Chapter twelve

Third year

Tom sat looking out of the window of the Hogwarts express. It was raining heavily. Although it was only one o'clock, the world outside the train was dark. The landscape mirrored Tom's thoughts. His mind had been in turmoil since the encounter with the book. His diary had never had a single account as long. He had been only going through the motions over the remainder of the holidays. He didn't even complain when he was beaten. Earlier that morning had been a blur: Tom was surprised that he had gotten to the train in time. He just hoped that he hadn't left anything behind.

The door slid open, revealing the largest person Tom had ever seen in his life. Tom himself had grown considerably and was now pushing five feet, six inches tall, but this person made him feel about the size of a Cornish pixie. He was at least nine feet tall, with a wild mane of black hair and a ruddy face. He looked young, though, only about eleven.

"Don' mind if I sit in here, do yeh?" he asked tentatively. "Ev'ry other booth's full to burstin'."

"Certainly," Tom replied quietly. The huge boy smiled nervously and sat down across from Tom.

"Yeh in yer fifth year?" the boy asked.

"Third, actually," Tom responded softly, shifting his attention away from the window. "I presume you are starting this year?"

"Yeah. I can' wait!" the boy grinned. "Me name's Rubeus Hagrid, by the by. Yeh can call me Rubeus, but if I catch yeh callin' me Ruby, ye'll be in fer trouble." He laughed heartily. "What's yer name, anyway?"

"Tom. Tom Marvolo Riddle." Tom held out his hand, and Rubeus shook his whole forearm.

"Which House?"

"Slytherin," Tom said, watching the color drain a little from Rubeus's face. "We aren't really as evil as everyone says, though," he added casually. "Well, most of us aren't. Watch out for Nero Malfoy and his goons, though. Then again, you probably wouldn't have many problems with them."

Rubeus laughed again. "No, bullies never did start with me." He hesitated. "Wan' ter play Explodin' Snap?"

"I've never been one for cards," Tom apologized. "Do you have a chess set?"

"Only a Muggle 'un."

"That's fine. I actually find it distracting with the pieces yelling at you," Tom admitted.

Rubeus took a box out of his pocket. Inside were two sets of Muggle chessmen, carved nicely out of two different kinds of wood. Tom, as always, took the darker pieces and set them up, while Rubeus did the same with the pale ones. As they played, Tom's mind was on completely different things, however he welcomed the distraction of the game.

"Checkmate," Tom said, a note of triumph in his voice, as he cornered Rubeus's king.

"Yeh're good!" Rubeus said, impressed. "Great strategist, I'll give yeh that. Play again?"

"Well, Ioh, what the hell." Tom waved his wand and the pieces rearranged themselves. As they played, Tom and Rubeus exchanged life stories. From what he could gather, Rubeus had been raised by his father after his mother left when Rubeus was three years of age.

When asked to recount his own tale, Tom only gave the bare facts that he knew. That he was raised in a muggle orphanage all his life and knew nothing of the magical world until his Hogwarts letter. He left out all of the weirdness. There was nothing less likely to attract attention or get strange looks than by saying, "I'm also the heir of Slytherin and it's my job to exterminate all of the mudbloods in the school. Which class are you most looking forward to?"

The train pulled up at hogsmeade station in the pouring rain. Tom and Rubeus parted company. Tom was so glad that he didn't have to use the boats this year. It was only a short distance between the station and the horse drawn carriages, but he was wet through in that short distance.

The sorting lasted a long time. There were a few new Slytherins but Hagrid wasn't one of them. He was placed in Gryfinndor. At last the sorting was over. Professor Dippit stood up to address the whole school.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Before we indulge ourselves with this superb feast, I'm afraid you will have to listen to an old man's droning for a moment."

"Before we begin, I would like for you all to pay a moments silence for the passing of Katie O'Connell, who would have returned for her sixth year. Sorted into Ravenclaw, Katie was a spirited and caring young lady. She had high hopes to become a healer upon graduation, so that she could "help hold back death", in her own words. She was killed with her mother and two younger brothers in an air raid in August. She will be missed."

The whole hall fell silent, although Tom could tell that the rest of his house did so grudgingly. The name sounded common, so Tom reckoned that she was a muggle born. He glanced at Ravenclaw table and saw that they all had their heads bowed, some seemed to be muttering under their breath, as if they were praying for their friend. There were tears shed, from both male and female housemates: she had clearly been popular.

"Hogwarts is one of the safest places one can be," Dippet spoke again. "We must not give into the fear that Grindlewald is trying to plant. By carrying on with our lives as normally as we can, we are doing our bit to defy him."

He continued on for a while, and ended with the usual notices. At last, the start of term feast appeared. Tom immediately began loading his plate as full as he could. Around him, the rest of the school looked very subdued. Well, three quarters did.

"I can't believe that the old coot made us pay respect to a muggle bitch," a sixth year named Romulus Moon was saying, quiet enough so the staff table couldn't hear but loud enough so the nearest table could. The Ravenclaw's were beside themselves with rage and Tom was surprised that hexes didn't start flying. He just wanted for the feast to be over with, then he could get away from the murderous looks that were been sent at him by the other tables. Of course, in the common room, he would get murderous looks from the other Slytherins. Rock, Tom, hard place.

Once in the common room, Tom headed up to his dorm room. It seemed the other boys had decided to treat him as part of the furniture. They were talking about their summer activities without even looking at him. Tom decided that he liked this attitude: he didn't have to trade blows with them before going to sleep. He settled down and was soon asleep.

The next morning, Tom woke up at 7:30. Deciding for once that he didn't want to go to the library, he wrote in his diary and went down to the Great Hall. He ate as students trickled into the hall for breakfast. He didn't have long to wait until the timetables were passed down. He took one look at his and groaned. He was beginning to wish he hadn't taken so many classes. He was never going to get a moment to himself. He wouldn't be surprised if he had nightmares of been chased by angry textbooks by the end of the month.

By the end of the week, Tom collapsed on his bed, wanting to just sleep for the whole weekend. He began to reflect on the week he had had:

In Potions, they were given the description of the effects of a poison from the Professor. They had to research possible poisons that it could be, identify it and brew the antidote. This was one of those lessons where one couldn't skimp on research as in a fortnight, Professor Mevon would poison them all to test their antidotes.

In Transfiguration, they were transforming Tortoises into teapots and socks into scones. Dumbledore had also set them an essay two rolls of parchment and had said something about a tea party.

In Charms they were learning basic notice-me-not charms. Tom had an advantage in this class as he had been practicing these spells over summer, but he played it down. He didn't want anyone to know that he could do magic out of school.

In Herbology they had been dealing with Martian flytraps, which were just like giant Venus flytraps. Tom thought it stupid calling them flytraps when they also tried to take a bite out of him as he was watering it.

In Defence against the Dark Arts, they were currently studying cursed gems. They each had different properties; some would induce an enchanted sleep, some would burn flesh if touched. Others would cause nightmarish hallucinations. They had to identify the curses and break them. No one had been able to on their first try and it took Tom four attempts to break the curse while reliving some of his most violent beatings from Lister.

In Care for magical creatures they were starting off small. They were learning how to care for Kneazles and how to use severing charms on Crups.

In Study of ancient runes they were just learning the basics of translating for now. In Ancient runes, they would learn spells form other countries, in dead languages and other branches of obscure magic.

In Arithmancy Tom was in his element. It was easily one of the hardest classes there was but also one of his favourite. It was a combination of both math and magic. Using magical formulae, one was able to learn things about themselves, like their personality type. More advanced forms of arithmancy and someone could break down spells and wards, modify existing spells or create entirely new spells form scratch. He knew that Arithmancy was required for been a curse breaker and Magistruction (building wizarding buildings).

In Divination they were reading Tealeaves. Tom thought that it was an imprecise branch of magic at best but he stuck with it. Soon they would be moving on to crystal balls.

In History of magic he was at least able to catch up on his sleep (only if he desperately needed it of course). Binns was currently lecturing on the formation of the wand manufacturing code, which prevented certain species been hunted for wand cores, types of trees that were unsuitable for wood and other highly interesting facts.

In Astronomy, they were studying the phases of the moon and the affect different phases had on magic.

Needless to say, he had had a busy week and had a lot of homework.

Hi there. Just a short one this time, just to let you know I haven't abandoned it. The next chapter is when there is some proper action and you get a glimpse of Voldemort. I just want to get it right, not overly cheesy or a 'because he can' story. I've tried to avoid that from the start, making you want to pity Tom, not hate him. I've read too many stories that fall flat after one crap chapter, so I don't want that to happen. It will be up, just be patient.

PS Just a small note to stardust who reviewed a while ago. Yes, Tom is a Half blood. But in the early chapters he didn't know that. He still doesn't know much except for his name. Just wait and see.