Christmas passed quickly and before I knew it, the rest of Hogwarts students had returned. When Emily, Brianna and I were in Hogsmeade buying Christmas gifts, I had bought diaries from the book store. I bought six of them. For Brianna, Emily, Chris, Alison, Billy and a new one for myself. Then I figured I hadn't gotten Avery anything, and the two of us had gotten a little closer. So I gave him the sixth diary for Christmas. In return, he got me a whole bunch of joke products and sweets.

On the first night the students had returned from their families, Headmaster Dippet had given a brief welcome-back speech as well as wishing they had a happy Christmas. Alison and Chris wouldn't stop snogging each other beside me, so Billy and I were kind of just sitting there feeling awkward.

"So...erm..." Billy said awkwardly. My eyes flickered behind him and I could see Brianna staring longingly at the back of his head. "Thanks again for the diary."

"You've been thanking me for the last five minutes," I sighed, shaking my head jokingly at him, which he had grinned back slightly. "And, for the second time in five minutes, thank you for the perfume. I was more expecting some new textbooks and quills but perfume works."

Billy laughed. "You're welcome. A bit weird that you buy Chris and I a diary, don't you think?"

"How so?" I furrowed my brows.

"I figured that a diary was more for girls, you know? I'm not ungrateful or anything- I quite like it actually, very useful diaries are."

"Rubbish," I retorted. "I know loads of boys who own a diary."

That was obviously a lie, but surely a few boys at Hogwarts owned a diary. Before Billy got the chance to ask which boys owned a diary, Chris and Alison pulled apart, gasping for air as if they were underwater for half an hour. They both had big grins on their faces.

"You done?" I raised an eyebrow.

Alison rolled her eyes and nodded, giving Chris one last peck on the lips.

-

Dinner ended and I went to bed early, well prepared for classes the next day. I met up with Avery at the entrance to the Great Hall the next morning after breakfast, and he and I walked together down to the dungeons for Potions. I was a bit upset to be starting class again; I was actually growing on walking around Hogwarts not having to worry about going to class or waking up early.

Avery and I were in deep conversation about a certain potion- the Draught of Living Death to be precise- when someone had sharply and purposely bumped their shoulder hard against mine, making me drop the books I was holding that I hadn't bothered putting in my bag. One of my ink jars fell from my hands and splattered against the floor, ink spraying the bottom of my robes. I looked up with an angry stare, and Tom Riddle was a little ahead of me. He looked back over his shoulder with a smirk, and continued on walking.

"What is your problem?" Avery demanded, glaring at the back of Tom's head. Tom didn't look back. Instead, he continued on walking, laughing to himself.

I bent down to pick up my books and Avery picked up one of my other books and handed it to me, still glaring at the back of Tom's head.

"It's all right," I sighed, using magic to clean up the ink and throw away the small jar; it was obviously possible to repair the jar, but it wasn't possible for the ink to be back in the jar. I quickly disposed of it and headed towards Slughorn's classroom.

"Don't worry about him," Avery said loudly. "He is just jealous that nobody really likes him. Oh, and those fools he calls his friends? They aren't even people!"

"Hey, calm down; people are looking," I said quietly. Avery still seemed to be very angry at Tom and he never really hesitated to keep quiet about it. At least he wasn't upset and moping any more, though.

"Let them."

We entered the class room and sat in the front row where nobody had bothered to sit. Slughorn wasn't here just yet; so everybody was chatting loudly to each other. Alison was talking to Emily and Brianna was talking with Billy, the four of them deeply in conversation.

"I wonder what potion we'll be brewing today," I said, my voice coming out happily.

"That is if we are brewing a potion today. But whatever it is, I will definitely blow it up again," Avery grumbled, slumping his cheek onto his fist.

"Thinking positive would be a start, Avery," said a voice from the right. It was Tom, and he was sitting beside Malfoy who chuckled. Tom smirked darkly at Avery and I, whilst Avery glared back at him. "And here you are wondering why I am so good at potions. Think positive, you daft fish."

Avery growled loudly and chose to ignore Tom like I had told him to for the past few days. I glared at Tom when he chuckled and looked at me, and I twisted in my seat so I was facing the front.

The door to the back of the room closed loudly, signalling that Slughorn had just entered the room. "Morning, everybody. How were your holidays? ...splendid!"

"Sir," Avery raised his hand. "Are we going to be making a potion today?"

"Not today, my boy. Just thought you lot would listen to my voice and -hey, now, none of that nonsense- and jot down some notes. You will need to know this stuff, it is very important. And at the end of the lesson you will come up and grab one of these textbooks and read through pages 40-70 by Wednesday."

Whilst the entire class groaned and mumbled under their breaths, I heard Avery sigh in relief.

"Well there will be a small quiz on Wednesday. If you choose not to study then don't complain when you fail, now..." Slughorn continued to talk and I listened intently, scribbling away with Avery's ink.

I tried to write every single word that was coming out of his mouth. By the looks of it, so did Tom. He was leaning forward with furrowed brows and scribbling away at an impossible speed. I stared in awe, watching his hand move so fast I was beginning to get dizzy. Unexpectedly, Tom glanced over casually, meeting my eye. He frowned slightly and I blushed from embarrassment. I quickly looked away and wrote a little more, biting my lip to keep myself from groaning loudly.

I raised my hand. Slughorn glanced over at me and shook his head. "We will have questions at the end of the lesson, Miss Benjamin. Now, as I was saying, the-"

"No, sir, please. Do you think you could talk a little slower. I can't really pay attention and write everything you say at the same time."

"That is why you only write down the important information," Slughorn explained calmly, though he looked slightly bothered that I had interrupted him. "You need only listen to the rest of what I am saying. Now, where was I? Oh, yes..."

I shrugged and listened to Slughorn talk, accidentally zoning out in the process of it. I felt amused eyes watching me, but I chose to ignore it and write down at a slow and bored pace. I did care about good grades, so I wanted to write everything down, but there wasn't really any point. And, besides, I didn't give a flying pig about potions. I probably wouldn't be making any in the future.

"Come on," I heard Avery whisper in my ear. "We have Muggle studies."

"Hm, what?" I snapped my head up at him, breaking out of my slow trance.

"Potions is over," Avery said, looking very amused. He helped me pack my things away and we exited the classroom.

When we got to muggle studies, Professor Callahan was already in the classroom, reading through some parchment that was on his desk. He looked slightly happy today. Once we were all seated, he went into the depths of actors and actresses and plays and muggle theatres. A few people were very interested, whilst other people, like myself (because I already knew about it,) and Tom, whose group were not with him at the moment, weren't very. I hadn't noticed that Tom did muggle studies. If I remembered correctly, he thought of muggleborns as 'mudbloods' as he had mistakenly thought that I was a muggleborn the first night I had met him.

Obviously, Professor Callahan didn't notice he did muggle studies, too.

"Riddle? What are you doing here?"

Tom suddenly looked over at Callahan with a fake look of politeness plastered on his face.

"Oh, sorry, sir," he said in a polite voice. "I do not study Divination any more." Tom's eyes suddenly looked over at me. "I have no need to."

Tom stood from his desk and walked over to give Callahan a light-coloured parchment and he sat back down.

"Great," Avery mumbled. "He only switched just to be in the same class as me."

I didn't say anything to that.

"Now," Callahan suddenly said loudly, making me jump. He grinned. "Why don't we have a few volunteers demonstrate acting? Hm? Anybody want to give it a go?"

Everyone exchanged glances or hid their faces behind books. Whispers spread across the classroom, and it was obvious that nobody wanted to demonstrate. I didn't blame them; not even I wanted to demonstrate.

"Mr. Riddle, what about you give it a go?" Callahan suggested, looking over at Tom.

I looked behind my shoulder. Tom stared straight ahead at Professor Callahan with a fake look, though to me it looked more like if Callahan made him, he, Tom, was going to commit murder. "I couldn't possibly, sir..."

"It's all right, Riddle, don't be shy. Don't worry about making any mistakes- all of you are going to be making plenty of those in this class. That is why I am here to help guide you. Come to the front, please."

Tom's features dropped to a blank one and he reluctantly got up from his seat and walked to the front of the class. He exhaled in annoyance. Avery took one look at Tom's face before snickering- quite loudly, too. Professor Callahan heard it, too, and he looked right at me. Me!

"Miss Benjamin, what on earth is so funny?" Callahan demanded.

I frowned. "But, I didn't- no, that wasn't-"

"To the front, Miss Benjamin."

Avery gave me an apologetic look, but there was no way he was going to tell Callahan it was him that was snickering because there was no way he was going to demonstrate acting with Tom Riddle. The two of them would probably demonstrate duelling. I sighed and stood from my chair, wandering over to the front. Tom was glaring at Avery- but I could tell he was glad it was me rather than Avery.

"Is there a script, sir?" I asked impatiently.

Callahan shook his head and wandered to the middle of the class, and he sat in a stray chair with the rest of the audience. "You two can make it up on the spot. In the 19th century that is what most actors and actresses did while up on stage when they forgot their lines. In fact, I am certain most of them still do it today. Riddle, you start."

Tom sighed and rolled his eyes. He moved in front of me so that we were facing each other. He looked me deep in the eyes with a bored expression on his face.

"Sir, I'm afraid nothing comes to mind."

Callahan put a hand to his chin. "I could make a suggestion - perhaps something rather lovely. Should be easy enough."

Tom exhaled, annoyance flashing through his eyes.

"I am in great need of a hug, Abigail. But not from just anybody. I want one from you," he said this in a monotone, and I bit my lip to keep myself from giggling.

"There will be plenty of that," I replied in, also, a bored tone. This was just awful acting. "I can see my future in your eyes."

Tom's fist went straight to his mouth and he turned away from the class with his eyes shut, trying to muffle his laughter. I was confused at first, but then when I had caught onto what I had just said, I couldn't help but feel how ironic it was and ended up laughing as well. Tom bent down, his back to me and the class, and he tried covering up his laughter with coughs. I had never heard Tom laugh with amusement before, and it sounded very foreign to me.

Slow clapping came from the middle of the class, and I stopped laughing and looked over at Professor Callahan who was staring at the two of us with a stern look. Tom stopped laughing and looked at Professor Callahan.

"I love how the both of you actually ended up smiling at the end," Callahan said. Tom and I exchanged a glance, knowing that we were both going to fail this topic, and we glared at each other. Callahan then said sharply, "sit down, both of you."

Tom and I didn't hesitate to sit back down so that we were away from each other.