December 25, 5 minutes til midnight. Hogwarts was celebrating yet another school year in which many teachers and students decided to stay back to celebrate. Many students had already secured themselves a date though Tom refrained from doing so.

Even then, he had gotten numerous letters detailing why he should go to the party with them, but he had rejected all of them. It wasn't like he was going to waste time going to an insignificant Christmas party when he could be studying sources of immortality, designing an intricate plan on how to swiftly and easily get rid of Hagrid, and find out where the Chamber of Secrets lie. Sure, the year was still restricted from going out after curfew but, this particular evening, the rule was simply ignored.

December 25, two minutes til midnight now. Most of his gang had already gone off with their dates, leaving Tom behind for the night. It felt wasteful to throw his time into dancing with an annoying student than study up on the Chamber of Secrets. Study, study, study.

After Avery left him with a girl, presumably Slytherin, he was left alone at the punch table with a few unfortunate girls eyeing him hopefully. He sent them a strict, no-nonsense glare which was met with fawning though the rest had now cleared off with their original date.

The clock struck midnight with a resounding tick, marking the the day now: December 26th. Students were either slow-dancing with each other or leaving to go to their dorms, probably to continue snogging each other. It pleased him to know that he needn't to suffer ignoring couples and their glued encounters. Tom loitered near the punch table for a while longer, clearly not expecting somebody to abruptly come over; he thought he had made it very clear tonight that he did not want to be disturbed.

His grip on his book (Hogwarts: A History) tightened ever so slightly as he looked down on you. "Well, what do you want?" His tone was monotone, unlike his usual deliberate charm, as if trying to (forcefully) sway you from initiating the conversation with him.