You Promised Me→♡•°Tom Riddle°•♡

Chapter 22

'𝙷𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚑𝚎 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚜'

The rest of the day went very slowly. The hazy drizzle of rain meant most students had been in the Library to see Faith attack Walburga. And news of fights in Hogwarts moved faster than owl post.

Faith sat in a secluded corridor, desperately trying to avoid the whispers from other students, throwing her dirty looks.

At least Lottie is friends with her again, Faith thought. But in the process, she lost Amara. Sweet, caring, funny Amara. At this point, Faith really had to question why so many of her 'friends' were turning on her so quickly.

Faith, no matter how hard she tried, could not forget what Lottie had said to her, even if they had made up, her words burned though her heart like scorching magma, leaving her melted and pained. 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Faith'.

Even if it had been in a moment of anger, Lottie had really thought that. She had believed that. Faith's favourite person had believed that she was nothing more than the image of her cruel and suffocating family. That she was nothing more than a slytherin bully. How was Faith supposed to push away those words as if they hadn't left nasty scars, ripping away at the little hope she had for herself left?

"Faith."

Tom riddle stood infront of her, staring at Faith with an irritatingly unreadable expression, his brows furrowed.

"I don't want to speak to you today, Tom," Faith shook her head, frowning. She was hardly in the mood to try and decifer Tom's mixed signals.

Tom took no notice of her refusal, and instead sat next to her, leaning against the corridor wall.

"That was impressive magic in the Library today," Tom raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know that you could perform wordless magic?"

Faith rolled her eyes, "Yeah, well I can. Now what do you want?"

Tom looked rather taken aback at this, but he didn't look quite angry at this response, nor content. More confused.

"I suppose I wanted to apologise," Tom frowned, turning to look at Faith in the eyes.

Faith's expression softened a bit, "I just don't understand you, Tom,"

"That's kind of the point," Tom smirked.

Faith smiled. She really didn't want to laugh, but she couldn't help it, "Tom Riddle," She grinned, "quite the enigma,"

Tom grinned at her, rolling his eyes amused, "Faith Silvers," He smirked, "Quite the conundrum,"

Faith laughed, nudging his arm, "Did you really just call me a conundrum?"She raised an eyebrow.

"You called me an enigma first," Tom shook his head, amused.

Faith shook her head, her grin fading as she remembered why she was angry, "I'm still angry with you Tom."

Tom looked at her, his usual unreadable expression masking his expression.

"I just thought," Faith continued, shaking her head and diverting her gaze to the floor, "I thought that we were friends. Or maybe even more than that. But, you just stopped talking to me. Stopped looking at me. And it really bloody hurt, Tom,"

Tom frowned, "I know. And I am sorry. It's just...," He shook his head, "It's difficult to explain."

"Well, don't I deserve an explanation of some sort?" Faith replied.

Tom stared at her for a second, as if he was trying to will himself to get up and leave her again. Instead, he spoke softly and quietly, much less sure of himself than usual, "I enjoy being around you Faith. That night, I realised what you meant to me. But..." He trailled off, joining Faith by starting at the cold stone floor.

"But?" Faith looked up, wide eyed.

"But it scared me, Faith." Tom replied reluctantly, "I've never felt this way before, and I don't particularly want to feel this way."

"Well isn't that flattering," Faith muttered.

"No- I didn't mean," Tom shook his head, sighing deeply, "I like you a lot Faith Silvers. But I am not somebody who is particularly experienced with these feelings. And I don't really want to hurt you."

Faith just looked at him, unsure of how she should feel. "I like you too, Tom,"She smiled at him weakly.

Faith moved closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder, "We don't have to be anything complicated, Tom," Faith smiled, "We can just, be."

The two interlocked thier fingers as Tom placed a hand on Faith's.

"Yes," Tom smiled a bit, still looking unsure as he tilted Faith's head towards him, "we can just be," he whispered.

The kiss was slightly more comfortable this time, like the comforting warmth of a crackling log fire, or a mug of hot chocolate: gentle and soothing.

Faith couldn't quite figure out how to feel. But what she was sure of, was the inexplicable fact: Faith absolutely had feelings for Tom. Even if those feelings seemed misplaced sometimes, wasted on a boy who couldn't quite reciprocate, Faith could no longer ignore the way Tom's smile made her chest explode. The way his eyes somehow saw her, really saw her.

Perhaps it was a bad idea to like Tom Riddle, but Faith didn't really know how she couldn't.