Here's the next chapter already! Lots of intense Lyra-Tom scenes in this one ;)
All belongs to JK Rowling!
Her head full of worrisome thoughts, Lyra ran through the hallway towards the Potions classroom. Reaching the classroom, she quietly cracked open the door and stepped inside. She spotted Tom near the back of the classroom and watched as he snapped his head up and stared at her impassively. Lyra met his eyes for a split second before turning to Slughorn to make her apologies.
"Not to worry, dear. We've just gotten started. I do believe Tom has no partner, you can go join him. I have absolute faith he will have you caught up in no time." Slughorn said, sending a wink in Tom's direction.
Lyra nodded and then turned towards Tom, weaving her way through the rows of students and cauldrons until she reached Tom. From the looks of it, Tom was farther along in his potion than any of the others.
"Where were you?" Tom whispered under his breath and Lyra unpacked her bag and produced her Potions book. "Did I not explicitly state that you were to be on time for this class?"
"Yes, I know, I got caught up with Abraxas's sister." Lyra whispered back and Tom raised an eyebrow. "She was crying."
Tom gave her a withering look and then returned his attention to his potion, "Oh she was crying? Well that changes everything now doesn't it?" Tom sneered darkly.
"Why does it even matter." Lyra protested, crossing her arms, "I'm here now. Just tell me whatever it was you wanted to tell me."
Tom snorted, turning his back on her and rummaging through the piles of ingredients next to his cauldron. Picking up a tub of crushed beetles, he turned to Lyra.
"Hold this." He snapped, shoving the tub of crushed beetles into her hands.
Lyra struggled to grab them and almost dropped them as Tom stirred his potion. Noticing her clumsiness, Tom inhaled sharply.
"Your incompetency never ceases to amaze me." He snapped, grabbing the tub of beetles back from her and sprinkling them into the potion.
Lyra glared at him. "Well maybe if you didn't just shove things into my hands without telling me I wouldn't-"
"I need you to go talk to Dumbledore for me." Tom said, interrupting her.
Lyra's mouth fell open as she stared at him in shock.
"What?" Tom snapped, "Is talking to a professor too complicated a task for you?"
"Why?" Lyra blurted out, unable to contain herself.
Tom gave her a pointed look, "Why do you think?" He replied dryly.
Lyra frowned, "Because of what I said last night?"
"Well would you look at that. She does have a brain after all." Tom sneered, stirring his potion carefully.
Lyra glared at him, "And what do you want me to say to him? Good afternoon Professor Dumbledore, I was just wondering if you knew Tom Riddle killed his father? Oh yes, you did? Okay wonderful. Were you also the one who cursed his family's ring? Oh you were? Okay great. Thanks. Could you remove that curse? You will? Okay thanks."
Tom gave her a withering look, "Have you ever heard of something called subtlety?" Tom snapped, "I understand the word may be out of the range of your vocabulary."
"How the hell am I supposed to subtlety ask a professor if he knows you're a murderer and whether he cursed your family heirloom?" Lyra asked, crossing her arms defensively.
Tom sighed, "You don't ask him, idiot." He snapped, "You go to him and you tell him I have been annoying you and you ask him what is wrong with me. I guarantee you, if you give him the right incentive, he will gladly tell you what he thinks of me." Tom said waspishly.
"You can even bring up my father's murder if you're at a loss." Tom continued, whispering under his breath, "Ask him if I've been unpleasant because my father was killed and try to judge what he knows by his reaction. You have to be clever, Reed." Tom sneered, "I know this might be a challenge for you but please give it a try."
Lyra glared at him, "The boy who thought it was a good idea to unleash a giant snake on the student population is lecturing me on cleverness."
Tom glared at her, "I did not get caught, now did I?" He snarled, "In fact, in case you were not aware, I even received a special award for catching the culprit." He sneered, smirking arrogantly.
"You're horrible." Lyra said, pushing past him to read the Potions instructions.
"Oh now you decide to help." Tom said waspishly, "After the potion is nearly complete."
"My mistake." Lyra sneered, "I thought you would have preferred I leave it all up to you seeing as I probably lack the basic competency to brew a simple potion."
Tom snorted, "I would not be surprised."
"I have an O in potions you know." Lyra retorted, glaring at him.
Tom raised his eyebrows, "Now that is surprising." He sneered, and Lyra slapped him on the arm.
"What did she say?" Lyra heard an anxious voice ask from behind her and turned around to see Abraxas. Tom turned around as well, annoyance registering on his face.
"What are you doing over here, Malfoy?" Tom asked sharply, and Abraxas's face paled.
Abraxas nodded, "Sorry, Riddle." He said, bowing his head differentially to Tom, "Lyra was helping me with a situation involving my sister and-"
"How fascinating." Tom interrupted sarcastically, turning his attention back to his cauldron and apparently deciding to ignore Abraxas's presence entirely. Lyra and Abraxas exchanged a look.
"Eliza's fine. You should go talk to her." Lyra said at last.
Abraxas shot a wary glance in Tom's direction before responding, "Did she tell you...what did she say exactly?"
"Well she did say she is a fan of Gryffindors and Muggleborns actually." Lyra said, a half-smile forming on her lips as Abraxas's face contorted in pain.
"Whatever you do, don't be hard on her." Lyra urged him, "If you're not there for her...it's possible no one will be."
Abraxas was silent and Lyra felt a flicker of fear run through her. The Abraxas she had met as a child had no made any mention of his sister. Had he too turned against her or was she drawing too many far-fetched conclusions.
"Stay away from her." Abraxas said at last, his face hardening, "She doesn't need to be influenced by the likes of you."
Lyra blinked in shock and narrowed her eyes at him, "Don't worry, Malfoy. Unlike you, she actually has a mind of her own."
Behind her, Lyra could have sworn she heard Tom let out a snort of laughter.
"Just stay out of my family's business." Abraxas snarled, turning to leave.
Lyra watched him go with a sense of foreboding before turning to look over at Tom, who was still working away on the potion. Coming up next to Tom, Lyra peered into the cauldron.
"Do you want me to cut up the worm tails?" Lyra asked, beginning to feel quite guilty she had not helped at all with the potion.
"Does Eliza Malfoy really want to be in Gryffindor?" Tom asked, and Lyra looked at him in surprise. He had not shown any interest in their conversation but apparently he had been listening after all.
Lyra nodded, chopping up the worm tails whether Tom wanted her to or not. "She hates it in Slytherin."
"Strange." Tom muttered, accepting the chopped worm tails Lyra offered him and inspecting them carefully before throwing them in the cauldron.
"It's the pureblood supremacy of Slytherin house she hates," Lyra clarified, looking at Tom out of the corner of her eye as she pulled a piece of birch bark towards her and began to pound it into dust.
Tom made no indication he had heard her, focusing solely on his potion.
"How can you think Muggleborns are lesser when you yourself are a half-blood?" Lyra asked after a moment.
Tom let out a sigh of annoyance, "Reed, this is not the time or place for this discussion."
"It just doesn't make any sense," Lyra insisted, pushing the pounded birch bark towards him, "You were raised by Muggles, your father is a Muggle-"
"I am the heir of Slytherin, Reed." Tom snarled, "I was meant to grow up in the wizarding world."
"Yes but you are just as related to your Muggle father as you are to your pureblood mother." Lyra said, knowing full-well she was pushing the envelope, "How can you hate something that is in your very blood?
"I hate it precisely because it is in my blood." Tom replied viciously because stopping himself, looking almost shocked at the words that had come out of his mouth.
Lyra made no reply, mulling over his words inside her head. She was beginning to understand him...or so she thought. He hated Muggles because his father was a Muggle and his father had abandoned him. It was so simple and childish. Had he really went through all the trouble of becoming a dark lord just because he resented his father for abandoning him? It had to be more than that. A thirst for power; a desire to be feared and adored; a desire to be extraordinary when he had been born ordinary.
"So you killed that little girl...Myrtle...because she represented the part of yourself you hate. The part of yourself that belongs to your father who abandoned you." Lyra said.
Before she knew what was happening, she screamed as the cauldron of potion came tumbling down, its contents just missing her hands as she jumped backwards. In her shock, Lyra barely registered the screams and shocked voices of concern from the students that swarmed her. She saw only Tom. His dark eyes bore into hers through the smoke that wafted up from the spilled potion and in them was written a warning. A threat.
Lyra felt all the hatred she had thought she had overcome come flooding back as she glared back at the boy in front of her. She had articulated out loud the hard truth that he himself could not face and he had lost his temper. He was dangerously immature, Lyra thought viciously.
And in that moment, Lyra realized the truth was exactly what Tom Riddle needed to hear - no matter how angry it would make him.
"Riddle."
Tom clenched his fists and walked faster as Lyra caught up to him. They were nearing the Great Hall and Tom had been hoping to make it there before she caught up to him. There would have been less chance of a confrontation if they were in a room with hundreds of other students. He had lost his temper and it had nearly cost him. Luckily, he had successfully convinced Slughorn and the other students that Lyra had been the one to knock over the cauldron and spill the potion and to his surprise, she had gone along with the lie. Tom wondered whether she had finally figured out it was impossible to fight with him and win.
Lyra pulled roughly on his arm and Tom inhaled sharply, trying desperately to refrain from cursing her. Once they were out of earshot of anyone else, Tom pulled his arm out of Lyra's grasp.
"You need to control your temper." Lyra snapped. The look on her face was one of pure hatred and this only served to irk Tom further.
"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about." Tom replied. His voice was innocent but his eyes told a different story.
"You want me to help you remove the curse on that ring? How about you stop trying to scald me." Lyra snarled.
"Forgive me for misunderstanding, but I was under the impression you valued your friends." Tom said in a dangerously polite voice, "While I would never dream of hurting them, it would not be my fault if they were to be expelled for breaking school rules."
A look of fear crossed Lyra's face and Tom's face twisted into a satisfied smirk. If she really thought she was going to win this war, she was sorely mistaken.
"I will go to Dumbledore for you." Lyra said cautiously, "But I would really appreciate it if you do not attack me every time I say something that offends you."
Tom's smirk morphed into a dangerous glare, "I did not touch you." He snarled, "If I remember correctly, last time I "offended" you, you tortured me."
For the first time since the incident, Lyra's face did not twist into a look of guilt at these words and this irked Tom more than he was willing to admit. He had enjoyed making her feel guilty; there had been something very satisfactory and entertaining about it.
"I understand now." Lyra said, "Everything you do goes back to your father. You hate Muggles and Muggleborns because your father was a Muggle. Simple as that. You even want to change your name to Lord Voldemort because you don't want to have your father's name. Can't you see how pointless this all is?" Lyra exclaimed.
Tom's fingers itched to curse her but he forced himself to stay calm. She was clearly trying to provoke him and it had been a mistake to let her succeed in doing so. "I fail to see how this is of any concern to you." He replied evenly, his jaw clenched.
"Well if you intend on becoming Lord Voldemort then it is very much of concern to me." Lyra replied, crossing her arms. "You're going to destroy the whole world all because your father left you in an orphanage. I'm sorry but this is just so stupid I can't-"
"It has nothing to do with him." Tom snarled, unable to contain himself, "Why should I not achieve my full potential?"
Lyra laughed humourlessly, "Your full potential?" She scoffed, "You mean to say that becoming a psychotic murderous dictator like Grindelwald is your full potential? If that's the case then you really don't have much potential at all do you."
"I have the potential to become the most powerful wizard of all time." Tom snarled.
"So what?" Lyra asked, throwing her arms up in the air.
Tom raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean, so what?" He snapped.
"So what is the point of being the most powerful wizard of all time?" Lyra asked, and Tom couldn't help himself from staring at her in confusion.
"It is the greatest achievement anyone could ever-" Tom began, but Lyra cut him off.
"Yes but what is the point of achieving it?" Lyra asked, and Tom felt a prickle of annoyance at her seemingly pointless questions.
"Asking that is like asking what the point of breathing is." Tom stated dryly.
Lyra rolled her eyes, "All I mean is that there are things more important than power."
Tom scoffed, "Like what?"
"Love, happiness, friendship, peace, health..."
"Oh shut up." Tom snapped, turning away.
"You're so weird." Lyra remarked in a way that made Tom's skin crawl with annoyance.
They fell into a tense silence and Tom's thoughts returned to Dumbledore. As infuriating as Lyra was, he needed her to get information out of Dumbledore. She was the last person Dumbledore would expect to be on his side. Composing himself, Tom turned back to Lyra.
"You need to go see Dumbledore today. Tell him I tried to spill the potion on you - use that as your excuse for why you wanted to talk to him about me." Tom urged her.
Lyra sighed, "And if he doesn't reveal anything?"
Tom clicked his tongue in annoyance, "You don't know how people work, do you? You have to make him reveal it. Find a way to make him so angry at me that his emotion clouds his judgment and he reveals something he shouldn't. You can make anyone say or do anything if you know how to manipulate their emotions." Tom said.
Lyra raised an eyebrow, "Manipulate their emotions? Is this what you do?"
"Yes." Tom replied shortly, "And it is incredibly effective. Even on you."
Lyra rolled her eyes, looking slightly amused. Tom did not understand why she would think anything he had said was funny and stared at her in slight confusion.
"Okay I'm going to try." Lyra said at last, "No promises though."
Tom sighed in frustration, worried she would somehow mess everything up or reveal something she shouldn't. He wished he would have brewed some Polyjuice potion over the summer. Then he would have been able to go himself. Tom mentally slapped himself at his carelessness.
"Meet me in the library when you are finished." Tom snapped, "This time try not to get distracted."
Lyra rolled her eyes, "I won't forget." She assured him.
Tom privately doubted her reliability but nodded anyway. "Good."