Chapter 7: Decisions

Tom woke up and stared at the ceiling. Glancing at the clock it said 5:30am. Great. It was too early to get up, but too late to go back to sleep. Rolling over in his bed he started to drift back to a dreamless sleep, when he saw something out the window that caught his eye. A hooded figure was making their way across the courtyard and if he didn't know any better, it was Gisele. Her black hair was visible underneath the hood and he could clearly make out her profile. Jumping, out of bed, he hurriedly made himself decent and raced out, curious to find out why she would be walking alone at 5:30 in the morning.

Ah, the owlery, thought Tom, as he saw her disappear into the tower. He was about to walk into the owlery, when he crashed into her.

"Oof!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, it's you. What are you doing here?"

"I, um have a letter, uh hang on. What are you doing here? Its like 5:30am. Aren't you supposed to be in hospital?" She blushed.

"I guess you caught me out. Pomfrey let me go this morning and I send a letter to my family every week so I just came to post it this morning. You know, before everyone else gets here," she replied.

"Ah, right. Which one's your owl?"

"Oh, I don't have my own owl. I borrow the school's owl. I named him Monty," she commented, gesturing to a tiny brown owl.

"Oh ok then. Well I shall be going now," Tom said. She gave him a strange look.

"Uh, didn't you have a letter you needed to mail?"

"What? Oh I guess you caught me out. I only came because I saw you and I was curious as to why you were up at 5:30," he sheepishly admitted.

"So you were watching me?"

"No, no well I had already woken up and I had nothing better to do." They started descending the steps together when she suddenly looked up.

"Listen, Tom, I've been an idiot. I had no right to snap at you like that before, it's just that everything was getting to me that day and I had a bloody hangover and ugh. So if you can find it in your heart, will you forgive me for being such a jerk?" she pleaded, her eyes shining. Tom was speechless. Here he was blaming himself, while all this time she'd been berating herself for something that wasn't even her fault.

"What are you talking about? You had every right to be mad. Your friend was murdered and like you said, you had a hangover. Don't worry it was understandable," he replied.

"So...friends?" she asked hopefully. He paused. Friends. It was a foreign concept to him. He'd never had a friend before. But what the heck, she'd spent a lot of time with him and he needed her on his side for his plan to be carried out.

"Friends," he replied confidently. Gisele smiled radiantly and skipped ahead.
"Friends," he muttered to himself, smiling. Yes, things were going to be different now.

They lay sprawled on the grass in front of the Black Lake. Gisele was trying to do her DADA homework while Tom was tackling a 6ft essay Slughorn had set them. She sat up and looked at him thoughtfully.

"Do you send letters to your family? Everyone else thinks I'm weird for doing that, but I'm sure I'm not the only one," she asked. Tom carefully thought how he was going to answer that. He had never divulged his past with anyone before because, simply, it was shameful and he did not trust them. Yet, Gisele was different. She considered him a friend and so did he, so he had no reason to keep secrets from her any longer.

"Well the thing is, I don't have a family. My mother died giving birth to me, and my filthy Muggle father left her as soon as he found out she'd bewitched him. I grew up in a Muggle orphanage for my childhood until I was accepted at Hogwarts," he finished. She was silent and looked troubled.

"Oh God I had no idea. I didn't mean to offend you or anything, I'm sorry," she apologized.

"No, no don't worry about it," he assured. "Though it is mainly the reason I hated Muggleborns so much." Not.

"Really? Why was that?" she asked curiously. He sighed dramatically.

"I was treated really badly at the orphanage. The others thought I was weird and they constantly bullied me. So you can imagine that when I found out that the one place I can truly call home was filled with the same kind of people who had made my childhood a living hell, I was furious. I made it my personal mission to rid the magical world of this 'scum' and that's basically how it goes. Again I'm truly sorry for harming you before," Tom finished. Wow I'm brilliant at this, he thought. Maybe I should run for Minister of Magic.

"Oh."

"But that's all behind me now. I shouldn't be punishing everyone for a couple of people's mistakes."

"Yeah, it's just...wow. Like I had no idea that there was a back story to this. I sort of thought that -"

"That I was just a psycho killer?"

"Uh well not exactly like that."

"It's ok. You don't have to explain, I get it," he replied.

"Hey Riddle, you must be an expert in the Dark Arts right?" she asked.

"Uh, well I suppose yes," he replied uncertainly, not sure where she was going with this.

"Good," she said brightly. "You can help me with my homework then!" He chuckled.

"Help you? Aren't you supposed to be in Ravenclaw or something?" She slapped him playfully.

"Don't be a smart-arse. Just help me list core ingredients of the Regeneration Potion."

"Fine then. Well there's the bone of the father, flesh of the servant and blood of the foe."

"Brilliant," she said after writing them down. He turned to her.

"Now it's my turn. What is the effect of the Volubilis Potion?" She looked at him weirdly.

"Merlin, that's the easiest part of the question! It alters the drinker's voice!"

"Hey, and you're calling me the obnoxious one?"

"Do you reckon it's time for lunch now? I'm starving."

"Probably, but I think I'll stay out here and finish this ridiculously long essay."

"Fine, I'll see you soon," Gisele replied as she packed up her things and left for the Great Hall.

As Gisele piled food onto her plate, she thought back to the recent couple of days. They were probably the most eventful out of her entire life and they were all due to that one person currently doing his Potions essay outside.

"Hey, you're Gisele, right?" a girl behind her asked.

"Yes…why?" Gisele replied hesitantly.

"I've heard a lot about you. Oh I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Priscilla. Anyway as I was saying, there are a lot of rumors going around about you."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"That apparently you chose to side with your friend's murderer rather than your friends and also that you've been made a Death Eater and…" While Priscilla was rambling on Gisele's mind whirled. So now Nellie wasn't only holding a grudge against her, she was trying to get the entire school to hate her as well. Thanks a lot.

"Well how's this for news?" Gisele interjected. "Who I choose to side with is entirely my business and I'll only join the Death Eaters when hell freezes over. Happy?"
The girl gave her a frightened look and walked away. Gisele was now thoroughly pissed. Not only had this girl ruined her lunch, she was getting weird looks from other students as well. Grabbing an extra plate, she shoved more food onto it then stormed off to the Black Lake.

"Here," she said shortly, shoving the extra plate at Tom.

"Wow looks like someone's got PMS."

"Shut it Tom." She sighed. "Nellie's spreading rumors about me so now the entire school is giving me weird looks." He looked worried.

"Is this because of me? Because I'm your friend?"

"Don't worry about that. I asked you to be my friend because I wanted you to, so I don't really care about what they think."

"What are they saying?"

"That I chose a killer over my best friend. Oh and that I've joined the Death Eaters," she said. Tom suppressed a laugh at the last one.

"You? Join the Death Eaters? That'll be the day," he chuckled.

"I told them I would when hell freezes over."

"Thanks for the food by the way," he mentioned.

"Eh it was nothing. It's not healthy to study on an empty stomach."

"True," he replied. She looked over his essay and suddenly had a thought.

"Yesterday I woke up to find an unsigned get well card on my bedside table. That wasn't by you by any chance?" she commented. He rolled his eyes.

"Me? I don't do that sentimental crap."

"So if I said that the writing in the card matches your writing on the essay, I'm just making far-fetched conclusions?" There was silence.

"Oh fine, you're right. I did give you that card. Happy?" he asked with his trademark smirk.

"Oh very," she replied sarcastically. "But honestly, why didn't you admit to it before?" He sighed.

"Gisele, you've got to understand that I spent many years building up a reputation as, well, as a tough person - "

"You? Tough?" she laughed. He gave her an irritated look.

"As I was saying, I had a reputation but now all of that is changing. Everything about me is changing and, and it's just a little weird for me. I'm not totally ready to embrace it, but I'm getting there. I'm getting there." There. A speech every girl wanted to hear. But Gisele has thoughts of her own. He had given her the card. So much for hoping that there was someone else here who cared about her.

"Well I suppose I should say thanks for the card," she said.

"You look uncertain. Should I be sorry I gave the card?"

"What? No, no it's just that, well since I've lost my friends I thought maybe there was someone else here that cared about me?" she finished.

"Oh, well I care about you," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that," she teased.

"I care about you," he repeated, louder.

"Really Riddle? Can the person who once tried to kill me honestly care about me?" She closed her eyes, waiting to hear the response that would change everything she thought about him.

"Yes," he replied. "Yes he can."

Phew. That's chapter 7 up. Hope you enjoyed that. I'm going to post a couple more chapters up tonight because I have almost the entire story typed up on my iPod, so its only a matter of me remembering to put it up on the computer!

'Til next time,

xx