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During the rest of the holiday, Tom never left his tiny room except to eat. He flipped through textbooks he had long since memorized over and over again, occasionally carefully lifting the pair of cufflinks and running his fingers over their delicate patterns.

He did not know how to pray for hope, but who besides himself would know about this? No one but him knew how beautiful that night had been. Even knowing it was impossible, he could not stop himself from greedily reliving it in his mind.

Knock, knock.

Tom got up and opened the window, taking the letter from the school owl's beak. He also weighed the pouch of money that had come with it; it contained this year's financial aid. "Thanks..." He casually scattered some bird feed on the windowsill, then unfolded the letter and looked over the textbooks he would need that year. With a sigh, he took his wand and left the orphanage.

Standing at the entrance to the shabby pub with a look of disgust, Tom took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and shoved open the filthy door. They were wizards, weren't they? Why could they not even be bothered to cast a Cleaning Charm!?

Puffing out his cheeks, Tom covertly glared at the dozing owner and hurried toward the courtyard. Damn rubbish heap! Which idiot had decided to put the entrance to Diagon Alley in a place like this!?

After picking out the textbooks he needed at the secondhand bookstore, Tom was about to leave when his ears twitched. He followed someone a few years older than himself; he seemed to have just heard Abou's name.

"Mom~ Is what you said true? The heir of House of Malfoy is going to hold a grand wedding banquet for the little princess of the Greengrass family after graduation? Merlin, that will break quite a few witches' hearts~ There are plenty of Malfoy admirers in our House..."

Tom stood there blankly, one hand pressed to his chest. He was certain he was not injured, yet his heart... seemed to have died, never to beat again. Like a box holding nothing at all: dark, empty, and silent.

He did not know how he made it back to the orphanage. Sitting on his hard plank bed, Tom stared unblinkingly at the cufflinks in his palm. He wanted to use all his strength to smash them against the wall, but apart from a slight tremble, he could not even manage such a simple movement.

"Ha!! Damn you, Abraxas! You were the one who came to provoke me first!" Covering his eyes in pain, Tom collapsed onto the bed. "Damn it... I..." For the first time, he understood just how powerless he was. Tom had to admit that he had become intoxicated by that heady scent and lost himself in that warm embrace...

Everyone I like meets misfortune, so I do not like you... but my heart is no longer with me...

"Tom Riddle, it is time to wake up from this dream..."

After indulging his weakness through a grueling night, Tom carefully arranged his clothes early the next morning. Though he was still destitute, the pride carved into his bones would not allow him to lower his noble head.

Trust only led to betrayal. Since that was the case, from now on, he would never give anyone else the chance to betray him. That person's appearance had merely been an accident, and such an accident would never happen again.

He boarded the train to Hogwarts alone, sat alone in a compartment, and rode alone in a carriage into the Great Hall. As usual, Tom sat at the end of the long table with a faint smile, casually chatting with the "followers" around him.