Life and Limb

"Know your way to the dormitories? Or do you need an escort?"

Marie turned in her seat at the sound of Tom's voice. The Sorting had come and gone. The feast was over; Dippet had given a nice welcome speech and then sent the students off to bed. The Hall was already nearly empty when Tom approached her.

Tom was standing behind Marie with an expectant expression on his face.

She sighed. "I'll need an escort. Just this once."

Tom nodded and watched as Marie extracted herself from the bench. She hadn't said a word to anybody throughout the whole feast. She felt unwanted and that she didn't fit in. As she followed Tom from the Great Hall, she looked to the long table where the professors were still sitting. Only Dumbledore was looking at her with an almost sympathetic look. Marie tore her gaze away and concentrated on not getting lost.

She had to take several smaller steps to keep up with Tom's long, graceful strides, but in the end she was able to follow him down a few winding staircases, no doubt leading to the bowels of Hogwarts. Other students ran every which way as first years attempted to find their way around and upper classmen tried to help them. Marie couldn't help but giggle; though she had been away for a while, she still remembered where some rooms were located. The twists, turns, dips, and passageways of the Hogwarts castle were as clear to her as the back of her hand, and if anything she felt more at home than she ever had at Beauxbatons.

It seemed to take ages before the pair of students approached the door to the Slytherin common room. After Tom gave the password – which happened to be "Parselmouth" – Marie found herself standing in the middle of the grand and extravagant room, bathed in a greenish light and decorated with eerie shadows from the various pillars, statues, and other artifacts in the room.

"Impressed?" Tom asked Marie as he watched her reaction.

Marie tried to shrug it off. "The Gryffindor common room was cozier" was all she could offer.

Tom snorted in disbelief but said nothing to counter her. Instead, he beckoned her forward to the fireplace, already with a fire burning bright.

"Can I ask you something?" Tom asked, his voice dropping so low in volume that Marie had to strain to hear.

She looked around the common room and watched dawdling students suddenly pass by without a sound as they zipped up to their rooms. Apparently, when Tom Riddle wanted to talk privately to somebody, it sure as hell better be private. Marie tried to ignore the sudden emptiness of the common room and instead concentrated on Tom, who was standing in front of the burning fireplace. The light cast eerie shadows across his face, making his eyes black and his cheekbones and jaw more pronounced. He looked, if anything, very creepy.

"Why are you in Slytherin this year?" Tom asked her under his breath. "I know you. I remember you. You were in Gryffindor in our first year."

Marie's eyes narrowed and she felt her insides turn hard. "That's none of your business."

"Actually, considering the fact that you're my new classmate, it pretty much is. Besides, how do I know you're not…I dunno…fraternizing with the Gryffindors? Divulging our secrets to them?"

Marie threw back her head and laughed aloud. "You seriously think this is some scheme I concocted just so Gryffindor can win the House Cup this year?"

"I didn't say anything about the House Cup," Tom reminded her. "That was from your own inane imagination."

"Don't call me inane."

"I called your imagination inane."

"It's the same thing."

Tom groaned in frustration and rubbed his face in his hands. "You're being ridiculous. And stop dragging me off topic. What are you suddenly doing in Slytherin?"

"I was re-Sorted, you nutter. It's nothing major."

Tom raised an eyebrow. "I've never heard of someone being re-Sorted before."

"And I've never heard of someone making a complete asshat of themselves within four minutes before, but it appears to be happening as we speak," Marie retorted with a sneer. She really wasn't in the mood for an interrogation process.

"An asshat? You say the most peculiar things," Tom observed amusedly.

"Thanks for the praise. Can I go unpack now? All my stuff is upstairs-"

"Fine. Go."

Tom's sudden change of tone surprised Marie, but nonetheless she took the opportunity to turn and leave at once. When she reached the bottom stair to go to her room, however, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"What?" she snapped, turning around violently.

"Don't think you've escaped my radar just yet," Tom warned her.

Marie snorted involuntarily. "Your radar? What are you – a submarine?"

Tom's lip corners twitched slightly but the coldness and ice in his eyes didn't disappear or even falter. "You're not taking my warning very seriously, are you Fugazi?"

"No, I'm not. Because you're being ridiculous. I'm not here to spy on you, or steal your secrets, or even make friends with people like you. I'm here to finish my last two years of school. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go upstairs, shower, wash my hair, take a shit, and go to bed. Is that all right with you, Your Majesty?"

That got Tom to release her shoulder and take a step back. Guess he hadn't expected Marie to suddenly become so vicious.

"You're not as nice as you look," Tom observed openly.

For some reason, his words made Marie's eyes sting with the beginnings of tears. "So I've been told," she managed to spit out. She quickly turned her head so he wouldn't see how vulnerable she had suddenly become.

Tom stared at her, ever more curious. "By whom?"

"None of your business." The second time she had said that statement in one night.

Tom took another moment or two to watch her as she tried to control her breathing and push down her unwanted tears. He cocked his head to the side slightly before saying to her, "Look, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

"Really? What was your first clue – my attitude or my tears?" Marie quipped.

"You can't say you weren't expecting it. You were getting quite snappy too."

"Can we not argue about this? I'm going to bed. See you around…hopefully not for a while."

With that said and her mind clouded over with exhaustion and frustration, Marie whirled and stomped up the stairs to head for her room. Left behind in the common room, Tom stood and watched the space where she had once been standing. He blinked a few times before his lips curled into a smile. To him, Marie didn't seem to be suspicious. He just liked playing around with people.

On his right was a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin, decked out in robes and jewels in all the glory he deserved…to a Slytherin's point of view, anyway. Tom, after a moment's hesitation, smiled at the statue.

He then walked his own path up to the boys' room to sleep.