[A/N- to clear up. I know this is getting Mary Suish and really fast to be realistic. Trust me that it's part of the story. Trust me that it's not that I can't write a Tom Riddle romance. I think I can. I think I can…. *fingers crossed* So I guess I should warn you- it'll be a while before we get to the smut. I'll leave you lemons and cliffies and (dum dum dum) a plot. Which is now starting to formulate. I'll leave you to it.

"Candles raised by desire

Why I'm so far away

No more meaning to my life

No more reason to stay

Freeze in feel in

Breathe in breathe in

I'm coming back again."

- Godsmack, VooDoo

She slammed the door behind her, hair flying haphazardly as she glowered at the passageway in front of her. Her face contorted, and jaw tensed sporadically in what seemed like nausea. A strangled bark of laughter tore loose from her throat, and she leaned back against the door, allowing herself a spine-chilling peal of laughter. Must men always be so simple to manipulate? Were none challenging? Even mentally stimulating? She smiled slightly at the obvious answer, turning to look back at the monotone, graying wood of the doors. She'd sleep with him, but that was, roughly, the extent of her emotional interest. If sex was even an emotional thing. But it was a dangerous game, he knew what he could take- the question was more in whether or not he knew how. And Histalni could be a little reckless, but there was a fine line between reckless and foolhardy. Being in his presence for more than five minutes gave her a raw headache. The fact that she could make him show discomfort, however well masked, was consoling. He was, like her, a commanding persona. Perhaps she would follow him on whatever power- hungry adventure he was on, and steal his hard earned thunder….

Another bark of laughter rang through the halls as she began walking. "Histalni, doll, you've cracked. You'll be out of here in a month, and you are actually wasting thought processes on a wizard, a mortal, halfwit. You'll be so far above him soon- why bother?"

Tom shut the door silently as he watched her walk away. She also…? No. The remedies of Sorcery blood and wizards were too dissimilar. But maybe…

Maybe shit. Maybe nothing. They say the consort of a Sorceress has full access to her power, but he'd sooner be raped by the minotaur as cojole her into any kind of sexual situation. It was a dangerous game, and she played it like a professional. No. Pointless to think about, foolish to attempt.

But, he turned his feet toward the third floor lavoratory, to tap into such magical strength would be worth almost any price. Whatever she was on a quest for, she could get her damned self.

Still brooding, he turned the faucet and levitated down the entrance to his home. Scratching Lilith's sleeping head, he entered the small chamber to the side of the caverns, closing the door behind him. The eyes that greeted him were dangerously remniscent of the ones he had just left, flagged on either side by bookshelves that held the most potent manuscripts of the dark arts. It was the only place he had found mention of sorcery, mainly in folktales and obscure, broad sentences.

Salazar Slytherin fell for a Sorceress. She nearly caused his downfall, he recalled. She bore him two children, used him for her own ends, and left him. He was so infuriated that he left Hogwarts, and all he could have done is mine to do.

He touched the full lips of the woman's unmoving portrait, contemplating.

"I will never fall in love," he whispered solemnly. He meant it with every fiber of his being. "I will never be so foolish as to have my plans laid waste by a woman."

He looked back into the portrait's eyes, steeled, but unsure.

Far above, in the dark halls, a silver winged figure twirled about in childish ecstasy at the victory she thought she felt in her grasp. She had no idea that the emotion was shared by the victim of her ploy.