He was darkness.
He was death.
He was pain.
He was suffering.
He was a mystery. One she intended to solve.
"You wouldn't kill me, Tom." "Avada Kedavra!"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The tiles of the bathroom floor were cold on the pads of her bare feet. As she splashed water on her face and rinsed the suds from her skin, Jaelyn glanced over, a grin forming. "Bella," Jaelyn said, "do you.. like, like this Edmund?"
Arabella spluttered and shot her eyes to Jaelyn in a flash. "I... What?"
Jaelyn laughed loudly, dropping her toothbrush back in the pot that sat by the sink in the Slytherin dorm bathrooms. "You were blushing the whole time you were telling me about him. What's going on in that pretty head of yours?"
Thinking back to the moment, Arabella knew that it was not Edmund she was blushing about. The incident with Tom in the Owlery still haunted her, it hung over her like a cloud. "I don't like him, Jae'," Arabella said, smiling. "I've only known him a few days and even then, he lives in the hospital bed. A relationship wouldn't get very far with him, not if he continues to live in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey."
Jaelyn shrugged and moved swiftly out of the bathrooms, pushing through a group of giggling second years. "I'm just saying," she continued as the pair sat on the couch, "he sounds cool."
Yes, Arabella thought that too, and as she sat by the flicking tongues of the green fire, her mind ventured to Edmund. He'd be so lonely. The hospital wing was cold and it echoed the footsteps of students from the floor above. The stone arches felt like the wide gaping jaws of a beast at night. Arabella hummed softly and fiddled with her hair. How he survived there alone, she had no idea.
Suddenly, her mind betrayed her and in a moment of silence, her thoughts slid back to the dark-haired, green-eyed boy she'd given her innocence to. Tom Riddle.
"Answers for what?" She managed to get out, as his lips pressed against her neck.
"Everything,"
But what questions did he have? What did he mean? And why did her heart have to flutter at the mere, stupid thought of Tom Riddle? Everyone knew he didn't have girlfriends, he probably didn't even have friends! So why did she think she could be the exception?
Arabella shook her head. Silly girl, she thought and bit her lip anxiously. Arabella clambered off the couch. "I'm going to see Edmund now," she announced.
Jaelyn watched her, astonished. "But it's almost curfew!"
"I'll be back before curfew starts, don't worry."
And Arabella left the dorm, not knowing that dawn would be seeping into the sky before she would return to her bed the next day.
