butterfly effect, tom riddle

10. | past

"All right, ladies. We're going to Hogsmeade—for dress-shopping!"

"Dress-shopping?" Norma repeated, glancing up from her book and furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at Ethelle, who was beaming animatedly. "What for?"

"The Slug Club party, of course!" Ethelle exclaimed, shoving a piece of toast into her mouth as she talked.

"But—you're not in the Slug Club," Norma stated matter-of-factly, scrunching her nose at Ethelle's poor table manners.

Ethelle rolled her eyes as she chewed. "Of course not, I'm not a total nerd like you two. But, I just got invited to it by the one and only—Abraxas Malfoy!"

Malfoy. That name hit me with a pang of remembrance. In my time, there was a boy named Draco Malfoy—a year older than me—who was currently the Head Boy. Most steered clear of him, because he was known to be one of the youngest death eaters ever recruited by the Dark Lord.

"Abraxas Malfoy?" Norma parroted, looking utterly disgusted. "He's a total git. I would advice against it."

Ethelle rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Norma! Just because he sometimes gets detention, or accidentally jinxes first years—"

"Accidentally?" Norma interjected with a disbelieving raise of her brows.

"The point is, he's really handsome!" Ethelle said dreamily, resting her cheek on her palm as she gazed off into space with a faraway expression on her face. "Ugh, I'm such a sucker for blondes."

I chuckled slightly at that, before glancing over at Norma, who was shaking her head at the auburn-haired girl disapprovingly.

"What's so wrong with this Malfoy boy anyway?" I questioned, although I knew that if he was anything like his grandson—who, before he became a death eater, was already notoriously popular at Hogwarts for his reputation as a bully—he was definitely a git.

"Nothing!" Ethelle insisted, snapping out of her daydream, just as Norma shouted, "Everything!"

The two girls engaged in an intense eye contest, before I rolled my eyes. "Norma, explain, please?" I asked, causing Norma to rip her gaze away from Ethelle and look over at me.

"He's a major bully," the brunette girl elaborated simply. "He always gets detention for picking on first years."

I raised my eyebrows at Ethelle. "He doesn't sound so great to me, either. Sorry, Eth."

Ethelle groaned and buried her face in her arms, before peering out at us. "Whatever. I couldn't care less what you guys think of Abraxas—let's just go shopping!"

•

I was rather eager to join Norma and Ethelle on their trip to Hogsmeade—until I realized I didn't have a permission slip. Perhaps I could ask Professor Dippet about it—seeing as I lived in a Muggle orphanage, there was no way of me getting it signed.

With that in mind, I left my friends to get ready for the trip and traveled up what felt like millions of staircases to the Headmaster's office, planning out what I had to say.

I was about to reach the golden gargoyle when I noticed someone else, across from me, was heading in the same direction. At first glance, I assumed it was someone a year or so older than me, due to their height—and then, as my light blue eyes met a pair of dark brown ones, I realized who it was.

"Tom," I saluted pleasantly. "Why aren't you getting ready to head to Hogsmeade?"

Tom blinked. "Why aren't you?" he riposted swiftly, raising his brows at me.