Inside My Mind (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter V

Hogwarts, Unplottable Location, Scotland, Great Britain

Friday the 13th of September 1991

8:15 PM

"Such an unlucky day!" Bella sighed in good mirth as she sat down. Ron looked slightly confused before he turned back to the food that had instantly appeared in front of his face. Hermione watched her friend in amusement as Ron stuffed his face.

"I didn't take you to believe in superstitions, Bella. Especially a Muggle superstition," Hermione laughed. Bella snorted and crossed her arms in annoyance and shrugged, slowly.

"Well, it is. Uncle Sirius told me all about them. The one I found most ridiculous is the black cat ones. Black cats make excellent familiars," Bella commented. Ron looked up suddenly and glanced at the clock. A hiss rang out, silencing the Great Hall.

"Speaker-child…speaker-child…where are you?" a hiss rang out, close to the ground. Hermione's eyes widened and she looked up, quickly.

"Your detention…you forgot," Hermione whispered. Bella shot up just as the massive snake wrapped around her leg. It made her legs heavy as the snake climbed up her. Screams erupted from all around and Dumbledore stood up.

"Miss Potter, what is happening?" Dumbledore asked, though his voice showed no alarm. He looked calm. And sad, noted Bella. He always looked sad, as if he were mourning but Bella made no comment about it. No one else seemed to notice.

Half the time he wasn't there in the Great Hall and no one knew why. Even the professors didn't seem to know as they always glanced, worriedly, towards his chair in his absence. Bella cleared her throat as she cleared her head and stroked Nagini's head, slowly.

"She's fetching me for my detention. I forgot and her master sent her after me," Bella said, carefully. Nagini settled herself fully on her shoulders wrapped her excess body around Bella's waist. It didn't hinder Bella's walk and she walked, carefully though her knees shook under Nagini's heavy weight.

"Speaker-child, you must go down to the dungeons and find the picture of the greatest of the Hogwarts Four. Your magical ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. You must ask it to open. Go down that hallway and make a left and Tom will be there," Nagini instructed, calmly and she didn't seem to notice the immense distress she had just caused.

Bella nodded once in understanding and began to make her way down into the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle. She walked down the cold stone corridors, twisting and turning until she came to a picture that was unfamiliar yet familiar to her.

The man in the picture had silver hair and had the same charcoal eyes as Riddle. But his eyes weren't flecked with the familiar crimson, though this wasn't strange. Bella had never met anyone quite like Tom Riddle and she doubted that there'd be many with the same crimson-flecked eyes. The man in the portrait sneered down at her, haughty.

"What are you doing down here, little girl?" he sneered, arrogance imprinted in every painted line of his face. He noticed Nagini wrapped around her and his eyes widened. His sneer didn't let up, however. He seemed to be a master at giving one. He looked like a down right bastard pureblood, Bella noted.

"Open," hissed Bella. The man looked at her in surprise, finally losing his Merlin awful sneer and looked at her with open curiosity. His hunger for knowledge wasn't so much hunger in her eyes. He had an ambition to know all things, she could see.