That night I didn't join the others at the fireplace. Instead I found myself a seat in a peaceful corner of the room where I could be alone.
The entrance of the common room opened, bringing in loud chatter as Lucretia and her friends returned from dinner. She spotted me almost instantly and threw a questioning glance at my direction. Then she said something to the other girls and headed toward me.
"Why aren't you hanging out with snake boy?" she asked and sat next to me. "Trouble in paradise?"
"Shut it", I snapped. "I'm not in the mood."
She raised her brows slightly and sighed. "Okay, what's wrong?"
A part of me wanted to confide in her, but the risk of getting caught hovered over me like a raincloud.
"Oh, I... I can't tell you... You'll blabber..."
Lucretia snorted and gave me an incredulous look. "Do I really look like a snitch to you?"
"Fine. You've probably heard about that Ravenclaw boy in my Dark Arts class who used a cheating quill during the exam", I began and she nodded encouragingly. "Well, it wasn't exactly his fault."
"We came up with a plan with Tom and a few others and switched that boy's quill with the cheating one. I know that sounds bad but you don't know the things he said about us Slytherins! We just wanted to teach him a lesson."
Lucretia's expression remained ambiguous, as she merely furrowed her brows slightly. This made her resemble our mother, which certainly did not help to improve my mood.
"And now Dumbledore is onto us and I don't know what to do!" I huffed in order to emphasize the distress inside of me.
"Wait, Dumbledore knows?" Lucretia asked, flinching. "How are you all not in detention, then?"
"He suspects the quill is Malfoys and if he can confirm that-"
"Even if he managed to prove it, which I don't think he will since I'm sure Malfoy isn't going to admit to it, he'll still have nothing on you", she interrupted and held my hand reassuringly.
Lucretia was usually frustratingly vain and self-centered, but she was, after all, the oldest sibling and quite used to comforting me or Orion when needed. I often wondered if Lucretia would've ever managed to develop her empathetic side so early on had our mother been more warm-hearted.
She bit her lower lip thoughtfully and cast a curious glance at Tom, who was sitting in our usual spot by the fireplace. "So... This was Riddle's idea?"
"I guess, but we all agreed to it..."
"Is that so?" she asked. "Has it crossed your mind that the things he said about that Ravenclaw kid might not have been exactly true?"
Too embarrassed to admit that the thought had not indeed crossed my mind, I rolled my eyes at her. "Does it make a difference anymore? Smith wasn't hurt in any way and thanks to us, Slytherin is now winning the House Cup tournament!"
It wasn't uncommon for us to argue, but rarely ever did I use such a hostile tone. Lucretia noticed this too and gave me an odd look. Then she sighed and glared at Tom again, looking uncharacteristically serious.
"Well, I don't think you have to worry about you or Riddle getting caught", she eventually replied. "But... Just be careful around him, okay?"
Then she got up and headed back to her friends, giving me one last sympathetic look over her shoulder.
What did she mean by 'be careful around him'? Was Lucretia implying that I couldn't take care of myself? Yeah, right! She's just jealous she has never mastered a plan like ours!
With a new surge of determination I got up from my isolate seat and joined my friends at the fireplace. Jillian gave me a questioning look but it quickly disappeared as I smiled warmly at her and slumped on the couch with the rest of them. Tom put down the book he was reading and raised his brows at me.
"Glad to have you join us", he said. "Thought you wanted to be alone?"
"No", I replied. "I'd rather stay here."
A few days turned into a couple of weeks and it seemed like Dumbledore's investigations hadn't been successful. Finally I dared to relax a little bit and gradually the guilt faded off, even though every once in a while I'd catch a glimpse of Smith sulking next to his Ravenclaw friends, looking absolutely miserable. In those moments it was harder to fight off the doubt Lucretia's words about Tom had planted in me.
Had Tom really made it all up? But what for? Why risk everything just to avoid second place in a House Cup tournament? He would've still been one of the top students. None of this made any sense to me, but as time passed the whole incident started to feel more insignifigant and I never gave it too much thought afterwards.
In honor of Slytherin winning the House Cup again after a few years, Slughorn had decided to throw a feast for the whole house and some of his most well-known pervious students on the final evening of school before the holidays. It was a glorious event; one of the largest class rooms was completely draped in emerald and silver, with the whole room full of Slytherin guests enjoying the treats of a large dining table in one corner; on the other side of the room a set of instruments had been conjured to play a classy yet a catchy tune. Slughorn was in the middle of it all, basking in the attention and lively chatting with anyone he happened to come across. As we arrived, Lucretia was lingering near the dining table with Orion and gestured me to join them. Leaving Tom and the others behind, I made my way through the room and grasped a cup of butterbeer on the way.
"Some party, right?" said Lucretia, looking amused. "You'd think that this is Slytherin's first House Cup ever."
"Yeah, well, I guess he's just glad we won after all...", I muttered.
Lucretia gave me a meaningful look, but remained silent. I turned my attention to Orion, who seemed absolutely astonished by everything that was happening in the room. Feeling a twist of guilt for not paying more attention to him on his first year in the school, I ruffled his hair which he responded to with a dismissive grunt.
"How has your first year gone? Did you make any friends yet?" I asked him.
"Yes I did!" he retorted. "So leave my hair alone!"
"Oh no, I think he's embarrassed of us!" I exclaimed playfully to Lucretia.
"Us? I think he means you", she jeered and made the both of us laugh.
"Care for a couldron cupcake?" spoke a silent voice in my ear, offering a plate from behind my back. I flinched and saw Tom and the others, who had discreetly appeared between me and Lucretia.
"Oh, thanks", I replied and took the plate while my cheeks warmed up once again. From the corner of my eye I noticed Lucretia observing me intently from behind Tom, who was now immersed in a conversation with Lestrange. In an attempt to avoid her gaze I stared at the crowd of people swaying with the music in the middle of the room and felt relief as I saw Slughorn waddling toward us.
"Ah, how are all of my favourite students doing!" he rumbled and slammed his chubby arms around my and Tom's shoulders, making the both of us to sway forward.
"Of course, as a teacher I'm not supposed to have any favourites, but what can you do!" he exclaimed, slightly slurring his words.
Tom and I exchanged amused glances while trying to escape under his smothering hold. Fortunately one of the waiters was scurrying through the crowd near us, which caught Slughorn's attention and he started to vigorously wave at the poor man, grabbing yet another glass of Firewhiskey from the tray. He gulped it down with one greedy sip and swayed on his feet for a menacing second. Then he fixed his gaze on us with a suprising accuracy and pointed a finger.
"Would you two have wanted a drink as well...? No, of course not! You're too young... Oh, what am I thinking?" he mumbled, and with that, staggered away.
Lucretia crept up beside me and raised an eyebrow at Slughorn's back. "It baffles me how he hasn't been suspended already."
"At least he knows how to party", I snorted. Lucretia nodded approvingly while Tom merely stared after the professor with an inscrutable look in his eyes.
Slughorn's feasts weren't usually as grandeur as this one, but it was a trend of his during the time that there were no limitations in food or drinks for the guests. Other professors were rarely present and I often wondered if they would've approved of what "throwing a feast" truly meant for professor Slughorn.
As the night went on nearly all of the of age guests had gradually become more and more intoxicated and their company almost intolerable. When one of the previous students had stolen a flute from the set of instruments and started to improvise a love song of his own making, we decided it was best to leave.
We made our way through the nearly deserted corridors toward the Slytherin common room laughing and enjoying the freedom of the upcoming summer holiday. Tom, however, did not seem to share this enthusiasm and was walking behind the rest of us. I slowed my pace to match his, but he seemed too immersed in his thoughts to acknowledge me.
"What's up? Dissatisfied with the party?" I joked, making him flinch a bit. Tom finally raised his gaze from the worn out floor of the corridor and gave me a joyless smirk.
"No, it's not the party", he replied, but did not elaborate.
"Come on, cheer up! It's the end of the school year, we can just relax now-"
But I didn't get to finish my sentence before he shot me a sharp glare and with a pang of guilt I remembered that the holidays aren't something to look forward to for Tom.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Don't worry about it", he reassured. Then he paused next to one of the larger windows near the middle of the corridor and observed the clear night sky, ablaze with the dazzling stars and a nearly full moon. The moon's silvery glow glimmered in his dark eyes, which depicted almost unusual seriousness. I sat down on to the sill of the window and proceeded to glare outside as well. As I was focusing on a couple of Slughorn's guests staggering outside of the castle toward the gates of Hogwarts, Tom spoke up.
"I don't think my father ever attended this school", he blurted, keeping his gaze on the sky.
"Yeah, you're probably right", I sighed. "I've never heard about a wizarding family named 'Riddle'... But how do you know?"
"I couldn't find anything with my father's name, so I used my middle name. In one of the books there was a mention of Marvolo Gaunt, which was also my mother's surname, but that in itself doesn't tell me much anything. My mother is dead, I have no one to ask about these things and no idea where to start!"
"But that's still great news! I'm sure you'll be able to find them eventually-"
"No! Elara, you don't understand, I can't bear to be locked into that orphanage for much longer, you don't know what it's like! They won't let me leave that place unless it's with a relative!"
Tom had become visibly distressed, which was something I had rarely ever seen before or after this event. He stared straight into my eyes so intensely, that under any other circumstances I probably would've felt the familiar warmth on my cheeks. Instead I reached out for his arm and tried to appear as reassuring as possible.
"You can come to our house for the summer", I said and smiled at him gently. "I'll have to persuade my parents, but I'm sure they'll allow it."
"They won't let me out for longer than the two weeks I spent at your house last summer", he replied, looking away. "I'll be stuck there until I'm of age and they don't have authority over me anymore."
"Don't say that, you have a perfectly good chance to find your relatives and move in with them!"
Tom merely snorted and slumped down on the windowsill next to me. "I know nothing but one name. They're probably dead anyway."
"You don't know that! And if you don't even try to find them, you'll never know!"
Maybe it was the tragedy of this conversation, or the shock of seeing Tom so unusually upset, but the words had come out of my mouth with such intensity, that even a few students passing us by turned to look behind. Tom, on the other hand, merely observed me for a while, during which he seemed to calm down a little and return to his normal self. He squinted his eyes at me, then rested his head against the cool glass of the window.
"Yeah, maybe you're right."