What if He had a Choice?

44

Now, he was not nervous, persay. Tom was never truly nervous when it came to lessons. he excelled in them at all times, and he always understood the root point. From what he had managed to gather, Dumbledore had truly dumbed the curriculum down quite a bit, which disappointing it may have been, meant that they could not just jerk the standards up too high or else risk failing everyone from 2nd, to 7th years, and that was definitely not something they would do. Though Tom hoped that this McGonagall individual would at least up the difficulty a bit, and according to Draco, he seemed to think she had, which was definitely a plus.

However, he did not know these teachers, and he had only heard of a few, particularly the Potions teacher. From what he could tell, at least, they could not possibly as bad as Dumbledore was in his time, at least he hoped not, but then again he did not really have that much faith in Dumbledore's pickings of teachers. From what he could gather no teachers were replaced, and only a few were hired, which...well he had no idea what that meant. His first day of classes was bound to be nerve wracking, not that he was nervous, but he was-cautious if that made sense. He had no idea what to expect from these teachers, or the students, which meant that he would have to make things work in his own way. He was sure that he would manage it. Draco had vouched for him already, and it was unlikely that the Slytherins, despite being older than Draco, would challenge that claim. At least not publicly, so that was nothing that he had to worry about.

He was still in awe at the control that Draco had managed to gather from the Slytherins. The loyalty. It was not easy, he knew. Abraxas had his own set of issues, particularly when he came around. Still, the Prince of Slytherin was quite a weighty title, if not official one. Everyone respected the Prince of Slytherin, and most knew not to piss them off. He wondered just how much his last name truly had to do with Draco becoming the Prince of Slytherin, but he would wager less than some of the previous Princes, and much less than Abraxas. Though Abraxas also was one whose station had little to do with his last name, which was why he had faced so much contention. Even still, Draco clearly did not have that. The Slytherins were quite loyal to him without having to be told or asked. Tom had even gotten practically threatened by two sixth years who worried for his chastity. Tom almost found it funny.

Tom casually leaned against the wall, staring at the familiar Transfiguration door. He recalled Draco stating that this teacher was one of the new ones that had been hired in Dumbledore's absence. McGonagall had apparently been the Transfiguration teacher before, but as she was now Headmaster, it was not appropriate for her also to be the teacher. Furthermore there was unlikely to be much time for her to continually be teacher, grading, and handling student disputes. Not that Tom honestly thought any of the teachers would truly handle student disputes. Teachers from his time had done little to intervene in such cases, and he doubted that had changed, particularly with Dumbledore running the show. Furthermore, he greatly doubted that McGonagall would be any different, despite the faith that others seemed to put in her. The only thing he could confidently say was that this person was likely to be a better Head of the school than Dumbledore, but that was not exactly difficult. He doubted many could be as bad as Dumbledore was. The man threatened, cursed, and blackmailed students, even in his time. It was bound to get worse the more he got away with it, and the more people did not question his actions. Unfortunately, Tom was one for vegence, and it came back to bite Dumbledore in the nethers.

"The new Slytherin sixth year, I see," Tom opened his eyes balefully as he stared down the Gryffindor Sixth year Prefect. He wanted to roll his eyes, did not, and merely stared the Prefect down. He was not intimidated by this boy, and if he thought he could intimidate Tom, he had quite another thing going for him. Although the attempt was somewhat amusing, Tom was also not in the mood to deal with ego inflated Prefects, though Draco had said that this Gryffindor was not the worst of the ones that he had come across, Tom wished to be quite careful.

"And you are?" Tom questioned, tilting his head slightly and raising a brow. He stopped the other boy with a sharp inhale. "Ah, yes, I remember, I was informed of you by Draco. He said you were the Gryffindor Prefect. Congratulations," Tom said politely, his eyes piercing. He had been a Prefect in his time, and probably Head boy after that, though he could not remember that...being stuck with only his sixteen years of memories before the Dairy. It would seem that the Weasley had not been expecting him to say that, and reeled back, confused and baffled at such a thing. Tom was not intending to get on the bad side of anyone, much less with a teacher walking down the hall.

"I...See...Well..."

"Professor," Tom kicked himself off the wall, ignoring the Prefect's continued attempt to speak to him, and turning to the Professor who by now was standing at the door, preparing to open it. "I must admit I was wondering if perhaps after class we could speak privately. I have some concerns." The Professor turned to him, looking surprised, somewhat concerned, but obviously charmed by his polite nature and words.

"Of course, see me after class, and I shall ensure to draft a late slip as well, so you are not in trouble with your next teacher." The Prefect seemed to flush at how easily he managed to charm the Professor. Tom found it amusing, to some extent.