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

Chapter 8

The rest of the day was mainly the same, Reese having to introduce herself a lot, the teachers all saying they hoped she settled in well, and sitting alone at lunch and dinner. For a first day Reese felt pretty successful at keeping a low profile. Once the drama of the new girl moving in diffused she was sure she the rest of this school year would be a breeze.

Since she was able to get out of working on her transfigurations project with Blake, she knew she had to take this opportunity to explore the castle and put her visions to test. At 9:30, 30 minutes after curfew to roam the halls, Reese got out of bed and cast a disillusion charm on herself and slipped out of bed, her having no roommate just made this easier. She slowly crept out her doors and down the hall, planning to go to the library first. She walked out the Ravenclaw doors and made her way straight to the library. The sooner she got there the less likely she was to get spotted, so when she finally got to the doors, she did not hesitate to quickly cast a spell to undo the charm guarding the lock, then used alohomora charm to unlock the door.

Reese went in and made her way to the gated off section, using the key she stole to open the gate. She knew she had much more she wanted to explore tonight so she went quickly looking for anything that could be of importance. She first found a book titled, "The secrets of Hogwarts halls", which sounded pretty good for her but also came across a book titled, "Secrets of the darkest art", which she grabbed and hid below her arm. She put the books in a bag and then minimized it to fit in her pocket before leaving the gated area and locking the door behind her.

There were two more places she would like to visit when the clock struck 10, so she decided to go to the closest one first, the second floor girls bathroom. This vision was odd for her, since she wasn't sure if it was accurate or not, she hadn't used this bathroom yet, but her vision showed snakes and she thought that was quite odd for a bathroom, so she put her disillusion charm back on and made her way up the stairs.

She walked silently down the halls, as she wasn't sure if there were monitors roaming the halls. When she reached the girls bathroom it was a little harder to keep her steps quiet with the sound echoing down the halls, but after she checked each stall, she decided she could drop her dissolution spell and light her wand.

"Lumos" her quiet voice spoke, she wandered around each tap, looking for something similar to the one she saw in her vision. Soon she noticed the one directly across from the door to the bathroom was different from the others. For one it did not work, when she got curious, she ran her fingers along the side of the tap. Her eyes widened as she looked at the engravings. Snakes ran down the tap different from the smooth sides to the other sinks. She looked all around the sink for more clues. She thought she saw something near the bottom of the sink, so she moved her body to look at it. A chill went down her spine as she felt something behind her,

"You shouldn't be here, Miss Cliodna." She turned around at a rapid pace, almost knocking herself off her feet. She was trapped between him and the sink, and as her eyes met tom riddles she could tell he was not happy.

"What are you doing in here, this is the girls bathroom?" She spoke, trying to cover her tracks.

"And it is an hour past curfew, don't make me repeat myself again, what are you doing here?" He spat, this time with less patience.

"I am sorry I must have lost track of time, I fell asleep studying and needed to go to the bathroom, that explains why I didn't see anyone else in the halls." She lied, but she could tell by the look in his eyes saying really? that he could see right through her.

"Very well, ten points from Ravenclaw, seems you broke even today." Was what he said with a smirk on his face, obviously taking that amount away since he was jealous she made a better potion than his.

"You're just jealous that my potion was better than yours." She said trying to egg him on, she found him getting angry at her simply for being funny. His eyes darkened but he decided to play along,

"Well the price that comes with being a suck up is that you are going to have to help mulciber with his potion, maybe he will even convince Slughorn to let you tutor him," Her jaw dropped at this new tone, it wasn't necessarily playful, but he was just trying to get her angry like she did to him.

"Pff me? A suck up? You're the one that was practically on his knees for a middle aged potions master." She realized she might have crossed the line with this one when Tom's eyes darkened.

"I would never get on my knees for anyone, ever miss Cliodna, don't ever get that mistaken." She got the memo and simply murmured,

"Sorry it was just a joke," someone has a stick up his ass she thought.

"I will walk you back to your tower to make sure you do not sneak off anywhere else." He said turning around and not waiting for her to catch up.

"I wasn't sneaking off anywhere," she defended quietly

"Oh of course," He said. If he knew she wasn't just lost and confused then why did he let her go without questioning her more? This gave her something to think about their entire walk, and before she knew it she was back at her tower.

"Here you are Miss Cliodna, if I catch you out during curfew hours I will not hesitate to give you detention, so do stay in your room," He began to turn away at the end of his sentence, but did not begin to walk, maybe he was expecting a goodbye, or a thank you, but Reese silently answered the riddle and walked into the Ravenclaw commons.

As she settled in her bed she felt content with her results. She was not able to explore the seventh floor, but she still got hold of some useful books along with getting information on the second floor bathroom, which she was hoping to visit again in the coming days. Overall her first day was not too terrible, but she was looking forward to discovering more about her new environment in secret, along with being more careful of who is roaming the halls at night.