Hey all! Good to see you here again, it is good to know some people like this story! A/N: I don't own any of the things you recognize, and if some of you guys are wondering why everything looks familiar, that's because a lot of dialogue from HBP was used in this chapter, the chapter in Half-Blood is called 'The Secret Riddle.' Yep, I don't own this. Please enjoy, read and REVIEW! Here is Ch. 5, Magic Encounter.
"Bloody hell." Ron whispered, "Bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell."
"Ron, you really shouldn't curse." Hermione budged in.
"He almost killed two kids at the age of eleven, Hermione! He was evil!" Ron was near tears.
"Ron, why are you crying?" Hermione asked softly.
"He freaking killed my family, Hermione. To hear that, it's just not a walk in the park for me. He tortured two kids!" Ron was bawling now.
"Ron, it's okay. Everything's going to be alright now. It is over, Voldemort's gone." Harry gave Ron a pat on the back.
"Okay." Ron's lip was still quivering, Hermione held him in a tight embrace.
Since that sinister day in the cave Tom has kept to himself, mostly. In fact he harasses most of the kids that get in his way, but he has yet to be caught in the act. Dennis and Amy have been scarred, maybe permanently; they spent most of their time in bed or talking to psychiatrists for most of the month following their trip to the beach. Tom found that very humorous when he heard.
At this exact moment, Tom was in his room, just sitting, and thinking mechanically. One wouldn't have to be a mind-reader to tell what he was thinking about: his father. The fact that Tom had been abandoned greatly disturbed him, and although he was full of bitterness and spite, didn't want to give up completely on his father. Although he would never admit it aloud, he hoped that his father would still come and rescue him.
"He's got to come some time. He has got to." Tom whispered to himself. Oh shut up Riddle! If your father ever loved you, you wouldn't be in this orphanage right now! He hates you and you know it, just like your mother! "No, that's not true, he has to come. He wouldn't leave me, daddy." Although Tom was speaking in gibberish, the point came across clearly, he still thought of his dad as the aviator with the plane who would rescue him, even though he hadn't come once in the eleven years Tom had resided in the orphanage. Admit it Riddle, if he had cared for you he would have come by now. He wouldn't have left you here with these imbeciles, these nitwits. "Shut up! Just shut up, I know he is going to come back!"
Tom could hear footsteps, and he knew they would come in his room in a second, he knew they were coming, it was something special he could do, he prided himself in being able to hear these footsteps. So Tom quickly wiped his eyes and nose, and to the world no one could have guessed he had just been crying and yelling at himself, he grabbed a book and jumped on top of his bed, looking innocent, when Mrs. Cole and a strange looking man with a weird suit and auburn hair and beard came in. He gazed intently at his book, although he wasn't really reading.
"Tom? You've got a visitor. This is Mr. Dumberton – sorry, Dunderbore. He's come to tell you – well, I'll let him do it." Mrs. Cole started, and she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
Oh no, not another doctor, they don't want to take me to an asylum do they? What was she talking about? What does he want to tell me
"How do you do, Tom?" The man with strange clothes and auburn hair asked. He looks peculiar, but not out of place, odd, but not his appearances that make him so…strange. The strange looking man offered Tom his hand, "I am Professor Dumbledore."
"'Professor'?" It sounded strange to Tom's tongue. She is not taking me to the loony bin, no way! "Is that like 'doctor'? What are you here for? Did she get you in to have a look at me?" Tom pointed at the door, although he was completely absolutely sure it had been Mrs. Cole, she had never liked him.
"No, no." Professor Dumbledore was smiling. What does he think so funny? I am most certainly not mad. He is the one that looks mad.
"I don't believe you," Tom started to say. "She wants me looked at, doesn't she? Tell the truth!" You ass! You will not get your hands on me! Leave me alone! Tom had done it again, he had started to use his magical energy (unbeknownst to him it was magic)…
it didn't work. Tom was awfully put out by this, he was used to getting what he wanted from his victims.
"Who are you?" Tom asked sourly.
"I have told you. My name is Professor Dumbledore and I work at a school called Hogwarts. I have come to offer you a place at my school – your new school, if you would like to come." He still won't tell me! Who does he think I am? I am not so easily misled as that!
"You can't kid me! The asylum, that's where you're from, isn't it? 'Professor,' yes of course – well, I'm not going, see? That old cat's the one who should be in the asylum. I never did anything to little Amy Benson or Dennis Bishop, and you can ask them, they'll tell you!" Tom was furious, he wasn't going to the asylum, he wasn't insane!
"I am not from the asylum, I am a teacher and, if you will sit down calmly, I shall tell you about Hogwarts. Of course, if you would rather not come to the school, nobody will force you-" Dumbledore was cut off.
Like they could! No one can tell me what to do! "I'd like to see them try."
"Hogwarts, is a school for people with special abilities-" Dumbledore was again interrupted.
There he goes again! I am not insane! "I'm not mad!"
"I know that you are not mad. Hogwarts is not a school for mad people. It is a school of magic." Dumbledore said quite factually and calmly.
Eh? What did he say? Did I hear him right, magic? "Magic?" Tom could hardly get the word out.
"That's right." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling again.
"It's…it's magic, what I can do?" Tom was excited. I am special, I can do magic!
"What is that you can do?" Dumbledore asked inquisitively, although Tom didn't mind his curiousness.
"All sorts," I'll tell him what I can do! I'm boundless! "I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to." Much more, oh yes, I can do so much more.
"I knew I was different." He was in prayer, or it seemed like it. "I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something." So much I can do! I'm limitless!
"Well, you were quite right," Dumbledore was staring strangely at Tom now. "You are a wizard."
He says it as if it isn't such a big deal! He says it as though I can't change the world to my liking! What is he, not sane, with this kind of power I could – wait a moment. "Are you a wizard too?"
"Yes, I am." The tall man said, calmly.
I doubt it, you're such a liar, such an ass. "Prove it," I've got you in a trap now you old fool. "Tell the truth." Tom commanded.
Dumbledore's eyebrows raised in an unspoken question, "If, as I take it, you are accept-ing your place at Hogwarts –"
"Of course I am!" Tom interrupted quickly.
"Then you will address me as 'Professor' or 'sir.'" Dumbledore instructed with a serious look in his eyes, the twinkle of laughter was gone.
Tom's tone of voice changed, "I'm sorry, sir. I meant – please, Professor, could you show me –?"
Tom looked delighted when he saw Dumbledore pull a long thing piece of wood from the interior of his suit jacket. Dumbledore pointed his wand towards Tom's armoire in the corner, but the look of joy and interest in Tom's face quickly changed to anger and shock. All my stuff's in there! What's he doing blowing it up? For, yes indeed, the wardrobe was on fire. Tom's fists clenched and unclenched he was walking towards Dumbledore; then the fire was out. Gone, quenched, the flames just stopped.
Tom looked greedily at Dumbledore's wand. "Where can I get one of them?" To think, all the things I could do with one of those. All the power I would have. Nobody would dare question me, my authority would be endless.
"All in good time, I think there is something trying to get out of your wardrobe." A knocking sound could be heard, as if something or someone was trying to get out.
"Open the door." Dumbledore commanded. Tom did so, there was his box shaking and rattling as if fit to burst. "Take it out."
Tom did what Dumbledore said. "Is there anything in that box that you ought not to have?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, I suppose so, sir." Tom said blandly. Oh the nerve of him, I deserve to have these things and he better lay out of my affairs!
"You will return them to their owners with your apologies. I shall know whether it has been done. And be warned: Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts." Dumbledore said in a serious tone.
Tom mumbled a, "Yes, sir" in response.
"At Hogwarts, we teach you not only to use magic, but to control it. You have –inadvertently, I am sure—been using your powers in a way that is neither taught nor tolerated at our school. You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to allow your magic to run away with you. But you should know that Hogwarts can expel students, and the Ministry of Magic—yes, there is a Ministry—will punish lawbreakers still more severely. All new wizards must accept that, in entering our world, they abide by our laws." Dumbledore lectured.
Tom mumbled another, "Yes, sir." Tom seemed to be thinking about something. "I haven't got any money."
"That is easily remedied," said Dumbledore, who handed the young boy a pouch filled with Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. "There is a fund at Hogwarts for those who require assistance to buy books and robes. You might have to buy some of your spellbooks and so on secondhand, but—"
"Where do you buy spellbooks?" Tom interrupted rather rudely, not thanking Dumbledore for the money he had just received.
"In Diagon Alley. I have your list of books and school equipment with me. I can help you find everything—"
I don't want your help, you old fool! "You're coming with me?" Tom asked.
"Certainly, if you—" Dumbledore yet again was interrupted.
"I don't need you. I'm used to doing things for myself, I go round London on my own all the time. How do you get to this Diagon Alley—sir?" He said all this very quickly, not wasting a breath.
Dumbledore handed Tom his school supplies list and quickly told Tom how to get to the Leaky Cauldron. "You will be able to see it, although Muggles around you—non-magical people, that is—will not. Ask for Tom the barman—easy enough to remember, as he shares your name—"
Tom sighed as if that last sentence annoyed him more than the rest of Dumbledore's lecture.
"You dislike the name 'Tom'?" Dumbledore questioned.
"There are a lot of Toms," Tom sighed. I am special. I am not like those other Toms, I have power unknown! Tom quickly switched the subject. "Was my father a wizard? He was called Tom Riddle too, they've told me." He hates you! He hates you! You don't want to be a Tom!
"I'm afraid I don't know," Dumbledore said softly.
"My mother can't have been magic, or she wouldn't have died." Or maybe she hates you! If I were magic I wouldn't want to die. Well she did, she hates you! "It must've been him. So—when I've got all my stuff—when do I come to this Hogwarts?"
"All the details are on the second piece of parchment paper in your envelope. You will leave from King's Cross Station on the first of September. There is a train ticket in there too."
Tom nodded. Dumbledore stuck out his hand again, Tom took it this time. "I can speak to snakes. I found out when we've been to the country on trips—they find me, they whisper to me. Is that normal for a wizard?" I doubt it, I am special. I am probably the only one. Talking to snakes, who else can?
"It is unusual, but not unheard of." Dumbledore answered after taking a moment of thought.
"Good-bye, Tom. I shall see you at Hogwarts." Dumbledore bid farewell, leaving the room.
I am special, I can speak to snakes. I have magic powers! I can do anything I want! Oh, the power, the ideas, what I want to do—it's all limitless! That old fool, he will look at me with weakness and adoration one day, for I, surely I, will be leader will be renown world wide!
I hope all you guys liked that! Sorry, to those who thought it boring, that chapter was necessary and I promise there won't be anything as talkity talk as that chapter again. I promise. If you would like to critique something, feel free, if you have ideas for this story please put it in a review, if you would like to comment/compliment me that's great too. Thanks for reading! Sorry for the long wait... oh, and did any of you notice something when Tom was thinking, he never ever said a word that has something to do with him, if you can review and tell me what that word is I'll put a special mention of you next chapter!