"Tom!" Luna called, scampering after him into the blue box.
"It's gigantic in here," the boy said gleefully. There was a dark hunger in his eyes, and he hovered at the TARDIS console like it was a Hogwarts feast. Without looking away, he sent a spell shooting over Luna's shoulder, closing the TARDIS door behind her.
"Stop," Luna protested.
"Stop me," Tom said, jamming a button and sending the TARDIS lurching.
Luna gripped a railing and was irritated to feel her wand slipping from behind her ear, dropping to the floor, and rolling away. She followed it at a crawl. "You don't know how to drive," she reminded Tom from her spot on the floor.
He appeared not to hear her; he continued messing about the console, a pensive, focused look on his face.
Luna found her wand and immediately wished that she knew actual combat spells. She knew more than many her age, especially since she read books that were not written by Gilderoy Lockhart, the secret Belgian shape-shifting Quidditch-playing spy, but she had focused more on constructive types of magic: healing spells and confusing spells, mostly. One spell to give someone the feeling of having water in their ears, although she hadn't had the opportunity to practice that one on a real person.
She opted for a simpler alternative:
"Impedimenta!" she shouted, sending a jet of light at Tom.
With a wave of his wand, he deflected the beam and kept playing at the TARDIS console.
Luna blinked. Twice, now, he had cast a spell without saying anything out loud. That sort of magic wasn't learned by first years, not usually. Had the curriculums changed so much over the decades?
The TARDIS lunged almost completely sideways, knocking both Luna and Tom off of their feet and disrupting Luna's train of thought.
"You've annoyed her!" she called to Tom.
"Who?" Tom asked.
"The TARDIS!" Luna answered. "She doesn't like being ordered about like that! You've got to be kind!"
Luna did not see what Tom did next; she only heard him moving around and felt the TARDIS steady out several moments later.
"There," Tom sighed, sounding pleased with herself.
"What happened?" Luna asked in a small voice; she was feeling slightly nauseous.
"I eased her worries," Tom said smugly. He offered a hand to Luna and helped her to her feet.
"You spoke to her?" Luna queried, frowning a bit.
"She's very forthcoming, if you know what to say," Tom boasted.
"She spoke back?"
"Not in so many words. It was very...mental."
Luna was somewhat unnerved, now. She had not thought of the TARDIS as an entity that could be won over by words from Tom Riddle. What on earth could he have done? Was the TARDIS planning something?
Suddenly, Tom slipped the wand out of Luna's hand, holding it in the same hand that held his own. "And it seems I won the duel, if you can call it that."
"You lied, didn't you?" Luna sighed. "About still being a first year."
"It was a lie," Tom agreed affably. "It made you feel safe, though, didn't it?"
"I never feel safe around you, Tom," she said, as matter-of-factly as one might state that they never put salt on their salads.
"Why not?" Tom asked. Despite his words, he seemed pleased with her response.
"Because I know you might kill me," Luna answered, then hummed serenely. "I'm not scared of you," she added as an afterthought.
"You know I might kill you, but you're not scared?" Tom repeated. He chuckled: "You're mad, then."
"Loony," Luna corrected him half-heartedly. "Loony Lovegood." She smiled. "Are you frightened, Tom?" she asked, almost brightly.
"No. Of what?" he asked.
"The fact that I'm someone you can't frighten."
Tom was not frightened. Quite the contrary; the look in Lovegood's eyes entranced him nearly as much as the TARDIS had moments ago. She had a look as if she had already met her nightmares, if that made sense. It was an enigmatic sort of look, not oblivious to the horrors of the world but immune to them. It was fascinating, especially seeing as Lovegood was a person who he owned. "Coincidentally, you'll find it difficult to frighten me, Lovegood."
"What year are you, really?"
"Second year," he said.
She took her wand back from him.
She simply...reached over and drew it from his grip.
Tom was vaguely stunned by this turn of events. Had he been so distracted that he did not even think to stop her? Even with her wand, she was no threat to him, but all the same.
"Let's go back to Hogwarts, Tom," Luna suggested. She had a way of singing her words that made Tom actually like his name. Somehow, she framed it in an appealing way, so much so that he considered making her say it again. He wanted her to keep saying it.
However, now was the time for showing off:
"We're at Hogwarts," he said with a wide smile. He gestured at the TARDIS door. "Take a look."
Luna looked faintly wary, but she pranced up to the door in little hop-steps and opened it.