Wow. Can I just say, you guys are awesome? I don't think I've ever got so many reviews for a first chapter.
I'm glad you seem to like it, and I hope this one doesn't disappoint! I felt I aught to introduce Voldemort somehow, since I had everyone else; yes it's a bit predictable, but not completely, promise... there is certainly more of him to come, he'll be back!
Enjoy! :)
Chapter Two: Riddle Me This
Harry flew down the hallway in utter panic. The Slytherins had intercepted James and Sirius, and launched an impromptu attack on Griffindor. Luckily Fred and George had got away in time to warn the rest of the House, hence mass evacuation.
Unfortunately for Harry, he was now lost. He'd never been in this part of the Academy before, as it was primarily used by the Dance students; and he had at least three Slytherin seniors tracking him who knew exactly where they were. It wasn't long before he made a desperate turn and found himself face to face with Bellatrix Black, Sirius' cousin. Spinning around he realised that he was surrounded – Vincent Crabbe blocked the way he'd come, and Theodore Nott stood between the hulking brute and Harry, smirking to Bellatrix. He was well and truly fucked.
"Let Lucius know we've got the Potter brat, Theo." Bellatrix' sneer was unnerving, and Harry almost wanted to ask Nott to stay, even if only so Harry could hide behind him – she looked slightly deranged, dark curls in disarray. In fact, she reminded Harry of Medusa.
Before he knew it, Harry was being held by Crabbe while Bellatrix laid into him with the ferocity of a rabid tiger. Generally she didn't look up to much, but Harry quickly discovered that her slender frame hid a punch like an iron bar (and fingernails as sharp as razors).
Once she decided he'd paid enough, the two Slytherins left Harry bleeding and gasping for breath on the cold floor.
"Mr. Potter, you're sure that you don't remember who hit you?" Nurse Pomfrey asked, clearly concerned. But Harry had learnt several schools ago that naming the culprit only led to worse attacks, and refused to name his assailants. He was released rather quickly, all bandaged up. He'd faced the worst of the attack, except perhaps for Neville – he'd been brought in whimpering and muttered something about Gregory Goyle and a rake. The scrapes down his back and bruises everywhere else certainly placed him in the Top Five Most Battered Griffindors competition.
Sirius had apologised profusely several times to all of them – he and James had been relatively unscathed, left tied up in a cupboard. Since it had been their idea, they felt extremely guilty. But the House had forgiven them. After all, they'd all agreed to the plan, so it was unfair to make one person take the blame.
However it bothered Harry that this sort of thing was normal for Hogwarts. None of the Professors had even asked what happened to the bandaged Griffindors entering their classes – as long as they could still do their work it didn't seem to matter. Ron thought it was weird that Harry htought thye should.
"What do they care? They're not here to be our parents, they're here to teach. They're just doing their jobs."
Harry thought this was disturbingly matter-of-fact.
Harry slid into his seat, half breathless. He'd run to his first group Strings lesson from English on the other side of the building, and had gotten lost twice (since Ron couldn't show him the way).
"Nice of you to join us, Mr. Potter," Professor Snape sneered. Looking around, Harry realised that he had this class with Parvati Patil, Cho Chang, Rodolphus Lestrange, and both of the Malfoys. Lucius glared at Harry from behind his Double Bass, and Harry knew instantly that he should never have taken violin. Maybe a nice woodwind instrument, or piano, might've been a good idea. But of course it was too late; he'd been taking violin since the age of seven and could hardly change now, despite what Lucius Malfoy wanted. Harry was painfully aware of the lacerations and bruises decorating his face, and could feel Lestrange smirking behind him. With only one other Griffindor in the group and one Ravenclaw, he suddenly felt very exposed.
Snape seated him next to Draco, who was obviously Lead Violin, and handed Harry some music: Bach's Violin Concerto in E – Adagio. It was clearly something that everyone had been working on, but Harry had never seen it before in his life. The group began to play, stopping only if ordered to do so by the Professor and repeating short bars until everyone was perfect.
Harry couldn't keep up. He'd never been much of a sight-reader, prefering to learn by ear. Snape's scorn was blatant, and Draco Malfoy was grinning as Harry fumbled through beside him. The whole lesson was a nightmare, and by the end of it Harry realised that his past practice schedule was nothing compared to what Hogwarts expected of its students. He suspected Draco Malfoy of practicing at least four hours a day – plus all of their various group lessons and tutorials. Hogwarts was certainly going to be more of a challenge than he'd previously faced; he had several pieces to learn almost by heart already...for an orchestral class in two days time.
He checked his slip – 'Tutorial, Violin: Tom Riddle, 106'. Now, if only he knew where room 106 was, he'd be fine. All tutorials were morning affairs, and the others had all gone to theirs before Harry could ask where he was meant to be going. If he didn't desperately need this one-on-one time, he probably would've given up by now and asked Ron when they next saw eachother, but given his current circumstances...
Eventually he found room 106 – half an hour late. The tutor was young, about 22, and quite handsome. Yet Harry could feel the hairs at the nape of his neck standing up, and knew there was something not quite right about this guy. Unfortunately it was far too late to flee and request a new tutor – Riddle had spotted him, and Harry had no choice but to enter and make his apologies.
"Not the best first impression, hmm, Mr. Potter?" Riddle looked complacent, but something in his tone warned Harry not to do anything to anger his tutor. He sat down and spread his music out on the nearby stand, before bending down to open up his violin case.
Suddenly he stilled.
Unless Harry was very much mistaken, Riddle had his hand resting lightly on Harry's ass.
The gentle caress that followed confirmed to Harry that his mind was most definitely not playing tricks on him, and he leapt up out of his seat to face Riddle, staying close to the door.
"Now, Harry, no games, hmm? It's just you and me here... no-one needs to know..." Riddle acted as though trying to calm a spooked cat, and Harry felt ill. This was practiced, polished – Riddle had done this before.
"Come near me and I'll go straight to Dumbledore!" Riddle froze, his features arranged into a rictus of gentility so fake that Harry fancied it were a mask he could rip off to reveal a monster underneath.
"Breathe a word, Potter – and I'll kill you. That is a promise."
Harry grabbed his violin and fled.
Ron sat dumbstruck as Harry relayed the events of the morning to him.
"But, Harry, Riddle's a past student, he taught people here last year!" Harry could hardly speak anymore, his stomach turning as he thought about what that could mean. Every student who took violin as a Specialty or Second (some took a second instrument or other art) was now, in Harry's mind, likely to have been raped by Riddle. After all, it didn't take a lot of imagination to come to that conclusion, and Harry always trusted his instincts. Riddle was bad through and through, no doubt about it.
When Ron told James and Sirius (Harry couldn't bear to talk about it again) their outrage was nuclear. Sirius threatened to take Riddle out himself, clearly wanting to slam a couple of punches into the evil bastard in retaliation for his actions. James was rather inclined to let him, and their ranting soon alerted the entire House as to what had happened. Eventually it was Lily Evans and Hermione Granger who were the voices of reason, reminding everyone that the best thing to do was to go to Dumbledore.
Riddle was duly sacked on grounds of sexual assault (and charged by Police).
The school's reaction the next day surprised Harry, however. Jack and Rose made a point of coming to see him, both hugging him and letting him know he could go to them if he needed to. The rest of Ravenclaw seemed indifferent – none of them so much as looked at him differently.
All of Hufflepuff seemed to think him a great hero for having got away and getting Riddle fired. Harry'd become some sort of legend to them for his 'courage'. Griffindor had been indignant but were now soothed, keeping an eye on him but simply maintaining existing friendships and strengthening others.
But Slytherin acted like a great injustice had been done. Apparently it was Riddle's old House, and they didn't take kindly to the 'false allegations laid by Dumbledore's pet'; words Harry himself had heard uttered by Bellatrix Black (Sirius told him later that his cousin had a bit of a crush on the ex-tutor). In fact the only Slytherin not glaring at Harry in the hallways was Lucius Malfoy – and Harry was determined to find out why.
Ok, so I'll try and update each week, but as I'm doing first year Law at uni this might be difficult sometimes.
This is an idea I've had for a while, so I promise I won't just drop off the face of the Earth.
Please review and let me know what you think, ideas and criticisms equally welcome :)
