The end of November hit Hogwarts like a ton of bricks, covering the castle and grounds in snow practically overnight and it was like the moment that happened, everyone went absolutely bonkers. Half the staff had the entirety of the castle decorated for Christmas, if a bit early, while the rest were bogging their students down with prep for their midterms. Lyall wasn't the only one falling asleep on his textbooks as they began to stay later in the library and there was more than one night they almost missed curfew coming back to Slytherin's common room due to late-night studying.

Where Avery was improving in his theory in Defense, Chadwick stalled out in the improvement of his practical applications. While Tom and the other Slytherins had Defense with the Hufflepuffs, the Bates twins quietly relayed that in one of the practice sessions during their class with the Gryffindors that Chadwick had accidentally exploded one of the rubber balls they were supposed to be using to test their shields. Little seemed to help, however, as Chadwick's wand seemed determined to defy him in any way possible.

Nott finally remembered Tom existed, but now that Avery and occasionally Mulciber were hanging around him and the rest of their study group, little transpired, for which Tom was grateful, though if anything Nott seemed more pissy than normal having noticed his friends were hanging around with Tom. He was able to ignore it though, because studying and his friends kept him busy, along with his letters to and from Jack, who Mrs. Chadwick delivered once a week. He'd also had plenty of time to prep for the idea that he would need to get Christmas presents for his friends.

Tom was a little surprised that Professor Slughorn hadn't popped around to ask about signing up to stay at Hogwarts, but a week into December, the man stopped him as he was packing his bag at the end of his Potions class. Tom looked to the door, but no one had hung around waiting for him that he could see and he looked back to his Head of House.

"Prepared for your midterms, Tom?" Slughorn asked, clearly trying to politely lead into the conversation. Tom nodded his head politely in turn and the man reached out and clasped his hand on Tom's shoulder, once and then twice before releasing him, "Good, good, you'll likely be at the top of your class again this year, with how you've been doing. You may want to reconsider helping your friends out too much, eh? You wouldn't want them all overtaking you."

Tom gave a small smile and nodded, "Of course, Professor." He didn't particularly care one way or the other if he was the absolute best in the class- especially considering his main contender was Chadwick and given the stress the other boy was under in the classes in which wandwork was essential (almost all of their classes), it was unlikely. Tom was grateful to let the other boy excel past him in the classes he could- he did enjoy Potions, and found Herbology interesting, but cared little for Astronomy and History of Magic. Besides, his cumulative grades seemed to keep him topping out his classes for the most part.

"Anyways, the reason I stopped you was to talk to you about Winter Break," Slughorn pulled a roll of parchment out of his robes and Tom inclined his chin, giving the man his full attention, "Given your situation and everything, Headmaster Dippet and I both believe it would be best for you to stay here during Winter Break, safer here right now, than in London. I'm sure you understand."

"Of course, sir," Tom replied. Much like the year prior, he hadn't given any thought to going back to Wool's for the break. Even if he did miss Jack a bit, it wasn't enough to give up Hogwarts for- if anything it seemed a bit mad to him to even consider it. Give up his warm castle and delicious meals in the Great Hall for what? Drafty bunks and crying children and a sad Christmas morning?

"Good, I knew you would, you're a smart lad," Slughorn said, nodding, "I did want to let you know that the ah- the Slytherin Common Room will be a little less empty than it was last year. I just wanted to give you a bit of a warning about it."

Tom blinked and then nodded again, "I understand, sir. Thank you for letting me know."

"I expect it will be much the same with the other houses, so several of your friends will be around, I'm certain," Slughorn added on, tucking the scroll back into his robe. "Well, enjoy your free period- I have another class soon, so you better hurry along."

Tom had already packed most of his bag up and swung it over his shoulder, heading for the door. He'd just barely cleared the door when something connected with his foot and he was thrown off-center, this bag hitting the ground with a loud thunk. His shoulder hit the ground, taking the brunt of the impact, but didn't hear the tell-tale tinkle of glass, so hopefully, nothing of significance had broken in the bag. Primarily, his ink bottles.

"Riddle!" A voice called from further up the hallway, sounding out of breath.

"Hey Nott, gonna give Riddle a hand up?" Another voice asked, closer this time.

Tom blinked, trying to focus but seeing Nott standing over him, a sneer on his face, but he was backing off and moving away and someone began to pull on his arm, causing him to wince.

"I'm going to hex him," Sable hissed in his ear as she pulled him to his feet, "Starting this shite in front of Slughorn's classroom, and where even is he while this is going on," she continued.

Surprisingly enough Avery was also there, behind Sable, and Tom could see Nott leaning against the wall like he'd done nothing wrong. Tom rolled his shoulder. It was sore, but nothing truly wrong, so he reached for his bag, but felt his joint ache with pain and shifted it to his other shoulder instead.

"If I didn't know better, you both act like you're friends with Riddle," Nott drawled. "When he can barely stand up on his own two feet."

"Ignore Preston," Avery said, surprisingly also glaring at the other second year. "He's just mad that his parents told him he'll be staying at Hogwarts for Christmas."

"You do know most people are, right?" Sable added in, crossing her arms. "Gonna trip me next?"

Nott's lip curled, "Won't be a big deal to him," He said, gesturing towards Tom, "He was the only one here last year, all by himself. What, your muggle uncle couldn't be bothered to pick you up at the train?"

Tom shifted the bag, wiping some dust off of his robe. As much as he wanted to fight back, he knew there was little reason to- Nott would likely relay the story to one of his cousins in the upper years and make it seem like he was the victim and Tom would be back to dealing with dodging the older Slytherins again, which he wasn't keen on. Instead, he rolled his eyes slightly and turned, adjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder.

"You would walk away- Did you know there aren't any wizarding families with the name Riddle?" Nott asked loudly, and Tom froze. Sable was beside him again but had paused when he had and Tom looked over his shoulder at the other boy. Avery was halfway between them, looking back and forth, like he wanted to say something but didn't know what exactly.

"I'm impressed, Nott, I didn't know you knew every wizard," Tom said coolly.

"You said you were a half-blood on the first day of school," Nott countered, "Prove it."

Tom opened his mouth and then closed it. There were several things that immediately came to mind he wanted to say, among them, how would he even prove something like that, and why was Nott so obsessed with it.

"Merlin, Preston, what does it even matter?" Avery said. Tom blinked in surprise. "He says he's a half-blood, do you really need him to pull out a family tree and go over every bloodline with you?" Avery's nose wrinkled and he shook his head. "Come on you two, Nott needs to work out his own bloody problems on his own time." The boy pushed past Sable and Tom moved with her to follow him. When he looked back over his shoulder, Nott was gone, but that didn't make Tom feel any better.

"Leave me here- tell my mother I loved her and that Mia gets custody of Kelly," Tammy said- voice muffled by the snow that had covered her face when she'd fallen backwards into the snowdrift.

"Do you think she'll get lost in all of this?" Mia asked, sounding a bit concerned, looking from Tammy to Tom, who was standing next to her, his winter cloak wrapped tightly around himself and his Slytherin scarf covering the lower half of his face. While it was cold- probably colder than anything he'd ever felt, he actually enjoyed it. Like the year before he had proper winter clothes to help and this year Professor Wembley had taught them warming charms as a treat after their Charms exam.

"Tammy, or Kelly?" Tom asked dryly, earning a giggle from Mia. Kelly had followed them out, though Tom suspected that had more to do with the fact that they had bacon at breakfast and Mia had given the cat some under the table. The large white cat did disappear completely upon her first hop into the snow but seemed mostly unphased by it. Kelly poked her head out and began hopping from shallow patch to shallow patch, batting at anything that moved.

Tammy made a sputtering noise as she finally sat up, shaking her head and trying to wipe all the snow off her face and hair. Her skin had turned bright pink from the cold and she began adjusting her Hufflepuff scarf as she pushed herself to her feet. "I've never not been home for Christmas," she said, turning to watch Kelly, "I'm already a little sad- it's one of my favorite holidays and it's weird to think I won't be home to do any of the normal things we do."

"Like what?" Tom asked, both because it felt right and because he was genuinely curious. What did normal children do for Christmas with their families? Specifically normal wizarding families. He'd tried to inquire the year previous but had been more worried about keeping things under wraps and he hadn't felt comfortable enough yet with Chadwick to inquire at the time. Slytherin House hadn't been particularly helpful because the only answer he'd gotten was about what parties they'd attended over the break and who they'd seen- Apparently, the Black's held an Annual Christmas Party, and anyone who was anyone received an invitation. Tammy and Mia had been a little more forthcoming but hadn't gone into too much detail either.

"Well we attend a Yule celebration on the solstice- our wizarding village hosts one every year," Mia said, and Tammy nodded her head. He'd read up on some wizarding traditions, but most of the ones listed in the books cited things from the early 19th century and before. Yule tended to be popular for a time in place of Christmas, but now wizarding families seemed to celebrate both combined.

"There's a little church in the town we do midnight service at- well," Tammy paused, tilting her head up to watch the snow as it fell, "-well, we call it midnight service, but it's not really, we usually have it at about eight or so. We light candles and sing. Then when we go home I finish helping mum make pies for the next day and she reads A Christmas Carol."

"But that's a muggle story," Tom said. He'd heard of the story but never read it himself, though he'd heard passages of it around Christmas time being recited in school and that the local theaters did plays of it and usually had large signs outside advertising it.

Tammy shrugged, "Her mom was muggle-born and she read it to my mum when she was a girl, so now she reads it to me." Tom blinked- confused. He'd assumed both Tammy and Mia were purebloods, and based on how the Slytherins referred to them, it was clear they thought so as well, but based on that admission and how black and white the wizarding society seemed to label things, Tammy was technically a half-blood. It was odd how nonchalantly she said it, given he'd seen first hand that the prejudice wasn't just within Slytherin house. He'd seen and heard Chadwick complain about how his aunt and uncle largely disregarded his mother when she had a child with a muggle.

"When I was little I used to camp out in the living room trying to catch Father Christmas," Mia said, breaking Tom away from his thoughts. She pulled her Hufflepuff hat from the pocket of her cloak and pulled the ribbon out of her curly hair before pulling the hat on. "So Justin and I had a tradition of sleeping on the couch with lots of blankets in front of the fire, though he decided to sleep in his room last year- he said the couch wasn't big enough anymore. It felt like that was kind of the end of it, so I stayed out by myself but I already thought I'd end up staying in my room this year."

She sounded wistful and Tom felt an odd desire to give her a hug or pat her shoulder, but as soon as it appeared, the awkwardness of feeling it in the first place made it shrivel up. Tammy and Mia were always very open with hugs, hugging each other constantly, holding hands, touching each other. Occasionally they would grab Tom's hand or pull him in for a hug as well, but it was always brief and Tom wondered if it was them feeling uncomfortable, or them feeling that he was uncomfortable.

"What about you?" Tammy asked, looking at Tom.

"We do church," Tom finally answered truthfully. "On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They usually host a brunch there. We never really did gifts, some small handmade things, but that was it." None of it was a lie. Wool's Orphanage wasn't technically run by the church, that didn't mean the matrons there weren't going to turn down free events to take the children to. The small children got to play with other children who went to the church with their families and once you were big enough to be out of the nursery you could listen to the sermons or join the choir. No one would bother Tom if he was reading the Bible so he would usually sit in the corner and read it or pretend to read it. He'd probably already read it two or three times by the time he began Hogwarts. And the church held a charity brunch. Cook would bring food and so would other families. They didn't really have the ability to do presents or Father Christmas, but there was good food and people singing Christmas carols, so he supposed that was good enough.

Tammy didn't seem that surprised, since she nodded her head. "Some of the other families in the village do that too. My family never did the big dinner or luncheon on Christmas, we usually just do a large breakfast and then snack though the day on leftovers and stuff. New Year's Day is when my parents go a bit mad with dinner."

Kelly turned over some snow, making her way back over to them and let out a loud meow once she was at Tom's feet.

"You're the one who decided to come out here with us," Tammy said, almost like she was scolding the cat. Kelly meowed again and she leaned forward, grabbing her up and putting her into her cloak, the cat's head popping out at the top. She appeared to be pleased by the outcome of the situation, at least.

"So, what's on the docket for Hogwarts this Christmas?" Mia asked, reaching forward to scratch underneath Kelly's chin.

"What do you mean?" Tom asked, still feeling awkward. "I already told you last year what happened."

"Yes, but that was last year," Mia said, turning and leveling him with a look. "Last Christmas you had all of Slytherin to yourself like a King. And became best friends with Chadwick while we were away."

"We didn't become best friends," Tom replied, frowning. "I don't think we were even friends at all until Christmas."

The girls both gave him one of those looks that only girls seemed to be able to give him- he remembered Mulciber's comment about Avery's fiance, like she was looking at a child or animal who was too stupid to understand her. Yes. That was that look. "What?" He demanded, "We weren't."

"Keep telling yourself that." Tammy said, nodding her head, jostling Kelly." They'd begun walking as they talked, just wandering the grounds aimlessly, but at least they were on a path, so the snow seemed to be cleared somewhat and easier to walk on. "We were your best friends and then we come back and we've both been replaced."

Tom opened his mouth to retort that he hadn't had any best friends and then shut his mouth. He knew before he even said it that it would sound insulting to both of them. But even more than that, it felt weird to know that either of them wanted to be that close with him. Or that they thought he might be close enough with Chadwick to consider him a best friend.

"You're doing that thing again where you've only just realized something obvious," Mia said quietly, thoughtfully. Tom tilted his head, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, trying not to glare, but she seemed unbothered.

"Why are you so weird about that?" Tammy asked. Somehow she'd ended up on his other side, so he was surrounded and had no way of easily escaping. "The friends thing. You never call anyone your friends. It's like you're worried we'll infect you or something." She stopped walking as Kelly began trying to get out of her cloak and she paused long enough to unbutton the top buttons and toss the cat back into the snow, sending up flurries in the process.

Tammy glared at the cat as it climbed out of the snow, totally unphased and began hopping through, running to chase after some poor birds who were perched on a tree. "Silly girl," she turned and glared at Tom, putting her hands on her hips. "Well?"

Tom sighed, pulling a hand out of his pocket where he'd been keeping it warm and wiped it over his face. "It didn't really have friends before Hogwarts." He finally said.

"Well obviously," Tammy said, "But that doesn't explain why you won't act like you have them now when you have them in bloody spades."

"People who aren't used to having friends don't necessarily know how to start acting once they get them," Mia said gently. She's moved on from giving him a look like she knew something he didn't to doing the thing Tom hated- looking at him with pity. He glared and turned away, not wanting to see it. He could feel his ears burning and he felt the sudden urge to turn and walk back to the castle. At least in Slytherin he didn't have people trying to analyze all of his thoughts and actions, or rather, they had the decency to not voice it aloud.

"Well you've had a year and a half, so better get used to it- you're stuck with us, even if you did replace us with Chadwick." Tammy said, her arms folded, looking defensive, which only annoyed him further. Why was she defensive?

"Why are you so bloody obsessed with thinking I've replaced anyone as my best friend?" He demanded harshly and Tammy only slightly raised her eyebrows, her arms still crossed over her chest.

"Mia's been my only friend ever since I was little- I can't be excited I might make another?" Tammy replied coolly.

"Surely you've had others, you were both raised in your village together," Tom replied, confused.

"That doesn't mean there were more children our age, or that I got along with," Tammy shot back, becoming more defensive, sounding angrier. "Just- forget it, I'm going back inside, I have better things to be doing than standing in the snow arguing with some prat about whether he's my friend or not," she ended, her voice rising in volume and pitch.

Tom blinked, confused but still also feeling angry and defensive and as Tammy turned around and stomped off the path and snatched up Kelly from where he was yowling up at the birds, he looked over to Mia.

"What just happened?" He asked, trying to push down the feeling of anger that had risen up, but it was difficult since Mia was still looking at him with pity.

"You're smart, so we just assume it should be obvious, but you don't really put much effort into being friends with any of us," Mia said softly, "But it's like you're choosing to be… hands off. You haven't even tried to offer any help to Lyall or hang out with him despite everything going on, so you're either not paying close attention, or choosing to be distant."

Tom blinked, confused again, the anger mostly disappearing, "What do you mean? If Lyall needed help with something he'd just ask for it." The Gryffindor wasn't the type to beat around the bush and usually just asked Tom if he needed help with studying.

Mia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, like she was doing her best to be patient with him. Tom realized that Tammy was gone, as well as her cat- she had likely walked back to the castle by herself while he was talking to Mia.

"Lyall's family," Mia finally said, and he could tell she was finally starting to get annoyed, "They live in Germany. Only his parents live in England." She stared at him while his brain put it together. Lyall had mentioned the Christmas before he'd be going to see his grandparents in Germany, and in passing that his family was from Munich, but neither he or his brother had an accent, and Tom hadn't even thought about it. It also explained why he and his brother were so stressed about it on the train and during that first week- but Tom hadn't put any thought into any of it.

"If you don't want to be friends with us, then that's fine," Mia said gently, "But sometimes you act like- this morning, and then sometimes you become cold and harsh and it's… difficult to know which one you will be…" Mia trailed off and shrugged. She tried to smile, but it was a bad attempt at it, it was obvious she was also upset and Tom felt confused at how it made him feel.

When he was younger, he might have wanted friends, and even coming to Hogwarts a small part of him dared to hope maybe he'd find a place where he felt like he belonged and that he could enjoy the company of the people around him. But sometimes none of it felt real. They weren't friends with him, Tom Riddle. They were friends with half-blood Tom Riddle. Cool and collected Tom Riddle.

He opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out, but Mia didn't see it behind the scarf. "If you need help with it, you can always ask," she said and then shrugged again. "I'll go talk to Tammy, maybe we'll see you tonight before dinner?" She asked hesitantly but didn't sound very sure.

Tom watched her go, his chest feeling tight again and he didn't see any of them that night- he skipped dinner and stayed in the Slytherin Common Room, pretending to read a book he'd checked out from the library, and luckily none of the Slytherins felt the need to bother him with questions.