Chapter five

The first week

Tom woke up early the next morning. It was a habit he had picked up in the orphanage: if you were the first to be awake, no one could prank you. He washed, got dressed and silently left his dorm with his diary and a book of curses. If last night was any indication, he would need to make sure he could look after himself. He also had

Nero Malfoy's threat of vengeance hanging over his head. He made a few notes in his diary, then put it aside and began looking at curses. There were a few gems in the book, but most of these hexes were harmless. He was getting a vibe from most of these Slytherins, which told him that if he was ever in a duel with them, they would use a worse spell than the jelly-legs jinx. Even so, he made sure that he knew the incantations and the results of the few good curses, then he put the books away in his trunk and left the common room. It was still too early for lessons or breakfast, so Tom decided to try the library. After Seth Malfoy's talk last night, he decided that it might be in everyone's best interest that he didn't spent much time in the common room. He wasn't wanted there and any bad feelings stayed in the common room, which meant that he should be reasonably safe from attack if wasn't there much. Tom was by no means a coward, but he didn't want to cause trouble. If he had no allies in Slytherin, then he wanted to make sure that he didn't turn them into enemies. He was perfectly happy for them to remain neutral around them.

He finally reached the library after many wrong turns. Finally one of the castle ghosts had pointed it out to him. He got the fright of his life when the ghost had walked through the wall just in front of him. The library was huge. The orphanage library, his old school library and all of the books that he had seen in Lister's study would only fill one of the shelves on the book cases in this room. He was the only one there in the library, save for the librarian. He had a sour look on his face, so Tom decided to steer clear of him. He went wandering through the shelves of different subjects. He chose a book on transfiguration to read. It was easily the hardest subject taught and Tom wanted to get a head start. More than that, he wanted to show everyone that although he had muggle blood, he was nobodies inferior. He hadn't mentioned his mothers name to the other Slytherins. He knew nothing about her and after his dorm mates had reacted to him, just because he had a muggle name, he didn't want to say anything until he knew more. For all he knew, she and her family could be the scourge of the magical world and although he didn't think his reputation couldn't sink any further in Slytherin, he wasn't about to test that theory. One day he would see if there was any sort of wizard genealogy books in this library.

He was so engrossed in his reading that he barley noticed the time. It was twenty five past eight. Lessons started at nine o'clock. He had to find his way down to the great hall, have breakfast and find out what lessons he had today. He walked as quickly as he could out of the library without running. As soon as he was out of the library, he ran down one of the corridors. Luck was with him this morning, as a trickle of students where coming out of their common room, also off to breakfast. Looking at the colours on their robes, Tom identified them as Ravenclaw. Makes sense, he thought, for their common room to be close to the library. He followed them at a distance until they were in the great hall. When he sat down, he received several glares but nothing more. Obviously Malfoy's warning was still in their minds. He helped himself to bacon, eggs, toast and jam. He was finishing his fourth piece of toast when the timetables came round. Herbology was first today with Ravenclaws.

Then charms followed by lunch. Then defence against the dark arts and transfiguration was last thing today. He grabbed a few more pieces of toast and left the table. He had left his bag in his dorm and it should be safe now to collect it. As soon as he picked it up he headed out to greenhouse number two.

Herbology could have been better. It started with Tom chatting with a couple of Ravenclaws who were also early. They were muggle born and were afraid of Tom at first, but started to be friendly when he told them he wasn't pureblood either. At that exact moment Bathory Malfoy and the other Slytherins arrived.

"Making friends with the mudbloods are we, Riddle?" she sneered, causing the others to laugh. The Ravenclaws retreated and Tom was alone again. As the lesson started, Tom was paired up with another Ravenclaw. He only talked to Tom to insult him, thinking that he was involved with the insults earlier. Tom ignored this; after years in an orphanage, you develop a thick skin to insults. Not everyone was as good at ignoring insults, however. A girl who had just been called a mudblood by the Malfoy girl picked a bud off the Exitiosus Sanies she was tending and threw it at her. She ducked, but Tom wasn't so lucky. He cried out in pain as the viscous green juice ran over his hand and started to make his flesh smoke. The Ravenclaws tried to tell their teacher, Professor Runner, that Tom had squeezed the bud through his own incompetence. Fortunately, she had been walking into the greenhouse when the girl had thrown it (she obviously didn't hear what the Ravenclaw had been called). She took ten points from Ravenclaw and gave a detention to the girl before sending Tom off to the hospital wing for the rest of the lesson.

Charms was mostly uneventful. As there were only Slytherins, there was no one to insult. Tom was still been ignored. The lesson was taught by Professor Flitwick, a tiny man who looked fresh out of school and sounded like he was breathing Helium. Today was only charms theory, wand movements and going over a lesson plan of what charms they would be taught.

A quick lunch later and they were in the defence against the dark arts classroom. Professor Xavier wasted no time. He had a glass tank containing a Red Cap.

"The Red Cap is a distant relative of the vampire," Professor Xavier informed them. "See his fangs? He uses them to drink blood." Professor Xavier then explained how to ward off the Red Cap, hinting that there may be a test on the subject in the near future. Tom paid rapt attention and took so many notes that he used up a whole two-meter roll of parchment and significantly lowered his supply of ink.

Last thing of the day was transfiguration. Professor Dumbledore gave a long lecture about transfiguration and then gave them all a match stick and asked they to transform it into a needle. Bathory was only able to make the match slightly longer and thinner. It had a small point at the end. Tom was the only one able to transform the match completely. Professor Dumbledore gave him ten point for Slytherin. He was especially impressed that the needle even had eye. The other students glowered at him. Obviously a pureblood been beaten by a mudblood is quite humiliating, Tom thought, smiling to himself.

After lessons were over, Tom went straight up to the library. It was a little more busy than earlier but only slightly. Obviously nobody could be bothered studying in only the first week. Tom finished reading the two chapters of the charms book they had been set for homework. He actually read up to chapter five. Then he made notes from some transfiguration books, potion texts and defence against the dark arts. He packed up his stuff and headed down to dinner, only to return once dinner had ended. He was finally shooed out of the library at eight o'clock. Having no choice, he returned to the Slytherin common room. Mercifully he was left alone today. He chatted to Nepenthe for a while before falling into a deep sleep.

The rest of the week seemed to follow a similar pattern to Monday. Only the lessons were different from day to day. Tom would get up early, write in his diary, head off to the library then to breakfast. Then lessons, lunch, lessons, library, dinner, library. He quickly chose his favourites and least favourite lessons, even though he was doing well in all of his lessons. He was board stiff in history of magic. The droning Professor Binns may know his subject upside down, back to front and inside out, but he was up there with watching paint dry on the interest scale. He was so old that he looked like he could have observed most historical events first hand. Tom wasn't a great fan of astronomy either. He preferred practical magic. Charms and transfiguration were amongst his favourites. He wasn't actively trying to show up the other Slytherins, but he studied hard and always found it amusing that although the purebloods bragged about how superior they were and how apt at magic they were, he was able to learn a new spell before they were.

He would enjoy potions a lot more if it wasn't for the Gryffindors. Professor Mevon was head of Slytherin and a no nonsense type of person. He was giving a quiz to see what level they were at when a Gryffindor decided to have some fun and curse Tom. He hit him with the Aphasia curse just as he was about to give an answer to a question about antidotes. Because of the curse, Tom couldn't form a coherent sentence. His answer came out as a jumble of meaningless, random words.

"Black fish paper. Bottle stop," he said. "Hail mutant Hamsters, Dolphin honeymoon pyjamas."

Fortunately, although everyone in the room got a good laugh at his expense, the professor recognised the curse. He performed the counter curse on Tom, who was grateful to be able to speak properly again.

"Thank you sir," he said. "I heard someone say 'Randomenta' behind me."

Mevon swept across the room and glared at four Griffindors.

"Well? If I must, I'll check your wands and find out for myself," he growled. Slowly, a boy with a ratty look about him raised his hand. The professor give him a look that could wilt a giant Redwood tree. "Well, it looks like I have found myself a volunteer to test out our potions," he snarled dangerously. The rest of the lesson passed without incident.

Although Tom was earning a lot of points for Slytherin, it didn't make him any more popular within Slytherin. In fact, several were furious that they were been beaten by a mudblood. This gave him another reason to stay out of the common room. He wasn't any more popular with the other houses either. Because of the points he was earning, Slytherin was ahead of the other houses and several people were still sore that he had indirectly caused them to loose points, like the herbology incident. Tom had to put up with trips and shoves in the corridor, as magic wasn't permitted. He wasn't as lucky in flying lessons. Although he was a very good flyer considering it was his first attempt, he didn't have the experience some of the students had. Four Gryffindors who decided to have a four on one duel cornered him. He deflected and dodged a few hexes before he got hit multiple times and fell fifteen feet to the ground below. He was released from the hospital wing at six o'clock that night with a guarantee from the matron that his eyes would migrate back to the front of his head by the morning. It is quite difficult to read a book or even sleep with eyes literally in the back of your head.

Tom was grateful when the weekend finally came. He used the time to organise his notes and gather his thoughts. Unfortunately he had forgotten about Nero Malfoy and was walking alone down a empty corridor, reading when he finally attacked. He suddenly tripped and when he couldn't get back up he realised that he was in another leg locker. Laying on the floor, he saw Malfoy and another second year advancing.

"No witnesses," Nero sneered. He cursed him and Tom felt a burning pain in his arm. He bit down on his lip. After years of been beaten, he wasn't going to cry out to this rich brat. The pain increased to the point it felt like boiling water was been poured over his arm. Malfoy, having had his fun, let his friend take over. This time the pain curse was aimed at his head. It started off feeling like a mild headache, but grew to feel like his head was about to explode. He still didn't cry out, but only just. Having had there fun by hurting other body parts, they left him there, in the leg locker curse. It took half an hour for the lingering pain to die down enough so that he was able to take the leg locker off himself. He suddenly became aware of a strange taste in his mouth. He spat on the floor. He had bit down on his lip so hard he had drawn blood. Flinching, he picked up his stuff and headed back to the common room.