Not About Angels (A Tom Riddle Story)

Chapter 17

you can be my sweet dream

or 

a beautiful nightmare

................................................. 

She opened the door to her dorm, scared, but excited. The room was cozy, warm, but still simple. Four beds lined the room, the walls were empty, but soon to be plastered with posters and moving photographs.  

"I'm Cassandra Melrose. But everyone calls me Cassie." a voice said behind her. 

She turned around, to see a curly-haired girl, even smaller and shorter than herself. 

"I'm Abigail" She said, extending her hand, smiling. 

"Nice. How do you like it here, so far? I mean, my mum was here. Dad went to school in America. So I knew what to expect. How did you like the feast? I thought it was marvelous. I've never seen so much food and people my entire life. I grew up in Hudsonville, population 500. Oh. Sorry. I'm rambling again. Mum warned me not to..." 

"Oh, it's alright." Abigail laughed. She was glad, after all, to find someone so warm.  

The door opened again, and two more girls came in.  

A tall girl with short black curls smiled and introduced herself as Liliana. 

The other was Rose, with a gap in her teeth and a dimple on her left cheek. 

.................................... 

Abigail did not close her eyes that night. 

She wanted the sun to come up, so she could seek him out. 

Did he forget her? 

Impossible. Just a year ago he promised he would protect her forever. 

He would keep his promise, wouldn't he?  

...................................... 

Tom Riddle sat down on the edge of his bed, kicking off his shoes. He folded his arms across his chest, staring out the window. 

How could she be a Gryffindor? 

He groomed her to be strong. To be tough. To be like him, a small weed creeping into the garden of lush flowers, to corrupt and overpower all of them. 

Part of him feels as if she had betrayed him, though he knows she had little say in the matter. 

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind. The orphanage was behind him now. He had stayed with Avery on his family's estate for the summer, living like a king, doing as he pleased.  

But she was different. She wasn't just a part of the past. She wasn't just a part of the plan. 

She was the first and only thing he every truly possessed.  

She was his shadow. 

His better reflection.  

His conscience. 

The little he still had, that is.  

................................ 

"Abigail."  

She stopped in her tracks. It was the voice she longed to hear. 

She had waited for, hoped for, and anticipated this moment for a year now. Now that he was standing behind her, she stopped. 

"Tom?" She turned around, seeing those stormy eyes once again. 

"Stay out of my way, Abigail, please."  He said. 

This was not the answer she was expecting. 

"What?"

"You heard me, Abigail. I know what you're thinking. I'm afraid the past is, the past." 

"But you promised-" 

"Child'd play, Abigail. Child's play."  

He left, giving her a small pat on the shoulder, the train of his robes breathing a breeze onto her face. 

She shivered, her small body curling on itself, into a sob. 

Don't cry. She told herself. People here didn't know yet. They didn't know how weak she felt. 

He walked away, soon joined by another girl, talking and laughing with him. 

"Abigail! How's your day going? Mine's been pretty weird." Sam said, creeping up behind her. 

"Oh." She muttered, before her tears rolled down her cheeks. 

"Um...you alright? What happened? Is it the older students? They play pranks on first years sometimes, you know. Its normal." 

She shook her head, sobbing into her robes. 

Sam offered her handkerchief, and she took it, wiping her nose. 

"I'm sor-sorry." She sobbed. 

"It's okay. I mean, I had a pretty weird day too. You wanna talk about yours?"   

"No. Not now, at least. It's a very long story." She told him. 

" That's alright. Let me tell you about mine. So I was in the hallway and then..........."