DISGUISED INTENTIONS
II
Once they reached the prefect compartment, they found that the Head boy and Head girl were both Gryffindors. Pebble looked at both of them and immediately fell ill- she already know that being a Slytherin they would grant her and the rest of the slytherin prefects hard and daunting tasks. Although she could not see Riddle's face she knew that he was thinking the same thing. Once Tom closed the door behind them they were immediately told to sit next to the Ravenclaw 5th year prefects, Pebble smiled when she saw Audria waving excitedly at her. Pebble wasted no time and immediately sat beside her friend while Tom Riddle took a seat across from her at the end of the table. She could tell from his face that although he followed the Head Boy and Head Girl's commands, he fumed inside; it was not his nature to be subjected to anyone.
"To our new prefects, welcome." greeted the Head Girl. Nazar Waters smiled and she stood from her seat and walked behind the new prefects, she was kind yet her detest for Slytherin was undeniable. She stood behind Tom Riddle and placed her delicate hands of his shoulders, he took no pleasure from her contact but she continued, "Due to the state of our world, we must take extra precautions this year, as prefects, we expect you to be mature and to place other students before yourselves."
"This is why we have extended patrolling hours and other duties have also been added to your tasks." said Patrick Lynch, the head boy, he's athletic, smart, well-off and generous- to girls he was the perfect bachelor but to Pebble he was another Slytherin hater, though she never spoke to him, "We have high expectations- we rely on prefects to be responsible, punctual and thorough." Patrick continued as he revealed the stack of papers beside him, he charmed them and it quickly floated to the people it belonged to.
Nazar unglued herself from Tom Riddle and made her way back to Patrick. Although Nazar must hate Pebble for being a Slytherin, Pebble in return adored her. Every move she took was elegant, she was highly respected and by far, Nazar was the smartest witch she ever knew.
"Those are your patrolling schedules. As you noticed not only will you be patrolling with you fellow house prefects, you would also be spending time with prefects from different houses." said Nazar.
"This is to encourage unity between houses." continued Patrick.
All prefects immediately shifted their focus from the Head Boy and the Head Girl onto their patrolling schedule, as Pebble expected, her schedule was full, every week day she would be patrolling different parts of the castle with different people and to her dismay, all of her partners were males. She would be spending Monday nights with a sixth year Hufflepuff, William Bright, her Tuesdays with a seventh year Ravenclaw, Archibald Blackwell, her Wednesdays with Patrick Lynch himself, her Thursdays with a sixth year Griffindor, Jacob Humphrey and lastly her Fridays with Tom Riddle. She looked up evidently disappointed, yet she saw some of the girl prefects' faces beaming with wide smiles. Audria was one of them, "You look pleased." whispered Pebble, her voice hinting jealousy.
Her smile widened, "My Saturdays are with Jacob Humphrey!" she hissed.
Audria has always adored the Gryffindor, he's tall, humorous, approachable, adequately smart and like Patrick Lynch, athletic and dashingly handsome. Although the year has only begun, he is already expected to take over Patrick's position for next year.
"As you can see each and every single one of you will, at one point or another, spend time with myself and Nazar. This is for us to be able to get to know you and to keep track of your progress, punctuality and your commitment to your duties." Patrick said then continued, "As you may have noticed, we are starting school on a Friday, your duties will not commence immediately, it will be withheld until classes start on Monday."
Pebble felt relieved, she didn't want to start her first night with Tom Riddle, "Where will we be meeting for our patrols?" asked Pebble.
"Good question, and thank you for pointing that out," said Patrick as he caught a glance of Pebble, "We will be meeting infront of the Great Hall before and after patrols."
"Is that it?" asked another Slytherin arrogantly.
Nazar looked at the Slytherin, her gaze burning through him, "No, all Slytherin prefects would have the pleasure to 'thoroughly' make sure that the train is empty. No students left behind in and out of the train."
"Well done Parker!" hissed an angry Slytherin.
"You're free to go." said Nazar as she took her seat next to Patrick.
Pebble stood and stomped her feet as she walked out of the Prefect compartment. Audria ran after her and sounded, "Nazar is so nasty to Slytherins."
"I wouldn't blame her, if Parker was that arrogant to me, I'd do more than make him do patrol the train, I'd curse him to oblivion." defended Pebble.
"Don't tell me you still adore her, after that?"
"Like I said, I'd do the same if I was faced with such a person like Parker."
"Anywho, this is me." said Audria as she opened the small compartment containing Beatrice and two other Ravenclaws, "Pebble!" greeted Beatrice, her voice was full of excitement, "Come and sit with us!"
"In a while... I still have to get my trunk." smiled Pebble.
"Well hurry and get your things, I was about to tell Emma and Sophia a really funny story about my summer." Beatrice giggled. Pebble saw Audria shake her head and rolled her eyes mockingly.
"I'll hurry then."
Pebble was soon out of their sight, she immediately headed for her compartment, passing Constance and Amelia on her way, they were laughing merrily at her, "Nice clothes Grimshaw." Amelia laughed and quickly walked away. Pebble stopped once they disappeared behind her and observed what she was wearing. Nothing was wrong with it, it was perfectly fine. She then looked behind her, wondering at what Amelia meant and when she looked forward, she saw Tom Riddle's figure, standing so overly still infront of their compartment door. Pebble ran to him, she stood beside him and followed his gaze and to her embarrassment, her trunk was wide open with her clothes scattered around the small space and even worse her undergarments were openly displayed against the glass windows. She wanted to run after Amelia and Constance and pull all their hair out but instead she stood beside Riddle and clasped her hands on her open mouth.
"Are you going to fix that up or are you going to continue staring at it?" asked Tom Riddle, he was evidently irritated. He turned his back, as if he was avoiding himself from seeing her cotton, soft coloured undergarments.
Pebble didn't say anything, but instead she pushed Tom Riddle aside and slammed the door shut. With haste she started picking garments out of the floor, seats and overhead compartment, after giving her some time, Tom Riddle turned around only to find her still on the floor picking up her remaining garments, "For Merlin's sake... doesn't this girl know how to use her wand?" he whispered to himself as he walked in, Pebble blushed as he saw her holding her brassier.
Tom Riddle chanted something and soon all of her clothes were flying to her trunk neatly packing themself into perfectly aligned stacks, Pebble pulled herself from the floor and dusted her skirt, "Thank you." she muttered unable to look at him. He sat down across from her and took pleasure in watching her shaking hands shut the small brown trunk. She grabbed of the small brown block and turned to face Tom, "I'm sorry you had to see my undergarments." she whispered, her voice being drained away as she said the last words.
Tom just returned her look but said nothing, instead he reached for his large book and opened it to the previous page and turned his attention to it, after a while he felt her presence disappear and when he lifted his head to see that she had already gone, he smiled.
**
When Hogwarts Express finally reached their destination Pebble turned to the four Ravenclaws and said, "I have to stay till everyone is gone, just go on ahead of me."
"We'll see you later then?" said Audria.
"Have fun!" smiled Beatrice as she got out of the door.
Pebble was soon alone, she walked out to find students buzzing out of their compartments, with their luggage behind them. She saw Parker and other Slytherin Prefects walking out of the train and into the platform, "Where do you think you're going?!" questioned Pebble.
"Why does it matter to you Grimshaw?!"
"You're all suppose to stay-" said Pebble but was rudely cut off.
"Good little Grimshaw would take care of that for us! Goodbye!" laughed the group of Slytherin prefects.
She silently cursed them and brushed them off casually, they didn't matter. She blamed them for Slytherin's low reputation, but Pebble was going to change that, or atleast she thought she was. She walked from one end of the express to the other, making sure that each compartment was empty, and to her surprise she saw Tom Riddle standing on the platform, also making sure that it was empty. She whispered to herself, "Well atleast you're not like 'them.'" Pebble then hurried to her compartment to grab her trunk. She stepped out of the platform to find that Tom Riddle was already gone. Fearing that everyone had gone, she ran to the carriages and found that there was only one left and that it was already occupied by Riddle and his minions, Gilroy Avery, Adrian Lestrange and Benedict Deveroux.
Pebbles eyes shot wide open, she had no desire to be within close range of Tom Riddle, again. She pulled her patrolling schedule out of her pocket and pretended to read it to avoid any contact with the four boys, as she walked hastily, a voice spoke out, "Planning on walking by yourself Grimshaw?"
She turned around only to meet Gilroy Avery's welcoming face, she smiled weakly and said, "Well that's one of the many foolish choices I can make."
"C'mon, we have a room for one more." He smiled as he jumped out of the carriage and immediately heaved Pebble's trunk into the small space. His strength seemed superhuman to Pebble as he lifted her baggage effortlessly, he then held his hand like a gentleman to her as if to assist her into the carriage. Pebble mentally admitted it, she could not resist his charm. Out of all the Slytherins, he was the one who stood out, in terms of manners that is, in terms of everything else, Tom Riddle wins hands down.
Pebble finally settled herself next to Gilroy and again thanked him for his kindness.
"Well, one must provide assistance to a fellow Slytherin." said Gilroy as the carriage started.
Gilroy Avery seemed to be the only one who was enjoying her presence, for not one of the rest of her company seemed to take notice of her. Benedict was urging to tell Tom something but he kept insisting to save the announcement for later. Adrian Lestrange was mouthing something to Benedict but since Pebble was not educated in that term of communicating, she knew nothing of the secret conversation.
Benedict and Adrian turned to Tom for what seemed like a request for approval. A moment of stare seemed to be the signal of approving their request, the two then turned to Gilroy, grinning as if plotting something.
"Pebble, have you ever been in a society?" Gilroy asked while looking at Pebble with great intensity.
"What do you mean?" Pebbled looked confuse. The boy's eyes, except Tom, stared hopeful at her.
"A secret society." whispered Adrian from across her.
She looked at all of at the boys who surrounded her, her mind wanting to attack them with questions.
Finally she replied, "NO… Why are you asking?"
"Is your dedication to Slytherin strong?" asked Benedict.
"I suppose you could say that…" Pebble now looked much more puzzled than she was before, "You do mean school right?"
"I suppose you could say that." repeated Benedict.
"Let's just cut this short." Adrian pulled both Pebble's arm and forced her to look at him, "We are offering you a place in our secret society."
"What exactly do you there?" she asked turning her head away as she felt uncomfortable looking straight at him in the eyes.
"Nothing harmful really." said Benedict and Adrian in unison.
Finally the carriage stopped to reveal that they have arrived at their destination. Pebble stood anxiously but before she was out of the small room, Gilroy asked, "So, would you like to take the offer?"
Pebble swallowed the big lump in her throat and said, "I'll think about it."
Pebble took her trunk in a rush and hurried off to the Great Hall but just as when she thought she escaped them, Tom Riddle appeared at her side, "What ever they ask you, the words spoken in the carriage tonight must not be revealed to anybody." he warned.
"It wont." assured Pebble.
"However, if you reach your decision and chose to accept the offer, you are welcome to see me or any of my acquaintances at any time."