Author's note: Thank you so much to the people who had subscribed to this story and to everyone who read the first two chapters of this fic! I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter as well. Please let me know if you enjoy it! Happy reading :) (Ps: I apologise if you had issues accessing the third chapter, somehow has been acting up today...)

April 1939: The Potion Partner

Annabel was sitting in the alcove by the window bench, part of her body concealed by the drapes. The moon casted its light on the girl's face, highlighting her high cheekbones and button nose. The low-cut line of her nightgown was revealing much of her skin which looked almost translucent in the luminescence. Her chest was moving ever so slightly, to the rhythm of her breathing. She weirdly felt like she was hiding, withdrawing from the world.

Her glance wandered from the park that surrounded the castle to the lake in the distance. It had rained earlier that day but the height of the Ravenclaw tower did not allow her to catch sight of the muddy puddles of rainwater. Her eyes settled on her hand and she moved it in the moonlight. She had felt it again. That tingle. It had started months ago, after she had walked to Slughorn's office. She couldn't deal with this idiot of Nott anymore and had pleaded to be assigned another partner. The Potion Master had asked her to bring something to one Slytherin student, after having said he'd give her request some thought. As some kind of tacit agreement, he had granted her wish and she did as he had asked.

It had been the first time then.

At first, she had believed it was some kind of natural phenomenon, such as static electricity, something Muggles must have a scientific explanation for. Yet it had happened again, many times... She needed to find a pattern, something behind the occurrences that could explain why or when it occurred. So far, she could only presume that it was related to that boy, for it was solely happening in his presence. Not that they used to spend time together, not really, but Slughorn had designated him as her new teammate. Of course, she hadn't been thrilled – she still remembered how humiliated she had felt after he pointed to that mistake she had made at the beginning of the year – yet she knew there was improvement in that change. At least, he was quiet, only addressing her whenever it was absolutely necessary, and it gave her room to think.

Room to think… This was definitely something she was longing for. Ever since she started Hogwarts, her mind was in a state of constant agitation, only quieting when she was spending time on her own. Or when she was with him. She chased that thought with a shake of the head. This was beyond ridiculous.

Annabel pinched her lower lip between her index and her thumb, lost in thought. She thought about the peculiarity this boy had, something that she could not truly put her finger on. He was odd, that much was certain, but no one except her seemed to acknowledge that fact. Of course she had brought it up with the others, as innocently as she could, but each time it was the same story: she only met curious glares and incredulous frowns.

The fabric suddenly parted and she jumped, surprised to see a blond head appearing between the drapes.

"What are you doing?" asked the girl to Annabel who put a finger in front of her lips, issuing her to be quiet.

"I'm just enjoying the view…"

The girl whose name was Elena Green slipped in the crack she had opened and shut the drapes behind herself. She carefully climbed on the window seat and sat across Annabel, sharing with her the wool blanket she was dragging around.

"Did I wake you?"

The blond girl shook her head, a wistful smile parting her lips.

"I wasn't sleeping. I'm having a hard time falling asleep since Easter. I guess that I'm missing home"

Annabel gazed at the girl, searching for something comforting to say. She found none, little did she know about home and comfort. She stretched her arm though, and reached for the girl's hand, held it in a compassionate way. A slight feeling of homesickness tightened her chest and she secretly wished she would feel that way too.

"Why are you sad? Are you missing your parents too?" whispered the newcomer and Anna found herself taken aback by the question.

"I'm not sad"

"Right…"

Elena's tone was filled with sarcasm, which surprised the brown-haired girl. Was she, though? She remembered her mother continuously asking her to wipe that solemn look off her face. "Anna, darling, you should smile more. Boys don't like girls who look so grave…"

Elena did not pry into her friend's life further and peered through the window instead. Her eyes stared at the glowing planet in the sky when she asked:

"Did you know that the Moon is drifting away from Earth?"

Annabelle shot the girl a glance and when her lips parted in a daring smile, Elena knew the girl was in game.

"Of course. Did you know that it exactly takes 27,3 days for the moon to turn around the Earth?"

"Did you know that the Moon's surface is actually dark?"

"Ah! You got me. I did not know that"

Elena clenched her left fist and grinned, victorious.

The two girls fell silent again and peered through the window, owls flying every now and then in the darkened sky.

"How is Riddle treating you?"

Anna shrugged.

"He's all right I guess. He's distant and keeps to himself"

"Have you ever realised that he licks his lips whenever he's concentrating?"

Anna's eyes widened amusingly and she mouthed a "no" while Elena repressed a giggle.

"He does! Watch him carefully next time!"

They laughed for a while as they imitated some of the others' mannerisms, contorting their features into humorous faces until Elena glared, her eyes darkening as she mimicked Nott's scowl, adding in a perfectly measured voice: "You stupid Ravenclaws are not made to deal with the subtle art of brewing potions!"

Anna stopped laughing, suddenly stern as she shot her friend an apologetic glance.

"I'm so sorry that you have to deal with Nott now. Of all students, I didn't expect you would be the one who would end up being paired with that idiot…"

"It's all right. He's not that bad, actually. I'm sorry he was being so hard on you"

The brown-haired girl frowned.

"Is he kind?"

"Well, kind would be an overstatement. He does tease me for sure but I find this rather… amusing…"

"Amusing?"

"Yes, amusing"

"I'm afraid I do not understand what you're talking about" retorted Anna, suddenly irritated.

"Well, I believe that he pretends to be strong but in reality... I am sure he is soft on the inside"

Anna tried her best not to sneer. Elena must be yanking her wand… How could she believe that such a bully could be "soft on the inside"?!

Years later, Anna would remember this conversation, how the two girls had sit on the window seat that night. It would ring in her head, like a throbbing cry when Elena's sleeve would slide down her wrist, revealing the bruises. The girl would remember then, at the sight of the deep shades of blue and purple, how her friend thought back then that Leonus was nothing but a kind-hearted, an amusing, soft boy.

—

Tom reached for the Horklump juice and poured some of it inside one of the copper cups he was holding. A thick and red liquid passed through the neck of the tiny bottle and ended up in the bowl, reflecting the glowing light from the dungeon. The boy looked at it for a second before his eyes scanned the shelves in search of the Flobberworm Mucus. His fingers finally settled on the sticky and green vial and he skilfully unscrewed the cork with one hand, adding two blobs of a viscous fluid inside the other tiny cup. He looked over his shoulder at his potion partner. She was standing in front of their table, busying herself around the cauldron. He moved away from the shelves and jumped off the dais, making room for the other students to go fetch their ingredients.

Herbicide Potion… Naturally, he had learned the recipe by heart before the class, but he could not care less about ways to get rid of plants. He wished they would move on to something exciting, something useful. So far, Tom had the feeling that they barely learned anything other than how to cure migraines or settle an upset stomach… His career plans did not include for him to become a nurse or a healer and Tom saw little use for such rudimentary magic. He felt increasingly frustrated and as the days went by, he wished he could prove himself, see his abilities challenged.

The Slytherin walked over to his seat and glanced at the girl who was reaching for the mortar inside the compartment under their table. He handed her the lionfish spines that he had fetched behind the Potion Master's desk and as he did so, he took great care of not touching her. She made him fell funny, that girl. At first, he had felt a tingle, some sort of electric shock running from his fingertips all the way down his spine. Recently, something changed, and he experienced something new, something he could not believe in.

It had happened last Monday. They were leaving the dungeon and in the tumultuous move of students rushing to the Great Hall for dinner, she had bumped into him. She had turned around, looked at him in the eyes to apologise and the exact second she did so, he had felt a pull. It was like if his brain had been sucked up to a place where he could neither see nor hear, neither feel nor smell. It was as if he had been robbed of his own mind as images started dancing in his head, mixed with voices, in a horrendous cacophony such as the jerky films Muggles watched in what they called cinemas.

It took him everything he had to extricate himself out of that place, and to finally return to the now. He had found the girl in front of him, a wrinkle on her forehead betraying her worry and he had quickly skirted her, joining his peers, heading to the Great Hall.

Tom observed the girl throwing the bones inside the marble bowl and grinding them decisively with the pestle. Her head was lowered, she was carefully watching what she was doing.

"Do not grind them too thin" he issued her while shooting a glance at the content of the bowl. With a slightly irritated gesture, she added two spoons of Standard Ingredient and crushed the herbs quickly before she added part of the mixture inside the cauldron. Tom raised his wand and waved it over the container, passing his tongue on his lips, focusing on the spell and he saw her looking at him from the corner of his eyes.

The girl looked at the opened Potion book, her eyes searching for the next step.

"Now we wait" attested Tom and the both of them sat on the chairs behind them, patiently waiting for the Potion Master to come give them his go-ahead for the second part of the preparation. The girl reached for her bag and rummaged inside, pulling out a black leather notebook. Golden numbers indicating 1939 were glowing on the front cover and she opened it to the week's section. Annabel reached for her quill and quickly crossed out some words of what seemed to be a to-do list before she skipped a few pages and scribbled a few sentences here and there. Tom watched her repeatedly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, which kept inevitably falling on her face again, for she was looking down at the diary lying on her knees.

The Ravenclaw put her quill on the table and slid two fingers inside her left arm's sleeve, untying a piece of pink fabric from around her wrist. With a wave of her wand, her hair suddenly moved up as if waiting for the girl to tie it in a ponytail. After pulling on some strands to make sure everything was neatly attached, Annabel resumed to her writing.

Tom glanced warily at the pink ribbon on the crown of her head with an impression of déjà-vu. He had seen that ribbon somewhere, he would bet his own life on it. Had she worn that scrunchie before? He doubted she did, such gaudy colour did not easily go unnoticed… He looked away for she shot him an inquisitive glance, probably aware of his staring.

A girl walked towards them, Elena Green, a Ravenclaw, Leonus Nott's new potion partner.

"Anna, is that my ribbon I'm seeing in your hair?! I was certain I lost it"

The blond girl falsely chided Tom's teammate, leaning over the wooden table as if to look at what her friend was doing behind it. Annabel shook her head teasingly, her ponytail moving in the air and as some strands flew in the air, it all came back to him. The pink ribbon, he remembered now, it was in the blond girl's hair, she was sitting in front of – who? him? – in that flash of images he had been compelled to watch when his potion partner had accidentally bumped into him. He looked down, focusing on that flow of pictures that had morphed in his head... The blond girl was sitting in front of him, the pink ribbon deeply contrasting with her pale blond hair. She had turned around then and grinned like now, a knowing smile on her lips as she said something, words she mouthed that he could not hear. Instead there was a voice, behind, unconnected, a collected, calm voice, that reminded him of… the voice of his Transfiguration's Professor, Dumbledore, that's it! He was in the Transfiguration class. The blond girl turned her back to him again and reached for her ponytail, untied it before she contorted to pass it to him under the desk, as if she tried to act unnoticed.

Tom frowned, rewinding the scene. As he bent forward as if to grab the ribbon, his eyes caught sight of school supplies lying on the table, what seemed, indeed, like their Transfiguration textbook, parchments, a quill.

A black leather notebook with a golden inscription.

1939

"Miss Green, please return to your seat…. Miss Selwyn and Mr Riddle, let me have a look at your Potion"

Tom was suddenly jolted out off his thoughts by the hoarse voice of the Potion Master. He quickly glanced at the brown-haired girl sitting next to him. She removed the scrunchie from her hair, handing it to her friend who was walking away.

Perplexity was not the right term. Stupor might be more proper. Tom remembered having read something during the Christmas break, about wizards being able to read people's minds.

By Merlin, was that even possible? What he had seen, the memories, could it be hers?