Making Us~T. Riddle

Chapter 8

Physical development was a natural process.

Emotional development? Not so much.

Some people seemed to be even less intellectual and mature now than they had been as children. Wasting their time on idle threats and allowing their emotions to become stronger than their minds.

Jealousy for example.

I had never understood how you could lay awake at night and allow yourself to rot away at the mere thought of someone else's success.

The hours you spent wishing you had what they had only contributed to the feelings of bitterness and self hatred. When you could have used that time to either get yourself in an equal or better position, or simply just have taken theirs. But the problem was that emotions such as jealousy normally cancelled out rationality.

Instead of biding their time and devising a fool proof plan, they acted on impulse.

That seemed to be exactly what Camden had been doing when he came up behind me and yanked the bag off my shoulder making me stumble back before regaining my balance.

At first I didn't turn around, needing to take a calming breath first. I could hear him and his friends laughing and the sound reminded me all too well of the boys at the orphanage.

I relaxed my shoulders and turned on my heel. Sure enough he was holding my bag. He held it out to me before yanking it back as if mocking me. They laughed louder.

Their school shirts were untucked, the blue of their robes seemed washed out.

"Does Tommy want his bag back?" Camden asked in a baby like voice.

Tommy is about to jinx you so hard you'll need to piss through a tube.

The thought almost made me smile, but before I could reach for my wand he stopped laughing and his expression darkened.

"Rumor has it you got caught snogging Cerelia in the greenhouse last night." He sneered.

I kept my expression neutral. "And?"

"And you better stay away from what's mine, Riddle, or else"

A mental image of Cerelia wearing a dog collar that read ' Camden' popped up in my head, and it was unwelcome.

I quirked an eyebrow at him. "I didn't realize she belonged to you, my apologies. Is your name written somewhere? I must have missed it while my hands were all over her." I drawled.

Then I had to wonder at what I was doing. Participating in something so beneath me. I saw the moment the rationality left and emotions took over. How terribly human of him.

He stepped back and whipped out his wand, and I was quick to copy.

I had been fully prepared to hex him into the forbidden forest and dispose of him like I had disposed of that creature, but unfortunately Cerelia herself jumped right into the middle of the oncoming dual. I wondered again at her intellect.

Her cheeks were stained red, most probably from my earlier comment. She stretched her hands out between us like she was trying to keep us apart, and I noticed her fingers were stained with dirt.

"Hey guys, how about we just slow down? Relax." She said with confidence I had not thought her capable of. Or maybe it was stupidity.

"We can all just step away." She glanced at my bag that had fallen to the floor before swiftly grabbing it. Then she backed away from Camden to stand a few inches behind me. I felt her tiny hand bunch up a fist full of my shirt- as I was not wearing my robes, and she lightly started pulling at me.

"You already have detention." She reminded me, only loud enough for me to hear.

Reluctantly, I lowered my wand first. A few seconds later Camden did the same, though he continued to glare at me. I snorted before turning on my heel and tossing an arm around Cecelia's shoulders in an almost lazy gesture. She seemed very surprised and her face went even redder, but she did not pull away, only shrunk further into me as people turned to stare at us.

I only glanced back over my shoulder once to offer Camden a sardonic smile.

()

"I knew it!" Alatar practically screeched as he burst through the doors of our dormitory. I sighed before marking my place in my book and gently placing it down onto my bedside table. He didn't even wait for me to say something.

"You said there was nothing going on between you and tree hugger. You lied, and I knew it." He sounded horribly smug for someone who thought they had been lied to.

"There is nothing going on between me and Sallow." I repeated for the millionth time that day in a bored voice. He pretended as if I had said nothing and continued to stalk up and down the space in front of my bed.

"You denied it, but of course I knew. There were just too many hints not to."

This kept going for another twenty minutes. I had gotten almost comfortable in the mean time, and allowed my thoughts to drift elsewhere. Eventually I wondered whether he would notice if I left. Then I decided that I didn't care. His rambling cut off when I reached the door.

"And now you- Where are you going?" He asked.

"To dinner." I replied vaguely. To my disappointment he followed me.

Luckily he kept his mouth shut as we wound through the castles halls. Most everyone had already gone down, so the only sound was the peaceful echo of our footsteps. I heard the bustling of the Great hall before we even round the corner. Before Alatar could step inside I stopped him.

He met my eyes, confused.

"There is nothing between me and Cerelia Sallow." I insisted for what I hoped would be the last time.

He opened his mouth to reply but I stepped passed him and walked over to the Slytherin table. As usual they were the most mannered bunch at dinner. Where the other students were playing with their food or chewing with their mouths open, they were eating like the rich prats most of them were. Regal and chewing like they had a secret, which to be fair they all probably had.

Halfway through dinner Alatar regained his spirit, and focused his attention on tormenting the Ravenclaws. I felt someone staring at me, and my skin tingled with the unpleasantness. When I looked up, I locked eyes with chubby Indian herself. Pria.

She was glaring at me so hard I thought she was only one step away from getting up and literally shooting daggers at me. My lips twitched and I winked at her. I was thoroughly surprised when steam didn't come out of her ears as I turned my attention back to my own table.

Could you blame me? Entertainment was hard to come by these days.

After dinner I slipped away from the crowds of people and back down to the Greenhouse. The trail wasn't all that long and the fresh air and wind tousling through my hair made it worth it.

Getting in was easy enough since it was still an hour before lights out. Though it was dark out so I had to use my wand to light my way through the cluster of plants and empty pots. I wondered how someone could function in such a mess.

When the light spilled over the place where my plant was supposed to be growing, it revealed nothing but a small hole in the ground it had been buried in.

It was gone.