My first year was fine, uncle would visit almost every day, he became my idol. Sometimes he could be tough or angry at me but it was always for a good reason. He taught me to question and to think laterally. During the holidays we went to different places, to potion conferences or I helped him in the basement potions lab. It was by the beginning of the next school year that it got harder. I was bigger, explored more and was eventually discovered by Hagrid. He had no choice but to tell the Headmaster. Did my uncle get punished? I don’t think so. He had to admit to Dumbledore but not to the Ministry that a 7-year-old girl was in the Forbidden Forest. I remember them coming to see me. I think it was to prove I was happy and healthy. Although. I can quite distinctly remember Professor McGonagall’s reaction to my hair. Long, dark and knotted with a decoration of leaves. One swish of her wand and it was tied up. The new difference was to be that I was to start living inside the castle.

Since I wasn’t a student yet I couldn’t be sorted into a house, therefore I was set up in the same living quarters as my uncle. This I have to admit was strange for both of us seeing as we had never actually lived together for long periods of time. The only time we had ever shared a room was on holiday. I remember being taken down a staircase and thinking it was deep and dark. There were 2 beds and a wardrobe. This was our first room, I hated it.
We spent the Christmas holidays looking for a better office. One that would suit both of us.

I had now become Professor Snape’s ghost. Some students thought that there was a ghost in the dungeons, some thought that Professor Snape had otherworldly powers. I spent my days much the same as before. When it wasn’t raining, I would be in the forest or with Hagrid. Centaurs would tell me stories, I’d visit Arber etc… I think I only needed the infirmary once or twice and that was just because my uncle was being over cautious. I would eat in the kitchens and spoke to paintings a lot and I made friends with Peeves and the Ghosts. My uncle and I often spoke Elvish together. I love the language; you have to be taught it from birth or you will never speak it. It is a very poetic and romantic language and I think it speaks volumes about the way elvish people think people have told me it sounds very harsh. It was when we moved into our new home that I met my first Weasley, Charlie. I had a great time with Charlie. He was into Dragons and I was getting quite attached too. I had heard so many stories of dragons and I wanted to know more. He ended up studying in Romania in around 1995 but he was one of the first to find out about me. We were together a lot in the forest, He was very interested in meeting creatures from the forest that I knew. I introduced him to snakes, and became a translator between him and the forest.

I spent winter days in the dungeons. My uncle didn’t like letting me out when it was icy on the lake because he was always nervous. It was my first winter at Hogwarts, before anyone really knew about me being in the forest I went out onto the lake on my own. It was hard and I’d seen children skating on it before. I ventured out all the way to the centre. Except that I didn’t realise it wasn’t frozen all the way. I slipped, fell and went straight through the ice. I had no idea there were mermaids in the lake. I felt a tug on my leg and someone pulled me in. I heard them speak to me and I looked at them replied and grew a tail and gills. I guess it is the survival instinct in all of us and perhaps I wouldn’t have the powers I do if I hadn’t had fallen in. We swam to the edge of the lake close to Arber where my uncle was standing. I think panic is the only way to describe his face. I got told off a lot for going on the lake, but I also got a lot of hugs. In the dungeons I walked around trying to find path ways, and I did. There were several interesting ones that led to the willow tree, the kitchens, Slytherin common room, Filch’s office, potions lab. Basically, I discovered that the dungeons could take me anywhere. I guess I became more of a ghost than ever. Some places I found were only accessible by parceltongue too.

The year before I started at Hogwarts was when Charlie’s brothers Fred and George started. He wanted me to meet them but I wasn’t sure. His brother Bill was ok but I didn’t like Percy. I didn’t know many people and making friends wasn’t going to be easy. I met them with Hagrid in April. It was their birthday. They were tall and gangly with the same red hair that Charlie had. My uncle had spoken about them and I knew they were trouble in class but showed promise (I never told them that). I had also heard about them from Peeves who thought they were fun.

From that summer I started being studied by my uncle. We did the same things, short holiday, this time we went to Budapest, and my time at Knockturn Alley but this was different. My letter was handed to me by Dumbledore himself as post does not reach us at Knockturn Alley. I remember just looking at it “OK” and gave it to my uncle. Please understand it wasn’t that I wasn’t pleased to go to Hogwarts but in my mind, I was already there. Looking back, I should be pleased that they let a Riddle in at all. A few weeks before going to Hogwarts I went to Ollivanders' with our house elf and my uncle. There were very few people around, I was quite surprised. I thought there would be so many people there. Mr Ollivander was very nice and seemed to know us well even though I had never seen him before. My uncle discussed a few things they nodded at each other, exchanged money and my uncle left, telling me to do as Mr Ollivander says and to return home with our house elf when I was finished. He was the first person that had actually spoken to me about the houses. "do you think you will be in Slytherin like others in your family?" I was so startled. I looked at Gert because I didn’t know what to say. By this time, I knew who my father was but had been told that I was to tell nobody. As my uncle was Head of Slytherin house and my grandmother had been a Slytherin too I assumed he meant that. Still I didn’t answer, family wasn’t a subject that we discussed, as usual the wand choses.