Infatuation - Tom Riddle

Twelve

The two students split ways once entering the castle. Merida noticed her classmates looking at her pitifully and she scowled at them, making them turn away. This wasn't about her, she had to go check on Corvus.

  Merida started rushing to the infirmary, she overheard some students mentioning that he was there. She stopped in her tracks for a moment, why hadn't Tom walked with her? Merida continued walking but she kept pondering over why Tom Riddle had rushed to their dormitory instead of the infirmary to see their friend.

  It could be a good thing though, she supposed. She realized when walking back to the school how awkward things were between her and Tom now. She knew he didn't expect her to completely open herself up to him, and she didn't understand why he was so gentle with her, he even complimented her for the first time since they've met. But something still didn't feel right about it all.

  It's not like Merida didn't enjoy being held by Tom, hell, she almost pouted when he let go of her to walk her back to school, but she hoped if it were to happen again it wouldn't be a last resort solution to stop her from crying.

  "Merida?"

  Abraxas' voice pulled the girl from her thoughts. He stood in front of the large wooden doors leading to inside the school infirmary, a couple feet away from her.

She noticed how tired he looked. His face was almost transparent, his eyes bloodshot, and his hands shaking by his side. Merida couldn't imagine how he must've felt. Corvus and Abraxas had known each other their whole lives, to think that his best friend might be dead. It was horrible.

  "Merida," he sighed, running a hand through his platinum hair, "it's not looking too good. Fuck, it's not looking good for him."

"Is he inside?"

Abraxas nodded. Merida walked up to go open the door but he quickly grabbed her arm, stopping her in place.

"We're not allowed to go in. Family only."

Merida frowned. "Aren't you basically family?"

  Abraxas just shrugged.

"Not family enough."

With that, the two sat on the hallway floor together, heads resting on each other as they waited for someone to walk out of the hospital room and tell them anything about what was going on. There was a comfortable silence between Abraxas and Merida, before the boy picked up his head from her shoulder with a confused look on his face.

"Where were you when we all left?" Merida sighed and turned her body to face him better, ignoring the pain in her back from leaning on the stone wall.

"I know it sounds strange, but I stayed back for a little, I was crying and I thought I was alone but then, Tom, he was there too." She looked harder at Abraxas for a moment, to notice any change in expression when she mentioned Tom's name, but he just looked at her blankly, waiting for her to continue. "Anyways, he just tried making me feel better and then walked me back to the school."

  She shrugged and looked at the ground. It was kind of embarrassing to admit how she acted and the fact that Tom was the one who had to see her like that made her feel worse. But Abraxas didn't judge, instead he just sighed and weakly smiled at Merida.

  "If it helps, you're the only other student that actually came to see him." Merida raised a brow. She would've expected the entire Slytherin team to be here for Corvus, if not the whole house. Now that it was mentioned, she noticed how empty the halls were. It really was just her and Abraxas.

  "Where is everyone else?"

  "Slughorn made the Slytherins wait in the dormitory. He said- shit." Abraxas inhaled shakily before continuing. He was afraid.

  "Slughorn said that if Corvus didn't make it, he didn't want us all to see him like that. I had to sneak out to come wait here."

  Merida's eyes began to water again. She saw how high Corvus was before he fell, but the fact that even the teachers are saying he might not survive made her heart ache. The possibility of a funeral, having to see her friend buried, it made her stomach ache. She'd only gone to one funeral in her lifetime.

  Lucy Penshaw's.

  Merida shook the memory out of her thoughts. She was already upset over what happened to Corvus, she didn't need past memories creeping up and making her relive her guilt.

  If it hadn't been for Merida, Lucy would've still been alive. She supposed it was a bit ironic, like karma. It was as if the universe was putting her in the shoes of Lucy's old friends, this time instead of Lucy, it's Corvus who's gotten hurt. She couldn't bear it. Life was too valuable, Merida had learned this by being the person responsible for taking one away. Now she was about to lose someone else. She felt she deserved this hurt, but Abraxas, Corvus' family, they had no part in what she'd done, they deserved better.

"Merida?" Abraxas' voice pulled her out of her thoughts. He could tell her mind was somewhere else and offered her a weak smile.

  "Did you hear anything I just said?"

  She shook her head shyly. Merida hadn't noticed Abraxas was speaking to her. His face fell for a moment before he looked straight ahead at the wall across from him.

  "We all know quidditch is a dangerous sport. We know what we're getting into when we go out on that field." Merida didn't know where Abraxas was going with this, but he was serious, and she was nervous for some reason.

  "All I'm saying is, I don't think Corvus just fell off his broom. At least not without any help." Merida's brows furrowed and she moved slightly to be seated in front of the boy.

  "You think someone wanted to hurt him?" she whispered. Abraxas just nodded.

  "I don't like it, but I think that's what happened." Merida was overwhelmed. Sure Corvus could be an ass to people in the other houses, but he wasn't cruel, at least not that she knew of. He was a good friend to her, why would someone want him dead?

  "Malfoy," Merida began, "why would someone use magic to hurt him. And so publicly too?"

  "I think the fact that it was public made it more believable as an accident. Think about it," Abraxas leaned in slightly and looked around to make sure no one was nearby before continuing, "Corvus was a talented kid, in our six years here at Hogwarts, Lestrange has never fallen off his broom. The only quidditch related injury he's ever gotten was a bludger to the knee during practice."

This lit up a light bulb in Merida's head for a moment. It was a disgusting theory, that someone would willingly try to kill Corvus, but Abraxas might've been right. She remembered something important before the fall.

  "Abraxas, during the game, everyone on the field paused for a moment. You were flying around looking for the snitch but Tom and I were watching the field. Corvus was by the goals, he wasn't moving, none of the chasers were, so how could he have fallen?"

  Merida and Abraxas both looked at each other, eyes wide. They realized that if they were right, someone at the school had just tried to kill a student in front of the entire staff and student body. And they were most likely not going to get caught.

"Shit."