DISCLAIMER: What you see is what you get. Unfortunately, I own nothing. Except Levi Jones. Tracie, Marie and Aki are real people. Tom and Theodore belong to the wonderous J.K. And my sister wants to name her kid Sherbert.

A/N: This takes place in Voldemort's fifth year. Which would be the year he opens the Chamber of Secrets.

Daunting Darkness: Thanks for the review. You were my first reviewer, but you didn't leave a name so you're not in it. Sorry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.(You can have the cookie instead if you want.)
Random Fandom: You weren't the first reviewer, but you were the first with a name so you got in! yay! You have a small part in this chapter, but it should get bigger in the next one. Unfortunately, I can't tell you who was chained to the wall. It's a secret. (Levi says she loves you too.)
Flying Squirrel 15: Thanks for the constructive criticism. You were very nice about it. Sorry about the pronouns. I work at the hospital so I'm used to talking about people without saying their names. And I'm going to try to explain stuff better. I went back and fixed some of the stuff that you complained about in the first chapter so maybe it's better. You got in here too! yay! Sorry about making you an evil bigot, but somebody had to do it.
Thanks to Weasley-Fancier and Ron's Only Girl for their reviews. Sorry for not talking to you guys directly. I just couldn't think of anything other than thanks.

A/N (part deux): My Theodore Nott is the father (or grandfather) of J.K.'s Theodore Nott. It's who the younger one is named for. Now on with the show.

Somebody warned me so I decided to put a blanket thing on all my stories (het, slash, gen,) Please, bring an open mind. Remember, everyone's life is not the same.
The next morning came too early for Tom. It seemed that his head had just hit the pillow when Theodore Nott, his roommate, began to shake him awake.

"Come on, Tom; if you don't get up now, you won't get any breakfast...and you won't know what classes you're taking. Get up." Theodore stood there for a few more minutes before shaking Tom even more violently. "Get up!" Tom rolled over and pulled the covers even higher over his head. Tom looked at the limp form of his friend (which looked like nothing more than a pile of lumpy blankets. "Tom, I'm going to ask you one more time. GET UP!" When his friend still refused to move, Theodore sighed and muttered, "I warned you. But you still didn't listen." He climbed onto Tom's bed and began to jump up and down as he squealed in a high-pitched voice the worst song known to man-kind: It's a Small World. After three seconds of this, Tom sat straight up in bed and grabbed his friend.

"Stop that," he hissed in a tone that foreshadowed who he would become. But this morning he was just a fifteen-year-old prefect yelling at his best friend.

"I warned you. I warned you several times; you can ask the guys. But you just rolled over and burrowed deeper," Theodore said brightly.

"One of these days, you will pay for this." Tom was trying to be threatening, but nothing could keep him from smiling at his best friend since first year.

"You've been saying that since the first day on the train. Get up. Get dressed. You have five minutes and I'm going to breakfast without you." Tom knew from experience that Theodore wasn't messing so in five minutes they were in the Common Room preparing to head for the Great Hall. Just one problem. Tom noticed Levi in the corner throwing things out of the trash can. He headed over there with an anxious Theodore trailing.

"Levi, if you don't mind me asking, what in the name of Slytherin are you doing?" Tom asked the disheveled little first year. She looked up at him. Her normally well-brushed, sleek hair was sticking up at odd angles with pieces of parchment and other bits of rubbish imbedded in it.

"Looking for my mother's necklace," Levi said, her voice breaking slightly. "I only take it off to sleep, and then I fasten it around one of the bed posts. When I woke up this morning, it wasn't there. I asked the other girls and Traci McGriffen said they had taken it and thrown it away. Said it was better for me if I forgot. It wasn't in any of the rubbish bins in any of the girls' dormitories so it has to be in this one. I have to find it; it's all I have of her."

"I know, Levi, I know," Tom said reaching out to comfort her. "Theodore here will help you get this rubbish out of your hair and I will look for your necklace." She looked up at Tom with something he had never seen before. "I promise we'll find it."

:---:

Five minutes later, a well-groomed Levi, an even more anxious Theodore, and Tom reached the Great Hall. Fortunately, one of the teachers had been late and breakfast had just started. Levi went and sat with the other first years, though she did keep a bit further from them than the night before. Theodore and Tom went towards the middle of the table so they could sit with Theodore's girlfriend (and Tom's other best friend), Marie D'Triage.

"Good morning, Bijou," Theodore said as he dropped into the seat beside Marie, kissing her briefly on the nose.

"Good morning, Zeodore, 'ou and Zom are late," Marie responded. "What zook 'ou so long?"

"We were trying to help one of the first years find a necklace. Apparently, the other girls don't like the fact that she's a muggle-born," Theodore said slathering grape jelly on a slice of toast.

"A muggle-born? En Slytherin? 'Ou must be jokin'," Marie replied before taking a big bite of bacon. (A/N imagine a french accent. I'm going to stop trying to type it.) Tom swallowed his orange juice before taking the question. (Theodore had just shoved half the piece of toast into his mouth.)

"No. She's one of those trial students."

"Trial students? Is she guilty of something?" Marie asked with a straight face. Both Tom and Theodore laughed before realizing she was being serious.

"Uh, no. The Department of Education thought it might be wise to see how young a student can handle magical training. That way when they get to university, they are better trained and much more prepared for work," Tom said knowledgeably. "They invited three students under the age of eleven to attend Hogwarts. An eight-year-old boy (he was sorted into Ravenclaw), a ten-year-old girl (she's in Ravenclaw, too), and Levi. Who's nine." Both Theodore and Marie stared at Levi who was currently having a fight with a knife and some eggs.

"I knew she was small, but I didn't know it was because she was younger," Theodore said. "Are you sure they knew what they were doing?"

"Yes," Tom said looking around before leaning in conspiratorially. "On the train ride up here, she was doing algebra work. I'd guess algebra two since that's what the book said on the front cover. And I checked some of it, she had gotten it all right. Levi's a genius." Unfortunately for the subject of this conversation, she chose this exact moment to fling eggs across the table hitting Tom directly in the face.

"Oopsie," Levi muttered down the table. She stood up and walked towards him trying to ignore the laughing Slytherins behind her. "Sorry. Had a fight with that egg. Not entirely sure who won."

"Why were you fighting with the egg?" Tom asked seriously. He was trying desperately hard to ignore the face that he had egg on his face.

"It has cheese on it." Tom just stared at her not understanding the implications. "No dairy with or after meat. It's not kosher."

"Then why didn't you try the scrambled eggs without the cheese?"

"They have those?" Levi asked.

"Yes. As a matter of fact," Tom picked up a dish of them. He reached out and pulled Levi's hand out palm up... "here you go." ...before placing a spoonful of them in her outstretched hand. Levi looked down at her hand for a second before responding.

"I deserved that." Then, she turned and walked back down to where she was earlier. As Levi sat down, she looked for somewhere to place her handful of eggs and decided that Traci McGriffen's hat was the perfect place. Fortunately for her, no one (other than Tom, Theodore, and Marie) noticed this little maneuver. Tom and Theodore both burst out laughing, but Marie just 'hmphf'ed. If that's a word.

"I can not believe you two would condone such actions. You're prefects for Christ's sake!" Marie said between 'hmphf's. Further berating was not to be, because Professor Trewlans handed all the prefects a giant stack of parchments. "What is this, sir?"

"That would be everyone's schedules," he growled in a low, menacing voice. "Because of theDepartment ofEducation, everyone has schedules on parchment now. And there's this 'Adopt-a-Class' crap."

"What's that?" Tom asked a bit put-out. Noone had told him anything about 'Adopt-a-Class' and he hated to not know everything.

"All of the older years take a younger year underwing. The fifth-year Slytherins are taking care of the first-year Slytherins. The sixth-years take care of the second years and the seventh years are taking care of the third years. Don't ask me why the fourth years aren't being taken care of or taking care of others. I don't know. Nor do I care. Pass these out." With that Trewlans thrust the stack of first- and fifth- year schedules at Tom and glide/stormed out.

"Great," Theodore said. "More work."

:---:

It took forever, but they had finally finished passing out those stupid schedules when the bell to go to class rang. Of course, Theodore and Marie had to wait for Tom to finish making his map for Levi.

"Tom sure has been acting weird towards her," Theodore said softly.

"Oui. If I didn't know better, I'd think he wanted the Mudblood to like him," Marie responded.

"You know I don't like that word."

"I know, Theodore, but that is what she is. Besides, I know he is doing this for a reason. I just have to find out that reason."

"Women's intuition?" Theodore asked.

"Something like that."

"You know what," Theodore said at normal volume. "Muggle Studies is very far away from here so I need to leave. Not that I don't love you guys, I just don't want to be late." Then, Theodore kissed Marie on the nose again and ran off.

"Sometimes I think he loves school more than he loves me," Marie said sulkingly.

"No, he doesn't," Levi said softly. "I can read people pretty well. He just wants to do well, because of expectations from someone else. If he had another choice, he would have stayed with you." Marie stared at this funny little girl as Tom glanced up from his map.

"Finished. Now go to class immediately," Tom commanded. Levi bounced out the door without another word. Both of them watched her leave and as soon as the door swung shut, "God, she's weird."

"You can say that again." Tom and Marie walked out of the Great Hall towards Arithmancy without paying much attention to where they were going. Which is why Tom walked into Shibby Lindstrom.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said.

"It was my fault." She stopped as she realized who she was talking to. "Hi. I was looking for you. I saw what you were doing for Levi and I wanted to say thanks."

"No problem. It was nothing. Um." There was an uncomfortable pause before he held out his hand. "Tom Riddle."

"Sherbert Lindstrom. Call me Shibby."

"Okay, Shibby." Tom said nervously.

"Shibby! Come on! We're gonna be late for Transfiguration if you don't get a move on!" another fifth year Gryffindor prefect yelled.

"That's Aki Tagsaknowi, my best friend. And alarum clock."

"Well, then you need to get going," Tom said. "See you, later."

"Yea, later." Shibby kept glancing over her shoulder as Aki drug her out the room.

"I saw that," Marie said accusingly.

"Saw what?"

"The way you helped her sister. The way you looked at her. The way you talked to her. You're in love with a Gryffindor."

"No." Tom said. "You're wrong. I'm not in love with a Gryffindor. I can't be in love with a Gryffindor. Both you and Theodore know my secret, so you should know that I can NEVER love a Gryffindor."

"So what you're the heir of Slytherin? According to what I was reading, Slytherin and Gryffindor were best friends before the whole Mudblood issue came up." Marie felt that she had won and walked into class.

"That woman has no clue what she is talking about!" With that Tom followed her in.


A/N (part three): What do you guys think? Review! Once again, CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is more than welcome. It's appreciated. First reviewer gets...I don't know yet, but it'll be good. Very good. MWHAHAHAHAHAHA. My bad.
Hope everybody has a HappyChannukah and a Merry Christmas and a Happy Kwanza!