Pick Your Poison | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Three: Face It Head On

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"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?"
-T.S. Elliot

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Friday September 5, 1943

The library was filled to the brim with students who already had reasons to be there. It was silent and no one could tell there were many students though.
Eleanor sat at a table between the isles, the setting sun peaking through them as she rested in the first bit of solitude she's had all week.

She noticed how majority of the students sitting here were sixth years, including Marcella. They seemed to be the ones carrying to the most books and bearing the most weight of homework this year.

After this week, Eleanor had a paper for her Care of Magical Creatures class, textbook work from both her potions and charms, and she needed to study an entire book from her Defense Against the Dark Arts class by Monday.

But she could manage this just fine and she also knew that this was light work compared to what her siblings always complained about. It would only get worse.

"Psst." Marcella hissed. Eleanor raised her head from her book on Magical Creatures. "Can you do these? I just need a little help." Her friend asked, sliding the paper of advanced arithmancy problems across the table.

"Fine but you're going to give me some facts on the Niffler. After all, your Uncle owned one and even wrote this book." Eleanor replied, sliding over her notebook and the textbook.

"I'm surprised at myself for not stealing one of those cute little buggers for myself." her friend grinned.

Picking up the quill, Eleanor began to work on the problems herself and for a good half hour thought of nothing but Arithmancy.

Eleanor favored these type of distractions. When she was doing math or potions or charms she was focused on the right way to put the puzzle pieces together. When she was reading she was focused nothing but the world the pages brought her in.
Back at home, her library was her second room and since a child she would take her father's chair, reading in it almost every day no matter how big she got. Perhaps maybe she had an issue with dissociation.

Eleanor was particularly interested in the Muggles medical books which she studied intently over the breaks. Evelyn, her sister, actually had a friend who was a doctor in their world. It came to the point where her father bought her, her own collection though.

"And done." Eleanor said, putting the quill down and sliding the paper across the wooden table to where she realized her paper had nothing written on it.

Eleanor frowned at Marcella who had her nose in the book that she kept reading without writing anything down and sighed.

"Wasn't that book read to you like a bed time story?" she asked quite irritable, finally grabbing her friends attention.

"Oh, sorry, Ellie. I promise I'll help you this weekend. You won't even need a book." Marcella said, smiling widely so her cheekbones became more prominent.

Eleanor nodded and smiled, unable to be annoyed with her friend for long.

When she turned her head back down to the book to write on her own, Marcella asked,"So how was your week? With Tom Riddle being in your classes? You know, no one's shut up about you smacking the lights out of Malfoy."

Eleanor chuckled, recalling the satisfying blow to the pale boy, his face becoming darker than she's ever seen it with her red hand print.

"I'm glad the others are aware. But Riddle, well, it's been the same as usual. I'm not going to lie, Slughorn gave us a pop quiz and for the first time in my life I had to peek at his paper." Eleanor admitted, now hoping that Tom hadn't noticed