Sacred Silence | A Tom Riddle Story

61: Thats not how you talk to me (Tom's POV).

The room was quiet and filled with a dim green light that pooled in through the water covered windows.
Tom couldn't sleep. His hands were folded behind his head and he was staring up at the ceiling in silence. It felt strange to have another person in his bed. Siobhan didn't take up much space. To the contrary, she was curled up in such a small ball that he kept forgetting she was there. At two different times during the night, he had tried to turn around, only to be stopped by her motionless figure pressed against his side. She was completely knocked out, far away in some alcohol induced dream.

6 in the morning bled into 7, which turned to 8. A little before 9, Abraxas stumbled into the room. He was carrying his shoes in his hands and knocked over a stack of books when he tried to open the curtains on his bed.

'I just had the best fuck of my life-'

'Shut up,' Tom hissed as he looked over his shoulder to see if Shiv was still asleep.

Abraxas fell onto the bed with a deep sigh and a huge grin. Tom turned over in his bed to face him. 'Where did you leave the girl?'

'Last I saw, she was fast asleep in the Ravenclaw common room. Merlin, the fact we didn't get caught-'

Tom turned around again and closed his eyes despite knowing he wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Shivs curls tickled against the skin of his jaw. Her steady breathing was oddly comforting, the soft exhales warming the spot between his collarbones.
His fingertips traveled up her side, and he allowed himself to enjoy having her warm body against his. He supposed this is what it would feel like to have a childhood pet, or a favorite stuffed animal.

After another fruitless attempt at falling asleep, Tom decided to get up. Brax' snoring was getting louder by the minute, and any moment now, the other boys could wake up wherever they had passed out to start stumbling back to their dorm.
Carefully, he slipped out of bed and changed his clothes. He had joined Shiv in his neat black trousers and shirt, which were now wrinkled all over. Tom sighed and unbuttoned his shirt, swapping it for a looser fitting one without buttons. Grabbing his flask and cigarettes from the desk, he made to leave.

The morning air was refreshing and very welcome. Hangovers usually didn't get to him anymore, but last night's drinking had been far from usual. Tom felt his head throb as he sat down and lit a cigarette. The nicotine did little to stop his hands from shaking. He hated it, having his body weakened. Slowly, he screwed the cap off the flask and took a long swig. You couldn't get a hangover if you just continued drinking.
After a few cigarettes and enough alcohol to calm his nervous system back down, Tom got two mugs of tea to take back to his dorm. Siobhan would probably feel a lot worse than him, so she would be grateful. I'm such a good boyfriend, Tom thought to himself sarcastically. The word still felt unnatural to him, and it probably always would be. Calling Shiv 'his girlfriend' hadn't felt half as weird. It was something that made sense; inevitable.

Tom pushed the door to their dorm open with his knee. The room was still empty except for a loudly snoring Abraxas.
The curtains around his own bed were closed, which made him frown. A look at the clock as he placed the two mugs on the desk showed him he had only been gone for little more then an hour.
A soft rustling noise came from behind the draped green fabric, like papers being folded or flipping through a book.

His long legs needed only two steps to get to the foot of the bed, and with a quick pull he opened the curtains.
Siobhan was sitting up straight, hastily trying to shove two books under the blankets. But they weren't just book, one of them was his diary.

Tom's eyes narrowed. 'What do you think you're doing?'

'The siren??' She whisper-yelled. 'Is that what I am? Will I lure you into my trap and kill you, Tom? Is that what you're afraid of?'