Dose of Darkness | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Three: The First Morning

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"The world is so different for a child, waking in the mornings, wide-eyed and ready to take it all in."
--Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark

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Eleanor saw the flicker of sunlight peek through the curtains of the Ravenclaw dormitory before her eyes even opened.

There was a short few seconds where she inhaled her first breath of the morning and looked up at the stars disappearing in the ceiling, where she felt like she were still in her dream. The dreams she's had lately were strange. Tom was almost always in them and they were almost always at Hogwarts too.

They would lay in the grass out by the lake. There was a breeze with a slight chill, the sky always looking odd, but no matter what twisted dream world surrounded them she always saw the smile on his face when he looked at her. Their hands were intertwined and everything was at peace.

Then, when she woke, Eleanor could stare out the window and pretend that peace still existed.

Those few seconds were pure bliss.

Percy raised his head from where he lay at the foot of her bed and she rubbed her tired eyes to clear up her vision and the cat began walking to her.

But there was no time to lay in bed and consider everything in her life right now because at this early hour while the rest of the school still sleeps, she had schedules she needed to hand out.

Eleanor changed into her fresh new robes and even curled her hair this morning, knowing that while this year was entirely different, she still smiled and would enjoy the fresh start while it lasted.

Her and Tom met in the Prefect Common room where they divided the schedules into the different houses. The two of them were too tired to speak more than a few words to each other.

"Funny how this time last year you still hated me." Tom said, rubbing his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.

Eleanor picked up the slips of paper neatly tied in a silk ribbon the color of each house and prepared to head out of the room. But she glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow, realizing she wasn't the only one feeling the strangeness of this first day.

"Who said anything changed?" Eleanor teased, turning out of the room.

Each of the stacks of paper flew off in a different direction while Eleanor still held the Ravenclaw's schedules.

Tom would have done the same for his house but she was positive he was taking advantage of the Prefect room and was going back to sleep for a moment. In the blur of school days last year, she would notice him dozing off in the Room of Requirements between classes.

By the time she did hand out the rest of the schedules, the first years were all awake and she had them gather in the common room while the other Prefects helped them.

One thing she's noticed about being a Head Girl was that her only job was to tell the other Prefects what to do, really. It gave her time to cross the entire school to find Emma at the Hufflepuff dormitories, hoping she received her owl last night. She made sure the Hufflepuff prefects had taken her favor seriously when she asked them to keep an eye out on Emma for her.

To her relief though, she found her cousin sitting just outside the vine covered doors of the Hufflepuff common room.

"Good morning." Eleanor greeted Emma who's head perked up instantly from where she sat on the bench.

"Hello." she tiredly replied, yawning as she did.

"I have to say, the Hufflepuff colors suit you." Eleanor said, grabbing her hand to guide her out of the hallway. They were closer to the Great Hall from here.