Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Beautiful Nightmare (Tom Riddle)

Guess who found some time to write today ~

I found the time and snagged it with both hands because I know I won't be able to get another one shot out until this weekend at the earliest. Also, I was deliberately a little mean with the hints for the last one to see who you guys wanted and there was a lot of love for Draco. Even while I was writing the hints I thought they could have been for practically any Slytherin. 

So - this is definitely the longest one I've written yet. 

Also, I've realised that this is the fourth Tom Riddle one shot I've written and since it's about a Hufflepuff reader, it just worked out that Tom's had a love interest in each of the houses ~

And another thing, I know that canonically - according to Dumbledore - the orphanage was a good place. But honestly, during those times (1920s - 1940s) orphanages had little to no child security regulations and orphans were generally treated horrendously behind closed doors. Also, Dumbledore had no problem leaving Harry in an abusive household, so I don't really trust his judgement on what makes a 'good' guardian for children. Sorry, not sorry.

It had come as no surprise to the student body when we found out who had been chosen to lead us as our head boy.. And yet, the news had had me shuffling uncomfortably in my seat. My heart sunk a little in my chest and despite my best efforts, my thoughts revolved around my own position as a prefect. When Tom had only been a prefect, it was easy to avoid him; we were rarely paired together for our rounds and when we were, I always miraculously managed to swap the shifts. It hadn't taken a lot of effort; with a face like this, any girl was willing to switch rounds.  

But now, as the head boy, he was the one in charge of creating the patrol timetable and I wasn't surprised that he had used it to his advantage. Tom had already tried to abuse the privilege when we returned to school for the Christmas term. But the moment his back had turned, I had spoken to the head girl and had my patrols changed. For someone as brilliant as he was, for someone who was so sure of how brilliant he was, he had a rather unfortunate habit of ignoring the obvious.

And now, as I walked to the first prefect's meeting of the term, I was already anticipating the new patrol timetable. Walking into the room where the meeting was always held, my eyes went to the front of the room where, sure enough, Tom was stood talking to the head girl. I had intended to snag a seat at the back of the room, planning to blend into the mass of prefects that were soon to enter. But before I could, he turned to look at me.

Helga, he'd always had a knack for being able to find me. Especially when I didn't want to be found.

His eyes focused solely on me, in that intense way that suggested that everything else had faded away from his line of sight. And as if planning to approach me, he stepped away from the head girl. I bolted, as if I really was a mouse facing up to a cat who was eyeing her for its next meal, practically running to the back of the classroom. Now seated, I watched from a safe distance as his eyes narrowed in anger. Lowering my head to avoid those furious eyes, I bade my time until the rest of the prefects entered the room.

Following shortly, more and more prefects filed into the room, filling each of the seats. Tom, left with no opportunity to approach me, turned back to the front of the room, his eyes still glued to me, and I thanked Merlin from the bottom of my heart. Once everyone had arrived, he was forced to pull his eyes away from me to address the rest of the prefects. The meeting continued on without a hitch and as the schedules were passed around the room, I hurriedly looked over it. Scanning the paper with anxious eyes, I did a quick mental count of how many of our shifts he had managed to arrange for us to share.