August 13 1981
He gripped his wand tightly in his hands with the reverence of a lover who was touching his beloved after spending an eternity longing for them. He turned it around in his hands, inspecting very little detail. It felt pleasantly warm in his hands. His whole body hummed with the barely restrained need to use it.
His wand.
His!
It was the one thing that was his and his alone. It had never belonged to anyone before him and it never would. No one could take this away from him. No one.
And he could do anything with it. Anything at all. He could finally teach a proper lesson to that daft boy Billy Stubbs. He no longer needed to resort to crude physical means to get people to do his bidding. He could make people do anything! The thought made him grin maliciously. He could finally get back at people who had been mean to him. Who had hurt him.
Like Hermione.
The stupid girl who had left him to rot in this hellish place. She had escaped from here and never thought twice about him. The very thought of her made his blood boil. The fact that she had been able to get out of place before him used to fill him with envy. He had been better, far better than her at everything. He was more intelligent than her, stronger than her and more cunning than her. Anything she could do, he could do better if it interested him. It wasn't fair at all.
But now it all made sense. It just hadn't been his time. Not only was he intellectually her superior, it turns out he his superiority over her was ingrained in their very being. His very blood was more valuable than hers. He could do something that she could never even think of doing. His chest swelled at the thought. He wished she was here right now, just so he could see her face at the fact that he had bested her yet again. He wanted to gloat about the fact that no matter what she did, no textbook, no amount of practice could help her learn this.
Magic
The word itself sounded magical.
He had always known that he was different... that he was special. He always knew there was something that separated him from the others. And now, now he would show them all. But old Karkaroff had warned him not to tell anyone. He guessed that the others just weren't worthy of knowing it. He didn't want to waste his knowledge on these buffoons anyway. He would have told Hermione, though, had she been here. But she wasn't. The thought still made him angry. How dare she leave him ?
He would make her see one day, he decided. Make her see what happened to those who abandoned him.
December 31st 1981
She buried her hands further into her coat pockets, pulling up the wool scarf wrapped snuggly around her neck to cover her mouth and nose. Looking out at the dark night sky, she thought about the year that was soon going to end. It was almost midnight. Maybe she would make a resolution this year.
Hogwarts had been a blessing for her. The salvation she had been waiting for since the day her parents had died. The very first time she had stepped foot in this place she had known that it would change her forever. She already felt worlds apart from the girl who had left the orphanage, even if had only been a year and a half. She no longer worried about tedious matters like what others thought of her. She never had to worry about other children tormenting her. Hogwarts had very strict rules concerning bullying which she was grateful for. Not that she couldn't stand up to bullies now, but it felt good to have one less thing to worry about.
She had made some friends too. People who understood her, who liked her. People she could trust. But she knew it was all temporary. Once she left this place no one would remember anyone. She always kept that in mind. No point getting overtly attached to people who were going to leave one day. Besides, they were all competitors here. It was friendly competition but it was always there. Ballet was, after all, a highly competitive field. Only the best was left standing in the end. And they all wanted to the best. That need and ambition was what got them in this prestigious institute in the first place. Or so Madam McGonagall said.
She looked down at the snow that blanketed the grounds. She really loved snow. It was a beautiful thing. She always felt like her soul was being cleansed every time she looked at it.
Tom hated snow. He said he felt like it was seeping into his cloths, chilling him even more. But then again, Tom hated almost everything.
She knew she was one of those things now. She might have even topped his list of the things he hates most. The thought brought a sad smile to her lips. Thinking of him always did. He had a really good reason to hate her. In his mind, she had abandoned him just like his parents. But as much as she tried she couldn't make him see that it wasn't true. She had thought for a very long time whether leaving was really the best thing for her. She knew it was, of course, but then every time she looked at Tom, she would question herself. But then she realized that, had it been him in her place, he wouldn't have thought about her once. She knew that because she knew him. She knew him more than he realized. She would have left her too. And she had to think about her future too. She had been wasting away in that orphanage. Tom was a boy, he could have done anything with his life. She didn't have all the options that he did with their sub par education.
That didn't stop her from worrying about him though. She found herself thinking about him everyday, at the oddest moments. She could be practising in the studio with the other girls and his face would pop into her head for no reason. She could be looking at her roommates experimenting with makeup and she would hear him snickering. It used to drive her mad, but now she mostly ignored it.
It was his birthday today. She had sent him a letter wishing him but she had no hopes of him writing back. She wasn't that naive. He probably wouldn't even read it. That was part of the reason why she hadn't sent one last year. It would have been like fueling an already raging fire. So she spared them both the emotional turmoil that would have evoked.
She wondered what he was doing right now. Was he asleep or was he too staring at the sky, waiting for the new year to begin. She highly doubted the second. She almost scoffed out loud thinking about Tom staring out of his window, with a wistful look on his face. The mental picture amused her to no end.
He was most likely reading some new book he had stolen from someone at school. That sounded a lot more like him.
She started walking back towards the dorms as the clock chimed midnight. It was utterly silent around her. Most of the students had gone home for the holidays and the few remaining were already asleep. The watchman who patrolled the building during the night was already drunk and dead to the world, which was why she had been able to sneak out at this time of night.
Later when she was snuggled deep into her warm bed, the last thing she saw was the face of the boy with charcoal black hair with eyes to match staring at her, before exhaustion finally made her eyes flicker close.
December 31st 1981
Durmstrang Institute
"Focus Riddle, focus."
He concentrated with all his might, his wand gripped tight in his hand.
"Crucio."
He whispered it, but the conviction behind the curse was evident to everyone gathered in the room.
The fox in front of him howled with pain, writhing against its invisible binds, trying to get away.
He sneered at the weakness of the creature lying at his feet, at his mercy. How pathetic. It could get away easily if it tried, his curse wasn't strong enough yet. But no, it had chosen to succumb to the pain instead. It was truly pathetic.
"Excellent, Tom, excellent. For a first year at least. We'll practice again tomorrow."
He nodded at his Headmaster, letting up the curse. He watched as the animal whimpered a little and then fell unconscious. The caretaker levitated it and carried it out with him, probably to dispose of off.
"Good night Headmaster Karkaroff."
He turned to leave when he heard the older man spoke.
"Remember what I always say Tom. There is no good or evil. There is only power and those too weak to seek it. Are you weak Tom ?"
"No Headmaster. "
"Good. You may go now."
He nodded again and left. While walking back to his dorm room, he heard the clock strike midnight. A new year had begun.
And he knew it was going to be glorious.
His eyes flashed dangerously as he heard a loud howl coming from the grounds followed by complete silence.
Glorious indeed.
