Again, a great thank you to all my reviewers!
Greyhound Master : yes, right, I didn't really explain that, she just concentrated only on Lupin. Thanks for telling me!
HermioneGreen : thank you, I'll say that again, you have really reviewed all of my chapters, I'm so happy about that.
Allyanna : Thanks, I think Hemione won't do that. See? I got him a snake.
tia : Hermione certainly not... Ron... maybe.
Lady Ana Maria Lorinan : Thanks a lot!
Shania Maxwell : Thank you!
HoshiHikari4ever : yeah, you're right... thanks!
jeangab057 : if just Mrs. Rowling would think so, too... I like him much better there, too.
HecateDeMort : thank you, you'll see it...
Shmoo or spork : What??? Grand Hell? Well, thanks!
'Mes : Thank you, that was a long review! I'm glad you liked so many things.
chozen1 : Thank you!
So, here's the next chapter then.
""= normal speech, ~ ""~ = parseltongue, ' ' = thoughts, * * = telepathic speech
Chapter 8
The Slytherin table cheered loudly. Tom was a bit stunned, then walked over to the table. He noticed Dumbledore frowning. He looked at the Gryffindor table and saw Ron, Hermione and Lupin who looked all shocked again, about as much as on the train. Ginny had her face buried in her hands. Hermione said something into Ron's ear. Tom had the very strong feeling that it had to do with him.
"I knew you'd make it!" shouted Malfoy through the noise. Fortunately there was no empty seat near Malfoy, so Tom sat down on the other side of the table, between a forth-year boy and a seventh-year girl. The names of the first-years were called in alphabetical order, and they were sorted, too.
Then Dumbledore stood up again. "Now you're all hungry so I won't keep you from feeding yourselves. Now enjoy the feast!" He clapped his hands and food appeared on the tables. Tom put something on his plate and looked up at the staff table. Hagrid was missing and there was Professor Grubby-Plank sitting on his usual chair. Why did she have to replace him again? Where was he?
He looked up and down the table for a new teacher. There was nobody new sitting there. But they had to have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! Was it possible that Dumbledore hadn't found anyone? The ministry couldn't just decide on a person again, could they? But Dumbledore had said that the Educational Decrees didn't have to be followed anymore, so that was out of question. And they had a decent new book, so they HAD to have a decent teacher. So why wasn't one there?
"What are you staring at?" asked the girl next to him. She had long brown hair with some blond highlights in it. Tom noticed she was wearing a head girl's badge.
"What?" Tom asked, tearing his gaze from the teachers.
"You've been looking up there for minutes. I was only wondering what's so interesting." She said and studied the staff table. "No new teacher there, strange... except Grubby-Plank Oh, you don't know the teachers, do you? That man over there's our house teacher, Professor Snape. The others... " she told him all the teacher's names and their subjects. "Hagrid isn't there, though. He's our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, I think Grubby- Plank's replacing him again. I wonder where he is, last year he wasn't there at the beginning of the year, too. Most of this house dislike Hagrid because he's friends with Harry Potter and sometimes his lessons are a bit... dangerous. I think he's rather okay, though. I mean, he likes monsters, but... I think they're quite interesting, too, and the others should be happy, some people are so keen on everything that has to do with the dark arts, you know, and then they're complaining about those creatures, with another teacher the subject would be much more boring, when I started it we had another teacher and it wasn't interesting at all. When we got Hagrid, it was really good at the beginning but then Malfoy" she pointed at Malfoy "caused him some trouble, and he went on with the boring animals we had stopped with the year before. But after that the lessons got better again, and I personally think we couldn't have a better teacher. Oh, sorry if I kept you from eating, my name's Judy Jennings, by the way."
"My name's... "Tom began.
"Tom Riddle, I know, Professor Dumbledore said it before." Judy interrupted him.
"Oh, yes."
Suddenly the door smashed open noisily, and a woman with a parrot on her shoulder came running in. Every head in the Great Hall turned towards her. She blushed, although Tom had no idea how she managed it for her face was in the color of some kind of dark violet. Sweat was running down her face and she was panting heavily. Her hair was hanging around in her face wildly, fallen out of some kind of knot.
"Sorry... I'm late..." she panted, massaging her ribs. "... I... missed the... train... Jackie... that's my... parrot... didn't want to... be late... I... ran..." she fell on the floor and fainted. The parrot somehow screamed and flew up.
The whole school just gaped at the woman. Then Dumbledore rose up and said "Students, this is Professor Kate Candy, your new teacher in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I think she should be brought into the hospital wing. Would you be so kind, Severus?" he said, smiling and eyes-twinkling. Snape levitated Kate Candy and went out with her, the parrot flying behind them.
Whispers broke out everywhere in the Great Hall.
"What was this about?"
"This woman teaching us to defend ourselves?!"
"I don't believe it."
"I only hope she's nothing like Umbridge."
"Do you think she was attacked?" (from a very stupid person who should wash his ears)
"I'm looking forward to her lesson, we'll know how she is then."
"Seemed rather nice to me."
"Do you think she always looks like that?"
"What's she got that bird for?"
When they had finished with eating, Dumbledore told them that Hagrid had missed the beginning of the year again and would come back later, then they sang the school anthem and he sent them to bed. Everyone stood up. Some people started telling rumors around about were Hagrid could be. Tom tried to see over to his friends. Hermione noticed it and smiled at him. Ginny gave him a pitiful look and made a movement towards the Slytherin table. He smiled back at them. No one noticed.
A new prefect brought them down to their common room. It looked exactly as it had in their second year. Well, what should have changed anyway? The Gryffindor common room was always the same, too. But Tom liked it better because of the friendlier atmosphere there. Then he wondered if he would like the atmosphere there at the moment.
Tom shared his dormitory with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Theodore Nott, Lars Daniels and Kevin Pearson, the last two were the only ones whose parents were no Death Eaters, though he wasn't completely sure. The beds were similar to those in Gryffindor, the only difference was that the covers were green.
Tom went to bed but couldn't sleep. He talked to Sylvie for a while until she couldn't stay awake anymore. Then he was thinking about his friends, and though they had seemed to be taking the news quite well, wondered what they were really thinking, now, when they were also lying in bed, what they might be worrying about, what they had maybe thought but not told him, maybe they were mad at him, maybe they would even stop being friends with him... now this was going too far, that was nothing to think about, that wouldn't happen, so stop thinking it. And now, as he lay in bed and it was quiet, except that Crabbe and Goyle were snoring, he started to become extremely worried about Hagrid. Had something happened to him during the holidays? Maybe he had hurt himself or something like that...
Early in the morning Tom drifted off to sleep and dreamed about the sorting hat that told him that he had to go back to Gryffindor. He was glad about that, but when he asked for the reason it told him it was because he was in fact Dumbledore's son and he would turn out just like him. Tom found this much worse than being Voldemort's son, even more now that his view about both men had changed. He started yelling at the hat that it was lying, but then Professor Candy came and gave him a birthday cake that suddenly transfigured into a giant budgie. The budgie could speak and said that it had eaten Ron. Hermione appeared and screamed that it was his fault because it had been his cake. He tried to defend himself and tell her that Professor Candy had given it to him and that he didn't want it, it wasn't his birthday, but she couldn't hear him . . . the dream changed . . .
. . . T0m felt taller than usual, he was standing in the middle of a dimly lit room. On the floor in front of him kneeled a woman with black hair. "So, Jones, you have no idea what I'm talking about?" he asked in a high voice.
"No, master." She answered and looked up at him. All the color went out of her pink cheeks, as far as he could see it in the dim light. Her voice was full of fear. Tom knew she wasn't lying.
"That is good. He's still as predictable as usual." He laughed. "Now tell me, have you been able to get the files?"
"Yes, master." She pulled some papers out of her robes and gave them to him. When her fingers touched his long, completely white ones, she shivered.
"Thank you." Tom said, slightly amused. "I guess no one has suspected anything?"
"No, I asked Kingsley Shacklebolt for them, he's head of the Auror center now, I said I only wanted to look at them, and when he left me alone I copied them. He would never suspect me, My Lord, never."
"Well done." Said Tom, still in that high voice. He could feel her relief. "You may leave now. Remember to keep an eye on Severus."
The woman bowed and left the room. He was alone. He looked at the papers she had given him. It looked like a floor plan. That was exactly what he had wanted.
Tom woke up.
It was morning, as he could see a bit of sunlight coming through the high windows in the wall. Though there was not very much light coming in as they were in a dungeon. Mostly it was lit by the torches on the stone wall.
The other Slytherin boys were awake as well. They went down to breakfast. Tom knew he had been dreaming about Voldemort. The woman's face faded from his memories but he was sure he had seen her before. What was her name again? He hated it when he couldn't completely remember something from his dreams.
At breakfast he heard an girl named Blaise Zabini pointing at him and whisper something to Pansy Parkinson. They both giggled. 'What was this about?' he wondered and looked at them. Blaise was even uglier than the pug- faced Pansy, she had her usually black hair that was nearly as greasy as Snape's and a nose like his. The eye color was also the same. Maybe she was somehow related to him. Tom certainly wouldn't ask her.
After the breakfast Dumbledore guided him in an empty room. They looked at each other.
"Well, Tom, has it all worked? Have you done as I told you to?" asked the headmaster.
"Yes I have." Answered Tom.
"You must be feeling bad about your sorting. I have to admit that I expected something like this."
"It's okay. After all I'm related to Slytherin."
"Exactly. That doesn't mean that your character is wrong in any way."
"I know."
"Is there anything you want to tell me?"
'The dream. I stayed with Voldemort in the summer. He knows I'm his son.' "No. Why?" Tom said. Dumbledore looked him straight into the eye, clearly trying to do Legilimency. Tom closed his mind to him as he had learned, and after a few seconds Dumbledore looked away.
"I was just concerned." He said. "You need to go to your classes now. Goodbye."
Tom looked at the schedule which Snape had handed out at breakfast. Then he went to Double Potions with the Gryffindors, where Snape for the first time didn't hate him, so it was a lot more fun, if you can say that from any class where Severus Snape is the teacher. He sat next to Kevin Pearson, who appeared to be a bit like Colin Creevy and was talking pretty much.
Then they had Charms and after that they went to lunch. On the way Tom saw Ron and went over to him inconspicuously.
"Hey Ron." He started.
"Hey." Ron said uncomfortably.
Silence.
Ron broke it. "So you're now... in Slytherin."
"Yes. I mean, the hat wanted to put me there before, and now it just... did it."
"Yeah, right."
"Are you upset?"
"Of course not." Ron said, but Tom could sense that it was a lie. "I mean, it's not your fault, and also not that with You-Know-Who, you just always get all the trouble, no one blames you. We have to get used to it."
'He's talking like I have an incurable sickness or something like that.' Tom thought, but he said "Yes, thank you, Ron, you don't know how much that means to me. You and Hermione are my very best friends and will always be."
Ron's ears glowed a bit red.
"Oh, wait, what did Ginny say?" Tom added.
"Ginny? Lupin told her about you and Voldemort, and she, well, she started crying, because she thought of the diary I think, but then Luna Lovegood, she had to wait outside, came in and talked to her alone, after that everything seemed to be okay with Ginny, I mean, we were all shocked when you were sorted into Slytherin, but Dumbledore talked to us about that last night." Ron said, looking at the floor. Tom didn't ask what Dumbledore had told them, that wasn't really important.
"So, um, does Luna know it then, too?"
"No, Ginny said she doesn't. Did you have that new teacher yet?"
"No, only Flitwick. We'll have her tomorrow."
"We're going to have her in the afternoon. I'm curious how she'll make it, the book sounds all right."
"Certainly better than Umbridge."
"Who wouldn't?"
"You don't know where Hagrid is, do you?" Tom asked hopefully.
"No idea. I hoped you knew. Do you think he's hurt?"
"I don't know. Let's hope he's okay."
"Dumbledore would have told us if he had been eaten by a Screwt, wouldn't he?"
"I can only hope so."
"Let's go to lunch, then." Ron said and they went to lunch, where they sat on each their tables. Tom was really happy, he hadn't been sure if Ron would still talk to him, in the Triwizard Tournament he hadn't.
Tom listened half to Malfoy making jokes about Harry/Lupin and exchanged looks with his friends at the Grffindor table.
At the staff table, Professor Dumbledore whispered something into Professor McGonagall's ear, and they both smiled.
So, finished for today.
Did you like the chapter, did you hate it?
How do you like the way Ron and Tom's talk turned out?
I'm still not sure about Tom's friends, I decided that they will be friends for now, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way. I want them to get a hard time, though, but I'm just unsure whether to have them really keep sticking together, Hermione yes, but Ron... I don't think I'll let Ron be Tom's friend all my fic...
... so who wants Ron out?
And do you want Tom to make friends with Malfoy, you only have to tell me your opinion.
And does any of you have an idea where Hagrid is? There's a hint in the book.
So, I'd like you to please REVIEW!
And constructive criticism is always welcome!
Greyhound Master : yes, right, I didn't really explain that, she just concentrated only on Lupin. Thanks for telling me!
HermioneGreen : thank you, I'll say that again, you have really reviewed all of my chapters, I'm so happy about that.
Allyanna : Thanks, I think Hemione won't do that. See? I got him a snake.
tia : Hermione certainly not... Ron... maybe.
Lady Ana Maria Lorinan : Thanks a lot!
Shania Maxwell : Thank you!
HoshiHikari4ever : yeah, you're right... thanks!
jeangab057 : if just Mrs. Rowling would think so, too... I like him much better there, too.
HecateDeMort : thank you, you'll see it...
Shmoo or spork : What??? Grand Hell? Well, thanks!
'Mes : Thank you, that was a long review! I'm glad you liked so many things.
chozen1 : Thank you!
So, here's the next chapter then.
""= normal speech, ~ ""~ = parseltongue, ' ' = thoughts, * * = telepathic speech
Chapter 8
The Slytherin table cheered loudly. Tom was a bit stunned, then walked over to the table. He noticed Dumbledore frowning. He looked at the Gryffindor table and saw Ron, Hermione and Lupin who looked all shocked again, about as much as on the train. Ginny had her face buried in her hands. Hermione said something into Ron's ear. Tom had the very strong feeling that it had to do with him.
"I knew you'd make it!" shouted Malfoy through the noise. Fortunately there was no empty seat near Malfoy, so Tom sat down on the other side of the table, between a forth-year boy and a seventh-year girl. The names of the first-years were called in alphabetical order, and they were sorted, too.
Then Dumbledore stood up again. "Now you're all hungry so I won't keep you from feeding yourselves. Now enjoy the feast!" He clapped his hands and food appeared on the tables. Tom put something on his plate and looked up at the staff table. Hagrid was missing and there was Professor Grubby-Plank sitting on his usual chair. Why did she have to replace him again? Where was he?
He looked up and down the table for a new teacher. There was nobody new sitting there. But they had to have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! Was it possible that Dumbledore hadn't found anyone? The ministry couldn't just decide on a person again, could they? But Dumbledore had said that the Educational Decrees didn't have to be followed anymore, so that was out of question. And they had a decent new book, so they HAD to have a decent teacher. So why wasn't one there?
"What are you staring at?" asked the girl next to him. She had long brown hair with some blond highlights in it. Tom noticed she was wearing a head girl's badge.
"What?" Tom asked, tearing his gaze from the teachers.
"You've been looking up there for minutes. I was only wondering what's so interesting." She said and studied the staff table. "No new teacher there, strange... except Grubby-Plank Oh, you don't know the teachers, do you? That man over there's our house teacher, Professor Snape. The others... " she told him all the teacher's names and their subjects. "Hagrid isn't there, though. He's our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, I think Grubby- Plank's replacing him again. I wonder where he is, last year he wasn't there at the beginning of the year, too. Most of this house dislike Hagrid because he's friends with Harry Potter and sometimes his lessons are a bit... dangerous. I think he's rather okay, though. I mean, he likes monsters, but... I think they're quite interesting, too, and the others should be happy, some people are so keen on everything that has to do with the dark arts, you know, and then they're complaining about those creatures, with another teacher the subject would be much more boring, when I started it we had another teacher and it wasn't interesting at all. When we got Hagrid, it was really good at the beginning but then Malfoy" she pointed at Malfoy "caused him some trouble, and he went on with the boring animals we had stopped with the year before. But after that the lessons got better again, and I personally think we couldn't have a better teacher. Oh, sorry if I kept you from eating, my name's Judy Jennings, by the way."
"My name's... "Tom began.
"Tom Riddle, I know, Professor Dumbledore said it before." Judy interrupted him.
"Oh, yes."
Suddenly the door smashed open noisily, and a woman with a parrot on her shoulder came running in. Every head in the Great Hall turned towards her. She blushed, although Tom had no idea how she managed it for her face was in the color of some kind of dark violet. Sweat was running down her face and she was panting heavily. Her hair was hanging around in her face wildly, fallen out of some kind of knot.
"Sorry... I'm late..." she panted, massaging her ribs. "... I... missed the... train... Jackie... that's my... parrot... didn't want to... be late... I... ran..." she fell on the floor and fainted. The parrot somehow screamed and flew up.
The whole school just gaped at the woman. Then Dumbledore rose up and said "Students, this is Professor Kate Candy, your new teacher in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I think she should be brought into the hospital wing. Would you be so kind, Severus?" he said, smiling and eyes-twinkling. Snape levitated Kate Candy and went out with her, the parrot flying behind them.
Whispers broke out everywhere in the Great Hall.
"What was this about?"
"This woman teaching us to defend ourselves?!"
"I don't believe it."
"I only hope she's nothing like Umbridge."
"Do you think she was attacked?" (from a very stupid person who should wash his ears)
"I'm looking forward to her lesson, we'll know how she is then."
"Seemed rather nice to me."
"Do you think she always looks like that?"
"What's she got that bird for?"
When they had finished with eating, Dumbledore told them that Hagrid had missed the beginning of the year again and would come back later, then they sang the school anthem and he sent them to bed. Everyone stood up. Some people started telling rumors around about were Hagrid could be. Tom tried to see over to his friends. Hermione noticed it and smiled at him. Ginny gave him a pitiful look and made a movement towards the Slytherin table. He smiled back at them. No one noticed.
A new prefect brought them down to their common room. It looked exactly as it had in their second year. Well, what should have changed anyway? The Gryffindor common room was always the same, too. But Tom liked it better because of the friendlier atmosphere there. Then he wondered if he would like the atmosphere there at the moment.
Tom shared his dormitory with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Theodore Nott, Lars Daniels and Kevin Pearson, the last two were the only ones whose parents were no Death Eaters, though he wasn't completely sure. The beds were similar to those in Gryffindor, the only difference was that the covers were green.
Tom went to bed but couldn't sleep. He talked to Sylvie for a while until she couldn't stay awake anymore. Then he was thinking about his friends, and though they had seemed to be taking the news quite well, wondered what they were really thinking, now, when they were also lying in bed, what they might be worrying about, what they had maybe thought but not told him, maybe they were mad at him, maybe they would even stop being friends with him... now this was going too far, that was nothing to think about, that wouldn't happen, so stop thinking it. And now, as he lay in bed and it was quiet, except that Crabbe and Goyle were snoring, he started to become extremely worried about Hagrid. Had something happened to him during the holidays? Maybe he had hurt himself or something like that...
Early in the morning Tom drifted off to sleep and dreamed about the sorting hat that told him that he had to go back to Gryffindor. He was glad about that, but when he asked for the reason it told him it was because he was in fact Dumbledore's son and he would turn out just like him. Tom found this much worse than being Voldemort's son, even more now that his view about both men had changed. He started yelling at the hat that it was lying, but then Professor Candy came and gave him a birthday cake that suddenly transfigured into a giant budgie. The budgie could speak and said that it had eaten Ron. Hermione appeared and screamed that it was his fault because it had been his cake. He tried to defend himself and tell her that Professor Candy had given it to him and that he didn't want it, it wasn't his birthday, but she couldn't hear him . . . the dream changed . . .
. . . T0m felt taller than usual, he was standing in the middle of a dimly lit room. On the floor in front of him kneeled a woman with black hair. "So, Jones, you have no idea what I'm talking about?" he asked in a high voice.
"No, master." She answered and looked up at him. All the color went out of her pink cheeks, as far as he could see it in the dim light. Her voice was full of fear. Tom knew she wasn't lying.
"That is good. He's still as predictable as usual." He laughed. "Now tell me, have you been able to get the files?"
"Yes, master." She pulled some papers out of her robes and gave them to him. When her fingers touched his long, completely white ones, she shivered.
"Thank you." Tom said, slightly amused. "I guess no one has suspected anything?"
"No, I asked Kingsley Shacklebolt for them, he's head of the Auror center now, I said I only wanted to look at them, and when he left me alone I copied them. He would never suspect me, My Lord, never."
"Well done." Said Tom, still in that high voice. He could feel her relief. "You may leave now. Remember to keep an eye on Severus."
The woman bowed and left the room. He was alone. He looked at the papers she had given him. It looked like a floor plan. That was exactly what he had wanted.
Tom woke up.
It was morning, as he could see a bit of sunlight coming through the high windows in the wall. Though there was not very much light coming in as they were in a dungeon. Mostly it was lit by the torches on the stone wall.
The other Slytherin boys were awake as well. They went down to breakfast. Tom knew he had been dreaming about Voldemort. The woman's face faded from his memories but he was sure he had seen her before. What was her name again? He hated it when he couldn't completely remember something from his dreams.
At breakfast he heard an girl named Blaise Zabini pointing at him and whisper something to Pansy Parkinson. They both giggled. 'What was this about?' he wondered and looked at them. Blaise was even uglier than the pug- faced Pansy, she had her usually black hair that was nearly as greasy as Snape's and a nose like his. The eye color was also the same. Maybe she was somehow related to him. Tom certainly wouldn't ask her.
After the breakfast Dumbledore guided him in an empty room. They looked at each other.
"Well, Tom, has it all worked? Have you done as I told you to?" asked the headmaster.
"Yes I have." Answered Tom.
"You must be feeling bad about your sorting. I have to admit that I expected something like this."
"It's okay. After all I'm related to Slytherin."
"Exactly. That doesn't mean that your character is wrong in any way."
"I know."
"Is there anything you want to tell me?"
'The dream. I stayed with Voldemort in the summer. He knows I'm his son.' "No. Why?" Tom said. Dumbledore looked him straight into the eye, clearly trying to do Legilimency. Tom closed his mind to him as he had learned, and after a few seconds Dumbledore looked away.
"I was just concerned." He said. "You need to go to your classes now. Goodbye."
Tom looked at the schedule which Snape had handed out at breakfast. Then he went to Double Potions with the Gryffindors, where Snape for the first time didn't hate him, so it was a lot more fun, if you can say that from any class where Severus Snape is the teacher. He sat next to Kevin Pearson, who appeared to be a bit like Colin Creevy and was talking pretty much.
Then they had Charms and after that they went to lunch. On the way Tom saw Ron and went over to him inconspicuously.
"Hey Ron." He started.
"Hey." Ron said uncomfortably.
Silence.
Ron broke it. "So you're now... in Slytherin."
"Yes. I mean, the hat wanted to put me there before, and now it just... did it."
"Yeah, right."
"Are you upset?"
"Of course not." Ron said, but Tom could sense that it was a lie. "I mean, it's not your fault, and also not that with You-Know-Who, you just always get all the trouble, no one blames you. We have to get used to it."
'He's talking like I have an incurable sickness or something like that.' Tom thought, but he said "Yes, thank you, Ron, you don't know how much that means to me. You and Hermione are my very best friends and will always be."
Ron's ears glowed a bit red.
"Oh, wait, what did Ginny say?" Tom added.
"Ginny? Lupin told her about you and Voldemort, and she, well, she started crying, because she thought of the diary I think, but then Luna Lovegood, she had to wait outside, came in and talked to her alone, after that everything seemed to be okay with Ginny, I mean, we were all shocked when you were sorted into Slytherin, but Dumbledore talked to us about that last night." Ron said, looking at the floor. Tom didn't ask what Dumbledore had told them, that wasn't really important.
"So, um, does Luna know it then, too?"
"No, Ginny said she doesn't. Did you have that new teacher yet?"
"No, only Flitwick. We'll have her tomorrow."
"We're going to have her in the afternoon. I'm curious how she'll make it, the book sounds all right."
"Certainly better than Umbridge."
"Who wouldn't?"
"You don't know where Hagrid is, do you?" Tom asked hopefully.
"No idea. I hoped you knew. Do you think he's hurt?"
"I don't know. Let's hope he's okay."
"Dumbledore would have told us if he had been eaten by a Screwt, wouldn't he?"
"I can only hope so."
"Let's go to lunch, then." Ron said and they went to lunch, where they sat on each their tables. Tom was really happy, he hadn't been sure if Ron would still talk to him, in the Triwizard Tournament he hadn't.
Tom listened half to Malfoy making jokes about Harry/Lupin and exchanged looks with his friends at the Grffindor table.
At the staff table, Professor Dumbledore whispered something into Professor McGonagall's ear, and they both smiled.
So, finished for today.
Did you like the chapter, did you hate it?
How do you like the way Ron and Tom's talk turned out?
I'm still not sure about Tom's friends, I decided that they will be friends for now, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way. I want them to get a hard time, though, but I'm just unsure whether to have them really keep sticking together, Hermione yes, but Ron... I don't think I'll let Ron be Tom's friend all my fic...
... so who wants Ron out?
And do you want Tom to make friends with Malfoy, you only have to tell me your opinion.
And does any of you have an idea where Hagrid is? There's a hint in the book.
So, I'd like you to please REVIEW!
And constructive criticism is always welcome!