To Kill You With a Kiss

Chapter 3

And who was that girl seated across from Llewellyn, with the freckled face and the wild brown curls? She was doing a lot of the talking at the Gryffindor table, and the others were laughing helplessly at whatever she was saying. Something about the round, mischievous face was very familiar, but Harry couldn't for the life of him think who she was.

Harry's glance wandered to the staff table. Riddle. It was impossible not to look at Riddle. How unreal this is! Voldemort is sitting at the staff table at Hogwarts, dining in the Great Hall...

Suddenly, Tom Riddle looked up, and his quicksilver gaze met Harry's. All at once, Harry had an odd sense of a great storm rushing towards him, a black and silver wind that whispered of beauty and danger and darkness.

How is it possible that no one else can feel what he is? How can they all sit here in the Great Hall and talk as if everything is normal when He Who Must Not Be Named is here among us? Only Dumbledore appears to have an inkling of the darkness that is coming.

He is staring at me. Riddle is staring at me. Do you remember me, my Dark Lord? I am the Chosen One. One day, one of us will murder the other. Can you feel it, too, the curious connection between us, the dark and ancient bond that ties our destinies together? You are turning your glance away... Do I frighten you, Lord Voldemort?

Slughorn. That's Horace Slughorn sitting next to you, in his plum-colored velvet robes, looking at you as if you were his most prized possession. What an old fool he is, completely taken in by your charm. He is talking to you now, while sipping his blood-red wine... What conversation does he have with the Dark Lord over dinner, I wonder? Is he talking of weather or horcruxes?

Harry turned to Cygnus. "Professor Riddle is very young, isn't he?" he said softly. "The headmaster told me that this is his first year teaching."

"Young? I suppose so." Cygnus shrugged. "But he is a greater wizard than all the rest of them put together. He tells us things that the rest of the teachers have never even heard about. Just wait till you see him teach. It's... mesmerizing."

"You admire him, then?"

For an instant, Cygnus' face flushed. "Admire him? Yes, of course, we all do. Except for a few of the pig-headed Gryffindors, but there's no accounting for their tastes. I think there's quite a few of us who would do anything for Professor Riddle, anything at all..."

I know you will. Including murder and torture, no doubt... Harry stared down at his dinner. He was beginning to lose his appetite.

"What about the other professors?" he asked, changing topics abruptly. "Who are they?"

"Oh, the other professors..." Cygnus' glance swept contemptuously over the teachers' table. "Naive old fools, most of them. The one with the long auburn hair is Dumbledore, the transfiguration teacher."

Harry smiled. "Yes, I know him. I met him out on the grounds earlier."

"He seems like such an oddball, Dumbledore," said Orion thoughtfully, "but he's actually a powerful wizard. He defeated the Dark Wizard Grindelwald a few months ago, which put an end to the war in Europe. You must have read about it in the papers, Elias."

"Er... yes. I read about their great duel." On a chocolate frog card.

Cygnus snorted. "A powerful wizard? I'm not so sure. There are strange rumors flying around. Perhaps that fabled duel was not quite what it seemed... For if Dumbledore and Grindelwald were indeed mortal enemies, as we are asked to believe, where do these whispers come from about Dumbledore visiting Grindelwald in Azkaban? He is said to come quite often, and to stay with the prisoner for hours. Some people say that they were once lovers..."