A/N: Written for Round 3 of the Five Drabbles Competition. I got Merope Gaunt/Tom Riddle Sr as a pairing, so this one's going to be dark.
TW: Cannon compliant, which means all sorts of abuse, rape, and depression. This goes for the collection as a whole, not this drabble in particular.
Prompt used: Class presentation
'Will you please come here for a second?' Tom asked the maid.
They had both been working in the library – he was writing up some notes and she was dusting the already spotless shelves. The girl, albeit withdrawn and not particularly pretty, was a dab hand at cleaning.
'I'm preparing a presentation for one of my classes at Oxford,' he said. 'It would really help me if I could take a look at your eyes for a moment. Please, have a seat.'
'Yes, Mr Riddle,' Merope bowed ever so slightly and sat on the chair next to Tom. She was visibly shaking.
'There's no reason to be worried, Merope. I'm just going to bring a candle to your eyes and look how the light is reflected from them. This is called the Hirschberg test and it's used to detect strabismus. It will only take a minute and it won't hurt, I promise.'
Tom didn't need a test to tell she was cross-eyed, but it was good to get practice whenever possible. It would give him something more to talk about in his presentation as well. He reached for her chin, trying to adjust the angle of her face, and that's when it struck him how awkwardly intimate the situation was. He gently pulled her closer and the blush that spread on her cheeks betrayed she'd had a similar thought.
He tried to focus on her eyes instead. They were a rather lovely shade of brown.