Burning Obsessions : Tom Riddle

3: Butterflies and Fruit Bats

[victoria's pov]

Druella, Serenity, and I had agreed to set up a time and date to meet up for what American scholars would call "school supply shopping" in Diagon Alley. Usually, I'd just go by myself to get it done but Druella convinced me I should enjoy it this year with them.

I stepped outside, rethinking about yesterday's incident. It was so embarrassing now that I thought about it over and over. But it was likely he wasn't going to tell anyone because he wasn't one to talk much. I left the gates of Feathering's and came face to face with Riddle across the street.

I made eye contact with him for a brief second. His stare was intense for such a lovely morning. I pretended to not notice him and made my way, hearing footsteps follow behind me.

——————————

"At first I thought he was following me because of what happened yesterday," I said, filling in on the previous events to Druella and Serenity.

"But when we got to Diagon Alley, he disappeared from behind me."

We had decided to have a quick morning breakfast at The Leaky Cauldron before anything else. Wanted posters of Grindelwald were plastered among the walls and columns. A dim lighting peaked in and jolly music was being played by a group of wizards laughing amongst each other.

Druella gasped and said, "Do you figure he's a stalker?"

"Or perhaps he was plotting some sort of payback," Serenity added.

I loved my friends, but sometimes they could be quite dramatic.

"I doubt it," I said. "He seems too involved in his world to focus on me."

"Or anyone in general," Druella peeped. "I can't imagine him in an actual relationship." What she said got me to wonder. "How does he even manage to attract so many girls then? It's so weird."

"He's so weird," Serenity said and laughed to herself.

After a while, the place became too loud to stand and we left.

"By the way, did you hear about what actually happened to Theodore Nott's mother?" Serenity brought up.

I didn't. Theodore had wavy brown hair and natural arched brows that made him more trouble-some-looking. He barely spoke at school unless he was being called on.

His only friends were Cygnus Black and Abraxas Malfoy, but otherwise, he seemed to get along with everyone. His hair was parted on his left side. The last time I saw him, he needed a haircut.

"No," Druella and I chorused. "Is it something horrible?" I asked.

"Quite horrible," Serenity said, as we entered Flourish and Blotts Bookseller. She pulled us aside where it was quieter and said in a low voice, "I heard his mother was one of the few that perished in the flames of 1927. She didn't die from just any fire"

"You mean the incident with Grindelwald?" I asked, recalling having to read something about it in History of Magic. "The same incident with the death of Leta Lestrange?"

"Yes, exactly that," Serenity said. "I heard one of the witches in my neighbourhood whispering about it."

"But that was so long ago, we were probably just a year old. Why're people just talking about it now?"

"Beats me," Serenity said.

It occurred to me that we were gossiping in the wrong place especially at the wrong time.

"Er, I'm not sure if you guys have noticed, but we're here to buy books-?" I said.

Druella and Serenity gave me a toothy grin.
"Right."