An Otherworldly Experience (Tom Riddle Era)

Chapter Thirteen

Kelli was so glad to see her friends. She grinned when she saw Elizabeth and Lauren, wanting to run off and hug them but she didn’t trust Tom at all to look after Katie. So she didn’t run, instead she waved and they caught sight of her, grins appearing on both of their faces.

“How are you?” Elizabeth asked as she pulled Kelli into a large hug.

“I’m great, how are you?” Kelli asked cheerfully, removing herself from the hug to hug Lauren next.

“I’m - is that Riddle?” Elizabeth asked, looking over her shoulder. “Oh, it is. Riddle, it’s good to see you. Who knew you’d be coming here, too!”

“Oh, right, I forgot to tell you,” Lauren said. “Kelli sent me a letter while you were grounded saying that Riddle had moved into their orphanage and that he turned into her warden. Sorry, I did mean to tell you.”

“Dammit,” Elizabeth replied, pointing accusingly at Lauren, “I could have known this and not made a fool of myself!” Then she turned back to Kelli and said, “Oh, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to send you letters. My Dad grounded me because I’d broken into his lab to get my potion’s kit and he caught me so.”

“Don’t worry, Lauren told me what she could,” Kelli replied.

“Kelli,” Katie whispered from beside her and Kelli looked down and heard a very light whisper of, “Why’re you friends with a black girl?”

Kelli had to take a moment. That was a question she had just been asked. By an eleven year old. Kelli just gave a patient smile and said, softly, as though not to embarrass her as Lauren gave her an apprehensive look, “Because she’s a cool person.”

“But-”

“No buts, her skin colour doesn’t mean anything,” Kelli said, trying very hard to sound understanding instead of telling her to shut up and deal with it like she really wanted her to.

Katie frowned but didn’t say anything further.

Kelli looked at Lauren and mouthed a sorry. “Guys, meet Katie. She lives at the orphanage with Tom and I.”

“Aw you’re back to first name basis!” squealed the pair of them.

Kelli was mortified. Truly and utterly mortified. “What? That has nothing to do with anything here.”

“The future doesn’t lie, I see!” Lauren announced.

Kelli would die on the spot. She was going to die right there. Evaporate. They were going to talk about this right in front of him. They were even friends, there was zero reason for this.

“What future?” asked Tom very politely.

“The one where you two go on an adventure and fall in love.”

“Literally anyone out there, kill me and my friends,” Kelli whispered to the sky. Lauren had just said that. Out loud. To Tom. She deserved death right now, didn’t she?

“I see you really don’t see us as friends,” Tom said to Kelli, turning to face her, “You don’t backchat them.”

“Ha ha,” replied Kelli nervously, before saying, “I’m out. Katie, let’s go buy your books and my books. Oh, and I’m a prefect,” Kelli then told her two friends.

“As am I,” Riddle said.

“Oh you two are going to spend more time together with prefect duties and the Slug Club. If you two were in the same house, you two would be inseparable!”

“What did I do to deserve this?” Kelli asked them with a frown. “Why you doing this?”

“I wasn’t kidding when I saw you two,” Lauren said. “Although, it wasn’t exactly an adventure, but you two would be spending a lot of time together. And you two are going to spend a lot of time together later, like, after school.”