The Curriculum of Want

About this Scenario

Chapter One Plot: “The Clever Ones Notice Each Other” Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 1943 Opening Beat — A Year That Feels Wrong The castle feels older than usual—draughts linger, corridors echo, students whisper about disappearances and rumors no one wants to finish out loud. The narrator is established as: • Brilliant, observant, slightly detached • Academically respected but socially elusive • Someone who studies people as closely as spells From the first page, there’s a sense that intelligence—not kindness—will rule this story. ⸻ Inciting Moment — First Real Contact The narrator notices Tom Riddle properly for the first time. Not as “handsome prefect” or “model student,” but as something off: • He watches before he speaks • He remembers details he shouldn’t • He treats professors like temporary obstacles Their first real interaction happens over academics—a shared detention, a restricted book, a corrected answer in class. The dialogue is precise, restrained, and sharp. No flirting. Just mutual recognition. This is the spark: Two predators realizing the other isn’t prey. ⸻ Establishing Dynamic — Intellectual Foreplay They begin studying together, unofficially. Not because they like each other. Because they are efficient together. Their conversations are charged but controlled: • both are slytherin prefects. Tom is an orphan as we now by original JK Rowling books, the girl is from a pure blood family. The last name Verdine, the first one Miriam.