She walked through the Hallways to the library but her heart wasn't into it. How could the professor have done something like that to her, no matter what he said, this was an immutable shame. Surely a Griffindor would have been better, a Ravenclaw, but not a Slitherin, and why on earth did the professor have to choose that particular Slitherin. "the best student..." The girl muttered to herself before entering the library. She looked across the room, and for a second hoped that Riddle would not be there- that would mean that she had at least done her duty of going there and seeing how Riddle would be absent then this would grant her the liberty of leaving, after all it couldn't have been expected of her to sit around and wait in the library all day. But sure enough her attention was drawn by a dark haired boy sitting at a table, looking bored and annoyed. The girl walked to his desk and sat down reluctantly at the table.

The older Mathlida looked at Tom Riddle and she could feel hot tears in her eyes forming, yet she blinked them away immediately- sadness being replaced with bitterness. She had been certain that with all these years that had passed the pain surely had subsided, but it wasn't true. Her memories had become much like drugs, she lived for them and from them and yet they were the cause of her deepest misery and sadness. She had made a vow a long time ago never to think of that time she spent at Hogwarts, yet now this old man beside her had made her brake this vow. "You're late..." said Riddle coldly. "I just found out..." said the young Mathila trying to seem distant and calm. "Isn't this delightful...I have to give up my time to spend it with you..." he said with a vague tone of sarcasm. "Trust me this isn't exactly a trip to Honeydukes for me either..." she snapped back. The two just stood there for a couple of seconds eyeing each other threateningly. "Can't say I figured out yet who he was trying to punish in the first place…" Riddle looked at her smirking -this had the immense gift of making the girl feel quite stupid, yet she suppressed the feeling. "You need to turn that into a goblet of wine for tomorrow..." he pointed towards Mathilda's rabbit that was sticking it's head out of her school bag. "I'm not daft, I know what we have to do…" she said and put the rabbit on the table. " Good boy Rupert...Erm..." she said confused not remembering the spell. "Well go on, you know what you have to do, do you not?" he asked arrogantly and Mathilda frowned at this "Of course I do..." she said confidently. "Eyes of newt and ears of swine, turn this rabbit into wine!" Mathilda said and pointed her wand at the rabbit. She knew perfectly well that this was not the spell that the professor had given out, yet she also had perfectly no idea of what that spell was- she hoped however, that through some miracle of Merlin it would still work. No such luck was to be found as the rabbit turned into a fuzzy white goblet with wine in it. Riddle looked at it amused though he was quick to lower the corners of his mouth once more. "Well I did it didn't I?" she asked glaring "It's the first time I ever saw a hairy goblet..." he said arching his eyebrow. "Well correct me if I'm wrong but you didn't specify what kind of goblet you were looking for..." Time passed and no matter how much she would try she still could not get the spell right, but was much to proud to ask for it from Riddle, who kept eyeing her attempts in an amused superiority. "Are you sure you're not a squib?" he asked suddenly while leaning in towards the table, his tone of voice was filled with cynicism. Mathilda frowned at him, yet something was different about her, her hair started to get longer and longer and turned purple. "Does this answer your question?" she asked quite serious not moving her eyes from him and still frowning. Riddle looked at her slightly surprised by this but only for a second before regaining his pose. "You're a metamorphogus..." he tried to say uninterested but Mathilda could pick up traces of astonishment in his voice. "Really?" She asked in fake shock. "I'm quite surprised you haven't blown yourself up with it till now..." he sneered back. Mathilda squinted her eyes at Riddle as she placed her wand next to the goblet which had started to hop away. "It's not exactly like I've been parading it around now is it..." she said sharply "So you can turn into anything?" he asked ignoring her answer. "Probably...It's hard to control... It kind of gets out of hand when...-" she paused she somehow knew it wasn't a good idea to tell him those things so instead she decided on recapturing her gobblet. "When what?" he asked squinting his eyes with interest and leaning towards the desk once more. ... Riddle had taken an interesting stand towards the girl within a split second. Yet Mathilda did not return his tone of voice, the fact that he gathered interest for her only when he found out about her power made her realize all the more what kind of person she was dealing with...Still, though she would have denied it, that did not mean she was not enjoying the attention. Mathilda perceived this as a challenge though and continued as if uninterrupted, but with a much more determined tone "- when i have strong emotions. Everything does actually..." Riddle smirked at this. "You should learn to control those then...They can make a person weak..." he said while examining his wand uninterested. "Not always..." Mathilda corrected and caught the boy's attention once more who folded his arms smirking. "Oh so that's the reason why your vehemence towards Slitherins is so delightfully obvious? Perhaps if you would hide it a bit more, they-" he stopped and smirked before correcting himself "-we wouldn't bother you so much then..." Mathilda chuckled. "I do not make a habbit of letting people get away with the sort of things you lot do or say. I can stand up just fine for what I believe and I guarantee you I'll come out winning. I may be a ghastly transfigurationist but I'm a hell of a dueler." "Modesty is so becoming of you Torch." He said bluntly his tone filled with sarcasm. Mathilda raised her eyes to him once more "I had no intention of sounding conceited, I simply know where my value lies." "And who taught you?" "My mother..." she said looking him in the eyes. "You must be proud of her..." he said leaning back on his chair. "I'm proud of my father as well..."she said glaring at him knowing full well that he had knowledge that her father was a muggle. "Why?" he asked chuckling as if Mathilda had said something incredibly ridiculous. "He taught me things you won't learn in this school or another..." "And i believe stubbornness was one of them...seeing how you seem to refuse to ask me what the spell was in the first place." Mathilda grumbled "Look Riddle I didn't ask for your help, as much as i am sure you did not ask to be the one to help me, and trust me I did try to talk the professor out of it and send me to someone else... Sadly it didn't quite work out as well as I planned which is why I'm here in the first place now isn't it!" she said raising her voice slightly. "So much hatred on your behalf Griffindor…" "I don't hate you Riddle… I couldn't care any less of you." The tone she had used was so calm that it shocked through indifference- Riddle eyed her again closely. "Lepus intra vino" Riddle said ignoring her last comment and smirking. Mathilda's expression remained blank- she had expected some form of retaliation which had not come- she knew he wanted something as he became too nice, too quickly. "Yes , that's going to be easy to remember..." Mathilda tried once, and the rabbit turned into a goblet but with ears and a fluffy tail, the next time she tried she turned the rabbit into a rat with ears and it only seemed that she was getting worse by the minute. She groaned in annoyance and started to have arguments with the things she would transfigurate the rabbit into. At one point, tired and frustrated she simply knocked her head on the table. Riddle watched her amused yet did not insult her in any way. "You're doing it all wrong..." he said casually. " I've kind of noticed that..." she said watching her rabbit turn into a larva. "Well there goes my dinner…I think i turned this rabbit into everything that flies, crawls, or swims by now… Oh get back there!" She said exasperated waving her wand and returning the larva, which was trying to desperately get away, back to its original position. Riddle's lips curled slightly into a meek smile which he quickly subsided as his eyes met hers. He seemed a lot different than when Mathilda first started to talk to him, which was why she was frowning at him, she knew something was wrong she knew he wanted something and was quite certain what he wanted to ask her but she had to keep quiet, and let him speak first- still she could not bring herself to ignore the smile which she had goten a mere glimpse of. "Look it's not that hard, recite after me..." Mathilda did as she was told. "Well good you got that right, now look at my wrist, the way it moves..." he said the spell flicking his wand and the rabbit turned into a goblet filled with crimson red wine. Mathilda suppressed a smile. "Your turn now..." he said watching her. "I can't get the ruddy wrist movement right though..." she said frowning " Let me help..." he said and got up. He sat on the chair next to her and snaked his hand around hers. This was the last thing that Mathilda had expected and within a second she could feel her cheeks becoming bright red; she did not dare look him in the eyes but merely gazed at her hand suddenly paying very much attention to the movement. "Leepus intra…" Mathilda started. "Lepus…" Riddle whispered calmly and clearly close to her ear so she could understand it right. Tensing up, she nodded her head feeling the blood rush to her cheeks even more. She gulped slightly dew to her nerves acting up "Lepus intra vino…" she said and the rabbit turned for the first time into a goblet of wine. Mathilda's face was suddenly brightened by a big broad smile and she looked at Riddle pleased with herself. "By yourself now..." She nodded and frowned, in deep concentration as she grabbed her wand. "Lepus intra vino!" she spoke and flicked her wand as Tom showed her. The rabbit turned once again into a beautiful goblet. "I did it..." she said astonished. "And it only took you about 2 hours to learn..." Riddle commented. "Well I'm sure the spell will come in handy when I'll be turning into an alcoholic…" The girl said. "Erm...well Riddle, I never thought I'd be saying this to you but... thank you" she said with great strain. "You're a talented witch, I'm sure, you just don't know it yet...If you concentrate, and with the right help I'm sure you'll improve. Plus, since you've been able to keep it hidden for so long, I think you already mastered metamorphogy fairly well for someone of your age, I heard of adult wizards who still have problems with theirs. It's actually truly extraordinary that you've managed to keep it hidden for so long..." he said. "And why is it so extraordinary?" she asked placing her books down and arching an eyebrow. "You needn't be so defensive Mathilda… I'm not judging you by your skills in Transfiguration. Nor do I intend on thinking less of you because of your… gift…on the contrary, it managed to raise my interest." He ended looking at her smugly. So that was it, that was what it was about, she was right. She took a deep breath and raised her head high. " I'm quite curious about something..." she said quietly and sweetly. "Yes?" he asked looking at her more attentive. "Do you actually think that I'm stupid enough to fall for this?" Riddle frowned a bit as he did not understand. "Just because I blushed when you put your hand over mine, do you think I'd be such an idiot? But i guess that's a stupid question, since you did try it in the first place... If you wanted to see me transform all you had to do was ask Riddle. Not put on that rather ridiculous and obviously fake scene..." she said getting up. Riddle smirked coldly and Mathilda realized that never till that moment had she had so much distain for someone, not even Mulciber. Mathilda could actually see Riddle's features darkening, biting down on his lip so as to not let out the outburst of anger he felt pulsating through him. "So show me then..." he demanded coldly as if transforming was beneficial for her. Mathilda picked up her books and looked at him. "No..." she said. "Because you're like all the rest of them…" At this Riddle glared daggers at her. "Looking a bit flustered aren't you Torch…" he sneered referring to the red planted in Mathilda's cheeks. The girl gazed into Riddle's eyes menacingly, but was quick to calm herself down. She picked up her books once more. "You may fool everyone else, even the teachers, but you're not fooling me... You and all your cronies can go and slither under your little rock..." she hissed and made an attempt to leave. As she turned back to take the goblet with her and Riddle grabbed her wrist. "Never talk to me like that again..." he said calmly yet still holding a firm grip on her hand "I kindly suggest you let go..." Mathilda said smiling. Riddle did not do so. The girl turned her head and cheerily called out. "Oye Priam!" Mathilda yelled as she saw Priam Diggory pass and Riddle quickly let go of her hand, leaving behind the red imprint where his hand grasped onto Mathilda's. "Hello Mathilda...Riddle" the new-comer said nodding at the last, and Tom smiled and nodded his head as well. " Priam, I kind of need some help with Transfigurations... May I impose on your mental sanity and bugger you with some questions?" the girl asked jokingly. "Would be my pleasure Mathilda..." Diggory said chuckling "Ah thanks..." she said turning away and not paying Riddle any attention what-so-ever. "Is that a new robe?" Mathilda asked sweetly as she locked arms with the Hufflepuff boy. "Why yes it is..." the boy said smiling. "Looks lovely on you Priam." Mathilda complimented and edged him on towards the door. "Thank you, I'm glad you like it... Erm, see you around Riddle..." he turned his head slightly, and Riddle nodded again smiling. Mathilda however continued walking as if she had not noticed him. The two were off; Mathilda's laughter being heard through the library while Riddle was at the same desk, his eyes glistening with anger.