how it feels to be alive {tom riddle}

forty: slughorn

SLUGHORN

Tom had taken to eating at the Ravenclaw table for many meals lately, with the purpose of avoiding the chatty boy who everyday seemed to have a new soporific story to tell.

It was breakfast time, and Lucia was bringing a grape to her mouth when a dark owl glided gracefully to in front of Tom. There was a letter attached to its foot that it extended politely towards him.

He took the note from the owl's leg gently, unfolding it to reveal an overly fancy invitation to Slughorn's first dinner party of the year.

Tom extended the note for Lucia to look at, who took it from him and let her eyes trail over the ink scrawled over the parchment curiously.

"It's tomorrow night, that should be interesting." Lucia observed, handing the paper back to Tom and returning to her breakfast.

"Slughorn wants me to bring you." Tom recounted the conversation with the professor following the first Potions class of the year.

"A dinner party with a teacher and a bunch of suck-ups? I don't really think its my scene Tom." Lucia chuckled, biting into a strawberry.

"Surely you don't have anything better to do." Tom raised his eyebrows.

"I suppose." Lucia caved, "Slughorn better bring out the mead though."

"He always does." Tom assured her with a charming grin.

***

Lucia decided on a black satin dress for Slughorn's dinner party, paired with a simple pair of black heels and silver jewellery. As she walked out of the common room, she saw that Tom was waiting for her at the entrance to Ravenclaw tower.

He was wearing black dress pants and a button-up black shirt. She chuckled at their matching all-black ensembles, but it was hardly surprising.

"Look at you." He smirked, taking one of her blonde curls between his fingers and allowing his eyes to trail down to the short ending of the dress.

"Oh shut up." She laughed, giving him a light push on the shoulder, "Lets see how drunk we can get before Slughorn cuts us off."

"Lucia..." Tom looked down warily at her.

"Drinking on a special occasion is completely normal." She argued, "Plus, I don't know how I'll get through all the praise he'll be giving you without being at least a bit intoxicated."

Tom sighed, but took her arm in his as they began walking.

"Slughorn likes you, you know. He sees you have a lot of potential." Tom raised, giving her a small look to the side to observe her reaction.

"Slughorn is a very nice man, but I think he's deluded." Lucia chuckled, running her hand through her curled hair.

"I don't think so." Tom retorted, "You're one of the only people in my life to have ever come even remotely close to making me think that I am wrong about something."

"I think that's the biggest compliment someone's ever given me." Lucia laughed as they entered the corridor leading to the party. The sound of soft piano music and distant chatter vibrated off the walls of the hall as they walked towards its source.

They entered through the doors, and were greeted by the sight of a group of at least twenty students inside. A large table of hors d'oeuvres was in the centre of the room, many different colours and varieties of foods on a lacy white table cloth. On a separate table, glasses of mead, champagne and even butterbeer were balanced delicately in a way that would have easily fallen if it weren't for enchantments placed on them.