A Puppet on a String-(Tom Riddle x OC)

Chapter 3

"Hmm, that sounds similar to my school." Reese ended their conversation and they sat in comfortable silence for the rest of the trip, her falling in and out of sleep, mostly from how far she aparted, and Blake mainly reading.

There peaceful experience came to an end when an abrupt stop and shuffling feet woke them out of there daydreams. The both stood up and quickly made their way out as they knew the line to get off the train would be long and crowded otherwise. Reese grabbed her bag with her new wand and carry on materials and made her way towards the castle. The moment she laid hr eyes on the large structure her breath was taken away for a moment, it was beautiful and much more alive and welcoming than Erehnoll.

"Well, I see some of my friends from Gryffindor now, Ill see you around Reese!" Blake shouted, waving goodbye.

"Goodbye Blake." People where so much more welcoming here.

She made her way up the steps of the castle mainly following the crowd but she soon realized she had absolutely no idea where she was going. Perhaps she should visit the headmasters office? She hasn't even met them in person yet. She noticed someone who looked about her age standing alone at the top of the steps.

She approached them somewhat tensely, because not only was she overwhelmed, but there was a dark aura coming from this person. They were wearing green colors which she could only assume was Hufflepuff, Slytherin, or Ravenclaw (which didn't narrow it down much).

She was standing in front of them when they finally looked at her, seemingly confused because she was too old to be a first year, but Hogwarts also doesn't taken in transfers.

"I was wondering if you knew where the head masters office is?" Reese said politely, but her voice dropped at the end of her sentence when she noticed the menacing stare he was giving her.

"Who are you? We don't get transfers here." He was obviously not the right person to ask this question to but Reese could not turn around now. His blond hair contracting his sharp features gave him a terrible resting face that looked like he hated everyone, but she ignored that and tried to get the information as smoothly as possible.

"Well I guess they do now, can you just point me in the direction?" She asked, getting slightly frustrated.

"To your right and then to the left, it is an arched door with a bird in the middle, you can't miss it. I'm Malfoy, who are you?" He said with more confidence this time, he seemed the more he looked at how she was truly innocent and lost the more he fed off her energy.

"Thank you" Reese stated, hurrying away before answering his last question. She made her way to the headmasters office using the directions Malfoy gave her, and he was right, you really couldn't miss it.

She wasn't sure how to get in though, what words to say or magic to preform. In these thoughts though she didn't see the doors begin to open, it seems they were expecting her.

Reese made her way up the stairs to which she saw three people, one of which was older with a white beard, another who seemed middle aged, and a third who was a student in the same green outfit as Malfoy.

"Ah, Reese, we have been expecting you. I am headmaster Dippet, this is Dumbledore I am made aware you are taking transfiguration with him this year so you will get to know him. And this is Tom Riddle, he is your head boy for the next two years you will be at Hogwarts."

So this was the Tom Riddle Blake was speaking of. He seemed very put together, great posture and a smile that could sway heart a many, but Reese could sense his magic, much stronger than Malfoy's and much more sinister. Toms smile faltered at the way he saw her look at him, more with doubt than with praise.

"Very nice to meet you, I didn't know we have a transfer system." Tom said, almost like a question to Dippet and Dumbledore, but he didn't blow his cover of being the boy next door.

"Ah yes well it seems Mrs. Cliodna has some special circumstances, you may go now Tom as we need to get Reese settled in."

"Very well, I am sure I will see you soon Mrs. Cliodna." The words left toms mouth smoothly almost rehearsed to charm people. Reese sat down in the chair tom was just in and Dippet did not hesitate to offer her tea right away.

That was very British of them Reese thought to herself before returning her attention to Dippet.

"Well, I guess I have a lot to adjust to, this place seems marvelous." She said, obviously trying to make a good first impression.

"Well, we have all of your classes figured out, as I am sure you know, but your schedule will be decided once we get you sorted at dinner tonight. After that we will find you a room, and see how you adjust from there." Dippet said, sipping on his tea contently. "Dinner starts in the next ten minutes so we can walk there together and Ill sort you right at the start."

Though dinner sounded nice right now, Reese did not know how she felt about the idea of being sorted in front of so many people, she felt like she was in a stampede coming of the train, and standing in front of all of those students at once she might faint. Not only that, but getting sorted in the middle of the year was somewhat awkward in the first place.

Once at the dinning hall, she could hear the chatter of hungry students, happily reuniting with their friends. As Dippet opened the doors, everything really started to kick in for Reese, she was at a completely knew school and knew no one. The hardest part of the entire day had to be the awkward walk up to the stage with Dippet, eyes following her, and the sound of whispers was intimidating.

"Hello students, I hope you all had a wonderful break and are happy to be back and resuming studies!" groans echoed around the room by students who were obviously not happy to be back. "Before we begin out feast I would like to welcome our new transfer student who is going to be sorted now, I hope you welcome her as if she has been here all along."

Whispers picked up again as Reese sat in the chair placed in the middle of the stage, when Dippet pulled out a hat with a mouth Reese could only be dumbfounded. These British people are weird  was really the only thing she was thinking until the hat started TALKING.

"Hmm you are not from here are you miss Cliodna.... Peculiar thing you are. Brave you are, but not enough, nor kind, you have done some bad things my girl, cunning could be good for you, but I'm going to have to say,"

"RAVENCLAW" the hat shouted out of no where, which truly startled the girl.

She saw the colors of her robe turn to a royal blue, so she began to walk over to the table standing and cheering for her.

"I spoke to her this morning, she seemed completely lost trying to find Dippets office" Malfoy sneered, his opinions of her changing once he saw her robes turn blue and not green.

"New meat for you Lestrange, shes a good one." Mulciber smirked, they were the trouble of the group, never held onto a girl for more than a week, but they had made their rounds on most girls in the school and new ones are always nice.

Tom stayed quite while listening to the group. A transfer was unheard of at Hogwarts let alone in the middle of the year. Being a Ravenclaw meant that they would have classes together though, as many times Ravenclaws mixed with Slytherins, and frankly he was bored, getting to know magic from different parts of Europe is always exciting, and he had his mind set on one certain Irish girl.