If there was one thing you knew in the bottom of your heart, it would be that Tom Riddle absolutely despised you.

He loathed you.

Ever since the first day of your first year at Hogwarts, Tom had it out for you. You were a great student who showed outstanding academic abilities. You picked up on things easily. You had an ear to listen and an eye to observe. You were practically the definition of a so-called “perfect student.”

Tom hated that about you. He wanted nothing more than to be the best. The only thing that stood in the way of that was you. The fact that you were a Muggleborn was the final straw that made him despicable toward you. He wanted to wipe the floor with you using his own abilities.

He nearly dropped Potions when he found out that you were going to be his partner.

Not that you had an interest in it, either. You didn’t want to be partnered with Tom for the rest of the school year. You just knew he was going to act cold and impertinent, even though you two had hardly had a conversation in the last two years. The last you spoke to him, he called you a “filthy Mudblood” and decided to never speak to you again, unless it was to make some snarky remarks on how you were doing things incorrectly.

Now, here you were, in Potions class, getting belittled by Tom Riddle as he ungraciously told you that you weren’t understanding that the Potion you had created was wrong due to the lack of proportions you threw in. You were both attempting to create the Healing Potion. And, by the way this was going, Tom was going to need it if he kept mouthing off to you.

“This is inauspicious,” he spat out and flipped through his textbook, skimming the pages thoroughly and sharply. He huffed in agitation as he clenched his jaw. “You’ve created a pathetic excuse for a potion. How can you be so halfwitted and ludicrous that you can’t even make a potion with simple ingredients and quantities?”