kneel | Tom Riddle

𝟑𝟕

37| birthday gifts

The 30th of December had always been a special day for Seraphina Vevrain. Despite how much she despised her mother and father, they never really annoyed her on her birthday. They would simply leave the house and she would invite her friends to stay with her during her day. At night, she would have some alone time with Tom, for his birthday was the next day and he absolutely hated to draw attention to him on that day. So they would spend the night and the last day of the year together, enjoying each other's company without any special festivities.

That year almost nothing changed, except for the fact that Tom and Seraphina kissed only a few days before and there was a slight tension between them the last days. All they did on their time after Christmas was studying together and they were more silent than usual, but that didn't stop them from spending time together, for they still spent almost every hour of their days together. In a nutshell, those days between Christmas and Seraphina's birthday were quite uneventful, since none of them left the manor and nothing was new in the house.

Despite the slightly tense atmosphere, Seraphina invited her friends over and had an amazing day with them, as always. When they left after dinner, Seraphina still wanted to spend the rest of her night with Tom and celebrate his 17th birthday at midnight peacefully, without worries and any weird tension.

Feeling tired after the day they had, the pair climbed the stairs silently towards the same living room where they spent most of their time reading and studying together. When Tom opened the door and allowed her to come inside first, the first thing she did was lighten the fireplace with a windless spell, listening to Tom closing the door at the same time, "Have you read the Daily Prophet today?" Tom asked when Seraphina crashed on the couch and got rid of her shoes.

"I'm not reading on my birthday," she said, laying on the couch and taking a deep breath, she was quite tired after the day she had, but she was even more proud she didn't drink a single sip of alcohol, for she wasn't counting on doing any more stupid mistakes.

"You should read this, though. It's about Grindelwald," Tom said, sitting next to where her head was on the couch.

Seraphina huffed, "Read it to me, then," she raised her head and scooted closer to him so she could drop her head on his lap. When they were smaller, Tom used to read to Seraphina like that, with her head on his lap and it was a blissful moment for the two of them.

And even though things were a little weird between them, she didn't hesitate on looking up at him with a nostalgic smile. He shook his head slowly and sighed in defeat, "Alright, I'll read it to you, just because it's your birthday," he pointed out with a straight face.

He opened the Daily Prophet and sighed again, "Grindelwald attacked a muggle family again-" Tom started reading in a low voice, but was immediately interrupted by Seraphina.

"Could you read it better? It looks like you're not even interested."

Tom moved the paper so he could look at her face, "Are you serious? This is an article about a family murdered in cold blood and you want me to read this like a fairytale?"

Seraphina looked away from his start with guilt, "No, no! I'm sorry, keep going."

Tom rolled his hazel eyes and started reading the article again, "Gellert Grindelwald was caught last Friday, 28th December, leaving a muggle house. Later that day, the six members of the Smith Family were all found dead. It's also known the dark wizard keeps recruiting more and more followers, spreading terror all over the world. The wizarding community demands Grindelwald's arrest. However, he keeps escaping the authorities and proving to become stronger and stronger as time flies."