On the second to last day of school, Garrett again approached me and asked if I wanted to come out by the lake with him and his friends. My gut instinct was to say no, but a little voice inside my head felt differently.

Tom will be there… this could be my chance to see what he was really like, at the very least. I didn't know him at all. Reluctantly I told Garrett I would join him.

When I went down to the lake, things started out normally enough. Garrett was speaking and I chimed in with something trivial- I don't even remember what I said. At that point Tom turned to me and said, "I don't understand."

I was taken aback and tried to clarify what I meant, but he just continued staring at me. "I know what you meant," he said, his expression unchanging. "I was kidding."

I didn't know what to say to that. Tom turned out to be completely sarcastic and often rude. He entertained us with stories about chaos he created at the orphanage where he grew up and how he often snuck out the windows of Hogwarts at night. He seemed extremely strange to me.

Here's the sad part. As we were talking, Tom nonchalantly reached over to a Hufflepuff girl's bag and took a sack of candy from Honeydukes out of it and helped himself. I stared in horror at him, but Garrett just shrugged and whispered to me, "He always does that."

The ease with which Tom could take possessions from other people astounded me. He offered the candy to all of us, but Garrett just shook his head. "You know I don't eat stolen goods, Tom." Tom leaned back and chewed on a sugar quill.

I felt as if I could cry. Even after this terrible display of immorality, I was still attracted to Tom. Thoughts of him would haunt me throughout my summer vacation, no matter how much I tried to forget.

For awhile I honestly thought I had succeeded in forgetting about him. The summer passed by and while the first two weeks were hard, I eventually stopped thinking about him and even stopped having dreams about him. I figured I was cured completely and I would soon find another guy that I would be interested in.

Catherine even suggested I go after Garrett. He was, after all, a nice guy, even if he was a Slytherin. However, I just couldn't see myself with him. I didn't think too much about Garrett or Tom for awhile after that.

My summer passed by in the way that most summers usually do. Nothing too interesting happened, but nothing terrible either. I looked forward to heading back to Hogwarts, and I fleetingly thought of Tom Riddle again. Would I see him in any of my classes? Perhaps. But it didn't make any difference to me whether I did or not.

I had only been at Hogwarts a few days when I again saw Garrett. He came over to Catherine and me during our charms class. He looked a little melancholy, but smiled when he greeted us.

"How was your summer, Garrett?" I asked him.

"Oh, it was very good." He stared off into the distance.

"How is Tom doing?" Catherine asked, winking at me. She never knew when to be quiet about something.

"Tom Riddle? That jerk?" Garrett's eyes were flashing.

"Whoa, what happened between you and Tom?"

"I'll tell you what happened," Garrett began angrily. "We've only been here for two days, and already Tom has gotten out of hand. I mean, I knew he'd been stealing stuff all the time, I just never thought…"

"Never thought what?" I prompted him gently.

"He stole almost 20 galleons from me," he said in a depressed voice.

"That's awful!" cried Catherine. "That's a lot of money."

"It's not that," Garrett said uneasily. "It's just… I thought he was my friend."

There was an awkward silence. Finally I said, "Are you sure it was him?"

"Positive. It had to be someone that knew when I hide my money, and you know how Tom is."

It was bad enough that Tom had stolen little, meaningless things from people he hardly knew. Taking a large sum of money from someone that was supposed to be his friend was highly upsetting.

"He never hangs around with me anymore," Garrett continued. "He's got his new friends now- Avery, Lestrange, and some other boys. I don't like them."

I frowned. I didn't like those boys either. It was obvious that they were into the dark arts and often did bad, deceitful things. I couldn't understand why Tom would want to spend his time with him. He was so intelligent, and a school prefect! I was lost in thought all the way to my next class.

Catherine and I split up as I headed down to the dungeons, since she wasn't continuing her Potions studies. I made it to class just in time, and scanned the room to see who was there. No Tom. I felt a simultaneous wave of relief and disappointment.

Professor Slughorn jovially greeted the class and showed us a few different types of potions. The first day was always an easy one, so I allowed my mind to drift off a little bit. I had attended all of my classes at this point, and Tom wasn't in any of them. It looked like I wouldn't have to face him much at all this year.

As Professor Slughorn began informing us about the rare ingredients in Polyjuice Potion, the large dungeon door creaked open. In swept none other than Tom Riddle. He said to Slughorn, "Sorry, Sir, Professor Dumbledore needed to speak to me about something."

"Quite all right, dear boy, quite all right!" said a grinning Professor Slughorn. He was quite fond of Tom. "Just take a seat anywhere."

Tom sat across the room. I had been watching him the moment he walked in the door. At that moment he turned and looked directly at me, inclining his head slightly. He did not say anything and his face did not even give any sign of recognition. It was quite possible he had forgotten all about me.

I slumped down in my seat and hoped he would stop staring. It was just the very beginning of what would turn out to be a long year.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A/N: This is one of my longer chapters, I believe, most probably will be a little bit shorter. Thanks to mastermahgol, 404, xxmadcowluvverxx, Phantom'sJediBandieGirl, and Lauressa for reviewing!

Phantom'sJediBandieGirl- Yeah, I was afraid of that. But just as there are people now that have uncommon names, I suppose I can make an excuse by saying that maybe he was one of the few people that had that name back then, but it didn't become popular until later on.

I love reviews and always take to heart what anyone says, good or bad!