Bad Romance

Scheming

-From your POV-

He takes me down some more corridors and then we end up in a small one with a weird gargoyle in it. He tilts it's head sideways and part of the stone wall slides open. My jaw drops. He crouches down to step inside and motions for me to follow. When we step inside, we stand up at full height and he closes the door behind us. A secret lair. In it was some lamps and a fireplace among some armchairs and old, dusty bookshelves. "This is where I come to be alone." he tells me.

"Since when in the hell was this here??" I ask.

"A very long time. I discovered it one night when I was looking at old maps of the school in the library during prefect duty." he explains. I sit down in one of the armchairs and he sits across from me. "So, tell me everything you know about Parseltongue so far." I lean back some and begin telling him everything. "Wow, that's actually quite a bit more than I expected you to know." he says surprised.

"Wow thanks." I say flatly. We talk about Parseltongue for a little bit longer and he even teaches me some words and phrases and then the conversation breaks off into something else.

"So, have you learned anything from the book yet?" he asks.

"Yeah, some useful stuff."

"What do you plan on doing with the knowledge from it?" he asks again.

"I have some unfinished business back in the Muggle world that's related to it."I sigh. "Some mommy issues." I say.

"Mommy issues?" he asks. I nod.

"Something about power was just so appealing to her that she almost killed me and my sister for it. That's not a mother, that's a monster." I explain.

"All this for one lousy parent?" he asks confused.

"Oh no, there's more people." I pull out a small folded piece of paper from my pocket and hand it to him. He unfolds it and reads it before looking to me.

"A list of people?" he asks.

"Who have done me wrong. Like really, very badly, wrong." I tell him. He nods and hands the paper back to me.

"Quite surprised that I'm not on it." he says.

"You haven't done anything wrong.".

"We're arch enemies." he says.

"Yeah, but you haven't done anything to piss me off. Not yet at least. I give that a couple days." I say jokingly. The corners of his mouth almost turn up into a smirk.

"Then why are we enemies?" he asks. I think for a minute and shrug.

"Because you don't have friends? Or because you're jealous that I'm smarter than you?" I suggest.

"I don't have friends I have people that I don't hate being around. Like Draco and Alex." he says.

"Those sure sound like friends to me."

"If you ever call Draco my friend I will set your hair on fire." I laugh at his remark.

"It sounds like you hate Draco more than you hate me?!" I say sarcastically.

"I don't hate you." he mumbles while looking down at his feet.

"TOM RIDDLE DOESN'T HATE ME?!?!" I pretend to be shocked and overreact. He squints his eyes at me.

"That can always change." he says.

"Yeah yeah sure it can. I didn't come to this school to be friendly anyhow. I came here for the power." as soon as I say that, I see a spark in his eye.

"Power?" he asks.

"Yup. I'm going to become one of, if not the, most powerful wizards of all time." I confirm. He sits back in his chair and his own version of that devilish smirk comes back.

"Y/n, we might not be so different after all." he says.

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I was back in my dorm now, already in my pajamas and laying on top of my bed covers, reading the book. Aria was on her bed, writing a letter to her mum. She was writing fast so she had time to go drop it at the owlery before curfew. She finishes and slides on her room and some sandals over her socks and stands up to leave. I look up from my book before she goes. "While you're there, can you see if there's a brown one with a weird feather that sticks up in the middle of his head for me? I wrote my dad a little bit ago." she nods and rushes out of the room, not closing the door behind her. People kept complaining about owl droppings throughout the castle so now the owls are trained to just wait at the owlery with letters instead of flying around inside. I go back to my book, now on page 601 when I hear a light knock at the door.

"May I come in?" it's Tom.

"Are you going to be bossy?" I joke. I scoot back on my bed, opening room at the foot of it so he has room to sit down. He comes in and sits at the edge of my bed and looks at me.

"I think we should make a truce." he suggests. "If we're going to help each other out, there's no use in being at each other's throats all the time." he finishes. I think for a second before responding.

"Yeah, you have a point."

"This does not mean we are friends." he says cautiously. I pretend to frown.

"I'm going to go in my diary now and write your name everywhere with a bunch of X's and broken hearts everywhere now." I tease. He does his half smirk thing that he's been doing lately and then looks back to me. "Frenemies?" I stick my hand out.He shakes it.

"Frenemies." he agrees.

"Okay, now with all due respect get out of my room." I give him a smile and a wink and he stands up. Just as he is about to step out of the door, Aria steps in, returning from the owlery with a scroll in hand.

"Hey your letter-" she stops when she sees Tom and looks at him, then to me, and then back to him. "Was I- I wasn't interrupting anything right?" she asks.

"Oh ew. Of course not. He was just showing himself out." I wave my hand and he leaves. She closes the door behind him and then looks at me while handing me my letter.

"What... was... that?" she asks shocked.

"You said his Parseltongue could be useful. So I made a deal with him. He tutors me in Parseltongue and I find him good books that my dad has on dark magic." I explain to her.

"Oh he's going to teach you something about tongues all right." she says. I make a disgusted face and throw a pillow at her.

"I'm going to pretend I never heard that hideous sentence." I tell her. She laughs.

"Whatever," she yawns. "just spare me the dirty details, okay?" she asks as she gets comfortable in her bed. I just chuckle and shake my head. "Night".

"Night, Ar.". I read for a little bit longer and then I realize I'm on the last page. I look at the clock on the wall and realize it's already midnight. The only light on my pages right now is the moonlight that's pouring through the window. I really should go to bed, but it's just one more page. I finish the page and then yawn as I slide the book under my pillow.

So horcruxes.

That's it. The key to power and immortality. Got it.