Chapter Six: Riddle Me This
"It's the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."- Albus Dumbledore
The duo, much to Azalea's content, walked in complete silence as they made their way to the Slytherin Common Room. That was until she could feel someone trying to penetrate the barriers of her mind. She strengthened the walls of her mental defences and actual managed to push, whom she assumed to be Riddle, out of her thoughts. His cold eyes widened in shock for a minuet second before going back to blank and indifferent, proving her assumption to be correct.
"I never knew that Hogwarts accepted transfer students. Never in my time here had they ever. What school did you go to before?" He said in what sounded more like a subtle accusation than out of sheer curiosity.
"Beauxbatons Academy," she says, managing to keep her voice steady and believable.
"Beauxbatons is located in the Pyrenees of southern France, is it not?" He questioned curiously, although, the way he asked the question made Azalea think he already knew the answer.
"It is," she confirmed, she had come across the topic while reading one time. Beauxbatons Academy was another wizarding school that took place in extraordinary Palace of Beauxbatons. It had magnificent grounds with majestic gardens and fountains. To top all of that off, the education at Beauxbatons was just as good, if not better than at Hogwarts.
"Then why don't you have a French accent like all of the other students that go there?" The way he spoke the words; so nonchalantly, it made her breath hitch in her throat. She had heeded Dumbledore's warning about Voldemort being smart, even as a teen, but surly he hadn't caught on to her this quickly. She had no doubt that if he had, she wouldn't be around for much longer.
"My parents live here and I visited whenever we had time off. So, I've really haven't lived in France long enough to pick up an accent." He slowly nodded his head, unconvinced with her disorderly reply.
"Why all the trouble of sending you to France: why not here, or at least somewhere closer?"
Before Azalea could come up with a retort, she saw the accustomed stone wall of the Slytherin Common Room come into sight. She wasn't exactly happy to see her new common room, but at this point, she would take anything to get out of this interrogation.
As they made their way up to the common room door, Riddle spoke the password causing the walls to shift and reform into a path leading into the room.
"The password is Salazar, don't forget it. We change it every three weeks. Your dormitories are on the right, and after you've finished packing you are expected to come to the Great Hall. I'm trusting you can find your way down by yourself," and with that, he left the room.
~
To say he was livid would be an understatement, to have his Legilimency spell countered by a silly little girl of mere importance. He entered the Great Hall and went to sit by his "friends" at the far end of the Slytherin table.
"Nott and Lestrange, I want you to gather as much information as you can about the Rosefield family, more specifically, Azalea Rosefield."
~
After Azalea had finished packing, she followed what Riddle had said and started heading down to the Great Hall. When she first entered, her instinct was to walked straight to the Gryffindor table, managing to restrain herself for doing so, she went in the direction of the house with the green and silver decorations.
At the far end she could see Riddle sitting in the centre of a group of six boys. By no means was he the oldest in the group, but they all looked at him like he was their leader. She took her focus off of them and went to sit at the opposite end of the table. When she finally took a seat, she started to dish out some of the delicious foods they had to offer, starting with the chicken and gravy.
"Hey, you're new here, right?" Azalea look up to see who the mysterious voice belonged to. In-front of her stood two people: one girl and one boy. The girl had deep, light, hazel-brown eyes and a light-caramel skin tone. Her thick, voluminous, curly hair stopped just at her shoulders and she had a nose that appeared to be slightly angled to the left. The boy had dark chocolaty hair and light green eyes. He had a sharply defined jawline and his lips were set in a lopsided grin, giving a boyish charm to him.
"Yeah, I just transferred," she said, selective about the information she was giving to the strangers.
"Well, I'm Ocean Blackwell and this here," she said gesturing her head towards to the boy, "is Coden Kay."
Azalea gave a small, uninterested smile, hoping that they would just walk away and leave her alone. Instead of that however, they gave themselves an invitation and sat beside her.
"I never knew Hogwarts accepted transfer students, what school did you go to before this?" The previously silent boy asked.
"Beauxbatons Academy," she knew it was a terrible lie but she was stuck with it now. She knew she couldn't exactly go around telling people she was from different schools, it would inspire too much doubt in her already suspicious enough stories.
"Oh, so you're part Veela then," the boy asked, his lopsided smirk gone only to be replaced by a questionable smirk.
"No, actually I'm not." She replied dryly, not liking the boy with every passing minute. "Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to retire to my chambers," were her last words before leaving the hall.