Apollo was not excited for his next class. In the year prior, he had barely managed to pass his Transfiguration exam and he knew it wasn't going to get any easier for him.
He hated the feeling of not understanding something. Which is why he usually avoided things he wasn't good at, like flying. But he could not avoid McGonagall's hard class.
Apollo sat next to Hermione, staring at a beetle angrily. He was supposed to change the beetle into a button. All he managed was to do was test his patience, as he wanted to squish the beetle that seemed to be taunting him.
Although, he did admit he was in slightly better circumstances when compared to Ron. Ron had broken his wand when he had crashed his dad's car into the Whomping Willow.
It was wrapped with Spellotape, but that did not seem to fix it. When Ron tried to turn his beetle into a button, only some sparks came out and he ended up squishing the beetle.
Apollo couldn't help but laugh. Ron stuck out his tongue at him.
By the end of class, Ron was frustrated. Apollo knew that because his eyebrows were scrunched up, like they always were when he was frustrated.
When the lunch bell rang, Apollo almost ran out. This lesson had his brain worn out.
"Stupid—useless—thing—" Ron muttered.
"Write home for another one." Harry suggested.
"Oh yeah and get another howler back," said Ron, stuffing his wand in his bag.
"It's your own fault your wand got snapped—" Ron imitated.
The four of them walked to the Great Hall for lunch.
"What've we got this afternoon?" asked Harry.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts." said Hermione, immediately.
Apollo snorted and took Hermione's schedule. Ron looked over his shoulder.
"Why have you outlined all of Lockhart's lessons in little hearts?" asked Ron, causing Apollo to laugh.
Hermione snatched her schedule from Apollo's hand.
"Hermione's got a crush." Apollo muttered to Ron.
After they finished lunch they went to the overcast courtyard. Hermione sat in a stone step and began reading Voyages with Vampires. Ron and Harry began talking about Quidditch.
Leaving Apollo to wander around. He found Emma whispering furiously with Ginny Weasley. He was surprised they stayed friends, it was uncommon for Slytherin and Gryffindor students to get along.
Once Emma caught him staring, she scowled at him. Emma nudged Ginny and they walked away.
Apollo walked toward where they had been sitting, there was a little black book on the floor. He picked it up curiously, wondering if it was Emma's or Ginny's.
He went through the pages, they were all empty. There was a name to whom it belonged, Tom Marvolo Riddle.
The original owner must have never got around to using it, Apollo thought. He picked up the book and stuffed it in his bag.
Hermione did say I needed a diary, Apollo thought as he walked back to his friends.
Apollo returned to a startling sight. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle seemed to be taunting his friends. There was also a small boy with a muggle camera.
Apollo ran and stood next to Ron, scowling.
"What's going on here?" he asked.
"Well Trelawney, Potter's giving out signed photos." said Malfoy.
"You certainly haven't had a change of heart during the summer, huh Malfoy." snapped Apollo.
"I'm just questioning Potter's offer." said Malfoy. "Weasley would like a signed photo. It would be worth more than his entire house!"
Ron took out his broken wand.
"I'll handle this." said Apollo, ready to fight.
"Look out!" said Hermione, shutting her book.
Apollo sighed as he saw Gilderoy Lockhart approach them.
"What's all this, what's all this?" said Lockhart. "Who's giving out signed photos?"
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but before he could Lockhart put an arm around his shoulders.
"Shouldn't have asked! We meet again Harry!"
Malfoy walked away, a smirk on his face. Apollo wanted to punch it off his face.
"Come on then, Mr. Creevey," said Lockhart beaming at the small boy. "A double portrait, can't do better than that, and we'll both sign it for you."
Apollo didn't know why someone like Justin would be impressed by this vain man.
Creevey took a picture of them as the bell rang. Lockhart pulled Harry aside, Apollo walked with Ron and Hermione to class.
The class sat down as they waited for their professor. Harry soon came in and sat with them. His face was very red.
Apollo pitied him for being a target for Lockhart's attention, just because he was famous. At least Harry's fame wasn't built on lies, Apollo thought to himself.
"You better hope Creevey doesn't meet Ginny." Ron told Harry. "Or they'll be starting a Harry Potter fan club."
"Shut up." Harry snapped.
Apollo was usually the angry one. He pat Harry's back comfortingly. Harry sighed.
Lockhart walked in finally and cleared his throat to get his student's attention. He picked up Neville's copy of Travels with Trolls and held it so all could see the cover.
"Me." he said pointing at his portrait on the cover.
Apollo immediately zoned out as he knew he was in for a boring lesson. He had read Lockhart's book and it reminded him of the muggle books about heroes, those fictional books.
Harry nudged him as the quizzes were being passed out. Apollo raised an eyebrow.
"A quiz? On the first day?" he groaned.
Hermione shushed him, causing Apollo to roll his eyes.
"You have thirty minutes—start—now!" said Lockhart.
Apollo read over the questions and snorted.
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?
3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?
Lockhart seemed to be disappointed that not many of his students knew trivia about him, only Hermione managed to get praised. She received ten points to Gryffindor.
Apollo was growing more and more irritated as he spoke. He eyed the covered cage with suspicion, he had a feeling this lesson wouldn't end well.
"I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart. "It might provoke them."
Lockhart removed the cover dramatically, to reveal a cage filled with Cornish pixies.
"Yes," he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies."
Seamus snorted, Apollo couldn't blame him. They weren't dangerous, they'd be okay as long as Lockhart didn't release all of them at once.
"Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" Lockhart said.
Apollo was wondering where this lesson was going, he grew quite annoyed as he felt all of this was pointless. They're not in Care of Magical Creatures yet.
"Right, then," said Lockhart loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!"
He opened the cage and the pixies all shot out.
"You idiot!" screamed Apollo.
Two of them got Neville by the ears. Others flew out the window, making broken glass go everywhere. The rest that stayed in proceeded to wreck the classroom.
"Help!" said Neville.
"Do something!" Apollo demanded, while hiding under a desk like the rest of the students.
"Come on now—round them up, they're only pixies." said Lockhart.
"How can we round them up if you haven't taught us how do to that yet?" said Apollo, growing frustrated.
As Neville fell out of the chandelier, the bell rang and the class ran out. Leaving the four of them and Lockhart.
"Well I'll ask you four to nip the rest of them back in the cage." said Lockhart. He left before Apollo would have said something that would have got him detention.
"Can you believe him?" said Ron.
"I know!" said Apollo. "Wasn't he in Ravenclaw? I wouldn't believe it."
"What do we do?" asked Harry.
"Apollo, help me cast freezing charms on them." said Hermione.
Apollo sighed, but obliged.
"I hate him." said Apollo.
"He just wanted to give us hands-on experience." said Hermione.
Apollo rolled his eyes as he freezes two pixies and stuffed them in the cage.
"He didn't have a clue what he was doing!" said Harry.
"You've read his books, all those amazing things he's done." said Hermione.
"He says he's done." said Ron, earning a glare.
After cleaning up after his teacher, Apollo was irritable. His three friends knew that it meant he had to be alone for a while to cool off. So they did not protest as Apollo went to the library alone.
Once he finished his homework, he caught sight of the little black book he had found. He put more ink on his quill before writing on the first page.
Today was hell. I want to fight everyone.
To his annoyance, the ink disappeared. He nearly fell off his chair as a reply appeared.
I understand how you feel.
He stared at the letters on the page, re-reading the words to make sure he wasn't insane. With a shaky hand, he wrote another message.
Who are you?
The reply was fast.
My name is Tom Riddle.
Word Count: 1495
You already know I update whenever I feel like it. I was feeling lonely and I had 3/4 of this chapter done for a while now, I've just been too lazy to finish it. We finally reached 1K votes on this story! I'd like to thank all of you! Should we do something celebrate? Comment what I should do. Thanks for continuing to read this story. Thanks! Bye!
~eden