June 6th, 1942
End-of-term exams are upon us again. But luckily for us, we don't have the dreaded OWLs to take... at least we won't have to for another year. I can tell Minerva is exceptionally pleased to have them finally here so she can give her mind a break.
---
"I can honestly say that I am REALLY not looking forward to our OWLs next year," Sophie commented once they had finished their exams.
"Really," Marcella said, "just one year I'd like exams to be cancelled."
"We can only hope." Sophie sighed heavily.
It had been a thoroughly exhausting exam, and the girls were mightily tired. Their brains hurt, and their hands were cramped from writing. From where they sat in the classroom, Miriam had an excellent view of Tom, who was getting up from his seat. Luckily for him, since he had finished his exam well before anyone else had, Professor Dumbledore had excused him from the classroom.
~*~
"Lovely!" Miriam exclaimed, startling her friends a bit as they headed down toward the Gryffindor tower. "I left my quill and inkpot in the classroom! Go on ahead, and I'll meet up with you back in the common room," she said, running back in the direction from which she had just come. Once she turned down a few corners, a voiced called out to her.
"Hello, Miriam!" Looking up, she came upon Nearly Headless Nick floating by in the air.
"Hi, Nick," she replied. "I don't mean to rush off quickly, but I left my quill and inkpot behind, and I have to go get them."
"See you around, then," Nick called then as Miriam went dashing past him.
Turning down one passageway, she spotted a group of Fifth years just leaving their OWL exams. Minerva had her head face down in a parchment, reading something feverishly, so she didn't see Miriam dart by. Aside from them, it looked like the entire school was within fifteen feet of her. The crowds of students made it difficult to squeeze through some of the corridors.
Making her way back to the classroom, she scooped up her inkpot and quill, which were still lying on the table. Regardless of the fact that she was deeply exhausted, Miriam managed to run back through the passageways, up a few stairs, and down many other passageways making her way back toward Gryffindor Tower. As she turned down one corner not far from the entrance, she could distinctly hear something moving behind her almost as if it were following her... but it didn't sound like footsteps, not in the slightest. It almost sounded like something slithering along. But it was completely invisible to the eye.
Stopping, she listened hard, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from and what it was. It was coming from right behind her... now beside her.... There was a voice....
"... soo hungry... for so long..."
"... kill... time to kill..."
Her breathing ceased, and her heart began to pound loudly in her chest. She had heard anything quite like that before. Wondering what on earth could have said a thing like that, she looked down the hallway from which she had just come, but there was nothing and nobody there. Mildly freaked out, she reluctantly continued on her way to the common room.
~*~
"I'm serious. I heard something moving behind me!" Miriam told her friends back in the common room.
"You probably just heard Peeves," Marcella commented. "You know how he likes to scare the students."
"No, it wasn't Peeves. I would know. He would have shown himself. This was something inside the walls. It was moving around... or more like gliding around. It even spoke...."
"It did?" Sophie asked, her eyes wide in concern.
"Yes, it said...," Miriam racked her brain and tried to remember those exact horrible words, "...soo hungry... for so long... kill... time to kill..." After she said those words, Marcella and Sophie drew in their breath. It was a draw on who looked paler.
"What?" Miriam asked, looking between her friends after a moment of silence passed by.
"It's... it's just really odd, don't you think?" Sophie replied.
June 8th, 1942
Today is the end-of-term feast, and let me say what an odd day it has been. While everyone has been packing, preparing to leave Hogwarts for their summer vacations, Tom and I have been nothing short of ecstatic.
---
"It's going to feel strange being here the entire summer," Miriam sighed, sprawling out on her bed, and watching as her friends packed their suitcases.
"Are you sure you wouldn't want to stay at Madam Westyn's for the summer?" Sophie asked, winking.
"NO!" Miriam exclaimed, throwing a pillow at her friend. Sophie took the pillow, smiled deviously, and then tossed it at Marcella.
"Hey!" she exclaimed in mild indignation. "You just messed up my neatly folded clothes!"
"Too bad!"
Marcella grabbed the pillow and flung it back at Sophie, causing a pillow fight to erupt between them.
~*~
After beating each other senseless with their pillows, Miriam called a truce. "If we don't get down to the Great Hall soon, we'll miss the feast!" Tossing their pillows aside, they descended toward the common room and exited through the portrait. While they walked toward the Great Hall, Miriam saw Tom exciting the library with a book tucked inside his robe. Her friends obviously hadn't noticed the poorly disguised book, as they were busy talking about their upcoming summer plans and vacations.
"Oh, hello," Tom said coldly as they came upon him.
"Hello Tom," they chorused.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked suspiciously. "The feast is about to begin."
"What are you doing here?" Miriam questioned.
"None of your business," he snarled. His eyes traveled upward where, sitting on Miriam's head, were two large white feathers.
"New look?" he asked, raising his eyebrows slightly. "I must say, it doesn't fit you at all, in my opinion."
Miriam felt her hair and laughed. "They're just feathers! Besides, nobody asked for your opinion."
Laughing, the girls walked off, leaving Tom to shake his head in incredulity.
June 10th, 1942
Dumbledore has just been to see me in the now deserted Gryffindor common room. It feels rather strange being here all alone, but it's SO much BETTER than being stuck in Mme. Westyn's for the summer.
---
"Though the other teachers have left the school for the summer months, I elected to stay behind to keep an eye on things here. Consequently, there are some ordinances to go over. When it's time for your meals, you can either go down to the Great Hall, or stay here in the common room." Dumbledore pulled out his wand and conjured a golden plate from thin air and set it down in front of Miriam on the table. "Just tap this plate with your wand and the house elves will send your food up here instead of to the Great Hall. The castle is at your disposal, as is the library. But I must warn you that if you destroy any of Madam Zuzellam's books, we'll all have to endure her rather nasty consequences." There was a slight twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his lips.
"If you need anything, you know where to find me. I'll be off now to have this little chat with your brother." Dumbledore meandered out of the common room, leaving Miriam elated over her new found emancipation from Madam Westyn's. And this feeling of freedom never got old. Every day was a blessing to be where she was. She slept in every morning, had a good healthy breakfast (she worried that she might become too plump if she kept up her eating habits), and when she was bored, could be found in the library surrounded by a stack of books. Tom was also enjoying this new-found emancipation and was making good use of the library as well.
One day, as Miriam was preparing to leave the library with a bit of "light reading," she spotted Tom trying to break into the Restricted Section.
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" she admonished, almost dropping her stack of books.
Tom had finally managed to open the gates as Miriam came over to investigate. "He never said we couldn't go in there."
"Tom, if we can't go in there during school months, what makes you think we can now?"
"I'm bored. I've already read mostly everything here, and I wanted something different... something new."
"But the Restricted Section has loads of books on the Dark Arts. Why would you want to look at those?"
Tom looked up at her, sighed, then turned around and proceeded into the Restricted Section. Miriam didn't even wait for him to come back out. Dumbledore had been nice enough to arrange for them to stay the summer at Hogwarts, and she didn't want to repay his kindness by entering something that she knew was off limits.
July 31st, 1942
This has certainly been a relaxing month... relaxing, but slightly boring. It's only been Tom, Dumbledore, and I, and Tom has been keeping to himself lately....
---
"Seeing as how you're here, it seemed I wouldn't need to send them via owl post to you," Dumbledore jested, smiling fondly toward them. Miriam gave a soft chuckle, but Tom merely rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. Dumbledore handed them their letters and walked off, leaving the kids to talk freely.
"Duh," muttered Tom as he slid his finger under the envelope and pulled out his letter.
"Don't be so bratty, Tom," Miriam reprimanded while opening her own letter. "We should be grateful we're spending our summer here at Hogwarts and not at that orphanage. Right, Tom?" She looked over at her brother whose eyes were large and round. He pulled something small, green, and shiny out of the envelope.
"Bloody hell!" he cried in shock. "I've been made Prefect!"
Miriam quickly tore open her envelope the rest of the way, pulled out her letter, and saw she too had been made school Prefect. Looking at the small red and gold badge, she smiled.
Prefect, she thought, loving the way it sounded: Miriam Riddle, Gryffindor Prefect.
"We're gonna be authority figures!" Tom exclaimed, examining his silver and green badge with a wary eye. Something about the way he suddenly grinned, an almost fiendish grin, sent an alarm up in the back of her mind.
When Tom left a little while later, leaving Miriam by herself, a beautiful black school owl flew into the Great Hall, carrying a note in its beak. Taking the letter from it, she opened it up and received quite a shock! It was a reply to the letter she had sent to her possible relatives in America.
'Dear Miriam,
We were much surprised to receive your letter. Yes, we do know of your mother, but we never knew she had children of her own. What a lovely surprise for us to have another female relative! Please keep in touch! We look forward to hearing from you! And yes, we're witches, too.
With regards,
Adora and Charlotte'
August 5th, 1942
The time we've spent here over the summer has really opened my eyes. For one thing, I finally know that the teachers have lives outside the school. Case in point would be how Dumbledore has been like the father we've never had, instead of acting like a Professor.
Today, we received quite a surprise! An old friend has come to visit us....
---
"Children, please say hello to Mr. Nott," Dumbledore announced, as a man in black robes and slightly graying hair walked forward into the Great Hall from behind Dumbledore. His instantly recognizable face brought a grin to both Tom and Miriam.
"Hi, Sam!" they exclaimed.
"You three already know each other?" Dumbledore asked, a slightly surprised look on his face. Samuel Nott nodded his head. "Sure do! I was the one the Ministry sent when they received their very first letters," he chuckled. "Has it been four years already?" Tom and Miriam simply nodded. Sam let out a low whistle. "Wow, time sure does fly!"
He led them on a long walk through Hogwarts' massive grounds, eventually reaching a large iron gate, where waiting for them there was a huge purple triple-decker bus.
Once they had seated themselves, the bus slowly began to move, and Hogwarts eventually began getting smaller and smaller off in the distance. It was then that Sam's cheerful demeanor changed as he looked at them with a concerned expression on his face, his forehead winkling slightly. "You know, I went to the orphanage last year to take you two to Diagon Alley, but your headmistress there said you had already left."
Miriam looked up at Sam, who was sitting next to her and began, "We -"
"- ran away," Tom finished, rather dully.
"Just like you ran away from Hogwarts," Miriam mumbled. Tom narrowed his green eyes at her.
"What do you mean? You've run away twice? But why?" Sam asked, surprised.
Miriam opened her mouth to speak, but Tom cut her off again. "The first time we had to get away from that damn orphanage and -"
"- in fact, it was his idea to do it -"
"- but my sister went along with it -"
"- and luckily we got to stay with a really nice lady," Miriam emphasized through gritted teeth, glowering at her brother in a way that meant if he cut her off again, she'd seriously have to hurt him.
"You two should be more cautious -" Sam began.
"- 'cause the world isn't a safe place for two kids'," Tom finished, rolling his eyes. "Nothing could be worse than staying in that horrid place."
Sam took a deep breath. "It couldn't be that bad there, could it?"
Tom looked at Sam, incredulity drawn all over his young face. "Trust me. I think Madam Westyn took great delight in making our lives a living hell."
"But why would you run away from Hogwarts?"
"We are talking about my brother here...."
"I really wouldn't call the second time running away... necessarily," he replied, turning a fierce stare on at Miriam. Sam looked at Tom and nodded his head, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Was... was it what you'd thought?" Sam stuttered. Miriam didn't know what he was talking about, but Tom evidently did.
"Yeah," he exclaimed, his face breaking into a grin for the first time in weeks.
~*~
For most of the trip, they rode in silence. At one time Sam had gotten up from Miriam's side and sat next to Tom, occasionally asking him some type of weird question that Tom apparently knew the answer to. Miriam stared out the window and sighed, watching as the scenery flew by them, while Tom continued scowling around the bus and toward the people occasionally coursing by them.
"We'll be arriving in Diagon Alley shortly," Sam announced, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had besieged them. He reached into his pocked and pulled out a piece of paper, causing his robe sleeve up to be pushed up, exposing his scrawny arm.... There was something rather peculiar on it....
"Dumbledore gave me your supplies list," he declared as he unrolled the paper. It was then that she could see the front part of his arm more clearly... a strange mark was carved in it. Something about the mark seemed vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it....
"What's that?" she asked naively.
Sam followed her glare to his arm and the strange mark... he hastily pulled his sleeve down when he realized what she was looking at.
"Nothing, nothing!" he stammered. "Just a... a... burn I got... nothing important."
Chance was on his side as at that precise moment the conductor announced that they had arrived in Diagon Alley, and Miriam couldn't ask any more questions regarding the mark... the mark she knew deep inside that couldn't have just been a simple burn. It was then Miriam started getting a weird vibe from being near him. Thinking back to four years ago when they first had met, she realized that he seemes odder than he was the last time.
~*~
They walked through Diagon Alley, looking at the different stores and planning what they should buy first.
"Miriam, would you be a dear and go to Gringotts to get some money out for your supplies?"
"Aren't you guys coming along?" Miriam asked, the weird vibe coming on even stronger now.
"I have something rather important to show Tom," Sam replied.
"Why can't I come along?"
"You... you would find it rather boring," Sam lied, trying to conceal the nervousness in his voice.
"Just go, would you?" Tom frowned angrily.
"Fine! Fine, I'm going, I'm going!" she yelled, rather annoyed with the two of them.
"You'll need this," Sam motioned, handing her a small gold key. Miriam grabbed it huffily and stormed off toward Gringotts, cursing them with some rather choice words under her breath.
"May I help you?" a goblin asked as she reached a vacant counter.
"Yeah, I need to make a withdraw from the Riddle vault. I have the key," she said, thrusting the key into the goblin's hand. The goblin motioned for her to follow him and together they ventured down into the caves. Everything was the same as it had been four years earlier: the cool breeze whipped by her face as the cart rode along the winding paths (thankfully she didn't feel mauseated this time), and finally stopped at vault #150.
Miriam jumped out of the trolley as the goblin opened the vault door. Unchanged by time, there still stood a mountainous pile of gold coins. As she walked forward to pocket some of the coins, something in the niche of the room caught her attention. Disregarding it, she continued to purse her money, yet almost as if it didn't want to be ignored, something radiated more brightly in the dim vault. Looking at it from the corner of her eye, it appeared to be an old and slightly tattered book. Sighing, she set her coins on the side and walked over to analyze it. Its cover was dusty and torn, and when she picked it up, it felt quite heavy. On the face of the book was the inscription: Magie blanche, magie noire.
Her curiosity peaked, she opened the book and written on the very first page in a pretty scripture was: "Pour mon petit, avec amour, maman. Je t'aime. For my little one, with love, Mum. I love you." Right below it, her mother's name was written, Property of: Marguerite Morreaux, 1927.
Time felt like it had come to a halt all around her. She reread that page over and over again taking in the words more slowly each time, scarcely believing that the last person to hold this book was her deceased mother. Excited, she flipped through the pages encountering numerous spells and enchantments of every kind, completely forgetting where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. One of the pages she stopped at was a gray page with a verse written atop in violet ink.
"Recite to me who you wish to see,
even far across the land and sea,
this 'eye' knows no boundaries,
to see whom you please."
An idea suddenly exploded into her head. "Show me Tom Riddle." The gray page illuminated, reversing into a stark white page as a blurred image began to take shape. The figure soon constituted into a familiar black-haired figure and Tom's face came into view, along with his surroundings. Wherever he was at that precise moment, it was a strange place to her. Tom turned around, but the book continued to follow him. Menacing and eccentric structures encircled him. As he walked by one building particular, Miriam caught notice of a sign in the window: "Poisonous and deadly candles for sale, half price."
Gasping, she continued watching in mild shock as Tom walked by another building where a severed hand sat in its store window. Miriam just about lost her breakfast at that point. She slammed the book shut and the goblin that was waiting outside the vault, poked its head in and politely asked if she was ready to go. Tucking the book under her arm, she grabbed her purse of gold coins and followed the goblin. Back into the trolley she went and made her way back out into the sunny day.
Upon checking her gold coins, realization set in: Sam had the lists of their new school supplies.
"Damn it," she muttered, standing on the busy sidewalk. She walked aimlessly around Diagon Alley, lugging around a purse full of gold coins and a heavy book, eventually coming upon Flourish & Blotts. Knowing that she needed new books for her Fifth year, it drove her crazy that she didn't know what they were.
She stepped into the shop when a girl's voice called out from above. "Hey!" Miriam looked around and saw Marcella walking down a flight of stairs that lead to the second floor of the shop. Following right behind her was her other friend, Sophie, who was carrying down a stack of books.
"Where's Tom?" Marcella asked, smiling just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, looking around Miriam for her brother. Miriam's gloomy face told her that she had asked the wrong thing.
"He went somewhere with our chaperone," she answered unhappily. "Unfortunately he's got my school list with him as well."
"Not to worry," Sophie piped up. "All the lists are basically the same. You can just use one of ours." Balancing the books to her right side, she shuffled around her left pocket and pulled out the crumpled list.
"Thanks," Miriam smiled, taking the paper.
"Say, what's that book you've got in your hands?" Marcella asked. Miriam looked at the book she had tucked under her arm. Normally she shared everything with her friends, but this time, she wanted to keep this to herself.
"Uh, nothing really," she replied quietly.
~*~
For most of their time in Diagon Alley, Tom and Sam were nowhere to be found, but Miriam didn't let this ruin her day. Once they had completed their shopping, the girls stopped by Fortescue's for an ice cream sundae.
Upon leaving the ice cream parlor, and making their way into the busy streets, Miriam spotted Tom tentatively peaking out from around a corner. He seemed a bit anxious as he hurried along into the crowd, pulling his cloak closer as if trying to hid something underneath it. Not wanting to speak to him, she hurried up to her friends, but unfortunately he saw her and ran to catch up with her
"What do you want?" she snapped as he managed to finagle his way through a sea of people to walk beside her.
"Well, I thought we were going to get our school supplies. That was the point of coming here, was it not?"
"Word to the wise, Tom," she yelled. "That was over THREE-HOURS-AGO! I got tired of waiting! Where the hell have you been?" He muttered something incomprehensible, but Miriam didn't wait as Tom continued playing catch up with her. Feeling quite annoyed, she thrust to him the bag of unsued gold coins and said, much to his amazement, "Here. You can get your own books." He stared dumbfounded at the coins, then at her.
"What?" she asked, raising an eye brow.
"Are... aren't you needing to buy supplies as well?"
"I already purchased my supplies... all while you were out gallivanting around with Sam!"