[HP] Riddle's Spirit Behind

"What are you doing, Tom?" asked Eleanor, following up.

Tom kept his mouth shut tightly.He walked up to the bloody Barrow, and said in a polite tone that Eleanor had never heard before: "Can I ask you a question, sir?"

The surrounding students stared at them curiously, but no one dared to approach them.

Bloody Barrow stared straight ahead with empty eyes, as if he didn't hear Tom's words at all.

"Mr. Barrow?" Tom called again.

Barrow still ignored him.

"I think he doesn't want to talk for a while," said Eleanor. "Let's go."

At this moment, Barrow moved unexpectedly.His eyes moved slowly to Eleanor, staring at her loosely and unfocused.

"Mr. Barrow?" Eleanor looked at him in surprise.

"He only seemed to respond to what you said," said Tom, frowning. "Probably because you're all ghosts."

"Uh, maybe." Eleanor blinked, "By the way, what did you want to ask him just now?"

Hearing Eleanor's words, Barlow immediately lowered his head and looked at Tom expressionlessly.

Suddenly, there was a booing sound in the classroom.Eleanor followed the sound, and it seemed that someone was kissing in public.

Just then Tom raised his head and said something to Barrow.

The flood of noise drowned out Tom's voice.No one heard what he said.

Eleanor turned her head, just in time to see Barrow nodded slowly at Tom.

Immediately afterwards, Baro frowned and glanced at the group of noisy students, as if he was very unaccustomed to such an overly noisy environment.So, he turned and floated out through the wall.

"What did you ask him?" Eleanor looked at Tom curiously.

"It's nothing." Tom said lightly, "I'm leaving here."

"What?" cried Eleanor in surprise, "but the ball isn't over yet?"

"I've done what I want to do." Tom walked on without looking up.

"What do you want to do?" Eleanor frowned, "but you sure don't want to tell me what you asked, right?"

Tom stopped suddenly and looked at Eleanor thoughtfully, "So, you really didn't hear what I said just now?"

"Of course." Eleanor replied, "Why should I lie to you."

Just then, Professor Slughorn pushed his way through the crowd.He was wearing a long black cloak, as if trying to make himself look like a vampire.

His eyes fell on Tom, and he grinned suddenly, showing two sharp teeth at the corners of his mouth.

"So you're here, Tom!" he said. "Come here, I've got a few people I'd like you to meet."

Tom sighed inaudibly.He lifted his legs and walked over, and was immediately embraced by Slughorn affectionately on the shoulders.

Professor Slughorn led him to several people who were chatting.

"Horace, is this your new pet?" one of the tall women joked.

"This is my student, Tom Riddle." Slughorn introduced with a smile. "He is very talented in Potions. He is not even inferior to you, Mavis! I have already foreseen that he will become A very good potions master!"

Subsequently, Tom had to be forced to join their conversation.

Eleanor wondered a little whether Slughorn was treating the ball as his private party.He introduced Tom to seven or eight people in one go, all of them were his former students, and all seemed to be quite successful in some fields.

It was about a quarter of an hour before Tom broke away from Slughorn.Before leaving, Slughorn invited him to a dinner he was hosting at his office before the Christmas break.

"Welcome to the Slug Club." The woman named Mavis blinked her right eye at him, then whispered, "Good luck, Tom. You'll know how bad this club is."

Afterwards, Tom kept quiet about what happened on Halloween.He refused to tell Eleanor what he asked the bloody Barrow about, but Eleanor quickly forgot about it.

Christmas is almost here.The school began to count the names of those who stayed for Christmas, and Tom signed the paper without hesitation.

"Aren't you planning to go home for Christmas?" Eleanor couldn't help asking.She had thought she would finally have the chance to leave school.

"I have no place to call 'home,'" said Tom dryly, without looking up.

Eleanor said in surprise, "Have you no guardian, Tom?"

Tom sneered, "If you mean the crazy woman who manages the orphanage, I can tell you that if I don't go back for Christmas, she will only be glad that she can save one person's dinner."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Eleanor sincerely, and a sympathy welled up in her heart.

Her mind was filled with scenes from the year her parents died.

That Christmas, she sneaked out from relatives' house.She sat alone on the steps, looking at the warm orange fire in the surrounding houses, and the laughter and laughter floating out of those houses.She couldn't help crying until the neighbors were alarmed.

Therefore, she is very aware of the meaning of loneliness.

"Won't it be lonely to stay at school for Christmas?" Eleanor said. "You can choose to spend Christmas with other people's homes! I think Avery will welcome you to go."

"I'd rather stay at school," said Tom, and drew a thick book from the shelf. "And I've got some things to do."

The day before the Christmas holidays, Professor Slughorn invited Tom to his dinner party.Tom seemed to be the only freshman he invited; most of the others were juniors and up.

Surprisingly, not all the people invited were Slytherins.Among them were three Gryffindors, two Ravenclaws, and one Hufflepuff prefect.

"I'm very glad that we have two newcomers today." Slughorn said with a smile, "This is Tom Riddle, his talent in potions is extraordinary, not inferior to mine at all. "

"Thank you for your compliment, Professor." Tom said modestly, "I'm far behind you."

"I think you are more talented as an actor." Eleanor whispered in his ear.

"Shut up, Muggle." Tom said quietly through his teeth.

"And this Mr. Sam Farrell." Slughorn looked at the fat boy who was struggling to cut the steak, "His father, Ernest Farrell, just won Wizards Weekly's most charming smile." prize!"

The fat boy looked up and grinned at Slughorn.Eleanor couldn't help noticing that his teeth were crooked and had a vegetable leaf on them.

Slughorn coughed softly, "It seems that heredity doesn't always explain the problem." He turned to look at a Slytherin fourth-year student, "Willick, tell us about your Christmas plans."

"We had planned to go to Zurich for vacation. My family has a villa there." Willik said with some pride, "but a friend of my father in Finland invited us to his place, so we changed the plan temporarily."

"Sounds great!" Slughorn said with a smile. "Finland is a nice place, I was there once a few years ago..."

Afterwards, almost all the students started talking about their Christmas plans.They all seemed to be trying to get Professor Slughorn's attention, especially the few Slytherins.

Finally, the conversation started to take a strange turn.The topic of their discussion seems to be no longer simple vacation plans, but each showing off their family's financial resources.

Only one person remained silent all the time, and that was Tom.

"It's really stupid." Eleanor couldn't help saying.Her voice was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

People seem to have noticed Eleanor's existence.They all stopped talking and looked up at her.

Slughorn looked at her in surprise. "Did you say something, Miss Alford?"

"Nothing," said Eleanor, folding her arms. "I just think your conversation is stupid."

Slughorn frowned, seemingly resenting Eleanor's disrespectful attitude.But when his eyes fell on Tom who was silent with his head down, he suddenly showed an expression of enlightenment as if he understood something.

"Sorry, Tom," he said guiltily, "now let's change the subject."

But Tom said softly: "It's all right, sir. I really like hearing people talking about these things. They sound very interesting... You know, I rarely have a chance to go out in the orphanage, so..."

Slughorn looked pitiful at once. "Oh, dear Tom."

After that, his enthusiasm for Tom began to be far greater than that of other people.He began to praise Tom non-stop, saying that his other courses were also very good, and almost all the professors liked him.

"I never misjudge," said Professor Slughorn, smiling. "You're going to do great things, Tom."

Tom suddenly became the hottest favorite at the dinner party, which made the other students envious.

The boy, Willick, showed obvious jealousy, and then tried to get the professor's attention back on himself.

Soon, Professor Slughorn tells a bad joke about goblins.Eleanor didn't even catch the joke.

Willick feigned a shrill laugh at the joke.

Tom forced a smile, and flicked his wand impatiently with one hand under the table.

The author has something to say: I didn't check for typos~ Everyone is sharp-eyed, just help me find it, oh well. .

The TMR fanart I saw ~ probably twelve or thirteen-year-old TMR! 233

Painter anti, she draws beautifully~