Infatuation - Tom Riddle

Twenty One

  "Merida!" Tilda ran over to the sleeping girl, shaking her awake. Merida's eyes fluttered open before groaning and turning over in her bed.

  "It's a Saturday, Tilda, why are you waking me up?" Her voice was muffled by her pillow, but Tilda heard her complaint anyways.

  "Fine, then I just won't tell you."

  "Tell me what?" She rolled over again to look at the smug girl sitting on the side of the bed.

  Tilda's face brightened, a toothy grin presented to the sleepy girl.

  "Corvus is getting cleared today."

  Merida shot up from her bed, all tiredness leaving her body. After three long weeks, he's finally going to be back from the infirmary.

  "Do you know what time he gets out?" She asked, quickly changing into a warm button-up dress.

  "Soon, I think," Tilda tossed Merida her shoes from the side of the wardrobe, "Abraxas and Anna are waiting outside the door to see him as soon as he's out." Merida nodded and hurried out of her dorm room, she wanted to see Tom before Corvus arrived.

  Tom was seated in the lounge area, deeply focused on organizing some papers. Merida took a deep breath, they hadn't spoken about Corvus since their confrontation in the greenhouse.

  "Riddle," Merida called out. Tom looked up from his stack of papers and gently placed them on the coffee table in front of him. He raised an eyebrow, signaling for her to continue.

  "Did you know Corvus will be back later today?"

  Tom pursed his lips, "No, I did not."

"I don't want you near him. Not until he's ready at least."

"What makes you think he's not ready?" Tom leaned back into his seat, amused at the authority presented in Merida's voice.

Merida took a step forward towards him, hands crossed in front of her chest.

"Because I think, I'm not the only one who knows what you did. I want to speak to him. Alone. Before you are able to even look at him today."

Tom scoffs.

"I'm serious Tom," Merida's voice softened as she crouched in front of him, looking him in the eyes. "You know how I stand with you. And I need him to know too. I can't deal with this guilt on my own."

Tom lowers his head, bringing himself closer to her face. "You don't need to deal with anything yourself, you have me."

Merida rolled her eyes. She knew him too well by now, she could hear his teasing tone from a mile away.

"Anyways," Tom continued, "what are you even going to say to him?"

"Nothing. I'm going to wait and hear what he has to say first."

Tom smiled softly, shaking his head and picked up his papers to continue organizing them. "Good luck with that."

Merida walked down the corridors to get to the hospital wing. The school was almost empty, everyone either relaxing outside in the many courtyards or going out to Hogsmead to get some treats. Merida saw Abraxas and Annalise chatting from the end of the hall and sped up to say hello.

"We've been waiting all morning." Annalise offered Merida some chocolate covered raisins from her palm, to which Merida kindly declined, sitting next to Abraxas on the other side of the wall.

  "Any clue as to what time he'll be out?"

  Malfoy shook his head, "they wouldn't even let us in to speak to him. We've just got to wait and see."