ethereal | tom riddle.

scars and stitches

Eliza left class before Tom was done packing his things. She had been doing that repeatedly the day after she had gone back to Hogwarts from visiting her parents. Tom should've known better but Eliza kept ignoring him everytime he tried to talk to her.

After the last class of the day, Tom caught up to her just as she was going into the dorms. "We need to finish our Potions project. Come to my dorm after you put your things back." Tom said, not giving her much of a choice.

She did as he said, even though she really felt like being alone and did not want him to know what had happened. But, the project had to be done so she went to his dorm, not bothering to knock.

She sat on the chair, wincing as her back touched the backrest. Tom stopped what he was doing on the bed and turned to look at her. "What happened?" He gave her a strange look.

"Nothing happened."

"Do not lie to me, Eliza."

"I'm not lying."

"You should know better than to think I cannot tell your truths from lies. Come here." She didn't protest any further, knowing that there's no point in trying to keep things from him.

She did as he told her, sitting in front of him on his bed. His hand hovered over the buttons of her shirt, and he looked up at her as though asking permission. When she nodded, he unbuttoned her shirt carefully all the way down, taking it off her to reveal the cuts all over her chest and back.

"Eliza." He said, his voice low. "She did this again? I should've come with you. This wouldn't have happened then."

"It's not your fault." She said tears threatening to slip, as he took his wand from the bedside table and looked at the cuts properly.

Carefully, he pointed his wand at each scar, muttering a spell under his breath as she winced in pain. He kissed the cut as the skin came together, leaving a fainter mark in its place.

He kissed each of her scars as a way of distracting her from the pain of the spell. It did work, because she thought less of the pain and more of the way his kisses felt on her bare skin.

He healed her cuts as best he could and then turned her to face him again. "Thank you." She said, her voice cracking at the end.

He never replied with the typical answers people gave in response to 'thank you'. Instead he just sat there looking at her, one hand of his fixing her hair, tucking loose strands behind her ear.

She thought that he did that because he didn't like it when things were out of place. She never thought of it to be an affectionate or caring action from him. He pulled her head closer to his gently, giving her a kiss on her forehead lightly.

"Tell me the next time you go back there. You are not going alone." He said, getting up and not allowing her chance to reply. He gave her one of his tops to wear, instead of the uniform's button up shirt. He helped her put it over herself, and then they got back to their project as though nothing had happened.

They ended up working till Eliza fell asleep on his bed. He finished off the project on his own before changing and getting into bed with her. As he blew the candles in the lanterns out and put his head on the pillow, Eliza rolled over, sleeping with her head on his arm. He didn't push her off.

*

As usual, Tom was awake and ready before Eliza had gotten out of bed. By the time she was ready, Tom already had their things ready to take for the classes of the day.

When she didn't see him in the common room, she went to his dorm, knowing that he wouldn't have left without her. "You took lesser time than usual." Tom noted, sitting on his bed with a book. "We still have half an hour before breakfast begins."

She sat down beside him, looking up at the ceiling waiting for time to pass as he read his book. Suddenly, she realised that she could make use of the time they had alone. Anxious as she was, she knew she needed to talk to him then before it was too late.

"Tom." She turned to face him.

"Yes, Eliza?" He asked, not looking up from his book.

"Can you do me a favour?"

"What is it?" He still continued to read his book, not thinking that it would be something greatly important.

"It's a pretty big favour, Tom." She said, frowning as she waited for him to put his book down. He raised an eyebrow, putting his book down. He tried to go through her head to see what she was thinking but it was strongly blocked off. "Would you marry me?" She asked, suddenly way too conscious of the situation.

"What?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Marriage." She said, pointing between them, feeling stupid as she did but it conveyed the message accurately.

"Where is this coming from?" He asked her, still not answering her question.

"My parents said that unless I get you to be engaged to me by the end of the week, they'll marry me off to the Peverell's the minute after I graduate Hogwarts." Her voice had started to sound panicked, and she began second-guessing herself. Her face went red, embarrassed that she even asked that to him out loud.

"I can just get them to call off the offer for your hand all together." Tom suggested, pointing out that that could very well be another solution.

She groaned. "But Tom, don't you get it? They will find someone to marry me off to and the options are just getting progressively worse. It's going to be impossible to keep this thing you do up. I need to get married eventually and everyone nice and eligible is taken. Other than you. And you said you'd marry me if I wanted you to. My parents love you. They will so immediately agree. Tom, please. I swear I'll be easy. I don't want to die a lonely, unmarried woman with cats for children. And I much rather be married to you than to anyone else who might want me- which don't seem to be a lot of people, Tom. Can you stop just staring? Say something. Don't look at me like that, Tom. It's throwing me off. Can you please just say something? Give me an answer or I will genuinely-," She was cut off abruptly by lips pressed against hers. She didn't react because she was confused as to whether this was another one of her dreams or if it was actually happening.

He pulled away from her, his hand still wrapped around the side of her neck firmly, as she just sat there with her lips parted with an extremely confused look on her face.

"I was right- that did shut you up." He observed, almost as though he hadn't just kissed her hard enough for her to lose her breath. "Calm down, darling. You're not going to die alone."

"You'll do it then?"

"I will."

*
a/n: i have so much planned im literally going crazy help