'I can't wait until we're seventeen and free as a pixie.'
(word) blush
(word) dilated
(colour) aquamarine
Chaser 1 Appleby arrows
The words seemed to blend into one blob, as his eyes glossed over the large book in front of him, despite his attempts to concentrate. A few specks of dust in a ray of sun coming through the classroom window caught his attention, their intricate dances proving themselves much more interesting than the ramblings of Professor Slughorn. Anything would be more interesting than Slughorn, who was reading from the book word by word. And we, the amazing, receptive students, were supposed to soak up this valuable knowledge.
"Psssst!" Came a shrill noise from behind him. It was so quiet he did not hear it at first, but as it insisted, the young man turned towards its source. "Psssssssssst , Riddle" A girl with short black hair, pasty skin and mud coloured eyes was stretching over her desk, trying to get closer to him. His face turned into a scowl, his eyes glaring towards her.
"What" was his only response. She ignored his obvious disgust, put her hand out, giving him a piece if paper, and kept talking, assuming she could.
"Paul is throwing a party tomorrow night, in the R.R. and only the elite are attending. That, of course, includes you."she smiled towards Tom, and gave him a wink. Riddle felt himself get angry at this uncouth young woman. As if she was anywhere near his intelligence and scope. She rightly considered him part of the elite but she wasn't part of the elite. As if this petty party would mean anything more than a disgustingly stupid excuse for mindless teens to impede their judgement and make terrible things without fully feeling the consequences.
Despite his anger, his facade was faultless. He smirked at her, and said one word: " perhaps." Of course, a meaningless promise.
Her face split into a brilliant smile, her eyes crinkling, a bloody blush spreading from her neck across her cheeks. Thankfully, before she could do anything else, the brittle voice of Slughorn called out.
"Miss Hornby. Please refrain from flirting in my lesson. You ware here to learn. How else would you know about today's topic? " He said weakly. Slughorn is such a pushover, that if she would have argued even the most useless argument, she would have won without any problem. Despite that, she just apologised and went back to reading the textbook. A shame, really. The rest of the lesson went by excruciatingly slowly, the large clock opposite him seemed to drag it's tongues towards it's destination.
It dawned on him that the party could go towards his advantage, masking his absence in the common spaces during the night. I'm order for that to work, he'd have to have witnesses to say he was at the party and thus, he would have to attend that retched thing.
The room of requirement was enlarged to three quarters the size of the grand hall, with students splattered around the whole thing, socialising and laughing at daft jokes.
"I can't wait until we're seventeen and free as a pixie" Tom heard a girl exclaim with joy. She was definitely dresses as what she thought a pixie would look like, her aquamarine dress barely covering her body. There wasn't much time left until they were seventeen, and Tom certainly wasn't looking forward to it. Nevertheless, a pixie was not something he'd want to be.
He went in and 'mingled' for about half an hour. Say hello to this person there, talk about the upcoming tests with another.
'Look at the weather.' 'This teacher is pathetic' 'anyone seen what's-his -name?'
It wasn't hard making conversation, the weightless topics not needing any effort from his part whatsoever. During this time he also noted who the most promising people were. If his plans were to proceed, he would need people to help him, and his current number was not very high.
Just as Tom was about go walk out, music could be heard from the corners of the room, and a drunken girl yanked his hand, leading him in the middle of the majority of people dancing. He struggled against her, but she Seemed to believe he was dancing, as she copied him and continued her ragged movements. It was something that he has never. Experienced, now trapped by this ... This ... Terrible thing. He would forever shudder at this memory.
More bodies seemed to come towards him, suffocating him. He struggled to escape, pushing the bodies away, but nothing seemed to work. More bodies would appear, blocking his passage towards the sweet escape. He have up for a whole, and just stood there, petrified.
At last, the music stopped, and one by one the people moved off the middle of the dance floor. Tom shuffled towards the door and rested his back against the wall. His heart was going haywire and his breathing was uncontrolled. Confused, he raised a hand at eye level and studied it. It was shaking, a sign of hear he never meant to experience. And yet he couldn't think of another way to explain what was happening to him. He has never liked being in tight spaces, but until now he never gave it much thought until now, but today he was sure: this was his fear.
He made his way back to the slithering common room on shaky legs. He muttered and swore at those who have him questioning looks, and ignored those who didn't. It was hard to find his way to the bed, but he did manage to. Not even the bed felt as comforting as it should have felt. The floor seemed able to break and have him fall down into an endless abyss.