A SLEEPING, NEWBORN BABY LAID IN A WOVEN BASKET IN FRONT OF WOOL'S ORPHANAGE. Her mother and father both looked at her, guilt racking their bodies. The stars in the night sky were shining upon them, twinkling as if they were dancing in the mere presence of the baby witch. Her mother placed her hand inside of the child's basket and lightly grasped her hand. "Do we have to give her up?" she whispered as tears gathered in her eyes.

    Her father placed a hand on the woman's back, trying to comfort her, "It's for the best." He knew it was true. The child would be safer away from the wizarding world, and definitely safer away from the two of them. Neither one of them were capable of caring for a child.

"Oh, James!" she cried as she turned to him. She clutched onto him as tears soaked into his shirt. James held onto her, his own tears escaping his eyes. "We have to go, Mary. Before they come out here and spot us." His voice cracked as he spoke.

Mary reluctantly let go of him and nodded her head. "Okay." she whispered. The two of them stood up and gave their daughter one last glance before looking back at each other. "Maybe one day, we'll be able to come back for her."

James sadly smiled, "We both know we can never do that. The curse is far too strong for us to break." He grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her along with him, neither one looking back at the poor child they had abandoned.

A few minutes later, a skinny, harassed looking woman with sharp features stepped out of the orphanage as she thought she had heard someone crying. Her eyes fell to the basket and her eyes widened in shock. It was very cold outside, and the snow had begun to make it's way inside of the basket with the child. She quickly grabbed the basket and carried the child inside. She had already had a long night, with Merope Riddle giving birth to a baby boy, and then dying an hour later. Now, here she was, carrying a baby girl inside of the orphanage only a few hours after the depressing event.

She sat the basket on the top of a counter and gazed at the child, a deep sigh escaped her lips. Now she had two babies to care for. As she studied the little girl, she noticed a piece of paper sticking from between the thing blanket that was covering her. The older woman grabbed the paper and unfolded it. Scrawled in writing were the words Phoebe Pearson. That was it. There was nothing else written down about the baby. No birth date, no sorry, no special message to be passed on to the girl as she got older. Just her name.

"Phoebe." the woman, known as Mrs. Cole, whispered. The baby moved slightly at the sound of her name, pulling another sigh from the older lady, "What to do with you." They didn't have another baby bed in the orphanage, just the one that currently held Tom Riddle.

After a few minutes of thinking, she picked Phoebe up and cradled her closely to her body. The child was in such a heavy sleep, that she still didn't wake up. Mrs. Cole carried her to what she now called the nursery room, and stood over the crib that currently held Tom Riddle.

The said baby was staring up at her, cold and emotionless. She thought it was odd for a baby to be staring at her in such a way, but she shoved the thought away and gave him a warm smile. "I've brought you a friend." she softly whispered as she attempted to show Phoebe to Tom.

     Of course, Tom was too little to truly understand what she was talking about, so she wasn't surprised when she didn't get a reaction. She laid Phoebe down next to Tom, the baby girl stayed asleep but her hands latched onto Tom, almost as if seeking some sort of comfort. Mrs. Cole simply watched the interaction with a small smile on her lips, she couldn't help but think about how cute the little action was. She finally walked away, allowing Tom to finally drift off into a dreamless sleep.

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SIX YEAR OLD TOM AND PHOEBE SAT NEXT TO EACH OTHER IN SILENCE. Ever since they had been old enough to walk, they had constantly stuck by each other's side. Mrs. Cole had tried separating them once they got older, even trying to give them their own beds, but the two always managed to find a way back to each other. She would wake up and find them lying in the same bed, sleeping peacefully. She had even gone as far as putting them in different rooms, but nothing worked.

Phoebe began humming to herself as she reached over and grabbed Tom's hand. She considered the boy to be her very best friend. She had been around him her entire life, and couldn't imagine a world without him.

Tom simply let the girl latch onto his hand, he was used to the small action. All of his life she had been there, she was the only constant thing he had. He gave the girl a small smile, "Want to play a game?"

"Yes please!" Phoebe exclaimed. She always enjoyed playing games with Tom. It made her days become much brighter. She gave the boy a large smile, "Can we play hide and seek again?"

"Only if I can be the seeker." Tom replied with a shrug. It was almost unfair, the way he could find her so easily, but Phoebe eagerly agreed.

     Before Tom could say anything else, the girl stood up, "Close your eyes." she demanded. He followed her instructions and then began counting.

Phoebe quickly ran towards some trees, and climbed up the largest one she could find. She settled herself up high and hid behind the leaves and branches. She tugged some of her brown hair out of the small branches it had grabbed onto, and then waited. She knew she wouldn't have to wait long as she could already feel Tom's presence become closer.

      A few seconds later, Tom stopped below the tree she was hiding in. "I found you." he called out. Phoebe stayed silent, he hadn't seen her yet, so she technically hadn't been found. She held her breath as she looked down at him, surprised he hadn't noticed her spot.

     I know you're up there. His words flooded her mind with a sense of familiarity. It should've been odd to her, their mental connection. But six year olds rarely question things that are normal to them. Neither of them had brought it up to Mrs. Cole though, they just knew she wouldn't understand.

     Come down so we can play another game.

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     ON PHOEBE AND TOM'S EIGHTH BIRTHDAY, STRANGE THINGS BEGAN TO HAPPEN. Of course, strange things had always happened in their life, but now things were becoming even more odd. Tom and Phoebe were sitting in their room together, not wanting to deal with the other people in the orphanage, and instead were just spending time together. As Phoebe was staring at the chair in front of her, she suddenly found herself wishing that it would float. The chair shook for a minute and then slowly began lifting off of the ground. Shocked, she lost her concentration and the chair slammed back onto the ground.

     Tom grabbed her hand, forcing her eyes to move to him, his dark eyes stared into her light ones, a mixture of pride and amusement in them, "You can do stuff like that too?" he whispered excitedly.

Phoebe looked at him wide-eyed. "You can do that?" she quietly asked. It was scary, yet amazing all at the same time.

"Well, of course I can do stuff like that." said Tom, an arrogant tone is his voice. But, it didn't annoy Phoebe like it did most people. Instead, she found herself leaning closer to him, her eyes sparkling in excitement.

"Show me."

      Tom smiled at her response as he gladly would show off to her. He wanted her to continue to admire him, he basked in her attention. He stood up with her hand clasped in his and led her outside. He looked around, making sure no one was watching as he didn't want to deal with the other people from the orphanage in front of her. Then, he focused on a large branch and made it float right in front of them, then he dropped it carelessly on the ground. Phoebe was unimpressed, she had just done the same thing with a chair, she turned to Tom, "Could you do that to me?"

Tom found himself becoming aggravated with the nonchalant way she was acting, but instead of yelling at her, he simply huffed and nodded his head. To be honest, he wasn't sure if he could move her like he did objects. He had never tried it on people, but there was a first for everything. He focused very hard and after a couple moments, he had Phoebe successfully floating above the ground. The said girl giggled, "I'm flying!" Amazement covered her features. Tom slowly sat her on the ground, enjoying the emotion on her face. She jumped in her spot, "Do it again!"

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PHOEBE, NOW TEN YEARS OLD, WAS LAYING IN THE GRASS OUTSIDE. They were in the country at a place Mrs. Cole took everyone once a year. She didn't know where Tom was, and assumed that he was alright. She hadn't felt any anger or distress through their bond, so she wasn't worried. A shadow suddenly appeared over her, and her eyes snapped open. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she saw Amy Benson standing above her. She sat up, keeping her eyes trained on the older girl.

"Can I help you?" she asked as she tried to keep her voice void of emotion, just like Tom had taught her. She seemed to be successful as Amy visibly flinched.

"We're going exploring in the caves." Amy began, "Tom is going too and well, Dennis and I were wondering if you wanted to come with us." The blonde fidgeted under the stare of the brunette girl, "Tom normally acts calmer around you." she blurted once she realized Phoebe didn't understand why she was being asked to go.

At those words, Phoebe understood everything. A lot of the people at the orphanage were more scared of Tom than they were her. When Tom was alone, he was more likely to torment the other children. But, with Phoebe there, he wasn't near as bad. There was only a few times she had seen him truly do something awful. Almost like he was trying to not scare his friend off. She nodded her head and stood up, "Sure. I'll go with you guys."

     They met up with Dennis first, and then they went to find Tom. They found him waiting by the entrance of the cave, his face emotionless. He narrowed his eyes when he saw Phoebe was accompanying them, but otherwise didn't say anything. He walked forward and grabbed onto the girls wrist, pulling her close to him. He didn't like it when she talked to the other children, it made him feel jealous, an emotion he hated to feel. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and looked at the other two kids. Dennis and Amy both had apprehension on their faces, although Dennis was trying to hide it.

Dennis had always been a bully towards Tom. Calling him a freak, and hurting him. Tom hated him. He hated Amy too. Almost more than he hated Dennis. Amy had always been friendly to Phoebe, trying to steal her away. He didn't want to be around either one of them. But Mrs. Cole had insisted that Tom get to know them, insisted that they explore the caves together. He motioned for the two to enter first as he didn't want the two following behind him and his friend. Once they were a little ways ahead of them, Tom turned to Phoebe. "What are you doing here?" he questioned, his voice had a twinge of anger to them, but he tried to stay calm for her sake.

    "They wanted me to come along." Phoebe explained with a shrug as she gazed into his dark eyes, "They were scared you wanted to do something to them."

      Tom sighed, "Of course they would use you." He kept his arm around her and pulled her forward with him as he walked. He kept an eye on the two ahead of him, he wouldn't put it past them to turn around and start bullying them. Of course, Amy would probably just stand there and do nothing, but Dennis.... Tom wasn't exactly sure what Dennis would do.

Phoebe looked around as they walked. She was quite curious about the cave as she had never been in one before. It was dark. Darker than she had expected. She could feel fear creeping up inside of her but she quickly shook it away. She had no reason to be scared for Tom was right beside of her. Tom would always protect her.

     Dennis looked back at them, a sneer on his face. "You two idiots could try to keep up a bit." Normally Phoebe would be offended by the statement, but as she stared at the older boy, she noticed fear in his eyes. He was being mean simply because he was scared and wanted to appear to be brave.

     "You should really learn to keep your mouth shut." Tom sneered back.

Phoebe wrapped her arm around Tom's waist in attempt to calm him. She didn't want him to get hurt, and she also didn't want him revealing the special things he could do. She was sure that Dennis would use it as an excuse to try to convince Mrs. Cole to send him away. The simple thought of someone taking Tom away from her sent anger surging through her body.

"And you should learn to not kill other people's pets." Dennis shot back, thinking of the poor bunny that had been found hanging from the rafters a few weeks back.

     Amy tried to meet Phoebe's eyes, but the brunette girl made a point at avoiding the older child's face. She knew Tom was in a bad mood, and she didn't want to give him another reason to be upset. Instead, she focused on the spot where the ground and the wall of the cave met. Her eyebrows furrowed as she saw multiple snakes slithering towards them.

     "Tom Riddle."

     The whisper came from what seemed to be nowhere and everywhere all at once. It caused an unknown feeling to swirl inside of Phoebe's body. She should've been panicking. Hearing voices wasn't a good sign and she was sure Mrs. Cole would want to send her away. The whisper came again, but this time Tom tilted his head towards the sound as if he could hear them too. It was only then that she noticed Amy and Dennis had become deathly quiet.

"Do I hear snakes?" asked Amy, her voice quivering in fear. Phoebe found herself thinking about how pathetic it was to be scared of a snake. No animal had never given Phoebe a reason to fear them, so she simply believed that animals wouldn't hurt people if people weren't so adamant on hurting them. She looked up a Tom to gauge his reaction.

A smirk appeared on Tom's lips at her question as a dark look shadowed his face. He shrugged, "Sounds like it."

Dennis took a step forward, something that was barely visible inside of the dark cave. "This is your doing, isn't it?" he sneered.

Tom opened his mouth and began to speak again, only this time it caused Amy and Dennis to clam up in fear. The words that came out of Tom's mouth were clearly not english, "My friends, attack."

Phoebe's eyes widened at his words and she began to wonder who Tom's friends were. She thought she was the only friend he had. Then her eyebrows furrowed as his statement fully clicked in her mind. Attack? She didn't want to attack the two people in front of her. The snakes got closer and Phoebe watched their every movement.

"Yes, Master." The snakes hissed towards the two ten year olds. Phoebe's mouth dropped in shock. Snakes were talking to her! Making things float, and even floating herself hadn't been this crazy.

Tom watched with an evil grin as Amy and Dennis stumbled back, trying to get away from the snakes. The reptiles curled around their feet and began sliding up their bodies. The two children tried their hardest to push the snakes off, but were unable to do so. "Make them stop!" Amy screamed in fear.

     Phoebe couldn't bring herself to speak, she was too busy watching the events unfold in front of her. She was amazed at Tom's ability to control the snakes, but she was also horrified at the sight of the snakes biting into their skin. The dark red blood dripped down their bodies in a mesmerizing way. She should've been terrified. She should've turned around and ran away to get help. But instead, she found herself turning to her best friend.

"Tom." she whispered.

The tall, dark-haired boy turned to her, his whole face was bursting in excitement and darkness. It made a shiver go down Phoebe's spine. "Yes?" he asked. The happiness in his voice almost caused the girl to say nothing. She loved it when Tom was happy, and she didn't want to be the reason his happiness went away.

     She hesitated, "Maybe we should go back. I think they learned their lesson." she didn't know what lesson they needed to learn. For a moment she wondered if Tom was torturing them just for the fun of it. No. Her Tom wouldn't do that.

The said boy huffed in aggravation. He should've known Phoebe would make him stop. She never did understand the rage he held for the other children in the orphanage. Then again, she wasn't around most of the time when they decided to bully him. But Tom was smart and always got his revenge. He hissed to the snakes, "Stop." They immediately listened to him and slithered away from them.

Amy was crying now, and Dennis had his arms wrapped around the girl as if he were seeking for comfort. "Don't tell anyone about this or else next time I won't stop them." Tom spat angrily.

     "You're such a freak." Dennis retaliated, his voice cracking. "You both are." He glanced at Phoebe who just looked away from him.

     Tom stared at him, a hard look in his eyes, "What did you say?" his voice was dangerously calm as he spoke. His grip on Phoebe tightened.

"I said, you're both fre-" His words were cut off as he suddenly began being choked by an unknown force. His hands flew up to his neck as he desperately tried to breathe.

Amy, startled, cried out, "Dennis!" She looked at Phoebe, finally catching her attention, and pointed at Tom, "Make him stop! He's going to kill him!" It was true, there was a murderous glint in Tom's eyes as he watched Dennis' thrashing body.

Phoebe attempted to pull herself away from her best friend, but his grip tightened and his eyes snapped to hers. A deep frown was on his lips, "You're not leaving me." he stated like a toddler who was losing his favorite toy.

"You're scaring me." she replied as she studied his face. In all the years of knowing him, she had never seen him want to kill a person before.

"He called you a freak." He hissed angrily, "He doesn't get to call you a freak."

Dennis fell to the ground, his face turning purple. "Please!" Amy begged as she knelt down to her friend.

Phoebe didn't know how to respond to his words. "Please stop." she finally said, her eyes pleading.

     Tom glared at her for a moment and finally let go of Dennis. The said boy gasped for breath and began to cry. The tears ran down his face like a never-ending river. Phoebe began to feel bad for the boy, despite the anger she felt at him for calling her and Tom names. She took a step forward, but Tom immediately pulled her back, not wanting her to go near them.

     "You will not speak to Phoebe again." commanded Tom as he glared at the two. "You will not even speak her name again."

     Phoebe was utterly confused. She didn't understand why she couldn't be friends with the two, but she was also scared of what might happen if she did try to become friends with them. It was clear to her that Tom didn't mind hurting other people.

    Amy looked at Phoebe, sadness and fear in her eyes, "Okay." she agreed and nodded her head.

     "Don't look at her!" Tom sneered.

     Phoebe jumped at the sudden raise of his voice. She glanced behind her at the entrance of the cave. She really wanted to leave and gather her thoughts together. She didn't like how controlling her best friend was being, but she couldn't imagine a world without him.

Amy immediately lowered her eyes to the ground, not wanting to anger Tom any further. Dennis hadn't looked up since he began to breath again. Silent tears were now steaming down his face.

"Once you both clean yourselves up, we'll leave." Tom stated as he closely watched them both.

     Dennis kept silent, Amy didn't make any move to acknowledge the sound of Tom's voice. The silence was deafening inside of the dark cave. Phoebe could vaguely make out the dripping sound of water.

     Phoebe sighed when nobody moved, "Do what he says. I don't really want to stay here forever."

     Amy listened to what she said and she stood up, pulling Dennis with her. Dennis stumbled some and leant onto Amy for support. "Let's go then, Tom." she said, her voice void of emotion.

Tom stared at her for a moment and then turned around and began walking away with Phoebe. He knew they wouldn't try anything on them now. They would be too scared. Tom wouldn't let them even get the chance to hurt them.

The bright sun outside of the cave made Phoebe wince. They had spent too long in the dark and her eyes were having a hard time adjusting. She blinked a few times and looked back at Dennis and Amy. They were both cowering together as the slowly walked behind them.

They walked until they came back across the small cottage that they were all staying at. Mrs. Cole was standing outside talking to the owner. She didn't notice the children until they got closer. When she saw them, her mouth immediately dropped in shock and horror filled her eyes. She rushed over to them and pulled Dennis and May into a hug while glaring accusingly towards Tom and Phoebe. "What happened?" she angrily questioned.

Phoebe stepped forward and gave her a small smile, "We were just exploring the cave and well," her smile dropped and a worried expression crossed her face, "We ran into some snakes. Amy and Dennis stepped in front of us and tried to get them to go away, but instead they just got hurt."

Mrs. Cole looked between Tom and Phoebe and then looked towards the other two kids, "Is that true?" she asked them.

     Tom glared at them warningly while she wasn't looking. Dennis shakily nodded his head at his look, "Yes. It's true."

     "We were just trying to be brave." Amy said feebly.

     Tom wiped the glare off his face as Mrs. Cole looked back over at them. "Go inside. I'll go help them get cleaned up." It was obvious she didn't believe a word that had been said.

     Phoebe nodded at her words and pulled Tom along. Once they got inside, she quickly pulled him to the side into an empty room. "I don't want her to take you away from me." she whispered, "What is she didn't believe us?"

     "She believed us." Tom said, "Well, she believed you." He gave her a soft smile, "Thank you for stepping up."

     Phoebe grinned at his words, "I would do anything for you."

     "I'll hold you to that."

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-',✎ HAILEY'S NOTE
This is pretty long and honestly
I was very tempted to make it
much longer but I didn't want
to overwhelm you guys. There
were a few things mentioned in
this chapter that will be explained
in future chapters. I hope I didn't
confuse anybody too much. I'm a
little aggravated with Phoebe's
personality right now. But, she is
just a child and she doesn't really
understand very much yet. Let me
know what you guys think so far!

This chapter is about 4100 words.