Extra Ordinary (Riddle Era)

Chapter 7

In the end, Tom did indeed join Steele the next day in the library, though he was reasonably certain as he walked towards her table, that he shouldn't. It wasn't that he didn't think it would be productive - on the contrary, he was certain it would be - it was simply that Tom couldn't help but think that spending more time around Steele was at best dangerous, if not downright foolish.

Really, he was reasonably certain that especially after the strangeness of her behavior in the kitchens, he should have just written her off as a lost cause. A stupid girl who was perhaps a bit touched in the head and whose priorities were so completely out of order that her opinion of him didn't matter in the slightest.

Honestly, he had considered this course, both that first sleepless night and the restless one he'd just had, his thoughts all tangled up trying to figure out what in Merlin's good name Steele's goal was. In truth, if he had been able to confidently come to the conclusion that she didn't have a goal, then he would have simply moved on, finished the project and treated her as he would each and every other person out there. But he couldn't say that. Much less confidently. And therein lay the problem and the reason Tom found himself walking through the library the following afternoon.

Because however odd and out of order and strange Steele was, she was also intriguing. He couldn't seem to figure her out, no matter how much he thought on the matter. He couldn't tell when she was acting or lying, couldn't be certain if she had an end goal, much less what it was. She was a puzzle. And he intended to solve her.

Besides, he already had a plan and true, Steele hadn't exactly cooperated so far, but Tom was patient. He could wait. He would wait. He would work slowly but surely until one day Steele would look at him and wonder what she'd ever been suspicious of in the first place.

Of course, that meant that in the meantime, he had to survive the frustrating conundrum that was her behavior.

And she certainly showed no signs of stopping that. Indeed, when she caught sight of Tom approaching her in the library, she looked up, smiled a small, private little smile that said that Tom had just done precisely what she wanted him to do, cleared a space on the table for him to work, and then proceeded to completely ignore him.

Tom didn't bother breaking the silence. In part, this was because he didn't suppose he would do anything to ingratiate himself by disturbing her studying, and in part because if he was honest with himself, which he didn't particularly want to be, he had no interest in dealing with Steele's strange words and observations. If he stood any chance of ingratiating himself to her in silence, then he would make every effort to do so.

He would never admit it to anyone, and had really only admitted it to himself because his brain had been rather uncooperative last night, but he rather dreaded another conversation with Steele. However intriguing she was, however much he wanted to riddle her out, she was also so... frustrating. He had no better word for it, really. She looked at him and spoke about him and even seemed to think about him in all the wrong ways. All the ways he'd spent the past three years making sure no one did.

Still, for now, he supposed, there was no sense dwelling on it unless it was to plan how to fix it. Which was why he was here, spending his Friday afternoon in the library with this ridiculous girl who hadn't even said hello.

Indeed, Steele only broke the silence when she reached the bottom of her piece of parchment and then she sighed, set her quill aside and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes. Tom glanced up at her from a perusal of his transfiguration book that was far more interesting than his intentionally bored face would imply to any overly observant eyes.

"Well," Steele sighed, dropping her hands from her face. "That's my bit done." She pushed the parchment in front of her towards him. "Take a look if you'd like and let me know what I should change. It's just a rough draft so don't go easy," she added with a little smile.