Making Us~T. Riddle

Chapter 10

I watched the blood slowly making a path down her finger before it fell and dripped onto the desk, inches away from the paper. I rolled my eyes and proceeded to ignore her.

We were stuck in detention and had been for the passed hour. Neither of us had uttered a single word and other than the occasional scowl we had made no other attempt at communication.

She swore before placing her finger in front of her mouth where it had been cut by the paper. She sucked on her wound by using her other hand to wipe away the stray droplest on Slughorns desk.

We continued on in amble silence before she decided to put an end to it. How wonderful.

"Why does pain exist?" Cerelia asked. It was obviously a rhetorical question but I answered her anyway as I shuffled through the large stacks of paper in front of me.

"Pain keeps you alive."
She made a strange noise at the back of her throat and I glanced up to find her staring intently at me.

"How so?" She inquired.

I sighed. "It serves as a reminder of our limits. If pain did not exist there would be far fewer people on earth."

She scrunched up her nose. "That's cheery. You sound like a self-help book." She ignored my scowl.

"Do you ever have something nice to say?"

"No." I deadpanned.

"You could at least try." She mumbled.

"Very well. It is an absolutely pulchritudinous day and I am sure no one in the world is dying a horrific death right now."

She stared at me. I stared right back.

"What the hell does pul-pultu whatever even mean?" She asked in complete bewilderment.

"Really," I drawled. "That is the part you are focusing on?"

Instead of answering she waved her hand at me expectantly in a gesture to explain. I sighed again and wondered if I could get away with leaving detention early.

"Pulchritudinous means beautiful. Though I wouldn't expect you to know that"

Her mouth pressed into a thin line as she continued to twirl a quill around her fingers. The movement was distracting and I resisted the urge to yank the thing away from her.

"My sincere apologies that my mother didn't swallow a dictionary while pregnant with me."

"You are forgiven."

Before our meaningless conversation could carry on, professor Slughorn marched through the door , but stopped when he saw us. He blinked as if he had forgotten why we were there then flushed.

"I think today's detention has been long enough, don't you?" He asked and I noticed the slight shein of sweat glistening on his forehead. A smirk pulled at my lips but I suppressed it.

Cerelia grabbed her things and hesitated at the desk, then I realized she was waiting for me. I took my time gathering my belongings pretending not to notice the impatient tapping of Slughorns foot on the potion classroom floor.

We managed a thank you to the old man as we slipped out of class. He mumbled something about seeing us tomorrow before slamming the door shut behind him.

"I wonder what that was about." Cerelia pondered as we eased through the dungeon.

I knew what it was about. I was conveniently in the library passed hours when Professor Slughorn had invited the librarian to his class for tee.

"I couldn't even begin to fathom."

She didn't look convinced but ignored it either way as we trudged on in comfortable silence, both of us stuck in our own little worlds. I hadn't even noticed that we hadn't gone our separate ways or even where we were going until we stopped under a tree along the edge of the lake.

Slightly baffled at just how lost I had gotten in my mind, I simply sat down and fixed my gaze on the murky waters. The cold air bit at my skin and after a brief moment of hesitation Cerelia joined me, our shoulders brushing.

We sat together for what felt like an eternity but for some strange reason I couldn't seem to drown out the outside world again. Instead I became acutely aware of the living, breathing thing next to me. Her blonde hair fell down in waves passed her shoulders and seemed pale in the golden sunlight. Her fair skin had a healthy glow to it.

Her legs were tucked in, knees pressed against her chest and her arms hugging her body closer probably to avoid the cold wind that swooped over the lake water. She must have felt my gaze, because she turned her head resting it on her knees and smiled up at me.

It was strange.... The small tug of her lips and the friendly gleam in her eyes was unfamiliar to me, and I was sure I had never seen such an expression directed my way.

I frowned and she laughed. The sound was small and really more of a giggle than anything else.

"What are you thinking?" She asked.

For the first time in my life I hit a blank. My logical thoughts slammed into a wall and I nearly stuttered out a reply, but managed to catch myself.

I swallowed, tilted my head and allowed my eyes to travel back to the lake.

"The water." I croaked out after what seemed like an eternity. She made a faint humming noise at the back of her throat that seemed like acknowledgement.

"What about it?" She inquired lightly.

"Drowning." I lied.

A few heartbeats passed before I felt her quizzical gaze on me again, but I didn't turn my attention away from the small waves that glided back and forth over the sand.

I breathed in the smell of an approaching storm.

"Do you think about death a lot?"

"Don't you?"

A question for a question. She was silent for so long that I thought maybe she hadn't heard me. It took everything in me not to jump when she shifted closer and pressed her face against my neck. She was ice cold, and I told myself she was simply trying to warm up.

"Sometimes." She muttered and I felt the ghost of her breath moving against my skin.

I would be lying if I said that her answer didn't surprise me and she must have realized this as she continued on.

"Death, like everything else, has a beauty to it."

I rolled my eyes though I knew the gesture was lost since she couldn't see my face. "Not everything has a beauty. You're wrong."

I felt her smile against my neck and the feeling sent shivers down my spine.

"Everything does, even if it's a dark kind of beauty."

I thought about that the rest of the night.