You don't own me, Riddle

Chapter 4 - Encounterings

Ari woke up, still feeling quite exhausted from the day prior. Her night had been nothing but tossing around in her bed and waking every hour only to realize that it was still night.

She sat up and looked around the room, and saw that the other girls were still sleeping. After looking at the time, she realized that she had approximately 2 hours before breakfast in the great hall.

Instead of going back to sleep, she stood up from her bed, grabbed her clothing, including her robe, and walked into the dormitory bathroom. She took a shower, dried her waist-long white hair, and looked in the mirror for a moment.

Her facial features were soft, her porcelain skin creamy white, and her eyes sparkled in a light blue color. There was no denying that she was beautiful, not that she cared.

Ari huffed at her reflection and lowered her gaze towards her hands, that was lazily resting at the sink. Her silver bracelet caught her attention. Her mother's bracelet.

She threw one last eye at her reflection before getting dressed and heading out towards the common room. There, she immediately walked up towards a bookcase and started to explore her options. Her eyes finally landed on a book ' Protection Charm Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Counter Legilimensy by Franciscus Fieldwake'

She sat down in one of the sofas that stood in the circular room and started to refresh her knowledge of the subject.

Ari was so caught up in the book, she never even noticed that someone had entered the room. Her attention was diverted from the book when someone cleared their throat.

Ari looked up and saw a nervous, dimple-filled smile. She could not help but smile back at the boy.

"Jack" she greeted him. His smile widened and sparkles were visible in his eyes. "Good morning Ari, did you sleep well?" He asked her.

"Sure, the sound of the wind was quite soothing" she said, without lying. Even though her night had not contained much sleep, she had found the whistle of the wind to be comforting.

"Good" he walked closer to her and made a questioning gesture towards the couch opposite from her. Ari nodded and Jack sat down.

"So what classes do you have today" he asked her with obvious anticipation.

"Arithmancy, ancient runes, transfiguration and care of magical creatures"

The boy could not hide his excitement "Great, we have three classes together today! "

The teenagers chatted a bit more before Jack grabbed a book as well and sat back down on the couch. Ari found his presence to be pleasant, which was unusual for her.

Around one hour later. Stella, Helen, and Elizabeth entered the common room. The girls greeted each other before Elizabeth and Helen ran off to meet with their friends for Breakfast.

"We should get going so that I will have time to show you to the Arithmancy classroom before my class starts" Stella said, and Ari nodded. "I will take her" Jack interrupted. "I have the same class" he looked pleased.

"Oh, okay then, do you wanna come with us to breakfast, Jack?" Stella asked. "Sure" he stood up and went to put his book back in the case.

The blue and bronze trio walked out of the Ravenclaw common room hand headed towards the dining hall. Ari almost felt that she was getting a hang of the moving stairs until one of them tried to take her to an empty and creepy hallway on the 3rd floor. Luckily, the stair moved back and let her re-join her friends.

"I thought we had lost you for a second there" Jack chuckled. Ari gave him a soft punch on the shoulder, and jack gave her a goofy smile.

As they entered the dining hall, the chattering immediately quieted down and Ari could feel a lot of eyes watching her. It made her feel like a show animal and she looked down at the floor in discomfort.

"Stella, Ari!" A voice shouted, and Ari looked up to see Kat waving her hand from a Hufflepuff table. "good morning Kat, Georga" Ari greeted them, earning a distant wave from Georga and a hug from Kat. "Hi, Jack!" Kat said as she continued to hug Stella, and lastly Jack. "Hello" he said in a laugh as the small girl swung her arms around his waist.

They decided to sit together at the Hufflepuff table for breakfast, and Ari was once again impressed by the variety of food.

After breakfast, Ari and Jack waved to their friends and walked towards the Arithmancy classroom on the 7th floor. As they walked in, they realized that they were the first ones to arrive, and sat down at two seats in the middle of the room.

After a few minutes, Ari heard footsteps nearing the door, and caught eyes with Tom as he entered the classroom. Her breath somehow got stuck in her throat as their eyes met, and she made a mental note to avoid the boy, before breaking eye contact with him to look toward the window. She did not like the effect he had on her.

Tom smirked and walked up to his usual seat followed by a few other boys. The teacher, Professor Dorothy Blakely began the class. The Slender woman had Introduced the class and welcomed them black to Hogwarts before she held a long numerology lecture. Ari noticed a lot of groans and nervous scribbling in the classroom. She raised her bows at Jack, who seemed to struggle to keep up with the notes, himself.

With a wordless flick of her wand, Ari arranges the letters and numbers of the boy's notes to look identical to hers. He looked at her with admiration, and she smiled at him.

Professor Blakely handed out papers with problems for the class to solve, which most of the students seemed to struggle with. They had been instructed to walk up to the front desk and submit their work for assessment as soon as they were done.

A few minutes in, Ari heard a chair move and footsteps nearing the desk. 'Who in the world manages to solve them all this quick' she thought to herself and started writing her numbers as fast as she could in order to catch up. She decided against raising her eyes towards the fast pupil, in order to not get distracted.

Only a few seconds had passed before she herself walked up to the front desc and saw that it was the Riddle boy who stood there, getting praised by Professor Blakely. "Well done Mr. Riddle! 10 points for Slytherin"

Professor Blakely and Tom both switched their attention towards Ari, who handed Professor Blakely her paper while avoiding the boy's eyes. After Professor Blakely skimmed through her paper, she exclaimed "Ms. Coyet, I am very pleased to have yet another excellent student in my class! Take 10 points for Ravenclaw!". The woman had praised her with a genuinely happy smile. Ari wondered how the class usually performed, for the teacher to react like this.

"Mr riddle, Ms. Coyet, since you two are finished you are free to go! Mr. riddle, I trust that you can show Ms. Coyet to her next class?" Professor Blakely told them.

"Of course, Mrs. Blakely" Tom answered in a respectful tone. "Ms. Coyet?" He said as he gestured towards the door.

Ari cursed in her mind. So much for avoiding him.

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A/N

woo, Ari seems to be performing well in her first class. What are the odds that the one person she tried to avoid, is assigned to walk with her to her next class? lol!

This is also the first time I described Ari's appearance, except for saying that she had blonder hair than Stella in the train scene. As she is part veela (details will come in future chapters) she is obviously attractive, especially to the other sex. Do you think she will have an effect on Tom as well?

Do you prefer to imagine how the characters look on your own, or would you like some visual guides on how I imagine them?

Have a good day!

- Naomi