𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 | tom riddle

𝐢𝐯. the gods envy us

❝...𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬❞

June 13th 1943

Tom now sat in the Slytherin common room, it was late in the evening but he had chosen not to go to dinner that night. He needed to think. Lilith had not gone to any lessons today, instead choosing to stay in the room she shared with Cassiopeia to 'settle in'. Black had stayed with her, arguing to professor Dumbledore that Lilith needed to adjust.

Tom knew that wasn't true when Cassiopeia's cackles were heard the moment Dumbledore left, proud she had fooled the old man. But who could say no to a Rosier and a Black?

He had hoped to catch her during a meal time but she had never emerged from her room. Tom bit the inside of his cheek in fury, she could not hide from him forever. He watched the clock that hung above the green fireplace hit ten and he knew it would be wise to retire like the rest of his house had. He shut the book in his lap and went to leave when the door he had been waiting to see open did in fact open.

He could hear Cassiopeia mutter to herself in her sleep before the door shut, a figure slipping out and beginning her descent down the stairs. But she paused half way down, her eyes meeting his once again.

"It seems we both had a similar idea." Lilith said, flicking her wrist as book flew into her hands from the bookshelf behind him. Tom said nothing as she continued down the stairs. From up close he could see her features more clearly and from what he had heard about Veela she seemed to fit the mould, except for the absence of silvery hair that was common in such folk. Lilith had remained all shadows and moon dust in that way

This was a chess match in his mind and the display of power from her was her first move.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and studied him herself. He had always been tall but she knew even in her heels she would not reach higher than his collar bone. His bone structure had sharpen and all traces of boyhood had been wiped. He was still skinny but it suited him, his angular face set in its ever present stoicism. He was sin in skin.

"Did I take your tongue with me when I left?" She asked when he still didn't speak. She glided past him to the seating area and setting herself down in a green velvet chair, her book open in her lap. She sighed when he still didn't speak, flipping the pages of her book until she landed on a certain page.

"The gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again." She read, her husky voice slipping through his ears and implanting itself in every crevice of his mind.

"Homer." He said as though it was obvious. He had always hated the quote, disagreeing with it on a level that bordered on lunacy.

"You always disagreed with it." Lilith said, amused at a memory that seemed to flash behind her eyes. "You said it was childish."

"Was I wrong?" Tom scoffed, still standing a few meters to the left of her. The chess match was even at this point.

"Not at all." Lilith replied, not looking up from her book. "In fact, you were the childish one."