The One Who Got Away

Tom Riddle hissed the week's new password and stormed into the Slytherin Common Room. A group of boys who sat huddled together on a few sofas at the far end of the room looked up as he came in.

"Well, if it isn't the Mudblood," a fifth year called in his direction.

Tom ducked his head as the group of boys all began to snicker at him. He could hear laughter from students sitting in other areas of the room, too. A couple of boys, fellow first years and Tom's roommates, jumped up and walked with him as he made his way towards their dorm room.

As they left, he could hear a voice back in the Common Room saying, "Dippet must've finally decided to start kicking those filth out..."

"Ignore them," muttered one of Tom's friends, a short boy with sandy blonde hair, named Bartholomew.

"How is he supposed to ignore them, Bart?" asked the other boy, Timothy. Tom had yet to speak as he threw his book bag angrily on his bed.

Tom climbed onto his bed and pulled the curtains around him.

"Tom?" Bart's voice filtered through the barrier.

"Leave me alone, will you?"

Timothy glanced at Bart and then strode over to the bed. He reached out boldly and pulled the curtains aside again, only to find himself staring right at Tom's wand.

"I said leave me alone."

"What did Dippet want, Tom?" Timothy ignored his friend's words as he sat on the edge of the bed. Bart warily stepped closer.

Tom glared at both of his friends but dropped his wand onto the bed in front of him. He kicked off his shoes with a sigh and set them on the floor. "What makes you think he wanted anything?"

"He did call you into his office..."

"I went to see him."

"Why?"

"Several things, why does it matter to you?"

"I thought we were your friends!"

Tom looked out at the two other boys for a moment and then moved to pick up his book bag. Timothy, who had been the one arguing, stared incredulously at the other boy.

"Well, are you going to say anything, or just get right on with your homework, then?"

Tom turned and glared at him. "I'm not doing my homework. I'm getting a piece of parchment, if that's alright."

"What parchment?" Bart spoke up.

"'The Four Founders: Their Hogwarts Lives'." Tom read from the parchment. "It's a book I've been wanting to find, but it's not here in the library."

Timothy took the piece of parchment from Tom's hand and looked down at it. "Why do you want this book?"

"So I can read about Salazar Slytherin, of course."

"Why d'ya want to do that?"

Tom rolled his eyes, stuffed the page of parchment back into his book bag, and set the bag on his trunk by the side of his bed. "I'm hoping I can find out more about the Chamber of Secrets."

"The what?" Bart asked.

"Honestly, haven't either of you ever read 'Hogwarts, A History'?"

Timothy glanced at Bart. Both boys shook their heads no. Tom sighed.

"The Chamber of Secrets is a special chamber in the school. Slytherin created it, hidden somewhere. Supposedly a Basilisk lives inside it."

"A what?"

"Honestly..." Tom glared out at the boys. "You know what, go do something, I have homework to do." Bart backed up a step but Timothy remained seated on the edge of the bed. "Well, go, will you?" When they still didn't leave, he reached for his wand and pointed it again at Timothy.

Finally, both of the boys disappeared out the door, Timothy slamming it shut behind him. Tom listened for a moment as their feet sounded down the staircase.

Once he was sure they were gone, he pulled his curtains shut again and reached under his pillow.

Tom pulled a blank piece of parchment from his pillow, along with a quill, a bottle of ink, and small paperback book.

He listened for a second, making sure that the dorm room was still quiet and then picked his wand back up. Tom muttered a quick spell and then glanced down at the parchment as it began to turn a faintly pink color.

"Perfect," he whispered, a gleam in his eye.

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In mid February, a week later, students from all of the houses crowded into the Great Hall for breakfast. Everyone was chattering happily; the entirety of the student body was far more awake than was normal for the early hour at which breakfast was served.

Tom filed into the hall with Timothy and Bart at his sides and slid into a seat as far from the older Slytherin students as he could get. Timothy and Bart chattered animatedly as they piled food onto their plates, but Tom kept his eyes trained on a group of fifth year students at the Gryffindor table.

The entire Great Hall was decorated magnificently for Valentine's Day. Pink, purple, red, and white hearts and streamers fluttered above their heads while a similar color scheme of confetti crunched under their feet as they walked.

Finally, as Tom managed to force a forkful of pancakes into his mouth, the post owls arrived.

"Maybe you got a Valentine, Tommy," Timothy teased, but failed to distract the boy's attention from fifth year Gryffindor Minerva McGonnagall as a school owl landed in front of her plate.

"Who's sending you something?" Chelsea leaned past her boyfriend as Minerva took the pink-tinted parchment from the owl.

"I haven't a clue."

"Open it already!" Chelsea's boyfriend commanded.

"All right, all right, hold on," she pulled the string off the parchment and unrolled it. Almost immediately, her cheeks turned red.

"Ooh, Minnie's blushing. What is it?" a boy to her left said excitedly.

Minerva folded the parchment and made to tuck it into her robe pocket, but Chelsea stole it away from her.

"Don't think you're getting away with that, young lady. We want to know what it says," Chelsea unfolded it again and ran her eyes over the writing. She grinned almost immediately. "Oh, this is too good. Listen you guys, 'I'm not so good at writing things down, but when I saw this verse, it made me think of you: Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? / Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. / Her lips suck forth my soul. See where it flies. / Come Helen, come, give me my soul again. / Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips.'"

"Oh how sweet!"

"Minnie's got herself an admirer!" Chelsea exclaimed happily. "I wonder who it is?"

"Someone who can write!" called a boy from down the table.

"Oh don't be silly," Chelsea chided. "Didn't you hear what it said, he didn't write it, he just copied it for her."

"It's a Muggle thing, I think," Chelsea's boyfriend commented. "I'm sure I've heard it before, and you know how my dad loves Muggle literature."

Minerva was still blushing as her friends chattered on around her.

Bart glanced over at his friend and then turned around to follow his gaze over to the Gryffindor table. "Tom, you didn't!"

"What, what didn't he do?" Timothy asked.

Bart leaned forward to talk privately with Timothy, as his exclamation had drawn the attention of a few nearby students. "He did it, he sent Minerva a Valentine."

"Tommy!"

Finally Tom turned to look at his friends. "What?"

"You sent her that?"

Tom blushed bright red. "So what if I did?"

"Way to go Tom, a fifth year!" Timothy grinned at his friend. "You're so lucky, you'll be the most popular guy in school soon."

"What's so lucky?" Tom grumbled. "She'll never like me. She likes that damn Muggle born sixth year, Wilson Norman." He turned back to watch as Minerva stuck the piece of parchment in her pocket and tried to ignore her friends teasing.

To be continued...