Starry skies and Gardenias

Chapter 26

No. Just no.

She wasn't going to care. She didn't want to care.
Who cares if Tom Riddle was Voldemort? Certainly not her!

Isabella groaned softly, and rolled over in her bed, burying her face in her pillow. She couldn't find it in herself to sleep. She really tried to convince herself that it was either a coincidence or that it wouldn't matter. 

There was nothing she could do, was there? If Voldemort was once a normal person called Tom Riddle who had dreams of conquering the world and spent his nights trying to find a cool enough name to induce fear, there was nothing she could do anymore. 

It was just as it is. 

It wasn't of that much importance.

"Yeah, they were murdered. Brutally,"
"The Dark Mark was set over their house,"
"My mum's so worried. She doesn't go out after it is dark,"

Isabella's frown deepened. 

Oh, just great, she thought sarcastically. Voldemort had unleashed terror over the wizarding world and she didn't think many people knew that once he used to be a person called Tom Riddle.

Who the heck was Tom Riddle? 

Did he study here at Hogwarts too? 
Well, there was one way of checking. But it wasn't too effective and there was a lot of probability. 

She couldn't check the student records of Hogwarts, but she could look for the records left by the students. 

The Trophy room was always open and no one locks it. So, supposing that Riddle was smart, or really good at quidditch, his name would be in the Trophy room.

If it wasn't there, either he was a normal Joe and didn't do great things at school or didn't go to Hogwarts.

She didn't even know how old Voldemort was to tally and find out how many years ago he went to school.

Isabella held on until lunch, then it broke and her curiosity got the better of her. 

Isabella went to the Trophy room instead of the Great Hall for lunch.

Countless trophies and little awards sat on their shelves, embedded with the names of the meritorious students and their achievements.

She saw McGonagall's name in a Quidditch section. She didn't know McGonagall played Quidditch. . .No wonder she gets a bit too excited when it came to the game. 

Isabella suddenly had an idea. Rather than checking all the trophies, she should go and check the list of prefects. Every year, there would be at least twenty-four prefects in Hogwarts and that would be an easy way to come to a conclusion.
Besides, the list of prefects would also have the dates on them and she could figure out when Riddle went to Hogwarts.

She let out a gleeful laugh when she spotted Riddle's name in the list of prefects. 

Thank goodness, she didn't have to search any longer. 

Tom Riddle apparently went to Hogwarts during 1938 and up till 1945. 

Well, he isn't that old, is he? Isabella thought he'd be some eighty to hundred years old, like Dumbledore. . .Or maybe she had just expected him to be like Grindelwald.

After reading about Dumbledore and finding out that he had defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald, Isabella was curious and read about Gellert Grindelwald.