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

Chapter 14 || The Wrong Answer

First of all, I'm really, really, REALLY sorry for keeping all of you waiting for SUCH A LONG TIME 🙇 And unfortunately I'm not exactly on the good track since the writing fairy decided to stop giving me the booze to keep going. BUT! I'll try my best to update—albeit slowly—and this time I'll be updating my writing status on the conversation if any of you are interested in continuing to read this.

P.S.
This chapter will be short since it's not the entire thing but I hope you can enjoy the small interaction between the three crackheads 😂

The air was too cold for someone to stay outside for too long. Yet almost the entire school was out here, under the usual cloudy sky, waiting for the train to come and stop on the platform.

I hugged my coat tighter around me while my eyes flickered around the platform nervously.

The goodbyes I made with Emily and Jasmine were a little too heavy, perhaps, by the look on their faces when I wrapped my arms a little bit too tightly than what they were used to. Although they gave me questioning looks, I simply gave them a curt smile and shooed them away so that they could be with their roommates.

Now, I only had my other two gloomy friends from Slytherin to wait to inform them of my little trip during the winter break. Maybe I should have forced Emily and Jasmine to stay beside me—it was bloody boring.

I shivered when a chorus of cold winds flew by, ruffling everyone's robes along with their hair to keep them looking down at their shoes—they looked as if they were attending a funeral. Snorting slightly at the thought, I fluttered my eyelashes to bat the winds and craned my neck to see that the lines of Slytherins were walking towards the platform with Slughorn on the lead.

"Hey," I said quietly as I matched Tom and Abraxas' footsteps.

"Hey, Vivienne," Abraxas replied.

"So, how did your parents react when you sent the letter?"

"You mean that letter that we wrote saying that you're too busy to attend the dinner?" I nodded. "They didn't exactly react the way I expected them."

"Most likely since Tom's going to attend," I commented.

"Most likely."

"Speaking of which, are you all right, Tom?"

Noticing that the said boy was rather quiet, I looked past Abraxas to see that Tom was staring blankly ahead of us, rarely blinking even when the cold wind blew towards us.

Tom, being addressed, turned his head to face me and nodded curtly, and without a word, he looked back ahead.

Perplexed, I raised a brow at Abraxas.

He shrugged his shoulders. "He's worried that you're going back there to check on your friend."

Tom cast Abraxas a cold, piercing glare at him, his pitch-black eyes glinting dangerously. The other merely rolled his eyes and bumped his shoulder against Tom's teasingly.

"Better than to let our dear Vivienne be worried about you and get herself killed."

"Yeah, Tom," I mocked.

Abraxas and I widened our eyes when a pout was faintly forming on Tom's lips.

"Holy Hera, Abraxas we should cut it out," I said in genuine alarm, snatching Abraxas' arm to pull us away. "Tom's actually sulking."

"Merlin, we're encountering a historical event, Vivienne. Tom's actually sulking."

"There's no need to repeat it twice, you two. And of a matter of fact, I am not sulking."

"You're sulking."

"Not."

"Fine, let's go with that," I cut in. Waving my hand dismissively, I let go of Abraxas' arm and smiled mischievously at Tom.

"Vivienne!"

"What?"

Slightly surprised, Tom stared at me without saying anything, but finally cleared his throat. He straightened up and looked at me with something unreadable in his eyes. "I wish you to stay safe."

There was a moment of silence as those words were said, both from bewilderment and the warm feeling that spread through my chest. I was about to reply to him when I suddenly stopped.

Usually, if this was my father, I would have replied with the reality that being a demigod never truly had an option to stay safe; perhaps it was the slight indignation I held over him for making me born as a demigod, and although it was wrong, I couldn't help myself from it. However, Tom, along with Abraxas, was a different case—they don't actually know the things I go through, because I had held those realities away from them with vague answers. There's always that selfish self in me that constantly chooses over the wrong instead of the right because that will keep me safer than the other, or simply make me feel better—and I have no intentions of stopping it.

"I will."

I sent them a reassuring smile, with the tips of my lips slightly too low to be comforting, but it will do.

"Have fun with that dinner party."

The both of them shrank away at the mention of the party, their faces visibly turning sour.

"Don't remind me of that, Vivienne," Abraxas winced. "I'm still trying to come up with a plan to make peace with Emily."

Laughing, I punched lightly on his arm. "You'll be fine, as long as you don't make Jasmine mad."

Tom snickered. "Green is a honey badger after all. Make sure you don't offend her in any way."

"The two of you are absolutely not helping!"