The Parselmouth
~°Y/N's POV°~
"I'm telling you, he's special."
She stops for a second and looks to Lestrange. He's been rambling on and on about some student who understood her note. "Rye, it's been set in stone that Morfin Gaunt is the last member of his family...and we all know he's not having a child."
"I know, but he understood my broken speaking, 'born to a snake, destined to be an eagle'. That's what you wrote, isn't it?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"There's no way any of us could've understood that! He has to be related to them in some way!"
She sighed and kept walking, ignoring her friend's protests. She wasn't going to listen to Lestrange say a random student no one's ever heard of happened to be the hier of Slytherin.
She kept walking for a few more minutes before his annoyance finally won, "fine!" She turned abruptly and stared at Lestrange, "I will look into it, alright?"
"Really?! You actually believe me?"
"Not a chance, I think you've just about lost it." She moves some of her hair out her face and adjusts her grip on her textbook, "but, if it means you'll shut up and stop annoying me about this, I'll take that chance."
Lestrange nodded his head and smiled, "The student's name is Riddle, by the way."
"You're sharing a dorm with him and you couldn't at least get his first name?" She sighed and turned around, waving the back of her hand to her friend. "I'll see you in class!"
***
She waited for the door to the Transfigurations classroom to open, watching as a bunch of older students walked out. She got into the classroom, and instantly spotted the professor. "Professor Dumbledore."
Dumbledore looked up and her, then at the clock. "Ms. L/N, class doesn't start for another ten minutes."
"I don't have any classes before this and wished to speak with you about something. I hope that isn't too much of an issue?" She set her book down at a random desk before walking back over to him.
"Not at all, ask away." Dumbledore smiled and turned to his board, erasing what was previously on it as it had nothing to do with his class with 1st years.
"Lestrange has been going on and on about a student by the last name Riddle, I was wondering if you knew him?"
Dumbledore stopped what he was working on and turned to face her, "has Mr. Riddle done something wrong already?"
She was caught slightly off guard by how quickly he asked her something like that, but it proved he at least knew who she was talking about. "Lestrange is stating that Riddle understood something I wrote...but I had written it in Parseltongue, which Lestrange himself doesn't understand." She watches as Dumbledore sets down his wand and noticed how stern his expression had grown. "Professor, were you aware that Riddle was a Parselmouth?"
Dumbledore hums and clears his throat, "he did mention that when I visited him...yes."
"You visited him? So that means he's-"
"Apologies, Ms. L/N, but students will be arriving soon." He interrupted, but had the smallest smile visible. "If you have any questions or concerns, I'm sure they could wait until after class."
She nodded and turned are to see, sure enough, students were entering class. Not only that, but it was a class she shared with Slytherin; suddenly the sudden interruption didn't seem so sudden.
She took her seat and set her notebook and quill out infront of her.
***
"We will continue this discussion next time. Class dismissed."
Violet, who decided to sit next to Y/N, let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness, I thought my head was going to explode. How did he expect us to know anything on that paper?!"
Dumbledore started the class by giving them ten minutes to answer as many transfiguration questions as they could; there were 30 questions in total.
Hudson blinked at her "I knew at least half of it." He shrugged and looked down, "what about you, dear Pen?"
That was a random development as well, apparently Hudson loved giving nicknames...she wasn't sure the reason behind it. Hudson declared she was now 'Pen' or 'Cygnet', which were the names of female and baby swans, respectively.
Y/N looked up from her notes and stared at the two, who were both standing up. "I think he gave us too much time to work of it." She put her stuff away and stood up.
"You-" Violet paused for a second, "you thought ten minutes to answer 30 questions was too much time?!"
"They were easy questions...I spent more time reading the questions than actually answering them." She shrugged and noticed the shocked expression on their faces. "If you don't know the answer, no amount of time will help you suddenly solve it."
"I suppose that's true..." Hudson hummed and nudged the two of them. "We still have time before lunch, care to see if we remember our way to the Great Hall?"
Violet nodded but Y/N shook her head, "Apologies, I need to speak with the professor about something. I'll spend whatever time I have left before lunch in the library if you need me." She watched as the two waved goodbye and walked off. Once the classroom was completely empty, she walked up to Dumbledore's desk.
"What was your question again, Ms. L/N?" He didn't look up at her as he graded the tests he had handed out. He marked off each incorrect answer with his quill and wrote the final score at the tope of each paper.
"You said Riddle mentioned speaking to snakes when you visited him..." She looks down at the papers as Dumbledore grades each one, suffice to say none of the papers she looked at were good. "If you visited him, that means he's from the muggle world, right?"
Dumbledore looked up at her and nodded his head before going back to his papers. "Yes, though he seemed insistant that at least one if his parents had magic." He paused for a moment before continuing, "he admitted himself that he's been able to speak with snakes for as long as he can remember."
She nodded, taking every bit of information in. Saying she's surprised to hear this would be an understatement. "I see..." She looked closely at her professor's expression, "there's more about him that's bothering you, isn't there?"
"Apologies, Mr. L/N. But I'm afraid I've already shared more than I should." Dumbledore kept writing in the papers, one bad grade after another. "If you have any questions, I'd say speak with Mr. Riddle yourself."
She nods and bows her head, "thank you for your time, professor." She takes a few steps beack before turning around and making her way towards the door.
"Before you leave." A paper appears right infront of her, "the first perfect score I've seen from a first year in a long while. Well done, dear."
She smiles as the paper disappears and walks out the door. She didn't get very far before she's stopped by a familiar voice, "So? What'd you find out?"
"Jeez- how long have you been standing there?!"
Lestrange shrugged and pushed himself off the wall. "I noticed your friends leave the classroom and saw you weren't with them. Figured you were talking to the professor." He walked alongside her, keeping his focus on her as they walked, "so?"
She bit her inner cheek and frowned, "Professor Dumbledore admitted that Riddle is infact a parselmouth, and that Riddle is aware of this ability." She sees the smug 'I told you so' look on her friend's face and rolls her eyes, "BUT- that doesn't mean he's a descendent of Slytherin. I'm a parsemouth and I know damn well I'm not related to that family in the slightest."
"I suppose...but you said it yourself, Morfin has no children, so how could he have learned it?" He moved the smallest bit of hair out of his face and nudged her, "Not to mention, you know parseltongue because of your animagus. Even then, you still had to practice."
She didn't want to admit, in any kind of way, that he could be right. She remembers her parents telling her of when Morfin Gaunt was in Azkaban with them. All he ever spoke about was his incompetent sister and her infatuation with some muggle that lived nearby.
Sadly, Morfin never gave a description of what the muggle looked like...nor a name or anything else. Once Morfin was released from Azkaban, it was reported that his father was already dead and his sister had completely vanished. That was the last anyone ever heard of the Gaunts afterwards...
"Hey." Lestrange stopped infront of her and forced her out of her train of thought. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, just thinking." She looked up at her friend to see he wasn't believing that answer, "I was wondering if the brief time my parents spent near Morfin could've been of use..." She walked past him and moved at a quicker pace until she reached the library. "Unfortunately, nothing useful comes to mind."
"What are we here for?" Lestrange followed her through the library and sat down at an empty table.
"I'm going to be looking for anything that could connect this Riddle person to Slytherin. And you're going to head to the Great Hall and have lunch with your friends." She stared at the restricted section of the library for a few seconds before looking around the library a little more.
Her eyes landed on a certain brunette that's been all her friend could talk about. She followed his gaze to see he was also staring at the restricted section. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head, "Also, do you think you could convince your father to part with his invisibility cloak?"
"Why in Merlin's name would I do that?" Lestrange furrowed his brows.
"A certain someone is admiring the restricted section." She gesture her head towards Tom, "if I can give him a way to sneak in and out of here more discreetly, he'll eventually begin to trust me."
"And why do you need his trust? Don't tell me you're also entranced by his charm."
"What? No." She looked back at Tom for a second before turning back to Lestrange, "if I get him to trust me, I'll be able to learn what makes him tick. Why on earth would I be interested in someone who could clearly care less about anyone else's feelings?!"
Lestrange shrugs, "Our charms class was more focused on him than the spells and it's only been a day."
She ignored her friend and began analyzing the library, figuring out at a quick glance where everything was, "just- see if you can get that damn cloak, alright? Now shoo, I need to focus."
"Alright, jeez. Forgot you could be such a pain when it comes to planning and research." Lestrange waved to his friend before quickly exited the library.
She took a deep breath and thought to herself before looking at the time, 11:55. Lunch ends, and History of Magic starts, and 1. She had less than an hour to find what she was looking for. "Alright, I say divide and conquer." She took off her robe and rested it on the back of her chair, looking at the bracelet wrapped around her arm. "You focus on the bottom two rows and I'll look at everything else."
With a gentle hiss, the bracelet sprung to life and fell to the floor, quickly slithering through the wall of books. She sighed and took her wand from her robe, using it as a pointer as she made her way to the History of Magic related section to find anything related to the wizarding world and its families.
~°Tom's POV°~
From the moment Tom entered the Great Hall for breakfast, he knew he wormed his way into the inner circle of the purebloods. He was called over by Rosier and introduced to all the rest of the table and the female first years he'd have to deal with as well.
This wasn't surprising, he could tell he earned their respect the moment Lestrange welcomed him last night. He wasn't sure why the latter was so shocked to hear him speak, but he wouldn't complain if it meant he could work his way up the ranks.
What was a little surprising, however, was how quick Lestrange was to leave the table and run after another student. Tom watched as Lestrange walked up to the student; they were too far for him to see their robes, but he knew they weren't Slytherin.
"I see Lestrange is already taking it upon himself to annoying the other houses." Rosier jokes as he looks at his friend talk with the student.
"I feel sorry for them already...then again, if Lestrange is speaking to them they already know what he's like." Avery adds on, taking a small bite of his food.
"That might actually be worse. Means this isn't their first tike suffering." Abraxas nudges Walburga, who's sitting next to him. "Can you figure out who it is? You're the closest."
Walburga hums and looks at them, "most likely a first year based on height. He's blocking most of the other student, can't tell what color their robes are." She looks back as the other, "but, if I were to guess, it's the Ministry's pride and joy."
Everyone makes exclamations of agreement and continue eating, in scilence. Tom looks back at the two as they start to leave the Great Hall. He's able to see the tiniest bit of blue on their robe as they turn away, a Ravenclaw.
***
"I never thought I'd be this happy that class was over." Rosier let out an exhausted sigh as he stepped out of their charms classroom. Only one class in and half of them were already wanting the day to be.
Avery grumbled and adjusted his tie, "I don't think a single person in that class understood the professor in the slightest."
Lestrange shrugged and kept his head up as he walked, "it was fine for me. Then again, that class really was just telling us the basics."
"What about you, Riddle?" Nott looked to Tom, who had been completely quiet since they left the Great Hall. "How'd you feel about the class?"
Tom let out a simple hum and looked back slightly. He wasn't sure how, but he ended up being the one to lead them towards their next classroom. "The professor was fine. The lesson itself was boring. And no one seemed to have actually cared about what was being taught."
Avery scoffed at the comment, "that's cause a lot of them seemed more focused on you."
"He's not wrong, Riddle." Rosier chimed in, "you're unknown to pretty much everyone and were able to answer every question thrown at you without the slightest bit of hesitation."
Tom shrugged, showing complete disinterest in the subject. It was true the students seemed more interested in how he knew so much rather than trying to actually learn, but that wasn't a difficult thing to do. "It wasn't a hard class, everything the professor said seemed like common knowledge."
In reality, Tom spent the entire time between Dumbledore visiting him and the sorting ceremony reading as many of the required texts as he could. He could pretend to have an understanding of the wizarding world in order to hide and discredit his upbringings.
"Hm. Well, let's hope you know your Transfigurations as well." Nott took a few steps ahead of everyone, turning to face them as he walked backwards. "Professor Dumbledore is a hit or miss when it comes to liking his students."
"Dumbledore is the embodiment of a Gryffindor." Lestrange deadpanned at Nott, "he'll have less care for us by default."
Nott rolled his eyes at Lestrange and turned back around. Silence finally fell between them as they made their way to the Transfiguration classroom.
***
"We will continue this discussion next time. Class dismissed."
Avery let out an exhausted groan as he stood up, "ugh, I thought that lesson would never end." He stretched out his back and sighed, "why must we have a double Transfigurations lesson on the first day of classes?"
"The class was fine," rosier readjusted his robes as he stood up before picking up his things. "That stupid paper is what'll ruin me."
"Honestly, did he expect us to know all that?" Nott huffed as he stood up. "He couldn't have at least waited till next week before quizzing us?"
"The quiz wasn't that bad." Lestrange shrugged, less drained than the others seemed. "Sure, I didn't know everything, but he didn't expect us to either."
"It's a starting point so he sees where everyone stands." Tom adds on, already walking towards the hallway. "I doubt anyone did well on it."
Tom and Lestrange walked into the hallway and waited for the others to follow after them. They watched as other students left the classroom.
Tom watched as Lestrange's eyes followed two students that left the classroom, Ravenclaws. "You know them?"
"Hm?" Lestrange looks at Tom, "Oh-" he shakes his head, "not at all. Just realized Ravenclaw is the house he have the class with."
Tom hummed and looked back down, "I see..." he adjusted his robe sleeves before taking a few steps away from Lestrange, "I'll be in the library if you need anything. If not, I'll maybe see you at lunch." He didn't wait for Lestrange to respond before walking off towards where he was told the library was located.
***
The second he entered the Library, he felt it calling to him; the restricted section. He set his stuff down to try and study, couldn't focus. He attempted to explore the library, never strayed too far from its locked doors. Nothing he did seemed to clear his mind of what could he hidden past that stupid lock.
𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦...he flipped through his charms book, searching for anything that could be on use to him for this. Unfortunately, the stupid book isn't the most well organized.
"If you stare at the book anymore intensely, you might burn a hole through it."
Tom lifted his eyes to see the person now standing infront of him and scowled. "Then maybe our professors should choose better books for us to read."
Leastrange hummed but didn't make an attempt to sit down, "might be easier to look through the charms books we have here. Or ask someone else." He shrugged
𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦...Tom looked up at Lestrange and nodded to the seat beside him. 𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭..."do you know the incantation for an unlocking charm?"
Lestrange narrows his eyes and thinks for a second before taking a seat, "Depends on the lock. Something locked with magic has a different charm than something locked without." He leans slightly away from Tom so he can face him properly.
"Care to enlighten me with both? I'm sure it's not too much to ask from a pureblood, such as yourself." Tom glanced over the latter's shoulder at he looked at the restricted section, 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘺.
Lestrange blinked at the comment and cleared his throat, "''alohamora' unlocks doors sealed with magic, 'aberto' unlocks doors sealed with a key." He looked down at the charms book at the table, "they should be in that book. If not, ask one of the older students, they'll probably be able to help more."
Tom nodded. He kept quiet as he looked back at him charms book, he feels as though he scoured every page for those damn charms...could he have simply missed it?
"Thank you...I suppose you're smarter than I expected." He mumbled before blindly flipping though the pages once again.
When Lestrange shows no signs of moving, he looks up only to notice the latter's gaze is focused elsewhere. He doesn't bother questioning it, he simply shrugs and goes back to the pages.
"There's a charm," he says all of a sudden, "one that can make the caster blend into their surroundings. It's taught to fifth year students at some point, but I'm positive a certain blonde prefect of ours already known it."
Tom stops his movements and finally decides to see what Lestrange was looking at. He followed the line of sight to the Restricted Section and paused. Had Lestrange seen him be so focused on it? "And why, exactly, does that matter to me?"
Lestrange takes his eyes away from the locked doors and meets Tom's eyes, a knowing smile forming onto his face. "It seems like the most reliable way to sneak around undetected, don't you think?"