Lies and falsehoods, armour made of ambition and cruelty. Irremediably, Tom Riddle's destiny has been written from the beginning, foreseeing a dark and deviant path. But to everything there is an exception, and Anastasia Atwell did not know she was...
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Orion Black
Being the Head Girl of Hogwarts had its pros and cons.
Among the pros was definitely the increased respect people felt for Anastasia, although the thought that a title had managed to change what people thought about her was rather disturbing. But at least, even early in the morning, she was meeting smiling faces and no one was giving her a sour look, which gave her a reason not to come to class with her face down.
As for the cons, there was no doubt that the hours were tiring. The prefects had to check the pupils, and Anastasia had to check both. She would wander around the castle in the middle of the night when Head Boy didn't, wand lit looking for someone who was out breaking the laws.
Fortunately, she had not encountered any problems over the past week. Sure, there were a few students running around the corridors trying to meet their friends, but she hadn't had to assign detentions to anyone, which reassured her.
Usually some of her friends would ask her to keep them company during her inspection shifts. If at first she was reluctant and refused their prayers, after a few days she was forced to give in: wandering around the school late at night on her own was terribly boring.
One positive aspect was having the company of a friendly black kitten who followed her wherever she went. She didn't know who he belonged to, he had no collar or tags, but he seemed to have taken a liking to her and Anastasia had chosen to name him Tenebris.
Upon hearing it the first time, the cat had meowed, crawling its head against the palm of Anastasia's hand. She took him by consent.
She only met that cat at night. He was not annoying, far from it. He walked a few paces behind her, didn't cause any trouble, and occasionally wandered around her while she stopped for a few moments to rest a bit.
Anastasia chose that Tenebris would become her own little secret.
On the other hand, for Tom, having risen in the rankings and having obtained the highest qualification for any student had only pros.
The boy was hiding more than anyone could even expect, or imagine. He was hiding his past, his history, his origins, his nature. He hid the most common things, such as his keys and belongings, or even more precious things, such as his diary.
He hid his intentions. Clearly he kept to his assignments, but after making sure that order was established among the corridors, his legs automatically took him to the school library.
He had access to it out of necessity, making his work much easier. It had taken him a few years to work out how to enter the restricted area of the library safely and undetected, but once he had uncovered the arcane mystery, it was easier than ever before to break into the area.
