Slytherin Roar: Through the Maze || Tom Riddle's Era

Chapter 13 || Sorry To Interrupt Your Tranquility

I immediately sat up from my bed as soon as I woke up from a particular dream. It wasn't the worst nightmare I had in the past, but something about it shook every string of muscles to cramp in its place until even the smallest twitch told me that it was aching. Grunting, I peeled the layers of blankets to the end of the bed and lifted myself out of the mattress, tripping on my toes in the process.

"Are you okay, Vivienne?"

From the floor, I parted my front hair with both my hands to see a perfectly-hairstyled-Alice on her bed, flicking through a magazine in her hands, something about Best Beauty of the Year. Patting some whirly strands of hair, I slowly got up from the cold floor and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I rasped out. Tilting my head side to side, I cracked the muscles loudly, glancing briefly at Alice who winced delicately at the sound. I did a last one stretch on my back and I walked towards my luggage to take out a crisp shirt and my ruffled robes that were haphazardly lying next to it.

When the silence grew awkward, Alice cleared her throat. "You don't seem very well, Vivienne. Are you sure you're alright? Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing?"

I waved my hand dismissively.

"Perfect as I can ever be." In other words, it meant 'As perfect as a crippled demigod can ever be.' "There's no need for me to go to the matron for anything."

"That's good to know," she smiled. It was rather hard for me to tell whether it was genuine or something forced with the way her smile always seems tight-lipped—or maybe her smile was never honest, even when directed at her friends.

I carefully hid the black spellbook with my clothes and tentatively gave her a side look. "How about you, Alice? Are you okay?"

"I'm... fine." She laid down her magazine and stared at her hands with a detached look. "Except Tom hasn't given me a reply yet."

Oh, Hera. I had completely forgotten about the letter Alice gave to Tom—more like I was forced to give it to him—during potion class, and I doubted that the boy himself actually remembered it, or more likely he simply did not have the motivation to actually give a reply. I furtively tried to peer at Ivy in hopes of waking her up with the sheer power of my not-too-kind eyes, but I gave up that thought.

Relaxing my face, I tried to look surprised. "Really? Maybe Tom didn't have enough time to reply to you."

"You know how Slughorn slipped the date of our Hogsmeade date during his class and it's going to be this Saturday, meaning I only have three days left to know Tom's answer. Can you perhaps ask him what his reply is?"

She looked at me beneath her thick eyelashes and I found myself unable to say no when the hair on my arms pricked from the way her eyes burned with an unhinged fire. I sighed, although I did think: If you can't find yourself to ask him out yourself, are you going to end up bringing me to your date with Tom as well?

I internally shivered at the thought and gave her a curt nod. "Sure."

"Thank you."

When I made sure Alice happily went back to flipping her magazine, I gave her a look and closed my trunk with a sharp thud. That girl was too much of a coward to be a Gryffindor. It would've been more natural for the Sorting Hat to place her in Slytherin with the way that girl had almost all the third year boys wrapped around her finger in a puberty infatuation, except, of course, for my two Slytherin friends. She must have chosen Tom specifically for the fact that he was more good looking than Abraxas. But really, I couldn't really blame the boys—she was the prettiest girl in our year, and even I had trouble not admiring her perfectly freckled face for too long.