((AN This is the first story I’ve ever finished, and I am very proud (claps for me!) It was written for the TBC February FanWork Fest. This take place in Tom’s 4th or 5th year, couldn’t quite decide which. It was originally going to be longer, but I decided that what I had written sufficed. Perhaps I’ll write the rest for next year :D))

As Tom walked to the great hall one mild February morning he noticed that the students were acting strange. He felt eyes on the back of his head everywhere he went, and caught a few third year girls staring at him with dreamy expressions on there faces and a 6th year Ravenclaw boy glaring. Something was going on that day, but Tom was at a loss as to what it was.

Tom was used to girls staring at him (why they bothered he would never know; he had better things to do with his time then worry about the opposite sex), and he was used to jealous stares, but never to such an extent. Oh well, let the gawk, he had more important business to attend to that day. With that thought Tom entered the great hall and instantly female heads swerved his way and followed him as he walked to his usual seat at the end of the Slytherin table. No sooner did he sit down and begin to spoon eggs onto his plate then a girl with obviously dyed blonde hair and grotesquely orange lipstick plop herself down in the seat next to him.

“

Hi Tom,” she said in what she thought was a seductive voice, “Tomorrow is Valentines Day, you know, and I was wondering if you had any plans yet,” at this she batted her heavily mascara-ed eyelashes.

Tom grimaced to himself, realizing why everyone has been staring at him. Bloody Valentines Day.

Swallowing his bite of toast, Tom gave the girl a deadpan stare and said with the utmost seriousness, “Actually, I was planning on walking my giant serpent tomorrow. Needs exercise.”

Upon hearing this, the blonde girl burst into a peal of giggles. “Oh! You’re so funny Tom!” she said when her laughter had finally subsided.

Tom just continued to give her a look cold enough to freeze fire as he chewed his last bite of toast.

Shuddering for a reason she could not explain to herself, the girl coughed nervously and fiddled with the rings on her fingers as Tom redirected his attention to his eggs.

“Well, erm, I guess I’ll see you later,” she said when Tom got up to leave.

“One would hope not,” Tom replied in such a way that the girl could not tell if he was serious or not, and by the time that she had come to the incorrect conclusion that he wasn’t he was gone.

Tom briskly walked down the corridor, his robes flowing behind. Valentines day, he thought with disgust, the idea of me wasting my ti-

He stopped mid-thought and mid-stride. Was that a giggle he had just heard?

Tom span around on his heal and quickly scanned the hallway for the giggler. Although he could have sworn he heard a door slam, he couldn’t see a living thing in sight but a spider about a meter away scurrying away from Tom as quickly as its 8 legs could take it.

Tom felt the drops of suspicion beginning to form in his mind; maybe they knew about the chamber… But he quickly shook that thought out of his head; it was ridiculous, just paranoia.

He must be working to hard, he told himself as once again made his way back to the dungeons. Tom had begun to cheer up as he thought about his plans for the forthcoming week. Yes, it would be a very good week… He abruptly stopped. Another sound.

Tom began to grow nervous. He could have sworn he had heard whispering behind him, and footsteps. No, no…it couldn’t be. Shaking off his fears he walked a few more steps… and he heard it again. Those voices, they sounded like… like third year girls!

Tom’s heart beat against his chest with fear. Not daring to turn around he slowly, cautiously resumed his walking, hearing the faint patter of following footsteps. His breathing quickened. It sounded like half a dozen, at least. Then he heard more join them, 20 maybe, 30, now at least 40. Tom’s pace involuntarily quickened as his pursuers’ numbers grew. He turned a sharp corner and walked more quickly, now going at a slow jog; another corner, and he broke into a dead run. As he rounded another corner he heard one of them yell, “Don’t lose him!” and Tom began to sprint. A place to hide, he needed to find a place to hide. With great luck Tom at that moment spotted the statue of Heracio the Unstable and lunged toward it, activating a trap door by kicking the stone mans left shin and disappearing.

Second later a stamped of girls were heart broken to see that that Tom had disappeared. They all whimpered; some even broke into tears. The leader of the group, a tall girl with long straight brown hair stepped forward and looked around the hall, eventually slumping her shoulders and stamping her foot on the ground.

“Ah shit!”

The rest muttered in agreement.

Meanwhile, Tom was laying against the wall of a dark passage, panting. He was both shocked and indignant about being treated like a hunk of meat. He was also something else, something that would be called flattered, had it been anyone else in the world that had been just chased by a mob of fan girls. Tom preferred to call it indigestion.

Pulling his wand out of his robed, he muttered ‘lumos’, lighting up the narrow tunnel he had found during his late night searches for the chamber. If he remembered correctly, the passage lead to an unused classroom that was in the same hallway as the library, which was just as well as he needed to do some research anyway. It was also two floors above where the mob of girls had last seen him, so he wouldn’t be found for a while, and hopefully not at all.

And so, Tom began his journey, crouching at first under the low ceiling until the passage increased in width and height, allowing him to stand erect. He made his way through dozens of twists and sharp turns and two sets of steep steps. The passage once again narrowed and Tom was forced to stoop again as he saw traces of lights seeping through the cracks of the opening. Pushing lightly on the stone, it easily swung out revealing an empty and dusty classroom.

Tom jumped down from the passage behind the black board and slowly swung it back into place, wincing when in closed with a thump. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before quickly and silently walking to the door. He opened it a crack and tentatively stuck his head out, on the look out for more crazed girls. Tom dashed out of the door and to the library a few yards away.

Once he was inside he slammed the door and stood for a few moments, back pressed against the door. Several heads looked up to give him a questioning look, and the Hufflepuff quiditch captain gave him a look of sympathy, but he paid them no mind, he just quickly walked to the far corner of the room where he usually sat. There were some bits of parchment scattered on the table, but Tom ignored it and simply collapsed into a chair and laid his head down on the table. He couldn’t believe that a few adolescent girls had him hiding; it was ridiculous. Maybe ‘a few’ was an understatement, but it didn’t make it any better. He, the future ruler of the wizarding world, was being intimidated by a group of admittedly mentally distraught, but otherwise ordinary witches, some of them being muggleborn. He couldn’t let them frighten him. He was Lord Voldermort, he was-

“Your sitting in my seat.”

Tom jumped up with a yelp, knocking the chair he was sitting in over. He recovered quickly though, and was soon pointing his wand menacingly at the person who had spoken, who turned out to be a very pretty girl with long dark hair and deep blue eyes and…

Tom stopped himself. Had he just used the word ‘pretty’ without being sarcastic? But he quickly recovered himself.

“Don’t you dare,” he growled, “tell them where I am or you will pay so dearly that-”

But he was cut off by a snort coming from the girl. Tom frowned a little and dropped his wand a bit. Usually his threats were met with fear and immediate compliance and sometimes begs for mercy, but never laughter.

Seeing his obvious confusion, the girl shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Right, you don’t have to worry about me telling ‘them’,” she paused and gave a small laugh, “I always figured that you were a bit paranoid, but really.”

Tom spluttered for a few seconds as the girl tucked her hair behind her ear and bent down to right the chair, still chuckling to herself. He was still at a loss for words when he saw that the girl had sat down and was looking up at him.

“What are you still doing here? Not to be rude or anything, but don’t you have somewhere to be?”

Tom blinked a few times and shook his head, “No, you don’t understand, I was being chased by this… this mob of girls… and… and…” he trailed off seeing that this was getting him nowhere.

“Look, you’re in my seat,” he said finally.

The girl raised an eyebrow. “I’m in your seat?” she looked rolled her eyes, “Someone is a bit full of themselves, aren’t they?”

Tom gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, trying to fight back a peculiar burning feeling that was traveling across his cheeks. What was that?

The girl looked up at him expectantly.

“I guess I’ll be leaving then,” Tom said, giving up his attempt to gather up any shred of dignity he had left. And so, he strode out of the library, not looking back, until he tripped over a chair and heard the girl laugh. He couldn’t help but to glance back at her before hurriedly exiting the library, feeling as though he would rather face three armies of crazed females then have the burning sensation on his cheeks a moment longer.