Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter it belongs to J.K Rowling. She is so lucky! She gets Tom.
Summary: Brilliance comes at a cost. And for Tom Marvolo Riddle, the price may have been a bit too expensive… Tom Riddle vignette
The Cost of Brilliance
For long as Tom could remember he had been told he was brilliant, by his professors, his peers, and just about everybody. Of course, being the egoistical boy that he was, Tom had prided himself in his genius.
But now as gazed into the flickering flames of a roaring fire, he questioned whether he should be proud, proud of being purely brilliant.
It was common knowledge of the world that to gain something, you must lose something. Tom's genius wasn't restricted magic only.
By gaining this brilliant genius, had he lost something in the progress? How much of himself did he sacrifice? Maybe he had sacrificed his looks for his brains. Was he that ugly?
Nonsense! If Tom knew anything, it was that he was considered good looking, in fact, very good-looking.
And now he was back to square one.
But sometimes he had felt this feeling, a feeling so awkward he couldn't describe it. A part of his heart would tug in weird ways and his face would light up in an irrepressible smile.
That was what scared Tom the most. This feeling which he did not understand and being the genius that he was, it didn't suite his ego too well. Tom liked the feeling but at the same time hated it with all his might. The rare moments he enjoyed this empathy made him tingle all over but at the same time it gave him a sense of powerlessness.
He hated uncertainty, and those rare moments took him by surprise. Damn, how he hated it! But when he walked around school, he saw all of his fellow peers laughing and smiling with that same light hearted expression adorning their faces. He just couldn't understand it.
And just then it him, harder than a hippogriff, he understood now. His price that he had paid to the devil was a part of himself. Tom had unknowingly sold his smiles to the devil. For a moment the dying coal embers burned a bit brighter, before the darkness enveloped the Head Boy chambers.
What a trade, a part of himself for another part of himself. But then again most people sacrificed a part of their soul for another part of their soul. Except in Tom's case, he felt like the price had been a bit too expensive.
How could one trade happiness for a brilliant mind? Both were appealing but one was very necessary in life. And just like the rest of himself, he had gotten the attractive but less important factor. Just like the devil to make an unfair trade.
But maybe that didn't mean he had lost his capacity to smile, to be happy. Perhaps Tom just had to look for it harder than most people. And even in those rare moments that a smile lit up his face, he felt truly happy like he was floating on air. And in times like that Tom felt as if he had cheated the devil.
The End
A/N: So how did you like it? A bit weird, ne? Was it hard to follow? Oh well, it was a spur of the moment thing.