Sorry I haven't updated in forever. First, I had three A.P. papers due (all on the same day). Then, I had a speech competition Friday and an oratorical competition next Thursday (wish me luck). And I have a four page paper on a disease due Wednesday. Plus, my calculus teacher is off his medication and has gone completely psycho...again. Plus senior night was last week and I got into both of my 'first-choice' colleges. Doesn't sound like a bad thing, but I have to decide where to go.

RANDOM FANDOM: I was actually going to ask you about the stalking thing, because alot of your guesses are eerily close. I see Tom and Voldemort as two seperate people, too. Kinda like Darth Vader and Ani. He's not Voldemort, until he's evil. I'm glad you liked the Jell-o; I went back and forth about putting it in. I actually got the Spanish idea from my profesora de espanol. She hated that I kept talking in English in class and threatened to curse me so I'd only speak Spanish. As for the height thing, I just thought it was a funny visual. And I'm not entirely sure what a 'purple passion' is either. But my Gram says it so I figured it was right for the time period.

TESS/LB: I've already emailed you guys about most of your comments, so this is a formal thank you for my b-day present. I loved it. For those of you who haven't read it, go to Prophetess LionBoy and read Truth or Dare. It's really good.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing I own. Except Levi, who isn't even in this chapter.

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.
After lunch came Tom's favorite class, Potions.

Marie burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Tom asked indignantly. She couldn't stop long enough to answer so a slightly less hysterical Theodore answered for her.

"You...Potions," was all he managed to get out before succumbing to laughter.

"Oh...guess it wasn't that believable then."

"No," Theodore said wiping tears from his eyes. "I doubt anybody who didn't know you would have believed that."

"Damn," Tom muttered.

"10 points from Slytherin, Mr. Riddle," a silky voice said from behind him. He spun to find Trewlans behind him. Trewlans was a short wizard, not much taller than his students, but he had a way of seeming 3 meters tall. His short, light blonde hair was always scruffy no matter what he did to it and his light blue eyes seemed to shine with an inner light. Most of the female students thought he was gorgeous. Trewlans was easy going and quick to laugh; exactly the opposite of your typical Slytherin. (He admitted once that the only reason he hadn't been a Ravenclaw was that wisdom is knowledge for knowledge's sake and he used his intelligence to get what he wanted out of the world.) His only fault was that he didn't treat all his students equally. Trewlans expected more from his own House than anyone else expected from the teachers. Unfortunately for Tom, Trewlans had chosen the orphan as his mentee and expected more from him than the rest of the House.

Tom was used to teachers expecting nothing from him, though, and having someone who wanted to know how he was doing and what he wanted to be and everything else was quite disconcerting. This caused him to be nervous in front of the Potions master, which in turn caused him to make numerous mistakes. Any mistake Tom made lost more points than any other student's mistake which made most of his year think he was an idiot in Potions. A humble student wouldn't care that everyone thought he was a prodigy in every class but one. Tom was about as humble as Louis XIV. Thus, Tom hated the Potions master with (to steal one of Theodore's favorite phrases) a purple passion.

"You should know better than to curse, especially in front of the Gryffindors," Trewlans said silkily as he glided around the group of students with a slight sneer at Marie. He hated the Frenchwoman more than Tom hated him.

The students trooped into the dungeon classroom. A fire was burning merrily in the hearth and mirrors had been placed strategically around the room to give it the impression that sunlight was streaming in. The tables weren't placed in the typical straight rows that teachers loved; instead it seemed as if Trewlans had taken a map of his classroom and threw pebbles at it. Wherever a pebble landed, that's where a desk went. Some weren't even facing the front of the room. First years had a tendency to hate it, but after three years of it being this way, most of the students didn't notice anymore. Most had actually forgotten that Trewlans had replaced a scary older witch who loved rules even more than her fifteen cats.

"Stay at the back of the room, students!" Trewlans called as he searched for something on his overflowing desk. (Nothing about the man was organized.) "I've decided to try something different this year. Most years, people partner up with those in their own houses and most like them. That's not going to happen this year. You are going to learn something about someone who is nothing like you. Ah ha!" He had finally found what he was looking for and pulled out two hats. Apparently, something about the colour scheme made sense to him, because he arranged them in a specific order. "Now most of you are going to be pulling your partners out of these hats. Some of you...well, it just seemed to make sense to put the Tagsaknowi twins together. But the rest of you have to draw from the hats." Trewlans reached for the role, but in digging for the hats, he's buried it somewhere in the mound on his desk.

"Disorganized, fool," Tom whispered to Theodore who burst out laughing.

"Another 10 points from Slytherin, Mr. Riddle," Trewlans said silkily as he finally pulled out the role. "When I call your name, reach into the hat I indicate and pull out a name." Things started out smoothly (the students did notice that they were being paired with member of the opposite sex and House, but decided not to complain) until Derrick Kensington was called. He was a pureblood from a wealthy family and the biggest male slut in the whole school. Of course, he pulled out Marie's name. Now both Theodore and Tom knew about Marie's...exploits, but they pretended not to for the sake of Theodore' and Marie's relationship. But putting her with Kensington was too much even for the mild mannered Theodore.

"Pardon my language, sir, but Hell no!" Theodore yelled. "I am NOT letting my girlfriend work with him. He's the biggest slut I've ever met; including..." Who knows how far he would have gone if Tom hadn't chosen that moment to hold Theodore's mouth shut. There's a distinct possibility that he would have called his girlfriend a slut. As it was Marie knew he had no faith in her. Trewlans took five points from Slytherin for the outburst and kept on as if nothing had happened. Theodore got out very lucky when he was placed with the resident Potions wizard, Trina Kensington. She was very much like Nott in that she was nothing like Derrick. Personally, (though he would never admit it) Tom hoped that Theodore would fall in love with Trina. Though that would never happen considering how devoted Theodore was to Marie.

"Lindstrom, Sherbert," Trewlans called in his silky voice. "Come on, Shibby, don't be shy! Reach into the hat and pull out your match." The girl in question closed her eyes and dipped her hand into the hat the Potions Master indicated. "Thomas Riddle," he read.

Tom knew he had to be hallucinating. There was no way he just heard that. Shibby Lindstrom did not pull his name out the hat.

"Mr. Riddle," Trewlans called, "Come here and shake Shibby's hand. Okay?" Tom knew it was an order not a request. He walked towards the front of the room feeling his insides turn to lead. Shibby reached out her hand and shook his quickly, but even the quick touch was too much for Tom. The lead turned to butterflies and he fled as nonchalantly as he could back to his position. By the time everyone had been paired up, class was almost over.

"Well, I don't see the point in holding you guys for five more minutes. At the back of the room, there are two bulletin boards. On one you will find an envelope with the name of the Slytherin in your group. In that envelope is your homework for this week. I don't care if it works, just brew whatever the instructions tell you to. It's just to see how far along you are and won't be graded. On the second bulletin board is a sign-up sheet. Sign-up for a time to work on your potion. No multiple sign-ups and no going over. And no sign-up for the same time as another group. Dismissed." Most of the students headed for the door, but Tom and Theodore both headed towards the boards along with a few other students.

"Is Wednesday at nine o'clock okay with you?" a melodic voice asked Tom. He turned to look at Shibby. "It's the only day I don't have a club meeting, but if you can't make it, I can leave something early."

"No...no...Wednesday is fine," Tom said in a stupor. "Do you want to keep the packet or...?"

"No...no...I'd prefer you keep it; I'm kinda scatterbrained some days."

"Okay then, Wednesday at nine here; I'll bring the packet and we can get the ingredients from Trewlans cupboard," Tom said still feeling as if this was impossible.

"It's a date then," Shibby said before turning bright red. She had just realized what she said. The girl stammered a goodbye and fled towards the door. Tom turned as if he was underwater and removed the packet from a bulletin board. Who said Potions was such a bad class?


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