~O~

Over the next few weeks, Tom found—much to his dismay—that the little runt, Malfoy heir was getting overly attached to him.

Especially since apparently it was summer vacation and the Malfoy twat had no other friends, besides some gargoyles called Crabbes and Goyle or Doyle, or something who between the two of them probably had the shared IQ of a retarded troll.

Draco—and that was a stretch—was the clever one of this trio. That is not saying much.

Tom, though, just had to grin and bear it; pretending to actually enjoy being Draco's friend and talking to him through the diary at all hours.

Did the boy really have no other hobbies? Did his mum and dad really pay no attention to Draco at all?

It was quite pathetic really how once Draco even carried the diary with him to the loo and continued talking to Tom while sitting on it.

Tom tried not to cringe and gasp in horror as he heard the plonk plonk plonk of Draco using the toilet

The ruddy fool had better not get any splashes on his sacred diary! (If Draco ever did, Tom Riddle would be sure to tell his other self, Lord Voldemort, to seek revenge on the boy-who-lived-to-use-Voldemort's soul as toilet paper!)

"Are you listening to me?" Draco wrote in the diary whiningly.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Do I have any choice?" he wanted to yell at the top of his lungs.

Instead, he switched to strategizing. "How many more days is it till you're back at Hogwarts?"

"Two days. Then I'll be back on the Hogwarts express."

"Oh thank god, finally." Tom stretched out his pages. Being awake with only Draco as company was about as dull as being asleep with no company. Sometimes, in fact, he couldn't tell the difference. It all seemed like a bad dream.

"You seem eager to leave the Manor," Draco wrote.

Tom shrugged his shoulders. "Not really. I just miss Hogwarts," he lied.

The only thing the 16 year old Tom Riddle looked forward to now, day in and day out, was meeting the mudblood Draco had told him all about.

Their new target: Hermione Granger.

"Tell me about the mudblood again?" Tom asked.

Draco laughed—writing 'hahaha' on the page—before the boy furiously began to write several paragraphs of everything he hated about the mudblood girl called Hermione Granger who always got the best marks and did everything to wreck Draco's first year and sabotage Hogwarts with her friends Harry and Ron, including how she helped stop Voldemort's return to Hogwarts last year.

Tom, of course, by this point knew all about Harry Potter, the boy who killed him as a baby.

But he had quickly surmised from Draco's stories that Hermione, not Potter, was the brains of that trio. And thus Tom's chief nemesis and the key to taking down Potter.

That made Granger her his chief enemy. Harry would be easy to pick off once he lost his brainiac friend...
...and once Tom Riddle had a body again: by consuming hers.

Tom began to laugh maniacally.

Accidentally, Draco began to see a bunch of menacing 'Ha ha HA HA HA HA HA! HA! HAAAA!'s appear on the diary pages...because Tom Riddle forgot to use his indoor voice when he was laughing.

Draco asked more skeptically by writing with his quill. "You're not planning anything this school year are you?"

Tom cleared his throat and held back his grin. "No not at all! I, solely, look forward to helping you with your schoolyear, Draco, and assisting in any way I kind with your endeavors of making it on the Quidditch Team and outsmarting your rivals like the mudblood and Harry."

"Good," Draco wrote. "I'll be packing you in my bag. Father thinks he gave this journal to that Ginny girl, but actually I switched the two with a journal that looks exactly the same."

Tom grinned. "Of course, Draco, you did well...just as I suggested. Your father has no idea. And furthermore, no doubt, you will soon be on the Quidditch Team if you continue to pester, I mean, ask, your father to make that donation to the Slytherin team!"

"You always come up with the best ideas, Tom. I look forward to this new year at Hogwarts with you by my side," Draco wrote excitedly.

"I do too," Tom wrote back, equally excitedly.

The fool didn't know half of what was coming. Tom had told Draco only the bare minimum about the Chamber of Secrets or his true designs.

Tom lay back and took a nap. He couldn't wait til he found his new host, stole their soul and had a body again. Then he would ditch Draco as soon as the boring sod was no longer useful. He might even feed Draco to the baskilisk.

It would all go according to plan...

Surely?

~o~