Tom Riddle was hiding in one of the overgrown bushes behind Wool's Orphanage. There was a small stretch of yellow and patchy green overgrown grass on each side of the building before it hit the wrought iron gates that walled them in. Usually, he avoided going outside. It was either too hot or too cold, and there wasn't enough grass to actually play or do anything useful and he wasn't even certain why the random plots of grass existed and hadn't been paved over like the street outside. He supposed because it would cost money to do so, and instead they were left to grow into their standard mess.

Harrison Denton was calling his name tauntingly, and the snake that had wrapped itself around his palm shivered at the sound. Tom ran his thumb over the smooth scales absent-mindedly as he focused on staying as still as possible. The older boy had been kicking the snake and Tom had heard its pitiful cries and darted outside and swept it up before Denton could react. And while Tom was fast, he wasn't as fast as Denton, whose legs were almost as long as he was tall. The boy had shot up like a weed, in Ms. Cole's words, the summer before and had been a terror ever since.

"Safe," The snake hissed quietly and Tom blinked and listened for any noises, but Denton's footsteps had faded and outside of the hot wind that was whistling between the buildings, it was quiet. He slowly untangled himself from the bush, letting the snake climb into the front pocket of his shirt as he did, wary of making too much noise in case Denton was still around. He knew the boy was almost to his majority and he couldn't wait to be rid of him. He and his lackey, John McBride, were easily the worst people at the orphanage, though not many others were better. Some of the girls could be nice, especially if they wanted him to sneak them extra food from the cupboard, and the little ones who didn't think he was pretending when he talked to snakes liked it when he told them to give them licks or make little pictures by contorting their bodies.

"Sorry about him," He said to the snake, but it just made a noncommittal noise, an acknowledgement, but nothing more to say to the human. "Do you want me to drop you off outside the gates?" He asked instead, hissing quietly. Even though he was sure that Denton had gone, that didn't mean one of the other kids weren't hanging around, ready to tease him about playing pretend games with his snakes.

"Yess," the snake hissed pleasantly, "Pleasse." Tom smirked slightly, a joke between him and many of the snakes that lived around the orphanage. When he'd been younger, a little child himself, he'd scolded them, playing at being an adult himself, and had informed the snakes they ought to say please and thanks. It was only the polite thing to do, as Ms. Cole always told them. He walked closer to the side of the building, hiding in its shade, the grass and gravel crunching under his worn shoes. He could hear voices up the road and the sound of several cars on the street. None of the kids though.

"Do you have another snake, Tom?" A voice asked and he froze when he saw Amy Benson. She was only a year older than him and was a nuisance. When he was younger she'd liked his snakes, but now she was scream or squeal when she saw them if she thought it would get her attention from the other older boys.

"No," he said easily, and the snake in his front pocket smartly stayed still.

"You're lying," She said in a singsong voice, "I heard you doing your hissing thing, is it in your pocket?" His throat started to close, but she pointed at the pocket of his pants and he smirked and shook his head.

He reached into the loose, secondhand trousers and pulled the pockets out slightly, enough to prove there was no snake, "I'm sorry," he said, his voice falsely sweet, "Did you want me to get one for you?"

She stuck her tongue out and turned on her heel, stomping up to the doors of the Orphanage that were propped open. It was too hot for them to be closed, and he could hear more voices from inside. He waited until she was completely gone and stuck his head out of the gates, looking both ways to make sure Denton wasn't around before sprinting out, heading for the small patch of green several buildings up.

"Humans are stupid," He hissed quietly to the snake, pulling him gently out from the pocket of his shirt. "Be glad you don't have to live with them."

"They have good scrapss," The snake countered, slowly wrapping around his hand.

Tom let out the first real smile he'd had in a few days and nodded his head. "Yeah, Ms. Hammond from the bakery gave me a biscuit last week, I think it was the sweetest thing I've ever eaten."

"I like mice," the snake said, and Tom shook his head, still smiling.

"Here you are," he hissed more quietly this time, stepping onto the empty lot. It had been an apartment building but it was condemned and part of the first floor had begun to crumble and the grass was taking over. It was a safer place to release the snakes to than the bushes by the Orphanage if he could. The snake slowly unwound and slithered to the ground. "Watch out for Denton from now on." He instructed seriously, before putting his hands on his knees and pushing himself back up.

His friend was already gone and he turned back to the Orphanage and made a face. He didn't particularly want to go back- the ceiling fan in the boys' room was broken and it was horribly hot, and all of the littlest kids would be playing with Mrs. Garter in the main living area, singing songs about the alphabet or numbers- whatever she'd thought up. If he stayed outside, however, he'd likely run into Denton again.

And Amy had gone back inside, so it was very possible that Dennis Bishop was also in there and while he was nice sometimes, he did whatever Amy asked him to do, including making fun of Tom, and didn't stop her if she tripped him and pour ink on his clothes. He couldn't wait for school to start up again. It had only just ended and he hated it. At least with school he had to go and be there for almost the entire day, five days of the week, and even then his teacher usually let him stay past the bell and read the books she kept on the shelves. He even enjoyed cleaning the chalkboard and erasers, or sweeping the ground. Miss Franklin was nice to him and hanging around her meant no one bothered him, and he was able to avoid the Orphanage for just a little longer each day.

Lost in thought, he absent-mindedly reached his hand into his pocket and retrieved the small knife Jack Blount had given him to whittle with. He started back towards the Orphanage, turning the knife over in his hands. Jack was working with the grocer, so he wouldn't be home until dark. Maybe instead he could practice on some branches from the bushes he'd been hiding in? Jack had shown him a little figure of a bird he'd made before he'd given Tom the knife. Amy had whined loudly about it until he's finally given it to her. Tom had been annoyed at first, but then Jack gave him the knife and told him that if he practiced, Jack would show him how to make a dog instead.

He broke the branches off and wandered back inside, staying clear of the room of younger kids and instead moving quietly on the stairs. The door to the room he shared with the boys closer to his age was almost shut and he slowly pushed it open, poking his head inside to make sure he wasn't walking into a trap.

"Hey," A voice hissed.

Tom frowned and instinctively started to withdraw from the room.

"Close the door!" The voice hissed and Tom was about to, willing to comply and not piss off whichever boy was in the room, but his curiosity got the better of him. It wasn't Denton's or McBride's voice, so he didn't think whoever it was would pummel him instantly. He slipped inside and closed the door behind him. No one was immediately visible and he frowned as he looked around the room. The only window was shut and it was hot and stuffy.

"Is Cole comin' up?" The voice hissed. Tom turned and saw Billy Stubbs, sitting on the floor by his bed. Billy was twelve and also going through a growth spurt, and his brown hair was soaked with sweat from sitting in the hot room.

Tom shook his head and Billy breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, good."

"Why's the window closed?" Tom asked, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder.

"You have to promise not to tell," Billy said, a warning in his voice, and Tom shrugged his shoulders. He and Billy got on well enough, not poorly but they weren't friends either. Not that Tom had any friends- Jack was probably the closest thing to it at Wool's, but Billy was okay, for the most part.

"Sure," he said, but Billy shook his head stubbornly.

"Nah mate," He said, "You have to say you promise."

Tom rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Fine, I promise not to tell." Not that he even knew what he was promising not to tell, but he humored the other boy.

Billy looked back and forth dramatically and then reached under the bed and pulled out something.

Tom's brows drew together in confusion and he stepped forward until he was closer, staring at the little creature. "Is that a rabbit?" He asked. He'd never actually seen one up close. Well, once he'd seen one at the market in a cage, but Mrs. Cole hadn't let him go over to look at it and pet it like the other kids in the market had been doing.

"Yeah," Billy said, carefully running his hand over the creatures back.

It was small- smaller than the rabbit that Tom had seen in the cage. The eleven year old sat down on the ground in front of Billy, watching it. "It's kind of small, ain't it?" Tom asked.

"I think it's a baby," Billy said, picking it up and folding his legs before setting it down in his lap. The rabbit promptly tried to burrow into the boy's pant leg and Tom snorted as Billy struggled to keep it in hand.

"Where'd you get it?" Tom asked once the rabbit was calm, sitting in the fabric of Billy's shirt.

"In the graveyard by the church," Billy said, still staring at the rabbit, "I think it was hurt, it wasn't walking too good and it was crying- have you ever heard a rabbit cry?" he asked suddenly, looking up at Tom.

Tom shook his head and Billy nodded, "It was right sad. He cries whenever I leave him."

"How long have you had him?" Tom asked, a bit confused. He was fairly certain he'd notice a rabbit in the room, and if he hadn't, one of his snakes would have.

"I hid him in that one storage cupboard in the church for the last week," Billy explained, "But Father Murphy is going out of town to see that one church opening up in Basingstoke, so the back rooms will be all locked up while he's gone and I wouldn't be able to feed him." Tom and Billy sat in silence, the pair petting the rabbit quietly. They froze when they heard footsteps on the landing and both stared at the door, but whoever it was went to one of the other rooms.

"Are you going to tell Mrs. Cole?" Tom asked, the silence broken.

"I'mma have to," Billy said quietly, "If I don't Denton will find him and step on him, the prat."

"Maybe you could ask the grocer Jack's working with if you could help?" Tom suggested, "You'd make enough to get a little cage and pay for food- Mrs. Cole couldn't chuck him if you're taking care of him, right?"

Billy nodded his head thoughtfully, "Yeah, I'll do that, do you still have that box under your bed?"

Tom nodded and went to his own bed, the bottom bunk by the only bookcase in the room and dropped to the floor, grabbing for the small wooden box. It was far too nice and looked out of place in the orphanage. He only had it because someone had chucked it into the bins nearby and he'd seen it and saved it from the trash. It had been scuffed, paint had gotten on it, and the hinges had been broken, but he'd gotten them off and cleaned it up the best he could. It didn't have much in it, some buttons- the only thing he had left from his mother, some wrinkled news articles and a couple books and other knick knacks he'd saved from the trash. There was also a ball he'd stolen from Denton a few weeks before (just to spite the older boy), and a few dried flowers some of the little kids had picked for him back in the spring.

He unceremoniously upturned the box on his bunk and then brought the box over to Billy.

"It doesn't have holes," he said, showing Billy the lid.

"It's fine," He said, placing the small rabbit inside. "Works well enough for now." He pushed himself to his feet and paused, looking Tom up and down. "Hey, actually… Can you keep an eye on him?" He asked, holding the box out.

Tom blinked and took it, looking down at the little rabbit inside.

"You hang out in here a lot so it won't be weird for you to keep an eye on him- I'm going to see if I can find a better box or cage to put him in, and then I'll ask Mrs. Cole about keeping him," Billy explained, grabbing his boots and sitting on his bed to pull them on.

Tom reached out and touched the soft fur of the rabbit and then nodded his head. "Yeah, sure."

"Thanks mate," Billy said, his second show finally on. He stood and patted Tom's shoulder, "Be back in a bit."

Tom stared at the rabbit and walked over to the bed. He was good at hiding things. A rabbit would be easy.