Masquerade¹ → Tom Riddle ✓

chapter six

Care of Magical Creatures was a subject almost everyone seemed to enjoy. It was an easy pass and getting to understand the world of magical creatures was usually enough to satisfy anyone. Evelyn was not one of those people; although she did not despise the subject, there was nothing about it that drew her in.

Although lessons typically took place inside the castle, today was one of the few times that the students would be doing a practical task. Before summer, they had been tasked with researching how to care for Nifflers, strange horse-like animals that served almost no purpose to society other than to hunt for treasure.

Evelyn stood in the clearing outside of the forest, her eyes wandering around and admiring the scenery. The forest was ancient. The trees thick and old, roots that were twisted around each other in a tangled display of affection. Although the forest was once filled with birdsong and animals that roamed freely, it was now aged past its former glory and was primarily used for teaching and detentions. Once Evelyn stepped deeper into the forest, the light began to fade; the canopy too dense to let in anything other than a sliver of golden sunlight. Crisp autumn air blew through her, rustling her hair and chilling her bones. With a shiver, she turned and made her way even deeper into the forest.

After a few minutes of waiting for the other students, Evelyn began to grow impatient, glancing down at her watch and then straight. Even though Evelyn preferred not to use magic where possible, when she found her mind beginning to wander, magic was the first thing she turned to. Taking one final glance around the clearing, she turned and glanced at a pile of crisp, sunset orange leaves and envisioned them floating upwards. Slowly a group of them shot upwards in a swirling motion, the colours of the leaves shimmering against the light shining in through the canopy. Using magic when not required felt unnecessary, especially when that magic was complex. Most young students did not learn non-verbal magic until their last year at Hogwarts and often even the brightest few struggled to fully grasp it.

As soon as the students began piling in Evelyn felt more at ease. She knew the lesson would not be too challenging due to her prior research on the topic, especially since she knew her partner would also be prepared. Evelyn was partnered with Eli Jameson, a peculiar Hufflepuff who stood quietly during the whole lesson, referring back to his notes all too frequently and almost blatantly refusing to converse with her. Despite his lack of social skills, training their Niffler to hunt for treasure was rather simple and by the end of the lesson, they were both content with their work.

As Evelyn left the forest, she felt her heart begin to race, realising what her next lesson would be; Study of Ancient Runes. Although she had chosen it as her second elective, she had quickly learnt that it was much harder than she once thought. By the time she arrived at her classroom, it was full of students who sat already with their work out in front of them.

"Miss Rivers, please take a seat next to Tom and we will begin the lesson." Professor Griffith said, ushering Evelyn to her seat. Sending her Professors urgency, she sped towards her seat and quickly pulled out her books and parchment out, placing them in a pile on her desk. "Your partners are the student sat beside you and they will remain there until the end of the course," He said, leading to an eruption of groans from Evelyn's fellow classmates. "Settle down. I will set you off with a fairly simple translation piece and those who complete it should ask me for further work." Waving his wand, parchment began to float towards the students, one sheet placing itself in front of each student.

Although Evelyn began her work at a pace, after a few minutes she began to slow down significantly. With a furrowed brow, she turned to face the other students, praying that they were also struggling as much as she was with the work so she felt less alone; much to her dismay, the other students all had their heads down and seemed perfectly content with the work that they had been set.

"Miss Rivers these are extremely simple runes, we covered this many times last year !" Professor Griffith called from his desk, "Tom please help her." He smiled at Tom, hoping he would be able to reduce his workload.

Evelyn turned to face Tom half expecting no reaction to his Professor, but still, she found herself praying that he would help her. "Tom." She said, wondering if his attention simply hadn't been caught. When yet again he failed to look up at her, she knew he had no interest in helping her. "I don't care if you don't want to help me, but I want you to help me." She began, waving her hands in front of his translation in an attempt to avert his attention. "Please." She added.

"Evelyn I have far better things to do, it's really not my fault that you're incompetent." He shifted along the desk, moving further away from Evelyn in the hopes that she would give up.

"Professor Griffith told you to help me and I would really like your help, Tom."

Knowing that she wouldn't give up, Tom sighed as he turned to face her. "It's really quite simple."
He moved his body closer to hers, placing his quill on her parchment as he began sketching the intricate symbols with their meanings beside them. Evelyn knew these weren't runes she could remember but it was unsurprising that Tom had been able to memorise them and store them in his mind for later. With a mind like his, anything was possible. "Use this as a key," He said pointing towards his sketches in the corner of the parchment. "Then find the rune on the translation and copy it down on your parchment."

As soon as Evelyn set off trying to finish her work, Tom rose from his seat and collected further work, burying himself in it as soon as he was seated. Remembering his instructions, Evelyn slowly but surely made her way through the translation piece, completing the work despite being unsure of what she had done.

"Homework will be to complete the extension task on my desk by next lesson and no later, please!" Professor Griffiths dismissed the class with a wave of his hand, slouching back in his chair at the thought of a moments peace.

Evelyn looked up for Tom to thank him but by the time she had stood up, he had vanished into the flurry of students at the front of the class. Taking her time, Evelyn made her way to the front of the class, eventually collecting the parchment and joining the sea of students in the corridor. Weaving her way through crowds was a skill Evelyn had been able to develop greatly since starting at Hogwarts. Learning the times which corridors were busy had benefited her greatly on the rare instance that she was late and more frequently when Lily or Sara were late to their lessons.

After a short adventure through the crowds of students, Evelyn made her way to the common room and immediately took a seat at one of the many desks lining the common room walls. Assuming that Lily and Sara were likely in one of their elective lessons, she decided to attempt her challenging homework before the common room got so busy she couldn't think. Using Toms key, Evelyn eventually managed to complete her homework, only beginning to pack up once the sun had dipped below the horizon and the common room had begun to fill up.

Although dinner seemed tempting, Evelyn knew that her body would appreciate sleep more than nutrition. Despite being back at Hogwarts for less than a week, her body was already beginning to tire, her joints starting to stiffen from writing and the purple bags beneath her eyes becoming more defined. Despite her body craving sleep, she knew she would be disappointed if she didn't see her friends before she fell asleep. Living with her friends had made her far more appreciative of them, especially their peculiar habits that she would not have known of without boarding at Hogwarts.

Soon, it began sprinkling, through the window Evelyn could see little droplets of water drenching the grass. The sprinkling was soon a downpour of icy droplets crashing against the grassy ground and pooling together into puddles across the grounds. With nothing else to do but wait, Evelyn watched the sky. She watched until hundreds of stars were dotted across it like sprinkles and that was the final thing she saw before her eyes began to close.