Broken Wings / tom riddle

Chapter 6 - The Astronomy Lesson

Briar climbed the winding staircase to the astronomy tower. The night sky was so dark she felt the lesson would be pointless as nothing could be seen. As she reached the top her eyes landed on a smiling Aleks Avery, arm extended, ready to escort her to the telescopes.

"I'm perfectly capable of walking 5 meters by myself Aleks," Briar said as she ignored his arm with a smile. He had become quite infatuated with her these past few days, he was always trying to walk her to class and sit with her in the great hall, it was a bit strange to Briar but he was always so nice to her, and she had not received much kindness since she arrived at Hogwarts.

"It's chilly tonight, are you warm enough? here take my scarf," Avery said frantically trying to untie it from his neck and give it to the girl.

"Aleks, i'm quite okay as I am thank you very much," Briar chuckled.

The other students started to walk into the tower as well as the professor and the lesson began. They were asked to partner up so the pair shared a telescope and began observing the solar system.

"Look I can see the constellation!" Aleks exclaimed as he pulled Briar towards the telescope, their heads touching, observing the stars together. They could hear each other slowly breathing and their faces turned to meet each other.

Although this boy had almost entirely black eyes, when he looked into her eyes, they were not empty. Briar could feel the love and warmth radiating from them, such a contrast to the emptiness that resided in Tom's eyes.

Briar was the first to pull away from their locked gaze. She scratched her forearm and began to write down something on the paper.
The silence between the pair created a thick layer of tension that you could slice in half if you tried. Briar decided to break it.

"Why are you friends with Tom?" Briar asked outright. "If you don't mind me asking," she followed her question with as she instantly regretted asking it.

"Tom is a powerful man, he doesn't have friends, he has followers," Aleks said as he sat down opposite Briar. "He has the skills that we do not but he does not have the social status that we do, so, that's what we give him."

"Him being orphan of course would be a road block in his quest to power," Briar said.

"About that little witch, how on earth did you figure that one out? You know I got the blame for it?" Avery confessed to her.

"It was Dumbledore, when we first met he told me he's done this before with the current head boy, it didn't take Merlin to put two and two together and figure it out."

The lesson finished up and the pair of Slytherins made their way back to the common room together.

"So what really happened to your parents Briar?" he asked her.

"I've told everyone, they died," she said staring at the floor.

"But how? And how come you didn't?" he asked more questions, Briar still failing to make eye contact with the boy as the approached the common room.

"They were hunted by Grindelwald, they protected me, just like any parents would do." Briar avoided directly answering his questions.

"My parents wouldn't," the boy said. "Everything is about status with them, the only thing they would sacrifice themselves to protect is their name. You're lucky they were purebloods but still loved you, a lot of us don't get that. We're just a waste of space in their big grand houses that need to hang around to make sure their precious name lives on," he said to her as they entered the common room.

There was no one else in the common room, as they stood near the door Briar reached down and grabbed the boys hand, she intertwined her fingers with his and squeezed his hand tightly, when her fingers brushed over something. She inspected cuts and scars that had began to form on his skin, she gave him a questioning look but was met back with a face that was telling her not to ask, so she didn't.