My first Tom Riddle story. Let me know what you think!
It wasn't strange that she was watching him. She did it everyday, whenever he walked past her, catching her attention. She had been doing it for five years now and not once had she been caught. Well, until that very moment, when he glanced at her and flashed an oh-so-charming smile. She froze and then, choked on her mouthful of waffles. Her friends turned to her, patting her back, and chanting a spell.
"You alright, Chris?" her friend asked. Christine Young nodded and drank an entire glass of pumpkin juice before wiping her mouth on her robe.
"I'm fine" she said, a little springily, before standing up and picking up her bag.
"I'm going ahead to class" she informed her friends, before leaving there. Once outside, she sighed and massaged her temples.
"That was close" she mumbled under her breath.
"What was?" the voice startled her, made her jump and squeak. Tom Riddle grinned.
"Hello, Ravenclaw" he said silkily, "What were you looking at before?" he enquired. Christine frowned and then glared at him.
"You can't scare people like that, git!" she scolded, "What do you want? I'm in a hurry" she said, tapping her foot impatiently. She scolded herself mentally for being rude. But, it had been her childhood habit to be loud and obnoxious when she faced certain fearful conditions. Tom smiled at her.
"I just thought we'd walk together, Young" he said, "do you mind?"
His smile never left his face and for some odd reason, Christine nodded and let him lead the way. She frowned and looked down at the ground. She usually walked to classes alone. Sure, she had an entire gang of friends, but she liked going alone, it gave her some space and some air.
"So, why were looking at me before?" Tom asked, as they turned at an intersection. Christine frowned.
"I wasn't looking at you" she lied. She didn't know why she bothered. She was a terrible liar.
"Is that so?" Tom asked cheekily, turning to look her in the eye. Christine frowned.
"Of course!" she said, her cheeks puffing out to make her look as scary as possible. But, being 5'3'' and as cute as a rabbit had its disadvantages. Tom grinned.
"Do you want to go out with me, Young?" he asked, teasingly. Christine frowned and stepped back, for he was in her personal space now. Tom grinned upon her reaction and took another step forward and wrapped his arm around her, so that she wouldn't move. Christine froze when she felt his arm on her back.
"Do you want to go out with me, Christine?" his voice was thick and it made her knees weak. She felt them buckle beneath her and she began falling. Tom caught her, holding her up around her waist. Christine felt trapped against his chest. He had a nice chest, she noticed, flat and a little cold, very nice in the warm spring weather. Christine stood and pushed herself away from him. Tom Riddle frowned. No one had ever pushed him away and no one would.
"Look, Riddle" Christine said, looking past him, "I'm going to go now. Let's pretend this never happened"
Before he got another word out, she walked past him, and went straight into the potions class. She was alright at potions. Sure, the professor had his Slug-club and all and they were amazing in every sense of the word, but Christine like remaining low-key, she hated the spotlight.
As the long day dragged on, Christine felt more and more at ease. Her incident with the handsome prefect had its effect on her and she had been distracted in all her classes. Not that she paid much attention otherwise, but apart from that too. Her friends had noticed it.
"You ok, Chris?" Edward Potter asked. Christine smiled.
"I'm fine, Ed" she said, "I'm a little tired and I think the potions room didn't help at all" she admitted. Although Edward was a Gryffindor and she was a Ravenclaw, they had been good friends since first year. They were the first members of the League of Magi, that they had thought up on their first train-ride to Hogwarts. Since then, several people had joined the League and now, the League had a proud fifty-five members, including a few students who had left Hogwarts and the transfiguration professor, Albus Dumbledore.
Edward gave her a smile.
"You'll get fresh air" he said, "You have care of magical creatures next, right?"
Christine nodded. Ed had always been so caring of her, like a brother. Edward flashed her another smile before walking towards his divination class. Christine sighed. She had Care of magical creatures with Slytherin, which meant she probably wouldn't get any lone time.
"It's alright, Chris! So, what if Ed's not there! I'm there!" Klaus Lovegood said with a smile. He had blonde hair and was too tall for his own good. Christine smiled. He was one of the few friends she had in Ravenclaw. Most of her friends were either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. But mostly Hufflepuff, she shared their desire to cook and eat more than anyone else from the other groups. Christine nodded and listened as Klaus talked about some weird radish he had found in the river bed. Soon, they had arrived at the edge of the forest and stared at the cage in front of them, holding, what looked like, a herd of pixies? A swarm? A pack? A pride? Something like that. Christine stared as the small green flying creatures, screamed and yelled at them, trying to break free of the cage.
"Now, students" the professor said, "These are dragon pixies. Very rare creatures and you must know how to feed them and care for them..."
As the professor droned on and on, Christine felt more and more distracted. First, it was the pixies, some of whom were staring at her oddly. Next, was Klaus, rambling about radish running away. Finally, it was Tom, who was standing across from her, staring at her. Christine had barely noticed him at first, but after she noticed the pixies staring between him and her, it was hard not to turn her attention to the prefect, who was grinning rather crookedly. Christine frowned and decided to not look anymore and turned away, nodding to something else Klaus had added to his long list of impossible things.
After an hour and half of pure torture, Christine stumbled back into the Great hall for lunch. Thankfully, for her, Ed had saved her a seat, like always and she took it, putting her head down on the table to breathe in peace.
"I saved you some cherries" he said. Christine opened her eyes and turned to him, smiling.
"Thanks, Ed" she said, sitting up, "You're the best" she added, popping one in her mouth. Ed grinned at her and then turned to talk to Klaus. Although Ed and Klaus weren't the best of friends, Ed listened to him, because it was polite. After half an hour of freedom, Christine felt bad that she had go to class again.
"May be I'll skip" she mumbled. Ed turned to her.
"Really? You, Chris? Skip class?" he asked. Christine frowned, clearly offended.
"I have skipped class before!" she declared. Ed raised an eyebrow. Christine sighed, her shoulders drooping.
"Ok, so I haven't" she admitted, swallowing, "I'm not miss-skip-a-lot" she said. Ed grinned.
"It's transfigurations and defence against the dark arts" he told her calmly, "That's all. You'll be done after that"
Christine sighed, her bottom lip quivering.
"But, I'll be alone" she said, "I have them both with Slytherin and Klaus isn't there either!" she declared. Ed grinned.
"We'll come pick you up after class" he promised, "We'll go for a walk by the lake, later, ok?" he said. Christine sighed and nodded and pulled Ed into a hug.
"Thanks, Ed" she said, "You're the best!"
As much as Christine liked transfiguration and Professor Dumbledore, she felt miserable sitting inside on such a wonderful day. It was true that most Ravenclaws enjoyed indoors and liked books and nothing more. But, Christine felt the hat had made a mistake by putting her in Ravenclaw. She was more a Hufflepuff than anything. Her house-mates looked down on her for being so fond of food.
"Ms. Young" Dumbledore said, appearing beside her. Christine looked up and noticed that he was staring at her and then at the iguana in front of her. Christine frowned.
"Oh! Right!" she said, flicking her wand and the iguana turned into a clear glass bowl. Dumbledore nodded.
"Well done" he said, "As always. But, please, Ms. Young, I would prefer your head and your body to remain in one place" he said and the class burst into laughter. Christine nodded and turned her head to the front of the class, her cheeks burning red with embarrassment. After class, Christine stayed behind and waited until the class was empty.
"Professor?" she called, walking into Dumbledore's office. It was a small room, cluttered with books and chocolate wrappers of all sorts. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, eating a liquorice wand and glancing through the paper. He looked up when Christine entered and smiled when he saw her.
"What is it, poppet?" he asked, as he always did. Christine shrugged.
"I have too many thoughts" she said, "Isn't there something to do about them?" she asked. Although Dumbledore was her transfiguration professor, Christine had asked him stuff like this as if he were family. He almost was, for he spent several evenings in their house, especially during the summer vacation.
"What kind of thoughts, poppet?" he asked, gesturing for her to take a seat. Christine dropped her bag on the floor and sat down, picking up an every flavoured bean from his table and popping it in her mouth.
"I can't say" she said, "it's a secret" she added, winking. Dumbledore smiled.
"Have you tried removing something from there?" he asked, eyeing her curiously. Christine shook her head.
"I know it's possible, professor" she admitted, "but I thought if I did that, I'd lose some nice memories and some new feelings" she said, scrunching up her nose in disgust and spitting the bean in her mouth onto the floor. Dumbledore nodded.
"I see" he said, "What flavour was that?" he asked.
"I'm not sure" she said, gagging and trying to get the taste off her tongue, "I think some sort of raw meat" she added, biting down on a liquorice wand. Dumbledore nodded.
"How about trying to stuff some of them to the back of your mind?" he suggested. Christine nodded.
"But, that doesn't really work" she said, "I tried it, last night, from the roof of the tower, but the stars were really distracting" she rambled. Dumbledore smiled.
"In that case" he said, "Stay off the roof, unless you want detention and try to focus your energy on something else" he said. Christine frowned and then smiled, chewing her liquorice wand.
"Thanks, professor" she said, standing up and picking up her bag, "That helped" she admitted truthfully, before leaving him.
After spending another hour and a half in the defence class-room, Christine was glad to see Ed and their little League, waiting for her at the entrance. Christine ran to them, smiling as she noticed them seeing her.
"Glad you're alive after that Chris" her friends said and for once, Christine was glad to have people who cared about her, as she walked in the middle of the gang, towards the lake. Her friends around her talked, most of them had what Christine called, "The perfect friend." In her own words, it was the person whom one would share everything with. And although you have several friends, there was only one perfect friend. Everyone had one. Everyone except Christine. Sighing she stared out at the lake as they settled down on the grass and began working on their homeworks. The sun dipped and soon, afternoon turned to evening and evening turned to dusk and one by one, all her friends made their way back.
"Ed, you coming?" one of the gryffindor boys asked. Ed turned to Christine. Christine smiled.
"I'll be here a little while more" she told him, "You can go ahead"
Ed gave her a doubtful look, but nodded and left. Christine sighed and turned back to the lake.
"Focus on something else" she remembered Dumbledore's words. Then, she frowned.
"Not as easy as it sounds" she admitted quietly, before standing up and dusting off her skirt and making her way back to the castle.
"Ah! Caught you, Young!" came Tom's voice, as Christine felt a pair of arms grab her and pull her into a closet. The hand clamped her mouth shut and another held her by her arms, so she couldn't yell nor hit. Tom stared at her in the dark.
"I've been trying to get an answer for my proposal since morning!" he told her, "So, what do you say? You and I? We'd make a great pair!" he said. Christine glared at him and bit his palm that held her mouth close. Then, when he winced and moved away, pushed her way out of the closet.
"Damn you, Riddle!" she said, "Next time you want a chat, ask like a normal person!" she declared, pointing an accusing finger in his direction. Tom frowned. What did a normal person do? he wondered as he watched her stalk away.
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