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

Chapter 5

A/N: Her classes are in the image above!!

The halls of Hogwarts rushed past Reese's brain, each corner, every turn, every nook of a hiding place was absorbed by her subconscious memory. It seemed like she was going up an endless amount of stairs before reaching a wall. One moment it was a set of bricks, and the next a grand door appeared. Before she could process this information she was shot down into what she thought was a hallway, but as she turned the corner she walked into the girls bathroom. Uncontrollably her sight was brought to a sink and her perspective narrowed in on one of the taps with what seemed to be a snake on it.

Reese shot out of her covers, drenched in sweat, and breathing heavily before realizing the intentions she set last night worked, as she was now more familiar with the halls of Hogwarts. What she was not so prepared for were the last two parts of her vision, and she wanted to know the importance of these areas.

Looking over at her clock Reese saw that it was 6:45, breakfast started at 7:30 so she had plenty of time. She swiftly got out of her covers, feeling sticky and unclean, so she decided to go into the small bathroom at the end of her room and take a shower. Though this bathroom was not too many, it was everything to Reese. Warm water with good smelling soap and a clean floor was an experience Reese had never had before in her old school, and she found herself staying in the shower until her hands became pruned.

She quickly casted a wandless spell to dry herself off, and grabbed a clean pair of clothing. Reese was still unfamiliar with using her wand, since she only used it when around people of magic who were not in her small group on the outskirts of Erehnoll, which was not many times. Professor Lindler pretty much banned the use of wands saying , "detached their magic from their powerful blood," but I think a better comparison would be how a book is always better in its native language than when translated.

Anyways she made her way out of her room at 7:30 and with much time to spare she decided against exploring the castle, she would save that for night time, and settled on going to the library. In Reese's mind, knowledge is power, and that may be one reason she truly got sorted into Ravenclaw, so she decided to learn more about her environment at her new school.

Reese walked into the library slowly and a bit sluggish since she expected to be the first one in there. As she walked in she noticed the librarian's desk was empty, her expectations were satisfied. Not once stopping her movements, Reese took in the entire library, the high ceilings, endless rows of books, and smell of dust and paper was a calm feeling she only dreamed of. Only the rows of books were not truly endless, as in the back corner of the room she saw a gated off section.

Now Reese knows curiosity killed the cat, but she was in a new environment and if she played dumb, then she knew she would be able to trick most of the student body of this castle. So settling on this ideology she walked towards the gate and once she reached it she noticed how poorly it was really gated off. The sign on the door read, "Restricted section, professors and preficts only." Reese was not a professor nor a prefict, but she was competent enough to know a strong alohomora charm would be just enough to open the rusty keyhole. That would be a lot of work though, and if it was charmed to read spells cast against the lock, Reese would not want to be punished on her first day.

One may think Reese would give up at this point, but she calmly walked over to the empty librarian desk and looked around. It wasn't that Reese was super determined to find this key, since she knew at some point at any given time she could get into the section, but finding a key would simply be easier.

Reese closed her eyes and set her senses to take over, her intentions of finding a key set. Before she knew it a flash went across her eyes of a nob located under the desk spinning left one time, then right, then left twice. Reese opened her eyes and ducked beneath the desk, she spotted the same nob from her vision in a very odd spot almost in a corner, and proceeded to spin it as her vision said. A noise was heard from above her, as she looked around she saw one of the two chairs placed in the desk no longer there, and all that laid was a gold key with a string around it.

Reese could not help but be impressed at the creative transfiguration, but she knew if she took the key a chair would be missing, so she simply took a chair from one of the other desks and replaced it for the key that was now slipped under her robe. It will have to due for now, she thought to herself, usually not letting her craft be so sloppy, but she knew that time was running out and breakfast was starting soon. She decided she would also visit the library tonight with her explorations of the castle.

Feeling successful, Reese held some pride as she entered the great hall. She walked towards the end of the table and sat where no one else was really sitting since many students had not filtered in to receive their food. Reese grabbed an apple and some water as she was not hungry and only ate that to satisfy her hunger.

From across the room Tom was studying her, the way she seemed to be content without company, nor was trying to actually make friends. Perhaps he was over analyzing her, and she was simply a shy girl from Ireland with a tragic past that made her end up here.

Students received their times tables at 8:50 and began to walk to their classes which began at 9.

(6th period is dinner and evening period is sleeping, but occasionally astronomy since it needs to be night)

Looking at her times table it seemed Reese had potions first, she would much rather have something such as charms first more often since it would be a breeze of a class for early in the morning, but she was still content with her schedule.

She truly wondered if she was going to learn anything new this year, I mean she did skip a grade so maybe it would be perfectly at her level. She walked to the class as if she had been at the school for all of her education. She could thank her visions for that. As Reese entered the doors the first thing she saw on the chalkboard was,

"Welcome back to potions with Slughorn!" and then below it "VERITASERUM" underlined in big bold letters. Great. Reese had learned this potion many years ago, it was useful before she learned legilimency, but afterwards she was able to seek out people's lies fairly easily. A little review couldn't hurt though. At least it was the middle of the year and most students would already be refreshed with how to brew. Reese sat in the back left corner of the room, furthest away from the board, and watched as people walked in. This was going to be a long rest of the year.