The school year was quickly coming to an end, and so was my patience.
Ever since I had fainted in the Great Hall in a heap of clothes and blood everybody has been hounding me for details. My only savior was Minerva, and when I asked her about Hagrid she told me he was expelled for the attacks.
I had immediately demanded her to tell me what happened. When I fainted I was so exhausted that I had been out for two, almost three, days. In that time Dippet had declared the school would be closing, and almost immediately Tom Riddle had found out the culprit behind the attacks. The culprit being Hagrid.
Everyone believed it to be Hagrid of course, he was always so fascinated with dangerous creatures. Why wouldn't he be the one responsible?
Thankfully Dumbledore was able to convince the Ministry not to throw Hagrid in Azkaban.
Now that I was no longer being held up in the Hospital Wing I was able to go to classes as usual. Unfortunately everywhere I went everybody's eyes seemed to follow me. I have told both Dippet and Dumbledore what had taken place in the chamber, but it seemed that I underestimated the power of gossip, because by the end of the week everybody knew that I killed the monster.
Now that it was the end of the year it was time for all the fifth years to take their O.W.L's and I was never more thankful to have something to distract me, even if it was to study. At least now the rest of the school was too busy studying to bother me as much, but they still stared at me when they had the chance. Some would actually come up to me and ask what happened. My only response would be to glare at them and walk away.
The one pair of eyes that bothered me the most were the ones belonging to Tom Riddle himself. He probably went down to the chamber himself and saw the basilisk's corpse.
Whenever I made eye contact with him I could see that he was angry, whether it was at me or over the death of the basilisk I wasn't sure. There was also a hint of respect, maybe because I killed a basilisk and lived.
At this moment I was pointedly ignoring the stares as Dippet said the end of the year speech. Every student was wearing a black cap and at the end of the speech we all threw the caps into the air. Cheers were heard throughout the entire room.
As the excitement died down the student started to get up from their seats to leave the Hall. I was talking with Minerva when a throat was cleared from behind me. Turning around I was greeted with Dumbledores jovial smile.
"Hello miss Abby!"
I smiled, "Hello professor."
"I'm sorry to bother you but I need you to come with me up to the headmasters office."
I nodded in acceptance and told Minerva I would catch up with he later. Following behind Dumbledore, he lead me to the back of the Hall and we entered through the teachers door.
We walked in silence until we made it to the gargoyle statue leading up to the headmasters office. Dumbledore spoke the password and we made our way up to the office.
When we entered I was surprised to see Riddle was there as well. If he was surprised at my appearance he didn't show it, though he didn't show many feelings in the first place.
I stood next to Riddle and faced Dippet from across the desk. "Are we in trouble headmaster?"
Dippet chuckled, "No no, you're not in trouble. Quite the opposite in fact." He pulled open a drawer from his desk and took out two polished pieces of wood. When he handed them to us we saw there was a golden shield on the wood.
We took them and read what they said:
Awarded to:
Danielle Abby
For special services to the school.
"What if this for?" I asked.
"You did this school a great service by getting rid of that monster for good Miss Abby. As for you Mister Riddle, you got rid of the real culprit behind the attacks. Thanks to the both of you, the school can be safe once again."
I bit out a quick "Thank you, headmaster" before falling silent. I wanted to shout out that Riddle was the culprit, they shouldn't be giving him an award.
"There was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. Mainly you Miss Abby" I looked up at Dippet, wondering what he wanted to say.
"Last year you had stayed here in the castle because you had nowhere else to go, and I'm assuming you still don't?" I gave a sad smile and nodded. He returned the smile and continued, "I'm afraid I cannot let you stay here again, and with nowhere to go I'm afraid I'll have to send you home with Tom here."
I saw Riddle stiffen in the corner of my eye but I pretended not to see it. "You say it like its a bad thing." I was subtly hinting for them to elaborate.
"Tom here has lost his family at a young age, and currently lives in an orphanage."
I furrowed my brows, "You're sending me to an orphanage?"
"Indeed. I am sorry my dear, but there really is nowhere else for you to go."
He made it sound like going to an orphanage was absolutely horrible, and I suppose it was, but he could be a little nicer about it. Riddle was standing right there.
"I understand sir." I smiled, "If going to the orphanage is the only place I can go then I will." Dippet and Dumbledore both gave me a small smile and allowed us to leave.
When we made it outside of the gargoyle statue we went to go our separate ways but I called out to Riddle. He turned back to me and raised an inquiring eyebrow.
"I don't have any clothes." This time he raised both eyebrows and pointedly looked at my robes. "I meant muggle clothes dumbass." Not appropriate for this time period anyways.
He seemed surprised by my swearing. I didn't quite understand why, but then I remembered girls don't exactly swear here in the 40's. Oh well.
"Then figure it out." And with that he left with his robes billowing behind him.
Bastard. I grumbled in my head. Though I shouldn't be surprised.
Pulling my trunk through the bustling crowd at the train station I forced myself passed the scrambling students, doing my best not to trip on someone else's trunk.
I jumped through the nearest opening onto the train and was lucky enough to find an empty compartment.
I shut the door with a solid bang and set my trunk on rack above the seats. Plopping on the seat next to the window I propped my feet up on the opposite seat and closed my eyes tiredly.
The train ride was going to be a long one. I didn't have any music to listen to and if I tried to read I would get a headache. This is one of those time where I hate my motion sickness.
Feeling my body jolt forward I peeked open an eye and looked out the window to see the platform was empty of any students, and the train was beginning to move. I contentedly closed my eye and settled down for a nap.
Abruptly I was shaken from my nap.
Grumbling in distaste I squinted open my eyes and saw Riddle standing above me. "Get up. The train stops in five minutes."
Unhappy I was woken up I still removed my feet from the bench and sat up straight in my seat next to the window. Riddle slid into the seat across from me and I did my best to ignore his stare but it eventually got to me.
"What?" I snapped.
"Aren't you going to change?"
I looked down at my black converse, black sweatpants, and white tank top. Another black robe was thrown over my clothes. I shrugged, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?"
"Don't you want to wear something a little nicer?"
I raised a brow and pointedly looked at his choice of clothes. He had on a pair of scuffed up black dress shoes, along with faded grey slacks, and long sleeved shirt grey shirt to match. A simple but worn black tie finished up the outfit. I brought my eyes back up to meet Riddle's.
"I have no choice in what I wear. You on the other hand could wear something nicer." He defended.
"Well excuse me Mister Perfect, but I did tell you last night that I didn't have any decent clothes to wear, so I wore my pajamas. Besides," I shrugged, "I don't really care what others think of my clothes."
He seemed surprised that I don't care about my looks, like most girls usually do. Even in my time there were girls that took pride in how they looked and made sure they looked their best. I was always the person who just threw on whatever I grabbed first.
"Why don't you wear better clothes?" I asked him.
"I already told you I have no choice in what I wear. It's the orphanages uniform."
"Ok well I understand that, but why don't you use magic to make them look new again or something?" He looked surprised again. I seemed to be surprising him a lot.
"I never thought of it." He admitted. Immediately he took out his wand and waved it over his clothes, mumbling a few words under his breath.
I watched as his pants became less faded and his shoes looked brand new. The holes in his tie seemed to sew together.
The train suddenly came to a halt and a voice spoke throughout the train. "We have arrived at Platform 9 3/4. Please exit the train in an orderly fashion."
I stood and dragged my trunk from the rack above us, and turned to see Riddle standing in the doorway waiting for me. "Where's your trunk?"
He patted his pocket, and I knew he had it shrunk and stuck it inside there. "That's a good idea." I quickly did the same and followed Riddle off of the train.
He easily pushed passed the crowd of people, nodding to those who wished him a good summer.
We made it to the brick pillar we were supposed to walk through. The very solid looking pillar. But before I could think more on it I was pulled into a hug from behind me.
My squeal of surprise made Riddle turn around, but when he saw what was happening he rolled his eyes and stopped walking. Waiting for Minerva to stop hugging me so we could continue on our way.
When she set me down I turned around and gave her a quick, but proper hug before quickly backing away. "Sorry Minerva. I'm in a bit of a rush."
She waved me off, "No worries. Just make sure you write to me."
"How can I do that when I don't even have an owl?"
She didn't look concerned, "Then I'll just write to you."
I laughed out a 'goodbye' before rejoining Riddle.
He said nothing, just continued his way to the wall and casually walked through like it was nothing. Looking at the perfectly solid looking wall I was very hesitant to go through, until a hand reached through the wall and grabbed the front of my shirt. The hand yanked me forward and I easily stumbled through the solid looking wall.
When I made it all the way through Riddle immediately released his hold on my shirt. I huffed and smoothed out my shirt before speaking. "So where too now?"
Riddle looked around, "Mrs. Cole–she's the orphanages head matron–is supposed to pick us up. But apparently she isn't here." He said that as if it was a normal thing. From my knowledge about Mrs. Cole she wasn't a very nice woman.
I watched as Riddle started walking away from the station. "Hey! Where are you going?"
He turned around, "I don't have the money for a taxi," It looked like it pained him to admit this, "and without a vehicle to get there, we will just have to walk."
I still didn't budge, "How far?"
"Several miles." He there back casually.
"Oh nu uh. There is no way you are making me walk that far to some stupid orphanage."
"Then how else do you plan on getting there?" He asked mockingly.
Rubbing my chin with my left hand I casually took out my wand before throwing a notice-me-not charm around the both of us. Walking up to the side of the road I looked at my wand and then to the passing cars in front of me. Riddle said something from behind me but I wasn't paying attention.
Thrusting my wand out in front of me I waited for a moment before, sure enough, a purple triple decker bus blurred into existence in front of me. The buses sudden appearance made me take a step back.
Walking down the buses steps was a man dressed up in a tattered purple conductor outfit, "Good afternoon folks, I'm Gary Pringle and I'll be your conductor for the duration of your ride on this here Knight Bus."
Shaking out of my shocked stupor I turned to Riddle and wiggled my eyebrows at him, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to take the Knight Bus." With that I stepped onto the bus.
I was sitting on one of the beds when Riddle also decided to get in the bus. When he saw me he walked over and sat next to me. The bus doors closed and I turned to Riddle, "You should probably hold onto something."
He didn't get a chance to ask why before the bus shot forward. I would have laughed over the fact that Riddle tumbled off the bed, but I was too focused on trying not to throw up.
"So, where are you two headed?" I looked up at Greg, and I wouldn't be surprised if my face was green.
"Wools Orphanage." The weak voice came from Riddle, who had finally gotten himself off of the floor and was laying on the bed.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence, with me trying not to throw up the entire time. With one look at Riddles face I knew he was having a similar problem.
When we made it to the orphanage we stumbled as quick as we could to get off of the bus and landed in a tangled heal on the ground.
"That'll be one galleon and five sickles please."
Uttering out a loud groan I pushed a Riddle off of me before pulling my pouch of money out of my pocket. Reaching inside I pulled out two galleons and handed them to him. "Keep the change." Greg was only too happy to agree and the Knight bus shot away.
We stayed on the sidewalk in front of the orphanage for a moment. "We are never doing that again."
I looked over at Riddle to see the color returning to his face "Agreed."
We stood up from the ground and I allowed Riddle to lead me through the iron gates of the orphanage and up to the front door. "Where did you get money?"
I shrugged, "I have my ways." He obviously didn't like that answer but didn't say anything else on the issue.
Riddle casually strolled through the door as if he owned the place. I shook my head at his actions but said nothing and closed the door behind me.
Riddle led me through the orphanage until he stopped me in front of a door. Politely knocking Riddle waited until a woman's voice barked 'enter!' from the room beyond.
He opened the door and I was greeted by a small office. In the very middle of the room was a rickety wooden desk filled with papers, similar papers were scattered about the room. Sitting behind the desk was a rather unkempt woman with the occasional grey hair sticking out of her bun. Tucked in the corner of the room was a large wooden cabinet, and judging by the woman's appearance I wouldn't doubt if it was filled with alcohol.
The woman raised her eyes from the papers sitting in front of her, and when she saw who had entered her office I saw the fear flicker into her eyes. "Mr. Riddle. I didn't expect you back until later." She tried to cover her fear by sneering at him.
At that moment her eyes landed on me and I saw disgust in her eyes as she looked me up and down. "I see you brought a friend."
"Yes Mrs. Cole." So that's who this is. Figures. "This is Danielle, and she needed a place to stay for the summer." Riddles voice was nothing but polite.
"So, she goes to that freak school as well huh?" It was more of a comment than a question.
The either way I felt highly offended and tried to defend myself, "Hey, I am not a–"
"Don't even bother denying it little girl." She glared at me ferociously, "We've seen the freakish things Riddle has done and ever since he went to that school the freakish things have stopped. They're obviously teaching him how to control those freakish abilities. If you're going to the same school as him then you're just as freakish."
I gaped at the woman in utter astonishment. "Damn woman, what crawled up your ass and died?"
My words made Mrs. Cole lean back, and it was her turn to be astonished. I could see Riddle clenching his mouth shut, probably trying to refrain from laughing.
I had to break the building awkward silence, "Well Mrs. Cole, it was wonderful meeting you." Once I said that I promptly left the room, Riddle followed me out.
We just stood outside of the woman's office for a moment before I broke the silence again, "So where's your room?"
