A/N: First off, thank you all SO MUCH for your reviews…yeah, I've said this a billion times but they really mean the world to us :) We are so glad you're all enjoying this fanfic so far. Well, without further ado; Chapter 6!

Disclaimer: no, we do not own Tom Riddle (damn.) Nor, do we own anything from the HP world.

Chapter 6 - Duels and Meeting Old Relations

It had been a week into her new life, and Elena was proud to say she had adjusted very well. She excelled in all her classes (although that was a given seeing as she was repeating the whole year), she was definitely successful gaining many teachers' respects; especially Slughorn who forced her into joining the Slug Club…(again) and she had made a few friends (or so she hoped). However, the one thing she was not successful in was her mission. Sure, she was in every one of his classes but after potions he just seemed intent on ignoring her. Well, that was all going to change after Defence; she though hopefully, entering her classroom.

Defence against the Dark arts was taught by Professor Merrythought, who was absolutely in love with Riddle's fake personality. But then again, which teacher wasn't? Honestly, couldn't they see that he was going to turn into an evil, mutant half-snake half-corpse?

Scanning the room as usual, she noticed a faintly familiar blonde head. Isn't that the Gryffindor bloke who's friends with Potter? What was his name? Oh yeah Noah. Like Noah's Arc. Elena chuckled softly at her own (pathetic) analogy. He seemed nice and she was hoping she could actually make one decent friend. She assumed Charlotte was her friend but she was always off in some broom closet snogging her so called 'boyfriend'. Elena rolled her eyes.

"Hey can I sit here?" she asked

The boy seemed deep in thought, he was leant over with his back hunched, his eyes focused on a piece of parchment. Elena then noticed the quill in his hand. He was drawing.

"Hello?"

"What? Oh uhm, yeah sure," he quickly shoved the parchment under his thick textbook and moved over. Elena wondered what he was drawing.

"You're Noah," she stated.

"And you're Elena," he smiled, holding out his hand. Well, this was going rather well. They were however distracted when a short slightly-plump man walked into the room, tapping his wand on the board. A piece of chalk floated up scratching the name 'PROFFESOR MERRYTHOUGHT' onto the board.

"Good evening class, how delightful to see you all back in one piece for yet another year at Hogwarts! How are you?" he exclaimed.

This guy is our teacher? Elena thought, what on earth was Dippet smoking?

Noah probably shared her thoughts as he too was rolling his eyes. So was the rest of the class…except Muriel Weasley who was positively drinking every word in.

"So Class, I thought a wonderful way to start this year would be to have an inter-class Duelling competition? Isn't that marvellous?" he paused to take in the disinterested and bored looks of the class, "Well I can see you are all very excited, you can start with the person you are sitting next to and the winner will move on, we will keep going on until we reach the final two!"

The class stared.

"Well, stop Dilly-Dallying and start Duelling!"

"Well, let's get this over with shall we?" Elena picked up her wand, twirling it around in her fingers as she faced Noah.

"Don't worry Grey, I'll go easy on you," he smirked playfully.

"Go easy on me? Pshh, we'll see," she dared. If there was one thing that Elena loved, and it was competition.

"EXPELLIAR…," Noah started.

"Protego," Elena quickly deflected the spell before shouting back quickly, "Pertificus Totatalus."

Her partner stiffed up completely falling flat on the floor.

"Brilliant, Brilliant my dear," the professor praised, "Now onto your next opponent."

After beating opponent, after opponent, after opponent there were finally only three pairs left. And Elena certainly intended to win this. The thing was, as Elena had been winning duel after duel, Tom Riddle too was doing the same. And of course they just HAD to be paired up again. Well, Elena thought, it had to happen eventually.

She barely had time to lift her wand when she was hanging upside down from the air.

"Liberacorpus," she thought to herself as she fell back down on the ground. She had an urge to slap that ridiculously shocked expression off Riddle's face. Does he seriously think he's the only one that knows non-verbal spells? Well, I'll show him. Grinning, Elena flicked her wand casually as Riddle was thrown back against the wall. His expression was priceless.

Oh crap. Elena what were you thinking? This is VOLDEMORT he could CRUCIO you like any second!

Elena took his momentary shock as a chance to hit him with another curse. Well, lets see if your pretty little face can take this Riddle.

"FURNUCULUS," she bellowed as Riddle's face erupted with boils.

"Locomotors Mortis," he pointed his wand at Elena angrily before muttering his counter curse. Pity, Elena was starting to enjoy his new boil-coated face.

She cast the stinging hex, as once again, his faced puffed up. Elena burst out laughing. He really hated losing didn't he?

He raised his wand, prepared to shoot out a spell. Elena quickly ducked, forming a shield around her. However, it didn't stop there. He shot curse after curse at breakneck speed and Elena barely had time to duck, dodge and deflect. Elena felt exhausted while Riddle had no trace of fatigue on his face. Having had enough, Elena yelled out shooting three stunners at Riddle's chest. However, he smoothly stepped out of their way as they hit a bookshelf, desk and pillar behind him.

The floor began to vibrate and Elena could sense the build up of power and realised that she would have to up her game. Riddle's eyes flashed dangerously as Elena taunted him and she knew they were going to take the duel to the next level. He flicked his wand casually and Elena was raised up in the air, floating gracefully like a ballerina. Her eyes fluttered close and face took on a peaceful expression.

For a moment she felt blissfully happy when suddenly the air in her lungs seemed to vanish. She felt as if cold iron arms were constricting her chest and she fought to breathe. Then suddenly, Elena was looking through a long narrow tunnel; as if watching an old film. She was twelve again, and she watched with tear-filled eyes as her best friend was murdered.

They were in fourth floor corridor. Camilla grabbed Elena's hand and together they hid behind a suit of armour. Luckily they were both small and able to conceal themselves from the Death Eater invasion. Abruptly, a rough hand grabbed Camilla from behind and shoved her against the wall. "That will teach you to hide little mudblood," he hissed with his wand at her throat. Elena felt her mouth go dry and yelled out, "Don't do it! Please, take me instead."

"As you wish, little girl," the cloaked figure grinned maniacally pointing his wand at her instead. Elena closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable pain of death but it never came. She opened her eyes in horror and saw Camilla lying motionless on the floor in front of her. What had happened became horribly clear in her mind. Camilla had saved her by taking the curse for her.

She brought back to the present and she thrashed about wildly in the air screaming in agony, "STOP IT, STOP IT, NO DON'T KILL HER, PLEASE DON'T KILL HER. SHE CAN'T BE DEAD!"

The image of Camilla's dead body was imprinted in her mind. All of a sudden, she felt that same constricting feeling in her chest and she was once again pulled back into the memory. Her eyes refused to open and so she was forced to relive the worst moments of her life again and again. The voice of the Death Eater was ringing in her ears and she heard the shout, felt the flash of green light and the rush of life when she realised she was alive. But in her place was her best friend. Things would never be the same again.

"NO! NO! NOT AGAIN, PLEASE NOT AGAIN," she begged, "STOP IT! TAKE ME BACK!"

The class was deathly silent as they watched her. The professor was stupefied from shock and was gazing up at her open mouthed like the rest of them. This was clearly a curse the professor himself had never seen in action. Apparently, this wasn't what Riddle expected either as he let her numbly down, his eyes emotionless but his face even paler than usual.

"ENOUGH! ENOUGH!" The professor interrupted recovering from the shock, "It is a tie. This was a bad idea. Mr. Riddle, could you please take Miss Grey to the hospital wing."

Elena didn't dare open her eyes but felt a pair of strong arms lift her up, gathering her to his chest. She didn't need to open her eyes to know who it was. She hated him, she really did. He was a cruel, spiteful, evil, pathetic excuse for a human being. You don't know what it was like, relieving your worst memory again and again. She was constantly reminded of the fact that it was all her fault. The killing curse was aimed at her. But Camilla stepped forward and took it. It wasn't right. She didn't deserve to live. Elena felt her eyes well up but she didn't dare let out a sob. She wasn't going to show Riddle she was weak. She was strong, and she had to be strong.

There was one thing that was made completely certain. She was going to stop this. She would stop Riddle from turning into that monster that caused so many deaths. It was all on her now. She held the fate of the wizarding world in her hands.

Elena woke up in a garishly-white room. A garishly-white room she clearly recognised; the hospital wing.

Great. First week in school and you've already landed yourself up here.

She noticed that the blankets were pulled up to her chin. That was strange; she never pulled her blankets up that high. It must have been the matron. Seeing as said matron was nowhere to be found, Elena carefully stepped out of the bed and tiptoed out of the room. She was starving and had probably missed dinner.

She must have not been looking where she was going as for the second time in a week; she bumped into a (unnaturally hard) body. She looked up, dreading to look into those painfully dark eyes but was greeted by a surprise.

"Um, hi?" she questioned.

"Hello. Miss Grey, am I right?" the boy she bumped into asked.

"Um yeah, and you are?"

"Luke Colden"

WHOA. Did he just say Luke COLDEN? She glanced at the boy critically, searching for some sort of resemblance. For all she knew he was her grandfather or granduncle or something. The boy had dark raven hair (not her chestnut brown) but he did have her light blue eyes. Whoa, wierd.

"I was just heading over to the, uhh, kitchens," Elena said, trying to make conversation with so-called- great grandfather.

"I'll come with you"

"Alright…" Elena was reluctant. Her parents weren't really nice people; they were horrible, all into that blood purity nonsense. Who's to say her great grandparents were any different?

She allowed him to trail after her as she reached the portrait of the basket of fruits. She reached out and ticked the pear and the door opened. She was ushered into the kitchen by two very welcoming house elves who began piling the table in front of her with food.

Surprisingly, it was exactly what she had been craving for. Chocolate waffles with maple syrup and vanilla ice-cream. Yes, Elena here had quite the sweet-tooth. But she was one of those few lucky people in the world who could eat as much as they wanted and not gain a single pound.

Luke gaped at her as she finished her fourth helping.

"Well, aren't you going to have some?" she asked her mouth completely full.

"Sure."

"So, are you a sixth year too?" she said in an attempt at mindless conversation.

"Nope seventh" Oh, so he was as old as her. But she was pretending to be a sixth year so…

"Good luck studying for the NEWTS"

"Yeah"

Oh damn, this was AWKWARD… in EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. They chewed their waffles in silence. Well, wouldn't you find it awkward if you went back in time and talked to your great grandfather who just so happened to be the same age as you?

"Uhm, I heard about your duel today," he mentioned.

Oh Merlin, did the whole school know already? This was horrible. Everyone would think she was weak or something.

He obviously saw her grimace as he shook his head, "No, no, everyone told me you were great."

Elena snorted, "If I was great, I would have won."

"Yeah but its…Riddle."

"What about Riddle?" Elena asked. She wanted to know what an ordinary student (who wasn't female) thought about him.

"He's different; quiet and reserved. He never speaks except when answering questions in class. He doesn't have any friends and he's just so…intimidating…even seventh years know better than to bother him."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, believe me."

They continued chatting for a while, about mindless things, school, Quidditch, Luke's siblings, Luke's family…etc. Elena had nothing to say about her parents as they hadn't spoken to her in five years. She wished she had someone she could talk to about these things.

"Well, it's getting dark and nearly past curfew. Wouldn't want to get caught by a prefect would we?"

"No," Elena smiled, "I think we should get going. It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you too…we should meet up sometime again, you know?" Luke asked.

"Definitely."

Elena came to the conclusion that her great grandfather was pretty cool. He, like her, loved Quidditch. She laughed as she recalled his expression when she told him she liked Quidditch. Apparently 'young ladies' of the age didn't play or have any interest in Quidditch. How sexist. Elena hated how in the 40s' witches were considered the inferior sex. It was preposterous. She walked into her dormitory fuming. Thankfully everyone was fast asleep and she wouldn't have to answer any questions (though she swore she saw a wand flash under Muriel's blanket; she was probably studying.) After slipping into her comfortable ducky-pyjamas, Elena too fell fast asleep as her head hit the pillow.

A/N: reviews make us HAPPY :D

Thanks to AnonymousEcho's wonderful constructive criticism, we have edited this chapter. We may not have described her actions in his arms yet, but rest assured, there will be a chapter coming up from Tom's perspective where you will once again see this same scene but from his point of view. ;)