The Girl from Azkaban ~ Tom Riddle (18+)

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖜𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞-𝕾𝖎𝖝

~✧~

Taraphina was not pleased about Tom's departure, but was all the happier when he returned to the Malfoy mansion five days later. As soon as she heard the door open, she jumped up from her place on the couch and ran into the entrance hall; she completely forgot about the chess game between Abraxas and her.

She threw herself into Tom's arms and pressed herself tightly against his warm body, his comforting scent enveloping her. During the last few days she had only realised how much he had grown in importance to her. All the more frustrating was the fact that Tom had withheld any information about his trip from her. He promised to tell her about it soon enough, but patience was a virtue the young witch did not possess. Although she wanted to be angry with him, she couldn't be. Instead, she pressed her head even closer to the crook of his neck and pulled herself up to him with her arms around his neck. Tom sighed a little annoyed but somehow also relieved and wrapped his arms around her petite body too. So they stayed in that position for a while, enjoying each other's warmth and affection.

"Are you all right darling?" he whispered in her ear in a low voice.

The brunette only nodded.

After a little moment, the two of them disengaged. Tom stroked through her beautiful long silk mane and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead.

He used his gift of saying the right thing when it was needed: "I missed you, Princess."

The Slytherin boy could swear he saw Taraphina literally melt away.

"I missed you too," she replied with a small smile.

Together they both headed back to the living room and Tom watched as the chess game between Abraxas and Taraphina continued.

"How was your trip Riddle?" asked Abraxas with a furrowed brow as he contemplated his next move.

"Very successful I would say," Tom replied.

Taraphina let her right pawn move forward, "Do you know what he did?"

Abraxas snorted, "No, like Riddle would trust me with that."

Tom smiled a little to himself, how right Abraxas was. There was no way Abraxas would have found out about this before Taraphina. Things had calmed down a bit between him and Abraxas, and between Taraphina and Abraxas, but certain tensions still existed.

Tara groaned in annoyance, "so when are you going to tell me about this?"

"I've already told you when."

"But sooner or later doesn't count as a time for me," the witch complained, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Eyes fixed on the chessboard, Tom wondered how to answer. Tara was about to make a move with her bishop.

"Your knight dear," Tara briefly considered what Tom was getting at.

"Don't help her Riddle, you've already trained her well enough."

"I certainly hope so," Tom chuckled and made the move he wanted to point out to Tara himself.

Tara leaned back on the sofa and watched as Tom also made her next move for her. She had to admit that he was a very good teacher, but despite his good tactics, she often lost the game due to her decreasing concentration over time. Accordingly, she was quite grateful that Tom continued the game for her and unsurprisingly also won after a short time.

A short time later, a house elf appeared and interrupted the conversation of the three adolescents with his unsettled appearance.

Tom eyed the cretaur with a tattered potato sack around his body and raised an eyebrow questioningly as he shyly played with his hands.