the moon is no door ↠ Tom Riddle

40

The rest of the walk into the village was simultaneously incredibly sublime and incredibly excruciating. Saffron's head was still reeling from kissing Tom Riddle.

She had kissed Tom Riddle.

More importantly, Tom Riddle had initiated it.

While it should have been the most perfect, blissful moment ever, Saffron was also silently suffering. After they had started walking again, it wasn't like she expected Tom to immediately ask her to be his girlfriend or recite a Shakespearean love sonnet to her, but she was expecting him to say something.

Except, he didn't. They continued walking and he went straight back to talking about one of the books Aunt Alice had written about the Native Americans who'd helped start Ilvermorny.

She had a feeling that he'd been a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing, so she didn't press him. But, she wanted to know exactly what this meant for them. He'd told her that she made him feel something. What in Merlin's name did that even mean?

Dumbledore had said Tom wasn't able to feel love and empathy the way most could. She'd assumed that this incapacity extended to all kinds of affection, not just love, but she guessed she was wrong. And, unless he was lying (which she didn't think he was), if he cared about her, didn't that mean he had to feel something akin to empathy?

Their conversation for the last half hour of the walk strayed in many directions, books and school and music, but never back into personal territory.

It was only when they were in Wyvern Wood proper, the little market village, did Tom stop talking. They both stayed silent and Saffron watched him look around at all of the shops.

Every building was either stone or wattle and daub, but they were all sorts of different shapes and sizes. The roads were cobblestone and there was a brook that ran through the center of town. Small, arched bridges connected the East and West parts of the village.

Part of the way through the village, Saffron stopped to show Tom the building that once held the store her mother had owned—Honey and Hemlock Apothecary. It was once one of the most popular potion and potion ingredients shops in the country, second only to the apothecary in Diagon Alley. Esther Strauss's shop, however, had an even broader selection of premium ingredients, supplied by the Prince family's gardens.

Since Esther's admittance to St. Mungo's, the shop had to be closed. Now, the Princes only sold their produce to Hogwarts and various potions shops around the British Isles.

"I actually met Slughorn in here for the first time in this shop when I was eight," Saffron said to Tom, pointing at the stone building. It was a broomstick repair shop now. "He wanted something for the storeroom. I remember he was talking to my mum about when she was in the Slug Club and was saying that he hoped to invite Soren and me when we were old enough,"

Tom glanced at her, surprised. "Your mother was in the Slug Club?"

"Yeah. She was the captain of her house's Quidditch team for three years and played on it for four and a half. They won the House Quidditch Cup every year she was part of the team," said Saffron. "I think Slughorn was hoping that she would go professional after Hogwarts, but she was also smart enough to become a member regardless,"

"Your mother was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team?" asked Tom.

Saffron gave him an odd look. "Gryffindor? No, my mother wasn't in Gryffindor, she was in Slytherin. You've spent all that time in the trophy room, and you haven't seen her name on your own house's Quidditch captain plaque?"

Tom blinked a few times at Saffron, looking positively stunned. Finally, he seemed to reanimate. "Forgive me, but I wasn't exactly searching for your family when I was looking in the trophy room. Esther really was in Slytherin?"