Loyal | Tom Riddle

13: Temper

Abraxas and Arabella had remained crouched behind the sofa until Frederick Prewett and Althea Bronston finally left, almost an hour later.

Malfoy rose quickly, eager to, at long last, shed the awful Gryffindor robes he'd borrowed from the laundry. Arabella found herself unable to move, unwilling to lift herself off the floor.

"Aren't you coming, Travers?" Abraxas asked as he pulled off his jumper with an overly forceful tug, nearly leaving himself shirtless.

She glanced up at him, her eyes distant and glassy.

"Cheer up," Malfoy ordered, trying to brush off his offence at her sullen state. "No girl has ever reacted so dismally to my--"

"You did it, didn't you?" she asked quietly, her voice broken with emotion as she stared blankly at a fixed point on the wall.

He furrowed his brow in confusion. "I did what, exactly?"

Arabella drew deep breaths, urging herself to remain calm even as her hands curled into fists. "Don't play this game with me. I know it was you."

Malfoy sputtered, his grey eyes flashing dangerously. "I haven't got a bloody clue what in Merlin's name you're talking about! Whatever you think I did, I can assure you that it wasn't me!"

"How can you?" she questioned in that same soft, sorrowful tone.

Abraxas took a step closer to where she was sat still, holding his hands up in surrender. "I don't even know what you're ta--"

"Why did you do it?" Arabella roared, springing to her feet with her wand aimed at his throat. She had a feral glint to her eyes, one that would have sent her to a madhouse in the Muggle world. "Why?"

"It-it wasn't me," Malfoy stammered, nervously looking down at the thin wand hovering millimetres away from the vulnerable skin of his throat. "Honest," he added earnestly when she jabbed it into his neck. "I was with you the whole time."

Her nostrils flared dangerously as she panted heavily, her heart beating wildly in her conflicted chest. She wanted to hurt him, make him feel the pain that he had caused her. She wanted him to beg for mercy, plead for her forgiveness. She wanted to see those silver eyes of his screwed up in unbearable pain as he found himself unable to stop screaming, writhing on the floor as the feeling of thousands of hot knives plunging into his skin drove him to tears.

But she also knew that casting an Unforgivable Curse on him would do her no good. It wouldn't bring her father back, nor would it make Hogwarts a place for John to want to return to. It wouldn't transform Nikolai into the boy he used to be, before all the Dark magic and troubling influences from his 'friends.'

With a trembling hand, Arabella lowered her wand, raising her chin high in the air as she let out a single sob.

"Do it," a voice whispered from somewhere behind her. "Give in to temptation. Do it."

Turning wildly, she found herself face to face with Tom Riddle, his lips curled into a sickening smile.

"Go on," Tom prompted her, an expectant eyebrow arching. "I'm waiting."

Arabella turned back to Abraxas, whose pale face had turned chalk white. His eyes were pleading with her desperately, telling her to fortify her resolve.

She looked back again at Tom. "No," she said shakily.

"No?" Riddle repeated, his face darkening. "No?"

"I refuse to," Arabella affirmed, more bravely this time. "I will not torture him. It will do me no good."

The hideous, leering smile reappeared on his features. "Smart girl, you are, Travers."

A thousand thoughts instantly began to stir in her mind, rolling over one another like ocean waves. She could hardly concentrate as incoherent memories strung themselves together: her first day of school, her first kiss, the time when Nikolai had accidentally hexed her when they were children, when she and John had been forced to hide in a bomb shelter of London as fire rained down from the sky.

Suddenly, her head cleared, and Tom Riddle's eerie grin grew wider.

"Thank you, you've been most helpful to me today," he said pleasantly, reaching into the depths of his robes.

Brandishing her wand at him, Arabella watched as it flew out of her grasp at a wave of his hand.

"I'm terribly sorry about this," Tom Riddle apologised without as much as a morsel of regret evident on his face. "It is entirely necessary, I'm afraid."

With those words, he raised his own wand at her. "Obliviate!"

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Sorry for the shorter chapter, I hope you could enjoy it even though it was rushed.

What do you think Tom is planning?

Today's Question:  Which of the eight is your favourite film?

I will always love PoA, since it is the happiest one.

Until next time!
-o