Hogwarts: a school of Witchcraft and Love (Tom Marvolo Riddle x F!reader)

Chapter 0-08

By the end of the start-of-term feast you had eaten so much food you didn't think you could come near roasted chicken or rice-pudding ever again. The tastebuds of your tongue had discovered so many new flavors you felt like you'd been blessed by the food gods themselves.

It had been so long since you had anything warm to eat, so long that you couldn't even remember it. When you first set your teeth into a bite, it took everything you had not to shove the whole thing in and swallow it down.

With nothing to compare it to, the food here was the best you ever tasted. Hot and flavorful.

Every chance you got you cast a glance in Tom's direction and every time you did, your eyes turned away from him painfully quickly. Despite his very human characteristics you were beginning to believe he had somehow taught himself Transfiguration and transformed himself into a magnet. Students, not only from your year but older ones as well, were all gathered around him. He was charming everyone.

You were no lipreader by any means, but you thought you could see one girl from your year call him cute. Cute. Apperently, many others seemed to agree with her. Tom's 'cuteness' went hardly unnoticed.

And they weren't wrong. His face still held onto that baby fat and when he smiled, it felt almost impossible for someone not to smile back at him too; especially since whatever mischief crossed his mind always lit up in sparkles behind his smoldering gaze. It made your cheeks burn every time without fail.

So yup, Tom was cute, particularly when he smiled.

During dinner, you had caught him smile a lot-and by a lot, you meant, a lot. More than you'd see him smile in a month. Make it six. However, none of them knew him as well and as long as you had. Tom had come up with a different smile for every occasion: a sarcastic smile he used when somebody told a stupid joke that didn't make anybody laugh; a faux-polite smile he used when pretending to be interested in what was being said to him; and, finally, the smile, the genuine smile he used when he was truly pleased, which was extremely rare but you've seen it happen when it was just you and him. The only other exception being whenever he taunted another child.

Tom didn't seem to mind the attention he was recieving. In fact, he seemed to revel in it despite not talking back much, if at all. He ate what food he had dumped on his plate in silence, which was considerably less than what Abraxas Malfoy shoved down his throat. The blond sat to his right. To Tom's left sat another black-haired boy who was in conversation with the person beside him.

You shrugged, pretending not to care and tapped your spoon on the rim of your plate even when you had long finished eating.

The Great Hall not once fell quiet after Headmaster Dippet concluded his lengthy speech, which consisted of the traditional welcoming of students old and new and the appointing of this year's Head Girl and Head Boy.

From what you understood, Head Girl and Head Boy were seventh-year students who had authority over the Prefects. They were assigned to assist the school but much else you couldn't cram into your brain. You had other things on your mind, such as why Tom appeared extremely insistent on trying to replace you all of a sudden. Was it because you got sorted into Gryffindor and not into Slytherin?

You were the only one at the Gryffindor table who wasn't talking. Everyone else had something to say; what class they were looking forward to the most, when dinner was finishing, what teacher they thought they were going to dislike the most,...

So many people sat at the table that your elbows almost knocked and your knees nearly touched. You had the luck that there was a vacant seat next to you.