Content Warning: This chapter contains descriptions of a panic attack - if this is triggering or upsetting in any way, please note that it'll be clearly marked. The section mentioned with begin with three star symbols (***) and end with the same once the section has ended. Stay safe, my lovelies 3 -E

Walking into the cool dungeon room that hosted her potions class, Juniper shivered, pulling her cloak tighter around herself. She hadn't spoken very much after Ruth's question, but then Ruth hadn't really spoken much either. The two shared a half-hearted 'see you after class' when breakfast had ended, but that was it.

Sitting down at her desk, Juni set her things on the table in front of her, spacing out as she ran every interaction with David Avery that she could think of over in her head. He had always seemed perfectly friendly- had she really done something enough to want to kill her over?

Eyes darting to the edge of the table next to her, she scolded herself. She didn't actually know if it was him or not, she shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly. They would just have to rule him out as a potential suspect, is all. Once they did that, they could move on to who really attacked her over the weekend.

There was a loud thud in front of her as a second stack of books dropped ontop of her own, causing Juniper to nearly jump out of her skin. Looking up at Tom standing over her, she huffed softly and shook her head, glancing around the classroom.

"What do you want, Riddle?" Juni asked, sounding more distracted than annoyed. Plopping himself in the seat in front of her, Tom sat with his chest to the back of the chair, his arms resting on the front of her desk. A few nosey students nearby watched Tom, pretending they weren't watching the interaction. Taking a glance in their direction, his entire personality seemed to flip from what she was used to.

"Miss White," he began smoothly, giving one of his near-famous charming smiles as he leaned forwards more. He let his tone drop to ensure that only she would hear him, making sure to keep up the act and cadence for his audience. "Are you planning on telling me what it was in that vial last night? Or am I going to have to report you to the headmaster for taking performance boosting potions to cheat on your studies?" Cocking in eyebrow, he grinned slightly at her as Juniper sat back in her seat, shocked. Aside from the obnoxious gimmick, he had managed to tear her attention away from her thoughts with the sheer audacity alone.

"I already told you-" she began a little louder than she intended. With a quick side eyed glance towards the other students, she leaned in slightly closer, opting to whisper her complains instead. "I already told you what was in it was none of your business, Mister Riddle," she finished, making sure to mock how he had addressed her.

"Ahh," he clicked his tongue and sat back in the seat, taking his arms off of the desk. "I'm afraid that answer won't be good enough, Miss White." As more students began filing into the classroom, a boy Juniper would only recognize by the back of his head stopped short next to them.

"Oh, To- I mean, Riddle!" he stammered, almost bowing slightly before laughing awkwardly. "You can- I mean you can sit in my spot if you want!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Greenwood," Tom gave another one of his 'charming' smiles that made Juniper want to smack him clean across the face. Clenching her jaw, she watched Tom stand and pick up his things off of her stack of books. "Please, I insist." With a gesture for the boy to take his own seat, Tom made a half turn to look at Juniper. "We'll speak again shortly."

Professor Slughorn made his way into the classroom, making a loud announcement as he dug in one of his trouser pockets.

"Good morning, class! I'm afraid we won't have time to work on your projects today!" There were several groans scattered across the room. "I know, I know. You'll have time later in the week. For today, there's far too much to lecture on in preparation! As you know, this week Wednesday is a special day for all witches and wizards. This year the month of October gets a second full moon, on Halloween!" He stopped to chuckle as he pulled a bit of paper out of his pocket and inspected it. "Such a thing hasn't happened in… Well, it doesn't happen very often, that's certain!"

There was a soft buzz of talk in the classroom as Slughorn stopped once again to inspect the paper in his hand, eventually shaking his head and tossing it carelessly on his desk. Flipping through several pages laid out among books on his desk, he finally seemed to find what he was looking for, announcing it with an "Ah!"

"Now, if you'll open your textbooks and turn to chapter 13, we'll begin."

Juniper looked down at her own stack of books and pulled out the right text from somewhere in the middle of her small pile, opening to the correct chapter. Pulling out a notebook from the pile, Juni paused as she looked back at the pile that now sat behind her open textbook. It only took her brain a second to come to the conclusion that the small notebook that now sat on top of her pile belonged to Tom, and he must've just not grabbed it after being a complete ass.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, she grabbed the book and set it to the side, crossing her arms after she did so and leaning back in her seat slightly. She had only gotten a few brief moments of relief when Slughorn informed them they wouldn't be working together today, only to have the relief immediately vanish due to the boy's own inability to grab all of his things.

Juniper glanced up at Slughorn as he spoke only to realize she should be probably paying attention and leaned forwards quickly to open her notebook and skim the text, searching for the words she was hearing from the front of the classroom. Finally finding her place, she began taking lazy notes. After a few minutes, however, she found herself stealing glances over at the foreign notebook.

Pausing mid quill-stroke, her eyes darted to the front of the classroom and the back of Tom's head. Watching him for a moment, as though he would somehow know what she was planning and turn around to yell at her, she decided she was safe to snoop. Taking a quick glance at the students around her, she as casually as she could picked up the notebook she had only minutes ago tossed to the side in annoyance.

The cover was a smooth, dark leather and looked relatively new, but definitely used. The corners on the side where it opened had golden accents that glistened softly in the torchlight as she turned the book around. Nearly wanting to drop the thing again in disgust, she held back her reaction as she looked at the gold letters on the back of the notebook. 'Tom Marvolo Riddle.'

Setting it on her own notebook, she fought the urge to roll her eyes. 'Likely mummy and daddy bought it for their precious, brilliant, handsome son.' she mocked him in her head as she glared at the book. Stopping for a moment, Juniper stared at the book. Is it a notebook?

Notebooks don't usually have their owner's names engraved on them in gold writing.

But diaries did.

Pressing her lips together firmly, she now fought off a laugh simply at the idea that Tom Riddle - the Tom Riddle - not only kept a diary but accidentally left it in her possession.

Juniper took another long look at the back of Tom's stupid head as though to will him not to turn around before eagerly pulling the diary towards her and opening it to the first page.

Only… There was nothing written.

Furrowing her brow slightly in confusion and disappointment, she flipped to the next page.

Empty.

Juniper kept flipping through the first few pages, hoping to find something, anything written, only to find every single one of them empty. Stopping, she bent the book slightly and flipped through the pages in quick succession, but every single page in the diary was the same: empty.

Disappointed again, she tossed the diary back to the side where she originally had put it, leaning her elbows on the table and resting her forehead in one hand as she stared at the textbook in front of her.

It was just her luck, though. To have such an amazing opportunity fall right into her lap only for it to turn up, quite literally in this case, blank.

After what seemed like hours, Slughorn's lecture finally ended with him assigning even more reading before Wednesday's full moon and letting them know what potion they would be brewing that day. It was one that Juniper had never even heard of, let alone brewed while she was in school before. She wondered if there was a reason for that…

Packing up her things, she had completely forgotten about Tom's diary until it was already in her bag. Freezing, she contemplated digging it out and handing it to him with a glare and some snarky words. As she thought about it, however, he walked right past her and out of the room without so much as a second glance in her direction. Clearly he hadn't realized it was missing yet, let alone in her possession. It wasn't like there was anything written in it, maybe he didn't care about it - just one of likely dozens of things his parents bought for him that he had to pretend to give a shit about to be a 'good son'. Sighing to herself, Juni stood up and swung her bag over her shoulder and followed the rest of the students out of the classroom.

The rest of the morning passed by uneventfully, and it was only when meeting up with Ruth to wait for David did she remember their conversations at breakfast. A chill ran through her as the pair sat at a small table with four chairs set at it. They had already ditched their robes and Juni was glad that she had thought to grab a sweater from her chest before they came back into the common room. Pulling it over her head, she wrapped her arms around herself tightly, knowing full well that her chills weren't from being cold.

Not only had they done no work into proving David Avery's innocence - he still very well may have been the person who tried to kill her - but she was also skipping out on working on her potions project with Tom. It wasn't that she cared about her grades, on the contrary, her grades didn't matter in the slightest. And it wasn't that she cared about Tom - what he may say or do from her ditching him, however… That she cared about. The last thing she needed was to give him even more ammunition towards her and annoy her further.

Yet here she was: meeting up with her potential would-be-murderer and giving Tom more reason to argue with her. At least she had Ruth to help her for the first half, though, and Avery would have to be a complete idiot to try and do anything in the middle of the common room. They sat waiting for David for a few minutes quietly before Ruth suggested they start without him, he could just catch up. Soon enough, he wandered his way in, apologizing for being late.

The trio sat for a long while in silence, studying in each others company before David finally spoke up, his voice soft and curious.

"Say, Juniper?" Juni jumped slightly, unsure whether it was due to the sudden speech or who it was coming from.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" He eyed her with a look that Juniper couldn't tell whether it was suspicion or concern. Rue looked from David to Juni, her light eyes wide, clearly thinking along the same lines that Juni herself was. "I just keep seeing you shivering over there, even with your sweater." David shrugged a shoulder and looked back at his book. "Maybe it isn't the best idea to go for a swim in the middle of the autumn chill."

Juniper felt the color drain from her face as she stared at David.

"Wh… What?" David looked at her curiously, giving her a face.

"I feel like it's a bit of common sense to not go swimming, outside, in all your heavy clothes, in the middle of autumn," he said as though it were obvious. "It's no wonder you got sick this weekend. I was just saying that maybe the nurse didn't completely fix you up all the way if you're still shivering so much. We're right near an open fire, after all."

***Juni felt her heart race, threatening to beat straight out of her chest - through her ears as all she could hear was its pounding and David's words echoing in her mind. Gripping the arms of her chair, she became aware that she was holding her breath and had to try and coach herself into figuring out how to breathe again. David's attention was back at his book, but Juni's was fixed on his face. There was a sound next to them…

Was… Someone talking?

David looked up, away from her at first but then directly at Juni, only he seemed to be moving in slow motion.

The world around her had blurred into nothingness, only the muffled sounds of it proving its existence over the sound of her still racing heart.

David had turned towards her fully now, the shape of Rue coming in and out of focus next to him. They were both… Looking at her. Talking, but their mouths weren't making any noise. Something in her chest felt as though it were both sinking rapidly and threatening to burst out and upwards at any moment, and she had to assume it was her heart again, the pesky thing.

Wait, remember to breathe.

In… out… In… In…

Wait, no, that… That was wrong.

In… Out… In… Out… And… Where did Rue go? David was still there, but he wasn't looking at her anymore-

Juniper felt her hands ripped off of the chair she was clinging to, but she wasn't sure how they became detached. Instinctively, one hand wrapped tightly around her waist and held onto the opposite hip. Her other hand went to her chest, fingers gripping her shirt almost desperately, as though it would release the heart trying to break free from her ribs.

She felt herself gasp for breath - breath - god damn it, breathe!

There was a large, dark movement in front of her but her eyes refused to focus. Her hands gripped tighter on her hip and chest.

In, and out… In and-

"Hey!" ***

Juniper's hands were ripped away from herself and held firmly against her knees. Her eyes, which had been staring blankly forwards, blinked several times, clearing her vision.

"Hey!" A voice said again, firmly but almost… Softly at the same time. Pressing her eyes tightly together, she opened them again. Crouching in front of her was Tom Riddle. His hands were wrapped tightly around hers, keeping them in place on her knees as he watched her intently.

"I said 'clear out', you lot!" she heard David Avery's voice from somewhere else in the room and the sound of footsteps and grumbling amongst hushed whispers that she couldn't understand.

"Focus," Tom instructed her, bringing her attention back to him. His voice wasn't the typical irritated or snarky tone she was used to, but it also wasn't the voice he used when he was trying to impress or manipulate others, either. It was… Different. Calming, soothing almost. "Breathe."

Juniper did as she was told, focusing on Tom, her fingers trembling beneath the pressure from his hands as he held them in place. After a few moments, she was in control of her breathing pattern again, and her heart had seemed to resign to a much more reasonable rate than it had been just moments earlier.

"Oh, Juniper, are you alright?" Rue cried as she rushed back over to Juni's side, all but pushing Tom out of the way and holding both of her hands instead. Rue's hands were soft and cool as she ran her thumbs along the backs of Juni's hands. Her voice was as sweet as she had ever heard her speak. "Juni I was so worried about you. You just shut down! I didn't know what to do…" Rue's voice trembled slightly as a tear rolled down her cheek. Letting go of one of Juni's hands, she wiped gently at Juni's face.

Reaching her now free hand up hesitantly, Juni felt the wetness on her face. She hadn't even realized she had been crying until now. Opening her mouth to speak, she glanced around the common room. Where it had only been moments before full of at least a dozen other students, it now held only the four of them. David stood nearby, looking concerned but also clueless of how to help - likely wondering if he even could.

Tom had already stood up and taken several steps away to distance himself from the situation. He watched her silently and his typical stand-offish expression had returned as he glanced around the room.

"Tell me next time if you intend to skip our project time, Juniper," Tom scolded her as though nothing had even just happened. Making sure to glare at her, he rolled his eyes as he walked towards the exit of the common room. "That way I'm not wasting my time waiting on you."

Letting the door close loudly as he left the room, the three didn't move or speak for several long, awkward moments.

"Does he have to always be a complete arse?" Rue sighed, grabbing a handkerchief from her things and drying Juni's face gingerly.

"It would seem so," Juni looked in the direction of the door he had left from, though she wasn't completely sure anymore.

"Hey," Avery butt in, making his way back to the table, his voice quiet. "He was the one who told everyone to leave. Give you some privacy during your…" Gesturing with his hand at Juni, he made a confused face. "Whatever that was."

"He was?" Juni looked up at him, just as confused before looking at Rue, who simply nodded. "Why would he do that if he hates me, though? I mean, why help me at all?"