The Art of New Beginnings

Chapter One: Normal Is Boring

Erica Riddle was determined that she would be normal this year. She was starting her third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in September, putting behind her terrible first two years, both of which had ended with her in the hospital wing, though her second-year turned out invariably worse when she was transferred to St Mungos and almost died. She had put all of that behind her though, and now she was moving forward into a safe, normal year, starting with that summer.

She didn't practice magic even though the Riddle house was so heavily entrenched in protective barriers and spells that the trace had no way of finding her, she didn't mix potions and the only contact she had with her school books was enough to do her homework, which was all finished by the first week of the summer holidays, including the dredging History of Magic essay, 'Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless- discuss.' The furthest she allowed herself to come close to any sort of magical book was the book of all the pranks the Weasley twins had ever come up with and could ever hope to come up with that Fred had given to her for Christmas, and she rather liked his added notes on what had happened when they'd actually used some of the pranks.

She went grocery shopping with her mother every week on a Saturday morning and she sat in on court whenever her mother was called in with a client and she took regular walks around the neighbourhood with Mrs Hannigan's dog because she was getting too old to walk him herself. She wrote regularly to her friends and went for dinner at the Malfoy Manor at least twice a week and even went to visit Harry at his Godfather's house in Grimmauld Place once, though that ended terribly because Sirius Black was Very Suspicious (yes, the capitals were necessary) of her and despite how his partner, Remus Lupin, tried to appease him he ended up kicking her out after she punched Harry in the arm.

It was affectionate really, and he deserved it, but it wasn't taken very well. She didn't take it too hard after Harry told her that he thought the Malfoys were the spawn of the devil (he took an interest in Muggles to annoy his mother, including many of their phrases) and had an ongoing feud with Severus though, so all was fair between them.

So far, her summer had been entirely normal and she hadn't meddled in anything. She hadn't even joined in with the Weasleys teasing Percy when it came out that he was dating Penelope Clearwater (apparently the thing with the Slytherin prefect Gemma Farley didn't end too well) and she was doing a careful job of being just on friendly terms with both Adrian and Fred, not wanting to encourage either of them (which, apparently, Pansy said she had been doing, and that she had been doing it a lot).

She made Pan, her ouroboros, go out and hunt more now that he was growing larger so that he didn't get lazy, and she tried not to talk to him so much because Parseltongue was really putting a strain on her vocal cords. She went for weekly check-ups at St Mungos to make sure that her magic wasn't leaking out and that everything was okay concerning her vitals, and she cooked breakfast for her mother and Severus every morning.

She didn't, not once, even think about researching what a Horcrux was, or asking anybody what it meant, or how one was made. She put the very thought to the back of her mind, and the mangled remains of the pendant her father had left for her at the bottom of her trunk in a small box along with the remains of the diary (Harry had given it to her upon her request) and the diadem. She kept the box locked and refused to think about what it all might mean, or how her father would react if he found out that two of the items he'd bid her find were destroyed beyond repair.

In short, Erica Riddle was bored out of her mind. She honestly thought she could do it, this whole normal shtick with no meddling and no getting involved with things that didn't concern her, and if she was being honest with herself she was doing a really good job, but it couldn't last.