Ficlet Challenge #133: Changes
Title: Changes
Summary: Tom Riddle has an early experience with Parseltongue and accidental magic.
Characters/Pairings: Tom Riddle, other orphanage children, a small snake
Genre: General
Rating/Warnings: G
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 695
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Sure
If yes, your Tumblr username: N/A
I closed my eyes, trying to stop the water from leaking out. Tears were weakness. Weakness was an invitation.
I swiped at a tear rolling off my nose to the ground.
Sstop that. Am trying to gain heat and your water coolsss.
I froze. The voice was unlike anything I’d ever heard. Sort of hissing and soft, and definitely coming from below me.
I squatted down and saw there was a little snake by my feet, with my tear on it.
No. Surely not...
Another tear threatened to drop from my nose. I moved my head slightly so it fell next to the snake instead of on it.
The little snake’s tongue flicked out. Thanksss.
I blinked hard. Well. I tried to say “sure thing” back, but it came out strangely. Ssure thing. Soft and hissing. Not English.
Could you move sso sssun issn’t blocked?
Ssure. I shifted and watched the snake stretch out happily into the light.
Wonder curled through me, warmer than the sunshine. I could talk to this snake. This was real.
There were footsteps behind me.
I stood up and saw two other boys from the orphanage coming towards me.
The little snake coiled to make itself small. Don’t let them sssee me. Will hurt me.
Anger burned through me as I stared at the two boys. I was sick of having everything I liked taken from me. “I won’t let them.”
The boy called Robert spoke first. “Who ya talkin’ to, Tom? There’s no one over here.”
Robert’s sidekick James piped up. “Crazy ol’ Tom, talking to himself!”
I didn’t reply as I moved casually between them and the snake.
Robert saw it. “Oh look! Crazy ol’ Tom’s got himself a pet. Gonna let us play with it? We promise we’ll be real nice.”
“Real, real nice,” said James.
I crossed my arms. “It’s not my pet and I think it’s poisonous. I wouldn’t touch it.”
“If it’s not your little pet,” said Robert, “why are you protectin’ it, Tommy boy?”
Oh, hell.
Robert smiled one of his mean smiles. “I think you’re lying to us.”
James’s smile was just as mean. “Bet it’s not poisonous either. Bet that’s a lie, too.”
“Little lyin’ To-o-om,” sang out Robert. “Not good to lie to your betters.”
“Yeah,” said James, nodding, “people get hurt for that. Their things get hurt.”
My jaw clenched. “Don’t you touch it.”
Twin smiles on their faces, getting meaner by the moment. “How you gonna stop us, crazy little Tommy boy?” Robert reached out and shoved me back as both boys moved in on me.
I nearly stepped on the snake, and it let out a hiss that I somehow heard as a desperate wail.
Something burst inside me, something unseen moving forth to strike from inside my chest, fast as a snake, an expanding daggered net holding just one strong impulse: STOP.
Robert and James froze. Mid-step in Robert’s case.
I forgot to breathe.
Thanksss. This from the snake before it darted off.
And I just stood there, watching Robert and James imitating statues, cold pressure building in my chest. I began to have trouble breathing. I had to stop whatever it was I was doing. Now.
I tried to focus on a different thought. GO AWAY.
The thought moved sluggishly out, nothing like the quick strike before. When I felt it reach the edges of the net, I saw Robert and James blink hard, shake themselves, and then turn and amble away from me without another word.
Well. That was something.
Except the pressure in my chest had gotten worse. There was an alarming sense of a limit rapidly being reached.
With a sudden snap that felt like someone sunk an iron fist in my chest, I felt the daggered net break apart. I staggered back, catching myself against the nearby wall and dragging myself upright.
Robert and James froze in their walk, a shiver running through them both. Then, as one, they turned slowly to look back at me.
I tipped my cap to them. Even from this distance, I could see their faces rapidly lose color. That’s right. Be scared of me, boys.
28 pts
Summary: Tom Riddle has an early experience with Parseltongue and accidental magic.
Characters/Pairings: Tom Riddle, other orphanage children, a small snake
Genre: General
Rating/Warnings: G
Medium: Ficlet
Word Count: 695
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Sure
If yes, your Tumblr username: N/A
I closed my eyes, trying to stop the water from leaking out. Tears were weakness. Weakness was an invitation.
I swiped at a tear rolling off my nose to the ground.
Sstop that. Am trying to gain heat and your water coolsss.
I froze. The voice was unlike anything I’d ever heard. Sort of hissing and soft, and definitely coming from below me.
I squatted down and saw there was a little snake by my feet, with my tear on it.
No. Surely not...
Another tear threatened to drop from my nose. I moved my head slightly so it fell next to the snake instead of on it.
The little snake’s tongue flicked out. Thanksss.
I blinked hard. Well. I tried to say “sure thing” back, but it came out strangely. Ssure thing. Soft and hissing. Not English.
Could you move sso sssun issn’t blocked?
Ssure. I shifted and watched the snake stretch out happily into the light.
Wonder curled through me, warmer than the sunshine. I could talk to this snake. This was real.
There were footsteps behind me.
I stood up and saw two other boys from the orphanage coming towards me.
The little snake coiled to make itself small. Don’t let them sssee me. Will hurt me.
Anger burned through me as I stared at the two boys. I was sick of having everything I liked taken from me. “I won’t let them.”
The boy called Robert spoke first. “Who ya talkin’ to, Tom? There’s no one over here.”
Robert’s sidekick James piped up. “Crazy ol’ Tom, talking to himself!”
I didn’t reply as I moved casually between them and the snake.
Robert saw it. “Oh look! Crazy ol’ Tom’s got himself a pet. Gonna let us play with it? We promise we’ll be real nice.”
“Real, real nice,” said James.
I crossed my arms. “It’s not my pet and I think it’s poisonous. I wouldn’t touch it.”
“If it’s not your little pet,” said Robert, “why are you protectin’ it, Tommy boy?”
Oh, hell.
Robert smiled one of his mean smiles. “I think you’re lying to us.”
James’s smile was just as mean. “Bet it’s not poisonous either. Bet that’s a lie, too.”
“Little lyin’ To-o-om,” sang out Robert. “Not good to lie to your betters.”
“Yeah,” said James, nodding, “people get hurt for that. Their things get hurt.”
My jaw clenched. “Don’t you touch it.”
Twin smiles on their faces, getting meaner by the moment. “How you gonna stop us, crazy little Tommy boy?” Robert reached out and shoved me back as both boys moved in on me.
I nearly stepped on the snake, and it let out a hiss that I somehow heard as a desperate wail.
Something burst inside me, something unseen moving forth to strike from inside my chest, fast as a snake, an expanding daggered net holding just one strong impulse: STOP.
Robert and James froze. Mid-step in Robert’s case.
I forgot to breathe.
Thanksss. This from the snake before it darted off.
And I just stood there, watching Robert and James imitating statues, cold pressure building in my chest. I began to have trouble breathing. I had to stop whatever it was I was doing. Now.
I tried to focus on a different thought. GO AWAY.
The thought moved sluggishly out, nothing like the quick strike before. When I felt it reach the edges of the net, I saw Robert and James blink hard, shake themselves, and then turn and amble away from me without another word.
Well. That was something.
Except the pressure in my chest had gotten worse. There was an alarming sense of a limit rapidly being reached.
With a sudden snap that felt like someone sunk an iron fist in my chest, I felt the daggered net break apart. I staggered back, catching myself against the nearby wall and dragging myself upright.
Robert and James froze in their walk, a shiver running through them both. Then, as one, they turned slowly to look back at me.
I tipped my cap to them. Even from this distance, I could see their faces rapidly lose color. That’s right. Be scared of me, boys.
28 pts