Hello everyone. I anticipated this coming a lot sooner than it did, but I completely forgot to upload when I said I would. So, to make it up to you, I have added little extra bits and made it a lot longer than I had originally planned, so that you won't be disappointed, after so much waiting around, by a tiny little chapter. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and you haven't all abandoned your New Year's Resolutions just yet. Carry on with that gym workout! Keep going with that diet! I believe in you!

Did anyone else know that Harry Potter is on Audible now? I am having a great time rereading The Philosopher's Stone with Stephen Fry.

Anyway, without further ado, I will give you this darn disclaimer and then get on with it: I do not own the Harry Potter Franchise. Unfortunately, Rowling decided not to give me the rights for it this Christmas. Anything you deem to be similar to the original belongs to J.K. Rowling. This is purely a non-profit work of fanfiction.

Enjoy!

Monday 19th December 1938

The Monday before Christmas was a frosty one. There was snow in the air that had yet to fall on the ground, and Alina found herself puffing out moisture clouds with every breath she expelled. Both Regis and Lanette had made their way back on the Hogwarts Express and down to their huge, stately manor in England. Alina couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to leave the castle. Sure, ice-cold air echoed through the corridors, but within the Great Hall and the Common Rooms, she was constantly met with the roaring fires and the people clinging to each other, drinking eggnog and hot chocolate. The hubbub and yuletide mood warmed her up from within, and not even the burning chill could extinguish her cheery spirits.

Tom, too, had chosen to stay. He saw no reason to return to the Orphanage. In fact, if he had his own way, he would stay at Hogwarts all summer, too, and avoid the brats who had isolated him his whole life. They meant nothing to him. This place, with both its honour and its notoriety, had kindled some sort of emotion within him, which he had yet to understand. He was not easily impressed, but even he was taken in by the twenty-foot-high trees with their elaborate decorations. He felt some sort of satisfaction when looking up at the topless ceiling of the Great Hall and comparing how cold it looked to how warm he felt. Nothing could compare to Hogwarts in the winter, and his usually perfect serene expression was tainted, violated, by the slight excitement of the prospect of snow.

The two students perched on the Slytherin table of the Great Hall, Alina occasionally shifting uneasily in her sat as she became extremely aware that the few remaining Slytherins were regarding her red Gryffindor scarf with disgust. For a long time, they read sitting opposite one another, not making a sound, but enjoying their proximity nonetheless. After a few comfortable hours, Tom set down his History of Magic book on Ethelred the Ever-Ready with a sigh. For a while, he had seemed as though something were playing on his mind, but Alina refused to pry, knowing (after some months of their friendship) that trying to prompt him would do nothing but make him even more stubborn. She could not deny her curiosity, for she had concluded that whatever it was had to have been ground-breaking if it had succeeded in prompting a visible reaction from her young friend. Her nose remained in her book and she did her best to pretend that she didn't want to shake Tom to rattle this big secret out of his ear.

"Alina. I need you to tell me something." Tom pulled on her book, lowering it to the table gently.

"What's wrong?"

"If someone can speak to snakes… does that mean that they are evil?" Tom's face had lost all of its composure, and now his features were contorted into a worried expression, a small fold appearing between his eyes.

"Why does that matter? I don't think anyone has been able to speak to snakes for a long time." She tried to read his facial expressions, but he had quickly snapped back into his cool, collected demeanour and she could get nothing from him.

"Yes… I read about Salazar Slytherin. I was just wondering… if he was really friends with the other founders, he wouldn't have been evil, would he?" Tom's smile was charming, but after seeing that smile every time Tom wanted something, Alina was not fooled. Why was he so concerned about Slytherin? What did a man who lived a thousand years ago have to do with her best friend?

"Well, people say that it is the mark of a dark wizard. Salazar Slytherin was attracted to dark magic I think," Alina saw Tom's face twitch slightly. Quickly, she attempted to reassure him, "but in all of my favourite books, they say that being good or bad is a choice. Just because Slytherin was attracted to dark magic, it doesn't have to mean that every Parselmouth has to be."

"yes –" Tom stumbled "– but you just said… there are no Parselmouths left." Maybe Tom wasn't as emotionless as Alina has thought he was. He did have feelings somewhere behind that perfect mask.

"…What about you?" she said it before she could control herself, and immediately regretted it.

"What do you mean? You said that there are no Parselmouths left. I didn't even know what a Parselmouth was until recently. Don't be so stupid." He spoke so quickly that Alina was sure there was something else there. Something hidden that it would take some gentle prying to reveal. Now was not the time, though.

"I mean… what do you think? Talking to snakes… that would be a really interesting skill to have. Something that separates you from all the other witches and wizards. Something that makes you a little bit more special." She had again quickly attempted to move on with the conversation, but she had lost him. Tom would not give her any more of an insight into his own life now for a long time, she believed. She had ruined her opportunity to accio the truth right out of him. Again she would have to be patient with him. She hated all of this waiting about. Not even the longest books she had read took this long to get to the point.

Tom didn't speak to her much for the rest of the day.

The snow finally fell on Christmas day, creating a beautiful picture that even she found magical. The owls soared through the sky at regular intervals, either bearing late gifts or just to warm up their wings. Christmas trees sparkled as if each pine was casting a spell, lighting up the white snow with each twinkle. Even the soft breeze that occasionally blew outside seemed to ring with Christmas spirit, carrying in its currents the Christmas carols from all around the world to Hogwarts with its gentle persistence.

At the foot of her bed was a small pile of gifts. She sighed a musical Christmas sigh of contentment and picked up the first miniscule box in the pile, slipping her finger under the small triangle of paper that concealed its contents with a neat precision. Of course this was her mother's wrapping, but the label on the front indicated that it was from Lanette. Best to get the worst out of the way first. She smiled, knowing immediately that this present would not be thoughtful nor interesting. Pulling at the triangle, she felt the tape release its hold on the rest of the paper. She unfolded the rest of the wrapping paper neatly before flattening it out and setting it on her bed to be used for some project or other. The contents were as unimpressive as she had first thought: a jewellery box containing a cold, lone sickle with a note attached saying "This is a lucky coin". She would have been flattered by this gift, if not for the fact that she knew her sister believed that the only real luck in the world was contained in a vial of felix felicis. Still, she could not help but feel grateful for the effort her sister had gone to, taking a whole sickle out of her own purse, finding a box and writing an actual note before shoving it in her mother's hand for wrapping.

Her brother, being the nicer sibling, had actually gone out of his way to find something that he knew she would like: a book. It was a book called The Hobbit by the muggle author Tolkien which had been released the previous year. She remembered how her friends in muggle school had spoken about it back then. She had heard them speaking with much enthusiasm about some wizard, and the notion of this made her feel incredibly warm. It appeared that the muggle world was warming up to the idea of magic more than the wizards believed they were. Things were different to how they were hundreds of years ago when they used to burn people for seeming to possess magic within them. She could not wait to read this book and see the world of magic from muggle eyes. Setting down the book, she thanked her brother quietly and wished for a brief moment that she had given him more than just a quill with endless ink. It was too late for that, however, and she returned to opening her final presents from her mother and the other members of her family.

By about midday, Alina found herself laden with a new pair of black dragon skin boots, a bottle of the newest skincare potion and some new quills from her mother; a palm-sized red bag full of gobstones and some homemade Cauldron Cakes from her uncle and cousin; and a whole box of Honeydukes sweets and a shiny black diary from her grandparents. She tucked all her new presents into her trunk for safekeeping and began to dress in a warm jumper, as she became suddenly aware that she felt extremely hungry, something that was not helped by the fact that she could smell the food in the Great Hall from all this way. Once she had brushed her teeth and rushed down the steps two at a time, she felt as if she could be eaten from within, and left to be a hollow mess.

There were no more than thirty people in the Great Hall. Each of the long tables contained a spattering of students in colourful attire, sitting huddled in the middle and speaking excitedly about their presents. No one sat alone – that is, except from Tom Riddle. He was sitting alone on the side of the Slytherin Table closest to the door, with his back to the other houses and his eyes fixated on the roaring fire in front of him. The warm glow of the flame danced around his dark pupils and gave his clear, pale skin an orange glow. Alina walked silently over to him and sat down, aware after their three months as friends that he liked nothing more than to be left alone when he was deep in thought. Instead of trying to engage in conversation, she sat and picked come fluff out of her fingernails as she waited, for either the food or the conversation to appear.

The food came first. The golden plates in the middle filled up suddenly with roast turkey after roast turkey and potatoes and mince pies and Yorkshire puddings and many other dishes that she couldn't name. The conversation followed shortly, as the appearance of food coaxed Tom out of his trance and he looked to his right, seeming to notice for the first time that his friend was sitting beside him.

"Did you get anything interesting?" He asked, nodding towards the jumper she was wearing.

"What, this? I've had this for ages, but I save it for Christmas every year. I got sweets and some clothes. What about you?"

"I don't have anyone to give me Christmas presents." Tom stated this in such a matter-of-fact way, so casually and flippantly that Alina could not help but feel sorry for him. Her heart panged with the sadness she was sure he was just keeping bottled up inside.

"You do now. I have a few things for you in my room. I will bring them down once we finish eating." She had a small present for him: a pocket sneakoscope for him to use on all of those horrible children back at the Orphanage. She knew he needed to know who he could trust. From the way he spoke about them, she knew that they were vile children who had made him feel unwelcome and unwanted. It was stupid of her to ask him if he had been given anything for Christmas. To make it up to him, she wanted to give him more than just a magical spinning-top. Which of her own presents would he like?

After dinner, Alina told Tom to "wait here" before racing back up the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower and, panting, with her heart racing, making her way to her own dormitory. She threw the lid of her trunk open rather ungracefully and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of it. It would take some serious consideration to decide what she would give Tom from her own present stash. Tom knew that she had sweets for Christmas, so she could hardly give him any of those. She highly doubted that he would appreciate being given a potion for soft skin. She had attempted to play gobstones with him before, but he seemed uninterested and very unimpressed by the "gift" the stone gave the loser. That left the two books: one containing a story and one waiting to be filled with a tale. She would be selfish and not give up this muggle story book. The only thing left that was suitable for Tom was the Diary. Grateful for her own sense of neatness, Alina plucked a green piece of wrapping paper up from the neat pile she had made and folded it back around the black book, taping it clumsily wherever she could.

Alina seized the carefully wrapped sneakoscope and the last-minute entry of the diary and walked slowly back down the moving stairs to the Great Hall, trying her best not to look like she had been running or stressed. She stopped in front of the golden doors to smooth her hair and regain her composure before pushing them slightly and slipping through the small gap she made, the two presents tucked under her arm.

"Merry Christmas" she smiled, placing the gifts on the now cleared table in front of Tom.

"You really didn't have to get me anything. I didn't even think to get you anything. I am not used to the whole Christmas thing." Despite his words, Tom seemed genuinely pleased by this and began to first rip open the smaller present, which was perched on top of the other, thinner package. To him, it was nothing more than a spinning-top with vibrant colours. He turned to Alina for an explanation.

"It is a pocket sneakoscope. It tells you when someone around you is doing something untrustworthy." It lay still in his hand. Everyone around him now could be trusted. What else did he expect? The only people he had met that he could not trust were muggles. He set the sneakoscope on its side on the table and let the Slytherin green wrapping paper come apart with a satisfying rip. Alina had really thought about these presents, he thought.

The black diary shone at him, the pages, smooth, blank and cream-coloured.

"You can be quite secretive, so if you won't talk to me, then maybe you will put yourself into this diary." Alina smiled.

She did not know how right those words would be.

Well, I hope you enjoyed! Please don't forget to leave me a review. I will be looking forward to them!

AndThatsShannii x