Juniper sat near the back of the potions classroom to try and draw as little attention to herself as possible. She was glad that Rue had decided on taking her to her class without any thought behind it, as she hadn't even thought how weird it might look if she somehow were able to navigate perfectly to each one of her classes. Juni would have just walked straight there without any thought for the consequences of doing so, so clearly a more careful approach to her navigating in the past was needed.

"Good morning, my 7th year NEWT students!" Professor Slughorn exclaimed as he walked from his office into the room and Juniper had another thought flood into her brain. Would Slughorn recognize her in the future? He would, after all, be teaching her potions in her 6th and 7th year at Hogwarts…

Well, she would if she didn't mess anything up enough in the past, that is. 'Just be invisible,' she told herself over and over in her head: her new mantra.

"We have a new student from Beauxbatons Academy joining us this year, as some of you met her last night, Miss Juniper White." Most of the heads turned around to look at her, as though she were an exhibit up for display. Juni flashed a quick smile and glanced around the room, raising a hand up in a sort of greeting. She was glad that this was a smaller class, however, only around 13 other students. Though public introductions weren't exactly going to help her 'be invisible', small class size or not. Professor Slughorn smiled at everyone and glanced around the room until his eyes fell on one of the boys sitting in the front row of the class.

"I think I'll pair her up with you, if that's alright?" Glancing back at Juni, he smiled and looked back at the boy, who hadn't moved. "Only fitting, of course! Who knows how up-to-snuff her classes at Beauxbatons were - better to have our best and brightest paired with her to make sure she gets a good grasp on everything. Of course you don't mind, do you, Tom?"

"It would be an honour, sir," a sweet, soft-spoken voice replied to Slughorn. Tom didn't turn around to so much as look at Juni, but she quickly went from partially insulted at Slughorn's words for a school she never attended to begin with, to wondering just how many people there were named Tom in the past. There were at least two of them in less than 24 hours- this soft-spoken one and the other rude and glaring one. Mind wandering further, she tried to think of all the Toms she had known while she was at school…

"-and I know you're probably all itching to get straight to work, so I'll hold the lecture for now," Slughorn looked almost bashfully at his students and hend a hand out to gesture towards the back of the classroom where the cauldrons and tables sat behind them. The rest of the class slowly got to their seats - save for one girl who all but leapt from her chair and dashed to the back towards where her cauldron sat. Juniper sat, frozen in her spot, completely clueless as to what they were working on and what she should be doing. Glancing quickly between the faces of the other students as they passed her, she desperately tried to gain some idea, but nothing helped.

After a few moments, she noticed someone standing in front of her desk. Juni flinched backwards slightly and sat up straight in her chair, looking up at-

Tom Riddle.

But that couldn't be right.

Even as clearly as he stood, scowl and all in front of her, Juniper felt there must have been some mistake. He had the same dark hair as the boy Slughorn had spoken to a few minutes earlier, and the same name, yes. But that Tom had sounded much nicer than this one looked, and had seemed even eager to help her out. This one looked as though he'd prefer to sit on a spike… Or perhaps as though he already had. Almost as though sensing her discomfort, Tom's facial expression and demeanour seemed to shift in a matter of seconds.

"Miss White, was it?" He flashed a small smile. "I don't believe that we've been introduced properly. My name is Tom Riddle. I suppose I'm going to be your potions partner from now on." Almost immediately a small voice in the back of Juni's head started yelling at her. 'So you're just going to go from glaring at me to suddenly trying to charm me? What in the red flag is this? That seemed far too easy to almost change personalities for him…'

"You um," Juni got to her feet and re-straightened her already straight stack of books and papers. "You can call me Juni." Looking back up at him, she caught the smallest hint of frustration before it vanished completely in his dark eyes. Something about it made Juni feel uneasy, almost on edge. 'Who does this guy think he is?'

"Juni," he repeated, the smile back on his lips and Juniper almost felt her stomach lurch. For some reason when he said her name, all she wanted to do was throw or punch something. "Did you catch what potion we're working on today? The Professor only mentioned it briefly, we actually started it last week."
"No, I wasn't really paying attention, honestly," she admitted, giving him an apologetic look.

"Not a problem," he assured her, laying the charm on far too thickly as far as she was concerned. "Felix felicis, liq-"

"Liquid luck," she interrupted, having been introduced to the potion in her 6th year NEWT potion's class. They hadn't actually made the potion, merely competed to win a small vial of it. She thought it was interesting… What happened that took the creation of the potion out of Slughorn's curriculum? Tom gave her a quizzical look for a moment before glancing to the back of the classroom towards the cauldrons and back at her.

"Well, shall we? I had been working alone last week, it'll be… Nice to get to work with someone else, for a change." Liar.

"Absolutely," she gave him a quick smile she hoped was convincing. It wasn't like she needed to make enemies while she was trying to stay low-key. Standing and picking up her textbook, she followed him to a cauldron towards the back of the room. A small bright flame was burning beneath it as Juniper admired the mixture inside of it.

"It's page 430, by the way," Tom told her as he took his seat on the stool across the cauldron from her. Glancing up at him, Juniper turned her attention to her advanced potion making book and began flipping through the pages. "It's only been a week, so we've just finished step 4."

"Out of how many?" Juniper asked absentmindedly as she admired the older version of the textbook she had just been using a year ago as she turned to the correct page.

"47."

"47 steps?" Juni gaped at him as he looked up at her, an eyebrow raised. He considered her for a moment before looking at his own book before speaking quietly.

"They did have potions classes at Beauxbatons, didn't they?" Something in his tone made Juni's blood boil as she glared at him. Holding her tongue, she looked back down at the text, going over the ingredients and steps to make the potion.

"I simply meant," Juni's tone was quiet, yet sharp. "That I was surprised that it's been an entire week and you've only managed 4 steps." She felt him stiffen across the table and looked back at him to see his narrowed eyes on her. The pair locked glaring eyes for a moment before looking at their respective books again, Juni tracing down the page to the step they were now on. 'This is going to be a long class,' she thought miserably to herself.

"Ah, Miss White!" Slughorn had wandered his way over after a long while and beamed at Juni. "I Just wanted to make sure you were settling in okay?" Tom, who had been stirring the potion counter-clockwise almost absentmindedly, sat up straight and gave the Professor a small smile.

"Oh, yes, Professor," Juni also smiled at him. A small knife in one hand, she had been cutting up a root into small pieces in preparation for the potion's next addition. "Tom's been a plethora of help and information." Tom's eyes flashed to Juni dangerously, but Slughorn hadn't caught on the sarcasm.

"Excellent!" Slughorn hooked his thumbs under the lapel of his jacket and tugged on them gently, clearly pleased with himself. "I knew the two of you would be fast friends. And of course, he's told you about the paper assigned to the potion as well, yes? I can't remember if I mentioned it at the top of class… Well! I'll leave you to it, then! Call if you need anything!" With that, Slughorn spun on his heel and walked off to the next cauldron and pair of students.

Almost immediately, both Tom and Juni resumed their snide remarks and glaring contests with one another.

"Paper?" Juni asked quietly, raising her eyebrows at Tom. "You didn't mention a thing about any paper assigned."

"Hm," Tom feigned an apologetic look before he turned his attention back to his stirring. "Must have slipped my mind after all the plethora of help and information I've given you. Oops." Clenching and unclenching her jaw slowly, she watched him, wondering - not for the first time since class began - where he had gotten all of this audacity.

"If it's a group paper, you realise that I have to help write it, don't you?"

Tom didn't reply, his only indication that he heard her being the slight raise in his eyebrows as he stared at the potion in front of him. Juni's head was beginning to ache from the constant bickering and frustration.

"Tom." Tom sat up straight in his seat, glancing around the room for a moment before giving her a smile that she was sure was meant to be charming, but only came off as even more frustrating to her.

"I go to the library after classes and before dinner," he told her as Slughorn walked past their table again on his way to another pair. "Back left from the doors. You can meet me there if you'd like and we can work on the paper." Juniper watched him, considering for a moment whether she would actually rather work on this paper with him or chuck herself off the astronomy tower.

"Oh," he furrowed his brows slightly in feigned concern. "Sorry, do you know how to get to the library? I forgot you might not know where it is." For a moment, Juni had forgotten that she was supposed to be new here and shouldn't know where anything is.

"Err, I can have Ruth help me find it, or someone," Juni turned her attention back to the herb she was supposed to be cutting and quickly finished chopping the rest of it. "Is it ready for the common rue?" She felt his eyes on her as she grouped the plant together between her knife and finger, using her finger to help pile it on top of the blade.

"Yeah, should be," Tom leaned the spoon against the metal edge to wait for Juni to add the rue. Carefully, Juniper lifted the knife and let the contents on top spill into the cauldron, causing it to bubble wildly. Double checking the recipe in the book, Tom picked his spoon back up and began to stir clockwise instead.

"So it says…" Juni traced her finger under the words of the next step as she read. "We stir for five minutes and then put the lid on for 72 hours." Eyebrows furrowing slightly, she did the maths in her head. "So this time on Thursday? We don't even have potions on Thursday…" Juni shook her head slightly and looked at Tom who shrugged a shoulder as he stirred.

"I guess we do," he mused, resting his chin in his free hand as he leaned on the table slightly. Sighing, Juni sat back in her seat. Leaning slightly to see under the table, she fished out the cauldron's lid and brought it on top of her book on the table in preparation. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she glanced around the room before looking at Tom again.

"Do you want me to stir instead? Your arm must be getting tired," she offered, trying to be more pleasant as they clearly were going to have to spend more time than she wanted on this potion with the paper and extra time they would need to devote to it. Her offer was met with a look in his dark eyes somewhere between distrust and disgust.

"No," he told her simply as he curled his fingers under his chin, looking back at the liquid as he continued to stir.

"Just thought I'd offer," Juni huffed as she crossed her arms. She had tried, but clearly there was no point in being nice. They'd have to get through this one way or another, but she couldn't remember immediately disliking someone so much so fast.

Juni looked around the room again. No one else seemed to be anywhere near the same point in their potions as they were. There was one other group that seemed to be starting to cut up their rue, but other than that… They were a lot further than she had thought.

After a few more minutes, Tom withdrew the spoon from the potion with a soft sigh and sat it on the designated area on the table. Juniper snapped back to reality from her thoughts and sat up, picking up the lid and placing it over the cauldron. The pair sat for a moment looking awkwardly at the lidded cauldron, suddenly unsure what to do next. They still had around 25 minutes left of class, and neither of them felt like trying to cooperate enough to begin their paper yet. Luckily, Slughorn had made his round back to their table and looked in surprise at the pair.

"Done already with the rue?" he cried, giving them another big smile as he clapped a hand on each of their shoulders. "Excellent job, you two!" Juni and Tom gave him their best 'thank you's and smiles. "I think you two have earned an early dismissal, you can both leave early if you'd like. Of course, if you'd like to stay…"

"Thank you, Professor," Tom smiled again at Slughorn as he shut his book and made to stand from the table. "I was hoping for a little extra time today to get ahead of my studies for the week." Slughorn beamed at him as though he was never more proud of a student. Juniper fought the urge to roll her eyes as she also began to shut her book and clean up the table around them as she stood.

"I'm sure that Miss White here is going with you, then?"

"What?" Juni asked before she could stop herself as she looked between the two of them quickly.

"Well the very least he could do is help you find your next classroom," Slughorn looked at Tom, chuckling softly. "I'm sure you wouldn't mind, would you Tom?"

"Of course not, sir," Juniper swore she could see a red flash of anger in his eyes as he picked up his books. "Juniper? Shall we?" Without waiting, Tom walked back towards the front of the classroom to gather the rest of his things and she followed quickly, giving Slughorn a small smile as she passed him. Grabbing her things, she made her way to Tom, who was waiting for her at the door.

Tom opened the large, wooden door and held it open for Juni as she passed through it. Making his own way through, he let the heavy door close behind him. Sighing in clear frustration as it did, he began to make his way quickly down the hall away from her. Confused, Juni caught up to him, clutching her things to her chest.

"Wait!"

"For what?"

"You don't even know which class I have next," Juni objected and he spun around so quickly she nearly ran into him. He leaned over her almost intimidatingly as he glared at her, pointing a finger in her face as he spoke in hushed, irritated tones.

"I'm going to make one thing very clear: I don't care. I'm not going to be your friend, I'm not your little helper. I'll be civil with you during class or when the professors are around. I'll write this damned paper with you, but other than that, you're to leave. Me. Alone." Juniper said nothing as she watched him, staring up at him with eyes slightly wide as he spoke down to her.

"Am I understood?" Juniper gave a small nod as she watched him, breathing deeply and slowly through her nose. "Good." With another spin, he continued making his way quickly down the hallway, leaving Juni alone.

As the sound of his footsteps grew faint and disappeared, Juniper let out a loud sigh and rubbed her temples between two fingers, unable to help another sigh escape her lips.

"What a piece of shit," she whispered as she collected herself and made her way down the hall.

Review:
S.A- Thank you so much! I don't think I realized they wouldn't know his real name until the time I was first starting this story. I think it adds such an interesting element! And you may just have to stay tuned for what Ruth had meant by her comment :') -E