Bad Love- a Riddle love triangle

Christmas

I wake up in Tom's arms, smiling to myself. The joy and excitement you feel on Christmas morning I truly think never fades with time. I ignore the guilt in my head as I stand up and open the curtains, the white snow fluttering down from the sky. 

I pulled on fuzzy slipper-boots I got last year and pulled a sweater over my shorts, then went onto the balcony outside the second floor den. 

Smiling to myself, I sit on one of the chairs and pull my knees tight to my chest. The snow was so pretty. I don't know how much time went by, but I was soon joined by Tom. 

"You woke up early" Tom says. 

"I can never sleep on Christmas morning" I whisper, my eyes bright as I turn to him. He looks happy, his cheeks slightly flushed and bearing two mugs, and before I looked at either, I knew mine was white hot chocolate and his was an eggnog latte, because Tom Riddle would never be Tom Riddle without caffeine. I accept mine and take a sip, looking out at the beautiful grounds of the manor in front of me. The two of us sit on two of the chairs side by side.

We both looked out in silence, the snow falling at our feet and coating the large grounds of the manor. I think it was in this moment, that I looked over at him and saw him looking at me, that I realized a piece of me could never not be madly in love with him. The way he looks, calculated yet happy. I could spend the rest of my midnights with him. 

"It's strange the two of us always seem to meet past midnight, yet wake up the earliest" He says softly. Sometimes I knew he could read me better than anyone. 

"I think that's what makes it special" I say softly and he smiles at me. "I meant what I said Rose" He says. "As did I" I say and pull my knees up to my chest. I place my hot chocolate down and before I can move my hand from the mug, I feel Tom's hand on top of mine. 

"We'll figure it out" He says quietly. "I know we will" I say and smile at him. That morning, I swear all I had was hope in my heart for the two of us. And I know he felt the same way. Because we were similar, too much for our own good, but we were always happiest on Christmas.  

Soon, our quiet but happy conversation is interupted by the sound of footsteps and soon Mattheo appears. And the surge in my heart hurt, because it felt awful to look at him, because I felt for him. I always would care about Mattheo. 

"You guys broke your tradition" Mattheo says, louder then each of us had talked that morning. And somehow that continued to resonate the fact that in our group of three, he was the outlier. The one that disrupted the quiet. The one that didn't fit with me. 

"I mean, Rosie and I went to bed early" Mattheo says wrapping his arm around my shoulder. 

"Trouble sleeping" I mutter. "What'd you say?" Tom asks tauntingly. "Nothing" I respond. 

"Nothing" He repeats with a smirk. I knew the soft version of Tom could never last too long, least not when others were around.

I sigh softly and stand up, knowing the tranquil moment had passed, and took my hot chocolate. "Presents?" I ask brightly and both of the boys follow me inside. 

Christmas was one of the days we weren't expected to act like adults, and we definitely took that too heart. Running towards the tree, we all reach our stockings first. Blaise, Daphne, Theo and Pansy all come downstairs shortly after us and we all start opening presents. 

I lightly tear through the line of wrapping paper on Pansy's gift to me, as I open a gold necklace with the infinity symbol on it. I thank and hug her and Daph, as the three of us now all have matching ones. From Blaise and Theo, a joint gift, I got countless trick candies and pranks from the Weasley twins' stand up shop that looms around the Hogwarts halls.