The Serpent
[Every great evil
has a humble beginning]

19th May 1927
Thursday

The weather grew warmer, and Tom learned more with each passing month.
He was like a child prodigy.
He could already sit all by himself at only 3 months.

Sometimes Katherine was sure that Tom was gifted!

However, he avoided it to crawl as much as possible. And if he had to crawl, then he made a disgusted face.
From time to time he pulled himself up the bars of his now new crib.

As Tom grew very quickly, he no longer fitted into the small crib and a new bed was needed.
Then the short term, he got a new bed, where he also played and learned.
Tom learned fast and a lot.

At only five months Tom had already said his first word.
No.

Again and again Katherine heard the little boy repeat the word.
"No, No, No!"

They had another baby at the Orphanage, that Miss Cole was responsible for.
Little Daniel.
Daniel was able to sit just as Tom had already learned his first word!

That made the caretakers anxious.
They feared, the strange child.
Doors suddenly slammed shut when he cried, and objects were no longer at their usual places.

"He is a child of the devil! How else can he learn things so fast?"
"Maybe he's just blessed by God!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Katherine! A son of the devil that's what he is! And these strange things happen around him! That's not normal! We know nothing of his father, and the poor woman died after the birth of this spawn of hell! That is already a bad sign!" Lilly, another supervisor waved like a crazy with her hands and her eyes were wide open.
"Now, now, Lilly! Here there are a few children of whom the mothers died after birth!" The warden looked skeptically at Lilly.

Katherine had wrinkled her nose disapprovingly and looked slightly mad at Lilly.

It was, after all, her little protege!

Katherine had really grown to love him almost like her own son.
"Such a nonsense! Your tongue should burn for such terrible words!" Katherine exclaimed and furiously clenched her hands into fists.
Lilly now also looked disapprovingly at Katherine.
"How can you still protect it, don't tell me that you love that devil's child?!" The voice of the blonde Lilly sounded shrill and she looked at Katherine with wide eyes.
"You talk such rubbish! Little Tom is not the devil! Maybe Daniel is simply dense?!" Katherine knew that Daniel was not dense, but if Lilly attacked her little Tom, she would retaliate.

"That's enough!"
The warden had risen.

Katherine eventually got up, and left, closing the door with a loud crash.

She went to her room with hasty steps, and slammed the door shut.
Katherine looked quite petite, so nobody expected such a reaction on her part.
Katherine's long curly red hair fell over her face, and her brown eyes looked angry and sad. Katherine's pretty face twisted into a grimace.

Tom, who had been awoken by the noise, looked at Katherine angrily, then he cautiously moved the bars of his little bed upward.

Katherine looked at Tom and walked carefully toward the boy.
Tom still hadn't smiled.

No, he had smiled once!

When a cup had fallen on the head of a child, who had pulled at his clothes.
That's when Tom had laughed.

Katherine was happy that he didn't laugh like that anymore.

She picked Tom up, and looked at him closely.
His black hair hung in his face and was disheveled, yet it shone with some kind of elegance.

The baby's face had delicate features and one could clearly see that Tom would be very handsome when he grew up.

Katherine was sure that the girls would fall at his feet.
His eyes were mostly neutral, but she had seen this red hue when he was angry.

Tom had never had much baby fat.
He always seemed quite elegant.
Only the gray bodysuit did not fit his aristocratic appearance.
It identified him as an orphan.
As a boy without a family.

Tom watched Katherine disapprovingly.
He did not like it to be held under the arms, and being dangled in the air like Katherine was doing now!
Tom kicked his feet a couple of times, and he was placed in a much more comfortable position.

Katherine sighed before she dropped back onto the bed.

Tom was now laying on her belly and looked at her angrily.
His cheeks had reddened and his eyes stared at Katherine with intensity, but she didn't budge.

She didn't care anymore.
Katherine still felt uncomfortable in spite of everything, but she didn't avoid Tom like everyone else.

She ran her fingers reassuringly trough the baby's, which showed no emotion.
But even this was normal for Katherine.

She saw the Toms face assumed its normal pale color again, and Tom relaxed noticeably.

Katherine grinned briefly, then folded her arms behind her head.

Tom looked at her with intensity.
He took in every little detail.
By now he knew Katherine's habits.
All of them.

From sleeping habits to eating habits, he knew everything.

For example, his foster mother usually twirled her a her long, red hair around her finger when she had finished eating.
Katherine always slept facing Tom's bed.

And she always had one hand under her pillow when she slept.

Katherine closed her eyes.
Tom was content that she did.

At the moment he did not want any attention.
There were moments when he wanted attention, in others, the baby would have liked to vanish.

Knock, Knock!
Suddenly there was an annoying sound at the door.
Tom opened his eyes and looked angrily at the door. He got even angrier when he noticed that he had fallen asleep on the belly of his foster mother, which had put a hand on his back.

Knock, Knock!
The terrible noise was heard again and Tom was angry!

He had been sleeping so peacefully!
Unfortunately, Tom was a really light sleeper and woke at the slightest sound.

On the contrary to Katherine!

Tom struggled briefly, but she made no move to open my eyes!

Tom kicked at Katherine's belly, but there was still no reaction, which made him really angry.

Knock, Knock!
The terrible knocking sound echoed throughout the room yet again, and Tom's cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red.

Furious, he fixed the door, but Katherine remained still as a corpse.
Suddenly she woke up and stood up so abruptly that she almost threw Tom off herself.
She managed to grasp the little baby quickly, and smoothed out his hair.

"Come in!" She then said firmly.
A little boy opened the door.

He obviously came straight from outside because his clothes were littered with dirt marks.
"The matron wants to speak to you, Ma'am!" The boy rattled his line down.

It was one of the very well-behaved children.

Katherine hoped that Tom would be like that one day.

Sasha stood there, hands on the left and right next to him. He spoke with a firm voice, and looked Katherine directly in the eyes.
After he had finished, he bowed, then walked backward to the door again and closed it.

"Play nice Tom, I'll be right back!"

And with that Katherine left the room, closing the door at an indifferent looking Tom.
_________________________________

A/N:
Hillo there (:

I just wanted to take a moment, to tell you abut this story called:
Changed
[And in love with Draco Malfoy]
By hogwartsislyfe

It's a Harry Potter and Twilight crossover with an interesting twist, so you might want to head over to hogwartsislyfe's profile and check it out!(:

Also there will be about two more chapters added to this story, and it will be placed on hold after that- at least untill I'm finished with two of the other three books that I'm working on.

Much love
Jamz