Disclaimer: All aspects of this story involving Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling, I only own the OC's present in this story along with any original plot line.
It takes about ten minutes for Keller to get over his shock and manage to get David from his dorm. I'm tapping my foot excessively as David walks towards me, and I can tell he knows I'm angry; the expression that's probably on my face is more than enough for him.
"What happened?" He asks tentatively and calmly.
Another burst of anger rushes through me. How is he so goddamn calm?
"You were right!" I say through gritted teeth, hitting him hard in the shoulder.
"Ow!" He hisses, rubbing his arm. "Since when are you so abusive?"
"This is no time for snide comments, David!" I exclaim angrily, throwing my hands up.
"Well, I wouldn't have to drop comments if you told me what was going, now would I?" He asks sarcastically.
I bite my tongue as I cross my arms. I didn't know it was humanly possible for me to be even angrier than before, apparently it is. David notices my angry glare, and he takes a step back and raises his hands in defense.
"You're right," He says slowly. "That was stupid."
"You're damn right it was!" I nearly scream.
"Okay, well, what happened?"
"You were right! I passed Emily's dorm and-and... I just-I can't!" I angrily sputter out before screaming through my teeth.
"Val," He says. "Just explain this to me slowly and calmly."
I inhale deeply and hold my breath for a moment before letting it out. No, it didn't work. I'm still furious.
"I was walking by Emily's dorm room," I say, trying to refrain from screaming. "When I heard her say she fancies Tom Riddle."
David has a smug look on his face. Of course he does, he was right. I scowl at him and he quickly covers it up with a frown.
"Now you see why I was adamant about telling you, don't you?" He asks.
"Yes. I can't believe she would even think about him! She knows how much I hate him!"
"Actually if you think about it it's not all that surprising."
"What do you mean it's not that surprising? It's Tom Riddle! Are you mad?"
"I'm not mad! Emily never listens to us! What made you think she'd start now?"
"I know she never listens to us but I at least expected her to know that I would be immensely upset if she started to fancy Tom Riddle!"
David sighs. "Well, we have to make sure that nothing happens between the two of them."
"I know we do!" I say, crossing my arms. I stay silent for a long moment before a burst of fear shoots through me and a question tumbles out of my mouth before I can stop it. "You don't think Riddle likes her back, do you?"
"No, I don't," David shakes his head. "But I do think that Emily is confident enough to go after him."
"Well, what are we going to do?" I ask.
He presses his lips into a thin line. "You're not going to like what I have in mind."
Panic shoots through me. "What is it?"
"You'll vomit as soon as I tell you," He says, shaking his head.
"What is it?" I repeat forcefully. What's he trying to say? He has to tell me! I can't take anymore shock today!
He sighs as he looks at me solemnly. "You're going to have to get Riddle to date you."
My jaw drops to the floor and my arms uncross and fall to my sides. I have to get Tom Riddle to date me? Me? The girl he hates and the girl who hates him? David's lost his mind, he must have. There's no way in hell that someone sane would think that they could just tell me to date Tom Riddle and I'd be okay with that. I continue to stare at David, hoping for him to burst out into laughter, signalling me that he hasn't lost his mind. But he doesn't, he just stares back at me.
"No," I finally say. "That's the last thing I'm going to do."
"But Valerie," He says. "It's the only thing we can do! If you date Riddle and he 'breaks your heart' she will see that he's no good for her and never think about him again. You have to trust me on this."
"Trust you?" I ask in disbelief. "David, I'm already questioning your sanity!"
"Valerie, you have to do this!" He says. "You don't want Emily to date him. I don't want Emily to date him. It's either you find some way to get Riddle to date you, or we are going to have to risk allowing Emily to date him! Which would you rather have?"
He can't be serious, I know he can't. I have to be dreaming, this whole day is a terrible nightmare that I'm going to wake up from. David's not serious, he a figment of my dreams. But his face is so solemn, so vivid, and I'm starting to doubt my denial. Maybe he is serious. Maybe he actually wants me to do this. But I can't do it; I know I can't even if I wanted to. I can't just push aside six years of rivalry with Tom and simply pretend I have an attraction to him.
Besides, as much I don't want to admit it, Tom is smart. He's not daft enough to believe that after six years of hatred I suddenly develop an attraction to him. He'd see right through me. What's more, there's no way that Tom would ever consider dating me. He hates me just as much as I hate him. The only thing he and I would ever agree on is that we can't stand the living sight of each other and that we'd die before we'd start dating.
"No," I say, shaking my head. "I'm not doing that."
David lets out an exasperated sigh. "But, Val-"
"No, David," I say, cutting him off. "It wouldn't work anyway. I can't just put away all my anger towards Riddle and pretend I fancy him out of nowhere. He wouldn't believe me if I did, anyway."
"But there's a way you can do it and make him believe it if you-"
"David," I say, shaking my head. "It's not going to work."
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
I shrug and shake my head. "I don't know. I'm tired, David, and I'm stressed out. I don't want to argue anymore."
He scoffs "That's a surprise."
"David," I say. "Please."
He sighs. "What are we going to do then?"
"I already told you, I don't know," I say, crossing my arms. "Look, I have to get to my prefect duties, I'm already late."
"But we still haven't found a solution to Emily fancying Riddle," David says. "I only have that plan, Valerie, and I'm convinced it's full-proof."
I sigh. "Well, you're going to have to think of another plan," I say. "I'll see you later, alright?" I turn around and quickly walk out of the Common Room.
David should know how ridiculous his plan sounds. It's impossible on both sides; I could never get Tom to date me, and Tom would never even think about it. There's no way his plan would ever work, no way. It's not full-proof, despite what he thinks. There are too many obvious flaws and too many things that could go horribly, horribly wrong. I don't want Emily to date Tom, but I also don't want to have to date him myself. David better think of something else.
I turn a corner and I see Tom standing there, no doubt waiting for me. I remember why I got angry the first time tonight, and it's because I have to perform my prefect duties with him. Please, Merlin, let the night be over soon. Tom turns around and spots me, and I see his eyes grow cold.
"You're late," He says as I walk up beside him.
I scowl. "I had a family emergency."
"I'm sure your siblings are old enough to take care of themselves," He says.
He knows I'm angry, and he wants to make me even more. This is why David's plan won't work; I want Tom to blow up into flames. I'll never be able to convince him I fancy him, ever. It just won't happen. The world would explode before it happened. I would explode before it happened.
"It doesn't matter anymore," I say bitterly. "I'm here now and next time I won't be late."
He doesn't say anything, and silence cascades onto us as we start walking. I don't mind the silence as I patrol the halls with him, in fact I welcome it. I would rather have silence between the two of us instead of conversation, that way I won't have to look at him or hear him and it'll be like he isn't here at all. But wherever there's an upside there's always a downside. In this case, the downside is that the silence, though favoured, makes the night drag on for what seems like an eternity. We've really only been walking for at least half an hour, but it feels like we've been walking for two hours.
"Hurry up," I mutter quietly to no one. I just to go to bed and cling onto the last hope that today is still a nightmare.
"Did you say something?" Tom asks.
I mentally curse myself. "No."
"I heard you," He says. "You said something. What was it?"
"It's nothing," I hiss. It's none of his business, and I know he doesn't really care about it. He just wants to make me angry.
"It's not good to keep secrets, you know," He says, placing his hands behind his back. "Someone might think you're up to something."
His plan tonight is to make me as angry as possible. It's working. "I'm not hiding anything!" I snap. "And even if I was I wouldn't be so stupid that I would tell you!"
"You get so defensive," He says. "It's really not helping your case."
"Must you be such a git?" I ask angrily, stopping in my tracks.
"I surprised you don't expect this, Yarrow," He says, stopping as well. "You said it yourself the other night; I don't like you and you certainly don't like me. We're alone, why must we hide it?"
"You know," I say, crossing my arms. "I'm convinced that the whole reason you showed up to this school was just to irritate me."
"Do you actually think that I would come to a school just to pay attention to you? Please, Yarrow, be realistic about things before you open your mouth."
I'm tempted to slap him across the face. I could, and I very well would. But if I slapped Riddle across the face now I would be stripped of my prefect status and I would never become Head Girl. I am realistic; otherwise I would've slapped him across the face ten times over.
"You are one of the worst people I have ever met!" I say through gritted teeth. "I just want to get though this night and all the rest of them without uttering a single word to each other, agreed?"
He clenches his jaw at me, and I scowl. "Agreed. Nothing would make me happier."
We start to walk again. I can't believe Emily likes this git! He's horrid in every way possible. I can't let her go after him, I can't. I don't care if Tom might not have any attraction to her; Emily's pretty and she's persistent. I wouldn't be surprised if he dated her just to make her shut up and then broke her heart to get rid of her. Realization suddenly hits me. That's what David is so worried about, and I realize that it's what I'm worried about too.
Emily's our little sister; David and I are protective over her. We've always seen and labelled Tom Riddle as a threat, me more so than David. Suddenly when Emily decides she fancies Tom, David and I are, of course, going to get angry. We're going to get angry because we know he's trouble, and we know that he'll only break her heart. Emily's so naive, and that's what makes her so fragile at times. Emily can't date Tom. I won't allow it.
"Well," Tom says, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Our duties are over for tonight." What? I didn't realize I had been lost in thought for that long. He turns to look at me and notices me eying him. "Oh, I'm sorry," He says in a mocking tone. "I forgot we didn't want to speak to each other."
I scowl and turn away from him, storming back in the direction of the Common Room. I hear Tom's footsteps behind me, and I walk faster. I'm jogging by the time I make it to the Common Room entrance.
"Pure-blood," I say, and I fly into the room as soon as the entrance is opened.
I want to go to bed. I just want tonight to be over. I'm prepared to walk straight up to my room when I see David sitting in a chair by the fireplace. My eyebrows furrow. Everyone's in bed by now, that means he waited for me. That means he needs to talk to me. He turns around to look at me and stands up just as Tom enters the room. I can feel the air tense around us.
"Yarrow," He says, looking at David. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"
David frowns. "I was waiting for my sister."
"I'm sure whatever you want to tell your sister can wait until the morning; it's after curfew."
"I'm not breaking any rules; I'm in the Common Room not the halls."
Tom doesn't reply to David's somewhat smart-ass comment, but I have a smug look on my face. Tom tilts his head at David. "Goodnight then," He says, and he walks briskly into the boys dormitory. Someone's made him angry, now he knows how it feels.
"I haven't thought of a new plan," David says, and I turn my head to look at him.
"But David-"
"I tried, Val, really I did. I sat here for hours trying to figure something out but, I can't! Nothing will work as well as this plan but you don't want to do it, and I'm not going to make you. It's just that we're stuck now, we have no way out."
"Then what happens now?" I ask.
"We could wait it out, I guess," He shrugs, turning his head to look at the fire. "But I rather not wait until our sister has her heart broken to take any action."
I avert my gaze to the fire. I don't Emily's heart broken either, it's the last thing I want. She'll go after Tom, I know her well enough to know that. I can't let that happen, I'd be a terrible sister if I did. We can't wait it out; we have to settle this as quickly as possible. I'm wracking my brain for a new plan, but I come up with nothing. Emily won't listen if we try to convince her, and we can't just make Tom disappear. There's only one way to go.
"I'll do it," I say, looking at David. I'm doing it; I can't believe I'm actually doing it.
He turns his head away from the fire and stares at me, his eyebrows furrowed. "What?"
I stare back at him. I feel a great sense of self-hatred and nervousness; in fact I think I'm going to be sick. I'm taking a risk; I'm taking a thousand risks. I'm plunging into the deep, dark sea with only my sense of reason to keep me afloat. Or perhaps I already threw my sense of reason out the door, and now I only have myself to rely on. There's a voice in the back of my head telling me not to do it, telling me that it's a bad idea doomed to end horribly wrong. I agree with it, but I don't obey it. It's a shot in the dark, but I have to do it, it's the only way.
One.
I take in a deep breath and swallow.
Two.
"I said," I begin, ridding myself of all apprehension.
Three.
"I'll do it. I'll date Riddle."
Cliffhanger!
Things are getting serious now.
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