Tormented

**Tom’s POV**

Transfer students were rare, especially ones in upper years, and a seventh year transfer was almost unheard of, thus the whole hall was glued to the girl who walked through the double doors. She moved with a bred in grace seen only in the most strict of pureblood families and held herself in a way that implied she thought little of most of the occupants of the room. Unfortunately, she was also rather striking to look at so her attitude did not deter the attention of her peers. Her black hair swished behind her, brushing against her uniform which seemed to be made of parisian silk instead of the standard english wool. Dumbledore announced “Makaria Grey” with an air of great importance as she sat on the stool and everyone immediately looked at her with, if it were possible, even more interest.

The Greys were an old pureblood family entrenched in political and monetary dealings throughout Europe. Grindelwald had supposedly wiped them out before he even began the war as Christopher Grey, then the prime minister of France, had refused to even have a meeting with him, claiming him to be a man ‘mad for power’. Her presence at Hogwarts was a shock to everyone, and would probably be in the papers tomorrow after everyone wrote home to their families.

I was not shocked when the hat yelled out “Slytherin”, it was where any true member of the Grey family belonged.

As she walked towards our table Melania Crouch scooted away from Walburga Black enough to make room for her on the girls side of the table, putting her directly across from Abraxas Lestrange who was sat next to me on the end of the table.

As the King I sat in the spot closest to the exit of the great hall across from the queen who this year was unfortunately Walburga. The Slytherin table, unlike all of the others, was separated by gender, all of the girls sat on the left, boys on the right. (I very much respect that there are more than two genders but i'm fairly certain that 1940s Hogwarts didn't, sorry guys!!) We were then organized by ranking within the house. This was the only outward allowance of the inner workings of the house, the other houses just assumed it was a pureblood etiquette rule they did not understand. This belief sometimes amused me as I knew that many of the students in other houses had been raised to respect pureblood etiquette leaving me slightly befuddled on how that conjecture persisted.

Clearing the righthand spot for Grey was an acknowledgement of her families standing, it would probably not last the week, as a transfer she would have no idea how to behave to preserve her standing, and no knowledge of the people with which she was interacting.

I focused on her as she sat down neatly and listened to Dippet declare the forbidden forest forbidden, her left fist was clenched in her lap but other than that she showed no outward signs of unease. Surprising for someone in an entirely new setting.

As dinner was served she ate with the most impeccable manners I had ever witnessed, which was impressive as I had sat next to Abraxas at every meal since yule of my first year.

**Persephone’s POV**

“Hello i’m Melania Crouch” the girl on my right said as dinner was served. Noticing she had my attention she continued “to your right is Walburga Black then Tom Riddle is across from her and in order after that is Abraxas Malfoy, Adolphus Lestrange, Benjamin Nott, Edward Mulciber, Evan Rosier, Alexi Avery and back on the girls side is Esmeralda Bulstrode, Tabitha Parkinson, and Aurora Greengrass”. She pointed to each one in turn ending with the slight blonde haired girl sitting to her right.

“Hello, I am looking forward to spending the year in your company” I spoke with practiced ease to the twelve eyes staring at me and pretended that the rest of the table wasn’t also eavesdropping. “Its nice to meet you, where did you attend school before this?” questioned the unsightly girl, Walburga Black I remembered, with a smile that did nothing to hide the disdain in her gaze.

“I was homeschooled before, in France.”

“By whom? I was under the impression you possess a lack of living relatives?” This question endeared me to Walburga even less than her nasty smile, even though I wasn't truly completely lacking in blood relatives.

“Ah yes, unfortunately I am all that is left of my bloodline, but my guardians had tutors hired at the time of my parents death that stayed with me until recently.”

“They decided to send you off to school for only your last year?”

“Unfortunately my main tutor passed away last December, my guardians also believed it would benefit me to sit my NEWTS surrounded by my peers.”

“So you have had no contact with the outside world previously?” Walburga was truly beginning to grate upon my nerves, the story was untrue but I was still offended on my own fake behalf.

“Do you truly think you will actually pass your newts this year? If you need any help please don’t hesitate to approach Bletchley or Lyra my cousin” She gestured down the table to two kids who were probably fourteen at most. She smiled up at me, as I towered over her even though we were both seated, and stabbed a piece of chicken with her fork.

“Miss.Black” I started in a rather frigid tone “do you truly believe that tutors hired for the last living descendant of the Greys would be of lower quality than the professors at Hogwarts, that I would not have been prepared for every conceivable circumstance before I left my estate? I received fourteen O’s when I took my owls at thirteen, which is more than the number of classes offered at Hogwarts, and was fully prepared to take my NEWTS last spring until my tutor passed.” This was actually mostly a true statement, I took and passed fourteen OWLS at Thirteen which is when I began my secondary training, I was not going to take my NEWTS until next spring though as I had been sent on an increasing number of missions as I grew older and that left me little time to keep up with my studies.

I looked up, still a little incensed at her audacity, to see that many of the girls were hiding smiles, and indeed some of the boys were openly chuckling at Walburga’s embarrassment. Apparently frustration with Walburga was common among the Slytherins.

The rest of dinner passed quietly. I traded small talk with Melania who seemed kind and also to be the most outspoken girl in the group aside from Walburga, who was now ignoring me. I was perfectly okay with this. Unfortunately, the whole time I felt intensely scrutinized, not only from those trying to eavesdrop from across the hall, but also specifically from the very tall boy with dark hair and a rather blank expression. Melania had introduced him as Tom Riddle which interested me, as Riddle was not a pureblood name, yet he had managed to ascend to the role of king. I noticed that the others deferred to him almost naturally indicating he had probably been leading the group for many years.

After dinner I was lead to the common room which was a gorgeous blend of dark woods, black leather couches, and plush rugs in green and grey. The whole far wall was made of glass, showing the bottom of what I assumed was a large lake on the property, which lit the whole room up in a rather eery green glow. Tom and Walburga peeled off from the group as soon as we entered to sit in two black leather wingbacked chairs that framed a fireplace, with an portrait of who I assumed was Salazar Slytherin above. The whole seating arrangement was set in a slight alcove in the center of the wall, that faced the main entrance to the common room but also provided a good view of the entrance to the dorms . It was a beautifully strategic sitting arrangement for the King and Queen.

I had worked out how the seating at dinner must correlate to the inner workings of the house politics after observing both those sitting around me and those at other tables. I knew that becoming queen would provide me the leverage I needed in order to complete my fathers assignment, so I mentally gave myself three days to become comfortable before completing the task.

Around ten pm that night the girls left the common room and headed for our dorm. Walburga did not come with us and when I asked after her I was informed by Aurora Greengrass, who had taken to explaining the workings of Slytherin politics to me in the common room, that the Queen had a private dorm room though she still shared the seventh year girls bathroom. This cemented my decision to become Queen, guaranteed privacy would be absolutely invaluable to me.

Our dorm room was very spacious though and I figured that even if I was not going to be queen I still could have made it work as all of the girls had enough space between and within their own areas that the room was almost the size of our common room. Each girl had a desk area, a wardrobe next to a changing screen, a four poster bed, and a settee in front of a window that looked into the lake.

I was rather tired from traveling, and I still needed to complete the planning of my next few steps, so I retired early with my notebook and pulled the hangings around my bed closed.