Hiii welcome back to another segment of my blithering onto here. I hope each and everyone of you is well and as usual my inbox is very open for all! You can also hit me up on tumblr or twitter, details for which are in my bio!

Reviews:

Guest - True, Tom might still be looking for the exact location and way to open the CoS and looking at his research, there's more on his mind.

AlexisDumbee - OMG thank you so much for saying that hehe. Also, whose to say she hasn't already? 'wink wonk'

Liam1094 - Maybe, maybe not...I do plan to give a lot more limelight to these characters though. It always struck me weird that one of Tom's very first victims who probably knew him at school were treated as comic relief or just tossed aside until needed. I was hoping there would something in the forest scene when Harry goes to die by Voldemort. Like Tom had to remember who Hagrid was...that scene was such a waste. In the scenario I pictured, (in canon) there would be a chat about regrets on Hagrid's part for being so vulnerable to Riddle (this boy knew he had a giant spider in the castle, did Hagrid never notice he was being followed?) This is the reason why I made Hagrid so fearful of Riddle in this story from the get-go.

Nicole1024 - Here's the update! Do let me know what you think!

TOM'S POV

November was harsh with rain and steadily dropping temperatures. Despite this, the first week was wrought with Quidditch matches that brought forth mud splatters and chilled spines that had nothing to do with the cold.

Tom Riddle had never had much patience with getting dirty needlessly. For sure, he wasn't afraid of getting his hands messy when the occasion called for it - he could just never fathom why it would have to be upon a broomstick, chasing after balls.

He hadn't understood it in his childhood either, sitting to one side as he watched the rest of the orphans play football. He must have tried to join - as a silly child - but must have soon discovered the inanity of it.

It was the same case here. It made no sense to be playing high up, with rains lashing at you to try and score points that brought nothing but a very sheer illusion of glory to a house.

And no matter how ridiculous, the same sentiment ran in the Slytherins as well.

However, in spite of the cold, the meaninglessness of it, Tom found himself quietly leading his Knights down to the stands. They wished to see the match, they wished to see their friend Malfoy on his bought position and broom. Tom was a generous leader - he could accept that.

This wasn't the time when he needed to cinch the leash too tight, after all.

Up on the stands, barely able to sight anything that moved farther than half a mile in front of them - the din was excruciatingly maddening.

The students could hardly see in front of them, what were they screaming for? He wondered, mask on to hide the curl of his lip. He could've been in the library, researching more important topics that would help him with his goals.

Though he understood the value of his time and his access to the Hogwarts library, he would have to show up sometime - lest Dumbledore ask him why he was absent, or worse, if Rose Revel began to ask questions.

She was here, of course. Her friend Lila Macmillan was on the team - a chaser, though Tom could swear she was invisible to the passionately screaming girl. The other one, Fawley was a reserve and what purpose that served, he could never point out.

For all Tom's understanding of why it was necessary for him to keep up appearances, the one thing that he couldn't understand was why he had to endure the constant grinding on his nerves that accompanied Revel's voice. She was standing to the front of the stand, Alphard Black and Eileen Prince to the sides of her, and yet, even through the intangible noise that his peers made, her voice was most noticeable - the most infuriating. He found these days her voice even more unpleasant than Olive Hornby's and that was a feat he respected her for. He would have never thought that possible.

Tom sighed, thinking back to earlier in the week after Halloween. In the library again, making good use of his time during his breaks and then the calm concentration he had woven around him broke when he heard Revel and her friends.

He had cursed, wondering if he had time to cast a disillusionment charm on himself. He didn't, with Lila turning the corner, followed by Revel and Fawley and then Black.

Tom leaned back into the chair, boredly watching them and musing as to how Revel managed to make friends within Slytherin so easily.

She was a half-blood, after all - in a house that prided being exclusive to pure bloods. It wasn't true, of course. There were half-bloods and…Tom sneered - muggle born within the house, but they were treated as well as one could imagine.

He was one too, and though he knew his blood was possibly the purest of them all, his name was enough for them to look at him without the respect they did now.

He had proved them wrong.

But she wasn't like him. There was no power, no imbalance…no intimidation in her friendships. He couldn't really blame Macmillan and Fawley, of course. Their families were intermingled within the four houses for generations…they were blood traitors.

And it seemed Alphard was well on his way to becoming one as well. His relatives definitely seemed to think so. But then Alphard was friendly to everyone. He had even been nice to Riddle before…

Was it luck, then, that had led to Revel being accepted within their ranks? Luck, that led to Revel meeting the 'nicest' of the bunch?

He had heard Walburga Black and Druella Rosier talk of her and they weren't very impressive or charming retellings of her.

He couldn't remember the girl he had met in the orphanage and compared her to the one he knew in Hogwarts.

So, even though her friendships were of no consequence to him - he considered himself intrigued by the ease of it.

When he felt her eye on him, watching him carefully over Alphard's shoulder - Riddle decided it was time to leave. There was no way he would be able to concentrate now - not with half his attention being on keeping hers away from his business.

Sweeping his wand to send his books back to where he got them from, he neatly rolled his parchment and tucked his wand in his pocket - marching out of the aisle.

At the very entrance, he paused, turning to look behind him, catching Revel meandering her way to where he had sat. He watched, somehow amused when she peered at the shelves he'd been perusing. She could never make sense of why he would be in the genealogy section, he told himself, hiding his smirk that sharpened when his natural frustration of her flared up.

She was poking into his business again. She needed to stop before he decided that she was more of a hassle than entertaining.

A particularly sharp pitched cry of 'GOAL' jerked Tom back to the present, where he sat in the cold again, in the sodden stands with Slytherins bouncing around him.

His eyes went to Revel's back, eyes narrowing when he noticed her screaming for both Slytherin and Gryffindor.

Malfoy hadn't managed to find much on her. And though Riddle was disappointed about that, he hadn't been much surprised - he also wasn't surprised when he found out that she knew.

But that always brought up the question to him…whether Grindelwald did, in fact, have something to do with her presence here.

It would explain the charm, the ease, it could be illusions…she could have walked her way in through potions…artifice of any sort.

He wondered what he could do if that were the case. He could blackmail her, use her to get into Grindelwald's ranks, learn everything there was to know and then find some way to dispose of the older wizard…

Tom lightly shook off the idea. It couldn't be.

She was in with Dumbledore, for one. And no matter how displeasing he found the man, he couldn't refuse the fact that Albus Dumbledore was a formidable wizard. He could respect his power. And that respect deflected the idea that a fifteen year old girl had somehow befooled him.

Preposterous.

Even as before him, said girl screamed again when a player whooshed by too close the stand before she was crying out a cheer again, Riddle's lips curled again.

He thought back to the audacious display she had put out the night of Halloween, fiery and too mouthy for her own good but with an undercurrent of smugness that he had yet to see. He had sneered at her amateurish way of invading his space - as if that would do anything.

He had shared a common room with Olive Hornby for five years. He had seen and was subjected to perhaps all sorts of charming and manners of flirtatious advances in the imagination of wizardkind.

Not to mention the ones he had seen off of the male peers he had.

However, he had met her encroachment with a firm stance, foregoing the careful step back and usually half-hearted warning that was threatening enough to ward them off. He cursed himself then, wasting time with her in the damned bathroom before having to return to the Great Hall, in case some teacher noticed his absence.

He could explain it away, dropping it on Revel's shoulders of course, but he doubted that would go over too well.

He stared at the brown headed girl.

"You're not that hard to understand."

His gaze sharpened, worsening as the slow flame of discomfort made irritation flare up in him again. He wouldn't lie and say that he hadn't heard people tell him how 'mysterious' or 'interesting' he was.

He was never bothered by that.

And yet, he was bothered by this new way she had tried to rip into his persona.

What exactly was it about him…that she thought she understood?

ROSE'S POV

The Screech owl that landed by my side was a beautiful honey brown, big eyes staring at me in a self important manner. We met eyes, gaze holding for a split moment of confusion before I noticed the parchment envelope clutched in its beak.

"Ah, sorry," I muttered, ignoring the slightly irritated ruffle it gave me as I relieved it. Without another moment lost, it flapped its wings and went off.

"Who is it from?" Lila asked, lounging across from me on the edges of the grounds, having taken her broom from the storage room to practice

"Slughorn," My words were still confused, tearing into the envelope to pull out the stiffer sheet inside. And then I realized.

"It's an invitation to the Slug Club party. Wow, when he told me to look for his owl, I thought he was joking."

"Slughorn doesn't joke about the Slug Club." Lila said, having sat up by now. "Go on, read it."

I shook the invitation out.

"Miss Revel, as I mentioned, I hold little parties up in my quarters for some select people. It would be a lovely honor to have you join us. Just a little gathering, nothing too extravagant of course. You can bring a friend if you'd like. The gathering is on the 30th, just to end the month off on a pleasant note. Horace Slughorn,"

"Slughorn's parties are almost always extravagant. Even the small ones." Lila said immediately as I folded up the letter and slipped it into my robes.

"Oh?"

"Absolutely, a few of my ancestors made it into the ranks, but this favoritism is so…" She grimaced, unable to look for an indecent enough word, before shrugging.

"There's a plus one, do you want to come?" I asked, quickly changing the subject.

"No. Even if I am a slytherin, I don't want to associate with something that is probably not going to benefit me as much as it does him, anyway. But…I suppose, Fawley or Alphard would like to go. You can ask them."

Lila shrugged her delicate shoulders, flicking her dark hair over them to pierce you with her gaze that despite the facade of airheadedness, was clearly intelligent. "Do you want to fly my broom for a bit?"

I smiled widely at her, taking the Comet from her before climbing on. With a simple push, I was off.

Wind whistled sharply into my ears as I rose - higher and higher - up into the slate blue skies. Though the weather hadn't turned any kinder, flying at a responsible altitude was still possible.

And though the comet was not a Firebolt by far, it was new and listened to the commands of the flyer's tugs and jerks nicely.

Up in the sky, it was free.

Up in the sky there were no restrictions, no limits, no responsibilities.

Up in the sky there was all the time to think.

Being up on a broomstick brought back laughing memories of Harry and Ron, swirling about on their brooms with training balls. Hermione had always settled on watching but she wasn't as averse to climbing on the back of my broom as long as I kept myself at a low level and didn't try anything funny.

None of us listened to her, of course.

Glancing down to see Lila walking casually below me, brought me to the stupid plus one. I had forgotten about that from my time but then again, it had never seemed important enough to remember.

Slughorn had thrown actual balls when I had known him and since Hermione and Harry were both invited…

Of course, I wasn't invited as a plus one, too busy sitting by Ron to snigger at the poor dears forced into the stuffy party - which, thinking back to now clenched at my heart.

But now…

Fawley or Alphard - both my friends…and both good candidates to just take to the Club party as friends, of course.

But it didn't seem appropriate somehow. Alphard was a Black, and likely someone Slughorn would want. After all, he had made his sentiments very clear during class itself about how he had known all the purebloods back in his time. Sirius had never mentioned him and taking Alphard made me feel as if I was handing Sirius over to Slughorn.

I shuddered.

If Slughorn wanted a Black, he could ask Alphard himself.

And Fawley…sweet, stumbling Fawley, who was such a good friend…but wasn't anything special to Slughorn. It felt like Ron again. It felt…disrespectful.

I sighed and as though the thoughts weighed me down themselves, I aimed the broom to the ground. Just as I reached near enough to gingerly follow Lila, I caught her standing a little awkwardly with two more figures near her…equally uncomfortable. I landed next to her.

"Done?" Lila asked immediately.

I nodded, smiling at Hagrid and Myrtle who stepped forward now, eyeing the way I got off the broom and handed it back. "Guys, hey."

"I didn't know yeh could fly." Hagrid said, soft black eyes awed.

"Uh, it's just something that you pick up, in a wizarding family and all." I shrugged off quickly, not wanting Myrtle to ask how I had learnt to fly if I was in hiding. "It's just here that I can practice and all, so I can get better."

Thankfully, neither of them pressed the issue.

After Halloween, I had become somewhat responsible for an unlikely friendship between Myrtle and Hagrid. It just seemed right somehow, even if it was eerie to see. Both somehow Riddle's victims, it was almost poetic.

Myrtle felt protected by Hagrid, and in return she helped him study. And though they were easy targets when alone - it seemed with this sudden pairing, they had managed to find a way to stay out of trouble with the other students.

I blinked, keeping my small relieved huff to myself. Maybe if they weren't lonely, they would be less attractive to Riddle as bait or victims.

"Were you guys doing anything important? We can leave, if you want." Myrtle said, a small hand pulling on Hagrid's larger sleeve but I quickly shook my head.

"No, we were just talking about who to take for the Slug Club party." I didn't mention that it was only me who was invited.

"Oh, we never get invited to those kinds of things." Myrtle waved a hand in a way that made it seem she didn't think too highly of 'those kinds' of things.

There was another moment of awkward silence.

"Right then," Lila spoke up, turning to look at me. "I've got some practice in a bit so I'll go and get changed. I'll see you in the common room…and we can discuss," she glanced at Myrtle. "What we were talking about,"

I nodded to her skipping away before joining the others to head back into the castle.

The inside of the castle was much, much warmer than outside and it almost melted into your bones. My steps slowed, the chill of flying wearing by now as I began to loosen up and swing my arms, hitting them against Hagrid's back…the way I used to back then when I had known him.

As we began to turn the corner to climb the stairs to get to the Great Hall to see if there was something to eat, I caught sight of a familiar dark head out of the side of my eye.

Maybe later I would call it impulse.

Maybe later I would look back at this moment and curse my stupidity.

But right then, I called out a hasty "go on, I'll catch up" to Myrtle and Hagrid and tore off in the direction I'd seen him take.

Riddle was climbing a staircase when I called after him, the dumb forties era school shoes skidding onto the flagstones as I came to a halt right behind him.

There was a pause in which he stilled, looking over his shoulder at the rushed spectacle I made. When I'd decently stopped, he turned - elegant and composed as ever, the arse.

He waited.

In that second with Riddle standing on the seventh step of a staircase and me standing on the very base…him staring imperiously down at me - the crude irony of our situation made itself hilarious obvious.

We hated each other. We were supposed to stay the hell away from each other.

And yet here I was, voluntarily chasing after him with a question so deranged I might as well check into St. Mungo's myself.

Riddle raised an eyebrow at my silent stare.

"Are…have you…did you get the invitation to the Slug Club party?"

Riddle's damned eyebrow stayed up, now joined by the other as well as he crossed his arms with a barely audible sigh.

"Why do you ask?"

Huh, I hadn't expected him to ask that.

"Because…um well…see, I got the letter as well." And just for kicks I delved into my robes and pulled out the parchment to wave in front of him. Riddle didn't even glance at it.

"Congratulations," He said coldly. "I do believe Professor Slughorn mentioned he'd like to have you with us. I am not sure if you're surprised but if that is all…"

"We have a plus one."

Riddle blinked, cutting off to look incredulous. "Yes."

"Do you plan to…bring someone?"

The incredulity intensified, now mixed with something that looked genuinely stricken. "Why are you asking me this?"

"You could go with me. I'll take you." I said, driving home the final nail to my stupidity.

WHAT had possessed me to spew that out? WHAT good could possibly come with taking Lord Voldemort as a plus one to a teacher's pet party?

Riddle's face cleared, falling blank like undisturbed snow. His hands dropped to one slipping within his pocket and the other resting on the banister. His gaze was impenetrable, but I guessed he was searching my own to see if there was a facade there - some new way to piss him off.

He would've been wrong of course. There was no ploy here. This was just…sheer…plain…dumb idiocy on my part.

"Fine."

It was my turn to go bug-eyed. My eyebrows shot up, eyes popping open to give him a disbelieved look. "What?"

"I will go with you to Slughorn's gathering." He turned, beginning to climb back up the stairs.

"Are you serious?" I called back up after him.

The sigh of irritation wasn't so inaudible this time. He turned again and this time, his annoyance was clear on his face. Brows furrowed, he gave me a stern look.

"I wouldn't have agreed, Miss Revel," he nearly spat out, "if I was not serious. The 30th, I will see you at the venue."

Shell-shocked, I didn't see him whirl about to take the stairs stomping this time.

What in the name of Merlin, had I just done?

The end of November brought with it, cold, more sleet and a rising dread as to what I had done and how I would be dealing with it for one entire evening.

Lila had almost insultingly not been surprised when I had confessed that I couldn't ask Fawley and Alphard to the Slug Club because I had already asked Riddle.

In the crowded Common Room, where thankfully he wasn't present, Lila hadn't bothered to keep her snort quiet. "I had a feeling." She said mysteriously when I wondered why it was that she was not more scandalized. Any reasons she would assume would never come close to what the truth was of course, but well…I couldn't tell her that.

"What do you mean, you had a feeling?"

"Nothing!" She insisted, ruffling her Daily Prophet. "Just saying, it was intuition, perhaps."

And it may as well have been Lila's intuition, but standing in Slughorn's spacious office now, the furniture cleared to make a nice big spot in the middle made panic slowly crawl up my spine.

I'd borrowed a dress of Lila's, and the simple grey dress that fell below my knees, paired with a dusty pink structured coat was an outfit I would have never worn - and yet, I couldn't argue I didn't look half bad.

Lila had used a charm to make the pieces stretchy, what with her being slender and a few sizes down from me.

I had arrived a few minutes early, just to give myself time to familiarize myself with the place before it got packed and Slughorn had looked charmed, possibly assuming I had come early to see if I could help with something.

He had waved off a hand to unoffered help, bustling here and there before people began to arrive.

Riddle, as usual, had been punctual, striding in with Avery, Lestrange, Abraxas and Nott. He wore a deep black suit of robes, nothing ostentatious and I thought he would walk right by where I stood to one side of the room.

To my amazement, and the slightest tinge of terror, he stopped. The four boys surrounding him moved on without him, the arrow formation splendidly breaking off as he turned to face me and walked closer.

"Good Evening, Miss Revel."

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

To his credit, Riddle didn't look confused or contrite as to the question, he just raised his stupid eyebrow.

"I believe you asked me to escort you as your plus one."

"I…" For a second, I tried hard not to splutter in indignation before giving up. "I did not ask you to escort me…I just…I was just…"

Riddle didn't let me finish, simply shrugging. "As far as I am concerned, I am being a gentleman." He cut in amid my scoffing.

"A gentleman sure…an escort sure. You told me to come up here by myself so you could march in with your boy toys like God with his followers and we'd all lick your shoes."

At that Riddle finally glanced at me. And to my very real frustration, he didn't look annoyed. If anything, his lips twitched and he looked distinctly amused.

By what…I had no clue.

"Interesting things you say Miss Revel, you might get in trouble one day with that mouth of yours." His midnight eyes dropped to my lips, giving me another strangely lopsided smirk. "I trust you'll be careful while we mingle."

Riddle's definition of mingling was to stay a meaningful distance away from me while we chatted with the few other people invited. He very nearly always stayed mum, leaving me to struggle through the conversation. The times were different, people were different, entire cultures were different so very soon I was back to standing in my corner while Riddle walked back to his group.

Thankfully, I was a person of thick skin - because it seemed to me that standing in a corner while your own plus one abandons you might serve as a humiliation.

We hadn't made it overtly obvious that Riddle and I had 'come together', part of which I think is why Riddle made that show of arrival before but words were already weaving through and the brunt of impulsive stupidity was beginning to dawn on me.

I had come to a Slug Club party with the man who had killed, tortured, many people, including the ones I loved. He'd killed me.

I was supposed to have killed him and I had asked him to…accompany me to a damned dinner party. What would Dumbledore think of me? What would Harry say? Ron and Hermione would be so disappointed. Mum…Pam…my father…

"My dear, may I refresh your drink?" I glanced over to SLughorn's genial beaming face, saying yes before even thinking.

A wave of his wand, made mulled butterbeer appear back in the glass I held and wildly I slugged it back, hoping to everything that it had been Firewhiskey.

There was a squawk from Slughorn as he gaped at me for a few moments. Without a beat, I could feel a prickling on the side of my head. Miraculously, this didn't feel like Legilimency. No, it just felt like the deep and unwavering watch of dear old Tommy.

"Apologies sir, I haven't had many opportunities for butterbeer." I excused myself.

"Ah…of course," He waved his wand again, the glass filled again. "I hear you are Tom's plus one."

"He's mine." I corrected automatically, feeling icky about the words before amending them. "I asked him…as I know him best." Slughorn nodded pensively.

"From the orphanage, yes, Albus had told me. I am very sorry about your circumstances, Roselle. You and Tom both. It was a blessing to have Tom come join us at eleven, I wish we could've had you as well. You'd have made friends to last a lifetime. Or at least…done so fast enough, not everyone is lucky enough to find friends as soon as they step foot here."

I glanced at him curiously.

"We're children, professor, why wouldn't we make friends?"

"Well, take our Tom for example. He had a hard time the first few years too, not that I am speaking ill of my pupils."

I turned to him.

"Indeed no sir, he hasn't ever spoken of something like that."

"He wouldn't, such a humble and honest boy…" Slughorn tsked. "Such talent and brains, shame that he is a half-blood." At my raised eyebrows, he backtracked. "Not that I am saying I am bigoted. I am just being practical. Slytherins are very…select about the way they support one another. They have been ingrained in them since birth. Someone of Tom's capabilities would've been stellar in a pure blood family with what they could afford. That was the trouble when he was a child. Of course now, he has friends who recognize him." He sighed happily.

Oh they did recognize him…recognize his power, his authority…his danger…

I glanced over to where Riddle now stood, in the gaggle of future Death Eaters. They laughed around him, jeering about whatever cruelty they could come up with.

And yet Riddle remained unmoved, standing in their center with his cup full and his eyes fixed on me.

I didn't lower my gaze.

So he had been bullied in Slytherin when he was a child. He knew the horrors of blood purity. Then why had he been such a fanatic about it?

And in this standstill…who was distracting whom?

We have a mix of Tom and Ro's POVs here, and this finalizes the month of November. I really wanted the Slug Club party done when they were still on the glass about each other because let's be honest - Sluggie always had a sympathetic perspective about Riddle because he wove that around him. But also, I find it very hard that during the times when Blood Purity Fanaticism was on the rise, any half-blood or muggle-born would be left well enough alone. Maybe that wouldn't have been such a problem in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, these houses were always mixed - But Slytherin...now that is one interesting place. I'd think it would be hard for a poor, orphaned, half-blooded Tom Riddle to settle well there.

There was a reason why he got so obsessed with finding family - it was perhaps to throw it back in their faces. And no, I don't think Dumbles helped his situation at all. After all, a poor boy from an orphanage who was basically shunned before he could walk would have no trauma left unchecked right?

I digress.

What did you think of the chapter? Of the new people pairings? Of Lila (I love writing her)?

And of course, what do you think about Tom and Ro?