It was a few nights later, October 9th, when I was to discover the first clue to Professor Dumbledore's hint about my ancestry. October 9th, my birthday.

In the morning, as well as my usual Times and Daily Prophet, I received a long package from my parents, and I opened it to find a Nimbus 2001, one of the best racing brooms in the world. It was beaten only by the Firebolt, but there was only one student in the entire school who owned on of those.

Breakfast was particularly cheery, and all my friends had found it i their hearts to get me something. From Millicent she received a multi-pack of chocolate frogs, from Pansy a small fluffy pink thing called a 'Pygmy Puff' which she stole from Fred and George Weasley's room and from Stella I got what looked like a set of snap.

"Exploding snap," she corrected me, "the cards spontaneously combust during the course of the game." she began to laugh at the ridiculous nature of it all, and I joined her in it, promising a game that night.

Blaise then came to find me. I didn't know quite what I expected from him, but it certainly wasn't the large, red eraser he showed me with a flourish. I looked at him. A token from the muggle world perhaps? His face broke out into a smile as he realised I had no idea what it was.

"It's a Revealer, you rub it over things and they reveal secret messages." That was nice enough, but I didn't understand quite why he was giving it to me. He realised he had to explain further. "Most of the Arithmancy textbooks have the answers in them written in invisible ink, seeing as they are so hard to come by. I thought this might help." I found myself grinning widely by the time he finished his sentence. This was perfect.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed gleefully, throwing my arms around him. He hugged me back awkwardly, but seemed reluctant as we pulled apart. I suddenly became uncomfortable as I began to remember that he liked me. I wondered if I was giving him the right impression...

Saved by the bell I thought as it chimed, signaling it was time for lessons. I looked around, finding myself in the completely wrong place. I had followed Blaise all the way to the dungeons, but Divination was next, and that was all the way up in one of the turrets.

I cussed as I ran up, but nobody took notice as my head came up through the trapdoor that led into the classroom, flushed from the run. I made my way quickly across the classroom, this time not attempting to make any new friends, and going directly towards Malfoy. It was simply easier.

"Happy Birthday," My eyebrows went straight up to my hairline as I heard it, shocked.

"You know my birthday?" He shrugged, looking down and twiddling his thumbs.

"The Crystal Ball told me." was all he said. He then did something odd. He slid his chair over next to me, throwing a glance over his shoulder so as to check nobody was watching. He then produced something from his pocket. I saw it glint in his palm. Could it possibly be-

"A birthday present," he said softly, taking my hand tenderly and placing something in it. Something metallic and cold. I somewhat unwillingly removed his hand so that I could see it, keeping it in my other hand for a second before bashfully dropping it. I then looked over to my gift and gasped. A gold bracelet sat in it, embedded with emeralds at regular intervals. It was the most beautiful piece of jewellery I had ever seen.

"It was my mothers, but she threw it out when I was little. It came from the Black family, but most of the family was shamed, my uncles Sirius and Regulus disgraced the Dark Lord, and in anger the bracelet was thrown to the streets. As a boy I liked shiny things, so I took it, claiming it my treasure." He looked into my eyes, as if meaning to say something more, but then deciding against it, and instead turning his attention back to the bracelet, deftly clasping it around my left hand. I opened my mouth to protest, it was too much, but he raised a finger to my lips.

"Anyways, you need something to distract from that hideous scar on your hand." he tried to smile and make light of it, but the smile seemed to hurt his cheeks, and he gave up. I could do nothing but stare at it in wonder, watching the light dance off it, as if it were a fallen piece of the sun. I did not hug him, as I did Blaise, but my eyes shone into his with such gratitude that he looked away again, almost embarrassed.

I waited with anticipation until that evening, glimpsing the pack of exploding snap every time I opened my bag. I also thought of the chocolate frogs. I had celebrated by birthday with friends before, but I could only imagine that with all the surprises it had shown me, birthdays in the wizarding world had to be better.

I entered my dorm at the end of the day unable to contain my excitement. Upon my arrival, the door swung open, small fireworks leading me in to see all my roommates had moved all the beds to the side and were sitting in the middle of the room with a large banner levitating above them, the words Happy Birthday, Angeline! written in bold letters which kept changing font and colour, spontaneously disappearing and reappearing on objects around the room.

"Stella made the sign, that's why the writing's going everywhere," said Pansy.

"Can we eat the frogs now?" asked Millicent, a greedy look in her eye. I pulled them out along with the snap and we had soon settled down with our feast of chocolate, some butterbeer snuck in by Millicent and a game of exploding snap.

It was in the middle of the raucous laughter when I found myself fiddling with the Revealer Blaise had given me. Just at that moment, the card in my hand exploded and a half eaten chocolate frog broke free and hurtled its way across the room, hitting me square in the chest and knocking me over. I in turn fell, moving the rug we were sitting on and dropping the Revealer, which went skidding across the floor.

As I, practically in fits of laughter, wrenched myself up and began to crawl to retrieve it, something caught the corner of my eye. I looked down to see something etched into the floorboard, fading fast. I snatched the Revealer and rubbed the spot again, and sure enough there it was.

TMR for BMB

It dawned on me slowly. TMR, Tom Marvolo Riddle. A piece of careless fancy scratched into the floor by two teenagers in love, but to me so much more was possible. Lineage. I had to find out who BMB was, tomorrow.