Riddle My Heart

She lies in the gilded casket, in an eternally bloom of roses. Golden sunlight surrounds her. A light of air, beauty and innocence.

Burning eyes! Vengeful memories! Cassandra, why do you haunt me still? Leave me! I am no longer Tom Riddle. I am Lord Voldemort. People fear me and despise me. My hatred knows no limits, my voice is like the hiss of a thousand snakes. Leave me! Go! I forbid you to return! Vanish away. I am Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle is my past. Go spirit, you torment me!

She lies, her dark brown hair framing her delicately pale face. One stray curl rests upon her cold cheeks as her eyelashes curl in their eternal sleep. Her dress, white as a lily flower, blooms around her as she lies in her gilded casket.

Go Cassandra! Go back to your heavens! I am no longer who I was. I am Lord Voldemort now, never Tom. I am my own creation, a monster from darkness. Ninety depths of hell separate us. Go away Cassandra, your cause is lost. Flee from me spirit of the clouds... I am Lord Voldemort...

I am Lord Voldemort...

I am Lord Voldemort...

I am Lord Voldemort...

I am Voldemort...

I am Tom Voldemort...

I am Tom Riddle...

*

"Tom Malvo Riddle!" a high pitched scream was heard through the Gryffindor Common room and perhaps even the Slytherin common room, which was where the owner of the voice was aiming at. Cassandra Chang was in her element of fury as she tried vainly to get rid of the smell of beetle dung, that was enveloping her.

Ronald Weasley shook his head as he heard his friend Cassandra's yell.

"I told you Tom was up to something," Ronald said to Eleanor Arthurs, still shaking his head. Tom Riddle, head boy of Slytherin, was a highly mischievous yet also secretive boy. He was also, very strangely, Cassandra's best friend. Ronald did not know why this was, expect that through the time seven years, he had observed that Tom and Cassandra seemed to share a bond. Of course, it was either that or the first day at Hogwarts when Cassandra punched Tom in the face for taunting her poor English.

Cassandra was a shy quiet Chinese girl of sixteen. She was in Gryffindor and lived with her aunt and uncle in Godric Hollow in the holidays. Cassandra had been born in China and only migrated to England just before her first year at Hogwarts. In fact, it was because of her acceptance letter that Cassandra's parents decided to send her over. Just starting in Hogwarts and not being to speak perfect English was hard for Cassandra. And it didn't help that Tom Riddle was taunting her for the first day. However, as Ronald recalled it, a punch in the nose at the end of the day made Tom shut up very quickly. And from that day, Tom and Cassandra became best friends.

"Of course something was bond to happen. Tom Riddle is a natural trouble maker." Eleanor Arthurs scowled at being interrupted from her reading. Eleanor Arthurs was your stereotypical studious teen. She came from a pure family but was brought up by Muggles in a boarding school This made the Slytherin very cold towards Eleanor. Eleanor was smart, stubborn, loved reading and was always right. She also happened to be extremely annoyed when proven wrong by somebody else, which was an everlasting hobby of Ronald's to do. If a keen eye had carefully observed the two for the past two years, he might have taken in some subtle evidence that there was a potential spark hidden between the two.

"TOM! I AM GOING TO GET HIM! AHHHHHHH!" was all Ronald and Eleanor could hear as a dark haired blur flew past them, and out of the common rooms. "I am going to kill him and then feed him to a Flobberworm!"

The nearly quiet common room turned noisy with interest at once. "Do you think Tom is really going to be murdered by Cassa this time?" Derick Smithers snickered and asked Sean Mulligan.

"I thought he was already dead from the last prank he played on Cassa," Roger joined in the conversation. " Remember Ickle Riddle and his amazing flying pig?"

The common room was full of sniggers as they remembered the time Tom let a flying green pig loose in the Gryffindor common room. "If he isn't dead now, then he sure will be. Makes you wonder why the teachers choose such a hilarious chap for head boy." Derick asked.

"Yeah, you would think Perfect Percival was going to get the job." Ronald mimicked Percival Pefectus's voice and earned himself some hearty chuckles from his friends. Only Eleanor got up, slammed her books and left the room with a very pointed frown at Ronald.

"What's her problem anyway," Ronald asked but couldn't help feeling the twitchiest guilt.

"Don't you know?" Jessica Stevensons gave Ronald a death glare and left the room, following her best friend.

"Eleanor has a crush on Percival," Derick muttered under his breath. Ronald took the news in surprise. He couldn't help feeling rather uneasy at it. The truth was, Eleanor was too good for Percival. It was the most obvious state in the whole wide world.

"I think the two would suit each other," Sean remarked and everyone heartily laughed. Ronald blanched at the thought but gave a chuckle anyway. Maybe it was actually funny...Maybe he was born with a weird sense of humour and things had to take a while for him to find funny it...

*

"How could you Tom, of all the things, go as like low as sneaking beetle dung into my perfume?" Cassandra yelled, her dark brown, almost black hair flying in angry directions. The smell around her was also equally unattractive. It was actually Tom's recent invention, the beetle dung spray.

"Cassa, I thought you like pranks anyway. Besides, you can't say as like low in English. It's supposed to be as low as." Tom replied, smiling quietly at his friend. He knew she hated it when people made comments on her English, which had improved very much over the years. Cassandra could be such a funny thing at times.

"No Tom, I do not like jokes when I am the object of them." Cassandra returned and stuck her tongue out at Tom. By this time, she had already screamed most of her anger away.

After ten minutes of arguments, Tom Riddle was finally pardoned from death by his best friend, as long as he could get rid of the nasty pong around her.

After twenty minutes, Tom Riddle had "accidentally" made the pong ten times worse.

After thirty minutes, Tom Riddle was hit on the head by a dunglewaffle.

After forty minutes, Tom Riddle was forgiven, again, by Cassandra and went back to the Slytherin dorm reeking of dunglewaffles.

"That'll teach Tom," Cassandra smiled to herself and hummed a tune. What luck was it for her to have found that dunglewaffle on the floor. Cassandra skipped the rest of her way back to the common room. She knew Eleanor and Jessica would be there waiting for her and an explanation of what Tom had done yet again. That was what best friends were for, even if Eleanor sometimes acted a bit cold towards Jessica and herself.

However, when Cassandra opened the common room portrait door, all she saw was Ronald playing chess with a sleepy Derick. Make that a sleeping and snoring Derick. Cassandra smiled and sat next to Ronald.

"Up for a game of chess?" Ronald asked Cassandra somewhat less cheerful than before.

"No thanks, I think being beaten five thousand and three times is enough for me."

"I thought it was five thousand and five times," Ronald joked back. Cassandra smiled and headed up to her dormitory. "Is Eleanor and Jessica already there?" she asked. Ronald gave a nod and muttered something Cassandra couldn't quite catch. Cassandra ignored the steadily increasingly guilty look on Ronald's face and skipped up to her dormitory. The imagine of Tom with a squashed dunglewaffle in her mind all the time.

***

Well that is the end of chapter 1. Ask any questions if you must. He he he. I don't know what a dunglewaffle is. Sorry. He he he.