Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter thirteen: Souls

"Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem."
-W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
•

"Riddle! Wake up!" Tom was shaken awake in the middle of the night to an unpleasant sight: Abraxas Malfoy leaning over him.

"What d'you want, Malfoy?" Tom said sleepily and rolled over.

"I've found out where your dad is," Malfoy replied.

Suddenly wide awake, Tom sat up straight in his bed and rubbed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I know where he's living. He's still with his parents at their old house."

Tom felt revulsion deep in the back of his throat. "How pathetic."

Malfoy appeared to teeter on the edge of asking a question.

"Spit it out, then, Malfoy."

Malfoy scowled at him, still angry about the incident on the steps with Luna two weeks prior. "Why did you want me to find your father so badly?"

Tom sneered. "Perhaps if it hadn't taken you several months to find him, I would grant you that knowledge. Now tell me where he is."

"In a village called Little Hangleton," Malfoy explained, and told Tom everything he had found out before Tom dismissed him again.

Tom was unable to get back to sleep, and instead lay awake late into the night.

He was exceedingly grouchy the next morning, even more so than usual and ignored Luna as she bobbed along beside him before breakfast, going on about something. He didn't really acknowledge her until she prodded him in the stomach, saying, "Tom!"
He swatted at her hand. "What?"

"I was just asking if you were all right. You're acting funny," she said, observing him with her huge moons of eyes.

"I'm fine."

She poked him again. "Stop it. I know something's going on, and you know I won't stop until I know what it is."

He inspected her face. "All right, I'll tell you later. I don't want anyone to overhear us."

Luna seemed appeased with this arrangement and they separated to go to their House tables for breakfast.

It being a Friday, Luna had Ancient Runes, followed by Arithmancy. During Arithmancy, she sat down next to Tom. She leaned into him.

Suddenly tense, he said, "What are you doing?"

She tilted her head. "Sniffing you. You smell nice," as though this were the most obvious thing in the world.

Feeling foolish, he rolled his eyes and focused at the front of the room.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" she asked.

"After class, Lovegood," he snarled.

"Luna," she whispered before class began.

After class, Tom led Luna into the empty classroom that they had met in once before. He paced across the floor, trying to decide how to best word his problem.