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

Chapter 9

When Reese woke up she relived the night before, it all came flashing back to her, the books she stole, the bathroom, tom. Tom. She realized she had to be more careful when it comes to her sneaking out at night. It was only her first day and her cover was almost already blown. She got up and changed, realizing it was only 7 she went down to the library and continued to look for books about Hogwarts. She was the only person in the library yet again and she felt at peace with just her and the books. She sat down with a few, "Hogwarts a history", "The history of Hogwarts", and "A timeline of Hogwarts", you get the memo.

She sat down and began to look at the table of contents, but nothing really stuck out to her, so she went to the very first page, "The founders of Hogwarts", the chapter was titled. It spoke about the four founders of Hogwarts who each created the four houses, hers being Rowena Ravenclaw. Nothing of the capture really caught her eye until she reached the end of it which read, "Each of the founders are said to have left their mark on the school, creating their own areas which are not written in history on how to be opened, many have tried to find these rooms, but none have been written in document." This truly caught Reese's eye, but her peace was disrupted when she saw the librarian enter, she looked up at the clock and realized it was now 8:30 and she did not have much time before classes. She checked out her books and made her way to the great hall to catch the last of breakfast. When she sat down she continued to read, chewing on her muffin she felt someone tap her back,

"Hey Reese, are you free tonight to work on our project? I think if we start now we can get it done way before it is due," Blake spoke, ignoring the fact that she was sitting alone.

"Oh sure! Is right after dinner okay? Like around 6?" She asked, somewhat surprised he would come up to her table.

"Sure, want to walk with us to class?" Reese looked over at the people she had met in transfigurations last week, Logan, Finley, Annie, and Jack.

"Sure!" She said getting out of her chair. The pair walked over to the rest of them and out of the hall, they made their way up to class right before the bell rang and took their seats in the same spots as the day before. The class was pretty boring, mostly lectures about things Reese already knew, but she took notes anyways.

"I bet your handwriting could be transfigured to a natural disaster," Blake laughed looking down at her notes.

"Hey, it's not that bad, my grip is just a little relaxed," Reese said, defending it wasn't like his was much better.

"Sure, sure whatever you say, you are not going to be able to read that tomorrow." that may be true but Reese still scoffed at him as she packed her things in the last few seconds of class.

The same group walked together to charms class, she realized the group dynamic was that Finley and Blake were good friends, and Annie and Logan were dating, which kind of left jack out of the mix but he was still part of the group. Because they were walking next to each other Reese decided to make some conversation,

"So how did you end up with a bunch of Gryffindors?" Reese asked, simply wanting to know what a Slytherin was doing with them, they seemed to stick to their own house.

"Well, I have known these guys since first year, but I've been spending some more time with people in my house recently," He said before walking into class. They didn't really have assigned seats in that class so Reese sat next to him and the rest of the group each sat in pairs around each other.

"Yeah I mean it is only my second day and I've talked to more people outside of my house than in it." She said, kind of closing the conversation as professor Skurge had walked into the room.

After doing a thirty minute review of what the students learned last semester, both students were clearly bored. Jack and Reese both looked as if they were falling asleep and then suddenly Reese saw Jack's wand peeking out from under his robe, she was about to question him and then she saw a cup of water gliding into the air right above Mr Skurges head. Reese bit her lip trying to contain her laughter, but when the cup turned over and spilled completely soaking Mr Skurges head Reese had to bury her head in her lap and Jack bent down right over her trying to contain his laughter. The entire class broke out of silence and into laughter, but Mr Skurge was quick enough to see the two of them start to laugh much before the rest of the class.

"Mr. Nott, Miss Cliodna! Detention tomorrow! And you will stay after class today to clean this mess!" Even if Reese was embarrassed, her laughter completely took over and nothing mattered in that moment. Reese also realized she had never heard Jack's last name before, but it sounded familiar, perhaps she had heard other Slytherins mentioning him? Anyways when class ended she got a long lecture as her and Jack scrubbed the floors, it didn't take long to clean but she was still late to her potions class.

Reese entered the class with a pass from Mr. Skurge sat down in her chair next to Mulciber, who was already making his potion.

"Oh! And I thought you would be avoiding me darling!" Mulciber said, what a prick

"Oh no, why would I ever do that?" She said sarcastically before looking over at his potion, which was a bright green.

"Oh gosh Mr. Mulciber! Reese please do help him." Slughorn said, she knew she was bound to having to help him but his potion seemed past redemption

"Are you trying to blow this entire class up?" She asked, stopping his hand from dropping in more lavender.

"No but I knew messing up would mean you had to help me," he said before using her hand that was blocking his to pull her closer to his cauldron. She jolted out of her chair and stood up next to him.

"Well this is awful so stop messing with it and let me get some things," She moved away from him which was a breath of fresh air and went into the closet. She knew that the green color would have to be combated by a stronger acid, so she grabbed a few items that were not on the list and made her way back to the cauldron. She ignored his protests and dropped them in.

After Mulciber slowly mixed the potion for two minutes it returned back to a clear color.

"Maybe you should tutor me Reese, we obviously work well together." Mulciber let out with a smirk. Reese shut that down right away.

"We don't work well together, you messed up and I had to save this entire class from blowing up." She fought.

"Same thing," he said moving behind her, "You should really tutor me, we can sneak in this room after curfew", he whispered slowly, placing his hands on her waist. Reese usually hated when people got a rise out of her, so she usually ignored them, but he crossed the line by touching her so she decided to get him back a bit. She quickly casted a wandless spell which made the outside of her body heat up to touch and he quickly shouted and removed his hands.

"OW YOU BITCH," he whispered, screaming under his breath. His two friends in front of him turned around to look at the blisters forming on the top of his hands, and Reese just calmly grinned back at them before casting a spell to reverse the effects.

"Don't worry he just accidentally grabbed the cauldron when it was still hot," She explained, smirking at the dark look in Mulciber's eyes. Slughorn began to walk around to check the class's potions.

"Perfect tom my boy! You are done with this lesson for tomorrow!" Tom seemed happy with his results and began to pack up. When Slughorn made his way to Mulciber's potion his eyes widened with glee,

"Great job Mulciber! You are also done for tomorrow, and five points to Ravenclaw because I am not sure how Miss Cliodna managed to fix your potion." Tom looked back again, frustrated at how calm Reese took that complement, he should be the one getting it, not her.

When class ended Mulciber tried to convince her, again, to walk her to her class, but she simply denied and walked away. The rest of the day went smoothly, and as Reese was eating her dinner she was preparing for her project with Blake, then she wanted to get some sleep early since she also had astronomy that night. She took small bites of her meal and thought about how these first two days at Hogwarts already felt like a year.