𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬˚|| 𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞.

15˚|| lead the way.

 ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶　　　　　　 ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ 

lead the way.

𝐒𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 on the winter courtyard; Hogwarts held the atmosphere of an empty opera house. If you weren't speaking in lingered whispers then you'd form an echo that could shake the feet of others. Not that there was anyone who would be affected by it. Winter Break was an advantage for Hogwarts, and it accommodated Tom more than most. Hogwarts would wait until after the holidays for news to evaporate about the missing case of Phineas Rosier. Dementors took home in Azkaban after the incident of her attack, they fitted that I was lucky enough to be alive for the sake of the patronus.

There she was alone on the astronomy tower, this was the single most time that she'd be left alone uncrowded without carrying the weight of paper cut opinions. They drove her insane trying to please everyone wasn't just tiring, it was life-taking. No matter what direction she'd turn to make a guess on her new move it was never considered enough. Funny how you feel on top of the world, and another second can send you blazing to the earth like an asteroid. The only peace that she could get was dangling her legs off the astronomy tower, she was lucky enough not to have been alarmed from the stifle of a nose behind her to have fallen off.

"You know, you could've pitched me off the astronomy tower." He twirled a spring of hair before taking a seat next to her. Edgar has a habit of cornering her in the worst afterthoughts of a moment.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves there, sweetheart." She wondered who made him wake up on the wrong side of the bed this late in the evening. They didn't say anything for a while, it made her wonder all the things he could be possibly thinking. It was better to get things off her chest instead of guessing about it, she kept her word when she said wasn't going to be playing cards with them.

Silence. One that could make you imagine that the snowflakes made sounds. She lifted her weight in order to leave, she forced herself to walk instead of running. She suspected that he wanted to be left alone as she was before rudely interrupted.

"Do you ever think about him?" She didn't know why this stopped her from walking any faster, but it seeped at her curiosity and made her skin crawl she didn't think it was possible he was asking about who she thought of. But the hesitation that he let slip in his voice made her think differently.

"Riddle? Not anything positive, no." She thought she was clever with changing the person, but it didn't make her any further from talking about it. A foot ached for her to leave, her mind pulled at all the nerves it would take for her to leave him behind without another word. But her heart spoke louder than any words could, she stayed leaned against the wall.

"No not him. Finn." She felt her stomach sink into the deepest sinkhole, the ship was on fire and drowning. Suddenly, she couldn't fill in the blank space where she was supposed to input words. Her soul could've left her body at the moment. Lestrange wasn't lying when he mentioned him, but he was losing her without having said another word. He couldn't think of anything to say that wasn't his name that would bring her to him, he couldn't fail Tom.

"He passes my mind once in a while." She didn't stop to think of the times she buried her face in her pillow late at night from the pressure she felt on her arms. it was painful how a sensation could pull all her parts apart, a hug from an invisible force that wasn't there, it drove her insane.

"Don't lie to me. You can't get him out of your head, can you?" He was standing now, all the talk about not letting anything slip her way turned to dust. Being a stronger person replaced her instead she was melting into a puddle from even having a conversation about him, it wasn't him that made her afraid to talk. It was the pain of risking the chance of getting the feeling again of his ghost next to her.

"What makes you say that?" It took all the courage to not drop onto the floor and hold onto dear life, to make herself confused as if she didn't recognize his name from miles away.

"We're more alike than you think. I just thought you.." It didn't help him talk to her any better than it took to get her away. All the thoughts she had in her mind burned, she wasn't strong enough to play mind games or be manipulated into conversations. She never had the heart to turn herself into it, she lacked nerve, and her stubbornness didn't help her.

"No! We will never be alike, and don't you think for a damn minute that we think about him the same." She pulled her feet they felt as if she was sinking to the bottom of a river with lead holding her down, if it wasn't for the wind that was pushing her hair she wouldn't notice that she was running. She became a child, the one thing she didn't let herself become: purely idiotic. One she couldn't afford, she wasn't looking when she bumped into someone. They obviously weren't affected that they stood tall enough to knock her to the ground. It seemed everyone was cornering her today, she couldn't deal with Tom when his servant just finished rattling her emotions apart.

"Isn't this a happy coincidence?" Nothing about this seemed happy, or even tolerable. But his voice made you think he was talking about climate change.

"I find it hard to believe you're ever happy." It annoyed her enough for him to outrightly lie about his emotions. She stopped herself from saying worse things she had on her mind, ones she wouldn't take back or he would let slip if said.

"I find it hard to believe I need to tolerate you." He repartees his answer to perfectly spite her, she was losing the little patience she had left that was slipping away as the pebbles of hourglass sand.

"Don't." She challenged him and backed when she gained her recognition fixed at the smugness he held he played her well and wanted her to know it.

"That's hard to do actually, you see. I need you to help me." His tone rebounded help in the way that he made her believe he didn't want to ask for it, that it should be granted to him. She couldn't believe that it was the one thing that could cheer her up at a time like this, tom riddle asking for help. If she didn't know better, she'd giggle. Half of Hogwarts will soon know her when her hair sticks to her face, and her eyes shine in aching red. She wonders, tom doesn't hesitate to even ask her when she's seen like this, he marvelously doesn't seem to care, but who would care when they're trying to do things their way.

"Fine. On one condition." She wouldn't stand hearing 'it's your life will.' one more time before writing her initials on her eyeballs. No matter what affirmation she repeated in her head, it didn't stick to her. She was always left behind as the final one in a race, and her emotions were the ones she was running from. She knew she wouldn't tolerate her emotions standing in her way at a point like this one, she wouldn't let anything slip from her again even if it involved Phineas. And she needed to learn how, "you're going to teach me how to control anyone and everything," She took a step between every word she uttered, "how to take back my emotions and make them mine. Teach me how to make the world mine."

He fluttered his eyes in thought, she didn't recall the time he actually looked her straight in the eye. "Lead the way." 

A/N: HEYY, flames got a new cover after painfully making it. The next chapter is gonna be told by a different pov. anyway as always tysm for reading!