Beauty and the Beast

chapter six

note: I know I got Tom's birthday wrong. Don't @ me

July 29, 1945

Tom did not tell his friends about the dream he'd had back in June in any of the multiple letters he'd sent to them. The trio hated how the orphanage would not allow Tom to visit his friends, so they had to think of a way to see each other in person. But there was an obvious solution. They could visit him!

So Raine and Sam walked to the orphanage and asked to visit Tom. They were led to his room and allowed to have private time together. The boy was doing his summer reading, sitting on his bed. The girls sat down as Tom looked up from his book. He was slightly surprised, the way he kind of jumped off the bed, but managed to keep in place. "Samantha... Raine... you came to visit," Tom smiled. Nobody had ever cared enough to visit him outside of Dumbledore, who had brought him to Hogwarts... once. He'd never had any friends come and stop by. Tom began to understand friendship in a new light.

He put his bookmark in the book then greeted Raine first. Tom did the same with his girlfriend, but he also hugged her and shared a kiss, having not seen her since June. "You guys are amazing," he told them, smiling. "Thank you." The trio sat down on Tom's bed, talking about their summers, when two owls perched on the windowsill. Both of them held a letter. The brunette opened the window and took the letters. "They have amazing tracking skills," Tom noted. There was one labeled "Mr. Tom Riddle", the other one labeled, "Miss Samantha Dalton". He handed the letter to the other prefect. "It's yours." Of course, it had the fancy Hogwarts crest for the wax.

[Miss Samantha Dalton/Mr. Tom Riddle],

Over the last six years, you have been bold, clever and trustworthy. I can recount many times where you made good decisions, and they had great outcomes. You have the highest respects of myself and other professors. You learn, ask questions, and use or process that information to help you succeed. You have been a great student over these years, and on top of that a great prefect. So I have chosen you to be Head [Girl/Boy]

With Great Honor,

Armando Dippet

Both of the Slytherin prefects smiled and looked at each other. "Head Boy... and you?" Tom asked.

Samantha smiled as she replied, "Head Girl." The two of them smiled. "Great!" Tom commented. The two now sat together closer. Raine kept herself from rolling her eyes. The romance of her two peers was getting old now, in her opinion. Third wheeling is never fun. But she could manage to live with it. She cleared her throat somewhat loudly and asked, "Samantha, are you playing Quidditch again this year? I know I am." Sam quickly replied, "Of course. Seeker, as always."

"Beater, as always," Raine added.

"In the student section, as always," Tom half-joked. The trio had a good laugh. They talked for some time before Samantha asked, "Leaky Cauldron sound good?" Both the others grinned in excitement.

Permission was given for the girls to go to take Tom out for a few hours. They went down to the Leaky Cauldron. The trio got a table. On the other side of the restaurant, Professor Dumbledore was writing things down for the next year at Hogwarts. Raine looked at her friends and told them, "Even though I hate to admit it, you two are absolutely adorable together." Samantha giggled and looked at Tom, who raised his eyebrows. That made her chuckle even more, her face turning red from laughing so hard. The man in his sixties looked over at the teenagers, studying them just slightly. The young couple's hands interlocked as they sat beside each other, at peace. As soon as the brunette boy saw the professor, he let go of Samantha's hand, wondering if Dumbledore knew it was him who had opened the chamber last school year. He knew of the man's intelligence and wisdom, and feared it.

Albus came over to the students. "It's great to see you three outside of the walls of school," he spoke to the youngsters. Raine smiled and nodded. "We get caught up sometimes, it's nice to have a bit of time off, but still be with friends," she told the professor. The young couple began to hold hands again. "You two are still going strong, I suppose?," Dumbledore asked. Tom gave a genuine smile. "We are. And that makes me happy, sir," he told the teacher.

"It gives me great joy when I know the students are doing well," Albus beamed. "I work at Hogwarts for a reason." There was a pause, a moment of silence, when none of the four uttered a word. The professor looked at grandfather clock then disclosed, "I must leave now, I have important business. I wish you good luck in the rest of your summers." The rising seventh years waved goodbye to the man then looked back at each other.

The three of them soon received their drinks of butterbeer and began to guzzle down the liquid. Talking and smiling, they seemed to forget about everything around them. They were concentrated on just being teenagers and conversing with one another. Topics ranged from Quidditch to "that muggle war that ended a few months ago", which is known as World War Two in the muggle world. In every society, teenage life is crazy. Samantha teased her best friend, "So, Raine, how are you and him?"

"I don't like Octan THAT much!"

"Oh really, then why did you assume I meant him? I never said who it was," the blonde grinned mischievously. Tom merely watched in amusement. "This is always entertaining," he thought to himself, smiling.

"Come on, Sammy! Stahhhhhhhp!"

"Okay, Mrs. Raine Black!"

Raine smirked, "Okay, Mrs. Samantha Riddle. Tom just made the expression where you pretend to chop of your head that signifies you're not a part of it.

Once enough time had passed, the two girls walked Tom back to the orphanage. Once by the gate, Raine waved goodbye to her peers, since she had strict parents and had a drop-dead curfew. Samantha's parents were more laid back, letting their daughter stay out longer than a good amount of parents. So she went inside with the Head Boy and walked into his room with him. She took something out of her backpack. It was a fuzzy blanket, more on the thicker side. Perfect for when it gets cold and bitter in the winters. "I don't know what will happen to us after we graduate, so I want you to be warm when the world around you freezes. I dear hope you end up somewhere with a fireplace. But if worst comes to worst, you have this," she explained to her lover. Tom smiled, taking the white, grey, and black gift. He put it on his bed then took something off the shelf. It was a picture of the two of them, gazing into each other's eyes. "Our school photographer gave this to me," the brunette informed his blue-eyes comrade. She looked at it for a minute before she put it back for him. "I love it," she told her boyfriend. Their hands grasped one another yet again before their lips locked again. Samantha looked into her lover's brown eyes then spoke her parting words, "I love you, Tom. I'll see you as soon as I can, I promise. Bye." As she walked away, Tom recalled that nobody had ever said that they loved him. Not a soul. And Samantha Lou Dalton was the first.