Chapter 6

Yes! My performance received its audience! Now it's time to finish, and there's almost no energy left.

The construction waste began to stop, gathering neatly into one pile, and I decided not to remove the ball of lumos for now.

"You!" I pretend to have just noticed him, "you shouldn't have seen that!" my palms are balled into fists, and I take a step toward him with a serious face.

"Stop!" Riddle seems to have freaked out. Of course, after seeing what's happened, you can imagine a lot of things. Probably thinks I'm going to hit him with these bricks. He won't be able to do anything. He'll be buried in this basement. I cracked a smile as I imagined the fear of the future Dark Lord.

" I am the same!" he points to the glowing orb that I still haven't removed. "I can also do," he waved his hands expressively, "different things!" His face is flooded with a feverish blush, "I can move things without touching them, like you can! I can make animals do whatever I want. I can hurt my abusers without even touching them!"

A deafening silence filled the basement after Riddle's words. Finally, I decide that the pause is enough.

" Prove it!" I say what he expected to hear, pointing my finger at the pile of garbage I'd just levitated through the air. "Pick it up," I grin sarcastic and distrustful on purpose, "at least one piece," and then I step aside demonstratively, putting my hands in my leaky pockets.

Riddle looked at the wreckage with a slightly hesitant expression. If he hadn't trained on purpose, it would be a bit hard to get everything up in the air. I couldn't do that when I first got to this world. But Tom said nothing, and silently stepped closer and pointed his hand at the nearest rock.

There was silence for some time. The boy's face crooked, but then the stone moved, once, once, once, and then tentatively flew into the air. I glanced at Riddle he is tense, but not too tense. He raised his other hand, and now a crumpled tin can, a piece of brick, and a piece of plaster flew up. Tom's face was already twisted, his teeth clenched, and I noticed a drop of sweat on his forehead.

"That's enough, I believe you," but he continues to hold on to the objects. I notice another piece of wood flying into the air in a jerking motion. "Stop! If you overexert yourself too much, it will be bad! "

The debris immediately falls to the ground. Tom falls too, trying to catch his breath. I move closer to him, giving him a hand. He looks at it for a second, figuring something out in his mind, finally grabs it and stands up.

"Am I convinced you?" he asks blankly, shaking off his pants.

" Yes," I smile at him openly, "Wolfgang Weyber, we'll be officially introduced."

"Thomas Riddle," he smiled as well, though it came out a little crooked, the poor thing had lost the habit.

" And so we meet," I sat down on the wide, broken-off radiator I'd made into a chair. Riddle sits down next to me. I'm going to play the part of a man who doesn't have any knowledge of magic, just like him.

"Did someone taught you?" I ask him first.

" No," he frowned. "I thought I was the only one," he whispered, "I always knew I was different, that I was special. I always knew there was something like that."

"It turns out you're not alone," I continued without stopping, "and apparently you're not that special," I noticed the angry expression on his face, well, you need to break those rose-colored glasses, or else later, when you face an entire school of mages, you will remove them yourself, but it will hurt a lot more than now.

"What are the chances of two chosen ones showing up at once? Two exceptional men at once, on the scale of one country, one city, one orphanage after all!" I begin to speak slowly, at the end, speeding up my speech and raising my voice, "originally I thought the same as you!"

Again in a calm voice:

" Obviously, we're not the only ones like that. There are others. They may be dangerous, they may not. They may help or they may hurt. You have to be ready, to train to use that power," I raise my hand and look at my clenched fist, "to be able to stand up for yourself," there's a short silence.

Riddle is processing my words, his face no longer showing anger. He needs to learn faster not to show his feelings so obviously. Clearly it will pass with age, but we don't have much time. I don't want him to get Dumbledore's attention.

"I first noticed 'it' three years ago," I continue speaking as if nothing had happened, "when in a fight I was able to use some... energy, power," I looked at my fingers, remembering how little Wolf had first used a magical outburst without even realizing it, "back then I directed it into my fists and my opponents flew apart," I smiled.

" Then I'd forgotten about it until a few weeks later, when I was pulling a splinter out of my hand. I used the power again to get it out, to heal the wound," Riddle listened carefully," and then I began to feel the power," I touched my chest, "inside me. It wanted to come out, to do something," I shut up, barely heard a sniffle, and continue, "then I began to use it to strengthen my body. It was only recently that I realized that this was only the tip of the iceberg. You can use it this way," I pointed to the debris and bricks, "and it's much more effective," I continued, "in addition, emotions play their part, making the process easier." Riddle nodded at that, he noticed that, too. " I've been thinking about all this for a long time, and you've just confirmed my theory. These abilities work in the same way for us. Which means we're not the only ones."

Tom was silent for a long, thoughtful moment before he answered.

"Sounds convincing," he sighed. "But then why are we among these," he twitched his shoulder, "ordinary people? Why weren't we taken if we weren't the only ones who were special?"

"I don't know," I look at the wall, "but I think there was a reason. Mrs. Cole told me that my parents left me here for a reason, they were hiding from someone. They gave me a made-up name and left me a locket that wouldn't open. I only saw it once, in the principal's office. I tried to do something with it, pick it up with my fingernail, find a hidden button... I'm sure there will be a clue, but it's clearly locked with these... powers. So I don't understand how to open it yet. But my parents knew somehow that I could! So they're going to teach me how to do it. Perhaps there's some kind of school or something..."

Of course, many conclusions can be made from this situation. A lot. So are assumptions and hypotheses. But I know what will actually happen! So we're pushing things toward the one outcome.

"You're lucky," Tom crossed his arms over his chest, "my mother died, leaving me with nothing but a last name and a first name."

"What about your father?" He's responding well so far, including personal questions. There it is, the plus side of my settlement in the orphanage! It's doubtful that Riddle would open his soul to anyone at Hogwarts. Besides, he would be older, more embittered.

" I don't know anything about him," he thought for a few seconds, "I think he was one of those, having powers. Mother didn't, or she wouldn't have died. "

"I see" that's all I can tell him for now, maybe later...

"So this is your training ground? Riddle decides to change the subject, which I'm glad he did.

"Yeah, I accidentally found this place," I wandered my arms around the room, "Imagine, there's even people living here."

"What, right here?" he points to the floor.

"No," I chuckled, "the basement is completely abandoned, that's why I chose it. I mean the house. Have you seen what it looks like outside?" He nods in agreement. "It's barely standing, it's cracked, and it's just about to collapse on your head," I grinned. "And there are people living in this house."

"People are like cockroaches," Riddle whispered, "settling in every hole".

"They're rarely home," I continue, "so this basement is a good place to practice. No one will kick you out, and there's enough stuff for you to use your powers."

"Your clothes," he mutters, "you cleaned them with your powers, didn't you?"

"Right," I sighed, "is that why you decided to follow me?"

" Yeah, it was too obvious."

"Yes," I said, pretending to be sad, "It was stupid."

While we were talking, I feel I've had time to rest and build up my strength.

"I usually act a little differently. But I didn't want to sit in the mud in class," I twitched the corner of my lip slightly. "I struggled with my clothes, I had to be careful, but I'd cleaned them before and had a rough idea of what to do. I mostly practiced my other abilities."

I got up and walked over to my "makiwara" - the scratched wall.

"Look," I extend my arm and let out a pulse, with a clear desire to make the cut. A long and fairly deep scratch appears on the wall. That's it. I'm afraid I'll have to find a new place to practice soon, though. I'll tear this wall down soon enough at this rate.

"Whoa," Riddle jumps up as he looks at the wall, "there's a lot of them!" he notices the other scratch cuts. Then he turns to me, wanting to say something, but his eye catches the light of the lumos still hanging from the ceiling.

"Will you teach me?" his eyes burn with the desire to create.

"I will," I pouted, "but you will teach me what you know," I said quickly in response.

"Of course," he grinned, "we need to know who knows what, and learn each other's tricks."

"And then practice," I add. "I've noticed that training increases the strength of abilities," I point to the wall, "see this scratch right here?"

Riddle comes closer, looking at the masonry.

"And now look at the last one," I poked at the cut I'd just made, "the second one's much bigger and thicker, and there's only a week difference between uses."

Riddle nods mesmerized, keeping his eyes on the other marks.

Well, that's a start. Now we have to be careful. Tommy is a sensitive boy, so we need to build up our friendship quite strongly. Still, the simple fact that we are both wizards will not play a key role if the characters are completely different.

But my experience as a teacher tells me that we can still become friends. And then our training together began. Or should I say games. We threw raw magic at the wall, leaving wound after wound, cutting the walls up and down. Then there was lumos, which is expectedly was quite easy for Tom.

We stayed in the basement until late afternoon, draining the sources almost to the bottom. I think we would have spent the night down there, if our bellies hadn't started making really loud noises.

"I hate this place," Tom muttered, pacing slowly. I support him by the shoulder, because he's too exhausted.

"At least we have a roof over our heads" I told him, "and some food. "

"I've already thought about running away, but I haven't had any adequate thoughts. Perhaps you can give me a hint?" - he looks at me hopefully. It's nice to be believed in, even if it's a seven-year-old boy.

"We need to get some proper food somehow," I've actually thought about this before, "they don't teach us anything at school," I notice Riddle nodding approvingly, "and there's nothing to do but eat and study here. If we can solve these issues somehow..."

"'Then we'll be free" he smiles dreamily, but the feeling of joy does not make him beautiful, instead, his face is curved, and his expression has some kind of animal features.

I sniggered back," We could try to use our abilities to watch out for each other."

"Yeah," the familiar orphanage building came around the corner, and we were almost there. He stops relying on me, starting to walk on his own, so as not to show his weakness to the others. "We could pinch some rich people," he throws a quick glance at me, tracking the reaction, "many do that, but they risk getting caught. If we use our powers..."

"I agree," he exhaled softly, "We'll train each other, and then we can try."

"Wolfgang..."

"It's just Wolf, Tom."

"Okay, Wolf. You know," he hesitated a little, already on the porch of the shelter. I don't rush him, "I'm living alone in a room now, the others can't last long with me," he grinned, "I was thinking," he said the rest of the sentence quickly, "maybe we'll share a room. I'll talk to Mrs. Cole and she'll give me permission. We can communicate not only in training, but also just like that, and I can help you with everything and even share food, I..."

"That's a great idea, Tom!" I give him a light tap on the shoulder, interrupting Riddle's slightly self-deprecating speech. It seems the loneliness had gotten to him more than he let to see. And the plan is really good, "Then let's both go to Mrs. Cole's after dinner. It will be easier to convince her with two of us than you alone.

Riddle nods in agreement, and then we finally enter the orphanage.