His Dulcet Daisy - Tom Riddle x OC

Chapter One

Hi sweet readers, here is the first chapter of a potential Tom Riddle/OC tale. Let me know if I should continue and I wish you all the sweetest and most comfort of days. Also posted on FanFiction.net. Much Love, Elodie.

As the rain thrummed and drizzled amongst the dandelions and grass, two curious Hufflepuff's sat underneath a patchwork quilt in their night-claimed dormitory. The air was cool – poisoned with that damp death-eater iciness that even these golden basements were not immune to. Both girls shivered slightly, their warm cups of hot coco doing little to warm them as they went about their forbidden night-time routine.

"Lumos." Cilka whispered, the tip of her wand illuminating the painful sight in front her as she worked. Placing her wand on her knee, Cilka's fingers were delicate against her friends arm as she healed her. The cuts were vicious and cruel as they flared an angry red, and although Cilka had seen much worse, she couldn't prevent the pain that festered in her heart. Dipping her fingers into the salve she had secretly made, she flicked her honey eyes up to her friend in sympathy. She knew it would hurt, and so her eyebrows crinkled together as she offered a small smile of encouragement.

Her friend hissed at the touch, pulling away slightly as the pain writhed through her arm and deep into her bloodstream.

"I'm sorry." Cilka whispered with a flustered panic, her salve-coated fingers quickly tracing each slash. "I wish there was more I could do, but with limited supplies and access to – "

"It's alright." Otilie whispered in response, her words coming out in an airy gasp as she scrunched up her freckle covered nose at the sting.

With her free hand, Cilka picked up her wand and gently placed the tip against one of the wounds. "Ferula." She whispered, feeling the pain-numbing magic seep into her friend's bloodstream. Ever since the school had been over-taken by death eaters – healing those who had been punished was against the rules. And yet despite it being punishable by the cruciatus curse, Cilka Daisi Desta did not care.

Brushing stray strands of light brown hair behind her ear, Cilka nibbled her lower lip as she finished mending Otilie's wounds. "It makes me sad." The words slipped from her with such genuine upset that it surprised her. And so, she couldn't help but pause, silently pondering her confession and how easy it seemed to escape her.

"What does?" Otilie asked curiously, picking up her cup of hot coco and sipping at it lightly.

Clika flicked her large honey eyes up to her friends, a sad smile barely revealing two dimples on her cheeks. Seeing the milky moustache that had formed over her friend's lip, she leaned forward and brushed away the foam with a dainty thumb....as if she were trying to prolong the moment where she explained herself. For despite the love and cinnamon glow that shone from Otilie's eyes, she couldn't help but be cautious, timid.

"How blackened the Death Eaters' hearts must be." She confessed softly. "How empty of all things yellow and sweet and lovely." Her words faded as she spoke, as she busiest herself by placing her healing things away in her charmed wooden box. "It makes me wonder if they have ever felt it before? That darling softness of love and joy. If they even know what it is, if he –" Her words faded as she spoke the rest silently in her mind. For despite how foolish it was, she couldn't help but feel sorry for, him. "I wonder," she began, closing her box as she now fixed her gaze on the intricate engravings. "I wonder what their hearts must look like." She flicked her eyes back to Otilie's once more, ignoring that soft discomfort that seemed to flicker in them. "If I were to hold it, how would it look? Would it be black like the tattoo they bare? Or perhaps some shrivelled thing that has yet to fully grow...like a plant that has been starved of sunlight. What do you think?"