Beta: lil'hawkeye3, thanks for the work

Tom Riddle – the freak who should return to the circus from where his mother had come. It was amusing how the children that took joy in gloating about their own statuses didn't have parents either. At least, she thought so. Tom was a little more prideful than her, so he took offense on it and had his revenges, the worse of it, of course, were reserved to those who dared to insult her.

She didn't really have a name. They called her Weird, when they needed, but most of time nobody took notice of her. Not there in the orphanage in which she was just an orphan. Tom didn't need to call her anything, as he had a softer voice reserved only for her. That is, until a fateful day in the middle of 1932.

The United Kingdom was passing through a period which would later be remembered as the Great Depression. That summer, the number of unemployed would reach 3.5 million in their country – and orphans found themselves victims of such situation. Nobody wanted to give a coin to the kind child who offered his hands to garden or sweep; no one would ask for an orphan to carry one's shopping bags to the house – there weren't any bags either. But orphans weren't the worst victims, no: compared to other children, they even had an advantage – years and years of experience of stealing.

Neither she nor Tom stayed a long time inside of Wool's Orphanage. They weren't very welcomed there, so they would just wake-up, perform their chores, eat a tiny lunch and flee from the building to only return to even smaller dinner and sleep. Beginning at age three, this had remained their routine for the last two years, leaving them very skilled in using their powers to steal from inattentive bystanders.

She had a dress she had stolen from a store some months ago – before it closed like many others. It was light-blue and lilac, in a floral pattern; and Tom had a sailor outfit – shorts, blouse and cap – also stolen. They used those clothes when they went to the British Museum and common libraries. Sometimes they would even sneak into the Royal Opera House or other opera houses.

That day in particular, they were in a forgotten library in the West End, enjoying their time free of the rest of the world and reading. She was reading the short of story of Poe, The Black Cat while Tom read the Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle.

"You don't have a name." said he suddenly, taking his eyes of the book.

"No." She agreed easily, not looking up from her own book. Tom hated when she did that, he was the kind of person that liked to have the attention of those around him – and disliked being dismissed. As you could expect of someone like him, he threw a large tome into her own book, to get her attention. "This is a book of names." She stated. "You want me to pick one?"

He made a face to her. "No, you will pick something disgusting like Mary. I will name you."

"What's the problem of Mary?"

"We are supposed to be the children of Devil, we won't be named after the mother of Jesus, will we?" He inquired, flipping the pages of the book and electing a laugh of her.

"Well, you won't…Mary Riddle isn't very manly is it? But Thomas is the name of a saint."

"Thanks Satan my name is Tom, then."

"You hate your name. And if you continue with this thing of worshiping the Devil, soon people will try to exorcise you." She pointed out. "But feel free to name me. I was getting tired of being Weird." She said, a bit curious about the name Tom would decide to give her.

"Thank you. What do you think of Lamia?" He questioned, taking a look at her face. Oh, she had a pretty face, didn't she? Fair, untarnished skin and soft, delicate features, her roundish almond eyes were of the colour of emeralds, rosy lips and a dark silky mane of hair that reached her waist she let it loose – and not in the low side ponytail which she normally did. But her face wasn't so pretty when she made it ugly in dissatisfaction like now. "Don't make that expression; it's the name of a beautiful queen of Libya. Hera killed her children with Zeus and then she became a child-eating demon that had a serpent tail. We both like serpents."

She stared at him in disbelief. No, she wouldn't be named after a demon, thank you. "Oh, well now that you've explained, Lamia seems like such a good name that I don't want to taint it with my person…pick another."

The girl knew that anyone else saying that would have annoyed him greatly, and she presumed that in a way, she had annoyed him...but the thing with Tom and her was that either she would leave the great decisions to him, majorly, but he had to give in to everything else. It was fun because they rarely had great decisions to make, so most of time he would do what she wanted if she was annoying enough. "Lilith, then." He spoke.

"Lilith? As the wife's of Adam according the Hebrews? The one that left him for Samael? Or as the one that was also called Lamia? No, thank you. What do you think of browsing away from 'L'?"

"Belinda. It means bright serpent." He said, a smirk that no child should be able to create stamped onto his face. Now he was being purposely annoying. She grabbed the copy of Through the Looking Glass she had been reading and threw it at his face. As expected, he stopped the book easily in the air with his will and Alice in Wonderland came flying into her direction from the bookcase. It never reached her as she diverted its route in the middle. Neither of them really understood their powers, but they were pretty funny in those types of moments. "No serpents! You never saw one, don't be so fascinated, they might disappoint you."

"You didn't see it either, who knows. They might be fascinating. Well, then…let's go to 'A'. Amérique? Artemis? Astrea? Aya? Arianne? Althea or Andromeda?" That was better, she supposed. It was still a collection of weird names, but she had never expected a common name from Tom. He hated his own because of the large number of people with it, he would never choose something like Anna. His frown seemed to disappear as his face became clear with an idea. "Anastasia. Your name will be Anastasia Nanash Donbyre."

"It's not my first option." She said, cringing at how it sounded. "Where does it come from?"

"Anastasia means resurrection, it the name of a saint, but she is famous to the Eastern Orthodox so it doesn't matter here. Donbyre I created; it sounds fancy, doesn't it?" At her evident disagreement, he shuddered. "Alright, you can be Anastasia Lynda Donbyre. But I won't back down."

"Should I be careful with Lynda? It's starts with L, you know."

"No need to worry. It means beautiful and that's it." He promised to her. Anya huffed but gave in, tired of that conversation and eager to sink herself in the pages of her book again.

"Alright then, now I'm a beauty resurrected with and weird surname. Thanks, Arawn."

"Arawn?"

"The god of war, revenge, terror and underworld. Your middle name means "I want to inflict damage on," so I thought it fitting." She told him, laughing at the snobby expression his features created when he heard her explanation. "Consider it my payment, and your new nickname." Two weeks later, Anya would discover that Nanash was the serpent of Eden. Tom paid dearly for it.

[]

Billy Stubbs was probably the most disgusting, dumb, obnoxious and pathetic loser he had ever seen, Tom Riddle was sure of it. He was also sure that he would avenge Anya for what that wimp had done to her. Nobody was allowed to touch her; she was his- to be cared, to fight with, to defend, to joke with, and to like. Only his.

Seeing the boy caressing her hair as she helped the adults sewing the holes on their sheets made something strong wake up inside of him. How couldn't Anya notice what was he doing? Tom would have to talk with her about her obliviousness. He couldn't have those boys touching any part of her. Definitely not. He looked at his hand: the single pearl he had stolen from a lady that morning already had an owner, the girl sitting on a stool beside the backyards door of the orphanage.

Anya wasn't as oblivious as Tom thought her to be, although she didn't really care if Stubbs was touching her hair. She had let it loose, so it was kind of expected that someone was glued to it – children seemed a bit attracted by the blackness of it. Then there was the fact that Tom always touched it whole, and not only the tips like Stubbs, so she had gotten too used. Yes, the boy's hand wasn't the cleanest of the orphanage, but the only reason for her let it loose at first was that it would be washed in the next hour. Then there was the fact that Billy irked Tom's nerves…and that was funny.

Teasing Tom had become a habit of hers – and the fact that he always discarded the possibility of it being a tease, well…she found it to be adorable. He was a cute boy, around 4'3" (tall for his age of six), his pale skin contrasting with his jet-black waves of hair. His features were sharp, quite noble, and Anya knew they would become even more; his black orbs were unforgiving. He wore traps, even worse than her dirty white-wool dress but that was expected of male orphans.

As she was saying, cute. Or maybe she had some problems. It wouldn't be a surprise; she had some weird dreams sometimes. They were extremely real and logical dreams – her five senses worked in them, they always followed an order and more importantly, supernatural things would always be present. They were fantastical beings, yes…there were mermaids, centaurs, werewolves and even hippogriffs and flying horses; but they could be real, if those things existed in real life. Maybe they existed…maybe her powers were real magic; or maybe it was just the wishful way of thinking of an orphan and she was just plain crazy. Maybe her powers were only a defence to the fact she couldn't be satisfied by reality – like Freud defended. Since she had gotten her hands into Creative Writing and Day-Dreaming, those ideas hadn't left her head. Anya had showed it once to Tom, but he had dismissed it and assured her that they had powers. Yet that could be his psychopathy speaking…she was fairly sure that all that narcissism didn't come from nowhere.

With a wave of magic, Tom pushed Billy aside and grabbing her bonnet that laid forgotten aside, he wrapped her hair in a bun and pushed it inside the piece of clothing. She hated that wretched thing that screamed orphan, but she allowed him to put it on her, just to settle his nerves. "Any problem?" She asked innocently, knowing that he wouldn't blame her.

"Your obliviousness. How couldn't you notice Stubbs?" He said between his teeth, trying to not attract Martha's attention at the other side of the backyards; after all, he had used his powers.

"I was distracted by work, Arawn. Someone has to work out of the two of us, or they will expel us."

"I don't really think they can expel orphans. They never have, don't be foolish and believe in Mrs. Cole's threats."

"Really, Arawn? People have better things to do than care if two orphans were thrown away by an orphanage."

"That's a given. But Mrs. Cole worries too much about her sponsors. Which is foolish of her, as I assume that her sponsors only sponsor an orphanage to be in the good-looks of society and they don't care about us either…but we won't inform her of that, will we?"

"Well, someone else must have already concluded it, don't you think so, Arawn? I mean, someone intelligent would be able to see it if two children of six years can."

"We are genii, Anya."

It was in that moment that Billy Stubbs decided that he was not to be dismissed by an unknown force and took advantage of Tom's distraction with hers to jump on the younger boy. Anya watched as both boys landed on the ground and Stubbs managed to punch Tom once before her roommate took the lead of the fight and buried his fists in the other's belly, chin, and cheek. They rolled over the grass and the witch was barely aware of the presence of Martha leaving the outside to call for help of a male.

Tom hit the boy's back, but seconds later it was Billy that kicked Tom's crotch, and he writhed in pain. Anya watched in terror as the older boy got up and began taunting Tom. "Oh, here's the Freak! Did the devil fuck your mother to get her pregnant? No wonder she died, freak. At least my parents loved me! How can you look at yourself? You are a disgusting, evil, freak. An aberration of nature. Your mother should be the bearded lady, and shout like a gorilla!"

Anya saw the kick on Arawn's ribs before it happened. No, that she refused to allow. Standing in her feet. Anya slapped the boy on his face, leaving a deep red mark on his cheek. "Don't you dare! Don't dare to touch us. Don't dare thinking of hurting us! You are nothing; you are a weak, pathetic wuss." She told him, making sure to compress the air around his neck.

The purple began to take his face, his mouth open in search of air he couldn't inhale. Oh, she liked that face. The desperation in his eyes, the absolute panic, the fear for his life. She rejoiced in that, because he had begun this. Because he had dared to harm them. "Don't dare to bother us! We are not weak, we are great!"

The steps behind her warned Anya to ease to grasp on his throat, but just for a moment, she couldn't. Then, the moment ended and she held her magic back again, leaving the boy gasping on the grass just in time to Mrs Cole arrive at the backyards and stared at the magical children in front of her. She hugged Stubbs while Anya helped Tom to get up, not expecting any help of the adults.

Adults didn't help children of Devil, apparently.

[]

Anya had always wondered in which kind of world adults allowed a girl and a boy to be roommates – even if they were children. Because of that, Tom had long ago stopped believing that girls had cooties, so she supposed it was good to their education; which didn't mean that most adults would allow it. Well, apparently, those in Wool's Orphanage were an exception to the rule…or maybe, they had forgotten exactly where did the two of them sleep…or they were just dumb and unable to link the facts. Nevertheless, the two of them had always been roommates, in the same bedroom. There was only a bed, so maybe the adults really didn't care if they went off the limits.

Yes, at the age of six, Anya was fairly aware of sex. Too much Freud. She should be the most prepared child for puberty in the world – even more than Tom, as he didn't like to read books on it, and preferred to make his own observations.

She took their sheets out of the bed and wrapped it in a bundle. She liked her sheets clean, which meant take advantage of the sunny days to wash the old sheets and let them dry. Sometimes she would also take advantage of Tom and order him to sew the holes in the sheets while she did others chores. Like peeling potatoes. She hated when Martha ordered her to peel potatoes in sunny days, but that day was a really good day – she only had to distribute some towels while Tom was supposed to be peeling potatoes. He wouldn't – she always made sure to keep Tom away of collective chores like those in the kitchen, as they usually ended with him supper-deprived and moody. He was good a repairing things, though, so she traded things like repairing the roof with other boys. She hated those boys usually and they still called her Weird, but one of them had to be sociable and she always managed to convince them.

She turned in a corner just in time to see Tom leaning on the wall. "Hey, what are you doing here? We are too near Stubbs's room for your mood not to be affected. And I don't like you crusty, you are a hassle." She told him, watching his smirk grow on his face.

"I was leaving a little gift to our mutual friend." He explained, pointing to the rafters.

Anya followed his finger with her eyes and at the end of it, she found a rabbit. A hanged rabbit. Cute. A knife from the kitchens (oops, someone had let Tom near the kitchens) impaled its chest and the rope around its neck was actually barbed wire, similar to the fence at the edge of the backyards.

Anya took a step back, quite shocked with the unexpected corpse. Not that it scared her, she had seen her fair share of heinous scenes at her other life, if she recalled correctly. Seeing the hurt on Tom's face because of her reaction, she commanded herself to whistle and smirk to him: "I bet it wasn't a pleasant death."

The boy hugged her; his satisfaction with her reaction evident. "Oh, it wasn't. It was very easy to convince it that the wire was comfortable, but after the stupid rabbit tried my collar…well, it wasn't that calm anymore. People say that the pets are the similar to the owners, and whoever said that was quite right. I don't know who is the biggest moron, Stubbs or his pet."

"I would say Stubbs, now that the pet is out of the game. But seriously Tom, you need to be more careful. Cole can't abandon us on the streets but she can forget to give us food, or be a bit too harsh with her punishments."

The boy huffed, releasing her from his arms, but still close. "I know, but it was an worthy risk. Stubbs won't bother us anymore."

"Yes, I agree. Just be always careful, okay?"

"Trust me; I won't ever put your life in risk." Anya smiled to him, leaning more into his direction. "Okay, but don't leave a good-wishes card, even if it's tempting." He smirked and said: "I could send it anonymously." This made her laugh.

[]

Mrs. Cole was getting suspicious of him, Tom knew that. He didn't care much about it, there was nothing that the wretched woman could do against his powers but the fact that she was also suspicious of Anya…it unsettled him.

His roommate was also agitated by it, he knew that. There were times that Anya dazed off and nothing could be done regarding it; it could take seconds, minutes, hours, days or even a whole month but she wouldn't be herself during those times. Or maybe, that was a part of her that he still didn't know. Regardless, she was in that state since morning; as she was remembering something long forgotten; something that had happened years ago. Sometimes, Tom wondered the size and variety of their powers…they could levitate objects, or change the colours of things; both of them could manipulate air; he had some sort of connection with animals' minds and he could inflict a mid-pain on those he wished to; Anya was able to change some parts of her appearance, like making her hair or nails grown, she could also appear where she wished in a range of some meters and make their clothes warmer. Once in a while he wondered if she still had one she hided from him.

He didn't like it. Certainly, he didn't tell her everything that he did in his life, but he told most of things that were important. He had named her and she was younger than him, she should confide him everything.

Mrs. Cole had called both of them to her office and now Tom was busy leading his girl to the room. However, he wasn't very eager to enter in it; there was something terribly wrong in the whole situation. The fact that Anya seemed unable to defend herself from a fly, much less from a woman, didn't help encouraging him.

He opened the door, the clean but simple office coming into his sight. He had never been there more than twice, but that had been enough for him to absolutely loathe the place. It reminded him too much of a hospital, and Tom hated hospitals – they made him feel ill and reeked of weakness; besides, Anya was frightened by them. The boy analysed the room. Mrs. Cole and her helper and brother-in-law, Mr. Cole awaited them in the presence of a gangly man who could have been pleasant to look at if he wasn't old and presently didn't resemble a corpse.

"Anya, Tom; meet Father Sebastian, he is going to take care of you two." The woman said in a soothing, patronizing voice that did nothing to reassure them. Instead, it made Tom cringe in disgust – and then panic. To a genius, it wasn't that hard to understand what would happen – everyone believe them to have been hosting demons and things like that; and then there was the clerical. One plus one equals to two.

They wouldn't be exorcised! They would hurt them and he refused to let them do it. What if they were able to take their powers away? What would be of the two orphans left powerless in that wretched world where only strong survived? He couldn't let them to do it! He wouldn't let them!

"Madam, while I glad you worry about us, we will have to refuse to get through such process. I fear that possession isn't our "problem". Thank you for your offer, but we refuse." The words left his mouth as he grabbed Anya's hands and pulled her away.

"I feared this would be your response, Mr. Riddle, so I brought Charlie here to convince you of staying with us." She told them, looking at her brother-in-law. "Fetch them." At the same time the man walked up them, Anya tighten her hold on his hand and whisked them away.

They landed at garden, their bodies hitting the bare ground with a thump and Tom huffed as the air left his lungs. Anya seemed more prepared to it and helped him to sit on the ground, her dazed expression long gone. One of them had to be sane and Tom had obliviously panicked; mumbling things about having to leave and grabbing her things to run away.

"Arawn, look at me." She asked them, holding his face between her hands, her calloused fingers on his cheek. "We have to stay. They will reach us in one or two minutes and we will go through the exorcism. Nothing will change, our powers will still be with us, I promise you. Staying at the orphanage is our only chance of surviving and we both know it. We will be alright when this is over."

Tom stared at her, his eyes desperate with the prospect of being killed by that damaging world. "You can see the future. Did you see it?"

Anya didn't know what he was talking about, actually she had no idea how she knew things would be alright, she just knew. The whole thing was something she would expect in her most real nightmares, but she didn't remember such nightmare. Maybe she had dreamed about it and forgotten. Still, she saw her chance to calm him at those words and just smiled to him. "We will be alright, okay? They cannot take our powers away, no matter how much they try."

Tom nodded and soon after that, Mr. Cole reached them.

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