He didn't recognize that voice, but he did know that it came from a girl. Her loud footsteps echoed down the hallway. Before he knew it, the girl came racing down the hallway and crashing right into him. Since Tom was even weaker then usual, he fell down on the floor along with her, his whole body collapsing on the floor. It really hurt. Soon after, a voice could be heard.

"Give them back!", she shouted.

Meanwhile, the girl that collapsed on the floor dropped the circular shaped glasses that were in her hand just a few moments before. The glasses slid away from them. She started to go after the glasses while trying to stand up. Then, she froze.

"Excuse me?", Tom calmly said. His patience was at it's boiling point, like it was only being held by one measly little string. Still, Tom managed to keep himself together.

"If you continue this irresponsible behavior", he threatened while gritting his teeth,
"You will have to face the consequences. So, remember this encounter. One more slip up, and you will see what I mean.", he stared at her coldly.

The girl stared at him with a pale face. All of the students beside them were dead silent. The scariest part for her was that he didn't even have to shout at her, his calming, yet very unnerving voice was more than enough. Staring into his black eyes felt like staring into a never-ending abyss. With that, the girl quickly tried to snatch the glasses on the floor and leave as fast as possible.

"Whose glasses are those?"

With that question, she had no choice but to answer.

"M-mine...", she said, stuttering.

"Then why were you shouting "four-eyes" just now?"

Now, she really began to worry. What would she say to him after that?

"I-i-", she tried to justify her actions.

"Mine! They're mine!", a voice could be heard.

Running out of the hall came another girl with pigtails and bangs. She looked as though she was a bit disoriented. When she arrived at the scene, she couldn't help but smile and feel delighted that the other girl's face was so pale. It satisfied her, knowing that she got what she deserved.

"These are yours, yes? Take good care of them.", said Tom, while getting up.

The girl was delighted. Only in very rare occasions did someone speak to her nicely.

"Thank you very much!", she bellowed.
"Goodbye!"

"Goodbye.", Tom quickly said, in a quiet voice.

Tom didn't really think much of this encounter, he had four more classes and extra duties to attend to. Plus, his hair was now ruffled up, which made him look weird. Wasn't he supposed to be perfect at all times? He thought that he was, but he forgot one thing.

His facade had to be perfect.

Now that he changed, he didn't have to have a facade, he wasn't hiding anything anymore. His facade was breaking apart fast, this encounter sped up the process by a lot. Now he could just be his true self.

The girl, however, unlike Tom, analyzed this recent encounter over and over again. She was ecstatic that someone finally treated her normally. She was really grateful, and she wanted to repay that kindness, even if it was unintentional or intentional. It made her feel important. Buying chocolate for him was the first option that came to her mind. Simple, yet not that expensive. She, along with Tom, went to the great hall to have dinner.

It was then, then it dawned on her. What kind of chocolate or sweet things did he like?

Come to think about it, she knew that his name was Tom Riddle, that he was the school's best student, and that he was a Slytherin. That was it. By watching him across her table, maybe she could figure it out?

Already looking severely exhausted and gaunt, Tom sat down at the Slytherin table and began looking for things to eat. Nothing sparked his attention, so he just grabbed what was nearest to him. That would be some chicken drumsticks. He ate them without an amused expression, like he didn't get any enjoyment out of it. Thankfully after that, desert was served. Sadly, there were no pancakes, but there were other interesting things. One thing that sparked Tom's attention was a plum cheesecake. His eyes gleamed when he saw it, and he snatched it right away. He was happy that there were some positive things in this awful day.

Meanwhile, the girl was watching him, satisfied that she now knew what to buy. After lunch, they went back to their remaining classes. Tom had four more classes to attend after lunch, and he was determined not to fall asleep. After some time, his last class came, potions. He liked that subject, but not as much as some other subject. He did have less to worry about because he managed to charm professor Slughorn.

By the looks of it, they were brewing veritaserum. Tom knew that that it would take around a month to brew, which would be difficult. One sleep deprived moment, and it was all over. Although he read a lot about it, it would be good to listen anyway. The main ingredient in this potion were jobberknoll feathers. After adding them, you had to mix the potion in very specific ways. Tom managed to follow his professor's instructions quite well in the first half of his class, but midway through, he started to struggle. Not because he didn't know what to do, but because his exhaustion was eating him alive. He was constantly zoning out. It was a miracle that he didn't accidentally melt his face off by dipping it into the cauldron.

"Five... more.. minutes."

He was finally going to be free. Because of that thought, he got distracted and zoned out. After that, his professor instructed them to switch their stirring method. Tom didn't seem to think that he even said anything, so he didn't do anything new to the potion. Only after a few moments did Tom pick up on that.

"What was that!?", he panicked.

As he asked himself that question, he tried to remember which part of potion making he was at. Because he was thinking so fast, he jolted his hand aggressivly to the left. What followed next was an explosion of half mixed feathers and hot grey liquid. Luckily, Tom reacted quickly and dodged most of the liquid, although some of it went onto his hands.

His scream drew the attention of the whole class.

"Tom, are you okay?", professor Slughorn panicked as he rushed towards him.

There was spilled liquid everywhere that seeped into the wooden floor. Tom was clutching his hands with his robes, suppressing his urge to scream again. Slughorn quickly cast a stamina charm to heal Tom's burns before they could turn into blisters.

"Class dismissed!", he shouted.
"Go to the hospital wing, Tom, your burns still aren't fully healed!", he ushered him.

With that, Tom stormed out of the classroom before any of the other students could, because Slughorn ordered them to wait a moment. Now, he was running to the hospital wing, while gasping. After some time, he arrived.

"Hello dear, what can I do for you?", the matron asked him.

"Burn wounds.", he told her while he showed her his hands.

"Oh my!", she exclaimed, "That doesn't look very good. Come with me, I'll fix it right away."

Tom went with her to the medicine cabinet. She opened it and took out some liquid medicine and drew her wand from her apron. Since he was burned by an unprepared potion, his wound was harder to treat. She poured him two cups of two different medicines.

"Drink this, dear, and I will cast a spell to help it heal faster", she told him while giving him one cup, "Just be aware that it doesn't exactly have the most pleasant taste."

"Great.", Tom thought.

Tom tried to take the cup of medicine with his hand, but he struggled. His hand was veiny and it was starting to turn blue. He couldn't bring himself to take it.

"No worries dear, I'll help you with it.", she said.

"This is so embarrassing...", Tom sighed.

After that, she cast a healing charm on his hands, put a medicinal herb on his burns and wrapped his hands with bandages.

"Try not to move your hands too much, dear, it'll take longer for them to recover if you do that. In about two days, you should be as good as new. Take care!", she said.

"Thank you, goodbye.", Tom replied.

He exited the hospital wing and head to the Slytherin common room to leave his books and take a break. In a few hours, he would have to patrol the school's halls at night, for who knows how long. He thought about fixing his hair, but he remembered being told not to use his hands.

He wondered how he would stay awake long enough to do his task. After all, he barely made it to the end of his classes. Luckily for him, if prefects spend the night patrolling, they can be excused from the first two classes. As soon as Tom sat on his bed, he felt sleepy.

"There is no way I'm going to withstand this exhaustion until the early morning."

He took off his robes, folded them and put them aside. After that, he layed on his bed and looked at his hands and winced. They looked awful.

His fingers were a little blue, swollen and there were some veins that were bulged out even from under his bandages. Of course, his hands weren't normally like that. In two days, they would smooth out, and his fingers would no longer be swollen. After that, he cast a charm on the common room clock, so that only he could hear the alarm that he set up. Finally, he layed on his bed and fell into a deep slumber almost instantly.