In our solitude | Tom Marvolo Riddle

Chapter 7

Something that was never coherent to Mia was how Tom could show his true nature so easily when the Voldemort she grew to know was someone who'd murder the first person that sees him that way when he's still in his little act of 'Brilliant and witty Tom Riddle', what the girl doesn't know was that he in fact had come to completely trust in the theory that it's all magic, a hex, a curse that can be fixed and because of the same reason; he'd decided his actions toward her has become completely valid and he'd continue to do so under the effect of 'magic'.
The boy had chosen to completely blind himself from the fact that he could ever be vulnerable, especially to something like Heartstring; the Tom Riddle, heir of slytherin could never indulge in something as mortal and as weak as 'feelings' and love, even when Tom understood what feelings are and the meaning behind them he refused to allow himself to accept it under any circumstances and would rather lose an arm then continue to indulge in the fact that it could even exist in him, he deem them as unwanted qualities in a wizard as noble as himself and had completely convinced himself that what he feels for the blonde girl is nothing but magic, a spell that he had yet to learn due to the limited knowledge within Hogwarts library; it wasn't his fault that they couldn't provide him with what he needed to know more about it, of course a wizard as brilliant as Tom would've made it out if he had known more about the magic behind it and learn it himself, but the dark arts is what he is really interested in and such matters is no use for him when his first priority is looking for the chamber of secrets and not some silly girl who's so incapable she couldn't control her own ability and affected him because of it, of course; killing the girl was a more easy approach to end this matter completely but her money and her fame was more than enough for him to keep her alive, he wanted to use her for all he could get out of.

Tom stuck himself with Heartstring ever since their interaction at the great halls, often pulling her with him when he had to go anywhere around the school because he found that he becomes more calm and could focus much easier when the girl is around; He also, put this as one of the magic's effects and something that would eventually go away once he deal with it next summer, there was no need to care too much about it because Tom himself is a patient person.
He had made himself a habit of watching her whenever she's not next to him during that time; and at a certain point had learnt about her habits, the way she would smile even in the most uncomfortable circumstances, how rumours had somehow sparked up in school about her doing in ancient magic and how she was using it to manipulate the people around her, how students would often sneer at her when she walks by and how she'd only stick with the group because more or less the students in school had started to think she was cursed, and at times unwillingly he would notice how lonely she really is, how if there's no one around she is completely isolated by her peers when she had done nothing to them, and now her ancient magic that she was supposed to have had no effects on any of them.
He saw how her smile would often drop around certain students, how she'd search the room for the presence of Blume, Malfoy, Lestrange and if not... him; how her face would light up as if she hadn't noticed the amount of people in school who believed she was using dark arts and ancient magic against the school's rules.
If she could, in-theory bring comfort towards those around her then why did it only work on him? on Blume, Malfoy or Lestrange? Why doesn't it work on everyone else? Was she really that horrible at controlling her magic or was there something more to it that the boy had yet to notice? He didn't necessarily care enough to look deeper into the topic and figure it out for himself, he had other things he was busy with and the only thing Heartstring brings him is nonsense.

Tom had succeeded in earning the trust of every professor at Hogwarts by this time, every single one of them but Dumbledore who he had soon decided to avoid; Dumbledore knew something about him, all because of that time he had made a mistake during their first meeting at the orphanage, when Tom told the old man about his ability to talk to snakes and much to his displeasure, his attitude that eventually made that old man so cautious of him. No matter, Tom did not need to care about that old man, he only needed to be more cautious around him after all; even if Dumbledore did find something out of the ordinary he would have no proof against poor, brilliant and bright student, Tom Riddle.
During this period, Tom had started to dive deeper into the dark arts; especially the unforgivable curses that were often used and praised by the noble Salazar Slytherin, his ancestor.
Tom also came to realise that the blonde girl was not interested in what he induced himself in; often seeing her glance at his research of the dark arts whenever they sit together and simply hum a tune unfamiliar to the boy, he was in the impression that he'd need to use the curses out of range from Heartstring but found that he could indulge in whatever he'd want to without care around the girl. She just watches, intently; her violet eyes could scan the colour that emits from the spell in silence without a single commentary on it. It was the one thing he found bearable and yet most strange about her only second to her magic, she wasn't scared of him; even when he had threatened her or hurt her on numerous occasions, something about her eyes had always softened whenever he gazed into it.