Hierarchy of Need [t.r]

Chapter Twenty

She had spent a majority of the ride back to Hogwarts alone in a compartment, Lolita stopping by every once in awhile to make sure she was okay. Pyrrhus also came by for a while to bring her lunch, ranting about some people he found fetching at the ball.

"Hey, whatever happened to Cosette? That Ravenclaw in our DADA class?" They had gone to Hogsmeade together, all thanks to Delilah. Seeing as he begged her to ask Cosette for him.

Pyrrhus shrugged as he bit into his sandwich, rubbing the back of his neck absentmindedly. "I don't know, I like her though. I guess I just got nervous and I sort of..." he trailed with a shrug. Delilah narrowed her eyes at the slight gleam of guilt on his face. "Pyrrhus?"

He sighed and handed her the rest of his food, suddenly losing his appetite. "I panicked and just sort of started avoiding her. I'm pretty sure she hates me now."

Delilah looked at him for a minute before smacking him upside the head. "You can't just do that!" She shook her head and ate the rest of his sandwich. Part of her wanted to ask why he even started seeing Cosette if he was still talking to Ovela. But that breakup was still recent, so she kept it to herself.

"I know." He winced at the new ache on the back of his head, half heartedly glaring at her. "I feel like it's too late to apologize. It's been two months, it'd just be awkward." Delilah settled her eyes with a steel gleam as she looked at him, mustering up the best impression of her mother.

And it worked, Pyrrhus began to fidget under her stare before throwing his hands up. "Fine! I'll apologize to her tonight at the feast."

Nodding her head, she leaned back in the seat and Pyrrhus took to resting his head on her lap. "Good, I'll be sure to watch."

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed. Delilah took to running her fingers through his hair as she stared out the window, watching the green landscape of Scotland pass by in a blur.

With the sound of Pyrrhus clearing his throat, she looked down at him with an eyebrow raised. "I never got to ask you the other night, after the raid. You looked pretty shaken."

Flashes of bright light and glass flying everywhere came to the forefront of her mind, she could almost hear the sirens again. Shaking her head, she continued to run her fingers through his hair. "I'm okay, Riddle got the worst of it." Delilah felt a bit guilty, he had shards of glass dug into his skin due to protecting her.

"He's been through more air raids than I'm sure most of us could count." He muttered, messing with the hem of her robes absentmindedly. Her brows furrowed, "cause he lives in London? He said he spent most of his time with you guys."

He nodded, tugging at a loose seam. "He does for the most part, I suppose he'll get his own place soon since he's eighteen. But some weeks he has to go back to the orphanage."

They both froze.

Pyrrhus shut his eyes tightly, feeling like an idiot for letting that bit of information slip. Whereas Delilah's eyes were as wide as the moon. "To the what now?"

He slowly looked up at her through one cracked open eye, gauging her reaction. Shock was evident. Tom would kill him for this. Still, this was Delilah, she would've found out eventually.

"Don't tell him I told you, actually, don't even tell him you know at all. He hates talking about it."

Delilah's mind reeled with this newfound information to the puzzle that was Tom Riddle. He was an orphan? "Does he have any family?" She tiptoed around the fact that Tom was a half-blood. The boys knew a lot about Tom compared to the rest of Hogwarts, but she felt like this was a secret he was hell bent on keeping.