Always || Tom Riddle

Torn

A week later and despite my best efforts, I had managed to successfully fail in all my classes, either having forgotten the content or because I was distracted by Tom and Victoria. Snorting just at the thought of them, I turned the page, placing my head in my hands, my eyes straining to read the many lines on the pages; realising that I was going to not be able to finish reading the book, which was a ridiculously large book written by Trelawney for us to read through, and what was worse, she had put  a charm on the book so that she would know if we had not read all of it. Damn Trelawney and her Divination class. 

Slamming the book shut, I tucked it under my arm, hauling my side bag onto my shoulder - which was already full to the brim with textbooks and assignments, I made for the Slytherin common room, ignoring the fact that it was dinner, I couldn't stand another night of watching Victoria peppering Tom with kisses between mouthfuls, even if it was hilarious to watch his expressions change into different forms of disgust. I had hoped Penelope would be too engrossed with her food to notice me, but she had borrowed my quill during classes, and I needed it back, so either way, I was going to have to go into the Great Hall whether I liked it or not. 

I paused at the doors of the Great Hall, trying to spot Penelope amongst the rows of Slytherin students all happily eating their dinner, laughing and making sick jokes about mudbloods. Having spotted Penelope, I made a v-line for her, fully aware that Tom's little group of death eaters were watching my every move. Grabbing Penelope's bag from underneath the table, I placed it on the empty space on the bench beside her, presumably a seat she had saved for me. 

"Oh yeah, I forgot I had your quill, it's managed to fall to the bottom of my bag" Huffing in annoyance, I used wandless magic to lift all of the objects from her bag and leave them hovering mid-air, while I searched in the dark depths of Penelope's bag for a quill that seemed unwilling to be found. 

"Penelope it isn't in here" Before Penelope had the chance to reply, Malfoy's voice broke in. "Are you looking for this?" A smug smirk curled the corners of his lips, as a sinking feeling began within me. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am." Holding out my hand for him to hand it over to me, but being a Slytherin, he was not about to give it to me; he was having far too much fun with this. "Well, uh, why don't you just take it?" Reaching out, I made to snatch it out of his hands, only to have him take a step away from me, his smirk getting annoyingly larger by the minute. 

"Malfoy, just give it to me" He let out a melodious laugh, something that was so beautiful it would have captivated me, had I not wanted to ring his neck first. "I'm trying to give it to you, you are just messing around!" He held out the black quill once more, tempting me to take it, but knowing he was too quick and too far away from me for me to just grab it, I took another route. The books that were hovering above me in the air fell to the floor with a thud, some of them falling onto plates and onto the table with a loud clunk. 

"Give.me.the.quill.now!" Malfoy's smirk fell as he lost his normally pristine composure, but that was quickly regained, as he shook his head, the annoying smirk returning. "Oh but we are having so much fun" Rolling my eyes, I decided to do something which would surprise him. "Fine, if you want the quill so much you can have it" Now too tired to bother dealing with Malfoy, I turned on my heels, with a flick of my hand placing all of Penelope's things neatly back into her bag. My eyes moved over to where Tom and Victoria normally sat, upon finding Tom's seat empty I began to realise that I may or may not be dead by morning. Cursing profanities in my head, I sped up my walking as I made the long journey back to the Slytherin common room, if I could just make it inside I would be safe, even if Tom caught up to me while I was in there he wouldn't be able to do or say anything, there would be too many witnesses; even for him. 

"Password?" Salazar Slytherin's portrait asked, now this was a challenge, how was I going to remember a password that was changed just about every week. It had been years. Noticing my hesitation he frowned, it wasn't often a Slytherin student forgot the password. Hearing familiar footsteps just around the corner, I ran my fingers through my hair, desperately flicking through all the passwords I could remember. 

"Pureblood" I said, at last, sighing in relief as the door opened, and I could smell the sweet taste of victory, as I headed into the common room, it was empty, having been abandoned by all the students in exchange for dinner. Making my way up the girl's dormitory stairs, I smiled, I had outwitted Tom Riddle, or so I thought.

"You know, I didn't take you for the type to forget things" Tom Marvolo Riddle appeared from the shadows, his hands behind his back, a smirk gracing his handsome features. Slamming the dormitory door shut in shock, I let out a sigh, putting a hand to my chest as I calmed my thundering heartbeat. "I don't know what you mean" He cocked his head questioningly, taking a smooth step closer to where I stood, pressed against the door. "Really? You don't remember me telling you to remember which side you were on?" Oh gosh. One Tom Riddle who I had an advantage over I could handle, but Tom Riddle from my time, who knew me inside out, that was another story. 

"How did you get back into this time?" He smiled, it was small, but albeit a smile as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "The same way as you did, a time turner" He proclaimed, taking out the time turner from beneath his school robes. "What do you want?" I asked, the space between us growing once more as he moved away to pace the dormitory. "I merely came back to get you to come home" How easy it would be to just take this time turner off, destroy it and go back with Tom, but I was being relied on and did I really want to go back to a time wracked with war and havoc; for Amber though, I would go back indefinitely. "I cannot go back with you" Tom's pacing paused, as he tensed, obviously not having prepared himself for my answer. "What?" I looked away from him, tears threatening to fall, as I stepped away from the door, twiddling my thumbs together. "I won't go back with you, I can't. Not when I know I could have changed you, made things different" Tom frowned, a slightly pained expression appearing on his face; if there was one thing I knew, it was when Tom was hurt it would soon turn to anger. "It will be on my conscience forever if I don't do this, Tom, just let me try." 

"You don't mean that"

"But the thing is, I do. And nothing you say will change my mind" Sensing that he had lost, Tom disapparated, most likely to make my attempts of changing him even harder. Now that it was two against one, and the current Tom from my time had found me, I wondered if this task would ever be accomplished; from what it looked like, while I had achieved a lot just by the few things I had already achieved, it was not enough to stop the wizarding wars from happening. If I succeeded in this endeavour, I would have betrayed Tom, and if I failed, and continued to support him, I was betraying my friends, I was torn.