Invictus [Tom Riddle / Tomione]

Submission

Today was not Tom's day.

From his pent-up exhaustion, to his accidental nap, to his disturbing dreams, then the foreboding weather...

He stepped into the Minister's 1930s home, a three-story brick structure. It reminded him somewhat of Grimmauld Place, except that it was standalone and was much less... well, grim .

As he'd crossed over the threshold and was suddenly thrust into the throes of social introductions, he saw that across the drawing room stood one of his least favorite people in existence... Alphard Black.

The bloke looked quite smug, leaning against the sidebar with a brandy in hand, staring at Tom as if he'd known Tom would be there.

He probably fucking had... the cunt.

Tom found himself surrounded by a gaggle of women, all shaking his hand and smiling coyly until the Minister himself approached. Riddle had met him at Malfoy Manor some months back, so they reacquainted themselves politely until he saw her across the room.

He should've anticipated she might be here, but the blasted witch somehow had a way of frequently surprising him.

Hermione Dumbledore stood with Winifred Bones and Aeris Flint, two of his Hogwarts schoolmates who now worked at the Ministry of Magic. Tom was asked by someone if he would like a glass of something ("most definitely, firewhiskey, if you have it") and Tom shook the hand of another someone whose name he instantly forgot as he allowed his gaze to trail down Hermione's body in a lengthy appraisal.

She wore a fashionable black lace dress with cap sleeves and a hem that ended mid-calf. The lace was see-through around her shoulders, having a scalloped slip sewn in that ended just below her collarbone. She wore long black gloves of silk, black pumps, and red lipstick.

Her lips looked like rose petals and he wanted to smear that lipstick all over her face.

At that moment, her gaze drifted over to his corner of the room and their eyes met. Her mouth fell slightly open in surprise, but it was a soft sort of uncertainty and bore no hint of the animosity she'd shown him the other day, prior to her meeting at the Ministry.

It felt as though it were years since they'd locked eyes, despite the fact that it had only been days, or a week, or two weeks; Tom had really lost track.

Tom didn't smile, nod, or acknowledge her in any way other than to stare into her eyes, his black irises burning into her whiskey-colored ones like smoldering coals.

She closed her mouth after a moment, then cleared her throat and looked away.

Tom turned aside to find Alphard Black staring at him.

Black was probably the only Slytherin he'd gone to school with that he could barely tolerate.

Tom and Alphard were quite similar with regard to their physical attributes. Alphard was a few inches shorter than Tom, but Tom was quite tall, and both were pale and had black hair, although Alphard's was straight and he always wore it slicked back, whereas Tom's was curled and parted so that it spilled over his forehead.

Their eyes differed, however. Tom's were so dark they were almost black, and Alphard possessed brilliant blue eyes like his sister Walburga. But in fourth year, he developed heterochromia due to a quidditch injury, causing his left eye to stay iridescently blue and his right to darken into an inky, charcoal grey.

They'd been school rivals, barring that Tom had bested him at everything and anything they competed in.

When they dueled in fifth year, Tom had defeated him with a NEWT-level mind magic illusion, causing Alphard to believe he was casting a different spell than he actually had. No one had ever beaten Tom in a duel, however, so it wasn't much of a contest.