As he was walking to his class, Tom couldn't help but feel giddy. It was exactly like that time he got adopted. He remembered being so confused. What was that sensation he was feeling? He wanted to ask his parents about it, but he felt that it was unnecessary. It would go away sooner or later. But it didn't. Because it wasn't going away, he felt angry and scared. It was interrupting his plans of opening the chamber. But he couldn't help it. Every time he got hugged by either of his parents, went outside with them to a nice dinner or even had a talk with them, it would come back. Seeing people cry and being sad never affected him, but now he always felt down by seeing that. He was feeling... empathy? That always enraged him. Why was he feeling things like this? Was he succumbing to a weakness? No, it couldn't be. All common people had a weakness, but not him. He was special. No one else could ever be like him. Everyone else was a mere mortal, especially those weak muggles. Only he could live forever. But that thing was interrupting his plans. And he hated it. Loathed it. But something was drawing him to them, and he couldn't help it. It was actually pleasent, although he would rather die then admit it. He wouldn't ever believe that he was actually loved by them. He'd never been loved by anyone. No one. Sooner or later, they would abandon him, like everybody else in his life. He'd been nothing but a burden his whole life. Now, he would show them who is in charge, when he became the greatest sorcerer in the world.

Or so he thought...

Next class was charms. According to what Tom read over summer, they were going to learn an ascending charm. When he walked into the classroom, he wasn't surprised to find that the classroom's ceiling was gone, replaced by the clear sunny sky.

"Greetings, students. I hope you all had a wonderful summer break, and that you are ready to concentrate on today's class. As you may know if you read your textbooks over summer, we are going to practice the ascending charm today. By casting it successfully, you will fly high above the ground. Don't worry, by walking into this classroom, you won't get injured from falling, because you will slow down when near the ground. Just be careful to not go outside the classroom, because the protective charm won't work there. Anyway, I will write the wand movement that is required for the spell. When you are prepared, shout "ascendio", and wave your wand. Good luck."

Small whispers filled the room as students debated over how to do this. Tom didn't think too much of it and just went along.

"Ascendio!"

With that, the classroom's whispers stopped and a large gush of wind filled the classroom, rising up the dust. Meanwhile, Tom was flying upwards at an extremly fast speed, so fast that even he was a little anxious. After a few seconds, he was starting to stop in mid air. It was a beautiful sight. The sun shone brightly and reflected on the black lake, as well as Hogwarts itself, which was reduced to a blur from Tom's perspective. He even reached one cloud, which made him cough. Finally, he started to go down again. This was scarier then going up, if he had to admit. As the blur that was Hogwarts became clearer and clearer, so did his speed decrease. By the time he was above the classroom by no more then ten meters, he was almost floating down. Finally, his feet touched the classroom's floor. It was relieving to finally be on the ground, but that view from the sky was breathtaking. Before he could say anything or even do anything, the teacher spoke up.

"Tom!?"

This caught Tom off guard, he never got called by his first name by almost anyone, let alone a teacher. Plus, that exclamation of his teacher made him aware of his surroundings. The classroom was blown away, to put it simply, as in the students were in shock and the classroom was wreaked by his sudden spell.

"Are you okay, Tom? It seemed like you disappeared from the face of this Earth!"

It seemed like he was both scared and a little angry, Tom thought.

"I'm fine, professor, thank you for your concern.", Tom responded.

"Thank goodness, Tom.", he exclaimed, relieved.
"Anyway, 15 points to Slytherin."

As Tom was trying to get back to where he was, he turned around and meet a familiar glance. Abraxas was enraged, and Tom could see straight through him. It angered him that Tom was the one who always did the assigned spell first, always knew the solution to everything, always bested him in every way possible. He even managed to ruin his hair and knock his textbook on the floor. Still, he controlled himself because he didn't want to cause a ruckus in the midst of the class.

A while after Tom, some students managed to pull off the spell, the difference being that hardly any of them managed to fly above Hogwarts, let alone reach a cloud that was high up in the sky. After some unsuccessful tries, Abraxas finally shot up in the air. He was determined to fly up higher than Tom. But the thing was that he made a fatal mistake. Tom could actually go even higher than that. A lot higher, in fact. The only thing that was stopping him was the mess he would cause when launching himself up in the air.

So, Tom decided that it wasn't worth to compete with Abraxas' childish game. Instead of that, he tried toning down the spell, so that he would go up like everyone else, although it was still fun to go very high. The class finished in no time, and it was rather entertaining. Up next, however, was transfiguration.

The last time Tom went to transfiguration, that dreaded Dumbledore wouldn't take his eyes off him. It seemed that he was starting to pick up something new in Tom, which made Tom really anxious. Now, Dumbledore would surely get the worst idea of him, as he always did. They were going to practice turning toads into toadstools again. Tom simply turned them into toadstools and vice versa, trying to pass time quicker. But it never occurred to him that he was acting a bit... off. Yesterday, he looked like a mess, which was unusual for him, but now he looked even more like a mess and he had a weird expression on his face.

Tom was always good at hiding what he truly felt, especially his true intentions. But, he would never consider such an appalling prospect again. Never. Never again. That was a promise he made for himself, and nothing would change his mind, not even death. But now, it was starting to get harder and harder for him to pretend. He just couldn't. Nothing could hold off his happiness. Even as Dumbledore was lecturing the class, he was still looking at Tom. He wanted to know what was up with him, because he didn't act like this ever before. Was he planning something? Dumbledore had to know.

Meanwhile, Tom's eyes were wider than usual, and his face wore a some sort of smile that was really uncharacteristic for him. Tom, of course, noticed that he was being observed, and didn't appreciate it one single bit.

Luckily, Dumbledore quickly realized that Tom didn't seem to have any bad intentions. Tom still had his doubts about Dumbledore.

"Of course he is suspicious of me when I actually do not have any ill intentions. Great."

Soon after, the class ended. As Tom waited for the other students to clear and get out of the way, he heard something that he wished he didn't have to.

"Riddle!", Dumbledore shouted.

Tom visibly flinched and slowly looked behind himself with a pale face.

"Please come visit me after you have finished your lessons tomorrow. I suppose that won't be a problem for you.", he said to him with a smile.

Tom quickly changed his expression before meeting his eyes. It would be bad to look even more suspicious.

"Of course, sir. I will arrive at your office tomorrow.", Tom managed to blurt out, while being as composed as he could be.

"Thank you, Riddle. By the way, the password is "lemon drops", be sure not to forget it! I'll see you tomorrow.", Dumbledore responded.

"Goodbye, sir.", Tom responded, while slowly speeding up his walking speed so that he could get out of there as fast as possible.

Finally, Tom was away from that classroom, and along with that, his face contorted into an enraged look.

"Meddling Dumbledore, always has to know exactly what's going around. I swear on my life that he wants me out of this school!"

He was visibly angry, almost stomping his way through the halls.

"Calm down, anger only makes things worse."

Shortly after, he began taking deep breaths, attempting to calm himself down. It worked, he was almost back to his usual way of walking.

"Arithmacy is next, I better get there quickly."

Tom sped to his class. His last four classes went exactly as he wanted them to go. Which meant that he would earn some house points and make no mess. He was surprised, to say the least. His classes resulted in disaster quite frequently now, and he wasn't pleased one bit. To be honest, it was his lack of sleep and the continuous nightmares he had that caused this. Every thing would go back to normal one he'd gotten rid of that problem. The question was, when would that happen? Soon after, Tom found himself outside, waiting for dinner.

"Hey, Tom!", a familiar voice spoke up.
"How'd your day go?"

This was a surprise, but it didn't matter. Tom abruptly turned around and smiled at her.

"Hello, Myrtle."
"It went rather well, I didn't manage to make a mess today, so that's great. What about you?"

"That's good. My classes went really well, actually, I hope that I can continue like this. Would be better for me and my classmates.", she giggled.

"As long as you sleep, you will be fine. Don't be like me, I might faint at any moment."

"Please don't, having a bedridden friend would suck."

They both laughed.

Tom was taken aback by this. His expression changed into a shy one.

"I wouldn't do that to you, who needs a knocked out friend anyway?", he said, while thinking what to ask her next.

"What do you like to do? Do you enjoy reading by any chance?"

Her eyes lit up.

"Oh, yes! My favorite thing to do, aside from baking. Have you read the...", all of a sudden, she stopped.

"Long time, no see, Riddle.", a voice could be heard from behind them.
"Thought you were free to go after that little encounter of ours on the train?"

Tom was, to put it simply, pissed.

As he turned around, he saw that Abraxas was surrounded by at least ten other Slytherins. What were they playing at? Abraxas' expression suddenly changed, replaced by a surprised look.

"Is that-"
"...Warren?", he said as a nasty grin formed on his face.

Myrtle was starting to get embarrassed.

"Two mudbloods in love!"
"How adorable!"
"A rare sight to behold! You did me a great favor by saving me my precious time."
"Thought about finding that mudblood, but you seemed more urgent. After all, you will have to be taught how to treat your superiors."

Myrtle was as red as a pepper. This was what she had feared. If Tom knew that she was muggleborn, he wouldn't waste any more time with her. A model student with a mudblood, that would be unacceptable. She was fighting off her urge to cry.

"Don't you dare call her that!", Tom screamed at him.

Some moments later, he continued.

"You have no business here, breaching someone's privacy. Go, now, before I start writing down your names."

Abraxas let out a high pitched laugh.

"Ah, Riddle, you never fail to make me laugh."
"Well, it's too late to run away now."

After that, over ten spells were shot at them. Myrtle hopelessly clutched her head, ready for the impact. The spells were getting closer and closer. Who knows what would happen to them? Suddenly, they... disappeared? It was like they were absorbed by something.

"Why you-", Abraxas muttered.

Tom stared at him emotionlessly, as if he was shooting daggers out of his eyes. Abraxas felt like he had ice dumped all over him.

"I told you.", he finally spoke up.
"The only thing you are getting out of this is a night's worth of detention."
"To each their own, I guess."

They tried to break the protective charm again, but it was of course done in vain. Tom turned to back to Myrtle, almost like he forgot that there were more than ten people who wanted to hex them. He noticed that her whole face was red. This caught him off guard.

"Are you alright?", he asked her.
"Don't worry, they will never break this protective charm with their weak spells. What's wrong?"

"I-I'll tell you later, if you don't mind. It's kind of hard for me to talk about it."

"Of course, I won't ask you again. Tell me when you are ready."

She nodded in response.

"HEY!"
"Don't think of diverting your attention somewhere else!", Abraxas shouted.
"You will pay for that, Riddle!"

Tom's expression didn't change.

"I'm waiting."
"Give me your best, even I will be impressed if you manage to break this charm.", he responded, while giving them a taunting smile.

They tried again, but nothing happened. His charm puzzled them all, how was it still working?

"Make me impress-"

"STUPEFY!"

After that, Tom fell on the floor. But he wasn't the only one. The blur in the corner of Tom's eyes that he had failed to notice fell beside him, motionless.

"You mudblood! How could you-"

"That's enough!"

Professor Merrythought came into the scene.

"What did you do!?", Tom said anxiously.
"Now you are going to have detention for no-",

"He would've broken your nose! What was I supposed to do, stand there and watch!?", she half screamed, cutting him off.

"Detention, Mrs. Warren and Mr. Malfoy!", their professor shouted.
"You will be going to the forbidden forest this night, understood? Off to your common rooms, now!"

Tom stood there as if he was the one hit with the spell, ignoring the other Slytherins. What would he do after this?

"As for the rest of you, don't think that you will be getting away scot-free. You will be joining Mrs. Warren and Mr. Malfoy. in the forbidden forest."

They all groaned in displeasure, while watching Tom with anger in their eyes as they walked away.

"You won't be getting any punishment, Mr. Riddle, but try to stay out of conflicts like these in the future, understood?", she said as she levitated the knocked out Slytherin.

"Understood, professor.", he responded quickly.

He waited for her to get out of sight and hoped that he could catch up to Myrtle. Alas, he did, but in a crowded hall. He would have to wait for them to arrive at a clearing. He silently followed her until then.

"Myrtle, wait!"

He managed to draw her attention, making her stop walking.

"You should have just let it happen. A broken nose could be fixed in an instant."

"No way. You can't reverse pain now, can you?"

She made a good point, though.

"It doesn't matter, it would only last a couple of seconds, and it would save you from your time in the forbidden forest."

"It doesn't matter!"
"What kind of friend would I be if I let that happen!?"

"Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, don't worry about me."
"I expect Abraxas to be pissing his pants, so we already have something to talk about tomorrow. Bye!"

"Good luck with that. I will try to accompany you when you exit the school, but I sadly can't go with you."
"Bye..."