**bold italics is tom, italics is celeste**

PROLOGUE

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CELESTE HAD ALWAYS BEEN ABYSMAL AT POTIONS.

Unlike Luna, her younger sister, who took after their potions protege mother, Celeste was gifted with creatures and transfiguration like her father.

Both girls excelled in herbology but Celeste understood and delved further into the dark arts as opposed to the innate defense against them.

And so it wasn't much of a surprise that when Professor Snape was given the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts — her former potions Professor and by far least favorite — the new potions Professor didn't favor her.

And that would have been fine if she wasn't crippled by the debilitating need to ensure everyone liked her.

Unlike Luna, who lived adjacent to everyone else in a soft-spoken, mild-mannered and curious mindset, filled to the brim with bright ideas and a pure heart, Celeste was, at her core, a people pleaser.

So much so, that Celeste didn't have a personality, truth be told. She molded into what people around her preferred her to be.

She detested the idea of someone disliking her — except Professor Snape, who seemed to despise everyone and it took six years to realize it wasn't personal — no matter their age or time spent with her.

It was almost embarrassing how hard she tried to ensure people were happy with her.

Her sister, for instance, loved Celeste no matter what. They were particularly defensive of one another, and she supposed that attributed to her people-pleasing tendencies.

Luna walked outside of the crowd instead of blending within it, whereas Celeste kept her head low and ensured she moved at the pace of everyone else.

They were complete opposites.

Where Luna liked colors and brandishing outlandish theories or conspiracies penned by their father, Celeste never spoke out of turn.

She wore clothes that weren't bright under harsh lighting, weren't too dark in the sun. They were perfectly adequate. Acceptable.

Luna was intelligent, filled to the brim with intellect and creativity.

Celeste was kind and understanding and a good listener.

It probably stemmed from their mother's death. Their father was so grief-stricken by the loss of Pandora that he unintentionally neglected his children in favor of his pain.

Celeste was a late birthday, barely missing the mark for Hogwarts with the rest of her class, resulting in her being among the eldest, only just after Hermione Granger.

And Luna clung to the only stable thing she could, keeping close to Celeste, writing daily after Celeste ventured to Hogwarts.

It led to ensuring everyone else felt balanced. Everyone else felt taken care of.

Celeste's needs were last to everyone because that was the way it had always been.

And so, the agreeable and amiable Celeste found herself clinging to shrouds of love whenever it faced her.

In her house, she found Cedric Diggory.

He was kind and he ensured she'd always eaten. He made her laugh and double-checked her homework, even tutoring her in potions when she needed it.

His death was particularly terrible for Celeste.

In friendship, she found Theodore Nott, who was a Slytherin, but soft-spoken and kind. He encouraged her ambitions and coaxed her from her shell, encouraging her less than hospitable thoughts.

And in the journal, she found Tom Riddle.

It was hard to describe exactly what Tom was to her. At first, he was someone to vent to, someone to omit discrepancies and speak her truest thoughts.

She'd first found the leather-bound journal in her second year. She'd lost it for a few months and it was recovered by Ginny Weasley, who proclaimed to her closest friends — Luna included — that Tom had possessed her.

But Celeste had never found any evidence of such a thing. And that summer when the journal appeared back in her trunk after leaving the castle, she kept it a secret.

Kept him a secret.

Celeste didn't want to share Tom.

She didn't like that Ginny had taken it upon herself to speak with Tom, to confess her secrets and predispositions without first understanding who he was.

He wasn't even an object.

Or a He.

He was simply...Tom.

At first, it was journal entries that would ebb away into his own penmanship. They'd communicate warily, each concerned by who the other was.

Celeste was the first person to touch the journal in decades, and he was the first thing that was truly hers.

The journal entires because less words and more pictures. Tom had an ability to create worlds around them, places from his memory, places he'd ventured, wherein they could speak person-to-person.

He was kind to her.

He listened to her.

And in turn, Celeste promised herself to him.

At twelve, she didn't quite understand the extent of that promise. She didn't understand that souls were as interchangeable as words to ink.

But at sixteen, Celeste knew.

She knew that as much as Tom needed her, she needed him far, far more.

Hello, Celeste.

Celeste was pulled from her charms essay when she glanced down at the journal. Mood immediately brightening, she couldn't fight the smile on her face.

Hi, Tommy!

A moment before his response.

I thought we'd made an agreement. Tommy is far too childish a moniker for someone of my nature, Celeste.

Celeste rolled her eyes. And we've both learned that I have a terrible habit of forgoing your preferations and instead being adorable.

His response was immediate.

Nothing adorable calls itself adorable. You are not a small animal.

Admit it.

Finish your charms homework, Celeste.

Celeste knew she'd won the argument.

Others always beat Celeste.

But Celeste always beat Tom.

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ahhhhh i'm soooossososooo excited for this I've wanted to write a tom forEVER but it's never happened. trying to be different to others that are out there sooo hopefully it'll be okay. and dw she'll travel to the past soon. and it's very much grumpyxsunshine yall know it's my fav trope idc