salazar Slytherin. It was ironic because he was sure that he was a half-blood.

"What's the point of being nice to the mudbloods?" Abraxas inquired. "We make exceptions and let the mudbloods into our world, but we have to hide from the Muggles!"

"Well, see, I want to change that when I grow up. I want to become Minister of Magic when I grow up, because we need somebody competent for that position, and we haven't had someone competent for a while. I mean, I guess they have the right idea letting muggleborns into our world, because if we keep up the pureblood thing, eventually we'll start inbreeding, and that has diasterous effects," Tom said confidently. He had no doubt that the other Slytherins would believe him, and a perfect example of diasterous inbreeding, though he wouldn't ever admit it to anyone but Annabeth, who already knew, was his own family. The noble line of Salazar Slytherin had been nearly destroyed because of his and his descendants' extreme pureblood mania. Besides, Annabeth was right about one thing. Purebloods may have had wizard ancestors the whole way through, but even those ancestors eventually just had to have been born with the trait randomly. After all, if not everyone has magic today, Tom reasoned, then only a select few must have had magic in the olden days. If those wizards had all insisted on pureblood breeding, then there wouldn't be many wizards today. So muggleborns were just as good as the 'pureblood ancestors', since they're both born with magical ability. Also, if any magical person isn't trained in magic, the magic could explode out at random times, eventually driving a person mad. Since there were a lot more muggleborns and halfbloods, he supposed that that would be harmful to society in general, so he couldn't let pureblood mania take over. However, he did believe that wizards and witches shouldn't have to hide from Muggles. After all, a good witch or wizard would help society in general, but a bad Muggle with weapons like guns and knives could be pretty dangerous. Not to mention that Muggles had bombs, which meant that one single Muggle could do more damage than a wizard could.

"Earth to Tom!" Abraxas nearly yelled.

"Sorry Abraxas. I was just considering my opinion on your views after thinking things through. I believe that you are right in the fact that we shouldn't have to hide from Muggles. Our powers aren't necessarily bad, they're just dangerous in the wrong hands. Besides, bad Muggles could be that dangerous. While pretty much every Muggle I have met has seemed too worthless to deserve to know about our world, the way muggleborns talk about their parents, it seems like they are understanding, so I suppose that they are not all bad. Also, we shouldn't have to worry about Muggles bothering us to ask for magical solutions to their problems. Wizards and witches can just refuse, and if the Muggles get bothersome, then Muggle-repelling wards can be placed. So that's where I stand on this issue."

"But muggleborns can't be truly magical like us purebloods!" A boy named Avery interjected. Tom rolled his eyes at the boy's stupidity.

"Are they at Hogwarts?" The boy nodded. "That means that they had enough magic to be detected. Are they utterly failing their classes?" The boy shook his head, nervous at the tone of the Heir. "So they're competent at magic. Some are probably more competent than you, and aren't you pureblood?" Avery looked shocked.

"School, schmool," he muttered. "I can do real magic."

"Oh yeah?" Tom retorted. "Like what? What's real magic? As far as I know, magic is wandwork and making potions. Both are taught at this school. I've seen you do both, Avery, and let me tell you that by your standards of measuring magical ability, you'd be more Muggle than some of the Muggleborns." Tom said all of this in such a tone that none of the Slytherins tried to deny it. They supposed that, if they were out by themselves in the real world, they wouldn't be very competent at magic. It was a good thing that a lot of them had their family fortune and could one day hire other wizards to do magic like make wards and things like that. However, they did understand some of what Tom was saying, but whether it was because Tom was already a good orator or because he was the Heir of Slytherin was not clear. Tom knew though that later, like in a year or so, when he was sure of what he wanted to accomplish and how, he would need to get followers who would support him. Britain did have a democracy, and Tom knew that he'd have to start the work of persuasion soon if he wanted to succeed as a politician.

Later that day, Tom ran into a familiar person. This person had messy black hair, bright blue eyes which were framed in glasses, and robes with a red and gold Gryffindor patch. It was Edward Potter.

"Tom, can you come with me?" Edward asked.

"What do you want with him you stupid Gryffindork?" one of the Slytherins demanded. Tom was sure that his speech earlier had prevented the boy from adding 'blood-traitor.'

"It's okay. I think that I can deal with him," Tom said, sneering slightly at the end. "What do you want Potter?" Edward looked a little offended. After all, they had spent the summer together, and Edward was surprised at Tom's bitterness.

"Look, Annabeth's been really offended that you are angry with her. She realizes that she was wrong to overreact, and she wants to talk to you."

"Why? How am I supposed to know that if she won't talk to me?" Tom replied.

"Well, you ignore her every time she even looks at you, so she won't be encouraged to even try!" Edward replied hotly.

"Whatever happened to the Gryffindors' courage?" Tom mocked. The other Slytherins behind him laughed. "She's so courageous, not having the guts to talk to me and sending you to do the talking for her."

"Well, I know exactly what happened, and I think that you were wrong. It's a wonder that Annabeth is willing to apologize."

"I believe that I was right, so if Annabeth is sorry, she'll have to come talk to me. Is that all you have to say? Well, you can leave now." Tom said coldly.

"You git," Edward muttered before walking off. Later that day, Tom saw Annabeth staring at him. He turned towards her, and saw pain and guilt in her eyes. But then, her expression changed. Her eyes also had stubbornness in them. She turned to Edward, and she, Edward, and his friends were in a huddle whispering about something. What is she being stubborn about?