Chapter 13: The Saviour
The female centaur stopped in front of us, our wands were immediately pointed at her.
"Students are not allowed in the woods," she said in a threatening tone.
"Oh, thank you for telling us. We'll be on our way then." I said, with a friendly smile.
Both of us were slowly walking backwards, away from the ill-tempered centaur.
"Do you belong to the others ?"
"Others?" I didn't even try to conceal my curiousity.
"The hooded figures and the girl."
"Do you know where they are?" I was now going towards her, shaking off Tom's hand from my shoulder.
"We have the girl. The other two vanished."
"Is she alive?" A slight disappointment washed over me when she nodded. Okay, it was not Riddle and that dreadful girl was still alive, I thought, what a shame.
"Yes, wait here. I'll bring her to you, before the others decide to kill her." She strode off and I called behind her: "Take your time."
"Would you tell me now why you acted so strange, well, even more than usually?" He couldn't conceal his anger a bit.
A sigh escaped me and I turned towards him, I could only make out where he stood. The trees let only a slight amount of moonlight through.
I had to tell him, he has a right to know, I thought.
"Gaunt. Your mother was a Gaunt, her name was probably Merope. They claimed to be descendants of Slytherin himself."
"I knew it." He sounded excited.
"Tom, they lost every influence and all the money they had, because they believed in Pureblood supremacy." I gripped his arm, while I spoke.
"What do you mean?" He sounded puzzled.
"They became mentaly instable, through inbreeding. Since centuries there was not one extraordinary talent among them, but they kept the ability to talk to snakes. The fact that your father was a muggle is probably the only reason preventing you from going down the same road."
The silence that followed was crushing. I could feel his temper rising and I held his arm tightly, trying to keep him contained.
After half an hour of standing like this, we could hear the centaur coming closer. I stood next to Tom, still holding on to him, feeling that he had calmed down, eventually.
On the back of the centaur was a limp figure, I could make out her blonde hair, Druella Rosier.
She was dropped unceremonously to the hard ground.
"Leave now and don't come back." Her voice was almost deafening after the peaceful quiet.
I mumbled:" We'll see," and she disappeared again.
There we were both staring at the girl, who lay completely still.
"We will have to explain why I am here, with you."
"Well, you were worrying about a fellow student and afraid I could get hurt, all alone." He sounded more like himself now, slightly arrogant.
"Fine. Shall we levitate her?"
"Yes."
So we raised our wands and made our way out of the woods, with Druella flying into a tree from to time, by accident of course.
When we finally reached the castle, we let her down. She hit the grass with a loud thud.
"Slughorn?" I asked, now able to see Tom better.
"Probably the best idea. Don't want to encounter Dumbledore." He spit his name. I had already realised that there were some hard feelings between those two. Everytime they would enter the same room, the temperature dropped. Even though Tom tried to seem like the perfect model student.
Druella suddenly moved and sat up, with a confused expression she looked up at him.
"Riddle? You...you have saved me?" She swung herself at him, knocking him almost over.
She gazed dramatically at him and passed out again. In a very '18th-century-lady' kind of manner.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake. She is not serious, is she?"
"Just get Slughorn," he was obviously annoyed and didn't even bother to catch her. She fell back to the ground and lay at an odd angle.
Sighing heavily, I made my way to the dungeons.
Three knocks later, Slughorn opened his door, looking ruffled.
"Miss Crane, why are you up this late?"
"Professor, we found Miss Rosier."
Every sign of sleepyness vanished instantly and we hastened towards the place where they were waiting.
Tom was kneeling next to Druella, holding her. Nice, I thought. Now he seemed like a seriously worried classmate.
"Where did you find her?" The Professor was now examining her closely.
"She was laying at the edge of the forest, Sir." Tom's eyes met mine as I said it and I could see the approval.
"Miss Crane was worried, when she heard that I would be all on my own tonight. So she came to help me."
"Well, that was brave of you. And you will not be punished, of course. I will handle it from here, she just seems exhausted. You two go back to your dormitories, you deserve some sleep." His smile was warm and he sent a Patronus to the Hospital Wing, it had the shape of a fish.
I had been sitting in library in peace, while reading about how to breath underwater, when Tom sat down across from me.
He had a heavy tome in his hands 'The four Hogwarts Founders'.
Well, someone was reading up on his ancestry, I thought.
The silence was not broken, except for some Griffindors at a table in the corner of the room. It seemed that Tom and I had made our peace, accepting the other and not trying to challenge this silent agreement. Of course, I had to think about the last time we were here together and I could feel my cheeks flush.
I looked up from my book, when I saw someone come nearer.
Druella Rosier. Hm, not that exhausted after all, I thought.
"I...I don't remember anything but ...Riddle, I want to thank you for saving me."
"You're welcome," I said, a clear edge to my words. She shot me a furious look, before fixing it sweetly back on Tom. His expression was neutral, but I could see his eyes smiling.
"Well, as a thank you, I've brought you some chocolate." She laid a box on the table, without thinking twice, I opened it and started to eat.
"That is so considerate of you," I said. Her face changed into a mask of horror, before she turned around and walked stiffly out of the library.
"I kinda hate her."
"I'm sure she hasn't noticed a thing." A sneer on his lips, his eyes suddenly narrowed.
I started to feel dizzy and laid my head in my hands. Swallowing hard, I tried to pull myself together.
Taking a deep breath, I heard laughter from the other end of the library, so I looked up. A warm feeling was washing over me as I saw his black hair and the fair skin. There he was, the love of my life, Fleamont Potter.
