Vengeance – 2

She came to our date wearing a long tartan cloak that was hiding a nice green dress that showed her knees and a shy neckline. She was a year older than me but I must say she looked much younger, especially with her hair falling down her shoulders.

I rose my hand indicating were our table was and she approached me with elegant steps.

"What would you like to drink?" I asked while she sat in front of me.

"A gillywater will be fine"

"Did you have problems for arriving late to your lesson?" I questioned while we waited for our drinks.

"No" she said smiling. She had a nice smile. "Dumbledore rarely gets mad"

"Dumbledore… I guess you're good friends with him" I said as a matter of fact but trying not to sound rude on my tone.

"We are good friends, just good friends, actually" and I could notice a sight of hope abandoning her.

"You say it as if you wished there was something else"

"Is it that obvious?" she wondered hiding her shame "The truth is I've had a crush on professor Dumbledore since I was his student but… I guess he's never seen me in a different way"

"I'm sure you're wrong" I said, and I'd better be right or that pretending act to win her trust would have been in vain. "Because if not, he'd be silly not to notice such a witch as beautiful and clever as you is offering him her heart. But I won't let him win this easy, if you give me a chance, of course" and I held both her hands with mine over the table and looked deeply into her eyes "I'm totally captivated by you, Minerva"

We kept meeting at the Hog's Head every Friday during the following weeks. She was always hesitant when I asked about her secret love, but she always ended up telling me what had happened on their last encounter. The poor thing kept trying to capture that old jerk's attention and he kept ignoring her. But for the reactions she described on him I was sure my first impression was still right. He did feel something for her, but he was too worried about doing the right thing as for following his instincts with an old pupil of his. I would change that. I needed Dumbledore to be completely attached to Minerva if I wanted my plan to be successful. I would make him unable to take her out from his mind, to live without her, and then I would show him that love was only useful to suffer.

"You could try to make him jealous" I suggested and she opened her eyes wildly as a giggle escaped her lips "Seriously. If he knows there's another man interested on you he'll may react and finally make a step forwards"

"I don't understand" she said "You say you want to win my heart but you're always advising me to help me get another man…"

"That's because I want you to be happy" It was so easy to please her ears just saying some nice words, and then she would always reply with one of her smiles and blush her cheeks like a little girl.

The next time we met she already had her cheeks red when she crossed the wooden door. It had worked.

"You were right, Tom" she said with so much joy in her voice I felt intoxicated by it "I let go on one of our chats that I had met someone and that same evening he invited me for a drink and a chess game in his office"

"And what happened?" I questioned trying not to sound impatient.

"We talked and talked, and he asked me about this mysterious man, and then he wanted to know how I felt about him since there would maybe be someone else interested on me" she couldn't stop smiling why she told me that "I asked him who would that be and he confessed me he'd been having feelings for me since he started tutoring me for my NEWTs"

"And what did you tell him?"

"I told him I shared those feelings and…" she blushed even more and as if it was a secret she confessed "we kissed"

I tried to control myself, things were going as I wanted them to be and I didn't want to mess everything up at that point by showing too much enthusiasm but something that was supposed to somehow upset me.

"I'm happy for you" I said "I just hope that now that you two are together you don't decide to end our friendship"

"Of course not. You've been a good friend, Tom… I would have never been brave enough to make this possible without you"

…

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: I hope you don't feel this is going too fast but since Voldemort is the one telling the story, I feel it's just right going straight to the point. I'm now thinking on the possibility of adding Minerva's or Albus' point of view… but I think the story can be totally understood as it is now. So I'll maybe keep that option in case I really need it.