(DISCLAIMER: All characters and the whole Harry Potter franchise - except for Jeremiah Hallysworn, Mallory Evans, Alice Urie [plus a few other more characters I haven't decided to get into the story yet] - belong to none other than J. K. Rowling)

The blank faced Ravenclaw was practically restless that night. The stare Riddle gave was haunting and looked as if he was thirsting to kill and destroy. (Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, we'll never truly know.) But Alice made sure she was not someone to mess with and that she would not hesitate to hex someone. She did this to people who tease her along the hall just by looking at them with her freezing and intensely piercing blue eyes. Alice shook herself from her thoughts, all traces of tiredness and sleepiness gone, and got up from the chair she was previously comfortably sat in; she went up to her dorm, wanting nothing to do with Riddle yet wanting to know why he would ever try to look in a head that belonged to a girl like her.

To her delight, all the girls in her room were sleeping soundly. With a wave of her hand. Her clothes changed from her robes to a nightgown her mother picked out for her. She glanced at the girls once more to reassure themselves that she was not awake. She took out a case from under her bed, set it beside her, opened it and took out a vial with a dropper. Carefully pinching it, She placed three drops of the substance into her mouth before hurriedly placing the set back under her bed.

She started to feel extremely drowsy and smiled to herself. She thanked her ability to brew powerful draughts such as this Sleeping Draught she induced. Alice went through a dreamless night but felt as safe and as comfortable as she would at home.

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"Alice, I'm sorry I wasn't able to stay up until you arrived," Mallory said to her friend who was holding her book in the subject Charms.

"It's alright, Mal. I did arrive pretty late; it's understandable." Alice replied with a smile. She was happy to know that her friend was truly fretting over such a minor mistake - it was barely a mistake at all. Either way, she appreciated the mere effort that she put in trying to wait for Alice.

Jeremiah came running to them having his satchel slung over his shoulder. All thw necessary books and things fit in there because of an Untedectable Extension Charm. Alice thought Jem was clever with his use of magic; using it to his own convenience and Alice never thought of using it that way.

Alice wasn't exposed that much to the open world, therefore never really seeing the perks of magic as it is. Now she is welcome in a world that needs magic and not just magic that would entertain you, she was enthralled to be a part of it.

"What do we got next?" He said, huffing in exasperation.

"Defence Against The Dark Arts," both Alice and Mallory said in unison. The male simply drawled out a low sigh before straightening his posture.

"Where've you been off to?" Mallory asked in a sing-song voice, observing that Jem was indeed running to them when they had encountered him.

"Prefect stuff, begh." Jem said in disgust. Alice almost forgot that their friend was indeed the Ravenclaw male prefect. She had also found that out during dinner when Jem was sat with them for the first time.
"I wonder what would have made you say that in such disgust." Alice remarked with a slightly playful smirk.

"Oh, believe me, you do not want to know." Jem shuddered.

Alice phased out of her cheery disposition when she saw a single Slytherin slip into their classroom before they even did. She also almost forgot that she indeed had this class with the seemingly cursed house to Alice. She avoided having to be in such close vicinity with a single one despite having to sit at the table in the Great Hall nearest to them. She avoided them like a death threatening plague of boils, or more like poisonous serpents for this case. She knew this behavior was indeed as barbaric as she said before, but she wanted to assure herself she wouldn't be attacked by any serpent at any time.

"Alice, are you alright?" Mallory asked when the girl stopped paying attention to them but her voice faltered when she saw her friend's grave expression.

"Slytherins," Alice grudgingly whispered. She entered their classroom silently with her two friends flanking her and sat beside Jem while Mallory was sat beside another fellow Ravenclaw.

The professor greeted them with a booming voice which startled all but two students. It was only now that Alice sensed his presence. She had the urge to bring her barriers up but Mallory's eyes were on her, simply telling her that she doesn't have to. This wasn't reassuring to Alice one bit, but she didn't do it anyway.

When she was sure she felt nothing poke around her head, she listened to what the teachers were saying and had her eyes widen at the mention of the word 'Duel'. Her mind went all bouncy and her body flamed in excitement as a smile crept upon her face. Alice liked the subject of dueling, having practiced some spells of hexing and jinxing wandlessly as early as the age of 9, as her parents encouraged and supervised her because of the consequences they might meet if they were to have her handle a wand as an underage wizard not yet attending school. Alice was thrilled at the fact she was finally seeing some use for the spells her mother and father taught her.

"I am pleased to say that our dueling is to be commenced with someone from the other house. Now, hurry up and grab a partner." And with that, Alice's mood deflated instantly. She hadn't planned this. She did not like this at all. She wanted to thrash about, saying that there would be no way she would ever be in such involvement with a Slytherin. But Alice gathered up all her self restraint and put her face in a strong glance she knew the Slytherins from her Potions class yesterday cowered under.

She pulled out her wand from her robes and helped out the teacher in levitating all chairs away from the center and pushed into the walls in an orderly manner. Before she even got time to choose, a Slytherin marched himself towards her already.

He was displaying an unusually big face of pride and a smirk of unbelievable overconfidence to tope it off. Blonde close to white hair covered the boy's head as he looked at Alice for the first time up close. He held up his hand, "Abraxas Malfoy."

She hesitantly shook it with the hand not hold her own wand and said her name as quiet although still audibly as she could. "Alice Urie," she said in a seeming whisper with her velvety voice. It seemed to have affected and shocked the Abraxas boy more than it should as his eyes seemingly blinked a few times before returning to converse.

"Since it's a 'partner up with the other house' policy, I wonder if you would like to accept my offer of being your first duel partner." He sternly spoke with his cold demeanor enhancing the effect of him being a person of a sort of superiority.

See, this is exactly why I don't establish myself with Slytherins, Alice thought to herself. She hated people with such a demeanor while flouncing around and rubbing it at people's faces that they were somehow superiors, thinking they were something they were not. If anything, Alice formulated, they were the lowest species of humankind.

Despite her obvious hatred for the Slytherin male, she agreed with a firm nod and he went to a stance she knew all too well. She too, proceeded to prepare for the duel.

"Now, I want a clean and professional duel. If I so much as sense a trace of Dark Magic in each of your wands, I'll have your escorted to the Headmaster's office," the professor threatened them. It was not threatening at all to Alice, for some reason.

"Wands at the ready," the Professor remarked and Alice brandished hers with a wave.

She noticed Abraxas Malfoy give her a smirk that would probably be saying 'I won't go easy'. To this gesture she let her eyes come in contact with his as something to signify she wasn't to be underestimated. The boy before her suddenly lost his smirk and gulped as her icy orbs intensely gave him a cold and determined look.

"On the count of three," The professor began and a smile crept upon Alice's face. And it wasn't one she usually wore as she kindly smiles at her friends, Emma and Jem.

"One . . .," Alice could barely restrain it.

"Two . . .," Abraxas Malfoy looks as if he would run away from her any minute but went back to his demeanor of overconfidence and arrogance.

"Three!" Alice smiled sadistically as Abraxas and many others recited their spells, only hers was a bit delayed.

"Reducto!" Was the particular curse sent flying to her. Already predicting that Malfoy was one for offense, she countered it with a Rebounding Curse taught by her Uncle Marion from France.

Malfoy was sent flying backwards to the floor the first and this caught the teacher's attention. "Mr. Malfoy, down already?" She said with a slight laugh before coming beside Alice and patting her shoulder.

"Well, we have a decent duel partner here. I would like you to duel with someone else to sharpen the tip of your sword, alright?" Said the Professor and Alice smiled at this before looking at the boy who just got up and dusting his robes in what looked like disbelief and supreme shock. Alice only giggled at the Slytherin and decided to apologize even though there was no reason for her to.

"I am terribly sorry, Mr. Abraxas Malfoy. I do hope you are alright," she said with a smile that wasn't the same sadistic one the boy had witnessed before. Still, the boy flinched a bit before nodding awkwardly, having a new kind of respect for the strange girl. "That'd be alright, Urie."

She nodded at him once before the Professor tugged at her arm and lead her to the other side of the classroom where many of the students were done by just the second or third spell the opponent fished in.
That wasn't at all the case for Alice - she got her opponent just by his first spell. And once more, she felt a pair of eyes seeming to want to penetrate her shell and get her to look at them. Alice looked towards the Slytherin who the teacher was approaching and groaned inwardly. Not him. Anyone but him.

She kept her blank face as they went closer to the boy and she practically felt the temperature change just by getting nearer him.

"Here, Miss Urie. Certainly you would be able to take on Mr. Riddle as I've seen it. Alright, just as I said, a clean fight, not even a single trace of Dark Magic." To this she agreed and was not affected with, once more. She had crossed paths with the said magic often, seeing as her parents discover such dark discoveries. She ends up having more contact with it than how she would have liked and wondered what force kept her parents from turning into masters of the Dark Arts. For this, she started to thank the gods for having her mother and father to have such pure hearts although it was hardly an appropriate time to be doing so.

Alice nodded at the teacher once more before facing Tom Riddle and having his eyes meet with her own. Her icy blue orbs narrowed on him as he did the same. The two stared intensely into each other's eyes, expecting one of them would have their head burst from too much intensity before they both looked away at the same time.

I won't lose to this boy. At least, I hope I wouldn't.

Alice clenched her wand in hand and faced the Slytherin boy. She went into stance just as he did and the professor prepared counting down.

This was the only time Alice had started to analyze the situation.

If he had seen the duel she had with Abraxas Malfoy, he surely would have already figured out that she waits for one's preparation based on the type of spell he or she would be about to curse. Did he, though, Alice asked herself and cursed mentally when she didn't have the answer.

"One . . .," he was smirking at her and it made her narrow down her choices. That showed her that he had seen her duel with Malfoy so she knew he was going to do the same thing she was. They were both to study what the opponent's spell that is most likely to be sent flying to themselves.

"Two," Alice settled with something so unsettling that it wasn't settled for her to even settle with in the first place.

"Three!"

Alice shot him a basic spell, "Expeliarmus!" But Alice already knew it wouldn't possibly work on someone like Riddle and she wordlessly cast 'Protego' just in case Riddle was to send a curse he already readied.

Tom Riddle effortlessly waved off the spell as he sent an "Impedimenta" towards her. Already prepared for such an impact on such short notice, her shield did her its job and sent a racing wordless spell she knew all too well.

Tom Riddle on the other hand, struggled in awe and disbelief at what this girl could actually do. She was merely using spells she did not even chanted like most did. That was what made it difficult for Tom.

Now, he was confused. What was he doing again? What was he even doing in a class, standing in front of a Ravenclaw while others had their eyes on both of them?

That's when he realized he was sent to the floor, his wand parting from his hand in the process,with the realization that he was indeed hexed with a Confundus Charm. And no less wordlessly by a Ravenclaw homeschooled by her parents ever since she was born.

Alice looked to Riddle. It was hardly a duel at all. She wanted to laugh at her efforts to be worried what it would be like for someone who had comprehension like Tom Riddle.

"Ah! Very nice and well done, Miss Urie! Talented in non-verbal magic! Excellent! And for that, you shall receive an O for your first dueling session and 10 points to Ravenclaw." The teacher said merrily, just as her name suggested - Merrythought.

She smiled humbly at the professor as she was applauded by her fellow Ravenclaw fifth years. She saw Mallory raising her eyebrows as she was clapping and Jem imitating what a die-hard fan would act like if the idol would look to his direction.

She was happy, yes, she knew that. But she also knew that she had pissed off a Slytherin who might as well hex her right her and right now. She noticed some Slytherins looking at her in disbelief, just as Abraxas Malfoy was a few minutes ago and some girls, staring at her in disgust.

It was no surprise to her that there would be things like these to greet her. After all, she did expect much worse as she wasn't exposed that much to the world. And that Tom Riddle would be a boy who people would say a to be beaten by girl who is barely known to people around her in her very first dueling session. The overly obsessed fanatics of the popular boy are expected to act this way and Alice found herself smiling at that. She was already making her mark in the school. She didn't exactly want to be a celebrity, yet here she was, on her way to popularity.

She groaned inwardly at that and kept on a fake smile from then on as she was greeted by her classmates with praises. How could she lay low, now? Stupid Alice! She scolded herself.

Alice sighed when the Professor said that'd be all for today, but when she felt something poke at her head, she immediately muttered in her mind, 'Block it'.

She immediately turned to face the boy who was glaring daggers at her and she glared back.

"Once again, Mr. Tom Riddle," Alice was disgusted and it showed in her voice, "I do not appreciate someone getting into my head without my consent."

With that, she threw the wand at him, and stormed off into the Ravenclaw Common Room ahead of everyone else, as they were busy making way for her in the process. And left in the classroom was a very furious and spiteful Tom Riddle.

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Update bc 30 reads already yaaaass.

Chappie sucks tbh, but who cares. Someone just beat Tom Riddle and it's only chapter 4.

The story is just beginning, mind you. Alice is still just beginning to bloom right before their very eyes and everyone's got their attention on her whoops, she definitely doesn't like that.

Vote, comment, and read all you want, I'll be back in a few days.

Enuff said,

tuffhufflepuff xx 👌👌