𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑶𝑵𝑳𝒀 𝑬𝑿𝑪𝑬𝑷𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵 ― t. riddle

𝑺𝑰𝑿

TAKEN ABACK, I stumble backwards even though Tom has already backed away from me, a bewildered look on his face. I shake my head, moving towards him, reaching my hand out to touch his cheek. 

"Tommy, what's wrong?"

Tom collapses to the ground, his shoulders quaking as he sobs. He looks at me with tear flooded, distressed eyes. 

"I-I don't know, Immy..."

His head falls into his lap as I sit down in front of him. I wrap my arms around him, pulling him as close to me as possible. He hugs me back, as his sobs rack my body. I begin to cry too, feeling softer than I ever have before. Truth is, I love Tom Riddle. I know - even if he thinks I don't - that he's done bad things before, things that may have even caused harm to others. The thing is, I don't care. I know that - despite the fact that he doesn't ever show it - Tom has a heart, even if I'm the only one who knows it. So I hold him tight as he cries, letting out the pain he keeps bottled up. The pain that gets shaken and shaken over and over. I'm just glad that I'm the one whose here for him now that he's finally bubbled over. 

🪄

WHEN I FINALLY get back to the Gryffindor tower and climb into bed, it's almost midnight, and I feel overly exhausted. When Tom finally stopped panicking, we finished our task before going our separate ways to bed. The minute my head hits the pillow, I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep...

When I wake up the next morning, my whole body aches, and it's probably from the events of last night; between the hours spent walking around the library, and being drained of all tears, my body feels hollow. I get out of bed and shower and by the time I finish, I feel an awful lot better. This time, instead of walking down to breakfast by myself, me and Eden walk together. Jane doesn't seem to want to be friends with us, which doesn't bother me in all honesty. Truth be told, I enjoy being around Eden. Jane... well she just makes me uncomfortable. "So, tell me about your detention last night." Eden asks as we walk to breakfast. I take a deep breath, a clear indicator that the story is about to be long, and then launch into the events of last night, leaving out certain parts - Tom's breakdown for one. Once I finish, Eden is speechless. All she can seem to muster is:

"You got to hang out in the library with Tom Riddle? For four hours?"

I laugh, not entirely surprised that that's all she can seem to get out. I'd probably react the same; Tom Riddle is popular around here. And very, very attractive. The one thing that I can never understand is why, when he has all these options, he never pursues any of them. I shake the thought away as Eden and I sit down to eat. We dig in, not talking. Once we finish, we go our separate ways to class; me to D. A. D. A. and Eden to Herbology. When I enter the classroom, I realize I am early, me being the only person there besides Dumbledore, the teacher. He smiles at me, his pale blue eyes glinting with mischief. 

"How was your detention last night?"

I squint my eyes, a smile growing on my face. "You know everything, don't you?" I say, crossing my arms. Dumbledore laughs, and what he says next hits home:

"No, I'm just very good at picking up on signals."

As the rest of the class filters in, I marinate on that. Well, I must be very obvious... or maybe it's Tom. I let the idea fizzle into nothingness, as I take my seat. Tom Riddle has never shown any attraction to anyone, least of all me. At least, that's what I'm getting.