Chapter 19: Praise Me

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion - Alexander the Great

Tom's mood increased drastically. There was no sign of Joelle leaving him anytime soon - but still he started studying the extremely difficult subject of Soul Binding. It was highly complex and it required basics he did not yet know, but he was sure that he could do it. He never lacked in determination and eagerness when necessary, but his best asset (by choice) was his ability to control what needed to be controlled. It was one of his most valuable skills, which brought him to another thought. His eyes wandered over to Lestrange and Black in the common room - he had not talked a lot to the boys after their brief and heated encounter back then. Tom rubbed his chin, nodding at a thought.

"You two," he started and sat down close to them. "I was a tad strict, wasn't I?" He asked with a sigh. Lestrange and Black glanced at each other, then at Tom again, not seeming to know what the best answer was.

"You have to understand some things. Joelle means a lot to me. Let me make it up to you..." Tom leaned closer to talk silently, as if the next thing would be exclusive to hear. The boys leaned closer with their ears as well.

"I found a nice room to study in. Study...some things that we may not learn anywhere else. I could teach you one or the other spell," murmured Tom.

Black and Lestrange both had their mouths gapped open, their eyes alight with excitement.

"Would you really?" Asked Lestrange.

"Of course. Just you two and a few other chosen ones. Nott, Mulciber, and Avery. That's it...you have done a lot for me and I wanted to reward you," smiled Tom, though having trouble suppressing a smirk when they nodded feverishly.

Did he really reward them? Of course not. Tom was no idiot. He knew that if he wanted to control everything, he had to mobilize others, too. He had to give those boys enough of a reason to be loyal to him whenever he had a request - and one way to make sure of that was showing them why it was beneficial to team up with him. True, Tom never needed anyone - but that didn't exclude taking advantage of the resources he had.

"Hey sleepy head..." Tom whispered to Joelle the next morning. She had fallen asleep in his bed in her human form, looking up with a hearty yawn.

"Snowman..." She smiled. Tom handed over an apple for her.

"Thanks," she took it, not yet biting into it, however. She was still too tired.

"Lestrange had a lot of fun watching you sleeping," murmured Tom. "I caught him staring when I came back from the shower."

Joelle chuckled. "I fell asleep when you transformed me back earlier. The bed just looked so cozy and warm."

"Just five minutes, right?" Tom asked with a grin and Joelle laughed. She was a punctual, detail-oriented, and fairly formal person when it came down to it, but getting up early in the mornings was never a talent of hers; which was why Tom decided to just let her sleep and bring her breakfast instead of waking her up again.

"Joelle, I want you to write a letter," said Tom suddenly. Joelle looked up curiously.

"A letter? To whom?"

"To Bryan..." Said Tom calculatedly. Joelle raised an eyebrow.

"You are asking me to send a letter to Bryan? What? Are we speaking the same language?" Joelle asked with eyes wide open, a smile decorating her face.

"Just the same..." Grinned Tom. There was some silence. Joelle nodded, lowering her head.

"It's been sixteen weeks...I have been here for sixteen weeks now..." She whispered.

"What are sixteen weeks..." Tom grumbled. "Nothing compared to eternity."

"Who would compare anything to eternity?" Asked Joelle.

"Seems about the right point of reference for me," muttered Tom. "Anyway. Here," he ripped out a page of his diary. He couldn't let her write on some parchment. It had to look as muggle-like as possible, and with the diary having been purchased in muggle London, it was as authentic as possible. He handed over black ink and a quill.

"I want you to write that you're okay. Don't mention where you are. Say you didn't want to be found, that's why nobody has heard of you. You know, the general blah blah."

Joelle looked up to him. She did not seem as happy as before. Tom had an idea why, but looked back at her. Of course this wasn't an act of generosity - it was an act of necessity. They had to hear from her, just to avoid bigger trouble. Tom wanted Joelle to write to Bryan - not because he thought that Bryan deserved it most, but because Bryan works at the police department, thus having the opportunity to instantly stop the forces that might be looking for Joelle. Tom knew he should have thought of this a lot earlier, but assuming that they could be better than him was out of his mental reach.

Dear Bryan,

I'm sorry for having caused you so much sorrow. I am fine, I did not want anyone to find me for some time (I am currently busy finding myself). I hope you're alright. Tell everyone that they shouldn't be worrying - I'm okay and I will come back somewhen.

In hope that everything is okay,

Joelle

Tom nodded after checking it, taking the letter. He put it into an envelope and did not include a sender's address.

"I'll take it to the Owlery tomorrow," said Tom. Joelle looked up to him, but remained quiet. She might have seen through his intention, but never was it mentioned that she did.

Days passed. Tom had to witness the happiness running out of Joelle's body like a rose starting to decay. She was not impolite, nor did she ignore him, but Tom noticed the loss of enthusiasm and energy. He often caught her spacing off, staring against the wall for a while, merely nodded or shook her head at anything Tom asked. And then there was this feeling of helplessness that Tom found no place for to live in his body - he hated this feeling, he knew no other that he liked least. What could he do now? What was it that she needed? Tom couldn't be happier - but Joelle obviously thought of better things than what he had offered to her. Anger swelled up in his chest. What an unthankful person she was. He narrowed his eyes at her when she was tucked in his bed in her human form, eyes blank, the corners of her lips in a straight line. He couldn't stand it, but didn't comment.

"I want you to accompany me tonight, Joelle," Tom then said.

No reaction.

"Did you not hear?" Tom asked with a scowl. Joelle looked up.

"Hm?"

"I want you to accompany me tonight. I thought about leaving you here in the dormitory, but I can't leave you here in that sour condition of yours," said Tom. "You will be close to me. I will teach the boys some spells, give them some extra help. They need it."

Joelle looked at Tom. "You're doing that just to be kind?" She asked, a slight smile started to grow on her face.

Tom stared, nodding without losing poise. If she wanted to hear this, so be it. "Yes. I care for my fellow comrades, of course."

Joelle's smiled vanished again, her eyebrows twitched together for the split of a second, but she said nothing. She merely nodded.

"Alright. I will come with you then," she said. Tom inwardly frowned - he didn't give her any choice in the first place, but if she agreed anyway, it did not really matter.

"Whoah!" Lestrange yelped. "This room is crazy!"

"Look at the many books...are they from the restricted section?" Asked Black.

"The shelves look so old, look at that!" Nott smirked, pointing at the pediment's center. The boys were downright impressed; Tom bathed in their praises of awe upon his finding. Just one person did not like it at all.

Joelle had her right arm swung around her left in discomfort, she glanced to all directions, probably wondering where her beloved unicorn books had gone. Tom felt a cringe of aggression towards her for standing there the way she did - lulling her eyes at the darkness. It took him a while to realize that he merely found it unbearably cute.

"Take your right arm up, forehead height - higher, Lestrange. Good. Bend forward slightly, that'll allow you to focus better," said Tom. Joelle watched everything with utmost curiosity, her eyes reflecting the boys's attempts of doing as Tom said. She smiled to herself when she watched how he did not seem to run out of patience - and Tom looked back every so often to catch if she was being attentive. He felt enormously motivated when he saw that she carried a smile of pride on her lips, but that vanished when Tom performed the curse that he tried to teach them.

"Exsto Cranium," he spoke, and everything around them turned pitch black. Out of the eery and cold darkness appeared green glowing, almost translucent skulls with red eyes that lit up the room enough to see where everyone was standing. Tom sent the skull at Black - but Tom did not see what else happened as a loud screeching sound caused him to whirl around; Joelle reached to the door and dashed out in panic. Tom's mouth gapped open - the door wasn't locked, but he did not care about punishing the others for this now as all that was on his mind was to run after Joelle as fast as possible and turn her back into a cat before anyone could see her. It all went in slow motion when Tom pushed away Lestrange and Mulciber, running after Joelle as fast as he could. The castle was dark - and the students were in their dormitories because it was late in the evening, but Tom's logical thinking did not work properly as he followed her. He saw her dashing downstairs; he wanted to scream and yell her name, but even in this state he knew that it was the unwisest thing to do. Peeves, Dumbledore - too high of a risk. Tom ran and ran, but Joelle was faster, she aimed to the dungeons, Tom on her heels. He heard her muttering the so often heard password from below, and when he finally managed to reach the common room, he noticed that it was dark and nobody was there. Tom glanced over to the dormitory and instantly hurried in, seeing Joelle on his bed with her back turned to him.

The only sound that Tom could hear was the strong and rapid pondering of his heart against his chest - all his blood went to his head, his fingertips felt ice cold, his stomach on fire, eyes glowing red, not a single sound was he able to make. Tom never felt this level of anger before in his entire life. His hand clung around his wand, he gritted his teeth, all of it happened within seconds when he aimed his wand at her - directing all of his wrath to her direction, he had no single idea what kind of incantation it was, what kind of curse - all he knew was that she had dared to put everything he has done for them at risk by refusing to praise him like the boys did up in the room and run away. Joelle yelped, a flash of red light jolted her way, but she managed to turn around just in time and duck before it could hit her.

"MARVOLO!"

"HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU!" Tom yelled, outraged, unable to say more than that.

"HOW DARE I? HOW DARE YOU USE THAT KIND OF MAGIC!" Joelle yelled back. Tom stared at her with a ghostly expression.

"I DO IT FOR US!" He yelled.

"Don't you! DON'T YOU USE ME AS AN EXCUSE! DO YOU EVER DO ANYTHING WITHOUT CALCULATING YOUR ADVANTAGES?"

"WHO WOULD?!" Growled Tom. "YOU SHOULD START THINKING FOR ONCE! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SEEN WHEN YOU RAN! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" He screamed, feeling cloudy headed, throwing his fist against a snake-decorated column. Joelle just stared at him with wide eyes, her chest heaving up and down in shock and fear.

"You should've stayed! Should've praised me like the others upon the magic I can perform! And you decided to run! I can't believe it...you risked everything..." Tom panted like an animal, he aimed his wand at her again, but as the door behind him flung open suddenly, and he just managed to look back quickly and forward again, Joelle was transformed into a cat already.

"What is going on here!" Thundered Sylus Farley, frowning at Tom, then looked at the cat. He stared at Joelle intensively before he drew his gaze to the boy once more.

"Explain yourself!"

"I got angry over a falsely graded essay!" Growled Tom. "Leave."

"Careful, Riddle. You're in no position to tell me where to go. In case you didn't notice, I am a prefect. And as such, you will show respect and acknowledge me as the authority."

"Authority," grinned Tom. "A guy whose only interest consists of staring at the well shaped bottoms of any girl he passes by, a guy who couldn't be less a Slytherin with those few OWLs, a guy unable to beat a Gryffindor in a simple match of Quidditch - is that the authority I'm asked to show respect to?"

Silence. Sylus and Tom stared at each other and Tom felt a lot better now that he put this idiot of a man down; it was venting his anger one or the other way.

"Watch it, Riddle," glared Sylus. "I am going to report your behavior to professor Slughorn-"

"Are you sure about that?" Chuckled Tom humorlessly. "I would feel embarrassed running to our head of house, whining about how I confronted you with my personal opinion on your questionable achievements as a Slytherin."

"You listen here you little!" Sylus growled through gritted teeth, grabbing Tom around the collar of his uniform, but gasped when Joelle jumped between them and started hissing, clawing and biting on Farley's hand. Sylus groaned in pain and threw Joelle onto the bed, she landed on it with all four legs, an arched back and bushy fur, still growling shrilly at the prefect. Sylus just shook his head in disbelief of this situation and merely stormed off without another word. Tom, who had fallen to the ground after Sylus let go of his collar so abruptly, glanced up at Joelle, then smiled.

Be it as it may, but nobody touches her little snowman.

Some time passed. Tom started to take Joelle to the lessons again, trusting everything a tad more than he used to. When he looked back at the past few weeks, he even had a slight feeling of having had exaggerated everything. As if any person could ever take Joelle away from him - unable people. And with Tom preparing an army of guards, he was sure that nothing would happen. The only thing that he disliked most was the fact that he had to leave Joelle in the room whenever he was teaching the boys; because she downright refused to see any of it, and needless to say that she forbade him to delve into the dark arts. Tom promised her that they only studied those spells they learned during the lessons, but he was sure that Joelle did not buy it. She may be very lenient towards Tom, but she was not blind, and Tom knew he could only go so far with her.

Today was one of those evenings again. Joelle was cuddled on Tom's bed in the dormitory, and despite Tom's assumption, her mood decreased drastically with every day that she spent here. She did not even look to the door when it opened and ignored Tom who walked inside, and had her back turned to him when he transformed her to her human form.

"I'm not in the mood to talk..." She said softly.

"Really? What a shame...because I believe we do have to talk," said a voice that didn't sound like Tom at all. Joelle's eyes widened, she turned around and looked into the pale eyes of Sylus Farley.