𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝 || Tom Riddle

eight

Tom quickly undid the spell himself with a swish of his wand.

Vanessa rushed over. "Are you alright? What's going on?" she looked between Tom and Diana. The latter was composing herself now and brushing her wet cheeks dry.

Diana weighed her options. She could always tell people later about what had happened, but she could never take it back (at least without unethical use of magic). She did care about Tom, after all. If she told Vanessa what he had done, she did not doubt it would result in his immediate expulsion.

"Nothing, Vanessa," Diana said, passing Tom a bitter look. 

"I heard a scream a minute ago," Vanessa protested.

"Oh, I just saw a spider," Diana explained with a shrug. "If you'll both excuse me I think I've had enough fun for one night, I'm tuckered out."

Diana shuffled off without another word, collapsed on her bed, and fell asleep.

---

Tom cursed himself viciously over and over again for not preforming a memory wiping charm when he'd had the chance. It was useless now, as she might have already told people about what happened.

A few weeks had passed since the incident, and although Diana had remained silent on the matter (for which Tom was grateful), she had been ruthlessly silent towards him. She had ignored him, whether he was standing right in front of her, sending her notes, or even sending one of his lackies to talk to her for him.

He began to wonder if this was all foolhardy and a waste of his precious time and energy. She was just a girl, after all. He did not need her to accomplish his goals.

Nevertheless, she haunted his mind as he replayed their passionate embrace at the party. That night marked the closest he had ever come to another human being, physically and emotionally, and through his recklessness it was snatched away just as quickly as it had come.

He thought of her silky touch every night before he fell asleep, and in the morning it was her warm smile that he yearned to see.

On one of those mornings, Tom was heading to the Great Hall for breakfast and had been running late after losing track of time in the library studying. Though he would never let himself admit it, he had been immersing himself in schoolwork more lately in an attempt to distract himself.

Sprawled out on the Slytherin table was an abandoned copy of the Daily Prophet left over from earlier that day. As he sipped his tea, Tom came across a page running a very interesting story about the Silverthorns.

The article detailed a monumental celebration coming up in December: the wedding of Diana's eldest brother, Cosmas. Tom would have been a fool to ignore such an extraordinary opportunity to mingle with and woo the most powerful witches and wizards of the present century. The article divulged that the wedding guest list included a tremendous 815 people.

Tom wondered if one of those people was accounted for as a guest of Diana's.

In that moment, Tom resolved to win back her affections after the careless outbursts of that evening. He was going to have to play nice again.