𝙷𝙿𝚂:2 𝔸 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 ℝ𝕚𝕕𝕕𝕝𝕖 𑁍𝐓𝐨𝐦 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𑁍

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧: 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭

Chapter seven
~All is not lost~

"Change my priorities
The taste of your lips
Is my idea of luxury..."

"Miss Heart, Mr. Riddle." Professor Dumbledore's voice echoes as a shadowy figure appears in front of them at the very end of the last hall leading towards the Astronomy tower.

Tom lets out a huff, pulling Arabella towards their transfiguration professor, his usual agitation towards the professor only increasing, as he desperately wanted this unwanted encounter to end as soon as possible.

"If you don't mind Mr. Riddle, may I steal Miss Heart from you for a little while?" Something didn't sit right with Tom hearing the words 'steal her from you' . It almost felt like a threat. Almost being the key word for Albus Dumbledore to still be standing alive today.

"Well sorry to inform you professor but she is going with me, it's an emergency you see." Tom's voice is anything but the polite way he placed his choice of polished words. His voice sounds low, dark with a hint of something very sinister hidden in it.

"Mr. Riddle, I hope this emergency can wait for a few minutes as it's an important information I am to relay to Miss Heart before the great meal of the day starts." Even though Professor Dumbledore keeps his voice firm and authoritive, the twinkle in his eyes assures both the young witch and wizard that their Professor was in no way about to lash out on them like their creepy caretaker did everytime he caught the students in the halls, even before curfew.

"No sh-"

"Professor if you'll excuse us for a few moments, I'll be with you right after." Arabella's gentle hushed tone gains an equally kind nod from her professor as she tugs a little on the hand that was gripping hers a bit too tightly.

"Tom." And with that he lets her pull him round the corner to an empty hallway. No one can blame him though, after all it was his name tuned with her voice.

Standing a good two hands distance from him, Arabella gives his hand one last gentle squeeze before letting go of her grip on his calloused palm.

Tom however doesn't like the idea of her being at such distance from him. Without a second thought he pulls her soft hand, that was still stuck in his tight grip, and snakes his free hand around her waist, twisting their bodies a little to the right so that he can lean her back against the primeval walls of the century old castle of magic.

Caging her in his arms, Tom's viridescent eyes lock on the swirls of whiskey in her warm ones.

"T-Tom, I don't know what I did to make you so mad at me or if I did anything that hurt you, but I'm really sorry for whatever it is. Please don't be mad, I'm sorry." Arabella's soft voice had a crack in it, which didn't settle well with Tom. He unconsciously loosens his hold on her waist as his hand let's go of her right hand, trailing up her arm to the base of her neck, "Who was the guy you spend the whole day with?"

"Aiden?" Even though it was just a name, but he didn't like the way it sounds as if Arabella mistakenly called Tom by the foul name that just rolled of her tongue.

Whether it was the demons of Tom's past or his over possessive nature, either way he didn't like hearing any name from her mouth sound almost as good as his one does, and so he pulls her closer by the waist, in an attempt to make her see she wasn't with that git but with someone she belongs with forever.

"And who is this Aiden?" Tom's voice sounds angrier than it did back in the library and Arabella was completely oblivious as to why. She couldn't, for the love of Rowena, recall what she did to make him this angry.

"Um he is my friend, actually no, he is my best friend." Arabella, lost in her thoughts about her friend, smiles that sweet smile of hers, the glistening of the tears in her brown eyes slowly easing out to a warm glow of joy as she continues, "We've known each other since I was like 2 and he was 3 because my mum and his mother went to Hogwarts a few years prior to their own marriages, and we're best mates too. We basically grew up together." Arabella's smile only widens, further angering Tom.

"So do you like him?" Tom tries to keep his voice void of any emotions, specially the green one.

"Of course I do, he is my best mate Tom." The way Arabella so simply said it hit a sore point in Tom's heart.

"Do you love him?" Tom tries to hold onto that hope that they were just friends.

"Tom obviously I love him, what type of question is that." Though her soft voice always seems to calm him, the peculiar pain in his chest also had the ability to cloud his judgment, and he could very well feel the later take on the former

"Are. You. In. Love. With. Him?" This time around, Tom doesn't even bother hiding the disgust he felt saying this sentence to her, referring to that bloody bastard that he very well plans on turning into a bloody mess pretty soon.

"What? Oh.....oh!" Arabella lets out a breathy laugh making Tom frown as he didn't understand what she found so funny. "Oh Rowena forbid Tom! No! Like no! Ew no! No offense to Aiden but No Tom! He is like my...my elder brother and I'm like um his little no wait he is like my little brother and I'm like his elder sister since I'm clearly the more responsible one." Arabella rambles on in her soft gentle voice, somehow even managing to make the continuous string of words sound adorable to Tom.

"Tom if that's why you have been so angry at me then don't be." Her soft left hand reaches up gently stroking his cheek as she affectionately smiles at him, the very smile he wants for himself only, the very smile she kept reserved for him only, they both just didn't know it yet.

"Honestly I get it, as friends we expect each other to tell each other first if we end up finding our 'the one', and trust me Tom I'll tell you if I ever find my 'the one', I promise." Maybe she didn't wanna assume his anger was from jealousy, which was one of the top reasons to justify his actions but still she told herself otherwise, maybe that was because he was the Slytherin Prince, the Snake's prefect, the perfect student for everyone to look up to, the ideal example every single one of their professors proudly bragged about, while she was just...her.....just Arabella Heart.

Tom leans into her feather like touch, almost purring in comfort as his eyes stays frozen on her.

Arabella Heart, probably the only person who managed to make Tom Riddle feel, the only person who managed to make Tom Riddle see more than just red and hate, the only person who managed to make Tom Riddle care without his own knowledge about it, the only person who might as well have managed to make Tom Riddle...love.

"Did you want to talk about something else or was this it? If it is I hope you won't mind because I'm very curious to know what Professor Dumbledore has to say." Arabella's soft voice pulls him out of his trance, one where he almost interpreted his emotions for....lo....for something that's not possible.

Tom involuntarily nodded, too drawn to her beautiful glowing smile to make sense of his actions, "Head to the Great Hall, I'll see you in a bit." And again with a kiss on the cheek, as swift as the break of dawn, Arabella walks around the corner to her transfiguration professor, leaving, yet again, an awestruck Tom at her wake.

Small whispers of their conversation, flew with the wind, hitting the ears of the greatest wizard of his time, as standing there looking at the kindest and brightest witch of the era, Albus Dumbledore grasped onto the hope that maybe all is not lost yet.