Stolen Time A Tom Marvolo Riddle Fanfiction completed

Chapter Eighteen

Cassiopeia felt truly excited when she entered the greyish school building for her first day of work. She was supposed to teach Transfiguration and she was curious to get to know her students and colleagues at last.

When she opened the door to the staff room, three pairs of eyes instantly turned in her direction.

She slowly stepped into the room. "Hi, I'm Cynthia O'Leary, the new teacher for Transfiguration."

The two men and one woman who had been sitting at a table together got up. One of the men, a wizard with short brown hair held out his hand. "Hi. My name's Percival McGregor. I'm teaching Potions. These are Melody Whittaker and Lance Fowler. Mel's subject is Herbology and Lance teaches Arithmancy." He gestured at the other two.

Cassiopeia took Percival's hand and shook it. Then she nodded at Melody and Lance who smiled back at her.

Melody was a petite witch with shining short blonde hair and Lance a tall guy with light brown hair that he had pulled into a pony tail. They seemed friendly and Cassiopeia instantly liked them.

"Have you been teaching before?" Melody asked.

"I used to homeschool a couple of children before it got prohibited," Cassiopeia stated, a little sadness ringing in her tone.

"Me too," Lance said. "I was really disappointed when it became illegal. I didn't quite like that decision."

There was a moment of silence and Cassiopeia realized they were all waiting for her reaction. She eyed them for a moment, suddenly grasping that nowadays, in this world, it was more essential for survival than anything to have an idea what the others were thinking about the government, which meant about the Death Eaters, which meant about Lord Voldemort.

She pursed her lips. "I was actually very sad as well. The government's decisions are sometimes hard to take."

Melody nodded and Percival said, "Sooner or later you'll come to experience that we're doing a job that isn't exactly respected. Many people feel we're teaching the wrong students. But you'll also see that a lot of the children are really great and some even outstanding."

"I'm curious to get to know them." Cassiopeia threw a glance at her timetable. "I have the third years now."

"They are great kids," Melody smiled.

The four of them left the staff room and went to their respective classrooms.

When Cassiopeia had closed the door of her classroom she looked at the children in front of her who were eying her attentively.

"Good morning. I'm Professor O'Leary and we'll be doing Transfiguration together. First I'd like to find out what you already know. Here are some items you might be able to transfigure into something else. Please get one of those items and start transfiguring it into whatever you're capable of and I'll just watch you for a while."

The students obediently made their way to her desk and gathered the items. Cassiopeia could tell that they were all keen on showing what they could do and a smile crossed her face. She already liked being here.

The next lesson was the class of second year. The students were equally enthusiastic and followed Cassiopeia's instructions carefully.

The first day of work rushed by and so did the following days. One by one, Cassiopeia got to know the other teachers. Besides Percival, Melody and Lance there were Felix, Maya, Jason and Liv. They were all half-bloods and they were all teaching with enthusiasm. Cassiopeia truly relished being finally surrounded by people who didn't obsess about their blood status for the first time since many years.

Her students were mostly nice kids, too. There was no denying that they all suffered from having been taken away from their parents and families as soon as it had turned out that they were magical, but they still enjoyed the greatness of magic and loved learning about it.

In the mornings and after work Cassiopeia always apparated to a secluded place she had found in a forest nearby to change her appearance. Thus she neither risked being seen as Cynthia around Houlton Manor nor as Cassiopeia at school. It was a little inconvenient but she knew it was the price she had to pay for being able to teach again.

When Cassiopeia returned home at the end of her fourth week of work and walked into the living room, Tom was lounging in the armchair, casually twirling his wand and obviously waiting.

"Where have you been?" His voice was deliberately light.

"Since when do you care?" Cassiopeia asked back.

"Since you keep disappearing without a trace day after day," Tom stated.

"I didn't know you were keeping track of my whereabouts." Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. Tom didn't reply. Looking at him, she shrugged. "I've been visiting with Professor Mangroves."

"The old Ancient Runes Professor Mangroves? The one who's already been nearly one hundred when we were at Hogwarts?" Tom asked, his voice full of sarcasm.

"He wasn't that old, but yes, him. We've been discussing the Ancient Runes he's recently discovered on some artefacts."

Tom shot her a glance. "You honestly expect me to believe you've been discussing Ancient Runes five days a week for nearly a month? That's an amazing amount of time."

Cassiopeia held his gaze. "If you say so." She paused. "He's got a lot of artefacts."

Tom narrowed his eyes. "And I suppose he'd confirm this if I asked him?"

Cassiopeia still held his gaze. "Of course. He'd surely love if you visited," she smiled innocently. "After all, you've always been his favourite. Maybe you could even help him with some runes."

Tom pulled a face. "I'm glad that I survived that last Ancient Runes lesson so long ago. It always bored me to death."

"What a pity." Cassiopeia suppressed a smirk. "Because I even brought you some runes thinking you'd like to help translate them." She placed an ancient looking stone on the coffee table in front of him.

Tom gazed at it and then back at Cassiopeia. "Ancient Runes? Really?" He slowly got up and took the stone. He threw a glance at it and then put it back down. "Well, have fun translating it."

Cassiopeia watched him walk to the door. When he had nearly reached it, she asked drily, "So that's it? Checking up on me and then disappearing again? I know you've never been overly social but you really used to try harder. I don't even remember when we last spent actual time together, just reading, discussing magic or maybe even experimenting."

Tom looked back at her. He didn't remember either.

"You've taken to simply walking in and out of my life in a way I come to like less and less." She narrowed her eyes. "I wonder...why did it even matter to you if I'm going to die one day if you don't actually care about spending time with me now that I'm alive?"

Tom's features remained expressionless but he pursed his lips. "I've been spending time with you."

Cassiopeia's lip twitched. "You know exactly that's not what I'm talking about. We haven't spent that time the way we used to spend it. You've come here when it pleased you and you've stayed exactly as long as it pleased you. Actually you only came here whenever you were feeling in need of some...well, whatever it is we're doing."

Tom clenched his teeth but didn't reply. Cassiopeia sat down on the sofa and took the stone from the table. Waving her wand she summoned a quill and a parchment along with a black leather book from the bookshelf. Opening the book she started examining the first rune. When she realized that Tom was still standing at the door, she threw him a look. "Good evening, Tom."

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Author's note: Thanks for reading!!!