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All belongs to JK Rowling!
Sliding into the chair next to Tom in Transfiguration the next day, Lyra jumped when he grabbed her arm, checking to see if the resurrection stone was still on her hand.
"Merlin, Riddle, it's still there." Lyra said, pulling her hand away.
Tom made no reply, turning back to the book he had been reading. Lyra tilted her head, trying to read the title of the book under Tom's hand. Legends and myths of the ancient world: Separating fact from fiction, Lyra read.
"Find anything useful?" Lyra asked, and Tom sighed, closing the book and storing it away in his bag as Dumbledore entered the classroom.
"No," Tom said dryly, "And let me guess...you haven't even started looking yet?"
"It's been less than 24h." Lyra protested defensively, "I had to sleep in that time you know."
Tom scoffed, "You can sleep when you're dead." He said and Lyra shot him a withering look.
"I'll start right after class today." She whispered as Dumbledore began to lecture about human transfiguration and the dangers of turning living creatures into inanimate objects.
Lyra jumped as the door to the classroom swung open, banging against the wall with the force of it, and Cepheus Lestrange entered, looking furious.
"Ah Mr. Lestrange, nice of you to join us." Dumbledore said, ignoring the murderous look on his student's face.
Ignoring Dumbledore and the stares of the other students completely, Cepheus marched straight to the back of the classroom and roughly pulled out a chair and slid into it.
Students began to whisper amongst themselves and Lyra shot Tom a confused look out of the corner of her eye. Tom merely shrugged, totally unconcerned...too unconcerned.
Lyra frowned in suspicion as Dumbledore began speaking again as if nothing had occurred. Staring discreetly at Tom out of the corner of her eye as she took notes, she tried to read him well enough to determine how much he knew. Of course, reading Tom Riddle had always been an impossible task and Lyra soon gave up, putting it out of her mind.
As class ended, Lyra rushed to catch up with Elaina and Rosalie, following them out of the classroom.
"How was your date, Rose?" Lyra asked, "You haven't even told me who it was with yet."
"Well let's just say I have better taste than you." Rosalie said, grinning and Lyra felt a chill run down her spine as her and Elaina exchanged a look.
"I was not on a date!" Lyra cried, and Rosalie shushed her.
"Whatever." She said, brushing it off, "Anyway I'll give you three guesses who it was."
"You win." Elaina said, rolling her eyes.
"Just tell us, Rose." Lyra agreed and Rosalie shot them both dirty looks.
"You're no fun." She complained, "It was Will Taylor."
"You went on a date with a Gryffindor!?" Elaina cried and Lyra blinked. She had no idea who this Will boy was.
"Yes and he's Muggle-born too." Rosalie said, sounding rather proud of the fact. "Told you I wasn't prejudiced."
Elaina rolled her eyes, "Are you sure you're not just dating him to prove that?" She sneered, "Or maybe as a little act of rebellion against your dear mother?"
Rosalie glared at her friend, "Thank you, Elaina, for all the faith you have in me. It's really what's kept me going all these years."
Elaina shrugged, "Just here to help you self-reflect." She said, smirking and Rosalie shot her a withering look as Lyra laughed.
"You know I think I'm actually going to go have lunch with him." Rosalie said as they entered the Great Hall, "His company is a vast improvement over yours if I'm being honest."
"Well as long as you're being honest." Elaina sneered as Rosalie shot her one last dirty look before marching straight over to the Gryffindor table and sliding onto the bench between two boys.
"Speaking of honesty, has the love of your life told you what he did to Cepheus's girlfriend?" Elaina said waspishly as soon as Rosalie was out of earshot.
Lyra froze, turning to stare at Elaina, "What happened!?" She asked, realizing her intuition had been correct, "Also he's not the love of my-"
"You should ask him." Elaina snapped, nodding in the direction they had just came. Tom had just entered the Great Hall with Eridanus, Abraxas, and Cygnus and Lyra felt her annoyance flare as she looked at the smug look on his face. Whatever he had done, he was happy about it.
"He'll know you told me." Lyra protested but to her surprise Elaina merely shrugged.
"Well he can't kill or seriously harm me, so really, what's the risk?" Elaina pointed out, raising an eyebrow and Lyra sighed.
"That is really not the approach to take," She said, "With Riddle there is always a risk."
"And yet you insist on keeping him around." Elaina replied and Lyra felt a prickle of annoyance.
"We're not having this conversation again, Grandmother." Lyra said, and Elaina swatted her on the arm.
"Don't call me that. I haven't even had children yet." She protested and Lyra laughed, grinning impishly as she walked away towards Tom. She felt her amusement fade as she approached him, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him away from his "friends".
"Can I talk to you?" Lyra asked sharply and Tom gave her his infamous death glare.
"Is that not what you are doing, albeit rather aggressively?" Tom asked dryly.
"Alone." Lyra snapped, "Can I talk to you alone?"
Hearing the snickers of laughter from Abraxas, Cygnus and Eridanus, Tom turned his head and silenced them with a look. "Well do you need me to show you where the table is or do you think you can manage on your own from here?" He snapped and Lyra watched as the three of them slunk off to rejoin the other Slytherins.
"Well?" Tom snapped, "We are alone. That was what you wasn't, wasn't it?"
Lyra sighed, wondering whether it was pushing her luck to drag him out of the Great Hall. Figuring it was not worth the time or effort when no one was near enough to hear them anyway, Lyra gave up.
"What did you do to her?" Lyra snarled, and Tom frowned, looking every bit the picture of innocent confusion.
"What did I do to who?" He asked.
"Cepheus's girlfriend." Lyra snapped, "Drop the act already. I know it was you. I saw the look on your face when Cepheus came into class today."
"It was Selwyn, wasn't it?" Tom sneered, glaring in Elaina's direction.
"What?" Lyra asked, "No, I-"
"Drop the act already." Tom said, mimicking her and Lyra groaned inwardly.
"Well what did you do to her?" Lyra asked again, and a truly evil smirk spread slowly across Tom's face.
"Nothing that can't be fixed with the help of a few simple potions." He drawled and Lyra felt her temper flare.
"Tell me." She ground out, and Tom chuckled.
"Have you ever heard of iaculus crinis?" Tom asked.
"No." Lyra snapped, "What is that? A spell?"
"A curse." Tom said, smirking evilly, "It was made famous by its most notorious sufferer - a witch by the name of Medusa. Contrary to popular belief, people don't actually turn into stone when they look at a person with iaculus crinis but the snakes are rather repulsing to look at regardless."
"You turned her hair into snakes!?" Lyra cried, horrified and Tom smirked.
"Well seeing as we are so acquainted with curses now, I thought I'd try one out for myself. "
"Try one out?" Lyra repeated, her anger mounting at the smug look on his face.
"Yes well Lestrange was annoying me so-"
"So you decided to just casually curse his girlfriend!?" Lyra cried, throwing her hands up in the air, "Riddle, what the hell is wrong with you? That girl did nothing to deserve this."
Tom raised an eyebrow, looking amused at her outburst, "Don't be so melodramatic, Reed, it's very curable. All it takes to lift the curse is a very simple potion made from the liver of a toad and-"
"For Merlin's sake Riddle, that is not the point." Lyra snapped, crossing her arms and squeezing her eyes shut as she struggled to regain control of her temper.
Tom merely smirked, "You disapprove." He said smugly, "And yet you're not going to tell anyone it was me. Why? The same reason Lestrange will never tell anyone. No one will ever believe you."
"Again, Riddle, not the point." Lyra snapped, "I'm not so much upset that you won't be punished for this but that you don't care that you hurt an innocent girl just to get back at her boyfriend for what...for annoying you?"
Tom raised an eyebrow, looking amused, "I fail to see the problem here."
"Of course you do, you bloody psychopath." Lyra snapped, leaning her head against the wall behind her in exasperation.
"I find it strange that you are reacting so strongly to this when you've seen and heard of me committing far greater crimes." Tom said, examining her as if she were an interesting object of study.
"Yes well, one day when I feel up to it, I'll happily yell at you for those too." Lyra sneered and Tom scoffed.
"Tell your friend she'll mind her own business if she knows what's good for her." Tom said, glancing in the direction of Elaina and Lyra stiffened.
"You can't hurt her." Lyra reminded him and Tom snorted.
"I didn't technically hurt Lestrange's Ravenclaw girl either, now did I?" He sneered and Lyra glared at him.
"What if I stopped helping you find the cloak?" Lyra threatened and Tom scoffed.
"You do know that for you to stop doing something you have to first start doing it?" Tom sneered, "And remind me again? How much research have you done, exactly, on this cloak of invisibility?"
Lyra rolled her eyes, "Whatever." She said, conceding defeat on this one. Tom smirked and Lyra resisted the urge to punch him in the arm as they made their way over to the table at last.
Despite her irritation with him, Lyra made good on her promise to Tom and threw herself into research on the cloak of invisibility. Whenever she wasn't studying or spending time with Elaina or Rose, she would meet Tom in the library and together they would pore through pile upon pile of books. What Tom didn't know was that while she was looking for information on the cloak, she was also looking for more information on blood curses.
She had sent out a letter to the centaurs, asking for help with the blood curse, the day after they had successfully removed the curse on the stone. She had received a reply a few days later saying that there was nothing they could do and that the curse could only be broken the regular way. Lyra had debated going into the Forbidden Forest after that but she had ultimately decided against it for the moment and decided instead to try some research of her own.
Lyra had considered telling Elaina about her potential insight on how to break the blood curse on their family but she had been unable to bring herself to do so. It was too risky, Lyra told her repeatedly. Elaina was too sensitive, with her mother dying from the curse and everything, to be able to think clearly about everything and it would just be too stressful, Lyra told herself. However, an annoying nagging voice in the back of her mind kept pointing out the fact that perhaps, she didn't want to tell Elaina because that would require admitting she had forgotten to ask the centaurs about the blood curse while she had actually been in the Forbidden Forest.
Lyra mentally smacked herself as she remembered this unfortunate fact. She had been in the library with Tom for a few hours already and the words were beginning to blur in front of her eyes and her mind was beginning to wander. How had she managed to forget? Her own cousin and great-grandmother were afflicted with the curse and yet she had been so preoccupied with the ring and with Tom that she had forgotten. How had the future Dark Lord become a bigger priority than her own family? Lyra looked up at Tom, his brow furrowed slightly in concentration and shook her head. They had been strangely peaceful ever since their fight in the Great Hall over Cepheus's girlfriend. She wouldn't go so far as to say they were friends or anything of the sort but they had gotten very good at sitting next to each other and reading without breaking into an argument or glaring at one another and that was a definite improvement.
However, trust was still clearly an issue as Tom stared at his ring on her finger every time they met as if worried it would disappear. This was, obviously, impossible since Lyra had no idea how to undo the spell Tom had cast on it to glue it to her finger, nor did she have any desire to do so. She had gotten used to the soft pulsating magic of it and she was actually not looking forward to the day she would inevitably have to give it back to Tom.
Lyra sighed as she stood up, deciding to call it quits. Dinner would be over soon and if she didn't go now she would miss it. Tom looked up, frowning slightly.
"You're going already?" He asked, "You've only been here for-"
"Two hours." Lyra finished for him, "That's enough for now, don't you think? I had a big test today and I have another essay due tomorrow and I need a break."
Tom raised an eyebrow, "You mean you're lazy."
"You need a break too. I know you haven't been sleeping much I can see the bags under your eyes." Lyra said, and Tom sighed in annoyance.
"It's been a week and we have found nothing." Tom complained, "If we do not speed up the process, Grindelwald will find the cloak before we do and we cannot let that happen. Getting it back from him would be near impossible."
Lyra sighed, "Riddle, none of this will matter if we die from sleep deprivation."
Tom scoffed, "Sleep deprivation will be the least of your concerns if Grindelwald finds the cloak first because you were too lazy to do your part."
"Why do you even care so much?" Lyra asked, "Aren't there other ways to become immortal?"
Tom narrowed his eyes, staring at her almost suspiciously, "Do you know of any?"
Lyra rolled her eyes, "No, but I'm just saying maybe you don't need to be killing yourself over finding these Deathly Hallows. It could take years to find them - are you really going to spend all your waking hours in the library for years on end?"
"Well I fail to see what else I could be doing that would be more productive." Tom snapped.
"How about eating dinner?" Lyra asked and Tom scoffed, making no reply and Lyra sighed, letting her books fall back onto the desk.
"Fine, I'll go get us both some food from the Great Hall and then we can continue." She said, turning to leave.
Entering the Great Hall, Lyra saw that most students had already eaten and left; only Olive and Druella were still at the Slytherin table. Wow, I really am late, she mused as she strode over to the Slytherin table and filled up two plates with food, making sure to include some desert as well.
"Eating for two are you?" Olive sneered as Lyra picked up the two plates, "Or are you bringing that to Tommy-dearest?"
Lyra shot her roommate a dark look and turned her back on the two Slytherin girls, trying to ignore their fiendish laughter as she walked away. They were jealous, that much was clear, of the many hours she spent with Tom. Despite the fact that Olive was dating Abraxas and Druella had been in an arranged marriage to Cygnus since birth, they still stared at Tom dreamily from across the classroom and pestered him with annoying questions over the dinner table. As much as she disliked the two girls, Lyra could not deny that watching Tom try to conceal his eternally growing irritation with them was quite entertaining.
As she approached with the food, Tom looked up and Lyra watched as he eyed the food possessively. Lyra laughed, setting the plates down on the table and pushing some of the books out of the way.
"We're probably not allowed to do this." She said, looking around them and seeing no one.
Tom shrugged unconcernedly, picking up a fork and pushing around his food as he examined it closely. Lyra watched in amusement as he pushed all the mushrooms to the side of his plate with a look of disgust on his face before proceeding to carefully separate the mashed potato from the peas.
"You know Olive and Druella were in the Great Hall when I went to get the food and they guessed the other plate was for you." Lyra said after a moment.
At this, Tom's face darkened with irritation, "And what did you say?" He asked dryly.
"I didn't say anything, I just left." Lyra said, and Tom sighed looking up at her as if assessing her.
"Come to Slughorn's ball with me." He said and Lyra nearly choked on her food.
"What!?" She asked, thinking she needed to get her ears checked.
Tom clicked his tongue impatiently, "Druella asked me to take her since she was too unintelligent to get invited herself and she won't leave me alone until I say yes. Seeing as hexing her mouth shut is regrettably not an option, I need a valid excuse as to why I cannot take her. You will be my excuse."
Lyra raised her eyebrows, not knowing whether to be offended or not, "Your excuse?" She asked, "By the way are you asking me to go with you or ordering me to? It's kind of unclear."
"Whichever makes you more inclined to agree." Tom said, a slight smirk on his face.
Lyra hesitated. She was not opposed to spending the night with Tom Riddle - as strange as that realization was - but then again, if she went with him she wouldn't be able to go with Conan, like she'd planned. There was also the issue of explaining to Conan, Elaina, and Rosalie that she was, once again, not actually dating Tom nor was there anything going on between them - a story that was getting harder and harder to sell the more time they spent cooped up in the library together.
On the other hand, her entire reason for being in the past was to change the future and if she really intended to stop Tom from becoming Voldemort then she needed to befriend him somehow and turning down his offer to go to a dance was a step in the wrong direction. In the grand scheme of things, what did it matter if her friends thought she liked him if she managed to change the course of history altogether and save her parents. It was selfish, really, to turn down his offer.
"Sure." Lyra said after a moment, "I'll go with you."
A slight look of surprise passed behind Tom's eyes but he quickly concealed it and nodded.
"Good." He said, pushing away the rest of his food and returning to his attention to his never ending stack of books.