Tom Ridde Imagine [Non-Voldemort AU]

chapter nine - ❝he couldn't hurt a fly if he wanted to.❞

Water ticked on the floor — the tap was leaking. Of course, no one was bothered to fix it since this bathroom was never really used. It had been ten minutes and Harry tried to get to the Chamber of Secrets, but the entrance wouldn't appear — even though he said the same password in Parseltongue over and over, he couldn't get in.

Did Tom change the password, he wondered? He had no idea why he would do it — no one knew there was a Chamber of Secrets and even if they knew, they don't know the language to get there. So if Tom really changed it, it had something to do with Harry. Or the entrance was just broken, but Harry doubted that Tom would leave any trace of imperfection in his own creations.

Defeated, Harry walked back to the hallway and met with Hermione. She quickly grabbed Harry by the arm to drag him to the Great Hall — as it was in the weekend, most students went to Hogsmeade. Ron was sitting at their table and waved at them when he saw them.

"What's this all about?" Harry asked as he looked at Hermione in confusion. Hermione shook her head and groaned in frustration, putting her hands together.

"Harry, what did you do?"

The poor boy had no idea what she was talking about. "What... what did I do?"

"Riddle. He's not anywhere, I haven't seen him for so long, while he's usually with you since you're his only friend. I suspect you've done something terrible and now he's hiding from public, brewing out his evil plans against you and the world."

Ron reached out for Hermione's forearm and stroked over it. "Slow down, 'Mione — you act as if Tom is the darkest wizard of them all," he hushed her.

"Well he might be," Hermione scoffed. "And then it'll be Harry's fault for leading him onto it."

"What did I do?" Harry repeated his question, but Hermione didn't answer it. He was confused, but it did make sense — why else would Tom change the password if Harry didn't do something wrong? He was planning on finding him, but then remembered that he had vanished off school grounds — he was probably inside the Chamber as they speak.

They were soon surrounded by the two twin brothers of Ron's family. Ron groaned and held his head between his fingers. "You guys make me mad!" And then it hit him. "Wait, does it maybe have anything to do with Fred and George?"

"Why would Riddle be angry at Fred and George?" Hermione asked. Although she could name various reasons why, she did not see why Tom would have any of those reasons.

"Not on them, but on what they did," Ron said. "I mean, they said Harry—" He cut himself off to spare the secret, but it was enough for Hermione and Harry to get the hint. Ron shoved his older brothers away. "Is he jealous?"

"Well, if I was Riddle, and my best friend received flowers from my deepest love, I'd have several feelings too."

"Those flowers were meant for him," Harry hissed. His two friends looked at him with wide eyes.

"Are you— are you kidding?"

"This is not really the time to be joking, Harry."

Harry shook his head. "I'm not joking. (Y/N) came to me and told me she wanted to give those flowers to Tom, but people around us misread the situation and rumours spread..." He sighed. "I think they both are madly in love with each other."

Hermione clapped in her hands. "Then it's settled! We will find a way for them to be together! It's not so hard, is it? The feelings are there, now they just need the push to do it!" Ron snickered, having something else in mind, and Hermione slapped him on his shoulder as he joked about something inappropriate.