The Key to a Riddle's Heart (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 13 - The Awkward Encounter

It was around mid-January and classes for the week had finally just ended. Yesterday, Tom sent me a letter asking to meet him by the entrance hall so they could spend time together before dinner. Of course I agreed.

During the entire day, I was looking forward to spending time with Tom. Although we weren't going to be doing anything special, it was still exciting.

Since it was Friday, I didn't have to worry about any homework. I contemplated whether or not if I should drop my books and my bag off in my dorm. While considering what to do, I remembered that I'd be late to meeting Tom if I ran up to my dorms all the way up in the Gryffindor tower.

We were going to be meeting in the fourth floor corridor near our Transfiguration classroom. I walked passed many animated portraits that were talking about something I couldn't quite understand. I waved at a few of them and received waves in return. When I turned the corner, I began walking up a flight of moving stairs. Then I noticed that this was the stair case with the trick-step. I was definitely not falling for that one again!

Within my first few weeks of attending Hogwarts, I had run into this deceiving step multiple times. This caused me to have a major anxiety attack because I had been alone on those many occasions. Each time I went up this stair way I stumbled upon the step and fell through. I mainly tried avoiding this staircase but I knew it wouldn't be beneficial if I went around.

I counted the steps carefully and gently tapped each with my foot before completely stepping on it. When I reached the seventh stair, it had vanished. This made me smirk as I skipped over it and continued on my way to the fourth floor corridor.

When I finally reached the corridor, I looked around anxiously for Tom. The second I arrived I took a seat but my foot kept tapping on the ground and it became quite annoying. The fact that Tom had this much of an impact on the way I felt, kind of scared me. It made many different emotions run through my mind: excitement, fear, adrenaline, and nervous. I could only hope that Tom felt the same way that I felt about him.

At that moment, he showed up and greeted me with his charming smile before pulling me into his arms and placing a kiss upon my lips. I smiled into the short, yet sweet, kiss. When we pulled away, he grabbed my hand and led me over to a bench that was a few ways away from the Transfiguration department. We passed by Dumbledore's office quietly because we were not sure if he was inside or not. I noticed that Tom had scowled at the engraving that had Dumbledore's name written on it.

We took seats close to each other on the bench and while Tom leaned against the stone wall, I leaned into his chest. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, bringing me closer to him, and kissed me on the forehead while intwining our hands.

"What if someone sees us, Tom?" I was quite confused because if anyone had seen us this close together, they would know that we were dating, and I thought Tom didn't want anyone to know.

"Let them," he smirked, "I'll deal with them later." I just nodded my head, not quite sure of what that meant exactly.

Tom and I sat together in silence for quite awhile before I began to voice my thoughts.

"What do you want to do after Hogwarts?" I asked, turning my head slightly upwards so I could see Tom when he responded.

"Well, seeing as I love the Dark Arts, I think I'm going to apply to become a teacher here." Tom said, shocking me.