Tom Riddle Jr. and the Chamber of Secrets

Slughorn's Letter

13 June 1941

The sun rose and shone brightly on the rusty orphanage gates. Tom was already awake. It was another lonely, dragging day of his holiday at the orphanage. He had crossed the past twelve days on his muggle calendar to calculate the number of days for his holiday to end and when finally, he could return to Hogwarts. Hogwarts was his real home. It was the only place where being a wizard or being abnormal, as the muggle children at the orphanage said, didn't mean you would be treated like a pariah.

As he held his quill in one hand and a roll of parchment in the other ; holiday work was his only connect to the wizarding world while he was at the orphanage ; his mind dwelt on his deceased parents. The thought about his parents came frequently in his mind when he was here. His mother Merope Gaunt was a pure blood witch while his father Tom Riddle Sr. was a muggle. He was named after his father and wizard grandfather. He got to know about his parents only after he came to Hogwarts from their Transfiguration professor Albus Dumbledore. Tom liked Dumbledore although he did seem very watchful and strict from his half-moon spectacles to Tom. Tom's favourite professor was Horace Slughorn. He taught Potions at Hogwarts. Tom was professor Slughorn's pet student and was a member of the Slug Club.

Somebody knocked his room door. It was the matron.

"You have letters Tom.", she said in an annoyed tone.

"Yes", said Tom.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Er...thank you", said Tom immediately.

The door was closed with a thud.

He had received two letters. One had the Hogwarts seal and the other had a small package with it. Tom opened the letter with the package first. It said,

Dear Tom,

I thought a lot about this. I was going to send it to you last summer but I hadn't made my mind then. And yeah, I have said this a lot of time, Congratulations for getting Outstanding in my subject. You have done really well in your O.W.L.s. You will turn sixteen this year. It's better to hand you over this lovely artefact. It has everything you want to know. Hope you like it.

Yours,

Professor Slughorn

Tom then opened the package. It was a moving picture of his mother. She was smiling at him. The photo frame alternated between emerald green and silver. Behind the picture there was an engraved snake on the frame. The symbol of Slytherin house glowed in the sunlight from Tom's window. He touched the snake. The snake slithered aside and out came a flying tapestry. It occupied half of his room. He spotted a few names on the tapestry and realised it was his family tree. Before he could look at his lineage, he heard footsteps near his door. He touched the snake again and the picture frame lay on his bed just as it was before. He hid everything under his pillow.

A group of rotund boys banged on his door. They kept banging. Tom was not going to open the door. The boys severed the door from its hinges and stormed in his room. Bullies, filthy muggles, the worst lot, thought Tom. The oldest of the boys Dick was of his age. He spared no opportunity to harass Tom. He could scare away the other children at the orphanage with his magical abilities ; before going to Hogwarts, now he couldn't do that because using magic outside school was prohibited ; but didn't have the courage to fight back Dick.

"Little Tommy has got letters." , teased Dick.

The other boys chuckled.

"Who sent you letters ? Your crackpot mother or your blister of a father. Our parents were good people. What about yours ? Ha...ha...ha...ha..."

Tom wasn't going to stand this. He brandished his wand and pointed it in their direction.

"Leave me alone ! Leave me alone or you won't be able to laugh again."

He then hissed. He muttered something in a different language. Whatever he did it had effect on the boys, they sped off downstairs without uttering a word.

Tom was a Parselmouth. He could talk to snakes. He knew there weren't any snakes around, but that was the only way to drive the boys away without using magic. His ability to talk to snakes, his sorting in Slytherin and the Slytherin symbol did tell something but he was never able to put the dots together. He knew that all the answers lied in the photo frame. That's what professor Slughorn meant by it has everything you want to know, he was helping him to find answers.

It wasn't prudent to open the frame here. He needed to wait till September. He would get some time alone in his dorm room at nights. It would also be a good idea to open it in Slughorn's office in his presence.

Tom cast away all thoughts of the package and opened the Hogwarts letter. It provided a list of new schoolbooks for his sixth year and other stuff. He would have to make a trip to Diagon Alley soon.