Author's note: Hello lovely HP fans, as promised a new chapter, a bit earlier than usual. I apologise for any typos, sadly I had to edit this chapter relatively quickly so please, bear with me! I won't be posting this weekend so the next update will take place in two weeks. I hope you're having a great week! Thank you all so much for the continuous support! Enjoy!
October 1941: Don't Forget the Holy Water
"You're probably right. Very well then. Let's get this over with, Mr. Riddle" she pronounced in a drawl that imitated the potion's master mimic and she was pleased to find Tom's eyes gleam at her sudden and unexpected mischief.
She felt bold, suddenly carefree, very likely from the beat that got to her through the door. She finally accepted his offer and linked her arm to his, and it started, that tingle, as she named it for a lack of a better word. It was stronger than before, making the skin of her forearms prickle under her velvet sleeves. It resonated somewhere deep inside her guts, shaking her to the core. She shivered as he opened the door and she walked swiftly, almost dragging him inside to hide her bemusement.
The jazz music stopped to let place of the eerie and disturbing sound of theremin and Anna forgot all of her previous bewilderedness at the sight of the room. It was majestic and lugubrious at once, candles sluggishly burning inside the candelabras, casting a feeble and wobbling light against the drapes that concealed the windows. The dark wood of the furnitures gave the room a Gothic touch, and Anna felicitated herself for the suitability of her costume.
Despite the morbid decorum, the champagne fountain and the abundance of food – trays that carried canapés and other appetisers magically floated in the air – conveyed the party a festive atmosphere.
The room was full and it seemed like the entire teaching staff of Hogwarts was attending. She almost collided into Professor Dumbledore and the Head of Hufflepuff who were entering into a frenetic dance near the door. She would have been hit by an elbow if it wouldn't have been for Tom to pull on her arm at the very last second.
"Oops" laughed the professor, who was now spinning, but he could not apologise further for Tom was already leading Anna towards the middle of the room.
They heard a honeyed laugh and Anna spotted the host, dressed as a werewolf.
"Countess Báthory and Vlad the Impaler! Excellent!" beamed Slughorn at the sight of the newcomers and he sneaked in between the guests to meet them.
The girl felt the intrigued glance of the professor on their linked arms, and she lost her previous courage and stepped aside, freeing herself from the Slytherin's embrace. The potion master shoved in their empty hands a glass of sparkling lemonade in which squirmed a gelatinous worm.
"I am so thrilled to have you both here" he beamed. "I suppose Tom made the way to my apartments slightly easier?"
Annabel narrated their encounter with the poltergeist but affirmed that they had had, otherwise, an uncomplicated journey. They chatted for a while and the potion master insisted to make the presentation between them and some other students.
"Mr. Riddle, Miss Black, you must know each another already. Miss Black, this is miss Selwyn, the very daughter of Zeena Shafiq and Amsden Selwyn"
The tall girl with jet black hair nodded, bringing a gloved hand to Anna who politely extended hers.
"Annabel, I presume?"
Anna nodded with a small smile. She had heard of the Blacks, who were longstanding friends of her family from her mother's side. Yet, her parents did not seemed fond of them, for reasons Annabel could only suppose.
"What a beautiful necklace. The gold truly compliments your skin tone. You look ravishing" coaxed the girl with a voice that contrasted sharply with the sternness of her eyes.
Anna blushed at the praise.
"Thank you, it comes from my ancestor and has been passed on for generations to the women in my family"
The girl raised an eyebrow.
"Would I be stupid to assume it could belong to Simone Salvin?"
The Ravenclaw shook her head. She had expected allusions to her family background from that one girl.
"It comes from my mother's side"
"Speaking of which" interjected Slughorn with enthusiasm. "I read last time in the Daily Prophet that your grandparents facilitated research on the Great Enchantress recently by making an impressive donation of books and family objects to the Wizard's Council for the History of Magic"
Annabel nodded, saying it had been quite the pandemonium to have workers go in and out the house the entire summer, bringing in special crates and other bulky containers to wrap and transport the dozens of relics out of her parents' mansion.
"Relics of inestimable value" nodded Slughorn as a connoisseur and his eyes fixed the back of the room where the Professor of Botanic was calling him, bundled up in a pumpkin costume.
He glanced briefly at the Ravenclaw and said as a confidence.
"If you ever wish to talk further about your future career as a Mediwizard, I know exactly the right person who could advise you!" he winked before excusing himself and leaving the group of youngsters on their own.
Soon enough, they were being integrated to another, bigger group for people began to mass around Tom and her. She quickly understood that they did not come for her, but rather for the boy and she felt an ounce of jealousy at the Slytherin's popularity. A dark-haired boy with long hair in a pest doctor's costume pulled a hip flask out of his cape with a brazen smile.
"Don't forget the holy water" he joked, pouring some of the bottle's content into Tom's glass first, before offering some to the others.
He glanced at Anna but his eyes only grazed her, and she noticed he was looking at Tom standing on her left. The older kid raised his eyebrows, as if waiting for Tom's approval, which she found irritating. Anna asked herself since when did she need a chaperone?
"I'd like some" she claimed, extending her glass with so much will that it left little room for the long-haired boy to refuse.
He gave her a feral smile and a "Very well Miss" before he filled her already full glass to the brim. Anna's nostrils flared from the stinging smell of gin, but she kept her chin high as she turned to clink glasses with Tom. She drank a sip and forced herself not to frown at the bitterness of the drink.
They began to chat, of everything and nothing, alcohol helping to loosen the tongues. Anna felt euphoric and light-hearted, and she was witty and ingenuous. Naturally the conversations turned to the current situation in Hogwarts and an argument started between a Slytherin boy and a Gryffindor girl. Quickly, all mouths were shut and ears were carefully listening to the subject of the dispute: the integration of foreign Muggle-born students to Hogwarts. The debate, which resembled a quarrel as the voices' volume kept raising, seemed to divide people, who were nodding or shaking regarding the various arguments that were raised by both sides. Anna quickly picked her side and strongly acquiesced with what the girl was stating.
Unfortunately, the Gryffindor was losing it, but Annabel could not blame her. The Slytherin boy proved to be fierce opponent with his rhetorics and complicated turns of phrase. He also used an implacable logic that ridiculed the girl's call for compassion and altruism.
"You're nothing but a prejudiced and xenophobic imbecile" finally dropped the Gryffindor at the peak of the dispute.
"Here she goes with her fine words… I'm not being prejudiced, I'm being realistic. We're less than a million wizards within the UK for twelve million inside Europe. What do you think is going to happen when that crazy moron decides to invade more than its neighbours? All Europe will be knocking on our door and our very accommodating Ministry of Magic will make concessions, as he already does and soon enough they'll be taking our jobs and stealing our lands…"
Anna thought it escalated quickly… She was about to answer when a voice, formal but mellow resonated in her ear.
"We shall leave or we'll miss the curfew"
—
"Are you sympathising with what Mulciber said?" asked the girl and a shiver punctuated her question.
They had missed the curfew by a few minutes, not that anyone seemed to care. In fact, they were all too merry to even notice and Tom and her had simply waved at Slughorn to inform him they were on the brink of leaving. He had issued them to wait and they had watched him stumble in their direction, commanding Tom without further ceremony to take Annabel back to her dorm. She had protested of course, asserting that she'd find her way on her own but Slughorn had ignored her and looked straight at the dark-haired boy, making him solemnly promise that he would bring her back safe and sound. Tom had seen the girl rolled her eyes at so much chivalry.
Yet there they were, Tom walking her back to her door, like it was expected of any gentleman from the 1940s...
"How about you?" he asked nonchalantly, even though he knew the answer already. He had noticed how her knuckles had turned white as she gripped her glass too tightly, how she had nodded furiously at what the Gryffindor had said during the previous argument. He had learned, from Rosier, that Annabel shared no particular interest in her mother's parents' beliefs. Her mother herself, Zeena Shafiq, had taken some distance from her own family, deciding against its will to marry Amsden Selwyn, pure-blood, but progressive. Indeed, Amsden's parents took great pride in their liberal thinking, generously funding scholarships for the Muggle-born children who could have never been able to attend Hogwarts otherwise. They also claimed to anyone who would listen that they cared little about the purity of their blood, unlike "the Malfoys or the Blacks".
"I agree with her…" she started, pausing as if to organise her thoughts.
"It would be wrong to let those kids endangered by what's happening in the Muggles' world. I also think this Mulciber is nothing but a hateful and bigoted runt"
He was quiet for a few minutes. Tom cared little about Muggles, or Muggle-borns. In fact he gave little thought to such simple and outdated considerations. The reason he tolerated some people such as Mulciber was because he had noticed, for quite some time now, that leaving his Slytherins' friends stick to their position without thwarting them was the only way to find more followers. They were all in for various reasons: Dolohov, for chaos and Nott for violence.
Mulciber, because Tom never criticised his beliefs, as racist as they might be.
Tom had little need for the Selwyn girl to embrace his friends' ideas. Ideology played a very ancillary role in his great scheme. What he needed, though, was a leverage, something she did not have but crave, which would turn her into a loyal and obedient little soldier, despite her humanitarian principles.
Yet, he wanted to disturb her a bit, just for fun, because he enjoyed challenging her world view and also remind her that she was nothing but a privileged fourteen years old girl with utopian dreams.
"How many girls are sharing your dorm at the moment, Anna?"
She looked up, frowning and he enjoyed the trouble he found in her eyes at the familiar way he addressed her.
"Six…"
"And the last person who had been added is?"
"Sophia"
He licked his lower lip and with a feigned detached air, he asked:
"Do you have enough space? In your dorm?"
She opened and closed her mouth, as if she was about to respond but decided differently. He knew he had hit his mark and he repressed a smirk before pursuing, composing a stricken air on his face as if this entire conversation was bothersome.
"Very few foreign students have been accepted to Slytherin as you may know. But some have been. Six in total, all came from Durmstrang…"
He sighed.
"As you can imagine, it did not happen effortlessly. Slughorn lost much popularity among the Slytherins since he accepted them to his house. I personally suspect that Dippet meddled in it. Anyhow, the main complaint of the Slytherins concerned the size of the rooms"
He saw her glancing at him. He knew she was herself not spared from the lack of space. It sounded insane, considering the size of the castle, but the dorms were initially made for welcoming four students. Five already represented the maximum of the housing capacity. With six students inside, the dorm was practically impracticable.
"There are other rooms, in Hogwarts. Rooms that are aren't used. Otherwise, a simple spell of room enlargement would have helped… But Dippet refuses to listen to any of it. He welcomed the foreign students at the lowest possible costs, which translates for us by a decreased quality of life… Some of those Dumstrang kids brought interest proverbs with them. 'The rich man makes mistakes and the poor men get the blame'... Mulciber belongs to one dorm in which another student was added"
"I share your opinion about Dippet but did the man ever displayed any trait of political courage? Clearly the situation is not ideal but you cannot tell me that it ain't bad that some people such as this… Mulciber… spread their racist poison everywhere they go"
She had hesitated on the way she called his friend and Tom noticed with satisfaction that there was some improvement in her choice of words.
"Annabel, I apologise for making assumptions about your personal situation but… have you ever had to share?"
She shot him an irritated glance but her cheeks reddened from embarrassment.
"Mulciber comes from a poor family, with a single mother and five siblings. He grew up in a one bedroom apartment in Knockturn Alley listening to his drunk mother cursing at his Muggle father for having abandoned them. More often than not, he went to bed hungry and knowledge and entertainment were nothing but abstract concepts he could only dream of. Mulciber never owned anything, let alone his own bed. I am not sure your wealthy background allows you to comprehend his sorrow"
"What about you?" she asked, turning her face to look at him intensely.
"What about me?"
He gave her a tough glance and she blushed furiously.
He knew what she alluded to. It was no longer a secret that he returned to that Muggle orphanage each summer holidays but he silently blamed her for thinking that their new closeness, that he had initiated, meant that he'd now share all of his secrets with her...
As if she could read his thoughts, she looked down, seemingly regretting to having spoken so squarely. He strongly despised having to reveal so much about himself, especially regarding his life at the orphanage, that he regarded as shameful and harming his remarkable abilities.
Yet Tom was aware of the true form of human nature, that nothing was ever achieve without sacrifice, as if the law of alchemy would not tolerate unbalance. He knew he had to give in to her curiosity, satisfy some of her questions but not the orphanage, not yet.
"So… Mediwizard?"
She let out a quiet, long sigh.
"Slughorn wanted me to think of a career choice for the guidance sheets… Preferably something that would make his own discipline look useful vis-à-vis Professor Wingly"
He nodded, unfazed by the potion master's little plans. No wonder this man was the head of the Slytherins, he was as cunning as a snake.
"So you wish to do something different?"
She simply shrugged and fell quiet, withdrawn. Tom repressed a sigh and he reminded himself that he needed to give her the impression of intimacy if he wanted to get her to talk.
"I would like to be Professor Against the Dark Arts"
A pause followed his words and she bursted into laughter before putting one hand on her mouth as if suddenly embarrassed of having laughed so unrestrained. He had to bite the inside of his cheek not to curse her right on the spot.
"Laugh all you want…"
He shot her a threatening glance and she contorted her mouth in a pout, obviously trying to refrain herself to giggle further.
"I apologise, this was terribly rude of me. But…"
They were on the fifth floor already and the girl walked away, sliding her hand on the railing of the staircase that led to the Ravenclaw tower. She climbed the flight of stairs, her dark red dress rustling against each and every step. He stood there, waiting for her to finish her sentence down the stairs, which made him feel like a stupidly smitten Romeo.
She turned around, about to disappear in the corner of the spiral staircase.
"…thank you for this nice evening, Mr. Riddle. And for what it's worth, I am sure you will be an amazing professor"