headcanon: i think that tom at the orphanage learned to deal with the scrutiny by pulling himself together as soon as an adult was within eyesight, to appear perfectly composed and polite and not at all misbehaving, and at hogwarts, i think whenever he saw dumbledore, hed keep doing that, so whenever dumbledore saw him, he would appear aloof and not talking to anyone around him or goofing off, which led to him thinking tom riddle is, like, the root of evil and saw himself above others.
personally, not a fan of that headcanon that no one in slytherin had friends, or that they didn't goof off as well, because they're also kids?? like, they're just kids. privileged as hell, sure, and with overbearing parents that want to make sure they succeed in this world, but they're also at boarding school for like ten months out of the year. of course even the evil slytherins have friends and its not all politics.
i especially dont like the whole king and queen of slytherin in fanfics. you could argue that they're just practicing for when they all work in the ministry once they're adults, but personally, those kind of heirarchies build themselves. people make their own groups they hang out with, and there's always that one group that's the "popular" one without anyone saying anything (please note: author is very likely autistic and mightve missed some cues from high school, but this is my experience). anyways, that whole thing doesnt make sense to me and its not my favourite headcanon.
sorry got derailed. main point: to preemptively counter any accusations, tommy boy stops doing anything the moment an adult is around - including any conversations or fun he's having - not realizing this is extremely weird and off-putting and made dumbledore think he was Evil
