Tom couldn't help himself. He was confused. He had locked himself well way from the other students in the room of requirement, a room no one but himself knew about, and he stared down at the object he would spilt part of his soul into. The only problem was, he didn't know if he wanted to do it. Why was so he unsure? Only weeks ago he was determined to begin his soul splitting and now he was hesitating.

Would he really die if he did this? In fifty three years would he really be destroyed? Death was ones weakness to Tom, and it was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. So why was he hesitating?

"You'll die if you do this," her voice whispered in his ear. Startled, Tom looked away from his diary and looked around, but he was alone. It was all in his head. Tom growled at himself for allowing Abigail's words get to him. "Tom, you don't have to do it."

"Get out of my head," Tom uttered angrily under his breath.

He shut his eyes tight and forced them open again. He looked down at his diary, the very object he was going to be using as a horcrux. His first horcrux. He had killed before- so it would work. But he was still hesitating. He was launching into every thought that produced in his mind, unable to break free of them.

"I know that you want everybody to believe that they have to stay clear of you because you're some evil student or something..."

"That's just the thing," Tom's voice echoed, "I am just some evil student."

"...but I know there is good in you."

"No!"

"It's in there somewhere, I know it is."

Fed up with her voice filling his thoughts, Tom yelled loudly in anger and threw his diary across the room. Tom hated himself for allowing that foolish Ravenclaw to get to him. He had indeed pondered whether or not she should be his next victim but he couldn't do it. He didn't think he'd able to live without her annoying presence, her idiotic questions and her naïve doings. Although Tom would never admit it, he secretly admired that she wasn't scared of him. Some of his 'friends' were afraid of him and they had known him years. Abigail had only known him for a few months. The only thing that bothered him was that she was exactly like Professor Dumbledore. Curious. She could see through him, she never left him alone, and she was, for some reason, always wherever he was. The only difference between Abigail and Professor Dumbledore: Tom wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Even if Tom hadn't become fond of Abigail's presence, if he had killed off just one more Hogwarts student, the school would most likely close and he'd be sent back to that filthy muggle orphanage.

But that wasn't the thing that had gotten to him.

It was his hesitation.

This was what he wanted. Immortality. He was afraid of her words. He knew she was a seer but what if she was wrong? It was possible the future could change, so maybe he'd live. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't want to risk it.

"I'll just wait," Tom uttered to himself, picking up his diary and pocketing it inside his coat. He'd wait just a little longer.

•¥•¥•¥•

Abigail's POV

"This is a nice dress," Brianna gasped, picking up a boring black dress out of my trunk.

"Brianna, it's a dinner party, not a funeral," I said, snatching the dress away from her and throwing it on my bed.

"So, why bring it to Hogwarts, then?"

I opened my mouth but quickly shut it. Brianna smiled innocently while Emily thrashed around through my trunk, throwing clothes everywhere. "Good question."

Brianna snatched the black dress off my bed and started to strip. "Well, if you are not going to wear it, then I am."

"Go ahead," I said to her. There wasn't really any point in Brianna getting dressed up since she wasn't invited by Slughorn to attend his dinner party.

Emily eventually stopped going through my clothes, sweat dripping down her forehead. She held out three bits of clothing and a pair of my shoes. There was a simple dark blue dress, a black cardigan, dark stockings and my best pair of black slip ons.

"You are wearing this," Emily grinned, handing the clothing to me. "Quickly get dressed so we can go to Slytherin. I need to get my clothes. I am feeling very homesick spending all my time in Ravenclaw."

After Brianna and I were dressed, the three of us headed down to the dungeons. Brianna and Emily weren't even bothered by how creepy the dungeon was when it was empty. Once inside Slytherin, I followed quietly behind Emily and Brianna. It was empty, apart from Avery, Tom, Lestrange and Malfoy who were all ready to attend Slughorn's dinner party. They hadn't noticed that we came in. We stopped at the dormitory staircase when Emily held out a hand to stop us.

"What are you doing?" I frowned.

Emily's face flushed and she looked away in shame. "I...I-I'm not very comfortable getting dressed in front of other people. I'm sorry, but please wait here. I'll come down when I'm finished and we will do our hair then leave. OK?"

Brianna and I watched Emily rush up the dormitory staircase to get dressed, and we just stood there, waiting, not wanting to make a peep because of that small gang on the opposite side of the common room.

"Can we at least go up there and wait outside the door?" I whispered, shifting uncomfortably.

"Emily doesn't like that," Brianna uttered back to me, keeping her eye on the gang. "She feels we will burst through the door on her naked. She is silly like that."

"Tell me about it."

The small gang laughed with each other, sending music to my ears. Tom almost smiled. Brianna, from what I could tell, shrunk further into the shadows of the corners in fear. But she had knocked over a vase, and it shattered against the floor. The group quickly silenced and looked over to see what had made the noise. Growls echoed across the common room.

I pointed my wand at the vase. "Reparo." The vase mended, and then I levitated it back onto the small, unnoticed table it had been on.

Malfoy's eyes darted between Brianna and I, and he looked utterly confused. He was the first to thunder over to us. "Where is Emily?" He asked coolly. He looked us up and down. "Do not tell me you two have been invited by Slughorn."

"No," I said. "Only Emily and I have. If you must know, she is getting dressed."

"Even though it is clearly none of your business," Brianna snapped. "I am fed up with you thinking you need to know everything Emily does and everywhere she is. She does not fancy you and she never will. She is way out of your league, Malfoy. Just leave her be!"

Malfoy's nostrils flared, and Avery, noticing there was about to be trouble, scrambled out of his chair and made his way over to us. But he wasn't quick enough. Malfoy's hands shook and then he shoved Brianna hard in the chest, causing her to fall back against the table with the vase. It shattered again.

"Hey!" I shouted, shoving Malfoy back. Malfoy grunted, but kept steady on his feet. He charged at me, but someone stood in between Malfoy and I. At first I thought it was Avery, but he was standing there in shock. I looked up and, of course, it was Tom.

"What are you doing, Riddle?" Malfoy spluttered, looking anywhere but up at Tom.

"I do not want to have to take you to the hospital wing right when we must be at the dinner party," Tom said smoothly, which, in return, Malfoy had given Tom a look of disbelief. Noticing Brianna was still on the ground, staring up at Tom in shock, I quickly helped her up.

"What are you implying, Tom? That a girl can beat me or something?"

"I wasn't talking to you, but yes I do believe so," Tom replied coldly. He looked like he was about to say something else but the sound of footsteps running down the stairs stopped him. Emily stopped right at the third step in shock, and backed away slightly.

"What is going on?" She asked slowly, looking back at Brianna and I.

"Just a little misunderstanding," Avery said to her, keeping his eye set on Malfoy, who had his eye on Emily.

"Emily!" Malfoy exclaimed. He rushed past Tom and took Emily's hands in his. Emily looked disgusted. "You look divine!"

"Can you leave me alone!?" Emily shrieked, trying to shake Malfoy away but he didn't budge.

But Malfoy had a point. Emily did look divine. She had on a silver dress with tiny sequels and it made her hair and eyes look shiny. Tom and Avery pulled Malfoy away, before he shrugged them off and straightened out his tux.

"One date, Emily," Malfoy pleaded, desperation clear in his eyes. Avery rolled his eyes from beside him and mumbled something under his breath. "Just one. That is all I ask."

"I most certainly am not dating you, Malfoy," Emily said coldly, her nose up in the air. She linked her arm with mine and grabbed onto Brianna's hand and pulled us up the stairs and into the girls dormitory.

"He is so desperate!" Brianna exclaimed angrily. "He can have any girl he wants and he chooses to go after you. Especially in front of Riddle like that! Why would he do that?"

"Well, at least we now know that since he acted that way in front of Tom, he certainly will not be doing it again," I said, remembering Emily and Brianna's words to me the day before. "He will surely drum something into Malfoy's head, right?"

"Right!" Emily grinned happily, forcing me into a wooden chair. She sat me in front of a mirror and combed my hair. "I like the way your skin looks with the dress and cardigan. You have a nice skin colour, Abigail."

"Thank you," I smiled. "Yours blends well with that dress, as well."

By the time Emily had finished, my hair was tied tight into a ponytail and I had a very minimum amount of eyeliner on my top lid- to the point where it looked like I wasn't wearing any eyeliner at all. Emily put a lot of eyeliner on herself, and I pouted with envy at how pretty she looked. Emily and I said goodbye to Brianna and -thankfully the common room was empty when we went down- made our way over to Slughorn's classroom.

"You do realise that Malfoy is not going to be able to control himself when he sees you," I smirked at Emily.

"I could say the same about Riddle when he sees you. Or Avery. Avery is always watching you," Emily grinned, clapping her hands and squealing. "Riddle always scolds him when he does! Avery is very kind, Abigail. You should consider pursuing him."

"What has Brianna done to you?" I fake gasped. "Weren't you just defending me the other day when she said something like that?"

Emily giggled and pushed open the door to Professor Slughorn's classroom, where a long, oval table was in the middle instead of the original classroom desks and chairs, and many students were sitting in the seats. Malfoy's eyes were popping out of his head when he had seen Emily.

"Ah! Miss McKinnon, Miss Benjamin. Have a seat," Slughorn beamed, smiling widely.

"Sorry we are late, sir," I said apologetically, noticing we were the last ones to arrive.

"It's no matter," he replied gently. I took a seat next to Emily, and on the other side of me was Avery, who smiled slightly. Tom was watching Avery like a hawk.

Professor Slughorn proceeded to talk about things that I didn't care about, so I dozed out. A little while later, desert was in front of us, and every student paid attention to eating it or playing with it rather than listening to Slughorn talk nonsense.

What really caught my attention was the small girl on an angle to me with freckles scattered across her face. It was Mary Saward. I gaped slightly, and quickly looked over to Tom, who was already looking back at me with a sharp stare. Mary didn't look the slightest bit bothered about anything. In fact, she looked happy and was laughing along with Slughorn when he had directed a sentence toward her. Her eyes showed nothing but pure happiness. He must have erased her memory from that night.

I stiffened when a hand grabbed mine from under the table, a thumb stroking against the back of my hand. I looked out the corner of my eye to see Avery looking back at me out of the corner of his eye. I felt like I was suffocating under a lot of pressure, but nothing was pressuring me. Other than Tom watching Avery and I like a hawk. I didn't want Avery to get into any trouble, so I gripped his hand slightly before taking my hand out of his.

"And what do your parents do, Abigail?"

I snapped out of my own bubble and looked over at Slughorn. He was smiling widely.

"Oh, nothing interesting," I smiled back at him. "My mother lives in the muggle world."

"How exciting! And what does she do? What about your father?"

"He is no longer with us. But my mother works as a nurse. It was something I hated about her because I was never allowed a day off school," I laughed, thinking everybody else would laugh. But they didn't, so I wiped the smile off my face. "Ah..."

"A nurse you say?" I nodded. "Fascinating!"

I shrugged and breathed in relief when Slughorn started to talk to other students instead of me.

"Abby..." Avery breathed into my ear, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.

"Yes?" I whispered, twisting in my seat to look at him.

"We need to talk."

I glanced to the left. Tom was staring Avery down. Avery must have been disobeying his orders.

"There is nothing to talk about," I said sharply, twisting back around in my chair.

"Yes, there is," Avery continued. "I know I have been very cold toward you, Abby, and I'm sorry about that. But you have been driving me mad."

"Thank you for being honest, Avery," I said, looking at him this time. "But we can't."

"Is there another?" Avery frowned, a look of hurt clouding his eyes.

"No," I answered. "There isn't. We just can't. I really do appreciate your honesty but-"

"But it is not enough, is it?" Avery said harshly, causing a few eyes to look over at him. Avery shoved his chair back, making a very loud scraping sound, and stood up and started to walk toward the classroom door.

"Avery..." I said, but he ignored me and walked off out the classroom.

Emily was looking at me curiously for the rest of the dinner party. There were only a few people left now, standing and saying goodbye to Professor Slughorn. Emily went over to say goodbye while I waited by the door for her, smiling. A hand tugged at mine. I jumped and spun around, coming face to face with a pair of dark green eyes.

"Relax, it's just me," Tom rolled his eyes. I frowned, watching him put his hand into his tux. He pulled out a book. My diary. "I thought it was time that I return this."

I gratefully took the book in my hand, but Tom tugged it slightly, both our hands on either end. He tugged it again to pull me closer, and he said, "I am putting my trust in you. Do not go talking to anybody. I mean it. You know what I am capable of now. It'd pain others to see you hurting." He used his other hand to put his fingers against my cheek. I look at him in disbelief, but I was frozen. He squinted and drew his hand back.

When he left, I opened the diary to make sure all my notes were still in there. It was exactly the same. Only Tom had added the things I said about his future, signing his name at the bottom of the things he wrote. He had even left my notes about him in there. He was really confusing me, and I believed that he knew it and was enjoying it.