The Serpentine Way

Chapter 4

New Beginnings

It had been a week since Tom had been sorted in Slytherin. The older Slytherins had been shell-shocked to have a half-blood in their midst. Kurt Malfoy had been the worst, he had started taunting Tom from the moment they had entered their dormitory. Tom had pointedly ignored him, hoping he would go and bug someone else. The other Slytherin boys treated Kurt as their leader and believed all the stories that he made up. Tom would roll his eyes whenever Kurt started his bragging, just to annoy him.

Tom, actually, was more interested in his lessons. He found, to his mild surprise that he was better at them than most of the others in all four houses. In fact he found all his lessons rather easy. Potions and Transfiguration were his best subjects whereas he got easily bored with Herbology and Charms. It was Monday today- Tom's favorite, as it had all the classes he liked best; at the moment he was going down to Double Potions with the Gryffindors. Professor Sanderson always favored Tom and had taken a liking to him when Tom had answered one of her more difficult questions on their first Potions class.

"Today we will be preparing a rather simple potion that cures boils and rashes. The ingredients are on the board, as is the procedure. This is a simple enough potion, and I expect all of you to make it without any difficulty. However I don't want any of you to make it on your own with the exception of Mr. Riddle of course. I want you all to work in pairs." Tom cringed inwardly at the praise, waiting to hear Kurt's voice.

"Aw...Sanderson's got a crush on Riddle, how cute!" Kurt said in a gloating voice. Every single person in the room, including the Slytherins, snickered. Ignoring Kurt, Tom glared at Brett who had grinned broadly too. Only Philip did not look amused and sent Tom a small smile. Tom immediately felt better and it only added to his good mood when his potion got the color that was required.

"Thanks, Phil," Tom said when they were leaving.

"No problem, mate. I dunno how you handle that Malfoy git He reminds me of that bully that used to be in the orphanage till last year," Phil said as they stepped out of the dungeon. They decided to go out on the grounds when Tom found out that there was to be no Transfiguration, as Professor Dumbledore had to attend a meeting at the Ministry. Run-on the Gryffindors also had a free period. Tom had an enjoyable time with Phil and forgave Brett for his mistake. In the orphanage, Brett was one of their (Tom and Phillip) rivals; he had gotten them in trouble many times. Brett had been born in Australia, so he had a typical aggressive attitude coupled with flamboyance and self-confidence. He was also one of the strongest boys in the orphanage but lacked a bit in his intelligence. He and Tom had often got engaged in physical fights when they were younger and in verbal duels when they had grown up. When Brett had received the Hogwarts letter, they had decided on a sort of truce. The other children in the orphanage had been astonished at this change but they never said anything.

*

Later, Paul and William also joined them reluctantly but still addressed him in formal tones. They did not seem to like Slytherin Tom.

"Hey, did you see Andrew Hawkins, that Ravenclaw fourth-year who entered the Gryffindor common room yesterday night?" William asked, "He and Sam Kirke, a Gryffindor, reportedly had a bet whether Andrew could enter our common room. Last heard Andrew was cleaning the greenhouse till two in the morning." The four Gryffindors started complaining how easy it was to enter their common room and on the topic of Gryffindor house in general.

Tom sighed, feeling left out. He could easily envision that the four of them would be fast friends by the end of the year and he did not like that thought. Jealousy was a feeling with which he had little experience, and Tom hoped he wouldn't encounter it in the future. It was not that he resented their friendship, but it was irritating not to have friends in his own house. He wished his own dorm-mates would try to be friendlier. Then again, most of them were Malfoy's sidekicks, or his friends or supporters.

Malfoy had a lot of influence in Slytherin house, even over some of the older students. This was evident last evening when some Slytherin second-years had decided to rag on the first-years, including Kurt. Kurt had threatened them with his usual cockiness and had taken Jacques Henderson by his collar. This had aroused the attention of his elder brother, Matthew (a tall fifth-year) who had come to his rescue. Confronted by a much more powerful enemy, Malfoy had used his father's name for his defence, a scheme which proved to be successful. At Alexis Malfoy's name, Matthew had backed off and gone away but not before giving Kurt an evil glare, receiving only a smirk in return.

Tom had been bored by this display of 'power'. Real power was hard to come by, and those who had it did not need protection. He had been, however, rather impressed by Kurt's quick thinking and the way he kept up his cool image. Tom always liked to be cool and composed in battle rather than getting angry which made you lose focus.

Tom sighed as he came out of these musings to listen to what the others were saying. He tried to smile and keep up the pretence that he was enjoying their company. He was good at pretending; it was a habit formed partly due to Dickle's strict nature.

The day passed uneventfully for Tom, well as uneventful as it would be in Hogwarts. There was the stray case of a stupid Hufflepuff first-year who accidentally poured a bottle of Bubotuber Pus on a Ravenclaw sixth-year in the Great Hall during dinner. It had been a good spectacle to watch as the Ravenclaw was carried off to the Hospital Wing mouthing curses at the Hufflepuff who looked as though someone had just petrified him.

Tom decided to retire to the Library and seriously do some of his homework which included a yard long essay on Vampires for Professor Aberhilde, the Defence professor, a piece on 'How to Tend Devil's Snare?' for Herbology. Tom was just glancing through the reference book on vampires when he caught on a sentence that took his breath away,

"Lucifer Serpdow, a member of the ancient and mysterious Serpdow family, was one of the most successful vampire-hunters in Britain," he read. Serpdow...the word was now ingrained into Tom's mind. The Sorting Hat had said that he was a Serpdow, so it must be from his mother's side of the family. Why was the Serpdow family rumored to be so mysterious? He frantically searched the rest of the page for any information on the Serpdows, but there was no other mention of them.

'I have to find out more. I need to find out more,' he thought. If the Serpdows were his family, then he could go and live with them instead of in the Muggle orphanage. Tom decided to search the Library. However he had no idea what the Serpdows were, what sort of work they did. He was sure, however, that the Hogwarts library would not fail him; it was rumored to have books on almost all sorts of magic and witchcraft. Abandoning his homework, he searched for about an hour and a half. To his surprise, he found nothing, not even a single sentence...

Finally, exhausted, he went back to the common room, only to realize that he had left all his things in the library and had to go back and retrieve them. Deciding to do his homework later, he went up his dormitory. He was very tired from having classes, and irritated that he could find nothing more about his family. He tried to close his eyes and sleep but just couldn't do it. The words 'Serpdow' and 'mysterious' had been imprinted in his mind. Aside from his curiousness about his family's status, Tom felt a pang of loneliness in his heart that only an orphan can feel.

Tom recalled his sixth birthday, when he had been told about the reason of his mother's death; he had felt sad at first. Then with childish innocence he had inquired about his father. At that point Dickle had closed up and said that he was too young to understand such matters. Tom had purposely not asked Dickle about his father after then. To him, Dickle had always seemed to be the villain, who had snatched him away from his father who was his hero. He had always dreamed that his father would come to take him away to his own home, where he would no longer be an orphan, pitied upon by outsiders.

Now, the more he thought about the matter, the more it seemed that some of his old notions were breaking and he was liking his thoughts less and less by the minute. He was beginning to suspect that his father had a lion's share in his being at the orphanage. He knew it was useless to research a Muggle in the Hogwarts Library; all the thousands of books were devoted to magic, witches and wizards--all the things unconcerned with his father.

'My mother...she was a witch. I've got to know more about her! Maybe I haven't looked in the right places. She might be in some other section,' he thought. It would take him more than a week to look through the entire library. 'I'll ask the librarian about it,' he resolved.

***

Next morning, Tom woke up early and went straight to the library, so that he could look up some books before his lessons started. He decided to check in the Historic Events section first as he had a hunch that there might be something about his family in there. But he quickly exited the section after finding nothing there. After sometime it was time for the morning lessons; he only had time to look after the lessons (he did not have much time during the lunch-break). This routine continued for the entire week till he was finally sick of the library. It was only then that he decided to ask Madame Buchwald, the librarian on the topic.

Madame Buchwald gave him a long piercing look and replied, "What would you want with the Serpdows? There are almost no books about them in here, still I'll try and see whether I come up with any book that I might've missed. Come next Monday and meet me but I won't promise you anything."

"Thanks Ma'am," Tom said and went back, a bit relieved. He was hopeful that his search might have ended and was so happy that he even smiled at Malfoy! Kurt seemed shocked and gave him a surprised look. Then being rather ashamed of himself, he gave Tom a half-glare. Tom just shook his head and shrugged. This was going to be an interesting week.