The students were walking out of the class when the lesson finished. Primrose frowned when Bletchley walked into Tom, purposely bumping into his shoulders until Tom lost his grip on the books.

They're the same height but it was undeniable that Bletchley was more built than Tom. Primrose approached and helped him with the books, "Are you okay?"

Tom took the books from Primrose while glancing at Bletchley's back as he walked away. Then, Tom turned his gaze to her, "Someone's not happy."

Primrose frowned, "Just because he's having a bad day, that doesn't give him the rights to be an asshole. What was that about by the way?"

Tom shrugged, "I don't know."

"Do you think it's because of that night? When you caught him... went berserk on me?" She asked. Tom nodded once, "Most probably, but took him long enough to act all petty like this."

Primrose sighed, "It is petty. I'm sorry."

Tom frowned, "It is not your fault."

"I mean, you helped me?"

"It was the right thing to do."

Primrose frowned mentally. That was something new, coming out from his mouth. She's wondering where he got this sense of righteous.

"I'll see you around, Riddle." Primrose turned away. Tom opened his mouth to call her name but stopped when another voice greeted her, walking towards her with a big smile.

"Primrose." Konstantin smiled. Primrose smiled back, "Hi."

"How have you been?" He asked.

"Been alright. How's your training?"

Konstantin shrugged, "Been the same. Just running around. Great work, at the arena. Didn't expect it to be so... effortless."

Took him long enough to congratulate me.

"Thank you, I guess." Primrose said.

"What's your plan on weekends?" He asked. Primrose opened her mouth, but still looking for suitable answers. She's planning to go to the muggle world again. She had been a tutor to Mason and she didn't think it would be wise to tell her plans to her rival in Triwizard Tournament.

"I don't know yet." She answered simply. Konstantin nodded slowly, "Me too."

Silence.

Konstantin tilted his head to the side with squinted eyes, "Primrose, do you by any chance... had figure out some things about the golden egg?"

I knew it. He's trying to fish me into perhaps... Working with him or simply seeking for answers. Maybe all this time, he was trying to get to both me and Fiore to manipulate us with his charm.

Or maybe i'm just overthinking.

"I have not. Why? Would you like me to share my intel with you?" Primrose asked with a small smirk, trying to look like she was just playing around though she really meant it.

He laughed, "Only if you want to. We should work together. It'll be a win-win situation."

Working with Konstantin, is it wise or is it not? But it could've been lesser of a burden if we work together.

"Okay." She said. Konstantin's smile broaden and he clasped his hands together, "Perfect. I'll let you know if I find something. I'll see you around, Primrose."

She nodded once and followed Konstantin's figure with her eyes until he's not in sight anymore. Her jaw dropped when she noticed Tom standing behind her with his eyebrows lifted in suspicion, "Are you sure you can trust him?"

"You were listening?" Primrose asked. Tom crossed his arms, "Loud and clear. Not so discreet, innit?"

Whoops.

Then his question hit her. Can she trust him? She didn't even know. But she was cautious.

"I have my doubts." She said. Tom nodded as if he's satisfied with her answer. He then looked at her right square in the eye, "So what's your plan for the weekend?"

Primrose adverted her eyes and shifted a little bit. A little too obvious to tell people that she's about to lie.

"I don't know." She said. Tom kept on staring at her, "Then you wouldn't mind to accompany me to the den of snakes."

That doesn't sound like a question.

"I..." Primrose looked at him. She then nodded, "In the evening, yes."

"Why not in the morning?" He raised his eyebrows. He looked like he knew what was up with her—which he did. He knew that Primrose always go to the muggle world.

But Primrose can't let him know that she knew.

Not yet.

Primrose grinned playfully, "The question is, why not in the evening? I'll be free around 4 tomorrow. See you later, Riddle!"

She turned around and quickly walked away, waving playfully. She saw that Tom was about to call out to her once again, hence why on she yeeted.

____

"The order of operations is important in algebra because doing the operations in an algebra problem in the wrong order can sometimes affect the answer. Okay, if we're dealing with the math problem 8 + 2 × 5, if we add 2 to 8 first, we get 10 × 5 = 50 but if we multiply 2 and 5 first, we get 8 + 10 = 18. Only the second answer is correct. Do you get me so far?" Primrose looked at Mason. He nodded vigorously, making her smiled widely.

Maddie smiled at the sight while preparing a drink for Primrose. She had always thought that Primrose must have been that one student who always excel in her studies. Looking at the way she observed her son and the way she was tutoring him, there was no doubt that Primrose Quinton was intelligent and indeed came from a good family.

Good in terms of brains, wealth, and moral.

Primrose had always come around bringing presents for Mason whenever he did a great job at learning from her.

Not to forget she bought him glass chess set. Which definitely not just affordable. Maddie wondered sometimes, where did she come from?

But every time Maddie tried to get to know her better, Primrose would just answered playfully or just brushed it off. Maddie respected that though. If she didn't wish to tell then she can't force her.

Maddie laughed silently when Mason cheered, doing a high five with Primrose. It was a rather foreign sight that Mason actually warming up to someone and looked very happy.

It's foreign but it was definitely not a bad thing. She wished to see Mason acting this way forever. Contented.

She's proud to say that she's a proud mother to Mason—the boy whom people looked at him differently but was actually a genius.

He's young but he's very smart. Hence, Primrose was already teaching him algebra though he was seven years old.

It's wonderful, really.

Primrose also made an effort to get to know Noah, Mason's older brother. When she noticed that he was struggling with maths at the table counter, she quickly approached.

"Hi Noah, are you doing maths?" She asked. Noah looked at her with a frown but answered anyway, "Yeah."

"Do you need help? Looks like you're stuck there." Primrose glanced. Noah looked at his book before turning his head to her again, "Yes."

"The key is, always settle the calculation for the numbers in brackets first. Then, you can continue with the others. Try it." She said.

Noah followed and circled the answer 'B' on the paper after doing the calculation in the book.

"There you go. Well done." Primrose smiled. Noah nodded, "Thanks."

"If you need any help just ask away." She smiled and she walked towards Maddie. Maddie gave her the drink that she made just now and Primrose gladly took it, "Thank you."

Maddie leaned in to the counter, "So how's Mason doing so far?" Primrose sipped on the drink with a small nod, "Oh, he's doing very well. He catches up real quick."

Maddie nodded, "Primrose... I'm enrolling him to school."

She smiled, "That's good. He'll learn so many things." Maddie nodded, "He will. I just hope that people won't treat him differently."

Primrose looked at her, "The truth is Maddie, people would. But if people treats him differently with kindness, it is okay. If they don't... all you have to do is to be there for him. For moral support. And to beat the shit out of the bullies of course."

Maddie laughed, "True."

She then looked at Primrose, "Thank you, Primrose. You helped us a lot."

"No problem at all, Maddie." She smiled. She then glanced at her watch, "Oh... I have to go. See you next week, Maddie. Bye Mason, bye Noah!"

She then rushed out of the cafe, straight to the train station. She laughed silently when she noticed Tom Riddle as she was rushing. He was still wearing the same thing.

If he were to work with S.H.I.E.L.D as a spy, he would definitely get fired or killed. Heck, he won't even get through the screening.

She entered the train and found a seat at her usual spot. She plopped down with heaving chest.

Why do you keep on following me, Riddle?

She thought to herself, if he had been following her to muggle world, it wouldn't be impossible if he had been watching her in Hogwarts either.

Most importantly, why did he want to meet Primrose at the den of snakes?

When she arrived, she expected for Tom to arrive late. Maybe he needed to change his spying attire first before meeting her.

Primrose laughed at the thought.

"Anything funny, Quinton?" Tom asked. Primrose turned around with a smile, "Hello Riddle."

She scanned him from head to toe. She was right, it took him quite some time to come here.

Tom approached.

"So... why are we here?" She asked. Tom's face turned into a frown and he looked down. Primrose tilted her head to the side, "Are you alright?"

He sighed.

"Riddle?"

He shrugged, "I... don't know."

Primrose frowned, "About what?"

"Why I asked you to come here." He said.

Strange.

"Oh." Primrose replied shortly. She looked down, not knowing what to say. The atmosphere was too awkward for both of them.

Silence.

Primrose then smiled, "It's fine. Come, sit with me." She plopped down to the ground with her legs crossed while patting the ground beside her. Tom followed, his expression unreadable.

Because he had always had the same expression.

"How's your day so far?" Primrose asked, trying to make conversation. Tom answered, "Alright."

Alright? You had been following me the whole day!

"What did you do?" She asked. He opened his mouth, words came out a little too slow from his mouth, "I've been out and about."

Primrose smirked, knowing that he's not looking at her face, "Oh really? Where did you go?"

"Around." He answered. Primrose nodded, "Okay. Not telling, got it."

Then she continued, "Riddle, have you been to the muggle world?"

The question seemed to catch him off guard when he shifted slightly. But he answered anyway, "Yes. I used to live there."

"Really?" Primrose asked with a smile, showing her interest in hearing more. He nodded, "In an orphanage."

"What was it like?"

Tom scoffed softly, but audible enough for Primrose to hear, "Disgusting."

"Oh."

She was speechless. But she recovered quickly, "Mind telling me what happened there?"

"I was surrounded by filthy muggles that treated me differently—giving me stares and dirty looks just because I'm different. They used to pick on me but when I started to develop my powers, they cowered away." Tom smirked at the last sentence before he continued, "I have always have the ability to use wandless magic ever since I was young. I guess I just meant to be the greatest sorcerer in the world."

"Is that what you want to be? The greatest sorcerer?" She asked.

"Fearsome. I want to be a sorcerer who people fear to say the name."

Voldemort, You-Know-Who, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named... what else?

"And what do you hope to achieve with that?"

He stared at her, "Power."

Primrose nodded slowly while turning her head away, "When you were at the orphanage... did you make any friend?"

"No."

"Were you lonely?"

Silence.

Primrose encouraged him, "It's okay. It's in the nature to feel lonely. It could both be a strength and a weakness to us. The strength—to move forward and search for happiness while the weakness would be... well... loneliness. As in you feel down because you're by yourself. You're alone."

She then looked at him, "Riddle... how did you get into Hogwarts? How did you know that you're a wizard?"

"Dumbledore found me at the orphanage. He took me here." He said. Primrose nodded, "And how did you feel about that?"

He thought for a while, "Free."

"Free from people who discriminated you?"

He nodded.

"It's a cycle." Primrose whispered, making him frown, "What is?"

"Muggles discriminate wizards and wizards discriminate muggles. All because of differences..." she said, then continued, "Even muggles treat other muggles differently when they are different, so do wizards. Like how you discriminate other wizards for being muggle-borns... same goes to muggles who discriminate the ones with different race."

Primrose then let out a dry laugh, making Tom frowned. She sighed, "The truth is everyone is born differently. If you are just the same with the other orphans there... then what makes you special? The other orphans... they saw you as different and treated you differently because you're simply different from them. They didn't know who you were or even what you were. Still it didn't give them the rights to be assholes."

Tom just stared at her. She smiled, "Our circle plays a crucial role in our development, Riddle. Never stop being a good person because of bad people."

He turned away and for a moment, he looked so deep in thoughts. Primrose really hoped that he would change his mind towards the muggle-borns.

At this point, he's in dilemma. He's in between good and evil and one small push towards either side would determine his future.

It's not too late, Riddle.

Come to the bright side.

He spoke up, "When's the next task?"

He changed the subject. Primrose just smiled, "In a few weeks."

Tom nodded slowly, "All the best, Quinton."

"Thank you, Riddle." She smiled.

"We should go back. It's getting dark." Tom stood up, brushing dust from his trousers. Primrose followed, "Let's go."

They walked back, their shoulders would brush sometimes. Not far from where they left, Primrose spotted the yellow snake right beside her right feet. She yelped and moved to the left, grabbing on Tom's shirt.

Tom pulled her by the waist and now he was the one in front of the snake.

"Son of a bitch!" Primrose scoffed. Tom suddenly laughed, making Primrose looked up to him in shock.

It was a hearty laugh.

His laughter was genuine and Primrose almost smiled at the sight. He looked so contented. She pouted slightly and slapped his arm playfully, "Don't laugh! That scared the shit out of me."

The laugh didn't stop though it eased. Tom shook his head and continued to walk. It took Primrose quite some time to process.

What just happened?

Then she remembered the snake in front of her, and she shrieked before running towards Tom.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Thanks for reading! :D
Errors & Typos = Sorry :(