Femme Fatale ||Tom Riddle||

4

As soon as she blocked the bridge of emotion, her mind returned to the empty classroom. She was out of breath, chest heaving from the effort. Tom, however, sat nonchalantly. Ophélie composed herself as best she could.

"Pretty good for a first try" Tom complimented. The compliment was so out of character for Tom that Ophélie nearly thought he was joking. She tilted her head and adjusted her tie.

"Thanks, Tom" she smiled sweetly.

"Of course... You did make one mistake..." He smirked, getting up to leave. Of course Ophélie thought. Ophélie followed close behind him, following him out of the room. The hallway was dark, the only source of light being the windows to the night sky.

"Well? Are you going to tell me what my mistake was?" She asked, voice lowered just above a whisper. Tom stopped walking ahead of Ophélie, facing away from her. Before she could stop to think, Tom had whirled around and blocked Ophélie between the cool stone wall and his broad frame. Ophélie was startled to say the least.

"You let me take you by surprise" He answered, in a low voice. There was an odd feeling in the air, something was bubbling, just about to boil over. It was Ophélie's turn to smirk this time.

"I'll have to do that more often, then" she teased flirtatiously, her striking, pale green eyes lit up with amusement. Tom was about to reply, when a Gryffindor Prefect entered the hallway. Ophélie ducked away from Tom with a haughty wink.

"It's Gryffindor's turn to parole this hallway, Riddle" A short, stocky boy announced from a couple classrooms away, as if he were glad to have a mistake to hold over Tom's head.

"Well, maybe you should do a better job, then" Tom spat, grabbing Ophélie's arm as if he had caught her in the act of something.

"Ow, Tom, you're hurting me" She winced. He blinked and loosened his grip immediately.

"I know you've got a hatred for us Slytherins" Tom began, "But at the very least try to help one if she's lost wandering the halls, nearly breaking into classrooms"

The Gryffindor boy frowned at Tom. "How can she be lost? By 6th year she should be able to find the dungeons and get back to her common room" he asked, crossing his arms and puffing out his chest.

"I just got here, tête de noeud. New student? Bonjour?" Ophélie chimed in. Most days Ophélie didn't buy into the intense rivalry between Gryffindor and her own house, but this Prefect was certainly beginning to make her understand.

"Whatever" the boy grunted, "just get out of here". He turned to leave. As he was walking away, Ophélie pulled her wand from her sleeve and whispered a spell. One of the stones in the castle floor lifted just enough to catch on the boy's shoe and send him tumbling to the floor. Unaware that Ophélie had tripped him, he assumed it was of his own clumsiness and tried to walk away with his remaining dignity. Ophélie turned, a petty satisfaction clear on her face.

Neither being one for idle conversation, and trying to avoid another Gryffindor confrontation, the two returned to the Slytherin common room in silence, each left to their own thoughts. Ophélie was rather content with her evening. She wanted help with occulemency, and she got herself a tutor... of sorts. She wasn't sure how she felt about Tom being able to get into her head, however. The idea of someone else knowing the details of her life made her uneasy. But she was confident in her abilities to block him out if she needed to.

Tom on the other hand was left with several strings of information with no way to tie them together. She had avoided talking about her father at Slughorn's party, yet her mother appeared to be the sickly one... She was reluctant to ask for help, yet seemed to find some kind of odd joy in Tom's attempts to throw her off guard... None of it made much sense, if he was being honest with himself.

"So, what do you say I get lost in the hallways every Friday about the same time?" Ophélie proposed, breaking the silence. She acknowledged him with a pleasant expression, of someone who could safely bet on getting what they wanted.

As much as that would normally bother Tom, he didn't mind obliging to Ophélie's wishes. Maybe one on one time would help him figure out all the missing pieces. And maybe, just maybe, she could help him on a project of his own.

"It would be my pleasure to discover you in the hallways about the same time every week" he agreed. Ophélie smiled a genuine smile at his response.

"Fantastique! Thanks Tom, I owe you one..." She replied, shaking his muscular hand with her own slim, manicured one.

"Owe me one, indeed...." Tom rolled over the words in his mind as he made his way to his dormitory. He knew just how she would pay her debt.

In the girls dormitory, Ophélie entered as quietly as she could to avoid waking anyone up. She had just snuck into her bed and given a sigh of relief when the lights burst on and the other two girls sat up from bed, arms crossed, staring expectantly at her.

"Late night, Ophélie?" Irene began, with a furrowed brow desperately trying to conceal a girlish grin. Ophélie muttered a string of curse words under her breath before sitting up.

"It can't be that late if you're all still up" she replied innocently, looking from Marlene, their other roommate, and back to Irene. Irene narrowed her eyes playfully in response.

"We had to wait up, you see. Because a certain friend of ours disappeared with a certain handsome prefect boy minutes before curfew and didn't return for almost an hour..." Irene continued on.

"Well, I'm back now" was all Ophélie had to say in response. Of course Irene would jump immediately to something scandalous. In a way, that's why Ophélie kept her around. It made things interesting.

"Tell us all the juicy details, Oph. What were you doing?" Marlene said, cutting to the chase. Irene, disappointed that she couldn't keep up the mysterious detective vibe but eager to hear the story, leaned forward in excitement.

"I asked him to tutor me" Ophélie explained, "I'm afraid there's nothing interesting to tell". The girls looked disappointed.

"Any chance you'll be brewing up a love potion?" Irene said suggestively, before they all burst into giggles.

"We'll see, we'll see" Ophélie conceded. Ophélie wouldn't go as far as to call herself a flirt, but sometimes a little wink or a suggestive comment could be fun. More than once it proved to be a useful tool in getting what she wanted. That's all love was really, a way to get what you want.

"Well if you insist there's no juicy gossip, then I suppose we'll let you sleep now... But the second there is, we call dibs on being the first to hear about it" Marlene said decidedly. Not long after, the lights were turned off and everything soon faded into sleep.