Written for round 4 of the QLFC.
Team: Pride of Portree
Position: Seeker
Word Count (excluding author's note): 918
"Ah, Minerva, I was hoping to speak to you." Tom Riddle walked quickly down the hallway, smiling beatifically at the young witch in front of him.
"What do you want this time, Riddle?" Minerva asked, glancing down the corridor. "I'm going to be late for Potions, and you know what Slughorn's like."
"Oh, he'll let you off, just say you were helping me with something. He'd never deny me anything." Minerva heard the unspoken words: he wouldn't dare.
Tom Riddle was an enigma. He was generally friendly and well-liked, even amongst the Gryffindors. However, Minerva could see something different in his piercing eyes. A darkness, well-suppressed but present nonetheless. He was… interesting, Minerva supposed, and she always enjoyed their conversations. Certainly he was a more attractive sight than Slughorn. Casting a last longing look towards the Potions classroom, she turned to follow Tom in the opposite direction. Perhaps a conversation with him was worth ruining her perfect attendance record.
Once outside, Tom flopped down onto the grass underneath an old oak tree and patted the ground beside him, indicating that she should join him. Minerva sat rather primly, unaccustomed to the more casual behaviour that she regularly observed in her peers. Minerva was a lady and, as her mother had instructed her, acted like one at all times.
"Minerva, I've been watching you," Tom said, staring deeply into her eyes. Minerva flushed slightly, but refused to look away. The darkness she had previously seen was still there, but she could see something more. There was a fire in his eyes, some unidentified emotion burning away, and despite her misgivings she desperately wanted to know what it was.
"You are a very beautiful young lady," Tom said carefully, still not breaking eye contact. Minerva was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable pinned under his gaze, but it was somehow a pleasant discomfort.
"I was hoping that you might accompany me to Hogsmede this weekend. I have discovered a rather lovely tea shop, and I would like to escort you there, if you'll permit me."
Was Tom Riddle really asking her out? Her? The Gryffindor book worm and the Slytherin Prince! Surely she had misunderstood. Trying, and failing, to quash her hopefulness, Minerva spoke.
"Are you asking me on a date, Tom?" She was surprised that her voice managed to stay so calm, not a hint of her roiling emotions showing. She was, of course attracted to him. All the girls at Hogwarts were; he was gorgeous! However, she found it hard to believe that he would choose the frumpy know-it-all from his rival house.
"Yes, Minerva." Tom grinned, and Minerva was lost. Any previous thoughts that the darkness inside Tom was something to be wary of fled her mind as she smiled genuinely for possibly the first time since she had arrived at Hogwarts.
Minerva, of course, agreed to the date. Tom rose and helped her to her feet. He placed a feather-light kiss upon her hand and wandered off in the general direction of the Herbology greenhouses. Minerva never showed up in Potions.
Having dated for a few months, Minerva decided to bring Tom home for a week to meet her parents. Tom, always glad of a reason to not return to the muggle orphanage he called home, accepted the invitation graciously.
Disembarking from the train, Minerva spotted her parents on the platform and dragged Tom across by the hand, momentarily forgetting that ladies do not run and most certainly do not drag their boyfriends around.
Robert and Isobel McGonagall smiled at their daughter and her gentleman friend politely, although Minerva could tell that they were not truly happy to see Tom. She understood, of course; she would always be their baby girl and they hated to see her growing up. As the week progressed, however, she began to suspect that there was something more dictating their feelings towards Tom.
Both Robert and Isobel were unfailingly polite to their guest, but they never seemed to warm to him. Even when Tom played silly games with Minerva's younger brothers and delighted them with muggle magic tricks, unable to perform real magic outside of Hogwarts.
On Tom's last night at the McGonagall residence, Isobel pulled her daughter into the kitchen. Tom looked concerned, but Minerva simply smiled at him and gestured him towards her brothers, who were clamouring for Tom's attention.
"Dear," Isobel began. "I can't help but feel that you are making a mistake by courting this young man." Minerva frowned.
"Whatever do you mean, Mother?" Minerva asked, astonished. "He is a wonderful person: intelligent, ambitious, kind, sweet…" she trailed off.
"He simply doesn't seem very warm towards you," Isobel said. "He certainly seems to respect you, but I find it difficult to believe that he truly cares for you. There is a darkness in his eyes. It is suppressed, but it is there."
All of Minerva's previous concerns flooded back. After spending the remaining week of the holiday apart, Minerva broke up with Tom on the train ride back to school. He accepted the news with no emotion at all, and never spoke to Minerva again.
Later in life, when Tom was revealed to be the Dark Lord, Minerva was glad that she listened to her mother's advice. However, there was always the thought floating around her mind that, perhaps, she could have made a difference. Had they only stayed together, perhaps he would not have succumbed to the evil inside him. Perhaps she could have saved them all.