Tom Riddle was in a very happy mood right now. Finally, the term break was over and he could go back to his home now; he could go back to Hogwarts. It was his fifth year. When he entered the station, quite a few minutes were left for the train to go. But as usual, he walked straight towards the train, sporting a dazzling smile to anyone who waved at him, as he wanted an empty compartment. It's not like he wanted to; he would probably have ignored them, if it was the time to board the train to go back to the orphanage. But as he was about to get up, a hand reached out from his side and grabbled the door handle before him. He looked at the way the hand came from, to see a raven haired boy with round glasses. The boy pushed passed him and got up. But even after him, he couldn't get up. This time a girl with brown hair did the same thing. Gradually, three more students copied the previous' actions. The last two students looked oddly familiar; they were twins, with red hairs and freckles. Tom concluded them to be Weasleys. He just stood there and watched the group with narrowed eyes. The first two of them had a peculiar smug expression on their faces. The twins and the boy with blonde hair, who weirdly looked a lot like Abraxas Malfoy, just glanced at him blankly and moved on. He stared at them for another second, before getting up on the train.
The train ride wasn't that eventful. As usual, he sat alone in a compartment and looked out of the window, looking at the houses and trees flying past.
When they reached the castle, Harry, Dominique, Draco, Fred and George were taken to the Great Hall; by none other than Albus Dumbledore. He looked a bit awkward with his not so white hair and beard. But, even then, he had that twinkle in his eyes, which could fool so many people. Harry, Dominique and Draco, quickly pulled up their occlumentic shields, and also covered Fred and George. They didn't trust Dumbledore one bit. As they entered, the headmaster Dippet started speaking.
"Good morning, students of Hogwarts. This year, we have three fifth year, and two seventh year new students. At first they will be sorted, and then the first year students will be sorted. Professor Dumbledore, please announce the name of the students and start the sorting."
"Dominique Sapphire." Dumbledore called.
Dominique glanced at Dumbledore before walking toward the stool place in the middle of the Great Hall and sitting down. As soon as the hat touched her hair, it shouted, "Slytherin!" Dominique smiled at the rest of the grouped and proudly walked to her table. As she reached it, she saw everybody, especially boys, staring at her. She was actually used to this; so didn't pay so much of heed to it. She just walked over to an empty seat and sat down. She looked to her sides, to see a particular black haired boy smiling at her. She tilted her head in confusion.
"Hi, I'm Alphard Black." The boy said holding out a hand to her.
"Hello, I'm Dominique Sapphire." She said smiling a bit in recognition.
"Hello, I'm Tom Riddle." Tom smiled his most charming smile that would have made every girl or boy flattered.
"Oh, hi; it's nice to meet you." Dominique said smiling dismissively. Tom just nodded and turned away, a bit cocked up.
"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore called.
Harry nervously sat on the chair; he was a bit confused which house he will be sorted in. But he was relieved that at least Dominique was near Tom already. The hat was placed on his head.
Hello, Harry Potter, welcome to Hogwarts. It seems that you are specifically here for a mission. You already have an ambition. And you obviously will gain success there, than in any other house. So, you better be in—"Slytherin!" the sorting hat shouted. The Slytherins Table cheered up. Harry sat there for a moment assessing what did just happen. It was not like he was sad or anything, but he didn't thought of being sorted into Slytherin without even thinking twice. He shrugged inwardly and got up from the stool. He gave a quick smirk toward the remaining three members and went on to sit on his newly appointed table. Eventually, Draco too was sorted into Slytherin and the twins were sorted into Gryffindor. Harry saw who he was sitting beside. On left there was a man sitting who looked exactly like young Sirius Black. He got a bit startled at first.
"You okay there? For the first time I witnessed a Potter in Slytherin." The boy said smirking.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Actually, even I think I'm the first ever Potter to be in Slytherin." Harry said smiling.
The boy nodded and smiled. "I'm Orion Black, by the way. And you are Harry Potter, I suppose?"
"Yeah, indeed," He nodded as well. It was a bit weird to hear his name from someone without any surprise in the voice. But he liked it; now he could build his own reputation in the school. No one would run behind him with a camera or blush every time while talking with him. He recognized Orion to be Sirius's father. No wonder they look so similar.
He looked to his other side to see the one he's here for; Tom Riddle. He was looking straight towards him.
"Um, hi," Harry said a bit confused what to say.
"Hello, I'm Tom Riddle. And you are...Harry Potter." the light blue eyed said. His face was impassive; which Harry instantly understood to be a sign of thinking. Something was going on in that intelligent head of his. Harry nodded and smiled a bit, mostly faking.
"Where are you from?" Tom asked.
"I'm from Germany actually; but moved here due to the war. We used to go to Durmstrang before this." Harry explained with a smile.
"You went to Durmstrang? And you witnessed the war?" Tom asked raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah, we all did actually; I, Ni—Dominique, Draco, and the twins." Harry said peering at Dominique over Tom's shoulder; she was looking his way now.
"You really saw the Dark Lord?" he asked again.
"Quite a few times actually, he is a very intelligent man." Dominique spoke up. That was a clear lie. She may have seen the Dark Lord but not the one Tom was talking about.
Tom looked at her straight into the eyes. She instantly knew what he was trying to do. A smirk appeared on her face. "Too bad, Riddle; you shouldn't do that very often you know."
Tom's eyebrows cocked up. His eyes travelled to his other side. Harry had the exact smug face plastered on his face. An instant suspicion was raised in his mind about the whole group. Occlumency was not a thing that could be learnt by anybody. It needed practice and power. And here the whole group seemed to be occlumens. There was something fishy.
"How was it?" Fred asked.
"Good, but still have to know what's exactly going on in his mind." Harry said.
Harry, Dominique and Draco were going towards the Slytherin common room. Fred and George were just walking them towards there.
"Fred, George, you two better keep a check on the Gryffindor students. Dumbledore always tends to target them first; and make them his own pawns. Just keep an ear on what they are speaking and talking about; try to mingle up with them." Draco said turning to the twins.
"Okay, we will. But, it's kind of weird keeping a check on the Gryffindors for the Slytherins; always had done quite the opposite." George said smiling and shaking his head.
"Yeah...as though, it got you to the top of the world. And you are going to do this because now Harry too is in Slytherin." Draco said turning to the twin. "By the way, you are George, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I am indeed." George smiled and looked at Draco tilting his head.
"Your eyes, they are darker than Fred's." Draco said looking at the other twin.
"Guys we're here; our common room." Harry called.
"Bye, Harry; take care of yourself. And let me tell you one thing Draco, we are doing this for our future. We don't care if Harry's in Slytherin or Hufflepuff. He's our brother and we are all in this together. We'll try our best to stop anyone who tries to harm our brother." Fred said looking at Harry; Harry gave a brilliant smile to his new brothers.
"Don't you dare try to steal my brother, um...Fred." Dominique said taking a careful look at Fred before confirming.
"Look who's here, the blood traitors and the son of the blasted face." A voice called behind them.
They turned around to find two girls from Slytherin; Megan Yaxley and Abigail Malfoy.
"What did you just call my mother?" Draco stepped forward; gritting his teeth.
"Draco, no," Dominique put a hand on his shoulder. "Keep yourself calm, or you may make mistakes." Dominique whispered in his ears.
Draco begrudgingly took the step back; but his hand was still in his robe pocket holding his wand. The twins, stood there scowling and keeping a hand on their wands.
"What happened blood traitors, too scared to stand for your family?" the blonde girl called.
"Believe me, I would've blown you up if I could; but I prefer not to stain my hand with your filthy blood." Harry growled.
"What's going on here?" they saw the future Dark Lord standing behind the two future death eaters. His voice was blank and heavy.
They saw him approach the two girls, and raise his eyebrows. "What is this fuss about?" he asked in a calm voice.
They immediately stepped back a bit. "Nothing, w-we were just talking." The Malfoy girl spoke up.
"Indeed?" Tom raised his eyebrows even more; and turned around to the teens standing on his other side.
"Absolutely, we were just talking about our family, weren't we?" Harry gave a fake smile to Malfoy and Yaxley.
The two girls glowered at him. "Well then, why don't we then go to our respective common rooms?" he said calmly and started walking towards the gargoyle.
Megan and Yaxley took this as a gesture as an order to do the same, as they followed him still glaring at the other teens.
"Well, I guess it's a cue for us too. We'll see you tomorrow at the breakfast." The twins left waving at Harry.
Harry put a hand around Dominique's shoulder. "Let's go,"
As they entered the common room, every eye turned to them. Harry and Dominique just looked around and rolled their eyes; they both were well too used to the stares for different reasons. Dominique just considered it as ogling while Harry had grown up in a reputation as the boy who lived; and considered it as useless attention. They plopped down on a love seat; as Draco sat on a sofa chair near to them.
"It is way too hard than I thought. Bloody..." Draco trailed off.
"What's so hard?" Alphard spoke up.
"Mingling with new people," Draco replied and glance at the previous two girls.
"Don't worry, they will be fine. Actually they too find it a bit hard to do." Alphard said in a low voice.
"By the way, you two make a good couple." He said pointing at Harry and Dominique.
Dominique and Harry just blinked at him; a slight smirk appeared on their face. They ignored the wide eyes of Draco. "Oh, thank you, didn't know that you'll guess so fast." Dominique said putting a hand around Harry's shoulder. Deciding to play along, Harry put a hand around her waist, and kissed her cheek.
"Oh god, it's a bit of too much stress in one day." Dominique mumbled and reached out for her robe pocket. She took out a small box from a pocket.
"What are you doing?" a heavy and now familiar voice spoke up.
She looked up to Tom. He had his eyebrows raised and a blank expression on his face. She looked at her hand in which the box was held. "Oh, this," she said raising the box. "Don't worry, I won't set the room on fire, it's just a packet of smokes; one of the few muggle things that fascinates me." She said, taking a cigarette out. She lit the cigarette wordlessly and sighed in contentment. "Harry, you want one?" she asked turning to Harry, who was smiling in amusement.
"Yes, please," he said taking one out from the box for himself and lighting it.
"You do realize that you are smoking in the common room of a school, don't you?" Tom asked looking at the two teens.
"Oh, yes I definitely do. But I am not worrying about that, as the golden boys of Hogwarts are not planning on going and spilling it to some teacher." She said turning at Harry and smirking. She took a long puff in from her cigarette and leaned on the seat.
"You mean, boy, right?" Orion spoke up.
Dominique raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, um, kind of; sorry," She said suppressing a smirk.
Tom's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And whoever told you so?"
"I have faith on the most intelligent boy of his time." She said smiling at him.
Tom just gave her a blank expression. "You shouldn't just trust anybody, you know that?" he asked, smiling at them.
"Sometimes, you can be so freaking right, Riddle. But, it amuses me at the same time that you don't exactly do what you preach." Harry said shaking his head.
"What do you mean?" Tom asked. He was getting more curious about the two of them especially. They were acting too confident in front of him, which was very unusual for him.
"I mean the same as you, Riddle. You should not just trust anybody without knowing them." Harry said extinguishing the burnt out cigarette on the floor. "Anyway, Nick I'm going to bed; want to join me?" Harry said smirking.
Dominique's face had a similar expression. She knew that the question was real; as a brother; but everybody else in the room had thought otherwise. Tom and Draco instantly cringed at the thought of them together.
"Oh not now, dear Harry; I'm too tired now." Dominique said, and almost cringed at her own words.
As Harry was going towards the boys' dorm, Draco joined him. "You should be a bit careful about your PDA. I almost threw up there." Draco said as they climbed the stairs.
"Yeah, but it is fun. Let them think like that for a few more days." Harry said opening the door to the dorm.
Tom just sat in the common room, thinking about what Harry had told him about trusting people. Was he talking about someone specific? Or was he just babbling? I'll definitely know about you, Potter.