Chapter 2
Tom raised his eyebrow, he found this quite suspicious. Merrythought just got attacked and out of nowhere this recommendation letter about Professor Eccleshall appeared so conveniently. He thought of the genealogy books he has been reading, wasn't Eccleshall a very faded wizarding family? Pureblood, yes. But just so obscure and away from the wizarding spotlight that nobody knew much about them, even on the oldest genealogy books he consulted, the name was just skimmed over . He has a good memory and always remembered details others didn't bother to pay attention to, wasn't it mentioned just very recently in a small daily prophet column among the casualties that Eccleshall Edward was found dead in his house? Isn't this much too convenient? He looked at Dumbledore, he seemed disapproving of the new hire, that got a chuckle out Tom. This promised to be good.
The door opened and amid the applause came out a woman and Tom knew right there that there definitely was something suspicious. Walburga looked with hawkish slit eyes at the doors, Cygnus failed to hide his features from morphing into shock and Alphard even managed to look away from his pie. Even the new first year Orion was looking on with bewildered confusion. Why? The woman looked the stereotypical Black, even maybe more than Walburga. The blacks were numerous, often having many children and intermarrying in various wizarding families, however such trademark features are very rare to appear. Tom would be ready to bet that if this woman went to Gringotts right now and dropped a bit of blood, she would be able to claim her share of the family's fortune. Tom scrutinized her some more, besides her curious features, her face was gaunt and she seemed to be in her 40s, her features had vestiges of great beauty but were hardened . Tom got the impression that she is trying very hard to act normal and hide her madness. He knew that the Blacks sometimes had the tendency to slip mentally, however Tom had the curious impression that this woman was as far from the teaching atmosphere as one could possibly be, the environment itself didn't seem to suit her, like it's an aberrance. She looked like she did her damnest to even try to walk and behave normally, like in her mind a teacher would . Tom didn't know why he felt that way but he finally knew why Dumbledore looked grave and disapproval doning his face, in fact Tom was amazed again at how useless and credulous Dippet seemed to be yet again for not seeing it, just one look and this woman was clearly suspicious, in fact he would venture to say deranged. Tom watched her carefully as she sat in her seat at the teachers' table before saying "Thank you Headmaster, I am also very....honored to join the teaching staff at Hogwarts" She probably attempted a kind voice, Tom mused but it only managed to come out as a weirdly sharp high pitched exaggeratingly girly screechy voice. Dippet, the ever oblivious fool started clapping before sitting down and attacking the rest of his meal with renewed vigor. Tom didn't know what this woman has to hide or if she had any relationships with Grindelwald and was a spy but if she was , then she was doing a very poor job at it. This type of personality was not suitable for spy work at all. Fighting and torture seemed more suitable to her.
"Doesn't this Professor Ecclesheell seem suspicious to you? Walburga, she looks even more of a Black than you do" Rosier asked bewilderly.
"Shut your mouth, Rosier" Walburga screeched. She was always so proud of her family name, to have something said about it probably drove her insane. Tom looked on with amusement in his eyes. He never really liked Walburga, she previously attempted to coerce him to do her potions homework, thinking that she can order him around, that it was an immense favour she even looked at him. He easily taught her how much of a bad mistake that was. Too bad he couldn't go overboard either against her or Malfoy, their family held a lot of power afterall and he was not pressed to discover the consequences if he pressed them.
"This is curious indeed. Our family is indeed intermarried with many families but it is rare for such features to appear in someone distantly related. Rare but not impossible" Cygnus interjected before continuing. "Though never really heard of a relationship with Eccleshell?" "What can I say? Your family keeps outbreeding themselves each and everytime" Abraxas snorted
"You better watch your tone when you speak to your superiors, Abraxas. You could only dream of getting a Black woman" Walburga interjected, all that managed to get from Abraxas was a mocking scoff "Walburga, you seem to be talking about yourself? Not many seem to be dreaming of you as you seem so desperate to want to marry your cousin"This led to a battle of words each more vicious than the other. Tom looked with boredom, both the Blacks and Malfoys seemed to think themselves to be royals, each more eager to outdo the other.
"Well, at least the quality of teachers didn't slide some more. She seems to be pureblood if her last name is Eckleshell and she looks like Black, maybe that means her mother had some Black ancestors?" Nott interjected."That's most likely it. Her sudden appearence does look suspicious though" Rudy Lestrange intervened "Rosier, your aunt works for Grindelwald, doesn't she? Is she maybe a spy?"Just as Rosier was about to speak, Druella, his sister just joined the table and sat besides Cygnus who immediately got his hand on her waist. Cygnus and Druella have an arranged marriage prepared for them but they were very much in love with each other. "Ugh, Druella, Black, can't you leave your romantic endeavors to your private chambers?" Rosier looked scandalized. "Oh, come off it! Why were you talking about Aunt Vinda?" Druella asked curiously. Cygnus filled her in while Rosier answered the previous question."I do not know, Aunt Vinda never said anything about a spy coming to Hogwarts and I doubt she is really related to Grindelwald. She doesn't seem to be the type...Dumbledore would trust, so what is the goal then really? What do you think, Tom? By the way, congratulations on making prefect." Many heads on the table turned to look at him waiting for his answer. Tom enjoyed taking his time and letting others hung up on the words on his lips. "Thank you, Elvyn. I have no idea, frankly. We should not be speculating about teachers. I am sure professor Eccleshell is going to be a wonderful addition this year. We shall wait and see." He said after closing his book. He was not going to say anything about Eccleshell really. Even if he had any opinion on her, good or bad, he was not foolish enough to share it with her looking like that. He didn't know what would come out of her ancestry and whatever story she had behind her, so best wait and see.
The dinner came to an end and Tom still had to perform his prefect duties and do the night tour before going to bed. He was finally walking back to the dungeons when he stopped in his tracks, before him was the new Professor the the dark arts, she was standing there looking at him with a strange focused look in her eyes and absolutely not talking, He felt that something about this was not coincidental but he banished the thought quickly and decided to start speaking.
"Hello, Professor. I am Tom Riddle, Slytherin Prefect this year. Can I help you with something?" He asked her while keeping a perfect expression on his face and doing his best to appear helpful. However, unlike what he expected, the reaction he received left him very puzzled. She didn't answer him, didn't acknowledge him and simply kept looking at him as if in a trance. Tom was starting to think that of this was a bit too bizarre, he searched her face quizzically, she was looking at him with many emotions on her eyes. Tom felt more and more that something was very wrong here. "Professor?" He insisted and that seemed to snap her out of her reverie.
"My L....Tom...Tom Riddle, you said? I heard a lot about you from the other teachers. I guess I can only expect the best of the best from you, isn't it? uh..My boy?" Tom felt glad that she already seemed to have a good opinion of him, if only he didn't feel very suspicious at the words she was saying. She was speaking again as if she was attempting very hard to fit into a persona. Specially when she said "my boy", it was like it was foreign word she pronounced for the first time. It was getting much too weird for him and he decided to try his luck with Legilimency. He knew that people skilled with occlumency are able to spot such attacks but he was willing to take such risk and he had confidence in his skills. He looked at her in the eyes but he met with a very solid wall, she sensed it. This was not good. He was prepared to say something to salvage the situation but was stopped by the nostalgic smile on her lips. Did she not feel his probing? Fat chance. However, before he could speak, she put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.
"Mr ...Riddle, I do not expect anything less of you. Very impressive skills" Tom was incredulous, he couldn't believe it. Even if a teacher was impressed by a student's legelimency skills, nobody would tolerate such an outright attempt , specially not by a student. Not the very least because they would have concluded that such attempts were probably practiced on fellow students. Tom at this moment knew very well that this teacher seemed to favor him quite a bit, though he didn't know why. He didn't know what took him to foolishly attempt to penetrate a teacher's mind, maybe tiredness let his control slip. Even Slughorn wouldn't let this pass. Somehow he didn't think this woman favored him because of his grades like Slughorn did. She also didn't seem to mind his misbehavior either. He was about to start doing some damage control when he spotted an opportunity, he wondered if this showed that he maybe didn't need to practice cautiousness around her and can maybe go to her for some more special questions.
"Professor, I apologize...." She stopped him from continuing.
"Do not apologize, Mr Riddle. You are someone destined for greatness. What could such a small mishap count as? " Tom preened at those words, he decided that he liked this Professor Eckleshall quite a bit. That's exactly what he thought himself. Though the weirdness of those words did not escape him. "What does it matter if your fellow students helped you on the road to achieve great things?" This was definitely a hint. It's like she perfectly understood what he was getting at and wanted to get at. It's like she perfectly told him that she didn't mind whatever he wanted to do to others, she didn't mind. He got rid of his apologetic expression and let his face go back to stillness while he openly looked at her calculatingly with a raised eyebrow."That's more like it, Mr . Riddle. If you need anything, do not hesitate to come directly to me. My office is always open for you. Now, it's time to go back your dormitory" She turned and walked away before doing a little spin "Oh, I forgot. Ten points to Slytherin for impressive magical display" this time, she truly went away.
Tom went back to his dormitory pensively. While this new hire seemed to work very well in his favor, he was still unsure about it. It was too good to be true. Was she really related to Grindelwald and wanted to recruit him? This needed more thinking. It just happens that tomorrow would be the first class at defense.