Tom Riddle and the Pure-Blood Prince

Fear and Awe

Eileen Prince was a thin fifteen-year-old witch. Her complexion was pallid, with stringy, jet-black hair framing her long face. Her eyes were a dark brown, with sparks of light in her pupils. One could say they were the only part of her that had a hint of beauty.
There was one particular boy in her own house, Slytherin. It seemed that all the students, and all the teachers liked him, or as for the Gryffindors had respect for him. Eileen liked him too, but she was very private about her feelings. He was a brilliant student, as well as being ideally handsome. Eileen knew she could not measure up to him in terms of looks, yet she could at least be sure of some respect within the wizarding world, since she was part of the regal pureblood family, the Princes. Eileen was also respected within Hogwarts for being quite a diligent, if not bookish student. She particularly had an interest in potions, as well as being captain of the Gobstones Club.
It was the last night before the Christmas break would begin. Most students would leave to go home early tomorrow morning. Eileen was planning on celebrating with her family over the holidays.
She hurriedly swept down to the dungeons after dinner, her bluish-gray witches robes, billowing over her waist. She was hurrying to get her last bit of packing done in her dormitory.
The boy whom most everyone was charmed by was lounging in a black, leather arm-chair by the waterfall in the Slytherin Common Room, which is situated under the Black Lake. In his strong hands, he held what appeared to be a black notebook. His name was enscribed on it in silver gilded writing: 'TM RIDDLE', which stood for Tom Marvolo Riddle.
A couple of the boys turned their heads when they saw Eileen cross the threshold and go down the left tunnel. A lot of them were interested in dating her, despite the fact that she wasn't pretty. The followers of Tom Riddle didn't wish to be ridiculed by Tom for going out with a girl who was anything less than pureblood, and non blood traitor. He had already instilled a great deal of fear, by threatening what he would do if he found any of them were forging close relationships with the lesser wizard-kind. But what was worse than even that, was to to form a relationship with a half-breed or a muggle.
When Eileen, got to her dormitory, she was not pleased with the way the girls in her dorm were acting. They were throwing their own private party, and it was a mess. They even had the nerve to sit on Eileen's bed and eat Hogsmeade candy!
She immediately whipped her wand out and threatened to hex them. They were all un-armed and backed away from the bed.
"Evanesco!" she hissed, and the small pile of candy disappeared. Eileen smiled smugly and said "I wasn't going to hex anyone, but it would be prudent to leave me alone. I'm finishing my essays due after break tonight!"
All the girls, except Eileen left their dormitory and went back to the common room to party. Eileen did not want to go down there, as it was too noisy to finish her schoolwork. She sat on a chair with her night-stand in front of her writing her transfiguration essay for Professor Dumbledore.
Once the clock struck midnight, Eileen was still having a go at her studies, including an extra-credit potions project for Professor Slughorn about the rudimentery principles of alchemy. She was flipping through a book from the library, when the four girls from her dormitory came back in, slightly drunk on butterbeer.
Eileen slammed the book shut, gathered her parchment and went down to the common room to finish. She knew from experience with these girls, that they could not sleep even with one candle burning in the room.
Once outisde her room, she was immersed in total darkness in the twisting tunnel. Eileen lit her wand and proceeded to walk at a swift pace until she arrived back in the common room.
Tom Riddle was there in the back, to what appeared to Eileen to be studying.
She sat down at a fair distance at a desk opposite this boy. For a second, Riddle loooked up to see who it was, and then went back to what he was doing. Eileen was going to be finished in perhaps a little more than an hour.
After about five minutes, once she was toally immersed in her concentration, there was a moaning and a shuffling sound of slippers coming up from the tunnel.
A young girl emerged in a navy-blue bathrobe, and bright red slippers. She had glasses and her brown hair was in curlers. She had a miserable expression on her face, as if somebody had died. But Riddle knew better, because the girl was always like this.
For the first minute, Tom Riddle and Eileen Prince were able to ignore her. But the low, incessant moaning grew louder and louder. Both Eileen and Tom were becoming seriously annoyed by it, and each decided to take action at the same moment.
Tom Riddle sprung up from his chair, in his high-collared black robes to an impressive height of six feet, for his fifteen-year-old body. Eileen slammed her book shut at the same moment. Neither of these actions had any effect on the girl.
Tom Riddle glided over to the girl from behind. She started to let out another yelping wail. Tom put his pale left hand on her shoulder and said quietly, "Mrytle it's Riddle here. You better quiet down unless you want me to hurt you."
The girl named Mrytle, who was in a third year, and thirteen- years-old let out a gasp of breath and said in fearful awe, "Tom?"
"Yes," Tom answered with complete calmness. "Why don't you turn around and look at me?" Although in the form of a question, it was a really a command and Mrytle understood that.
Meanwhile, Eileen just walked closer to the two and cooly observed.
Slowly, Mrytle did as he ordered. She then looked up into Tom's smooth face. Tom gave her a piercing look, searching both of her eyes through the lenses of her glasses. "I see that tonight you're crying because you spilled your potion all over your uniform," Tom reported with a shallow emptiness, because he didn't care at all for why Mrytle was upset. Eileen laughed a low, mirthless chuckle at this statement.
Mrytle nodded, while still hiccuping. Then Tom leaned closer into her, with his right hand in the pocket of his robes. "If you don't leave in about five seconds, I am going to-"
But Mrytle was already running back towards the girls' dormitories, screaming. Tom smirked and then glanced at Eileen.
She glanced at Riddle whose expression returned to it's usual stable calmness. Riddle went back to check something briefly and made a note in his used schoolbook.
Eileen went to her desk to finish her studying. Tom slammed his book shut and went over to Eileen. He looked down at her with a curious expression most evident on his lips.
He said suddenly broke the silence, "That chart is supposed to be encoded into the essence of seven."
Eileen looked down at her magical number chart and said softly, "I see that you're correct....."
Tom took the quill from her hand and started writing in the correct calculations. He was done in less than a minute.
Eileen was a bit taken aback at how quickly Tom Riddle just solved one of the more complex arithmancy problems. But she didn't say anything. Riddle was easily the most brilliant student in the school, and most everybody knew it.
"I appreciate your help," she said in a low voice, as Eileen felt shy having a full conversation with somebody so impressive. It was like chatting with an idealized celebrity.
Riddle did not seem to hear Eileen's note of thanks. Eileen got up, gathering her parchment, books and quills, clearly wanting to go back to her dormitory, as she realized she was too tired to finish her school-work.
Tom watched her carefully, looking into her eyes. He was examining her mind every opportunity he could without her realizing.
"So you're leaving Hogwarts tomorrow morning for Christmas like most of the school?"
Eileen was a bit surprised at his confidence and his lucid understanding of what she was doing. It was like he had read her mind. Then she remembered the obscure branch of magic called Legilimency.
After a short pause she nodded, shivering.
Riddle knew Eileen was reserved and it would take time for her to open up to him. He was eager to see if she really could be some kind of asset for him.
"It is cold in here. We'll sit by the fireplace," he said simply as if it was just a factual statement. In a transient flash he drew forth his wand and aimed it directly at the nearest corner of the Slytherin Common room, where the fireplace provided the shallow warmth of the dungeon setting's atmosphere.
Fire erupted from Riddle's wand and burst forward. Eileen jumped stepping on her robes from the sudden action. She was both frightened and awed by Riddle's power. The air seemed dense from that bit of magic. Eileen was not used to such overwhelming power.
She followed Riddle over to the fire. She thought it best not to disagree, and Eileen was curious why he was showing interest in her when he already had a whole group of friends and admirers.
Eileen and Tom sat right across from each other. Riddle back in his favorite arm-chair, the one that first-years wouldn't dare take knowing how he seemed to own the strategic location. Eileen sat next to Riddle, in the more comfortable, velvet chair.
Yet Eileen really did not feel comfortable, but as she was often confused about her feelings she did not know why. She figured it had to do with needing sleep. But the real reason may have been Riddle displaying such focused determination to converse with her.
Of course they had spoken to each other beforehand since first year. But it had only composed of things like a question about school-work here and there, or a quick greeting in a corridor sometimes.
Riddle looked straight at Eileen, with a depth and intensity, closing in on her brown eyes. His own, dark blue-grey eyes lit up, and he smiled as he asked, "Tell me Eileen...did that little bit of magic just now...excite you?"
Eileen's dark eyebrows furrowed, from his surprising change of the tone of his voice, where before it had been charming, even amicable. This unpredictableness was a bit unsettling.
"N- well yes I suppose," she said ambigously. Yet she herself was confused. She thought she was frightened a moment ago. But now she wasn't sure where to draw the line between fear and awe, and if one even existed.
"How would you like to be so much more...influential than a Hogwart's prefect in Slytherin?"
"What do you mean?" Eileen said this all nervously glancing at Riddle's chest, where his silver prefect badge was gleaming, with red specks reflecting on it from the firelight.
"Well, I'm sure you would like to be noticed more for the talented witch you are." Riddle said this with such smooth conviction, as he already knew what Eileen would most likely want to hear.
Eileen sighed and shrugged her shoulders becoming relaxed, "I do wish that I had some good friends. Maybe I do need a confidant. Normally...I keep everything to myself."
Riddle allowed her to keep talking, as he sensed intuitively that he had broken a barrier into her sensitivities. "You're right, Tom. I wish people respected me for what I can do. And it's strange, as I'm beginning to think you're the only one I could tell this to."
Riddle nodded. He was beginning to feel satisfied with how easy it was to play inside this girl's head. He felt satisfaction as he considered to probe her further. Just another pureblood family to add into my plan, he thought. Or maybe something better.
The next thing Tom said, he spoke as if some kind of amazing awakening was occurring: "Do you know who I am? Do you understand whom you're talking with?"
Eileen inhaled sharply, as the way he said it disturbed her. She thought he sounded almost deranged. "You...Tom Riddle that's all. It is really you?"
Instantly, Riddle's expression changed. He frowned, his eyes bulged, and his cheeks flushed. " Of course it's really me!" he nearly yelled, as he made a sudden movement, moving towards Eileen, who instinctively cowered in her chair.
His voice went back to complete control again, "I am not just Tom Riddle. I've been uncovering the truth about myself since I've arrived at Hogwarts."
"What truth is this?" she dared to ask, as she was perplexedly curious.
"My powers as a sorcerer is unquestionably the greatest ever. " Riddle was speaking as if entranced, and enlightened. He was aware that he did not want to tell her too much, so he finished, "I'm not telling you anymore now."
"I still don't understand."
"You will when I allow you in with my...friends." He said 'friends' quite sardonically. "But understand, that if I let you stay my orders are absolute."
Eileen felt her stomach cave-in and a painful sensation in her rib-cage. But too her, it was almost a pleasant on some level. She liked being captivated by such an intense presence.
"One duty I call for is getting rid of muggle-borns. Those filthy dirt-veined mudbloods. Mrytle has got to be the worst of them." He spoke of Mrytle with absolute disdain, almost as if she wasn't human, but just a creature.
Riddle had not told any of his followers of this plan, but he knew Eileen would never have the courage to accuse Riddle of something serious to the Headmaster.
When Eileen heard Riddle say he wanted to get rid of them, she thought it meant to make them leave the school. Riddle meant to actually kill them.
Riddle had been marveling all along at the fact that she was another pureblood to add into the group. He felt like cherishing her blood, probably because she was the first witch to join him, even bottling it.
Then Riddle subconsciously decided that Eileen was getting too uncomfortable, and he switched his mode of speaking back to being charming rather than intimidating.
Trying to think reasonably and fair-mindedly she gave her opinion on muggle-borns, "Yes Myrtle is quite pathetic. Slytherin is no place for a muggle-born."
"Exactly," Tom answered, smirking again with an air of confident superiority about him. "How will you be celebrating Christmas at your home? I'm sure it's splendid."
"Well... I'll see my cousins and Aunt Sylvina. Of course, there is seeing my parents."
"I don't have a home to go to or anyone to visit." Riddle stated this purely for the tactic of making Eileen begin to feel guilty.
"Yes, I know. I think everybody knows you're an orphan, right? I'm sorry....but what happened to them?"
"My mother was deserted by my father because she was a witch. Then my mother died giving birth to me. I don't see why she had to die, when she was magic....I'm afraid I'm going to be terribly bored for the next two weeks," he lied, as he certainly had something major to do.
Eileen was beginning to feel guilty about going away to have fun, where Tom was so strong, and so bravely alone. She felt admiration for him. Of course, Eileen did not know how he enjoyed being alone. And that Tom even liked to seperate himself from others.
She decided she would stay with him over Christmas to keep him company. It wouldn't bother her. She was certainly intrigued by him. There was something fascinating and mysterious about this boy, that she felt an attraction to, that was becoming irresistible.
Riddle waited to see if he would need to try any harder to get her to change her mind. He knew he could use her for a look-out in his plans, without realizing what she was doing.
Eileen sighed contentedly and said, "I'll send an owl first thing in the morning, to tell them I'm studying for my O.W.L.s."