In our solitude | Tom Marvolo Riddle

Chapter 6

"Tom?"

His jet black hair brushed against the back of the leather sofa as he turned around, reading the figure behind him. He knew her voice, he didn't need to figure out who it was, and some part in him had already expected her.
He watched as her slowly approached the sofa where he sat, a wide smile on her face; the same idiotic and disgusting smile that she always has.
"Haven't you gone to bed?" Mia whispered softly, placing a hand on the soda's arm before turning to his side. He stayed silent for a moment, he had been researching several different things in the library the entire evening; one of the things he'd been more interested in was the dark arts that he hasn't been getting a hand in as much as he'd like considering how it dwells deep within the restricted section.
Until now, Tom had been holding the great urge to completely destroy the blonde girl, considering that they were in school and torturing her wouldn't surface as something smart, but he never truly questioned it; how the girl could block out his attempts to penetrate her mind, how behind that idiotic smile she always wore on her face is a secret he could never find out about and was never interested in when he was busy studying the dark arts. No, it wasn't just a coincidence or some kind of ignorance coming from the boy, it was her; the girl had clearly somehow made him not question anything when it comes to her and as far as he concerns the way she could easily slips away from his cautious wit.
"Tom?" The girl asked once more, her voice soft and relaxed; she was never scared of him, never once did he recall through the year had she ever been scared of him, he had been patient with the girl and now he realized that he had been... too patient.
She touched his shoulder in an attempt to shake it, sending a rush of shudders down the black haired boy's spine; something about her touch had always been in some way excruciating to him.
"What do you want from me?" Tom asked, looking at the girl in the eyes with his own blank ones, his eyes were dark; a dark mask that you wouldn't see if you didn't know what he's capable of.
That's right, not once had Tom genuinely question how Heartstring made him feel, how he had never experience such emotions before or at all until he met her that day,
He reached his hand out to hold her arm, tightening his grip around it that caused a small wince from Mia's mouth to escape. "What are you trying to do with me?" He yelled, he needed an answer; he didn't know why he was so frustrated or angry, but something about feeling vulnerable had made him completely lose it; it was so incredibly uncomfortable to feel vulnerability that it had caused the boy to act without thinking.
Mia knew from the moment she encountered him for the first time when she came here that he wasn't just a simple kid, he yearned for power and recognition even at a young age. He's smarter than anyone of his own peers and he knows exactly what he's doing, the type of person to easily grasp the situation and find a way to turn it in his own favor if he feels fit. A boy like Tom Riddle wouldn't be able to fully trust her, not when she knew he always has his guard up.
When he first fell in contact with the girl and realized she gave him something that could make him vulnerable; he already had an idea as to why it happened, but the more she interacted with him and the more vulnerable he felt.. He knew it wasn't good for him, not for the heir of Slytherin, not for his plans in the future.
He thought, for a long time, that it was simply because of Hogwarts itself, the school of witchcraft and wizardry was an easy answer to the question... right? But when he distanced himself from her, the world seemed to stop, the colors became black and gray like how he'd see it before. Thus he concluded, it wasn't anything else but the girl herself, and he also came to realize.. That it's not unintentional either.
He gripped onto her arm again, digging his nails into her frail arm and gaining a small screech in pain from the girl, but he didn't stop, he stared at her, into her eyes waiting for an answer. Her eyes, they didn't fear him; And he saw it, he saw the flash of pity and sadness that lingered in her light violet orbs.
"I just..." She muttered, barely able to form a proper sentence from the aching pain in her arm; she felt his nails digging deeper into her skin as she spoke. "I just wanted to be friends."
"Lies." Tom snapped back, pulling the girl's arm and causing her to stumble down the carpet floor.
"What did you do to me?" The boy stood up, kicking her body that's been knocked down on the floor. "What did you do to me?" He asked again demandingly, yelling once more.
"What... What do you mean?" Mia managed to mutter up, coughing the air out of her lungs when he kicked her; She knew what she got herself into when she first friended Tom and this wasn't scary or surprising to her, she's already gone to accept who he could be and every action that indicates that is nothing new. But this, this burst of rage was for a reason, she knew Tom wouldn't hurt her without a specific motive; she held gaze with his blank and dark orbs, searching for that motive, searching for something she herself couldn't understand, she saw how his eyebrows burrowed into a frown, how he greeted his teeth when she couldn't answer his question.
"Why does it," He started, kneeling down to her struggling body. "Why does it ache when I hurt you?"
"What?" Mia looked at the boy in the eyes, astounded.
"Here." He patted over his chest where his heart would be. "Why does it ache, when you look like this?" This time, his voice had calmed down a bit, his breath hitched under his pale skin, the look of displeased and a visible frown growing on his face.
"You.. feel?" She whispered, reading the boy's eyes for a moment; watching his dark green eyes grow darker the more she continued to ask.
He nodded.
This..., This is incredible!; Mia lifted her body up, her face inches away from Tom's. She had asked Scarlet before the first day she first came to her house about the ability to make a person who's born under the effect of love potion to feel love, but was given an indirect answer that didn't satisfy any of her question; but now, Tom himself who she asked the question for had told her what she needed to know,
"Ancient soul magic!" She exclaimed happily, as if the boy hadn't just knocked her over or her arm wasn't trickling with blood and bruised up.
Tom had a puzzled look on his face, through his frown, he felt her hands hold onto his shoulders. "What.." She inched closer, trying to read the boy's dark eyes.
"What does it feel like?" She pointed her finger at his chest, where blood had been trickling down from just earlier. "Here."
Tom paused, he hasn't yet completely processed what the girl was doing; Ancient magic? He heard about it, he knew what it was, but was Heartstrings ability to make him feel such a way just some form of old magic? Not only that, why is the girl happy? Why is she so happy about the fact that he could feel something when he had just, only a few minutes ago knocked her down to blood and bruises?
What is wrong with this girl?
"I," She managed to say out of pure bliss; Mia couldn't hold herself back, she couldn't wait for the boy's answer any longer.
She wrapped her arms around him, giving him a tight hug before pulling away and standing up.
"I need to go to something!" She cheered, "I'll tell you everything in the future," The blonde girl looked him in the eyes, reading the boy's shocked face just one last time before running to her dorm and leaving Tom alone, who kneeled in the common room with a puzzled look on his face; completely frozen.