Chapter Text
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Days turned into weeks, and you had caught up pretty quickly in all your classes, and you only had maybe a month left of tutoring left before you were fully caught up. Riddle was still always staring at you, his brows just barely furrowed as he rested his face in his palm, his just downturned lips hidden by his fingers. He still couldn’t figure out what it was about you that infuriated him so much, well-infuriated was the wrong word-but it was the only word that made sense at the moment.
You felt odd to him, you were odd to him.
You had made fast friends with the two most powerful purebloods in the school, Deville and Klopstock, the former family even older than the Slytherin bloodline. He had attempted to make ‘friends’ with the two before, but they either had no interest, or Tom had messed up at some point that made the two turn away.
It might’ve been his Ill talk towards Muggle-borns, as their closest friend, Lucy Billington-the daughter of a majorly rich family-was a muggle-born. Tom paused in his reading-yeah that was very much the reason- he sighed, flipping the page of his potions book, students around him all quietly chatting as the study hour slowly passed by.
He found himself looking up, watching as you walked past his spot, your arm linked with Lucy’s with several books tucked under your arm, your wand hanging from your fingers. His eyes were then glued to your wand, he had only just noticed the carved details in the black wood; snakes, thorns, and roses. He flipped his wand between his fingers, his eyes glued to you once again.
What was it about you that made him so… intrigued? He didn’t like you, he knew that, he had never liked anyone other than maybe maybe Walburga Black-and he didn’t even like her, more…admire her family and her views, as they seemed to be similar to his own. Then his mind turned back to you, now wondering what your blood was, were you pureblood? Half-blood like him? a mudblood? He frowned at the last thought, the power you wielded without a second thought, the way Klopstock and Deville found themselves keeping close to you, you had to be Pureblood.
He recalled Klopstock mentioning that, something about your wand core being something only a pureblood could have. Now he wondered what your wand core was, it was something his wand was attracted to-anytime it or he was close-he could feel it pull towards you, or rather; your wand.
Tom snapped to attention as the bell rang, echoing throughout the hall and everyone began to pack up. He cursed under his breath-he had fully lost track of time and now the study hour was over. He tore his eyes away from you, just barely missing how Billington smiled behind her hand, whispering something towards you. You glanced at him once, then shrugged. “He always does that,” you said as you passed him by with Lucy, and Tom paused as he picked up his bag.
Did he really always stare at you? And how many other people had noticed? You clearly had-since you said he always did that. Tom stared down at the grain of the table he stood by, his brows furrowed. He reasoned it was because you were still such a puzzle, a mystery to him-like the chamber of secrets was- he needed to figure you out, figure out why you were so…interesting.
Tom sighed, remembering he had class to get to, and walked out of the grand hall, heading towards the moving stairs and getting caught behind some first years. He sighed, easily pushing past them and making his way towards the top of the staircase, cursing under his breath again as it moved-pulling him away from the direct line towards charms class.
“Well that’s just great,” he turned, swallowing as he saw you, pouting at the now disconnected stairway. “long way around then eh?” you hummed, turning to him with a soft grin, he stared at you, like he always did, then nodded, tearing his eyes away as you leaned against the stone railing. Lucy giggled from the main path, waving to you as you flipped her off, chuckling as she gasped in fake offense-then laughed again.
“See you in class (y/n)! Don’t be late!” with that, Lucy turned on her heel and went to charms, hopefully also going to inform the professor that you and Tom might be late. Tom stood stiffly next to you as the staircase moved across the hall, the first years below you whispering nervously-now wondering where to go.
You mentally wished them luck and stepped off the staircase before it connected to the next platform, quickly stepping through the doorway and making your way to charms, Tom close behind. You turned a corner, and then another-and there you were. Charms class.
Lucy patted the spot beside her as you stepped into the room, and you happily took your place beside her, Tom once again sitting across the room with his ‘friends’ surrounding him.
“Good morning class,” Professor Vassy stepped in, beautiful and dramatic as usual, her robes flowing behind her like waves of wind. You all greeted her back, wands in hand as she took her place at the head of class, the words ‘exploding charm’ written behind her. “Today, we learn the exploding charm, known as bombarda. Some of you might already know this charm due to reading ahead or thanks to older students, but today we learn it properly.” She snapped her fingers and with a *pop*, a box appeared at the other end of the room. “you will all learn the charm, and then perform it.”
She then demonstrated the charm, the box exploding loudly and pieces of it fluttering to the floor, all sparking with embers at the ends. With a wave of her wand, the box was repaired. “You can find the spell on page three-twenty-five of your books.”
By the end of class, everyone was ready to perform the spell…well, nearly everyone, Finnigan was kinda a pyro, and had exploded his notes upon muttering the spell under his breath. So Professor Vassy gave him exception from performing it with everyone in the room, he would perform it after everyone left.
When it finally came to your turn, you took a deep quiet breath and aimed your wand, speaking clearly and loudly “Bombarda!” you leaped back as the box practically imploded, a small shockwave of fire bursting out from the box and there weren’t even pieces left to be embers. “holy shit.” You muttered under your breath, noticing Tom Riddle once again staring at you, his eyes wider than usual and his breath caught in his chest.
You bit the inside of your lip, turning to Professor Vassy with a shy grin. “Sorry? I didn’t mean to do that,” she shook her head with a laugh. “Oh no worries dear, everyone has spells they put more juice into than others,” Though she seemed to recall the Baubillious charm you had performed for her after class one day, and you had created such a strong bolt of lightning-thunder had followed.
And you had performed it non-verbally. Being so nervous you forgot to speak.
But now professor Vassy waved you back to your seat with a smile and you practically slide into Lucy’s side, who laughed at you quietly, well, not at you. But-“he’s staring at you, again.” She whispered, eyes glancing off towards Riddle, whose eyes hadn't left you since you cast the charm.
You glanced up at him, pouting a bit and he finally looked away, eyes now glued to his charms book. His mind whirled with near awe and heavy confusion-you had so casually overpowered the charm to where you had created a shockwave, he had never seen that before. He looked back up at you, his jaw clenched. Just who the hell were you?
-
He was staring again.
You were back in potions, sitting next to Riddle like usual and stirring a cauldron full of halfway-done shrinking solution, you glanced between your potions book and the potion, sucking your bottom lip into your mouth as you grabbed your pre-prepared leech juice and slowly poured it into the concoction.
You glanced to your side, seeing Riddle staring at you-like always-but there was something about it this time that felt….dangerous. “Please stop staring,” you muttered, turning back to your work and grabbing your rat spleen. Riddle just blinked, then muttered something under his breath; aimed toward you.
You ignored him for the moment, focusing on not fucking up the potion-something Riddle had decided to ignore completely in favor of staring at you. You could hear some barely hushed whispers of other girls in the class, all not amused with Riddle’s habit of staring at you. Somehow the moment you appeared within the castle, and caught Riddle’s eye, you had kept it; without meaning to and without trying to keep it.
They hated that. You had somehow gained the eye of the golden boy of the school, Tom Riddle, something no other girl had ever done.
You didn’t care, you were just trying to lay low and hopefully wake up to your apartment one day.
“I don’t understand it,” Riddle finally muttered louder, catching your ear. You hummed, tilting your head towards him to show you were listening as you finished up the potion, turning the burner to high heat and letting the potion simmer as you recalled the shrinking charm to add to the potion. “I don’t understand you.” You looked at him, eyes locking with his, he was practically caging you with his eyes, chin in his palm and body turned towards you.
“I don’t think you need to,” you mumbled, scratching the back of your neck. Riddle let out a sharp exhale from his nose, his eyes just barely narrowing. “but I’m sure you won't rest until you do, so have fun figuring me out-I hardly understand myself.” He hummed, staring at you for another moment then finally getting to work on his potion, resuming where he had left off before he started staring at you.
-
“Ms. (l/n)?” you turned, seeing Professor Dumbledore still at his desk, the rest of your classmates shuffling out as you turned back to walk back towards the professor. “Yes sir?” you asked, coming to a stop in front of his desk, holding your hands in front of your waist.
“How are you finding your stay at Hogwarts? I trust you haven’t met any complications?” he asked, that knowing twinkle still in his eyes. You just shrugged, the only thing you could complain about was Riddle staring at you all the time, and even then it wasn’t a big deal. Somehow word hadn’t spread about your blood status, so you weren’t dealing with any bullying just yet(plus being friends with Walter and Viktoria helped a lot with your food chain status). So really, you were having a pretty good time.
“Good, I’m nearly caught up on all my classes, professor Vassy says we only have one more tutoring session left.” You shuffled on your feet as you glanced behind your shoulder, feeling like someone was lingering behind the door-as if they were waiting for you. “I should get to my next class sir, thank you for being considerate.” Dumbledore nodded again, waving you off and getting to grading the papers you had turned in only minutes before.
You stepped out into the hall, nearly slamming into someone. You stumbled back, a hand grabbing your arm and steadying you. “thanks,” you muttered, looking up to see Riddle. You furrowed your brows, wondering why he had waited around. “uh-don’t you have class? Like, right now?”
Riddle looked used to your non-40s speak, and glanced off. Yep, he had class, to which he was about to be late; thanks to his fixation on you. Probably stayed around to try to hear if Dumbledore would say anything. You huffed, reaching up and pushing him gently towards the right end of the hall, towards his next class. “Well get goin’, don’t wanna ruin your perfect attendance eh?”
With that, you turned on your heel and left to get to your class, feeling Riddle’s eyes on your back until you turned the corner and disappeared from his sight.
-
“why are you always staring at her?” Tom turned, seeing Viktoria Klopstock sitting next to him, her icy blue eyes piercing into Tom’s dark brown ones. Tom blinked, then shrugged. “She intrigues me, that is all.” Tom mumbled, getting out his books and wand. Viktoria hummed, she hadn’t exactly mentioned which ‘her’ she meant-but clearly you were on Tom’s mind enough for him to easily fill in the blanks. Interesting. Viktoria rested her chin in her palm, staring at Tom while he ignored her. “is there something you wanted? Ms. Klopstock?” Tom asked, turning back to her after feeling her eyes burn into the side of his head.
She just smirked, something flashing within her eyes, dark and sinister-and for once, Tom felt fear. “I know damn well you aren’t as quiet and angelic as you seem, Riddle, you try to hurt her, you won’t live past the next sunrise.” She turned to the front of the class and Tom couldn’t help but stare, not out of interest, but terror.
Were-were those fangs he saw?
-
“He doesn’t even realize it, does he?” Steven asked during dinner that night-you had yet to arrive, finishing up your final herbology tutoring session. Lucy nodded, Walter and Viktoria laughing at Steven’s implication. “Not a bit,” Viktoria hummed, her eyes turning towards Tom, who seemed to be torn between eating, listening to Malfoy, and watching the doors-waiting for something(or someone).
“She’s a new puzzle to him,” Walter muttered, picking at his corn. “He’s going to practically obsess over her till he figures her out,” Steven hummed, nodding in agreement, Watler was right-you were an enigma-the sudden appearance, the power you wielded without a second thought, the ease it took you to catch up to the other fourth years in only a month.
You were a 10,000,00-piece puzzle and Tom was going to solve you, even if it meant finding those hidden pieces you kept locked away. Even if he would never understand why he felt drawn to you.
-end of p6-
Eyo! Last part for a bit-gonna be away from any writing tools for about a week-so hang tight until I get back~!!