May 13 1935

"It would do whatever I wanted,

For it was in my command"

It was 9 o'clock in the morning. Tom was walking the corridors when he heard two people arguing about something. He frowned and paid more attention to it after he heard his name.

"It's true! He threatened me only yesterday… Do you remember what happened to Pieter?"

'Billy…' he thought and he quickly hid himself around the corner of the hall and listened carefully.

'Of course I remember.. But do you really believe it was Tom's doing? I mean… how could he have possibly done that?' Tom peeked around the corner and saw that Billy was with his friend Carl. Billy moves his fingers anxiously around his scarf and Tom wondered how many different scarves he really had. He always wore a different one and it irritated Tom badly.

'But haven't you noticed then, that every time something strange happened, Tom was in some way involved in it..?' Billy said seriously.

'Of course I noticed,' Carl replied uncomfortable. 'But that could also be a coincidence… '

'Coincidence? Honestly?' Billy rolled his eyes. 'Then I might as well hope that I won't turn into such a coincidence…' They walked around the other corner and their voices slowly faded away.

Tom felt his nails digging holes in his palms. How did the brat dare to talk about him behind his back? He did told Pieter his fear for Tom taking revenge. Well… He was going to be right.

Tom turned around and walked to Billy's room. He stopped in front of Billy's door and gave a soft push against the door, it was still open.

His room was almost as empty as his, the difference was that a big green cage was placed against the back wall. Tom slipped quickly into the room and closed the door soundlessly.

He walked to the cage and looked through the bars. A white fluffy creature was sleeping quietly in the cage and you could see his back go up and down by every breath. Still irritated by Billy's thoughts he studies it. "Wake up, you stupid animal."

To his surprise the animal reacted immediately and stood up. It was a small rabbit, all white apart from the black spot on his nose.

Tom put his finger between the bars but the rabbit did not react. It stood still as a statue. Tom frowned, he didn't knew much of rabbits but he did now they didn't stand still for such a long period of time.

"Come here..," he whispered to the rabbit. Suddenly the statue came back to life. The rabbit put his ears in his neck and looked at the iron bars with strange looking eyes.

Tom jumped back just in time as the rabbit jumped straight through the bars, with an incredible force that was not normal for any other rabbit.

The bars fell down and rattled on the floor and the rabbit landed neatly in front of Tom's feet. Tom looked tensed towards the rabbit, standing in position to defend himself, but the rabbit stood still again. It looked at Tom with a strange absent look. Tom relaxed his shoulders and looked confused at the rabbit. What the hell was wrong with this foolish creature..?

"Lie dead," he said in commanding voice and the rabbit rolled around on his back with his paws into the air and lay completely still, like a dog would do.

"Stand up," Tom said and once again the rabbit obeyed. A warm feeling of excitement rushed through his body. He knew perfectly well that the rabbit hadn't learnt any tricks or whatsoever. Still it would do anything Tom wanted. The rabbit was in his command... He looked up and his eyes were fixed on the beams on the ceiling. An evil smirk crossed his face.

"How did you do it?" Mrs. Cole asked with a high-pitched voice and she smashes her hands on the table, standing between her and Tom.

"I..- what do you mean, Mrs. Cole?" he asked innocently. Mrs. Cole snorted unbelieving.

"Billy said you and him had some argument yesterday, is this true?"

"yes ma'am, it is," Tom replied extremely polite and he looked wondering at Mrs. Cole.

"Was that why Billy ran off screaming?" For a moment Tom looked at her with a hardened face but somehow still in a polite way.

"Yes."

"You said you didn't know why he ran off like that." Tom raised his eyebrows

"..which I still don't. It's not like I threatened him to death or something, of course not." He cocked his head slightly to the left. "Is this still about yesterday then? I mean… Did Billy tell you I did something bad?" Tom had meant to ask it casual but Mrs. Cole had heard the false note in his voice.

"So you did do something bad?" Mrs. Cole asked quickly while staring suspicious at Toms face.

"No, Mrs. Cole. I swear I didn't mean to upset Billy at all, like I already did yesterday."

"And you didn't do anything today by any coincidence?" she asked. Tom looked confused at her.

"Not that I know off, ma'am." He looked as unknowing and innocent as possible, and Mrs. Cole didn't trust it for one bit.

"So you haven't, coincidently, passed Billy's room today or been close to it." Tom had to think clear now, he couldn't allow himself to make any mistake.

"No ma'am, I haven't been near Billy's room, I was close to my own room all day long."

"But you were not in your room?" she asked suspicious. Tom was sure now that she had checked his room that afternoon.

"No ma'am, I wasn't." He quickly changed the subject. "What happened to Billy's room then?" Mrs. Cole straightened her back and still looked straight at Tom.

"Billy's rabbit died this afternoon." Tom frowned.

"I'm sorry to hear that, that must be a huge shock for Billy. But I don't see how that has anything to do with me..-"

"He didn't die of natural causes, it was done purposely."

"How terrible…" Mrs. Cole wasn't sure if that had sounded sincere or sarcastic. However, Tom noticed her hesitating at once.

"What did the person do then? Are you sure it wasn't an accident? I mean..-"

"Unless Billy's rabbit hung himself on the beams of his ceiling, it doesn't look like an accident to me, no." Tom looked at her with wide eyes.

"I never touched Billy's rabbit, Mrs. Cole, I didn't even knew he had one! And those beams hang on the ceiling, how am I supposed to get there?" He pointed at himself. "I'm not that tall, ma'am."

Mrs. Cole pursed her lips together and was obviously thinking of a possible explanation. Clearly she couldn't think of anything and she said:

"there have happened more strange things that seem impossible, haven't there Riddle?" For a moment his lips formed into a tiny smirk and Mrs. Cole looked sharply at him. But that was a game two can play… another minute they looked straight into each other's eyes. Mrs. Cole seemed to find it hard to keep looking at him and then broke the eye-contact like she had just burned herself at Tom's eyes. It took Tom some effort not to look amused by that.

"So you don't feel any guilt at the death of Billy's rabbit?" she asked without looking at him and Tom smiled.

"no… I don't feel any guilt at all at the death of it." Of all the things he said to her, only this was not a lie.