𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 || 𝘛𝘰𝘮 𝘙𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦

A pleasant conversation | 4

She woke up at the brink of dawn- not like she wanted to in the first place. She slowly made her way out of bed and changed into her Slytherin robes. After she was done, she looked over at her other two roommates who were sleeping peacefully. She searched for her wand she had placed near the lamp in the dim room. Once her hands clasped the wood of her wand she pocketed it and left the room without even trying to muffle the sound of her loud footsteps.

She walked down the girl's dormitory and was almost at the door to leave the common room when she heard a voice calling out to her.

"Rivers," said the familiar deep voice.

She turned around to face Riddle who was sitting in an armchair near the fireplace. She merely cocked her eyebrow up at him and waited for him to continue his speech.

"You're up early."

"I can say the same for you too," she responded not sure where this conversation was going.

Tom Riddle has never really acknowledged her or batted an eye at her for the past years, why would he now? A lot of reasons why came rushing into her mind but she shoved them back into the back of her head so she could pay attention to the present moment.

"Are you free after dinner?" he asked, his eyes never leaving the fire.

"I guess."

"Meet me in the library then," with that, he got up and left the room leaving her to stand there utterly confused.

She should have started to dreamily think about what Riddle had planned for her like all the other girls in their year but instead, she was dreading the moment to come. Tom Riddle was many things, charming, handsome, and smart but he was not emotionally attached to others so she crossed out the idea of him having teenage love. And yes, she knew that boy had a dark aura around him, she knew he was manipulative since she saw the way all the professors looked at him as if he was God's sent and the way he was able to charm the teachers just by smiling for them was disturbing.

She shrugged to herself, cleared her mind, and started for the Great Hall.

He is just Tom Riddle, nothing to be afraid of.

Because she knew it was her, he should be afraid of.

~—————————————~

The Great Hall was still empty when she arrived, mostly Ravenclaws were up and ready to start the first day of term. Her eyes scanned the Slytherin table and to her disappointment, Tom Riddle was nowhere to be seen. She went over to sit at the table and started to butter her piece of toast. When she had finished her breakfast, a lot of students had started to file into the room. And soon Caelum joined next to her to eat while she waited for Professor Slughorn to start giving out the schedule.

It was when Caelum had wiped his mouth with his arm did Slughorn walk over to the pair. He handed out their schedule and she quickly scanned her eyes over her own. She had two free periods in the afternoon and her first class of the day was Transfiguration with Professor Dumbledore. "You're still learning Care of Magical Creatures?" questioned Caelum who had just learned towards her to get a better look at her schedule. "I like the lesson, I think the creatures are fascinating." she snapped but quickly tried to cover up her rudeness by dramatically clutching her chest as if he broke her heart by saying those words. He laughed it off and they later made their way to Transfiguration.

As usual, the pair sat at the back of the classroom and chatted away while waiting for the lesson to start. It was not long before Dumbledore entered and the whole class to be assembled.

Today's lesson was about theory and to her delight, Professor Dumbledore did not give the students any homework, yet.

Nyx had found the day going by so quickly that she hadn't registered the fact that dinner was approaching soon and that meant she was going to have to meet Riddle.

~——————————————~

Her onyx eyes scanned the area when they finally landed on the head of a certain someone whose back was facing her. She walked over to the boy and sat opposite him. His dark eyes slowly lifted from his book to meet her darker ones. They seemed to be staring at one another for quite a while until she cleared her throat loudly. He seemed to have to blink rapidly to come out of his trance and then he spoke. "Tom Riddle, I don't think we have formally introduced ourselves yet," he said. "Skip the introductions, there's no need to be formal," she replied rather harshly and added, "Besides, we already know each other and I want to leave as soon as possible." he merely looked at her as if he had never seen her properly before and gave her one of his most famous charming smiles. "You have been on my mind over the summer." he started, choosing his words carefully.

"Really? Good things about me, I hope." she wasn't going to blush, no, she was not going to let a boy make her blush.

"I've noticed you wearing that necklace," he pointed to the silver chain hanging around her neck and she stuffed it back in her shirt quickly. "What does the symbol mean?"

She felt the Metal of the Deathly Hallows hot on her chest and found it difficult to answer his question. Yes, she knew what the symbol meant, she knew of her father's creations and how they were powerful, especially the Elder wand. She wore the necklace that symbolizes the Deathly Hallows as a reminder of who she was and who her father was. She remembered being careless once and found herself in a heated argument with some wizards and witches who mistook the Deathly Hallows as Grindelwald's symbol while she was in Knockturn Alley. (She had no idea what she was doing there either.) But she knew for a fact that she wasn't going to tell the boy in front of her anything.

"I merely spotted it in a shop and bought it, nothing special about it or am I mistaken?"

"I don't like being lied to, Rivers."

He opened his mouth to question her further but she just stood up and said, "I had a pleasant time with you although I hope to never speak to you again. Good night." She turned away before he could say anything and left for the common room.

A million questions rang in her head. But why Riddle wanted to know about the Deathly Hallows rang the loudest.

But for all she knew, Tom Riddle was not going to stop until he got what he wanted.