September 4th 1943

It was Saturday, and Nadine had a tutoring session with Tom Riddle, and the first tutoring session, possibly the last too. She hadn't slept all night, waking up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat and tears. It was no unusual thing for her to have nightmares, they were quite frequent, so that's why she always placed a silencing charm on her bed. Leona always told her how much of a deep sleeper she is. 'You make no sound, if i am being honest, sometimes i wonder if you have died.' She would say. 'Well that is what my mother always said.' She would reply. Her mother didn't bother talking to her unless it was incredibly important; in her eyes, not Nadine's.

Nadine looked up at the clock in the kitchens, 15:45. 15 minutes until she had to be there. Now, they hadn't agreed on a place, but she thought the library was a good place to start. She was on her way to the library when she crashed into someone. "I deeply apologize, I didn't mean to-."

"Watch where you're going half-breed." The familiar yet so unfamiliar voice growled. She had long blonde hair and a slightly chubby face. She was quite beautiful if it wasn't for her personality. "I said, watch where you are going, half-breed. Do you not know who I am?"

If you so badly want to be a pureblood go ahead and let me burn you on a stake. Nadine tilted her head and narrowed her eyes trying to remember. "No, am I supposed to?" She asked innocently

"I am Natalie Mulciber, one of the most-."

"Winter, you were supposed to meet me ten minutes ago." The voice of Tom Riddle rang throughout the hall. Nadine would never think she'd be grateful for his presence. She gave him a weak smile. Natalie was fuming. The Tom riddle was talking to an inferior, and not herself. Did he know she was from one of the most respected families in the wizarding world, and he chose to speak to a half-blood, he was speaking to dirty blood.

"Why are you speaking to a half-breed like her?" The blonde screeched. All Tom did was take Nadine with him towards the seventh floor. "Well I will be in the common room." She huffed and walked in the direction of the slytherin common room. Let's hope it floods and you drown then.

Tom furrowed his eyebrows. "Well I suppose I owe you a thanks." He looked at her, this he would never think to hear coming from her mouth to him. "You know, for stepping in. It would probably have ended in a duel if not." And I don't think I could have handled that today.

"Why could you not have done that? Are you that bad at dueling?" They were in front of a wall now.

"I didn't say anything." She looked at the wall. "This is a very nice wall." She touched it, "nice texture too, don't you think?" Before she could say more, a wooden door took place before her. Tom looked at her before rolling his eyes.

"Don't just stand there." The annoyed tone of his voice cut her out of the slight trance she was in.

The room was dark and gloomy, with a leather sofa and a bench to brew potions. It looked similar to the dungeons; dark and sad, in her opinion. But Tom seemed content.

"We'll meet here every Wednesday and Saturday, do not be late. I don't like people who can't be on time."

"You don't seem to enjoy anyone's company, so i guess it will not matter." Nadine spoke while looking around the room. Her snarky comment made his eyes narrow slightly.

Deciding just to ignore her, he continued. "We will start with potions for 1st years." She looked at the slytherin with slight disbelief in her eyes. "Do not look so surprised Winter, you can barely heat up the cauldron." She didn't bother arguing, for she was so tired. Her eyelids felt like lead, and her head was starting to ache.

She walked to the sofa and sat down gracefully. Her mother was alway on her for how she sat. 'Do not slump.' She would be told from a very young age. If she was frankly honest, she can not remember a time when her mother didn't comment on the smallest things. Everything from posture to cleaning to the way she spoke. The light behind her eyes was flickering at the thought of her household. She decided laying down would be nice, ignoring the complaints from Tom.

"Are you going to tell me what I'm supposed to work on?" It was a simple question, with a possible simple answer, but no.

"If you sit up like a proper person." He sneered. She mumbled profanities under her breath, as she sat up. Her back straight with shoulders back. She gave him a look as if saying 'I did what you said, now get on with it'. "You can start with brewing cure for boils." Nadine looked lost, in fact she didn't just look lost, she was lost, but still walked up to the bench. In front of her were all the ingredients she needed, as well as the equipment. Tom watched her stand there looking at the equipment. "You can start."

Nadine was on the verge of tears. She had no idea what she was supposed to start with. First year was ages ago, how was she supposed to remember something they learned 5 years ago? Her eyes were glossy and burning. "You can start adding the snake fangs to the mortar now, Winter. Are you crying?" He commented.

Nadine wiped under her eyes, "no." Her voice was shaky. Tom walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder, he frankly didn't know what to do. So he did what he had seen other people do when someone started crying. He couldn't care less about her crying, he just wanted it to stop so they could continue the tutoring and get done with it for today.

His hand made her stiffen, not in a million years would she think Tom Riddle would touch her, nonetheless comfort her, well as much as the stone cold slytherin could comfort someone. "Add crushed snake fangs to the cauldron and stir, Winter." He commanded as he stepped back to observe. Nadine looked back at him. "6 snake fangs." She mumbled a shaky thank you. "You know there is a book lying right in front of you." The snarky comment made her look in front of her, where there indeed lied a potions book.

She took a deep breath and started looking in at the instructions. "Slice your pungous onions finely and place in a cauldron." She was muttering to herself. She might have seemed insane to Tom, but she didn't give a rat's arse about what he thought at the moment. All that was going through her head was getting the potion finished so she could go back to her dorm and sleep.

A little while later she had finished the potion and a pink smoke was coming from the brew. She looked at the book and back at the potion, before letting out a squeal. Tom looked up from where he was sitting, and walked over. Nadine was looking hopefully at him. "It seems fine." He went back to the sofa, and Nadine followed behind.

"You're reading about salazar slytherin?" She asked while looking at the book Tom held in his hands.

"Nothing you should care about." Tom grunted.

"Well of course not." She was now behind him. "Did you know the latest heiress of Slytherin married a muggle?" That caught his attention. "I heard mother talking about a friend of hers, I think her name was me-merope? I heard mother saying she married a muggle and had a child with him. No one knows where that child is, or if it is alive." Tom's blood had gone cold, merope was the name of his mother. "But obviously those could be rumors."

"Do you know a lot about the families of the four founders?" He questioned her.

"I wouldn't say a lot, but the history interests me quite a bit. Did you know the Potter's are related to the Peverell brothers."

The name was familiar. He had heard it before, but couldn't put his finger on where. "Peverell?"

Nadine had forgotten who she was talking with at this point. "Yes from The Tale of the Three brothers. Many people think it's fiction, but I believe the opposite." She took a deep breath before continuing. "You can read about it in the tales of Beedle and Bard. I can lend you my copy if you're interested.

And suddenly the ball of energy that is Nadine Winter became 100 times more interesting.