The Hard Way <3 Tom Riddle

Chapter 8

It had been a month with Tom, and Halloween was quickly approaching. The trees varied in beautiful colors. The leaves clung on, waiting until they would eventually fall to winter. I would go to tutoring lessons; sometimes, we would study others. He asked me for information on other students and myself. Riddle started to learn a lot about me. It felt intrusive sometimes, but when I learned about his skills to get into the mind, I decided to practice my defensive skills. Closing my mind from others and protective spells we had not yet learned in class. Not having the privacy of my mind was a strange feeling, so I was assured to stop him. My Feelings were sprawled out but also tightly constricted in my mind. I wasn't sure which feeling to choose or which was correct. But it's okay. I'm sure I'd figure it out soon.

"Hey Pandora," I said, standing next to her in Herbology. Recently I had been acting awkward with others, like I had something to hide... Which I did, so I needed to work on it.

"Oh, hello, Annette, you've been busy lately... huh?" She said, looking at me with a face.

"Yeah," I said, looking back to my plant, "I guess I've been busy." I felt the awkwardness trickle down my back and throat, keeping me from speaking. I missed talking to her a lot. She is... was my best friend.

-

I swayed my legs under the table, careful not to hit Tom in front of me. We had time to study today, so we took it to the library. My eyes examined the page when I heard a voice interrupt us, "hey, Tom."

I looked up to see a familiar Hufflepuff, Eve. My eyes felt like they could cut glass. The shard would be shattering around me, clattering on the table and floor. He looked to acknowledge her, then said, "Hello Eve, can I help you?"

"Yeah, Tom, I was just wondering if you could tutor me on Wednesday?" She said with a sweet smile. Tom tutor her? As if.

"Of course I will. What time?" He said, returning her smile. Wow seriously?

"Well, the library is busy at 7 pm, so I wanted to do it in my dorm?" She took out a lipgloss and stared at him while slowly applying it to her lips. I quickly looked at Tom to see him only looking at her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine with that." He said, pausing for a few seconds. "Anything else?" He said when she didn't leave.

"Oh," she put the lipgloss away. "No, that's all; see you, Tom." She walked away, her skirt shifting back and forth as she walked. What a whore.

I looked at Tom as he acted like nothing had happened, looking at his book. After a few seconds of quiet, I finally said, "so?" He looked up at me without a hint of emotion, "what was that?" I asked.

"I'm a prefect," he said, closing the book he was reading and standing to grab another. "It's my job to help people," his finger lightly touched the book's spine as he looked down at me. "Why do you care?"

My face flushed as I quickly replied, "I don't." Keeping intense eye contact, I bit my cheek to avoid the annoyed look on my face.

He finally looked away and said, "you don't like her very much, do you?"

I let out a laugh, "how did you guess."

He looked at me with a slight look of curiosity. "Really?" He said strangely, "I thought everyone liked Eve."

"Yeah, whatever, you seem like you do," I said in an annoyed tone, looking away. "The way she put that lipgloss on...." I said under my breath.

"Annette, you seem very interested in how I see Eve," he said, putting the book down on the table. "Or is it just woman in general?" He leaned over the table slightly with his hand on the rim. "Are you jealous?"

I quickly looked up at him, "You wish, Riddle." I stood up as well, not as tall as him but gaining at least some height. Grabbing a book, I snapped it shut, watching him not flinch but instead look at me with one eyebrow slightly raised. Instead of staying there, I quickly said I had to leave for something else. Damn it, Riddle.