Chapter 10: The Deal

Tom

I was floating in the black lake, unable to move, sinking deeper and deeper. Almost reaching the ground, I noticed my lungs were screaming for air. The feeling grew worse with every passing second, until a strange darkness swallowed me up.

I woke up with a start and filled my lungs with the damp dungeon air, grateful for it all to have been a dream. Relaxing in the warmth of my bed, I kept my eyes shut, so I could relish the peace I felt a moment longer. Almost going back to sleep.

I opened them eventually when I felt a slight pressure on my wrists.

There she sat, on my bed, holding on to my hands through the blanket. Without realising that this was reality, I gazed at her, examining her face carefully. It was pale, but she had full red lips. A straight nose and tantalising green eyes. She really is beautiful, I thought sleepily. It took me a few seconds to understand. She pinned me down while being close. Anger rose in me and I tried to free myself, but she had an iron grip.

"What are you doing ? How..." I started and was interrupted quickly.

"How I managed to get in here? Please, don't waste my time." She sneered at me, while her face was inches from mine. My wand was clearly out of reach and she was a lot stronger than she looked.

"Let go of me," I spoke through gritted teeth.

"So that you can curse me into oblivion? No way. I am here so you can't run away or avoid me, like you did the past two weeks. We need to talk, Tom."

I didn't like to admit it, but I had been avoiding her. In fact I was extremely frustrated, I could not think of a way to control her or make her see reason. She was dangerous, but oddly fascinating as well. And she saw me, she really saw me for what I was. That would just fuel my nervousness, I could tell by the way she looked at me that she knew exactly how my mind worked. Her gaze made me feel uncomfortable every time, I felt revealed in an intimate way.

"Then go ahead, I don't intend to spend an entire Saturday like this, Crane." My voice was luckily ice cold and steady.

"Your little group of half-wits is the reason I am here. Tell them to leave me alone, they are trying to surround me at all times. Bringing flowers, saving seats next to them and trying to casually touch me as often as possible. Well, I can't crush their skulls in public as I'd like to. You are controlling them, so order them to stay away."

"Why would I do that? It sounds to me that they are only treating you like a Lady." I couldn't surpress a chuckle, this only caused her to become even more angry.

"I'm not a damsel in distress, nor am I a racing-horse that is up for sale. Not one of them could ever be good enough for me. I want to make a deal, I'll keep quiet about your little club and in return they'll keep their distance. It's awful, one more day and I'll kill at least one of them."

Her attempt to free herself of their advances was simply amusing. Why didn't I think of a deal before?

"Alright, I'll try, but young men in love are not easily controlled, I think."

A satisfied smile on her lips, she came even closer, our noses almost touching.

"I'm sure you'll manage this just fine." Her voice reminded me of velvet and I froze when she suddenly kissed me on the cheek. The spot where her lips touched my skin burned.

"Thank you, Tom. You are such a sweetheart."

Cold rage taking over my brain and I started wanting to cause someone a lot of pain.

She let go of my wrists and within a second I grabbed my wand from the bedside-table, pointing it at her. She had drawn her wand too and looked smugly at me.

"We are now allies, Tom. Don't forget that."

Something came to me even through the fury raging in my head.

"If we are allies, tell me why you speak parsel and who might be able to speak it as well."

"I'm decended from a Parselmouth, Herpo the foul. That's it. There is another family, but more of them speak parsel than we do for...certain reasons." She lowered her wand, suddenly suspicious.

"Why do you care?"

"You are not the only one."

Every flicker of amusement gone now, she gazed at me nervously.

"That's not good," she said more to herself than to me. She left so quickly that I couldn't even ask another question.

He of all people. He was a Parselmouth and there was only one family that I knew of who shared this ability with us. It seemed impossible that bright, handsome Tom Riddle could be related to a bunch of unstable fanatics like the Gaunts. What if he was just like them, deep down? I had to find out. Was he affected by the inbreeding? He certainly didn't seem like it.

Even though it was a Hogsmeade weekend I stayed at the library. To find any trace of the Gaunts, I had to dig deep. They were part of the Sacred-Twenty-Eight, apart from that there was not much to find. Come on, I thought. I need something. Belvina came by the library to ask if I had changed my mind.

"No, I'll stay here this time. Thank you for asking, though."

"Alright, I guess we'll be back for dinner. See you." She smiled shyly and I was glad that she didn't seem afraid of me. It was useful that most girls were, but it was a nice change to have someone look at you without flinching.

All I had heard about the Gaunts came from my grandfather and he did not seem fond of them in the slightest. Now that he was dead, I couldn't ask anymore.

There I sat, surrounded by huge tomes about Pureblood families.

After several hours an idea struck me. Tom would be a descendant from the female line and since she was a witch she might have gone to Hogwarts. The Gaunts had claimed that Salazar Slytherin himself was their ancestor. So it would only make sense for them to go to this school.

Getting up, I went to the old grumpy looking Librarian and asked in a sweet voice about the school newspapers. Since I was the only student there, she gave me her entire attention and shortly thereafter I found myself looking for any trace in the old articles.

It took me three hours to find a Gaunt. The headline read: "Students help students".

As we all know, Hogwarts' team spirit is exemplary. Now proven again by Horace Slughorn, a sixth-year Slytherin who sacrifices his spare time to teach younger students how to brew proper potions...

And there was a picture, too.

...(from left) Merope Gaunt, Peter Bullstrode...

So, Merope seemed to have been the last Gaunt attending the school and she knew Slughorn. But it was a not enough evidence to conclude a connection between her and Tom. She didn't even look anything like him.

Lank and dull hair and eyes staring in opposite directions. No, nothing like him. Closing the heavy book, I leaned back in my chair with closed eyes, trying to ignore some giggling third-year Ravenclaw girls.

Slow steps were emerging towards me and I gazed up at the intruder. There he was.

I shut my eyes again, acting like he wasn't there.

Tom just stood next to me, while waiting for a reaction. You wish, I thought.

After some time, I stood up and levitated the books back to where they belonged.

Riddle still there and still looking at me with his hands behind his back.

As I wanted to grab my cardigan from the chair he caught my wrist.

A heavy sigh escaped me and I glanced at his frustrated black eyes.

"Yes?"

"You said you know a family that speaks parsel as well." He had come to the same conclusion, rather clever after all.

"Forget about it, you are nothing like them."

He seemed disappointed at my words, but continued to hold my wrist.

"Tell me about them anyway."

"No, trust me, I'd like to forget that they exist."

We suddenly heard the voices of Lestrange and Rosier a few shelves away. They would soon discover us and molest me with their disgusting gazes.

When they were getting even closer, I decided to take the initiative and get rid of them in the easiest way.

I looked up at Riddle, who just wanted to let go of my wrist. Without hestitation I grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards me, the shelf in my back.

I didn't have to see his confused expression for long, before I pressed my lips against his.

What I now felt was new to me, a shiver was running down my spine and my lips were moving on their own accord.

After a few seconds, he slung an arm around me and burried a hand in my hair.

He pressed against me and I felt my heartbeat going unregularly. I hadn't expected to feel like this, were kisses always like this ?

I couldn't tell for how long we stood there like this, but we eventually stopped when there was a loud thud.

We were both looking startled in the direction of the noise, seeing Nott hurridly picking up a book and leaving with a red face.

Finally realising that we were still entangled, Tom stepped back from me as if I was contagious. But I saw that his usually pale face was a bit flushed, grabbing my cardigan I left the library with a neutral expression and my head high. I was not able to look at him again and left him standing there like a statue.

On my way back to the dungeons I found a quiet corner and hid there, trying to calm my breathing.