𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑫 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑳𝒀 • a tom riddle x reader story. ✧

realisation ✧ chapter 10

Y/N's heart thumped hard against her chest as she walked down the halls of Tom's mansion. Various means and plans of escape raced through her head, ridding her mind of any other thought as she assessed each plan. It wouldn't be ideal for her to use sleeping gas... She wouldn't have any access to the potion's ingredients, and she didn't even know if Tom had placed any protective charms on himself, which, he probably had considering how he tends to plan ahead for any possible situation.

Attempting to fight Tom would be utterly dumb for her to do, as he was skilled in charms... and in almost anything, quite frankly.

Poisoning his food probably wouldn't work either,

So would feigning being violently sick and having to visit this era's Hogwarts' healer,

God this was hard.

The waft of pancakes pulled her from her thoughts, but she nonetheless continued playing possible scenarios in her head even as she reached the dining room, where Tom was already seated at when she entered. ' You have to play it cool. ' She reminded herself, mustering up all the courage she had pent up inside.

"Good morning, Tom." Y/N smiled sweetly at the Slytherin, who looked up from his plate as soon as he heard her voice. "Ah, Y/N. Good morning." He returned the smile, gesturing for her to sit opposite him at the long dining table. On her end sat the enchantingly scented pancakes she had smelled earlier on. "These smell wonderful, Tom. Did you make them?" Y/N immediately began digging in as soon as she sat down, with Tom flashing her a look of curiosity.

"Someone's perky today." Tom commented, looking at the girl in awe. ' Play it cool, Y/N.' " I um well. I thought about it last night... And since I realise that I'll probably be staying here for a while, I decided I should try and make the best of it." Tom nodded, swiping out a journal from behind him and smiling at Y/N, not breaking eye contact as he did so. "I see."He then opened the leather bound journal in which was titled simply, 'Curses', and began sifting through to find where he last left off.

He raised his eyebrows suddenly, looked at Y/N and stated simply, "I'm glad you've finally come out of your shell. Oh! And after you're done eating, I'd like to show you something."

And with that, he continued his read on 'Curses', wondering what had gotten Y/N to warm up to him faster than he had initially expected.

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Y/N's stomach churned at the thought of him wanting to show her something. For all she knew, it could be a chapel where he'd force her to marry him, ( yikes ) or worse, a dungeon where he'd lock her up in until she starved to death. Whatever the reason, her stomach began to bubble and boil in dread of what would happen.

Tom eyed the girl from behind his book, trying in vain to access her thoughts and figure out why she had quickly warmed up to him, but to no avail. Although, he could still detect the slightest of emotions radiate off of her, and at the moment she felt anxious, which he deemed quite useless as it wasn't that big an indicator of what she was thinking of at the moment. Tom shrugged the thought off, assuring himself she was probably just succumbing to her fate.

The time came when Y/N finally finished her tall stack of pancakes, her heart beating at a pace faster than that of a cheetah running as she forced the piece down. She cleared her throat, catching Tom's attention in doing so. "The pancakes were wonderful. Thank you, Tom." Y/N offered him a small smile, to which he returned with a nod. "Splendid." He stood up, Y/N following suit. "Now, shall we?" Tom offered her his arm, and Y/N took it with a small smile gracing her lips.

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"You know, I think we should start getting to know each other a little better Tom." A grin began growing on his face as the two walked, arm in arm. "Why don't you go first? I'd love to hear more about yourself and your talents." Y/N batted her eyes at Tom when he looked at her, and her tone dripped in pure sarcasm. The duo burst out laughing the second their eyes met, with Y/N almost stumbling over herself in the process. "Well, I suppose you know quite a bit about me already... I enjoy studying, it consumes most of my time and... I believe I'm insanely in love with a certain somebody named Y/N L/N."