With my wand aglow, I smiled wickedly to myself as I rummaged through the file cabinets in Dumbledore's unlit office. After what had transpired with Riddle, I had gone back to the Hufflepuff dormitories with a pep in my step. Black had been checked off my list and his friendship with Riddle was likely ruined, but even as I laid in bed, I could not shake the fact I wanted to achieve more, wanted to feel more powerful. So, contemplating all the ways I wanted to destroy Riddle after what he had done to Nightshade, as well as how he had done me over that desk, I decided it would be best to find dirt on him first and perhaps seek out a weakness that could do some permanent damage. Dumbledore's office seemed like the best place to seek out this kind of information since he was a known recruiter of muggle-born wizards. Although I did not know whether Riddle was half-blood or muggle-born entirely, he certainly could not have been a pureblood, so I took my chances in Dumbledore's office anyway.
Breaking in had not been so difficult. The enchantment placed on his lock was well above the skills of any normal student here, but I was no normal student. It took only a few moments to break in, and if Dumbledore was to expect anyone to achieve such a feat, it would not be me - a straight A for merely acceptable student- but rather someone like Tom who made it a point to be the best in all his classes.
After a few minutes of searching, it seemed I had been correct in assuming Riddle had been recruited by Dumbledore because in my hand I held his file.
Riddle, Tom Marvolo.
Taking a seat on the floor with my back against the old professor's desk, I delved into the contents of the file. And after a few minutes of reading, I had found my weapon of choice.
"Conceived under a love potion, huh?" I said, my eyes aglow with a new kind of excitement. "Unable to love?" His ambition suddenly made a lot of sense. He had nothing to lose, no actions that could cause him guilt or regret. He could achieve everything he put his heart into because his moral compass just didn't function. I couldn't hurt him the way I wanted to if he wasn't capable of feeling the full spectrum of emotions. He could not feel the full extent of pain if he did not know love. "Now Riddle, that just won't do."
~~~
The rest of the night was spent researching in the restricted section of the library, aka the only place where useful information to plot against one's enemy was available. Hours upon hours were wasted going through book after book on love spells and potions and cures and curses, but there was no mention of how to make someone love again. At least, not for real. I could have brewed a simple amortentia and made him infatuated with me, so infatuated that he would embarrass himself in front of the school. But that was beneath me. I needed him to feel something for real. It was the only way I could feel like I'd won. He was a worthy enemy who deserved a worthy defeat, and I wanted to take my time with him. To destroy him completely would be invigorating.
It was only during the last hour of the night that I finally came across a piece of useful information, in a book of Sirens of all things. "Sirens of the sea and of the heart. Even those too cold to ever love again, or too broken to even try are susceptible to the deadly lure of the Siren," I read quietly to myself. I supposed Tom seemed to fit the category of too broken to try, so I read on. "Case study: Captain Jonathan Blueheart, esteemed pirate of the ancient seas, developed an unhealthy obsession with Lady Catherine Van Buchart, wife of a wealthy merchant. Unable to persuade her to leave her husband, Captain Jonathan Blueheart turned to less than admirable methods. Capturing a Siren from the sea, he pulled from the creature's chest its heart - the source of its magic- and brewed a potent essence (brewing instructions on page 4). After unknowingly consuming the essence, Lady Catherine Van Buchart found herself mad with emotion. Already in love with her husband, her infatuation for him only grew more intense with the essence. Unable to handle the unnatural levels of love she felt for him, she took her own life. Conclusion: Essense should not be given to those who are already in love. Warning: Little is known about the duration of the essence. Effects may be temporary or long-term."
Perfect.
This was perfect!
He would feel and maybe even love and I would sit back and let the world break him.
After all, a lifetime of no love meant he hadn't built defenses against the pain it could cause.
But he would soon.
And all that was left to do was hunt down a Siren.
~~~
It took one whole school day in total to hunt this thing down, which was fine because all I had to do was reach out to Mother and Father and ask them to excuse me from all school activities so that I could take a self-care day. They were all about my well-being and self-care, anything that prevented me from lashing out at the other students.
It took another full day to brew the essence. I tried my best to ignore Black and Riddle during transfiguration, but Orion's look of despair was something that tainted my soon-to-be victory. Had he really liked me so much? And for what? He didn't even know the real me. What he liked about me was all a lie. If he knew the real me, he wouldn't even dare to look in my direction. Tom, on the other hand, had seen glimpses of the real me... and it seemed like that part of me was an intrigue rather than a flaw.
Once the essence was brewed, I extracted it from the small beaker I had set up in an unused broom closet. It was where I brewed all my potions and enchantments. Although it was risky having my laboratory set up in such a public place, no one ever seemed to come into this broom closet.
Scrutinizing the test tube, I frowned. There were but two drops of essence that I had been able to extract from the heart. It did not seem like the Siren I had caught was very powerful, and likely not worth the fight it had put up. It didn't matter though, it would just have to do. Pouring the essence into an empty lipgloss tube, I carefully applied the shimmery thing to the very perimeter of my lips and headed out to find Riddle.
As I had expected, he was busy performing his nightly prefect duties of patrolling the hallways. I approached him like a shadow, one that was ready to snuff out the light. Coming up behind him like smoke, he did not hear me. "Riddle," I said. He turned toward me, surprise on his ghostly face. But before he could speak, I grabbed him by his tie and pulled him into me, clashing his lips against mine. He kissed me back, despite the fact he had no reason to. Using a bit of tongue action to make sure the essence was in his mouth, I pulled away from the kiss and spit out any essence that may have gotten into my mouth.
"Why did you-" he stopped mid-sentence, his face contorting into one of surprise and then sudden pain. With a deep groan, he doubled over, clutching his heart, as though it had just begun beating for the first time. His eyes were wild when he looked at me, scared even. "What did you do to me?!" he demanded.
I smirked at him, unable to hide my true self from poking through. "I just brought hell to your doorstep."
"Farrah," his eyes looked at me, desperate and afraid. "Make this stop," he pleaded.
"Goodnight, Riddle," I smiled at him, turning my back to head to the dormitories. "Loooove you," I laughed, excited for all the fun tomorrow would bring.
