Hi there,

I guess you know the Interstellar meme where Matthew McConaughey says 'This little maneuver is gonna cost us 51 years', and that's how I feel about the upcoming storyline – but something has to happen so the infamous Albus vs. Gellert duel can take place in 1945 ;)

We'll soon be back in Hogwarts, but for now, I hope you can also enjoy Tom's Little Maneuver (including this one, it's a total of 13 chapters), starting with two flashbacks in Soho, 1938.

xx
Dalia

"Are you lost, boy?"

With both her hands on her hips she eyes me, and no less skeptical I glance up at her. Blood red lips underline her crooked smile – as they so often do.

"For real, Tommy," she quitely laughs to herself, "no other child radiates such indifference. No, no, don't give me that look again, I'm just kidding – yet I guess you really shouldn't be here today." She can see the question forming due to my mimic, so she follows up with, "I've got company coming over that you don't want to meet …"

When I make no effort to move, she moans and pushes the bordeaux coloured curtain of the pub entry aside.

"All right, I'm persuaded, go in to Jim for now, he's got a new book for you anyways … Oh, but, Tom?"

I turn around again and she bites her lip while glancing at the bar, yet to her relief, Jim isn't paying any attention to us.

"When you followed me the other day," she begins, lowering her voice, "that situation you saw in the backyard, that was –"

"I didn't see anything," I assure her.

She immediately raises her eyebrows and holds her index finger to my face as I hold her gaze. "Don't you lie! You've witnessed how he suffered. But that man was really rude, and I just –"

"He was crazy, Vivian." It's like a suggestion – and she knows it. "You didn't even touch him, he obviously imagined the pain."

"But you could also see the box floating the other day –"

"I only dreamed it." I nod. "You know I can do it, too, though."

"What can you do?" she asks, almost as though she didn't want to know what I'm getting at.

"Levitate objects – among other things." I suppose I'd better leave the pain I, too, can inflict without touching people unmentioned …

She's worried already. "Yeah, I know you can," she sighs, "but you're actually much too young for that."

"So it's all a dream?"

"Yeah, indeed," she moans, blowing one of her brunette curls out of her face, "let's just call it that for now. But not a word to anyone about you and me managing more than flickering lights, yeah?"

I nod, yet I ask, "What are we, Vivian?"

"You know what we are." She winks. "Patience, Tommy. Time will tell."

For better or worse, I leave it at that when she points inside. "Now off you go, we're all alone – keep Jim company for a bit."

I pass the entrance area. It tries to look like that of a sports bar so much that it's almost too suspicious.

"And don't put your school bag in front of the bottles again!" she calls after me. "You hear me?"

"Sure," I mumble, already approaching Jim who's brooding over the taxes at the counter. He's wearing his accountant's glasses and seems engrossed in red numbers, though business is actually booming.

"Kid," he says without looking up, "how can little become more?"

Reaching the counter I sit down on one of the bar stools so I'm at his eye level. "Legally not at all, because … politicians take it all?"

"That's right," he growls. He takes a sip of ale and then places a cup of tea on the old, chipped wood in front of me. "I've got something for you," he then says, reaching into the drawer behind him. "Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice."

"A novel?" I ask, not exactly euphoric.

"Indeed, a novel," he confirms, adjusting his glasses and turning the page of his calculations. "You shouldn't only read history and philosophy books. There should be a novel in your hands once in a while, too, otherwise you won't understand women later on in life …"

"Oh Jim, he already understands me better than you ever will," Vivian giggles as she suddenly sits down next to me and takes my school bag. "You don't have to hold it," she states in amusement before placing the tattered leather on the counter. "Just don't put it in front of the booze …" More seriously, she adds, "Jim – is everything ready?"

"Yeah, yeah," he replies, all relaxed, nodding without looking up at her. Until he grins at me. "Vivian and Gini are awaiting an exceptional visitor today, you know? They're already excited!"

"If he hears you say that, Jim," she almost whispers, "he'll gut you. You know he's here for very different things!"

Jim chuckles. "Indeed. Tough fellow. But to him I'm just the jerk from the bar anyway …"

She sighs, shrugging. "Nothing must go wrong today – and I'm sure he'll be here earlier than scheduled … Tom, you really have to leave at once when I tell you, got it?"

"Why?"

"Trust her," Jim says, winking before turning back to Vivian. "And you – don't get upset, my dove, you'll be fine. You can plan his important revolutions in peace."

Vivian rolls her eyes for effect, then she concentrates on me. A bit too cheerful. She's clearly nervous. "So, what book is it?"

"Pride and Prejudice", I answer – and unfortunately I know, even without asking, that she won't tell me a word about revolutions …

I've hardly read the first chapter when Shirley's floating down the narrow stairs opposite the bar. She's a blonde sun child, but probably nevertheless cursed by the moon itself, and its woes.

"Oh, Tommy, you're visiting us!" She claps her hands all merry, it must be one of her good days.

"Shirley, come here!" Vivian gestures her to join us. "He's started to read the Lizzie Bennet story!"

"Oh, such a classic – starring the grim Mr Darcy!" Shirley giggles. Closely followed by her guest, she reaches the foot of the creaking stairs and buttons her blouse as she walks, muttering, "Tommy, don't take cues from the dreadful Fitzwilliam Darcy." She winks at the young man who's visited her until he disappears behind the heavy velvet curtain of the vestibule, then she comes right beside me, supposedly chipper, and ruffles her hand through my hair. No fear, no reservations. She can understand the darkness of this world – and therefore seems to intuitively differentiate it from my person like no other.

"Are you all right?" she asks.

"Neither are you."

She takes a deep breath and forces a smile nevertheless. "But we're brave all the same, aren't we? Have you read Anne of Green Gables yet?"

I nod. "Finished it yesterday."

"Then you know what Anne Shirley says, the one I stole the name from. Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

"That's one of her quotes, yes. And also, It just makes me feel glad to be alive – it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? With so much inexplicable joy, I can see why you wanted to name yourself Shirley, Faye."

"Oh, don't call me Faye, Faye is such a sad girl," she sighs. "But when people call me Shirley, it reminds me that I can be happy again …"

"In the end, though, Shirley is just an illusion and Faye should find happiness," I retort.

She gives a pained smirk. "I know …"

"At least you have beautiful names," I try to cheer her up. "While I'm just Tom."

"No," she chuckles, "you're Tom Riddle! Your name is a mystery, it's much more exciting than being named after a teenage novel heroine! But, tell me …" She turns to the staircase in irritation. "Where's Gini, anyway? Gini! Where are you? Tom's here!"

Gini, an Indonesian just as shrewd as pretty, joins us soon, already waving at me from the stairs. She once told me about her home country and the rainforests of Java, but otherwise she's often as quiet as I am.

"What are you reading?" she eventually asks, pointing to my book.

"Austen," Vivian chortles, "Jim got him Jane Austen."

"There's one thing you need to know about it, by the way," Shirley says, giving me a weary look. "By no means every woman wants to be an Elizabeth Bennet with such angelic patience for an indecisive man."

"Ladies, let him read or do his schoolwork already," Jim grumbles, "Off you go …"

"Don't be such a bummer," Shirley pouts, and – like the others – doesn't even think of moving.

"Did you scare your teacher again, Tom?" Gini asks.

"Did you give him the same nasty look you gave me earlier, perhaps?" Vivian also chimes in, already amused.

"Mrs Cole can't laugh about the teacher's complaints," I reply with a shrug.

"Because she's in so much trouble with you?" Shirley shakes her head. "Well, the world needs naughty people. Otherwise it would be such a boring place …"

"If she ever sends you away, Tom," Gini suddenly says, "you're always welcome here." She nods at me, it's all serious. "We'd find a place for you even if there was another war. And there will be."

"What?" Shirley asks. "Sometimes you whisper und mumble, Gini, I can hardly understand a word you're saying …"

Gini waves it off, Shirley just nods. "I'm also afraid the mood in Europe might soon change."

"Wouldn't be surprising after Guernica," Jim groans. "The Germans will involve us in a second world war, and all my nephews will be drafted into it …"

"Depressing prospects," Shirley thinks aloud, sighing from the bottom of her heart. "Even more depressing than usual. Tommy, why don't you read from Pride and Prejudice to distract us?"

"No, absolutely not," I try to be coy, but the ladies cannot be refused.

"When Jane and Elizabeth were alone," I soon begin, "the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr Bingley before, expressed to her sister just how very much she admired him.
"He is just what a young man ought to be," said she, "sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!"
"He is also handsome," replied Elizabeth, "which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.""

"A perfect cavalier," Shirley repeats, chuckling. "Not one of them is all that, angelic as they may seem …"

"No," Vivian agrees, "unless …" She gives me a mischievous smile. "Unless Tom causes the lights to flicker for us. That always cheers you up so much, doesn't it, Shirley?"

"Oh it does," she eagerly confirms.

"No, no," Jim protests, "you're an insufferable pile of hens! Why don't you let the boy do his chores now!"

"Oh, Jim, as if he didn't already do them on the side in class – let's enjoy ourselves," Vivian says.

Shirley whines as well. "Come on, Tom, today has been so dreary – bring a little magic into our lives!"

Vivian winks, it's enigmatic. "Show us a bit of the magic some only ever see in their wildest dreams …"

I suspect what it is. What Vivian and I have in common. How I know what to do, I can't say … But I'm not dreaming, and certainly not going mad.

I'm like Vivian.
I can play with fire. Move things and hurt people without being near to them, I can talk to snakes … And make lights flicker, just like right now. With the laughter and clapping in my ear, without moving, again and again, on and off.

Until the tinkling of the bell above the entrance door announces heavy footsteps behind the curtain and we all turn around. And as the red velvet slides open, as if by magic, it's briefly like there's no air left in the bar.

No one moves.
But the stranger and I, we look directly at each other.

His aura is familiar to me as if from another life, completely sombre, although we have never seen each other before. In the sudden, heavy silence, what strikes me most are his eyes.

One dark as the abyss, the other bright and shining like the sky.