Don't Let Me Fall (a Tom Riddle not-so-short-short-story)

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rose had woken up early the next day and headed down for an early breakfast. Much to her surprise Tom was already down there eating toast and reading a book. She sat down next him, causing him to to look up at her, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Good morning," Rose said, as she started to fill her plate up. "What are you reading?"

"Hogwarts: A History. Why are you up so early?" Tom replied, looking at her.

"Woke up early, nothing more. Could you please pass the butter?" Rose asked and Tom handed her the butter. Rose started to butter up her pancakes, "What's your favorite kind of magic?"

"Dark magic," Tom answered honestly.

Rose nodded as she drowned her pancakes in syrup. "I figured. Mine is charms. What is your worst fear?"

"Dying, you?"

"Becoming evil; I would rather die than be evil," Tom looked at Rose in surprise. Rose took a huge bite of her pancake, moaning in her head at the taste.

"You would rather die than become evil?" He asked astounded.

"Yep, opposite of you, I believe. Do you think that the Deathly Hallows exist?" Rose asked, as Tom closed his book.

"Yes I do. If you could have one of the Hallows, what would you chose?"

"The cloak of invisibility. I could hide from my enemies and ambush them. The wand would let me win every fight, but I would have people come after me for the power. And the stone, well, I don't have anyone dead who are close to me and once someone is dead they're meant to stay dead," Rose explained her reasoning, before finishing her last pancake and moving on to her bacon.

"You sound wise, have you thought about this often?" Tom asked watching Rose closely. Rose shrugged her shoulders as she bit into her bacon, savoring the taste before responding.

"Nope, but I didn't have to think about it much. My best guess is that the hallow you would want is the wand, yes?"

"And you know that how, exactly?" Tom asked Rose.

"A lucky guess and the fact that it is no secret that you crave power." Rose stared Tom directly in the eyes. His green eyes met her blue ones with a cold look. Rose knew quite well that Tom hated people who knew him well; Tom knew Rose most likely knew more about him than himself.

They stared at each other as people came in. Rose noticed people giving the two of them strange looks. Neither one of them wanted to back down but Rose heard Charles calling out her name. She turned her attention to her Gryffindor friend and waved finishing her bacon in one bite.

She got up, with her stuff, and joined the Gryffindors she called friends on their way t0o class.

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Tom glared at the Gryffindors walking off with Rose. He couldn't believe that a Slytherin would want to hang out with filthy blood-traitors and mudbloods. Rosier, a fellow Slytherin was watching Tom's reaction to Rose hanging out with the Gryffindors.

"Tom?" Rosier asked tentatively.

"What?"

"Why are you so desperate in getting Green on your side? If she hangs out with filth like that, she's no better than a blood-traitor."

Tom glared at Rosier, causing him to cower away in fright, "She knows things that no one else does. If we want to rid the world of filth we need her on our side. Whichever side has her will win for certain."

Rosier nodded and left the topic alone. Tom glanced at where Rose left, he needed a way to get her on his side, but how, was the problem. Tom heard a giggle and saw a Hufflepuff girl fawning over a Ravenclaw boy, a plan started to form in his mind. The one weakness that almost everyone had, but himself, was love. He would make Rose fall in love with him. Someone in love would do anything for the person the love, Rose was no different.