the moon is no door ↠ Tom Riddle

15

After Rory and Saffron got back to the common room from dropping off Pippa with her date, Saffron immediately went to her dorm to put on her pyjamas and she came back down to sit by the fire and work on some homework before the weekend.

She had to shift a lot, but she eventually found a perfectly comfortable position on the couch. The fire was warm and calming and she eventually had to have Rory shake her awake. Her eyes were so heavy and she desperately wanted to close them and allow herself to be pulled under in sleep.

"Saffron?"

When she heard the voice, she guessed she had accidentally fallen asleep again, because her eyes were closed and she had been having a vague dream about a beautiful, sparkling dress so big it hardly fit through the Hogwarts corridors.

She felt herself jolt a little and she had to blink hard a couple of times and looked over to see who had spoken to her. Only, instead of looking at where a normal person's head would be, she was staring into someone's stomach.

Rubeus Hagrid was a third year, but he had a deeper voice than Rory's and he was about a foot away from being twice as tall. Though he'd never admitted it, a popular rumor was that one of his parents was a giant.

Even if he was part-giant, he didn't act anything like one—he was sweet and, honestly, quite shy. Saffron didn't know Hagrid very well, but she liked him a lot better than some others did. And, she honestly felt bad for the hard time people gave him.

"Oh, hello, Rubeus," she said, smiling up at him. He was standing quite close to the couch, so she had to crane her neck all the way up to be able to see his face. He noticed this and sat down so she could talk to him more easily.

"Where's Pippa?" he asked bashfully. "She's bin helpin' with me Potions essays,"

"She's at a Slug Club dinner, sorry," Saffron said. Hagrid grew anxious and looked around the room as if hoping that Pippa would suddenly materialize through a wall. Saffron watched his face grow red.

"It's jus' tha'....never mind. I'll...," Hagrid stuttered and stammered. Saffron felt bad for him, but she really didn't want to help him with his essay. She hated Potions, and it was bad enough essentially writing half of Rory's essays herself.

"You know, I could help you if you wanted," Saffron said, hoping she didn't sound as reluctant about this offer as she felt.

Hagrid's eyes searched hers for a moment as if he was trying to figure out the catch. He was one of those people so easy to read for Saffron she may as well have been reading his thoughts. At first, he was preparing to turn down her help, thinking he would be too much of a nuisance. Saffron felt bad, but silently she hoped he wasn't going to decide otherwise.

And then, he seemed to figure he really did need the help. Maybe his paper was due the next day and he didn't have time to wait for Pippa's help.

"If it's not too much trouble for yeh," he said. Saffron grinned and shook her head. Hagrid seemed delighted and the two wandered over to an open table.

Hagrid turned out to be even more rubbish at Potions than Rory. In fact, he was about Bennett-level. But, Saffron managed to stick with him through his whole paper and tried not to do the work for him as she did with Rory.

Finally, his paper was finished, and Saffron knew that she was getting no more work done that evening. However, Hagrid was delighted.

He thanked Saffron profusely for almost a minute straight. Before he left, he turned to her and said, "Yeh know, yeh're smarter than everyone thinks yeh ar...and nicer too,"

Saffron looked at him strangely for his unintentionally backhanded compliment. "Uh...thanks?" Saffron said and then watched as Hagrid went up the stairs to the boys' dorms. Did people not think she was nice? Some of the members of her social circle were known for not always being the kindest but did she have that stigma by proxy?

Hagrid did seem afraid to approach her and she knew that some others, mostly younger students, were nervous to talk to her.

She didn't get much time to mull over what Hagrid said, because, only a few minutes later, Pippa was back in the common room.

It was like watching vultures descend onto fresh meat. Almost everyone else in the room, especially the girls, were soon all over her, asking her questions. With the cacophony that was going on, Saffron wondered if Pippa could understand what anyone was asking.

She was playing it off well, but there was a dazed and nearly frantic look in her eyes. That terrified Saffron, because it meant something had to have happened. Otherwise, she was sure that Pippa would have returned looking just as radiant and jovial as Saffron had left her. Instead, she looked agitated as her eyes scanned the room.

Before Saffron could even get up to talk to her, Pippa had already come over to her, and she could feel how nervous Pippa was.

Pippa had answered a few questions for the people interrogating her, but it seemed as if she was mostly trying to get to Saffron. She told the crowd around her that she was extremely tired and needed to go to her room, but whispered directly to Saffron, "I need to talk to you,"

Feeling numb, Saffron rose to follow Pippa up the stairs, carefully avoiding stepping on her dress. When they got into their room, Pippa made sure that they were alone and then spun abruptly to look at Saffron, eyes as wide as a frightened wild animal. Saffron was opening and closing her mouth, trying to say something. This was all incredibly eerie.

"Saffron, are you a Seer?" Pippa asked and Saffron felt terror making her legs weak and her hands shake at her sides. How did Pippa figure that out?

"I...I...," Saffron couldn't manage an entire sentence, so Pippa decided to take this as admission and continued. 

"Because Tom...I think he knows too,"

Saffron let out an anguished cry and sank to the floor. Pippa rushed over to kneel in front of her, but Saffron couldn't see her as she had buried her head underneath her arms.

"I'm pretty sure Tom asked me to go with him to the dinner so he could get access to information about you. He was questioning me about you and, at first, I thought it was just idle discussion, but now, looking back, I can see how he was manipulating our conversation." She paused a beat. "Oh, Saffron, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault! I'm such an idiot sometimes. I was talking about how you sort of predicted our House Cup and when Bennett broke his arm and...I said that we used to joke that you were a Seer. We figured it out at the same time,"

"Oh no, this is bad, this is so bad," Saffron said from beneath her arms. Then she sat up to look at Pippa, startled to see that her friend was crying. Pippa wiped the tears from her eyes in seeing Saffron's expression and looked away.

"I'm so sorry, Saffron," she said softly.

"This isn't your fault, Pippa, don't feel bad. Tom is a manipulative, self-absorbed, devious arsehole, and it's on me for not warning you about him. I should have known that he wasn't asking you just to ask someone, it was obvious!" said Saffron. "That evil little weasel,"

Pippa blinked slowly. "How do you figure?"

Saffron decided to tell Pippa. Not all of it, but she had to know some of it. Tom wasn't the perfect student he portrayed himself to be, she said. He used and manipulated students, especially the smart, popular ones, for his personal benefit. That's how she explained it. Saffron then theorized he may be attempting to use her Seeing abilities for his own good, which was a little too close to what was probably the truth.

Nothing about how evil Tom truly was, nothing about how dangerous. She certainly didn't tell her about Dumbledore's being involved and the task he had given Saffron.

"Don't tell Rory or Lionel or especially Soren for now. I'll tell them myself some time, but right now is not that time," Saffron said to conclude.

Pippa stayed quiet for a few moments. Finally, she said, "I don't think I fancy Riddle anymore,"

Saffron laughed breathily and grinned at Pippa. Fancying Tom was nothing but bad news.