Crimson || Tom Riddle [1]

𝖘𝖎𝖝

Tom just barley dodged the spell Arabella had sent at him. Spell after spell, he dodged and blocked, having no time to fire back at her. She was fast. Too fast for him and Tom hated admitting that.

By now, the rest of the class had stopped their duels and stared at the two of them, gaping.

When Arabella and Tom had walked in late, Merrythought - the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher - had made them sit in the two empty seats at the front of the class and continued explaining the lesson. The class were to pair up with the person sitting next to them, and duel. She had said it was just for her purpose, to see everyone's skill level in the class.

But it seemed it had gotten a bit out of control. The students watched them like a tennis match, heads swivelled and eyes solely focused on the duel, their own long abandoned. Merrythought just stood at the front of the class smiling. Their duel was interesting to watch, to say the least. They fired spells that even she had only read about.

She knew Tom was more than great. He was the top of his class in everything and no-one seemed to beat him. Except for Arabella. She seemed to be better than him and Tom could now only block and dodge the powerful spells she sent his way.

She looked furious. She didn't even have a wand. Arabella skilfully fired spells of all different kinds, some she shouted at Tom, others she used non-verbal.

Arabella suddenly lifted both hands in the air - she pushed back and then pushed forward again shouting, "Tardius Occidere!" A bright burst of red flew towards Tom but he didn't know the spell, he couldn't block. And it was fast. Too fast to dodge. Faster than normal spells. He was quickly pushed into the wall at the back and dropped onto the floor as he bled and shook.

Panting, Arabella walked to him and crouched down to his level. His face tried to betray no emotion but she could easily sense he was in terrible pain. After all, Arabella had created that spell herself. She fully intended it for Albus Dumbledore, but Tom had made her furious.

They had started with small spells, Tom saying "I will go easy on you."

He had. But Arabella hadn't. After Arabella fired more harmful spells, Tom had turned to them too. It seemed he had also taught himself wand-less and non-verbal magic - she had disarmed him in the middle of the duel. He wasn't very good though, Arabella had realised. And he did not know how to do both at the same time.

Not as skilled as you appear, Tom Riddle.

When it turned more dangerous, Arabella grew more infuriated. He was good. But she was better and all she wanted was her wand back.

Looking down at Tom's bruised and bleeding face, Arabella casted the counter-curse - hovering her hand over his chest. She muttered "Salvare" repeatedly and the blood slowly disappeared, Tom's bones started snapping back together and his shaking slowly stopped.