A reminder of why I fell for Tom Riddle.

~*~*~

Anthony hummed to himself as he skipped a step. He neither was a musician nor had a great taste in music. In fact, anything that he could hum to himself was good enough for him. Music was one of the ways he used to bond with his younger brother anyway.

He walked down the stairs cautiously, trying his best to be quiet.

A glance around himself reminded him of why he loved his common room the most. Despite being in a dungeon, it had a warmth of its own. The stylish room with all green and silver emphasized the richness of those belonging to that house. Like everyone else in that castle, he loved his house. Yes, his housemates were prejudiced and all, but in his opinion, no one in the world could claim to be a complete neutral fellow. Those who claimed Slytherin was the "bad" house, were no less culprit than Slytherins themselves. At least the latter defended their house with passion. The rightness of a situation is always relative. One thing which is right for one person, need not be for another. Despite this, it really is an irony that everyone judges another.  

His blue eyes landed on a boy in the corner. A well-kept mop of brown hairs caught his attention. A kind smile graced his lips when he saw the young boy on a verge of collapsing to the ground owing to his lack of sleep. 

He neared the boy and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Adrian, wake up!"

The flaps of his eyes opened and closed a few times as they adjusted to their surroundings. A lazy smile flashed across his thin lips as his brown orbs landed on the elder Avery.

"Hey, Anthony!"

Anthony chuckled. Trust Winters folks to greet him at the most unusual times. He recalled his first meeting to the cousin of the boy in front of him. He smiled as a scene of her greeting him awkwardly after she had fallen accidentally inside the black lake flashed before him. His eyes landed on the wall across from him. A very dramatic gasp left his lips.

"Oh! It's 11 already. Why are you not in your bed. From what Ares told me, first-years have a flying lesson earlier tomorrow."

Maybe it was just him being him, or maybe it was just Benjamin rubbing off on him, Anthony couldn't help but feel concerned about the younger boy. He, very much like the Lestrange boy, cared a lot about the first year Slytherins. Like mentioned before, Slytherin did look after their own.

The boy made a sound that ranged somewhere between annoyed groan to resigned sigh. "I would rather find an excuse to not go to that class."

The Winters boy was not very fond of excitedly going high in the sky, dramatically losing his hold on some light-weight broom and finally ridiculously landing on the damp grass. No matter how lush the grass that grew on the grounds of the castle was. He had imagined the damn scenario enough times to make him paranoid.

Going through the same phase at one point in his life, understanding the situation came naturally to Anthony. He chuckled voicelessly to himself. He knew the boy was more worried about how he would look if he fell on his arse in front of all the children of his age than being afraid of getting hurt physically. Aren't most of us afraid of losing our image in public?

"I know you are just afraid of losing a bone or two. No matter, you have no choice. Now go to your bed," He spoke authoritatively, earning a snort from the portrait of an old, grey-haired wizard in green robes who chortled happily when the first-year Slytherin glared daggers at him.

~

"I don't think that is a very good idea McLogan," Alexa spoke in a soft tone. Her index finger rested on her chin as she wondered out loud. After all, she had a suspicion that Slughorn's idea of amusement was different from those whom she could classify as normal humans.

Pointedly ignoring her nickname for him, "I am telling you snow, the hiccoughing potion would be brilliant. Besides it is the simplest and safest option."

That day in their potions class, Slughorn had asked them to brew something amusing and impressive. He had allowed the students to brew the potions in a team. And like the most times, he had told them to partner with the one who was sitting next to them. That's how the two struggling apothecaries found themselves in a boat. They both had devoted their time for the said subject still, no one could blame Logan for being cautious. Besides, he knew no matter what they would do, Slughorn would never approve of anyone but his certain handful favourite pupils, so why try?

She threw her eyes around the class. Her nervous eyes took in how some people were rushing around making a selection of ingredients. She even saw some Slytherins putting the cauldrons on the flame. Her fleeting glance landed on one particularly fine specimen of a pupil. With his long and lean fingers, the boy was chopping the ingredients elegantly. An image of them pinching her waist just a week ago flashed her in front of her eyes. She remembered how the mark had lasted a good two days. Maybe her ogling was obvious, or maybe the boy in question just knew her better. Because the next thing she knew was that she could see a faint hint of a smirk on the edge of his tempting lips even from the distance. She was caught. She shook her head to clear her mind and cool her warm cheeks. Now was not the time she thought to herself. She remembered that Logan was still waiting for her affirmation.

"Fine you get the ingredients, I will get the cauldron," She agreed.

And that's how, after some lapse of time, the girl found herself making a hiccoughing potion with her best friend.

Meanwhile, Slughorn was strolling in the class, querying his students about the choice of their potion. Every once in a while he would ask them a question or two. He didn't seem impressed for most of them. And that was nothing unexpected.

"That's a wonderful selection, my boys." His giddy voice suddenly chortled throughout the class. Everyone looked up at sudden cheeriness in the tone of their potion master. His eyes glinted as he looked down at the shining-yellow potion. "Elixir to Induce Euphoria is an advanced potion. And you two selecting it makes me very happy. Take ten points. And it looks like you are about to finish it. Once finished let me know."

The yellow house in the room groaned. Of course, they knew Tom Riddle and Anthony Avery were going to score some points for selecting the damn potion. How interesting! Everyone went back to their potions.

"Now add 3 to 4 crushed seed of Puffapod. And then stir five times anti-clockwise."

Alexa read the line. Logan's one hand was busy stirring the potion which required continuous motion. With his other hand, he held the page Alexa was reading as her hands were busy crushing the poor seeds.

"Ah! Ms Winters, Mr McLaggen, what are you two brewing?" Slughorn took an exact moment to pass by their table.

"Hiccoughing Potion, sir," Logan filled in helpfully as Alexa just nodded her head.

"Hiccoughing Potion? That's not impressive or amusing even for the fourth-year student." He belittled. "Then again, I think, considering it's you two who are making it, I will comment that it is a wise choice."

Logan gave a tight smile as he swallowed the insult.

Alexa, on the other hand, grew nervous and in her self-doubt, she clumsily added un-crushed seeds to the potion in place of crushed ones without giving any warning to her partner.

As a result, the potion boiled and the next instance they knew it abandoned the cauldron and covered their potion master, in a not so graceful manner. The whole class held their breaths as they reminisced something akin to this that had happened the year before. They were too captivated by seeing their master drenched with the incomplete potion. As it had happened before he placed his palms on his eyes and cleaned them. His mind cursing himself again for forgetting his damn wand.

"Only you Ms Winters, mind you, only you have the talent to explode even otherwise the most harmless potion," He muttered to himself. But Alexa and everyone else in the room heard him clearly. Even Tom stood still to see the scene in front of him carefully.

"I am so sorry professor." Alexa's legs shook. She really knew that she had outdone herself. Before Slughorn could cut the points of her house, she spoke in a very small voice, "A detention tomorrow night, professor?"

Slughorn narrowed his eyes. "Make it two, and this time it won't be with me. Our dear care-taker will take care of you. Class dismissed."

The girl gulped. She knew how hospitable their care-taker was.

Slughorn left the class to clean himself and get the damn potion off his moustache. Salazar! He was never going to keep moustache, at least as far as the volatile girl was in the castle. He couldn't wait for her to graduate and leave the place already.

Unlike the last time, nobody found the situation hilarious. Everyone knew how hostile their care-taker was. They had heard the stories. The stories of how their care-taker tied the students by their feet and kept them dangling by their feet from the ceiling of the dungeons. Some students threw Alexa concerned glances, while others just looked like they were holding in their laughs. The latter mostly included the female population which was not fond of the girl in question.

In the suddenly silent class, Tom looked down at his potion. It was shining brightly. Its soothing aroma indicated that it was ready. Ready to induce the euphoria in a drinker, to create an illusion that everything was perfect, to make them forget about their sudden misfortune. For the first time, he didn't want to take the cauldron to their potion master. It wasn't an arithmancy problem to know that the elder man was riled up because of how he was covered in the potion and would definitely award the boy some points for being a considerate and a golden student like always. Instead, when he saw his girl's face, his fingers ached to hand it to her. To make her feel better. To do anything that would bring her out of her gloomy situation. He had to do something. Something and that too quickly.

~*~*~

I hope you liked the chapter.

The first meet of Anthony and Alexa: Chapter 15

The first incidence of Potion disaster: Chapter 5

Please vote, share and comment.

Thank you all!!!