A/N: Whoo, do a little dance, make a little loooove, get down tonight! YEAH! GET DOWN TONIGHT! EIGHTH CHAPTER, GET DOWN TONIGHT, LALALAAALA!
Cassie was wrenched from the world of the sleeping when someone rudely decided that it would be funny to pour water onto her face. She sprung upwards into a seated position, spluttering and furiously trying to blink the water out of her eyes. She shook her head violently, rubbing her hands over her puffy, tired eyelids and clearing them of the intruding liquid.
Peals of laughter sounded within the room, wherever said room was, and she ripped her eyelids apart to look around.
After the blurs all around her began to take solid form, she realized that she was on the floor in the common room. Blankets and pillows were strewn around and beneath her, and had to blink an extra few times before she realized why she was down there in the first place.
Riddle was down here...he was sick...She turned her head to the left where the couch he'd slept on was. He wasn't there.
She blinked again, still slightly disoriented as the people around her began to go to class.
Class!
In a flurry of movement she was scrambling up the stairs to the girls dormitories, chucking off her pyjamas, throwing on her uniform, hopping up and down as she tried to put on her socks and brush her teeth at the same time, then flying down the stairs again.
As she ran to class, she realized she'd forgotten her bag, and took a wild guess at what class she had first, the memorized timetable completely deserting her.
Five minutes into class, she burst into the Defence against the Dark Arts room, where professor Merrythought was standing at the chalk board droning on about something or other. At her violent, loud entrance the student body turned to look at her. A cross scowl donned the cranky old Professor's face at being interrupted.
"Miss Smith, how wonderful of you to join us five minutes late" she glared at her menancingly, stalking towards her.
She pointed severely towards the door.
"Out in the hall please so we can discuss tardiness and what your punishment for being late should be".
Reluctantly, Cassie dragged her feet back into the hall.
Once the old crow was done her dull, popular lecture of "Why Students Should Not be Late", she informed her that she had detention tonight to talk further of terrible tardiness and that an essay on the subject would be due tomorrow morning.
Cassie plopped herself into a seat, having a sudden, inexplicable urge to whack her head off of her desk.
Kelly sat beside the lake with her friend, having an odd sense of déjà-vu as her friend ranted and raved about stupid teachers.
Kelly rolled her eyes as Cassie went on and on, smiling ironically as she waited for her friend to finish.
"...and that old hag looks like a bloody toad that's been run over by a large truck and she should be hit in the head with a two-by-four with nails nailed into it."
With her conclusion, Cassie fell to the grass in an angry heap of limbs and disoriented hair.
Kelly sighed, and turned to her friend.
"Yes, Cassie, Professor Merrythought sucks some major ass."
Cassie glared at her.
"You're just saying that", she accused.
"You're right," she said flatly, "I am."
Cassie stared blankly at her homework, trying desperately to keep her eyes from closing.
It was 2:56 in the morning, and she had about three feet of homework to do. Professor Merrythought had gone over the riveting theory of "Why Students Should Not be Late" with her at least three thousand times, and then she had made her write "I will never be late again "on the board another hundred times. It had been midnight when she finally stumbled in the common room, completely abandoned for the late hour.
The words on the parchment were beginning to swim before her eyes as she vaguely thought about her nice, warm bed.
Somebody walked by.
With a strangled yelp, her homework flew in every direction and she tumbled ungracefully to the floor, hitting the carpet with a little more force than she had ever wanted to hit the carpet at.
She groaned, and slapped her hand to the table, hoisting herself up again. She massaged her bottom and winced. She was going to have one mother of a bruise there tomorrow.
The person who startled her paused at the portrait hole and quirked an eyebrow at her. She looked up and sighed despairingly.
"Oh," she said unenthusiastically, "it's you."
Tom raised both eyebrows this time at the mess she'd managed to make of her homework. With an easy flick of his wrist, he took his wand out of his shabby robes pocket and waved them at her papers, sending them back into a much neater pile than they had been in the first place.
Another tired sigh escaped her little lips and she mumbled thanks, plopping herself back into a stuffy chair.
Instead of continuing on his way, he walked towards her.
"Doing homework?" he asked her bemusedly, eyes darting from the clock to her work.
She moaned.
"Yes."
He gave her a familiar, condescending smirk.
"Then don't get detention", he advised her, talking as if to a very slow child.
She took a swat at his arm, her face twisted into an ugly scowl.
"Weren't you going somewhere? Off to snog someone from your extensive selection of whores, maybe?" she asked him rudely.
"No, not tonight, Miss Smith, but if I'm not mistaken you are my latest whore according to school gossip."
Cassie groaned.
Since that group of dratted fourth years had seen her and Tom come inside that rainy night together, the whole school had been entertained with the idea that Tom Riddle's long time nemesis had suddenly fallen for him and that they'd been outside somewhere in a private snogging session, and in worse rumours, something more.
Tom's trademark smirk returned with a vengeance, and he outstretched his hand in a gentlemanly fashion.
"Care to join me for some hot cocoa in the kitchens?" he asked her, his voice imitating that of a charming prince asking the beautiful damsel to ride on his noble stallion.
Cassie gagged a little and looked at his hand as thought it were poison, but sighed angrily.
"I suppose cocoa would be nice right now..." she mumbled.
His smile was fake.
"Lovely."
Together, they stalked quietly through the halls.
She was in her sock feet, carrying her heavy-footed boots in her hands. They had narrowly missed Peeves on their way down, forced to jump into the nearest broom closet as he floated by cackling something about hearing little footsteps.
When they finally reached the main floor (two floors up), he turned to the right, down a slightly smaller passageway.
Along this wall was a giant painting of a bowl of fruits. With a little smirk, Tom lifted his finger and tickled the large yellow pear.
Cassie raised an eyebrow at him, deeming him completely mad. She jumped when the pear giggled softly and a door appeared where the painting once was, her eyes wide with surprise.
They walked through the door.
Inside was a gigantic kitchen, with numerous shelves, cupboards and counters lining the walls. In the middle of the expansive room were four exact replicas of the house tables in the great hall. On the far end of the room were exact replicas of teacher's desks. With wonder, she watched one of the little
house elves walk over with a bowl of lemon drops and place them on a desk labelled "Professor Dumbledore". The little elf clapped his overly large hands together, and the bowl of candies disappeared.
Suddenly, the elves noticed them.
There were only about fifteen on duty at the moment, the rest sleeping or cleaning, but they swarmed them like a pack of eager to please bees. They all took turns asking them something, ushering them to sit down at the nearest house table, placing numerous food items in front of them.
Cassie and Tom were served a multitude of sweet meats and pasties, hot, bubbling cocoa with marshmallows appearing in large mugs in front of them. Cassie thanked them profusely, and Tom said nothing.
Only after the elves were positively certain that their guests were taken care of did they return to what they were previously doing. Only, one little elf stayed behind.
She was smaller than the rest, wearing a little flower behind her large floppy ears. Her eyes were big and blue and they stared up at Cassie in wonder.
Cassie smiled at her.
"What's your name?" she asked politely.
The little elf fidgeted with the flower in her hair, and if elves could blush, she'd be doing that now.
"I'm Daisy, Miss", she looked at her toes, then timidly looked back up into Cassie's face.
Cassie gave the little creature an encouraging smile.
"I'm Cassie. You have a lovely name, Daisy. My favourite flower!"
Daisy positively beamed.
"That's Tom. He doesn't talk much, so don't mind him", Cassie said, smiling and jerking a teasing thumb in Tom's direction.
"I know Master Riddle well, Miss. Er, would Miss and Sir like anything else?" Daisy's voice was emboldened and easier now.
Cassie grinned.
"Ooh, I'd love another chocolate éclair!" she burst happily.
Daisy beamed again, and scrambled off to do her bidding.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tom was watching her. Cassie felt his gaze burning through her head, so she turned around grumpily, scowling.
"You know, if you wanted to burn a hole in my head, your wand would be much quicker-"
Then she caught sight of his face.
Unbeknownst to him, chocolate foam from the cocoa was spread all across his upper lip, giving him the comical appearance of a serious western sheriff.
She stifled her giggles and took a napkin from the table, leaning in and wiping the foam from his lip in one fluid motion.
He blinked and closed his eyes, pursing his lips in what some would call an embarrassed manner.
"It's okay, you should see me with milk!" she laughed.
Tom's eyes flicked open and he smirked, a devilish glint in his eye.
"That sentence had a very sexual ring to it, Cassandra."
Her face filled with crimson, and her expression turned ugly. Taking the napkin, she began to swat at him violently. He blocked all her blows easily, a little smirk in place.
"You nasty pervert!" she yelled at him.
"Calm down, Cassie! Your chocolate éclair is here".
She glared.
"You're lucky I've got chocolate..." she wagged a finger at him.
She then turned to the waiting Daisy, a giant chocolate éclair in her hands.
She thanked Daisy and apologized for the racket, Daisy brushing it off and then running off to complete other work.
Cassie stuffed the pasty into her mouth, her cheeks filling with food as she attempted to chew the mass of sweet chocolaty goodness.
Tom raised an eyebrow again.
"You look like a chipmunk."
She glared.
"Do you want a beating or something?"
A/N: Whee! Eighth chapter! Hope you like eet. It's a little bit shorter than all the other one's...but deal with it.
Thanks to all the lovely reviewers who make my day!
Now, push that little bluish button. If not, the Night Monster will come into your bedroom while you sleep, skin you, and wear your skin as pyjamas. D8 XDD