Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter sixteen: Inevitability

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in proportion."
-Sir Francis Bacon, Of Beauty
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Tom remained in his dormitory for the rest of the afternoon, attempting and failing to read several books about the Dark Arts. After he threw the same book down for the fifth time, the book huffed indignantly and scuttled under his bed to hide from him. He rolled his eyes and threw himself on his bed.

He pulled open the drawer of his nightstand and withdrew his diary. He flipped through it for a moment until he found a blank page, dipped his quill in ink and prepared to write. His quill hovered over the paper for several minutes, but he couldn't think of anything to write. Finally, he threw his diary back in the drawer, jumped off the bed, and kicked one of the legs of the bed. This only succeeded in making him curse loudly and hop up and down on one foot, clutching his toes in his hands.

He looked at his watch and saw it was nearly time for dinner. He exited his dormitory. As he made his way into the common room, a Slytherin girl he had spoken to maybe twice before came up to him. "Hi, Tom," she said.

"Hello," he said, and tried to brush past her, but she blocked his way.

"You know, you really don't need to go to that absurd Lovegood girl, if that's what you want," she said.

"What are you talking about?"

"There are plenty of girls in your own House – me included – who are more than willing to do you that favor," she continued.

"I've no idea what you're talking about," he spat, and once again tried to leave, but once again found her in his way. He rolled his eyes. "What do you want?"

She winked slyly at him. "It's all right, Tom. You can play dumb. Just remember what I said." She flounced off.

"Malfoy!" he roared.

The pale blonde popped up from the couch. "Yeah?"

"Have you been telling people something about me and Luna?" he growled through gritted teeth.

Malfoy snickered. "Only that you've been hanging around her for a good shag."

Tom roared in frustration and plunged his hand into his robes for his wand, but by the time he had it out, Malfoy had scampered away.

In an even worse mood than before, Tom stormed from the common room, nearly flattening a couple of second years on his way. Well, that's bloody wonderful. Now everyone thinks I'm shagging Luna.

He made it to the Great Hall with a scowl on his face. He piled food onto his plate and shoveled it down, not speaking to anyone. When he saw Luna get up from the Ravenclaw table to leave with her friends, he jumped up and waited for her in the Entrance Hall. As she was passing, he reached out and grabbed her arm.

She turned to look at him. "Hello, Tom."

"Luna, we need to talk."

Luna nodded to her friends to tell them to go ahead without her. When they were alone, Tom said, "Follow me."

He led her to the unused classroom by the Arithmancy room. Upon entering, Luna said, "Oh, dear. Nothing good ever happens in here."