THE DEVIL'S ANGEL

Fear. Love. Abuse. Hatred. Riddle Era.

Romance/Drama

Chapter 2- Fear

A week later and Angel had tripped at least seven more times -one for each day. Sage had a chant- 'Don't be trippin'. Angel had a scowl and a death glare in her defence. And she had Lexi.

"Why don't you go and talk to him?" she'd asked one afternoon when Angel had sat purposely on the floor.

"About what, Lexi?" she asked, "What do I have to say to Riddle?"

Lexi smirked, "Deliberately using his last name to emphasize hatred will only get you hexed."

Sighing heavily, Angel pouted. Lexi was right, of course. Tom had a committee for that.

Tom had watched Angel's every move for the past week or so. He couldn't help it, she was just so amusing. When she sat on the cold tiled floor in the common room and argued with her friend about it, he couldn't help but break out into a grin and part the people before him to walk to the other side of the common room.

"Falling in love with the ground now?" he said, resolutely leaving out the need for direct address. She was, after all, the only one on the floor to begin with.

"No, it's you." Lexi mumbled very, very low. She was so sure no one had heard her that she didn't even bother to turn her head down.

"What was that, Parker?" he asked, his eyes still on Angel. Hers turned icy again and felt cold as the floor she sat on. At his glare, she wanted to meet the ground, but while she was already sitting on it she couldn't stumble.

"Go away, Riddle." Angel said, bolder than was really called for in the situation. The situation was Tom Riddle, and she was starting to get sick of it.

"Well, well, Murphy. Don't we have a death wish?" came Sage's voice from behind her. Startled, she turned halfway and swivelled her head around to look her in the face. Panic rose and adrenaline pumped through her veins. She felt like a first year Gryffindor, only first year Gryffindors didn't usually get themselves into a situation like this.

Angel got to her feet. She was still a good amount shorter than Tom, but she didn't feel so helpless and like she was about to be kicked. Her face was less than two feet from Sage's, when Tom decided to cut in.

"In case you haven't noticed, this is the Slytherin common room. We're allowed here, Murphy." he said coldly. She wheeled around and almost hit him in the face with her hair. He was so close… she could hear him breathe… Hearing Lexi squeal in the background didn't help.

She tried to bore her eyes into him, to scare him. That's how a death glare works. You use Occlumency, covering yourself with hate, and you dig deep into them, making them feel invaded. But when the person is doing the same to you, the only people it scares are outsiders. Tawny backed off from Tom a few feet at the sight of Angel's face. Lexi took a half-step back at the sight of Tom's. An electric charge seemed to run through them.

But Angel never turned as she usually did. Progress, it seemed, was actually being made. She felt a pulse, a heartbeat, short breaths, and thought; though her Legilimency was not advanced enough to understand it. One thing occurred to her- Tom Marvolo Riddle was a human. He pulled apart, cursing under his breath and looking at her with an expression she'd never seen before. What was it? It looked suspiciously like… but it couldn't be… not Tom…

Was he showing fear?

Angel shook the thought away. It was so absurd, for someone calling himself the 'Dark Lord' to show fear to a scrawny girl like Angel, armed with nothing but a glare, no match even for his own. And yet, it made so much sense. She'd felt like she was getting something. Had she been cleverer, she would have seen a part of Tom Riddle no one knew anything about. But she did see a part of him no one knew about. She saw past his hard shell. He was human, and he had fears.