I'm back!
JaceK18: Thank you so much for the review! I too have a perverse fascination with Tom Marvolo Riddle, especially how a man so clinical and detached like this would deal with something as messy and intuitive as love and attraction.
It wasn't until the match that it happened again.
Kate played Seeker due to her small and light frame, and Slytherin's first match was against Gryffindor. Naturally, the houses were pumped and insults were being freely bandied across classes and in hallways. In such an atmosphere, it was natural that fights would break out between students, and Orion Black got into a rather vicious one with Gryffindor Chaser Lyall Lupin.
On the day of the match, the Slytherins gathered in a circle on their end of the rain-sodden pitch, Alden Greengrass' Captain badge glinting in the rain.
"All right Slytherins, we all know what to do. Black, Malfoy and I will go after the Quaffle. Dolohov, Rowle- keep an eye on Lupin and their new Seeker, and if the Gryffindors get too aggressive or start tailing either us three or Summers, blast them with the Bludgers. Rookwood knows his job all too well. Let's get these bastards."
Greengrass and Lupin shook hands before Mister Matthews blew the whistle, the two teams rising in the air. Kate cast an Impervius charm around herself before starting her search for the Snitch.
Halfway through the match, her head burst with pain again, and Kate tried to steady her vision as she went after the Snitch, the little fluttering ball a few metres away. Barely ten metres away from it, she felt something hit her torso, her head hitting the projectile, and she could hear Alden yelling her name as her consciousness faded away.
Well, that was unintended.
Tom had only intended to use her diverted attention as a means of access to her mind - that Bludger wasn't something he'd kept track of. So when it hit the side of her torso like a cannonball, his only option was to help her.
"Molliare!" The Cushioning Charm would break her fall and bring her down safely enough for him to get to her. Walburga Black turned to look at him, aghast, as he rushed towards the badly wounded and bleeding Seeker. Up in the air, Alden Greengrass was half in a rage, up in arms against Beater Castor Pettigrew while Orion Black and Julius Rookwood cast threatening figures at the Gryffindor team.
He remembered his Muggle first aid training, one of the few things that confounded world had ever taught him useful. He took her pulse while tilting her body to the side, trying to get a better look at her head and the wound.
"Conjunctio." He heard the crackle of ribs knitting themselves together, her bones snapping back in place. But he couldn't hear her heart or her lungs, and he surely couldn't let a mind like hers go waste - magic wouldn't be much use here.
Tom pinched her nose, blowing air into her mouth as he asked a rather confused Avery to push her chest. Twenty pushes later, someone yanked Tom away, throwing him onto the ground as the angry blonde figure lunged for him.
"Do you want her to live?" He snapped at Alden, whose face had an animalistic anger on it. "Then let me do my job." His businesslike matter-of-fact tone made the blonde back off, dealing with the Gryffindor Beaters. Tom got back to blowing air into her mouth, trying to remember the correct number of times the Army officers told him during training at the orphanage. Two minutes later, he could hear her take a rasping breath.
I wonder what effect would injury have on a mind and if any benefits can be reaped by a Legilimens.
Since this looked like the best chance he had at getting the most time alone and practicing his Legilimency on her, Tom scooped up the injured girl and headed straight for the hospital wing.
"Oh, my," Madam Pomfrey gasped as he put her down on a hospital bed. "I swear to Merlin Quidditch will be the death of these children someday," she bustled around, gathering potions and bottles while Tom stood at a distance, watching.
"These bones look recently healed," she murmured, turning to Tom, "did you do this, young man?" He nodded. "Thank Merlin for you," she replied. "Tergeo." With the blood now gone, Tom was able to gain a better look at her injuries. The blood had all come from the head injury and gash caused during the fall. He took a seat by her bed, carefully looking at the head injury - it wasn't too deep, but certainly substantial. Will keep her out of action for a few days, he supposed.
It also played to his advantage - a witch like her could be of more value to him than most of his Death Eaters. He could spend the necessary time with her and build a good rapport - getting past the suspicious nature would be an obstacle, but not a major deterrent. He could even get her to grow fond of him, use that to his advantage.
But apart from the logical reasons, something else drew Tom to her, a reason he was unable to isolate. He took a hand, rubbing circles across her palm as he stared intently at her, trying to get past the unconscious girl's defences.
A barrage of memories assaulted him, running across him like a blur of images, although unfocused, like he still hadn't gained full access to her thoughts. Tom saw snippets from her childhood, some happy, some filled with grief.
One memory stuck out like a sore thumb.
She was seven or eight, playing with a small stuffed rabbit when a group of boys walked up the road into her yard.
"Look at the little freak - back at it again, ain't she!" They snatched at the rabbit, Kate running into the house. The child looked scared to the death and suddenly (as if obeying her very will), the doors and windows slammed shut, throwing the boys backward and out of the yard.
"Freak!" They yelled as they left, Kate crying. The following evening, her father found out and wrote a letter to a maternal aunt of the girl's in Sussex.
The rest were just as vivid yet hazy, a maelstrom of images and emotions.
"Stop hogging that chair, Riddle," a voice called out, bringing him to reality. Alden Greengrass, soaked and angry, was staring at Tom with utter disdain, and he could see the jealousy clear on his face. He made a show of leaving, with lips indecently lingering against her fingers for as long as he could let them.
"Do call me as soon as she sends for me," he smirked at the pureblood before finally letting go of her hand and heading down to the common room.
The rage in Greengrass' head was music to his ears.
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