Save the girl ... Save Tom Riddle

Chapter 7

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

___________

It was a rainy morning. It was the beginning of a new adventure, maybe a new life.

A younger Susan looked at her riflection on one of the windows of the train, that just started to move.

A grey figure with wild dark hairs, an expression full of sorrow and eyes with a glint of thirst of revenge looked back at her.

Her friend Tess suggested to hurry up. They needed to find a place to sit down but it was hard to move into the chaotic crowd and many compartments were already full of older student.

A discussion between other kids of her same age caught her attention.
"Muggle, aren't we? Run away, we don't want muggles here".
Bullies. Susan imagined they would have become all slytherins. As long as they didn't disturb her, it was fine with her.

Tess pushed her into an empty compartment.
For the first time Susan felt positive. She was starting to own her life at last.

When the train stopped it was already dark, but it wasn't raining anymore.
Susan felt her heart beating with a strong emotion, knowing what was waiting for her.

The new students had to separate from the older ones, who went on the carriages that were waiting for them to bring them to the castle.

"What are you staring at, fool? Never seen a tree before?".
Many boys cruelly laughed.

Susan recognized the boy who was bullying on the train. He was a Selwyn, a bloody rich and spoilt pureblood.
She looked at the victim. A tall boy with second hand old clothes, meaning he was poor. If he was also a muggle, worse for him. But she noticed his look, like he was promising to himself that he wasn't going to let himself being bullied for much longer. Good sign.

An ugly short man gathered the first year students and led them to the banks of the large dark lake.

Susan sat on the last small with Tess, behind the bullied boy.
She didn't mean to talk to anyone new, she was introvert by nature. She just felt the need to share something with someone who apparently didn't know much about the magic world. Maybe she was already standing against Selwyn and his new gang.

"I saw them too" she whispered into his ear with a confidential tone "Those winged horses are called Thestral".

The boy turned and she almost jumped for the hardness of his expression that she wasn't expecting.

He didn't say anything. Maybe he was dumb and the bullies were right to take him as a target.

"Are you like those who think that witches are stupid and must keep their mouth shut?" She provoked to break that embarrassing silence.

He lowered his eyes for a moment, then he said "If I remember well, half of the founders of Hogwarts were witches. So I presume that stupid are those who think such a thing".

So he had a voice. And a good one.
She felt satisfied with his answer.
"Others...they can't see them?" He asked like it was just for saying something.
"Only those who saw someone die can see them".

She noticed the question lingers into his eyes and his thin lips. The girl wondered if he had enough courage to ask out.
"Who did you see die?" He carefully said in the end.
She replied emotionless "My parents".

Susan stayed silent while watching her new home growing in front of her.

Wonder caught her when they entered and reached the Great Hall, more magnificent than she ever imagined.

The sorting ceremony was the only bad thing. Luckily it happened just once in a lifetime.
Susan didn't have to suffer the waiting because she was amongst the first ones.

"Black, Susan!".
She hated hearing her name shouted like that and seeing everyone looking at her.

The old hat seemed to already know her destiny and soon screamed "Slytherin!".

The silver and green table welcomed her noisily. But she was just one of the many Blacks already sitting at that table.
Tess was sorted in Ravenclaw and Susan felt lonelier.

Bored, she followed the other selections, guessing most of the results.

Towards the end of the ceremony she heard a brandly new name.
"Riddle, Tom!".
A muggle name.
The only boy she had talked to on that day stepped forward with an expressionless face.

Susan couldn't guess, so she just waited holding her breath and gasped when she heard her own house's name.

The Slytherin table clapped for welcoming him, then had to stand up again when Selwyn was sorted into the same house.

It could have been a nightmare to have the bullies and the victim forced to be together most of the time, but the mysterious boy with a muggle name would have proved to have many outstanding abilities and the roles would have been exchanged.

Susan didn't talk much and didn't share the entusiasm of most of her new housemates.

She felt easier to talk just to her cousin Dorea, who was also the Prefect who led them to the dungeons.

Susan had to share her room with other three girls, but couldn't feel much empathy. They could stand each other just because they couldn't have their own rooms, but they didn't have much in common except the name of their house.

Anyway Susan wasn't happy to be there for bonding with people, but for finally practicing magic.

Most of her time was spent studying, researching into the big library, talking to the professors, who appreciated her strong willing to study more than her classmates could do.

She just tried to keep in touch with her childhood friend Tess, even sitting next to her during their common classes, but the competition between their houses couldn't have been ignored for so long. So, time and distance gradually turned them almost into strangers.

In the meanwhile Susan started to notice Riddle, the only one who seemed to be a real rival to her at lessons and the one who seemed to have her own intentions.

He turned out to be halfblood. And if at the beginning most of the Slytherins blamed it on him for his muggle name, they had to learn to respect him, for he had a great ability to manipulate the teachers, who all admired his brilliance.

Even Selwyn forgot his ambiguous blood status and turned his attention to the kids of the other houses.

Soon everybody forgot that Tom Riddle had muggle origins and praised his talents.

Susan didn't deal much with him. She got used to let him answer at the professors' questions, for getting higher scores for their common house.

At the first lesson of flying he seemed to return the favor she did to him at their arrival at the school, if it could have been put into those terms. She already knew she would have sucked at flying and it was humiliating to fail to call up the broomstick. But he passed behind her and whispered few suggestion that helped her to be soon successful.

It started a mutual collaboration and support, even if from distance, that deleted any rivality between them.