Scritch, scritch, scritch.
Rustle, rustle, thump.
“…Umm, I think it’s on page forty-three…”
Muffled library noises filled the air around her while Armelle smiled a small smile of contentment. She had always enjoyed hiding away with an assignment in the very back of a library; the dusty smell and muted sounds made her think of her mother.
She sat at a table far in the back, sheltered by the rarely-used Ministry of Magic shelf, Arithmancy books piled high around her like a fortress. Kane had left her an hour ago to pursue more exciting activities and had not been seen by her since. She didn’t mind, she needed to get this done, and Kane tended to be nothing but a distraction while studying. Maybe when she was finished she would find him and suggest a game of Quidditch.
“Umm… excuse me?”
“What?” Armelle snapped without looking up, annoyed at the interruption.
“Oh, sorry to bother you… I’ll just leave you alone.”
Armelle looked around for the source of the voice. She couldn’t find it until she moved the stack of books in front of her.
Ruby Stevenson stood before her, looking mildly frightened. Armelle found that the girl always looked a little frightened whenever they encountered each other. Ruby was a Hufflepuff in her year, so small and thin that a gust of wind might knock her over. They shared most of their classes.
“Oh, hullo Ruby,” Armelle greeted softly, trying not to scare her away. “Sorry about that, I didn’t see it was you.”
Ruby smiled timidly. “That’s okay. Ah, do you mind if I…?” She indicated a chair.
“Go ahead.”
Armelle was a little puzzled about the nature of this encounter. She knew Ruby well enough to ask for some spare parchment, but not enough for library visits.
Ruby tucked her mousey brown hair behind her ears and sat down. “What are you studying?” she asked, peering at the stack of books that were nearly as tall as she was.
“Arithmancy.” She indicated the numbers scrawled on the parchment with a groan. “I don’t know why I took it. Turns out I hate numbers.”
Ruby’s eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe anyone could hate numbers. “Really? I love Arithmancy!” She then began chewing on her thumb, as if she had said too much.
The librarian stared at them from across the room, aware that they were talking instead of working. Armelle moved some books around to look busy. “So, what brings you to the library?” she asked, not knowing where else to take the conversation.
Despite Armelle’s efforts, Ruby began to look uncomfortable again. “Well… I wanted to ask you a question, actually.”
Armelle tried not to look surprised. “Really? What is it?”
Ruby seemed to be rallying her courage for a moment. “Um, well, I was wondering… maybe you’d be able to… tutor me?”
Armelle’s eyebrows disappeared into her hair. “What?” she sputtered, forgetting to be gentle.
Ruby seemed to shrink. “In Care of Magical Creatures.”
Well, she thought to herself, that makes sense. I’m not good enough at anything else. “Ruby, I don’t think…”
“Oh, I understand…”
Armelle squirmed uncomfortably under Ruby’s wide-eyed gaze. “It’s just that I…” She knew that if this was anyone else asking she would just say no and that would be it. She couldn’t imagine tutoring would have any benefit for her. Trying to teach someone things they just didn’t understand sounded like nothing but a new source of frustration. But Ruby looked small and defeated, like some kind of wounded animal. “Why do you need a tutor for Care of Magical Creatures, anyway?”
Ruby continued to pick at her thumb. “Well, my parents breed winged horses… I only barely passed my O.W.L. I don’t know what they’d do if I failed my N.E.W.T next year and you’re the best in our year!”
She had never given anybody academic help before. “I’ve never… I wouldn’t know how--”
Perhaps Ruby could see her defenses cracking. “Please? You get wages and everything! The school has a Ministry sponsored program for it.”
Armelle mentally cringed. “All right.”
Ruby’s small mouth erupted into a wide smile. “Oh, thank you, Armelle!” Ruby looked like she wanted to hug Armelle, but thought better of it. “It won’t be so bad, I--I promise! I’ve got to owl mum and tell her!” She almost skipped away, knocking a book off the table.
Armelle absently picked it up. A tutor? Could she actually teach someone? Little Ruby Stevenson had looked like a dear in the wand-light. How could she say no? Kane would tell her she was getting soft.
She continued her work, feeling agitated and flustered. She felt a little as if she had been tricked into more extra-curricular work. Where was her cliché Slytherin standoffish exterior? She squared her shoulders and pushed her quill into the parchment to complete her sum with the number seven. The quill snapped in half in her hands and ink blotted her paper.
Armelle cursed and began digging in her bag for her wand.
A small, grey quill dropped onto her parchment. She looked up in deep annoyance and saw someone that she would rather not have to deal with at that moment.
Tom Riddle slid out the chair opposite her and sat down. His sharp, smug face provided Armelle with such a contrast with Ruby’s honest and nervous profile that all her frustration about being a tutor vanished.
“Thanks, but I’ve got an extra one here somewhere,” she muttered, pushing the quill back towards him.
He shrugged, his handsome face relaxed but his eyes alert. “Keep it. I have more.”
She reluctantly picked it up and dipped it in ink. Her conversation with him during the feast came slowly back to her. Why did he keep talking to her? “Thanks.”
He gazed around the library for a moment, looking lost in thought.
“Kane isn’t here,” she offered.
Tom looked at her, startled out of his thoughts. “I didn’t come all the way up here to talk to Kane Glaston,” he said with a smirk. “I wanted to talk to you.”
For a moment, Armelle was almost flattered. Riddle was good looking, smart, a Slytherin, and he had something to talk to her about. But then she remembered what Kane had told her about him, the name Riddle made his friends call him in secret. She shook her head clear of the thought. She was not some witless, giggling Hufflepuff.
Trying not to look too curious, she found her wand and Vanished the spilled ink from her work. “About what?”
He ignored her question and instead asked, “Who were you just talking to?”
“Ruby Stevenson?”
He shrugged.
Armelle bent back down to her work. “She’s in our year,” she replied slowly. She did not want to know his opinion about Ruby. “I’m tutoring her.”
Tom sat back in his chair. “She’s practically a Mudblood,” he told her contemptuously.
“How do you mean?”
He looked at her as if that was the first thing she should have found out. “Both her parents are dirty Mudbloods.”
“Oh, really?” Armelle muttered, tracing figures into the tabletop with her quill. She hadn’t known, nor did she care. If Riddle had bothered to trace the Banks family tree back a couple of generations he certainly wouldn’t be sitting in the library with her.
Tom nodded.
She shrugged, eager to get off the subject. “I’m getting paid.”
He looked as if he was about to say something else, regarded her for a tense moment, and then smiled. “I’ve started a little side project this year, Armelle, and there’s a part of it I’d like you to help me with.”
Armelle was instantly suspicious. “What kind of side project?” She couldn’t help asking. The look in Riddle’s eyes told her that she should not have asked. She began stowing her things into her bag, eager for the conversation to be over.
“I can’t say right now,” he said quietly, learning over the table towards her, “but you’ll see soon enough.”
She swung her bag over her shoulder and stood up. Whatever he was doing, she wanted no part in it. “Sorry, Tom,” she said as lightly as she could manage, avoiding his glaring eyes. “My schedule’s pretty full this year. I don’t have time for anything else.”
“We’ll see.” He grinned and slid back into his chair.
Armelle hurried away as quickly as she could without breaking into a run. Johnny Stellar waved at her from the check out desk, and she waved back, but did not bother to stop and talk, feeling Riddle’s eyes on her back the entire way.