Chapter Five: The Three Wizards

Dear Professor,

I hope you are faring well. I am certain my impromptu letter must confuse you, but I find myself in a situation I am unsure how to handle.

This summer, unlike the others, seems to be particularly harrowing and has left me questioning my future. You see, professor, up until this week I hadn't quite contemplated an occupation beyond a vague idea of working with the ministry. However, as time flies by I cannot help but wonder whether that is the best idea.

Over the past years, we have formed an acquaintanceship of sorts. One that was built with a strong foundation of trust and transparency. This is why I believe you of all people are best suited to guide me.

Times are changing, professor and the final milestone I set for myself was one I overcame faster than I anticipated. This has left me baffled, and in quite a conundrum. I am unsure what the future holds for, and most importantly, I am unsure what I want it to hold.

If it isn't too much to ask for, I would like to meet before Hogwarts is upon us. I understand that you were far too preoccupied to attend frivolous balls, however, I hope a meeting isn't too much to ask for. It seems your wisdom is once again needed.

I sincerely hope this letter finds you well, professor.

Kind regards,

Cordelia Lucretia Black-McMillan

Cordelia had poured her heart out into the letter. Well, she had poured as much of it as she could while writing to a middle-aged wizard.

When the Black family owl had returned the next morning with a letter in its bill, Cordelia suspected the intricate blue seal hid an invitation to join Dumbledore for a meeting. She had most certainly not expected a sharp and concise response that asked her to wait until Hogwarts.

In a way Cordelia understood his reasoning, really, she did. Dumbledore was a busy man and was quite infamous in the pureblood community, thus meeting with a student outside Hogwarts wasn't exactly the best course of action.

Even so, Cordelia couldn't help but feel defeated.

The brunette couldn't do much except ignore her dejection and use her negative emotions as a drive to surpass Melania's exhausting summer training. Two weeks and an ample number of bruises and degradation later, Cordelia found herself outside the Hogwarts Express's gate with a tight frown on her lips.

Things had changed.

It seemed a few weeks were enough for the pupils of Hogwarts to overcome their awe and admiration for her and replace it with the spite every Slytherin was entitled to.

She wasn't sure what was worse, the sneers or the gossip.

If her summer hadn't been one full of a pestering mother attempting to knock her down her pedestal Cordelia would have been more amused at the sudden change of attitude. Melania's training, however, ensured that the Slytherin Queen was a ticking time bomb waiting to ruin the psyche of anyone who so much as addressed her with the wrong tone.

Clearly, this young impressionable Slytherin was not to be messed with.

The patrons and pupils gathered around the train parted like the red sea as they noticed the Black heirs and their friends scattered around the edge of the platform.

Druella's sneers and Ignatius's sarcastic scoffs were enough to ward off the Gryffindors looking to retaliate. The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were always keen to follow the lion's lead, aware of the trouble in store for them if they protested the snake's command.

It wasn't Cordelia's fault.

Really, she would have been fine waiting in line and settling on any random compartment they could find, but the other Slytherins were more than keen to follow their tradition of hogging the front of the train. After all, only the purebloods should be allowed to board and exit the train first. Or so their parents would say.

"Get on with it, ginger."

Abarax's snide comment thrown towards Fleamont Potter wasn't received well, and if it weren't for the Hogwarts Express's warning whistle the seventh year Gryffindors would have certainly started a duel. But time was slipping away and neither party was keen on starting fights, thus the teenage purebloods were pardoned with little more than a whine of protests.

Cordelia was the last to board.

In a way, the sight of the Triwizard Champion nonchalantly spinning her wand in her hand as she followed her brother's frame might have been threatening, but to anyone who knew her, or bothered to look beyond the small frown on her lips, her slow trudge towards the train's gates was a display of the utter boredom she felt.

She had remained like that for the greater part of the summer; bored and indifferent to anything that wasn't Orion or Druella. At first, people had merely presumed it was one of her fits or a display of exhaustion, but as one week turned into two the Black family came to realize Cordelia was simply uninterested in anything they had to offer.

If she was being honest, there were only two people who could quell her boredom. Dumbledore and Theodore Nott.

After her sudden realization with Nix Cordelia had taken to avoiding Theo for a greater part of the summer. It was weird, and everyone could tell something was off, but the curly-haired wizard was too preoccupied with his summer studies to bother with a reaction.

Cordelia didn't know if she detested or desired that outcome.

In her haste to make sense of the situations she had faced over the summer, the young witch had taken to blindly following her brother's framing, not realizing that Orion had already turned towards a cabin until it was too late.

"Watch where you're going you-"

"-little insufferable prick do you know who I-"

Tom Riddle.

Out of all of the bloody people on the Hogwarts Express, Cordelia just had to bump into the one she wanted to avoid.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

For a moment they simply paused and stared at one another, letting silence replace their simultaneous sentences in favour of gauging the other's appearance.

"I didn't know the Triwizard Tournament had left you with a faltering eyesight."

The sneer painted across his face made Cordelia scoff as she shifted her weight to the balls of her feet and stared up at him.

"I'm sorry is the one who came second mocking me?"

One step forward paired with a god-awful smirk had Cordelia regretting her words as her green gaze lingered over the wand poking out of Tom's robes.

"The head's dorms are a far way from the dungeons, you should tread carefully."

The warning was clear. As the head boy and girl, no one would be able to save Cordelia from being in closed quarters with the dark lord for hours on end. Only Merlin knew what evil schemes the wizard before her had planned, but even so, she couldn't help but meet him head-on.

"Likewise, Riddle. It would serve you well to remember which one of us actually has an influence on the purebloods."

She didn't bother waiting for a response, purposely bumping her shoulder against his as Cordelia walked past the Dark Lord and towards the meeting room at the back of the train. It was only when a familiar smirk formed across her lips that Cordelia realized she had been mistaken.

There were in fact three wizards who could quell her boredom. The third one just happened to be too dangerous to play with.