From the Devil's side

Chapter Four- A first time for everything

"Rosier." I snapped through gritted teeth. "I thought I told you to handle the situation." I glared at his useless pathetic face, fear gripping his watery little eyes. So weak. If he did not prove himself useful soon I would concoct something to get rid of him. 
"I'm sorry... I... I won't fail this time." he stuttered. 
"Time I'm afraid is something we are growing short of." I hissed. Rosier nodded enthusiastically. 
"I'll have it sorted by this evening." he said earnestly, desperate to regain favour. I smirked inwardly. 
"Oh I know you will." I whispered with a smile. Just then I heard footsteps echoing from down the corridor I fixed Rosier with one more warning eye before turning my head to see who had disturbed us. Dumbledore. I inwardly growled. Of course it was, it always was. It was as if he stood waiting around every corner ready to pop out anytime I required some privacy. 
"Professor," I greeted him with a smile as he drew level with us. His blue eyes darted suspiciously between myself and Rosier. 
"Good day to you Riddle, Rosier," he nodded at each of us. "Enjoying our holidays?" He questioned cheerfully yet there was no disguising the distrust in his voice. 
"Of course Sir," I replied plainly, Rosier kept silent as he watched the exchange. 
"Of course." Dumbledore repeated slowly before he turned to walk away from us. 
"Oh," he paused turning his head he locked eyes with me. "Happy Birthday Riddle." he smiled serenely before turning again and walking gracefully down the corridor and out of sight. I clenched my hands into fists and turned my gaze upon Rosier. Clearly noticing my frustration he quickly excused himself promising once more not fail me... we would see. 

I ran a hand threw my fair as I sat at my favourite desk within the Slytherin common room which looked out across the depth of the black lake. It often helped me to collect my thoughts when working to watch the various creatures swim elegantly past. 
I still had found nothing. Years, months and still nothing. Never had it taken me this long to uncover anything that I set my mind to. It was as if this particular subject was purposefully avoiding me since the day I was born. A loud pop almost caused me to jump as I spun around in my chair to see a wrinkled looking house elf stood beside me. 
"What do you want?" I snapped looking down at the worthless creature with disgust. 
It bowed its head before extending it's thin bony hand which clutched a small folded piece of parchment. Curious I snatched it from its hand without so much as another word, it flinched away from me before disappearing with another pop. I stared at the stop which it had stood for a moment before turning my eyes down to the parchment in my hand which I unfolded.
'Tom, 
Meet me under the clock face at quarter to eleven. 
Grisha.'
I frowned what did she want now. I scrunched the parchment into a ball in my fist, daming my own curiosity. 

I walked through the darkness of the corridor leading towards the clock face which moved in shadow against the midnight blue sky. Also silhouetted against the backdrop of the large gears was  short figure, long hair in a ponytail blowing behind in the wind. 
As I drew closer the moonlight illuminated her petite features, pale skin and fair blonde hair. She had not noticed my presence, I smirked coughing to announce myself. I allowed my smirk to widen a little as I caught her off guard making her jump and turn to look at me with her large doe like blue eyes. 
"Good evening," she croaked, she was nervous. 
"Evening," I replied raising my eyebrow at her. How curious, I found myself eager to know what it was she had brought me here for. 
"Happy Birthday," she breathed, withdrawing from her cloak a package wrapped in silver paper, a dark green envelope attached to the top of it. I froze, was she serious... I had never once received a gift for my birthday. Come to think I never told anyone at Hogwarts about my birthday, I had always kept it quiet... Dumbledore, I frowned. This last week had been the strangest I had lived for quite a long time. For once not knowing what else to do I extended my hands taking the gift from her outstretched hands. 
A soft laugh fluttered through the breeze,
"Well you can open it," she smiled. I glanced at her white tooth smile so genuine... she was an enigma. I glanced back down at the gift in my hands. My very first birthday present, I scoffed. I pulled off the envelope slowly, peeling it open. Inside was a black shiny card which had an image of a silver Slytherin crest upon it and inside read,
'To the Heir of Slytherin, Happy 15th Birthday, love from the Heir of Gryffindor.' 
I stared down at the words reading them a couple of times just to sure I was not imagining this whole meeting somehow but no the card remained in my hands, very much a solid, physical object. I closed it slowly slipping it inside my pocket to free up my hands. I slipped a finger under the corner of the silver wrappings and began to pull them back to reveal a soft emerald green fabric. I pulled it from the wrappings to closer inspect it, it was a scarf. I hated to admit that she chosen so well, the colour, the richness of the fabric. 
The sound of shuffling brought me back to the present and the fact that she was still stood before me, watching me nervously. 
I did not know quite what to say and so I resorted to the only thing that I could say...
"I... thank you." I felt strange as the foreign words left my mouth, normally these words were only used to manipulate in order to gain something. It made me feel in all honesty uncomfortable.
"You're welcome, here is to the next year," she smiled, lightly elbowing my arm, the contact made my body tense... I did not like physical contact... 
The clock chimed twelve above us marking the New Year. I promised myself in that moment I would discover more about this girl in the coming year as I looked at her innocent aneglic face glowing in the soft moonlight.