From Her Reflection {tom riddle}

part ii - holberg suite

y/n turned her head back to the mirror where the figure remained still. was it a ghost?

she heard a grunt of annoyance come from the glass as if it were speaking to her.

"hello?" she asked to no one in particular. if it was a ghost, perhaps it would respond?

then as quickly as it came, the figure left. it exited off the side of the mirror and disappeared past its wooden frame. y/n shook her head, trying to get a hold of things. that certainly was odd.

she made her way to the record player and spotted a tiny crate of records. it was labeled "muggles".

she skimmed through the assortment, not recognizing a single name. her parents had introduced her to many muggle artists they enjoyed, so she was surprised that she didn't know any of the records or artists.

as for the record that was currently playing, she picked up the needle and let it roll to a slow stop. carefully with the tips of her fingers, she picked the record up and examined the vinyl material. there was no written label on the center of the disk, so she didn't know which folder to put it back in. y/n rummaged through the crate, searching for an empty folder and found one: "Holberg Suite, Op. 40"

after returning the record to its spot, she peered out the room's door to hear the hustling of students making their way to their common rooms. she took this as a sign to leave follow them, as she didn't want to raise any suspicion about her whereabouts on her first day. upon exiting the room, the stone walls shifted to conceal the room's entrance.

i wonder if i'll ever be able to open it again.

the sound of hundreds of footsteps soon died down as silence consumed the school. y/n made her way down the stairs, unsure about where to go. she had no sense of direction, and being in a school as large as Hogwarts, you could get lost fairly easily. by the time she had reached the final staircase, the castle lights had been dimmed down.

"Lumos" she muttered under her breath as a faint light illuminated from the tip of her wand. she crept down the corridor, wondering where it would take her. instead of heading to the headmaster's office or seeking help, she decided to take advantage of the situation and explore the grounds. did the school have a curfew like ilvermorny? even if they did and she was caught, she could easily pass it off as "being lost" (which wasn't far from the truth at all).

"Left or right?" she asked herself upon reaching a crossroad. as she pondered for a moment, her gut suddenly told her to turn around.

behind her stood a tall black-haired boy who loomed over, smirking. the upper half of his head was hidden by the dark, so she lifted her wand to reveal the full length of his face- it was the boy she had spotted at the sorting ceremony.

she stared at his dark brown eyes intently, wondering if the tingling sensation would come back, but it didn't. she cleared her throat and tilted her head up to gather a better view of him since he was much taller.

"breaking school rules on your first day, are we?" the boy smiled. there was something about that smile that just irked y/n; she felt oddly threatened. y/n looked down to the boy's right breast where a prefect badge had been pinned on his robe. "I was looking for you so I could do my job and accompany the new student to our common room."

"so you're stalking me now, prefect?"

he laughed again, this time even more ingenuine. "don't flatter yourself, Gryffindor." he rolled his eyes and nodded his head towards one end of the hall. "come along now."

--

the walk to the common room was silent since the prefect, who soon introduced himself as tom after y/n pestered him for a bit, did not want to capture the attention of any professors roaming the halls.

y/n sat in her new dorm, which she shared with the same three girls that had been annoying her at dinner. luckily, it seemed as if they had noticed her slight annoyance and stopped bothering her for the rest of the night.

that night, she hadn't slept well.

strange images and visions of the mirror in that room kept appearing, along with the deep voice of a man lecturing her.

"he must not succeed, y/n. you must stop him at all costs.."

the voice echoed throughout the night, never letting her rest for a moment.

ever since her arrival, the strange occurrences she had experienced as a child at the orphanage had emerged again- what about this place made her go insane?

or perhaps it wasn't someplace- perhaps it was someone.