The next morning I woke up tired and grumpy from a bad night's sleep. One quick look at a watch told me I was going to be late so I hastily dragged myself downstairs to the Great Hall for a quick breakfast and sat next to Lucretia.
"Well, don't you look lovely", she taunted. With a heavy sigh I halfheartedly attempted to smooth out my ruffled hair, glaring enviously at my sister whose locks glamorously cascaded down, as usual. Judging by appearance we were like night and day, with her exquisitely fair hair contrasted to my dark brown strands. Her eyes were the darkest of brown, while mine where light grey; mother used to say that they looked like someone had drained all the colour out of them. Not the nicest way to describe one's eyes, but my mother wasn't one to keep her thoughts to herself.
"What's your first class?" Lucretia asked. "Are you excited?"
"Potions, but I'm not looking forward to it. I don't have even the first clue about potion making!"
"It's the first lesson silly, no one does. You'll be fine", she replied. "Besides, it's Slughorns class so even if you suck he'll let you pass just for being a Slytherin."
"And where's the classroom?"
"It's in the same dungeons as our common room, silly. You'll find it if you look really hard", she giggled to her friends.
"Stop that! Remember when mom said you need to behave yourself and help me?"
"Yeah, but she also told me I need to stop skipping history classes and we all know that's not gonna happen!"
"Ugh, you're such an airhead!"
She burst into a roaring laughter with her friends. "You see girls, this is what I have to deal with every morning. It's like she never manages to get up on the right side of the bed!"
Jumping up from the table I stormed out of the Great Hall without eating anything, leaving Lucretia to wipe her tears of laughter. I wish I knew enough spells to hex her!
Rudely pushing past a large group of students by the doors I made my way towards the dungeons. The classroom was in one of the few well-lit rooms in the dungeons, with shelves filled with jars of ingredients and other unfamiliar, gruesome substances. The classroom was quite crowded already and there were almost no seats left, except for the one next to Tom Riddle.
"Can I sit here?" I asked while slumping down without waiting for a reply.
"Apparently you can", he muttered while I was busy searching my school supplies from my bag. I grunted at him and mindlessly flipped through my potions textbook. He didn't speak another word until the potions master and head of Slytherin house, professor Slughorn, arrived to the room. Then he suddenly turned his whole body toward me and stared at me intensively.
"Give me your textbook", he demanded with such authority in his voice it would have startled even a grown man.
"What? No! Use your own!"
"I don't have one!"
"What do you mean you don't have one? Why didn't you buy them before school like the rest of us?"
He didn't reply but merely looked away, ashamed. A feeling that I had said something inappropriate came over me, making me regret my temper. Reluctantly I slid my book to the middle of our shared desk.
"Okay fine, I guess we can share it. But don't think you can get away with being all bossy like that. You should've said 'please'."
He glared at me hostilely but didn't get a chance to reply because of professor Slughorn, who had appeared behind me.
"What's going on in here?" he rumbled lightheartedly. "What are you two bickering about?"
"Oh I'm sorry professor, Tom here accidentally forgot his book at home and asked to borrow mine", I chirped.
"Well, how noble of you, miss...?"
"Black. Elara Black."
"Ah, you must be Lucretia's sister! What a pleasure to have yet another Black in the house of Slytherin! In that case I just might let your little chit-chat pass by unnoticed", he giggled. "But who's your friend?"
"Tom Riddle, sir. I'm very honored to finally meet you", said Tom.
Slughorn seemed very impressed by the boy's politeness. I would be lying if I said it didn't surprise me too. This sudden change in behavior felt rather uncharacteristic.
"You seem like a talented boy, Tom. Let's see, I just might have an extra book around here somewhere...", he muttered as he went through a closet near our desk. "Here it is! And don't worry my boy, you can keep it, that'll save you a few extra pennies!" he winked and waddled back to the front to begin the lesson.
"Why did you lie for me?" inquired Tom as soon as Slughorn was far enough not to hear.
"Don't flatter yourself, I was just saving my own back", I smirked. He ignorantly turned his gaze to his book and stayed silent for the rest of the class.
After that potions class we found ourselves sharing a desk in almost every other class, too. It came naturally and we seemed to work well together even if we had our disagreements. We weren't exactly friends, but he didn't seem to mind my presence while I found his rigid nature rather amusing.
He didn't have to borrow any more books from me either. Apparently he had 'forgotten' to buy the potions textbook but I had a feeling he had gotten a little too excited with the money he was given, based on the new, snake-shaped silver clasp on his robes.
Tom was also extremely competitive, which I took as a thrilling challenge. However, we did manage to get on each others nerves quite a lot because of this. He was incredibly gifted for a first-year and outshone everyone in almost every subject except for charms. He couldn't handle the idea of being in second place so after every test he insisted that we'd compare the results.
"I got 97%", he bragged one afternoon as we received our charms homework results. "And you?"
"I got 99%", I grinned. "Ha! Finally you get to be in second place!"
But he was not amused at all. His face stiffened and he clenched his jaw tightly as he grabbed the paper from my hand to examine it.
"Hey! Give it back!" I tried to reach the paper but he just held it farther away. I had to climb over him to get it. He frantically attempted to push me away but he only managed to make me more determined. I slammed my palm onto his face to give me a boost to get closer while having to adjust my legs in order to avoid falling.
"Ouch! You're crushing my toes!" he complained.
"Give it back then! You're a really sore loser, you know!"
"Calm down right now, both of you!" ordered the charms professor sternly from the front of the class. "Otherwise I'll have to take points from Slytherin."
I returned to my seat and felt a hot wave of embarrassment burning my cheeks. Tom finally handed the paper back and I snatched it from his hand without looking at him. Damn you, Tom Riddle for making me act like a fool!
"Sorry professor, I just wanted to see how I could've improved myself", replied Tom suavely to the professor who seemed pleased with his answer.
"Suck-up!" I hissed. He only grimaced at me and marched out of the classroom without another word.
Even though charms class was my strongest subject, I found the most interesting of them all to be defense against the dark arts. I could tell the same about Tom, for this was the class he always paid extra attention in. In this class, our personal competition was the fiercest and I was losing it.
We had an exam coming up right before the Holidays and I knew I had to upgrade my studying in order to win. So on one crispy December evening I decided to sneak out to the restricted section of the library to gain some additional knowledge.
I crept out of the dungeons and headed to the library through the most hidden route I could think of. I nearly got lost for accidentally taking a wrong direction in the dark staircase but eventually I reached the ancient doors of the library. I looked over my shoulder to see no one was around and crept to the door.
"Alohomora", I whispered and quietly slid inside.
The library was almost pitch black but I didn't dare to create any light yet. I discreetly made my way toward the back while curiously exploring the vast bookcases that seemed go on endlessly.
After I had reached the restricted section I frantically began searching for the section of dark creatures. The theoretical part of the exam would include especially zombies and werewolves and I had to admit these creatures were not my greatest strength.
Once I found the right section I jumped back out of surprise. On the ground there were several books that looked as if they had been thrown there in search of something. Someone has already been here!
I lifted my gaze to see a shape of another student sitting near the window, reading in the pale moonlight. As he turned his head to the light I immediately recognized him.
"Tom!" I gasped loudly.
He startled and sprung up, looking like he'd seen a ghost. It quickly turned into annoyance as he realized it was only me.
"Shh! Are you an idiot?!" he hissed.
"Who's there?" called the voice of the Hogwarts librarian from somewhere in the hallway. Panic began to take over me as I tried to quickly figure out the best way out of the situation. What was she even doing up in this hour? Tom was about to sprint toward the door but I stepped in his way at the last minute.
"The books!" I whispered hastily.
"What about them?"
"Put 'em back, otherwise she'll know someone was here!"
"She wouldn't if you hadn't shown up!"
I shot him a deadly glare and angrily shoved one of the books into his arms.
"Fine!" he snapped and began throwing the books swiftly back to their places. I was aching to go as I could hear the steps of the librarian echoing closer by each moment.
"Okay, come on!" I rushed and held my hand out after he was done.
"What?" he huffed.
"There's no point to split, one of us would just get caught anyway!"
"Move it, Riddle!" I snapped as he still hesitated.
He grabbed my hand and together we darted to the door and behind the corner of the hallway just as the pair of steps reached the library. We kept running and running until we reached the dungeons where I finally dared to stop. Out of breath and tensed up after the panic of almost getting caught I settled myself on the stairs to catch my breath. Tom was halfway down the stairs as he suddenly stopped and turned around.
"How did you know I was there?" he asked.
"I didn't, I came to study for the test."
He raised his eyebrows and let a wide grin light his face up. "Are you worried you're going to fail?"
"No!" I exclaimed, feeling my cheeks burn.
"Ha!" he snorted. "You just have to deal with losing to me because it won't be the last time."
A hot flash of anger brewed inside of me. The stony stairs felt cold under my palms as I grabbed the edge, trying to prevent myself from cursing him. How could he be so arrogant?
"Tom Riddle, you are an evil, mean, insufferable git! At first I thought you were just shy but now I see the real reason why you don't have any friends!"
Whipping around and leaving him behind I dashed back to the common room and straight to the dormitory. The loud slam of the door had waken up Jillian Parkinson, one of my roommates.
"Elara, is everything alright?" she mumbled drowsily. "Where have you been?"
"I'm fine", I snapped. The frustrated tone didn't convince Jillian at all. She got up and sat herself next to me on my bed, saying nothing. She only held my hand, surrounded by the sound of silent snoring. Her touch soothed the anger inside of me and gradually the feeling faded, leaving behind exhaustion. The last thing I saw before drifting to sleep was Jillian's warm smile as she tucked me into my bed.