Life and Limb

Not surprisingly, the next morning at breakfast nobody sat next to Marie at the Slytherin table. She was sitting alone, with one space on either side of her with empty seats. Every once in a while, one of her fellow Slytherins would look up from their plates and gawk at Marie, but she tried to ignore their stares. It was tough to do; every swallow of egg that she took reminded her that she was eating amongst unfriendly people. She glanced quickly up at her old Gryffindor table and saw Victoria and Siobhan talking with a few other girls and giggling to each other.

Marie wished dearly that she could be over there with them. In fact, she had already half-risen from her seat when an all-too familiar and unwanted voice plagued her ears.

"Not thinking about going over there, are you?" Tom Riddle asked her from behind.

Marie rolled her eyes and twisted in her seat. "Not that you care, but actually I was."

Tom smirked down at her and took the empty spot to her right. Marie's mouth opened slightly.

"Are you trying to be difficult?" she asked.

"Now why do you say that?"

"Because you know very well that I really don't want your company right now."

"Those are cold words coming from somebody who has no friends."

Marie's face burned. Whenever Tom spoke, it seemed as though he had that effect on her. "No friends? I have friends! They're just not in this despicable group of people you call a House."

Tom didn't even wince at her words. If anything, his smirk only grew snarkier.

"Hate to break it to you, but now you're a part of this 'despicable group of people'," Tom pointed out, "whether you like it or not."

"I may be in this House but I'll never be like one of you," Marie hissed through her teeth. She stabbed the last piece of egg with her fork and shoved it violently into her mouth before getting to her feet.

Tom rose with her. "And just where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to class early. Don't follow me," Marie demanded before turning on her heel and flouncing out of the Great Hall.

Not to her surprise, she heard footsteps echoing behind her.

Marie turned. "What, Tom?"

"What class do you have first?" he asked her, folding his arms across his chest.

"What class do I – what do you care?" she snapped.

"Because if I have the same class, I want to make sure I avoid sitting near you at all costs. You might bite my nose off or something if I get too close."

Marie threw her head back and laughed. "That's rich coming from you. If I sat near you, I'd probably get some unknown disease. Asshole-itis, maybe."

Tom didn't falter. "So what class is it?"

Marie groaned and dug around in her shoulder bag for her schedule. She had found it atop her luggage the night before. Pulling it out, Marie scanned it quickly before she announced, "Defense Against the Dark Arts. With Professor Merrythought."

"Excellent!"

"You don't have that class?"

"No, I do. But this means my very presence will torture you even further."



"Class, please take out your text titled The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection and open to page four," Professor Galatea Merrythought announced to the class that same morning. She was a pleasant-looking woman – a little plump and on the short side, but she had a cheerful, kind air about her that Marie found almost motherly.

Marie opened her textbook. Merrythought had seated her between two unfamiliar Slytherin girls, one with sleek blonde hair and the other with ebony black. Both girls shifted slightly away from Marie in their seats when she sat, but she blinked and pretended not to notice.

"Now then, in this class you will all have the opportunity to learn not just from me, but from each other and yourselves. Sixth year Defense Against the Dark Arts is a tricky time for most of you, and of course if you want to go on to N.E.W.T. level in your seventh year, you will want to pay close attention to what we do now," Merrythought began. She walked around so she stood at the front of her desk and looked out at her students, a mix of Slytherins and Ravenclaws, which was an unusual pairing. She spoke some more: "Everyone in here is expected to do the amount of work required of them. No complaining, no grumbling, no exceptions."

"What a load of rubbish," someone behind Marie whispered. Merrythought didn't seem to hear.

Marie glanced to her left and saw, just a few seats down, how carefully Tom was paying attention to Merrythought. The corners of Marie's mouth twisted upwards slightly. He looked very much into the subject already.

"Please read from pages four to seven while I take attendance," Merrythought told them.

The students complied. The only sounds heard for several minutes were the rustling of paper and the occasional cough or sniffle from a fellow student. Marie read through the pages fairly quickly; it was only an introductory essay into the subject. She was itching to get to the chapters about self defensive spells and charms.

On her left again, Marie could see that Tom had also finished the introductory essay. He caught her staring at him and winked. Marie turned her face away, her cheeks red.

A handwritten note on a slip of parchment landed on her desk only moments later.

Society might say that it's rude to stare, but I call it flattering.

Marie scowled; she could hear Tom stifling his laughter. She picked up her quill and wrote back:

Don't flatter yourself. Your face looks like the ass end of a hippogriff. Anyway, I just noticed you finished reading pretty fast.

She put her hand into her robes pocket and flicked her wand. The parchment slid itself across the long table, dodging other students' books and supplies, and stopped in front of Tom.

I read this book over the summer for fun.

Your idea of fun is suicide to others.

To you?

I never said that.

You implied it.

You're a jerk.

A jerk with an apparently stare-worthy face.

Marie crumpled the parchment and threw it on the floor at her feet. Tom's grin was almost wide enough to cover his face.

"Everyone's finished reading?" Merrythought asked then. When everybody mumbled their response, she nodded briskly. "Good. Let's begin the lesson."



"You're unbelievable," Marie muttered to Tom as she passed by him on her way out of the classroom at the end of the lesson.

Tom shouldered his bag and shrugged. "I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none."

Marie quirked an eyebrow, surprised. "You know Macbeth?"

"I know it, but I don't believe in the statement," Tom told her.

The pair of them, unknowingly, began to walk down the hall together to their next class. Other students skirted around them while a fair few stopped to stare at the infamous, introverted Tom Riddle walking with the sort-of-new student Marie Fugazi.

"What makes you say that?" Marie asked, curious now.

"The quote supposedly means to try to be something, anything, that is more within your own reach, and to not be too quick to become something greater," Tom explained. He pushed some of his wayward hair away from his eyes. "I disagree. I think the human mind and body has no limits, so why not push ourselves into becoming something greater than what we already are? What is there to stop us? It's only mentality blocking us from what we can become. Push that aside, and we are unlimited."

Marie stared as they walked and nearly tripped over a loose stone in the floor. Tom, surprisingly, didn't laugh as she stumbled.

"That's very, uh…" Marie sought for a word, "deep."

Tom chuckled low in his throat. "I'll take that as the first compliment you've given me since we've met."

"Sorry about that," Marie apologized under her breath.

Tom heard her and chuckled. "I do suppose I strike most people as a bit of a prick."

"Suppose? A bit?" Marie asked.

Tom feigned anger when he glared down at her. "Don't push it. I was halfway towards apologizing to you as well."

Marie shut her mouth. Tom glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and snickered. "Oh well. Maybe I'll apologize next time, since you've interrupted me already."

"What? You can't get away that easily!" Marie complained, trying to kick him in the shins. She missed; he jumped smoothly out of the way.

He laughed as she scowled at him. "Come on, Fugazi, Potions awaits!" Tom reminded her. He grabbed her by the wrist and led her down the hall to their next class.