Broken Wings / tom riddle

Chapter 39 - Dark Art

"I cannot stress enough how unprecedented it is for a student to lie about their whereabouts!" Dumbledore was basically shouting now. "I had my suspicions, and when I checked, they turned out to be correct. Thomas Riddle was murdered two years ago by Morfin Gaunt."

"Why do you care where I was? I'm 18 now, you are no longer responsible for me." Briar hadn't sat down on the chair in Dumbledore's office. "And I'm assuming you know this because if it was a problem you would of taken it to Dippet, and you haven't."

To that he gave no response. "Where were you Briar?" Dumbledore asked. He had calmed down but there was still a hint of annoyance in his tone. Her palms were slightly sweaty, she had no idea what to tell the man. She didn't want to tell him the truth, even his own brother advised her against that.

"We went on a little vacation. Just to get away," she lied.

Dumbledore scoffed. "Forgive me Miss Emeralds but I'm not one to believe Tom Riddle was interested in a quiet vacation away with his girlfriend." The way he spoke the word girlfriend sounded like venom on his tongue. She knew Tom was standing outside of the door eavesdropping on their exchange of words. She wondered if Albus' poor choice of words would trigger something in Tom. He has never wanted a girlfriend, Briar certainly wouldn't classify him as her boyfriend. Would that make him uncomfortable? Would he retreat again? Undo all the progress she's made to get him to even begin to open up? She didn't want to know.

"I don't care what you believe professor. These are the last few weeks of our schooling. We wanted to get away. Free from judgement like we're quite clearly receiving from you." Her tone was outraged.

"I'm not judging you Briar. I'm concerned. How many times must I tell you Riddle is bad news, this will not end well." He threw some papers around his desk in anger. That's when she understood it. There was a twinkle in his eyes, something she recognised as pain.

"Ha," she let out in a breath. "This has never been about me from the start, has it professor? It's about you, and him, Grindelwald."

He looked at her, a spine chilling look, she'd hit a sore spot. "You have no idea what you're talking about," he hissed.

"Tom is not Grindelwald. And you told me once how I reminded you of yourself. But you are wrong. I am not you. So stop projecting your issues onto me!" She raised her wand and the door of the office flew open, exposing Tom standing there smugly. "Onto us!" she added. She returned her wand to her pocket and stormed out of the small office.

"That was hot," Tom whispered teasingly into her ear as they walked. Briar chuckled and pushed him away from her. "There's actually something I need to tell you."

"Oh Merlin, what?" she groaned. "Murdered another family member have you? Or perhaps sent another to Azkaban?"

"Don't tempt me with a good time darling." He smirked. "But I just received owl from Casper. There's been some drama at home so he won't be arriving today. He'll be here promptly tomorrow though, he assures me." Briar nodded.

____

Dinner was tasteless. Though it really wasn't, Briar was just still overwhelmed from her conversation with Dumbledore. Her and Tom sat alone on the Slytherin table, Dumbledore eyed them coldly and constantly. It took everything in her not to walk over to the teachers tables and gauge his eyes out so he would stop staring. Tom must have noticed, he turned his head to look at the professor. "I never did anything to him, he just decided one day to hate me," he said to Briar before taking a sip of water.

"So it had nothing to do with the giant snake you set on the muggleborns?"

"Mudbloods," he said sharply.