Death's Daughter || Tom Riddle

New student | 23

Her last encounter with Riddle wasn't how she thought it would go. She expected plotting and devising but instead, it was just peace. For the first time since meeting Riddle, his company wasn't a bother to her. But ever since last night, she hasn't seen Riddle anywhere. It was like the plague. Why would he be avoiding her when she hasn't done anything wrong yet? The idea shouldn't bother her but she couldn't help but wonder.

The next few weeks later were quite wet and windy. Abigail would frequently drag her to the quidditch pitch to watch the Slytherins practice for the upcoming match, which was in a week. Most of the time they sat there up in the stands, a sudden downpour of rain would rain on them. Forcing her to either cast a rain-repellent charm over their heads or if the conditions were extremely terrible, they were forced to retreat to the safety of the shelter.

Fortunately for today, the weather wasn't too bad. Although it had a dull sky hanging over their heads, it was better than droplets of water falling onto their faces.

Abigail leaned forward from her seat excitedly, watching the chasers score points flawlessly, the beaters beating away the bludgers away from their teammates, the keeper on the other side of the pitch, opposite of the goal where the chasers were scoring, was blocking charmed quaffles continually, and for the seeker, Flint. Evergreen's boyfriend and captain of the Slytherin quidditch team were searching the ground and air to spot the golden speck of the snitch. After a while of watching the team continue their practice, Nyx watched as Flint finally spotted the snitch and dived down to catch it. Once the snitch was caught, he released it, and before letting the snitch fly away too far, his hands enclosed over the golden ball. He repeatedly did this whilst looking over to the stands. Nyx followed his eyes and landed on Evergreen. The girl's face was pink from the wind and perhaps from blushing.

Show off.

After she had enough of the lovebirds, she excused herself and walked off back to the castle, Abigail nodding her head obliviously.

While walking through the halls, it felt much warmer here than outside. She walked aimlessly, with no destination in her head, her feet leading her, she found herself below the trapdoor leading her to Divination class. Just when she was about to walk back down the steps, she heard the clatter of a ladder hitting the ground. Students who were learning Divination earlier were climbing down, including Caelum. At first, the boy hadn't noticed her so he let his head down and walked onward, towards the spiral stairs. It was when she shouted his name then, did he turned to look at her.

"Nyx! You're not the type to wait for a friend to finish their class. What's up?" He said once he reached over to her.

"Just walked around the castle with no destination in mind. How was class?"

"Dull, actually. We had to look into teacups. Can you believe it? The professor said, inside my cup, it told the tale that in the future, I'd die a painful and horrible death." Nyx laughed at the prediction and quickly dropped her smile once Caelum turned his head away to look down at the stairs they were going down. She doubted the prediction to be true, but a part of her did not doubt the professor's abilities, which made her quite uneasy.

The pair made their way down until they reached the bottom of the steps. Here, they went to have lunch. They didn't share many words with the other and soon, Nyx parted ways with Caelum. She made her way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest whilst Caelum made his way to who-knows-where since it was his free period.

As usual, Leo Skyler was the first student to arrive. He was sitting on the same rock but reading a different book every time she saw him. His dark blonde hair slicked back to keep his hair out of the way, yet a few strands of his hair managed to fall over his face.

Professor Kettleburn stalked out of nowhere to teach his class, one student missing, nevertheless, he taught the remaining students about bowtruckles. When Professor Kettleburn finished teaching about bowtruckles and was about to show them a real-life-sized one, a brown-haired Gryffindor came rushing towards the small group. "I'm really, really sorry professor. I overslept and just woke up." Hunter said in a rushed tone. The professor only shook it off and continued on with the lesson. He told the class to behave and walked away to get the Bowtruckles. "Late again?" She inquired. Hunter nodded with a smile on his face. "Like you said, I haven't been getting enough sleep, so I used my free period as a nap time." With that, he yawned.

Professor Kettleburn returned with a small, green creature in one of his palms. The Bowtruckles resembled a small plant, with arm-like branches, and two leaves sticking out of its tiny head.

For today's class, professor Kettleburn assigned the students to sketch the Bowtruckle and give the homework next class. So for the rest of the class, the three students laid on their stomachs and each of them tried getting the Bowtruckle's attention so it would face towards them. The most effective trick was giving it wood lice. The creature would consume it immediately which gave them quite little time to sketch its details, making them repeatedly having to feed it. Because of this, the small creature became full which finally made it lose interest in them.

It was a frustrating assignment, not like the other assignments the other professors gave her, but she kind of liked challenges. She consistently tried new ways to grab the Bowtruckle's attention, Skyler's brows were furrowed in annoyance, and Hunter was now sketching the Bowtruckle in his own imagination.

Soon, class ended. Her Bowtruckle sketch wasn't much, but she could work with it. Hunter's kind of resembled a Bowtruckle but looked more like a dancing twig. For Skyler, she hadn't taken a look at his drawing in time because he got up quickly from his spot and walked back to the castle. Hunter and her helped return the Bowtruckle back to the professor and they soon left the outdoors. They later parted ways once they came inside. Nyx headed for the Slytherin common room, expecting her friend to be there, whilst Caelum left for the Gryffindor's tower.

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For dinner, Nyx had a nice meal. Although all she ate was roasted turkey and pastries, she was quite full. Caelum was still shoving down his main course, whilst she was washing her meal down with pumpkin juice. Abigail, who was sitting beside her, was looking nervous. Her eyes searched around the castle as if looking for something, or someone. Nyx didn't have to ponder on the thought for long, because the next moment she knew, the headmaster got up from his seat and asked for the students' attention.

Headmaster Dippet rose up from his chair and gave a bright smile to the confused students. "Today, there will be a new addition to the school. I hope you will all welcome her warmly." With this, whispers broke out. Nyx turned to Caelum, but the boy only shook his head, he too, was puzzled. The headmaster continued, "It is quite rare for a student to start school late but due to the circumstances she is in, it is necessary for her transfer." Students were now lifting themselves up to try and spot the new girl.

"She'll be starting her sixth year-"

"How convenient," Caelum whispered.

"-Miss Eve Mirage."

The Great Hall's doors opened wide and out came the girl named Mirage. She walked like she owned the place, her posture was straight, her shoulders back, and a smirk on her face. "With that attitude, I bet she's in Slytherin," Caelum remarked. Nyx nodded her head in agreement. When she turned to Abigail to see her reaction to the new girl, she seemed more worried than surprised, as if she already knew Mirage.

Mirage walked up towards where the headmaster stood and sat down on a stool Dippet conjured earlier. The headmaster then placed an old and battered hat upon her head- the sorting hat. Just as the hat was placed on her head, the hat shouted 'Slytherin!' The school applauded but Slytherin clapped the loudest. A proud smirk etched upon Mirage's face and as Nyx followed the girl's line of sight, she saw it to be on the figure of Abigail. Perhaps the two do know each other.

Eve Mirage took her time to walk over to them, and when she did reach them, she squeezed in between her and Abigail, wrapping an arm over Abigail's shoulder. "Long time no see." Mirage greeted Abigail, she smiled brightly at the intimidated girl who was looking anywhere but Mirage's face.

All Nyx could say was she did not trust Eve Mirage one bit.