deceived | tom marvolo riddle

V | potions

But I decided to be his little pawn and play along in his game. That was what was expected of me.

--

I hustled down the corridors that were, unlike yester-noon, quite packed with students and professors. Mistakingly, I had slept in so much that I had missed breakfast and was now forced to have to go straight to potions if I had wanted to make a good first academic impression, if I had any chance to at all.

A hint of anger boiled inside me, why had no one waken me up? I didn't know and honestly didn't care much to. I supposed it wasn't a thing they cared to do, or perhaps they just didn't like me already. Girls often feel intimidated like that. It wasn't too bad, and in my favor, because the potions room was located in the dungeons anyways.

As I entered the classroom, I immediately recognized the aroma. The familiar busted down wood tables, borrowed and stained brewing pots, incredibly nasty looking and smelling ingredients and the putrid stench of potions gone wrong, all mixed together and oddly easing my nerves. It was a good thing that I was quite good with potions as well. I suppose it was no secret the old potions master, Professor Snape, was more fond of his own house but he had also taken a liking of me. My friends had always teased me for it.

At almost the exact moment of my entrance, I was greeted with a loud and happy voice, very different than Snape's monotone one, causing me to jump.

It was a round bellied man with a large smile to match, light brown hair and eyes and plenty of check prints covered his robes. His eyes themselves looked rather popped out and I noticed that he was rarely blinking. In my time, we had only been through a few potions masters so far and I recognized it to be the same new potions professor as then; Professor Slughorn, though now he looked much younger.

"Welcome to Hogwarts! I'm Professor Slughorn of potions as you can tell," He gave a chuckle, rubbing his potbelly slightly, "I was informed by Headmaster Dippet himself about your transferring," He shook my hand roughly, his eyes glimmering with admiration, "You must be someone quite special. You see, we don't accept transfers just every day, no."

"Thank you.. sir, I appreciate that but-"

"Did you learn anything about potions advanced from Ilvermorny? Because it would be perfectly alright if you have to start at the very basics even, matter of fact, you should sit next to Mr. Riddle. Always sitting alone, poor boy. He's my best student for potions and he'll help you understand it all in no time, no time at all," He rambled, handing me an extra 'Advanced Potions Textbook'.

I gave a small smile to show that I was listening along, but I wasn't completely sure for myself that I was. I hadn't remembered him talking so much before, must have been his youth speaking (literally).

Before I could open my mouth to even respond, Professor Slughorn guided me in the direction of Tom, who had kept his eyes on his instructions, seemingly attempting to ignore us.

"Run along now and start your potions everyone!"

I sat down on the stool awkwardly, placing my very used, very borrowed copy of Advanced Potions and turned to page 394, the number I saw written on the blackboard. As all the other students started working away on their potions together, I peeked up at Tom, whose dark wavy hair was slightly out of place due to the steam coming from our shared pot.

He matched my staring, my evergreen eyes with a dark blue pair of his own. I noticed, as before, that they were like the lake; pulling you in deeper and deeper the longer you stared and making me eventually have to look away first before I felt like I would drown in them.

"Do you know anything about brewing potions?" His tone was soft and gentle but a bit quick, he seemed very confident. It confused me plenty as it was quite different from the soft and patient voice from yesterday.