kneel | Tom Riddle

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49| the potion

"Are you fucking stupid, Seraphina? Seriously, what the devil were you thinking?" Abraxas shook his head, looking at the witch in front of him eating her lunch, "It's bad enough that you're infatuated with Riddle, but to tell him that you love him is even worse."

She rolled her eyes, "Thank you, Brax. As if I didn't know that already. What am I supposed to do now?" The witch dropped her fork on her plate and buried her face in her hands.

"Have you two spoken to each other since last night? His bed was empty last night, I thought he was with you," he commented, resting his elbows on the table.

"No, he simply disappeared without saying a word. I haven't seen him ever since," Seraphina sighed, raising her head from her hands, "Leo walked away from me as well when I said that, he was acting like I stabbed him or something. I wish I could take it back. Merlin, I'm so stupid!"

"Phiny, calm down. What's done is done. And if it makes you feel any better, if you said those words to a normal person, it wouldn't even be a problem. It's not that uncommon to admit your feelings," he took her hand in his and squeezed it slightly, "But you had to choose the most problematic person in Hogwarts to fall in love with and now you just have to deal with his personality."

He was right and she knew it. Why did she have to fall in love with Tom Riddle when there were so many simple and interesting boys in the castle? She blamed herself for being so weak and stupid, "I've been dealing with him for so many years that I thought he couldn't surprise me anymore," she admitted, looking at the plate in front of her, "But now it's different, you know?"

Abraxas nodded his head, "I saw this coming, but I never thought it would be this soon."

"You did?"

"Of course, we all did. You two have always been too devoted to each other, in different ways, obviously," he caressed her hand with his thumb, "You're my best friend, Phiny, and Tom is well... quite close to me as well, therefore I know him as much as he allows. And I may not know a lot about him, but I do know he's not one for commitments and strong connections."

Seraphina sighed, scratching the back of her neck, "He just doesn't like co-dependence. But I'm not looking for anything serious with him, I know that's impossible."

"What are you going to do?" Abraxas asked after taking a bite of his apple.

She shrugged, "There's no point in denying it, but I think I'll just ignore what happened and I hope he will too," she answered, hoping her plan would turn out well. They sat in silence for a few minutes, just eating their lunch and thinking about what could happen when she faced Tom again, "Where do you think he spent the night?" Seraphina asked, suddenly remembering he wasn't in his dorm according to Abraxas.

"In someone else's bed," he smirked, living to see that angry look on her face, "Joking, joking. It's Riddle, he probably spent all night doing rounds so he could take points from other houses."

Seraphina wanted to believe his words, for the image of Tom sleeping with someone else made her want to cry and punch someone at the same time. Of course, there was also the possibility that Tom actually spent his night in the Chamber of Secrets, choosing his next victim. As sick as it was, she would rather know he was petrifying someone than sleeping with someone else.