Title: Not Quite Expected
Rating: PG (just to be safe)
Pairing: Ginny Weasely/Tom Riddle
Summary: They'd expected underhanded means, actually.
Author's Notes: This is completely unbeta'd, so all mistakes are
irrevocably mine. It was written in response to a challenge meme on Live
Journal.
They'd
expected underhanded means, trickery, and terror for Voldemort's next
attack: entering the Three Broomsticks and
being greeted by the
sight of Tom Marvolo Riddle sitting at a table, chin propped up on
one hand as he smirked, was not on
the list of expectations. Only
Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley recognized him; gone was the skeletal
snake-like figure,
replaced by a slightly older version of the Tom
they'd met in the diary, and the rest of the Gryffindor parade behind
them came
to a messy halt when they did.
His
dark hair was casual in its disarray (which, of course, must have
taken hours to do), and his clothing was almost Muggle.
He watched
his arch-nemesis and his almost-liberator stop in their tracks and
stare open-mouthed at him; one dark eyebrow
arched as if to question
their astonishment. The Weasley girl--no, she was newly seventeen,
wasn't she?--looked much more
interesting than she had as a
frightened child losing her soul; Potter, Tom noticed with an
internal sneer, was still pale and
awkward and short.
No
one knew what one said to one's mortal enemy when encountering him in
a pub; several whines from Harry might have been attempts at words.
Ginny, however, was the first to recover from her shock: the
horrified astonishment melted from her
expression, turning to
distinct fascination. Without another look for her companion she
stepped forward, and a faint smirk
began to curve her mouth. "Go
right ahead and have your wicked way with me, Tom," she murmured
as if this was exactly what one said to one's mortal enemy in
a pub.
Oh yes, she was definitely more interesting. He thought he might do just that.
