Masquerade¹ → Tom Riddle ✓

chapter three

Despite Evelyn still feeling anxious about potions, she was looking forwards to her lesson today. Although she wasn't perfect, she had vastly improved over summer and wished to show off her new talents to Professor Slughorn. Potions was something difficult to master and although it wasn't easy, Evelyn found herself enjoying it more and more after practising over summer.

The Great Hall was always full of life on the first morning of term. On day one, almost every student found themselves needing the fuel of breakfast to keep them going through the day. Evelyn had always found herself enjoying breakfast and made it her mission to ensure she went every single day. A vast array of food was always provided at breakfast, with enough to ensure nobody ever went hungry. Sitting on her regular table, Evelyn helped herself to a selection of everything; two slices of buttery toast, sausages, eggs, tomato and bacon, all washed down with a large glass of orange juice.

With breakfast, Evelyn always made sure she read the Daily Prophet. After the great things they had said about her parents, she made sure to repay the favour by being an avid reader. Taking a bite of her toast, she flicked open the first page and began reading.

Cecilia Moores, Divination teacher at Beauxbatons Academy predicts a 'dark year'

Cecilia claims to have seen the darkness that will occur early in the coming year and warns students to avoid snakes of any form. She believes that this year will be a dark one and unfortunately one to remember, she also believes that 'dark forces are rising and lives will be lost'. Is this something we should worry about? Or is Ms Moores purely looking for the attention?

"Rubbish isn't it?" She heard a voice call, turning around she saw Lily stood half-awake behind her. "Another one has gone crazy I think," She took her seat next to Evelyn, punching the last slice of toast from her plate and immediately devouring it.

"I don't know," Evelyn was sceptical when it came to prophecies and prediction. "Sometimes they're right you know."

"Most of the time they're crazy, prophecies are made by people who end up in St Mungos," Lily said between bites.

She wasn't wrong. Evelyn had read the news almost every day during summer and in those short six weeks, she had heard of hundreds of witches and wizards being cast off to St Mungo's.

"You know who's looking gorgeous this year," Lily began, changing the subject. "Tom Riddle, I heard Sara has her eyes on him."

"As much as Sara could get anyone here, I don't think Tom Riddle is an easy fish to catch. If you hadn't noticed, he's not particularly sociable." Evelyn glanced over towards the Slytherin table where Tom Riddle sat alone, scribbling into a little black book. She couldn't deny that he was attractive, but his personality ruined it for him. He would worm the teachers around his fingers and then not utter a word to any students other than his gang of Slytherins.

Looking down at her watch, Evelyn knew it was time to leave if she wanted to make it potions on time. Taking a final bite of her breakfast, she rose from her seat, "Lily it's time to go! Potions is a long walk away and we need to get good seats." She pulled her friend's arm up, dragging her to her feet.

Walking alongside each other, Evelyn and Lily made their way speedily to potions class. As soon as they got close to the classroom, Evelyn could feel it. Potions was in the dungeons where the temperature evidently shifted from the rest of the castle. Professor Slughorn arrived at the same time as Evelyn and Lily, marching into the classroom in front of them and taking his place in front of the chalkboard.

"I've decided that this term we will be trialling a seating plan!" He smiled, with evidently more excitement than his students. "You will each be sat next to someone from a house other than your own to help you mingle with other students." With a flick of his wrist, a fully formed seating plan appeared on the chalkboard behind him as groans began to fill the classroom.

Evelyn's eyes scanned the board, searching for her name and the name of whoever had been unfortunately paired with her. Before she could find her name, she heard the voice of Tom Riddle behind her, "I guess we're partners then." He said simply before making his way to their table. Evelyn followed him hesitantly, looking around at the other students for support. Tom Riddle was not a team player and that's exactly what she needed to succeed.

"As we have been away for six weeks, we will be starting with a simple Wit-Sharpening potion that I expect you to have learnt and perfected last year. I expect one vial turned in to me by the end of the lesson." Slughorn sat down at his desk and picked up his book as the students ran around the classroom to the storage cupboard, wanting to collect the best ingredients possible to ensure that they impressed their professor.

Relief washed over Evelyn's face as she heard what potion she would be tasked with making. Although she hadn't perfected the recipe, she was much closer than with the majority of other potions. After the scramble for ingredients had ended, Evelyn made her way peacefully over to the cupboard and collected her ingredients, carrying them inside her cauldron to her desk.

Placing her potions textbook on the table, Evelyn opened the page and read the instructions once more, something that Tom Riddle beside her clearly felt no need for. Taking a handful of ginger root, she added it to the potion and set it to simmer. After a short while, it turned lime green and she knew she was on the right track. She unscrewed the lid of her armadillo bile and added it all into the potion, stirring it over the heat until the combination turned a pale blue. Taking the pestle and mortar, she placed in two scarab beetles and crushed them. Looking beside her, she saw Tom Riddle doing the same, however with much greater ease than Evelyn, who had begun to break a sweat.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, she found herself out of breath. "I thought you were supposed to play Quidditch," She heard Tom Riddle mutter under his breath. Turning to face him with a confused expression, he spoke again. "How are you out of breath from something that is wildly easier than Quidditch?"

"It's not the same!" Evelyn found herself feeling defensive, "In Quidditch, the excitement keeps you going, grinding up beetles doesn't exactly give you the same thrill." By the time she had finished speaking, Tom had already turned back to his potion.

Evelyn turned her attention back to her potion too, taking the ground beetles and stirring them into her mixture. After enough times stirring, the potion slowly became blood red, she added a final splash of ginger root and armadillo bile before giving it one last stir. Looking around the classroom, Evelyn saw that the other students seemed to be on the same step as her, with only a few straggling behind and still attempting to grind their beetles. As Evelyn poured her finished product into a phial, she saw that Tom Riddle had already left the classroom after handing in a no doubt perfect batch.

Evelyn smiled as she took her finished potion up to the front of the classroom and handed it to Professor Slughorn. "An excellent phial Evelyn, I'll be expecting high-quality work from you throughout the year; I've heard that you've been practising over the holidays, is this correct?" He said, examining the vial thoroughly and holding it up to the light that was streaming into the Dungeons.

"Yes Professor, I was hoping to improve my grade in time for our O.W.L.S" Evelyn smiled, shyly looking around the room.

"Well my dear, I hope to see you blossoming in the Potions department" he grinned as he slid the vial of Wit-Sharpening Potion into his robe pocket, "You are dismissed,"

Evelyn quickly returned to her table, placing her used equipment inside her cauldron and sliding it under her desk. As Lily and Sara hadn't yet finished their potions, Evelyn took the time to find somewhere quiet to sit and open up her potions book. Seeing that the sun was shining, she took the opportunity to sit in the courtyard, one of her favourite locations at Hogwarts. Whenever the sun was out, Evelyn enjoyed sitting in the courtyard and doing some work, or simply admiring the view

As Evelyn lost herself in the difficult potions she knew she would be tackling over the next few months at school, she found her quill colliding with the paper and beginning to draw intricate flowers. Before long, there was a dark figure blocking the sunlight that previously illuminated her book.

"You shouldn't be doing that"