Acrasia [t.r]

𝐕𝐈𝐈. 𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

14th September, 1952.

  "Shit." Alice blanched as she heard the chink of the key in the lock. "It's Riddle. Quick, hide your wand!"

  Freddie leaped up to grab his smuggled wand off the floor, hastily shoving it back into his waistband. Alice snatched one of the cloths and the trophy nearest her, pretending to polish its already shiny surface as Riddle entered the room.

  He eyed the shelves briefly and then flitted his suspicious gaze between Alice and Freddie. "All of them?" He asked sceptically.

  They both nodded. Alice could tell he knew they hadn't cleaned the trophies by hand. She turned her gaze down to the trophy she was polishing. Frowning, she realised that it had professor Riddle's name engraved on it, except only it was from when he wasn't a professor. 'Awarded to Tom Riddle' it read. Wasn't that what Dumbledore had called him in his office? 'For special services to the school'.

  "We're pretty speedy," Freddie assured cockily as he threw his cloth in the air, almost missing it as he caught it again.

  "Evidently." Riddle sighed, without an ounce of emotion. There was an awkward pause where neither of them knew what to say. Alice looked across to Freddie, who met her gaze and shrugged, before they both focused back on their professor.

"Fine then," He said, handing back both their wands. "You can go. I'd appreciate it if one of you could bring the bucket and cloths back up to my office though."

  Alice barely had time to process his sentence before Freddie was out the door. "Thanks Alice, so kind of you to volunteer." He blew her a kiss before practically skipping down the hallway. She rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to put her middle finger up at his retreating form.

  She couldn't fathom where he found his energy from, it was hard to believe no less than ten minutes ago he was sitting on the floor pouring out his heart to her in despair.

  Riddle looked at her expectantly, a false smile on his face. "Shall we?" He gestured to the bucket and then the door.

  "Oh hell no." Alice folded her arms defiantly "I'm never carrying a damn thing for you again. Not after the Library."

  Her professor's fake smile twisted into one that appeared to be more genuine as he remembered the way he'd stacked books into Alice's arms until her knees were practically buckling under the weight of them.

"There's nothing stopping you from levitating it yourself Alice." His eyes glinted as he added "I know you struggle with Charms but I believe you're acquainted with 'wingardium leviosa' or maybe we'll need more sessions than I thought."

  "I can levitate." She replied firmly.

  Her professor gestured for her to do so and thankfully Alice's skills didn't fail her and the bucket of water floated gently into the air. Her eyes met his, glaring at him in a 'told you I could do it' manner and he rolled his own in response.

  "Congratulations, you've mastered a first year charm." He praised her, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "C'mon let's go".

  Riddle gestured gentlemanly for Alice to walk through the door first and then he followed. Once he was back by her side he cleared his throat in a way that suggested he was concealing a laugh. "So are you really going to pretend you and the Darlington boy actually cleaned all those trophies in an hour?"

  Alice was about to argue innocence until she realised how rich that statement was coming from him. "Only if you're going to pretend like you didn't just put me in detention to prove a point."