A/N: Yes, I must put a useless author's note before every chapter! D:Cassie wasn't sure how it happened, nor was she really interested in finding out. All she knew was that she was hanging upside down by her ankle from a tree.
It was around eight in the evening (or a few minutes before, depending on the clock), on the first Thursday of November. A cold wind had picked up through the morning, and it tore at the grounds, causing the occupants of the great stone castle to either retreat indoors, or bundle up tight. A distant rumble of thunder could be heard, far off in the deeply darkening sky. Another burst of wind ripped through the treetops.
Surely, she thought, trying desperately to hold down her skirt, this had been the most horrible day of her life.
The morning had started out okay, with Cassie waking up bright and early, feeling utterly refreshed from her night's sleep. She had yawned and paused, looking out at the sunny grounds with a feeling of happiness. She danced from bed, got dressed, grabbed her school things and made her way down to breakfast, a bounce in her step.
That's when things began to slide downhill.
She tripped on the way down and crashed into some poor, unaware student. Again.
She bit her tongue as she tried to eat her toast.
She accidentally spilled ink on the handsome boy she'd had her eye on for awhile.
He yelled at her.
She stubbed her toe going into the divination classroom.
She accidentally blew up the potions classroom, causing Slughorn to give her another three weeks detentions.
A Giant Tantactula attacked her in Herbology.
She accidentally insulted Kelly, causing her friend to stalk off.
In Care of Magical Creatures, a Hippogriff slashed her cheek for yelling slightly when a flock of birds took off.
At the end of the day, when she was at her wits end, she finally gave in and ran to her favourite tree to cry a little and moan about the trials of menstruating.
She sat there for a long while wallowing in her self-pity and thinking about how late it was getting.
That's when she fell out of the tree and got her foot caught between two precariously placed branches.
Which brings us back to the present.
Winds rustled the treetops. Cassie swung back and forth slightly.
She knew she'd fall out sometime.
During the fast-approaching thunderstorm. Get electrocuted.
Then fall on her head, get amnesia, and possibly crush her spinal cord and die.
She shuddered, looking down dejectedly at her wand that had fallen to the grassy ground, far out of the reach of her short arms. Another rumble of thunder, louder this time, echoed off of the lake. She twisted around a little, giving the castle a longing look. She then sighed, closed her eyes, and let her arms fall to her side.
With it, her skirt fell downwards, and Cassie had the urge to cry all over again.
"What", said a voice, "are you doing hanging upside down?"
Cassie jumped in surprise as she heard the voice, flailing around frantically to try and get a glimpse of the speaker. Her skirt became tangled with her, and with one loud, sickening crunch, the branch snapped and she fell to the ground.
She let a scream escape her lips, prolonged and terrified.
Eternity passed by, everything moving in slow motion. She knew she was going to meet the saints soon, and wondered how on earth she was going to explain putting worms in her sister's shoe when she was six.
"Why on earth are you still screaming?" the voice asked her.Cassie paused and opened her scrunched eyes. She blinked.
She hadn't died! In fact, she was quite alive! She grinned happily, taking deep breaths of sweet, glorious air. She was seated quite comfortably in the arms of some person.
Then she turned to her saviour, words of thanks already gracing her lips.
Which turned into a great, ugly swear.
Tom had his eyebrow raised at her antics, a tiny smirk lifting the left corner of his mouth. He closed his eyes lightly and inclined his head.
"I'll be guessing you want me to put you down now?"
Cassie was too busy fighting an internal war to hear him.
He saved you!Tom snapped his fingers in front of her face.
He's Tom.
But he saved you from a young death, thank him!
He was probably just under the tree when I happened to fall! Nothing 'saviour' about it!
Cassie started, jumping out of his arms in one swift movement.
"Er, yes, thank you, I guess. Um, well, I'll be off you sod! Oh, that didn't come out quite right, but I'm sure it won't..."
Tom took a finger and put it to her lips, hushing her.
He smirked.
"Shut up, will you?".
She scowled, and pushed his finger away. She turned and began to walk towards the castle hastily, aware of the angrily brewing storm.
A clap of thunder, a flash of lightening, and the heavens opened up.
In seconds Cassie was drenched, and the wind tore at her with howling force, whipping her hair around
her face and nearly knocking her over. She screwed her eyes shut and kneeled, her hands in front of her face, waiting for the wind to settle.
It didn't.
She vaguely heard someone yelling something at her, but the wind was far too loud and she couldn't hear them. Suddenly, a hand wrenched at her arm and pulled her upwards, launching them both into a frenzied run across the massive, slippery grounds.
The torrential, freezing rain slashed into her body, nearly numbing her completely. She could barely feel the firm grip on her arm, pulling her along.
Finally, they reached the castle, slamming into the closed front doors, drenched and freezing. They tried opening the giant doors against the rain, but they were locked fast. Panting, they banged their fists against the wood, yelling.
But no one came.
Tom finally grabbed her hand and dragged her all along the school, looking for an open entrance. They were all shut tight, and no one ever heard their yells over the howling wind.
They sought shelter in a crook against the Herbology greenhouses and the castle wall. The rain still fell relentlessly upon them, but it was shelter from the biting wind. They sat, crouched, huddling against the wall and shivering badly. She turned to him.
"Don't you have your wand?" she managed out through chattering teeth.
He shook his head gravely, saying he had forgotten it somehow.
A tiny, miserable little noise escaped her blue lips, and she curled tighter into a ball, trying to warm herself.
They sat there for a long time, the only noise the howling wind and the raging thunder, huddled close. It was pitch black outside, save for the instances where the world was illuminated by a bright white lightening.
It was in once of those instances that Cassie saw Tom turn his head to her quickly, an expression of realization dawning his features.
"Cassie! I think I have a way inside."
She turned to him hopefully.
"We'd have to walk to Hogsmeade though...and break into Honeydukes."
Cassie's face fell.
He smiled a little.
"You up for it?"
She tilted her head, surprised Mister Goody-Good Riddle would make such a suggestion.
She allowed herself the smallest of smiles and nodded.
"Anything to get out of this rain!".
They crept through Honeydukes, Tom surprising Cassie by knowing how to pick locks with a hairpin.
"Wizards and witches", he whispered to her, handing her back her Mickey Mouse hairpin, "don't think about muggle tricks. So they don't put wards up. Since we didn't enter by force or by magic, the wards didn't go off."
They moved as silently as they could through the back end of Honeydukes, taking care to creep down the stairs to the cellar with as minimal noise as possible.
In the cellar, it was as black as pitch, the only light coming from the tiny, flickering flame of a lit candle carried by Tom. It illuminated the room and showed to her how soaked they really were, judging by the ebony tresses that clung crazily to his pale face, and the way his clothes hung off of him.
Together, they silently moved boxes to reveal a passage way in the floor.
He opened the hatch, and gestured to her.
"Ladies first, or would you like me to go first?" he quirked an eyebrow at her, smirking.
She scowled slightly, but hung back for him to climb down.
The passage way was long and dark. At some points (Tom being as tall as he is) had to duck down to be able to fit. Cassie suddenly felt a wave of thankfulness at her lack of height, fitting through every low bit easily.
The air was dank, dry and chilly. A hushed, dead silence hung about, the only noises their footsteps and nothing more. Cassie nervously looked behind her, a creepy feeling flooding her body. Tom, a few steps ahead, paused and turned, the cheery glow of the candle softening his features. She sped up a little and stopped just in front of him, her heart thudding with nervousness.
"C'mon..." He told her softly, gently linking his arm with hers.
They continued walking.
Cassie glanced over her shoulder into the darkness once more, and, like before, a creepy, unexplained feeling of dread and fear rose within her. She quickly swung her head around frontwards, her eyes again met darkness ahead. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat, a bead of nervous sweat running down her face.
Tom paused, causing her to stop as well.
"Perhaps you should hold the candle..." he told her, gently placing it into the hand that was not linked with his.
She stared at the candle and its flickering light, and saw how it penetrated the utter blackness ahead. A small swell of confidence and relief flooded her this time, and she quietly thanked him, beginning to walk again.
They reached the castle, coming out from behind a statue of a one-eyed witch. Tom blew out the candle, and gestured her to follow him.
They made it down into the dungeons, near where the Slytherin common room was, when somebody placed a hand on their shoulders.
Cassie screamed bloody murder and Tom let out a yelp of surprise.
Wand light cast into their vision a bewildered Professor Dumbledore, who gazed upon their wet clothes and stringy wet hair with surprised blue eyes.
"Miss Smith, Mister Riddle...What are you doing?" he asked them curiously, eyeing Tom with a look she'd never seen Dumbledore use before.
Apprehension.
Tom seemed to immediately revert back to his old, polite self in an instant.
"Well Sir," he said, his voice perfect and innocent, "Miss Smith and I had been outside when the storm hit. All the doors were locked, and no one heard us knocking. We went looking for another way in, and we eventually found one."
Cassie noted how he clearly left out breaking into Honeydukes, making it sound as though they'd found an unlocked door. It dawned on her now the reason why he never got in trouble. He was a flawless liar, and he also knew how to tweak the truth without fail. Add that innocent look and polite tone, and no one would ever know.
She held back a snort.
With that tone, he could've told you that we were just out for a quick shag in the Quidditch field and anyone would've brushed it off, telling him 'not to worry, not to worry' and all that.But Dumbledore seemed to be one of those that didn't brush it off.
He gave Tom a sceptical look, and gestured for them both to follow him.
They did as they were told, dragging their feet a little more than they should. Tom gave her a sour look, and she returned in with an indigent one.
"How on earth was I supposed to know it was close to curfew! I was stuck in a goddamn tree! And don't blame me for that random thunderstorm!" she hissed at him.
"Well maybe," he hissed back "if you hadn't been such a fool and climbed the goddamn tree in the first place we wouldn't be in this bloody mess!".They bickered like that all the way to the Headmaster's office, where Dumbledore hushed them and told a large gargoyle a password. The gargoyle lept aside to reveal a stairway that winded upwards. They climbed the stairs in silence, glaring at one another. At the top they reached an oak door with a shiny brass knocker. Dumbledore knocked smartly.
The door opened to reveal a large, sumptuously decorated office with books lining the shelves and sitting chairs placed around the room. Headmaster Dippet sat at his desk, sifting through papers with a harassed look on his face. He glanced upwards and told them both to take a seat in either of the rather hard looking chairs in front of his desk. They sat, beginning to shiver in their wet clothes.
Dumbledore exclaimed a little, and apologized for not drying them. He took out his wand, waved it, and suddenly it felt as though a just-dried towel was wrapped around her. Her clothes were no longer wet, and neither was her hair. She despaired a little when she realized her hair would now be at its natural
untameable curl state, but pushed those trivial thoughts aside. She turned to Tom, who wasn't looking at her, and stifled a laugh at the one piece of his ebony hair that decided it wanted to stand upright.
Dippet cleared his throat, bringing them to attention.
"So, what on earth were you two doing out there?"
Tom replied with the story he'd told Dumbledore, and Cassie took it upon herself to nod in agreement here and there. Dippet looked at him long and hard before smiling and nodding.
"Alright Tom, I believe you. But, as for you, Miss...?" He paused.
Cassie's heart sank a little, and she opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off.
"Smith", Tom told him simply, giving her rather despaired expression a glimpse.
"Well, Miss Smith, I don't know about you. You knew there was a storm coming, so why would you go out? Mister Riddle was probably out looking for stray students, he's a Prefect- "
Cassie was just about to cry out that she was a Prefect as well, but Tom yet again beat her to the punch.
"She's a Prefect too, Sir." She could tell he was refraining from giving the Headmaster an odd look; how could he not know who all his Prefects were. There weren't that many.
Dippet sputtered slightly, than paused again, gazing at her suspiciously with squinty eyes.
"Oh...Alright then...Off you go. To bed, both of you!".
With that, he returned to sifting through papers.
Dumbledore gestured for them to follow, and they followed him all the way back to the Slytherin common room. They said goodbye, said the password, and stepped inside.
Inside, Cassie turned around and angrily looked at Tom.
"What a useless bloody Headmaster he is!". But he wasn't looking at her.
He was looking at a group of girls seated on one of the couches, looking at Cassie with evil eyes.
"Out on a snogging session?"
"Phew, Tom! Where'd you get her?""Well, I suppose she'd only be good for one-night stands, wouldn't she, Tom?"
Tom was already making his way to the boys dorms, and didn't reply. On the first stair, he turned though, and looked at Cassie who was looking at the girls with pure hate, hurt and frustration.
"Goodnight, Miss Smith." He told her simply, and turned to go to bed.
Cassie nodded to him, and brushed past the group of girls and collapsed on her bed, falling to sleep in seconds.
A/N: Oooh, big, long, juicy chapter for you! Hope Tom wasn't too OOC; I did try. O.o
I had alot of fun writing this chapter, and I think it's one of my favourites so far.
REVIEW OR HAVE ME CATEPAULT SMALL KITTENS AND EASTER BUNNIES AT YOU! D8