It is almost unhealthy, the amount of attention Slytherin pays, in side-glances and whispers, to this lonely little boy. He makes almost no trouble, focuses on his studies, speaks only when spoken to, and watches with a bright innocence in his beautiful eyes – but despite having no real interactions or interesting quirks, the house knows that the boy is something different.
It is how they know when to fight and when to sneak back off into the shadows, the same way they can smell the invisible other on Tom Riddle. (It is not just because of his doubtful blood, though many pretend it is)
The other three houses, however, see nothing different about the boy, just a smart first-year without a pristine Slytherin bloodline who somehow stays out of the way of Slytherin prejudice. He is something of a novelty to the school population as a whole, and they all wonder what exactly is going on in that quiet mind of his.
Margot Droope, Ravenclaw first-year, stays at Hogwarts over spring holidays because her parents have decided to visit her godparents abroad and did not think her old enough to join them. Her best friend thinks it may be connected to the celebrations they will be attending, but even logic cannot console the forlorn girl. She decides to spend the break in the library, catching up on research she had begun in the winter on foreign wizards.
It is there she discovers Tom Riddle.
He is reading the book she was looking for, Gallic Wizardry in Recent History, and she cannot help but be annoyed at the coincidence. She is a rather quiet girl, always preferring to watch rather than speak, much more comfortable with a book than with a boy, and she cannot quite gather the courage to disturb the angelic Tom Riddle. It takes her almost an hour to convince herself to creep away.
She returns to the library earlier the next day, hoping perhaps to find him before he has begun to read and ask to borrow the book.
It sits on the table where she saw him, and he is nowhere to be found. A note rests on the front cover:
"I believe you would be most interested in Page 42, Margot."
It is not signed. She does not see Tom again until school starts a week later.