Growing up "Pure"

~°Tom's POV°~

Since the minor confrontation in the library, Tom's been doing everything in his power to avoid Y/N...and he's failing, miserably.

In almost every class he shares with her he's been forced to work alongside her. They were assigned to be lab "buddies" during potions, practing spells in DADA, his broom kept creeping towards her when he wasn't moving in flying class. The harder he tried to ignore her, the more the world kept forcing her closer to him and he hated it.

However, he had gotten used to her presence and had grown to expect it. So imagine his surprise when he walks into the library during their shared lunch and can't find her anywhere. He looked around a little more and paced through the library with his hands in his pockets, fiddling with the bracelet he still held on to. Despite getting a hold of it almost a month ago, he still carried it with him everywhere he went. He'll never admit it, but that was one of the reasons he tried so desperately to ignore her.

He wanted the upper hand, to have her run up to him begging to have it back, practically as his mercy. But, surprisingly to him, that never happened. Not once has he felt her looking in his direction during classes, nor has she tried to talk to him about anything other than the assignment they were forced to work on together. He was also still confused as to why it was a snake rather than an eagle to represent the house she was apart of. Sure, Abraxas suggested that it might've been from her parents, but that didn't seem right either.

"She's in the front courtyard with a few classmates." Tom spun around and looked at the librarian, tilting his head a little. "Y/N, that's who you're looking for, right?"

So that's her name.....truthfully over the last few months he's been forced to acknowledge her presence, he never once tried to learn her name. However, he wasn't about to let the librarian think he was actually interested in knowing where she was. "I was told to help someone with an assignment in one of my earlier classes, but it seems they decided to not show up." This wasn't the worst lie he could've told. It wasn't uncommon for the teachers to ask Tom to help a struggling student from time to time, as it was very evident that he was a talented student.

He nodded his head a little towards the librarian and exited the library, hand still messing with the bracelet in his pocket. He closed his eyes and released a breath he wasn't aware was being held and starting walking in the direction of the Slytherin Common Room...or so he thought.

After a few minutes of aimlessly walking he stopped to realize he was walking in the opposite direction of the dungeon, instead he was walking towards the courtyard, towards the person he was trying to avoid, the very person we was watching enter the hall with a few of her friends talking and laughing, walking towards him. Why? He kept trying to come up with explanations. He was sick of carrying the bracelet and just wanted to return it. The librarian mentioning the courtyard messed with his head and had him unintentionally thinking of it. Maybe he didn't wanna go back to pacing around his dorm and fighting the urge to punch a wall in frustration. Or-

"Yoo-hoo, earth to Riddle?" Tom jolted his head back instinctively when seeing a hand wave in front of his face and look to see Y/N giving him a look of confusion and a maybe a little concerned.

"L/N." He glared down at her and turned around, trying to walk away from her but kept hearing footsteps catch up to him. "Why are you following me?"

She laughed a little and moved a few strands of hair out of her face, "I'm not following you, I'm walking to the potions classroom. Y'know- the class that we both have after lunch?"

He hummed slightly in acknowledgment and reached into one of his inner robe pockets to check the time. Class wasn't for another 20 minutes, surely Slughorn had another class right now. "Are you usually arriving to class this early?" He would sometimes notice her leave the library before lunch was over, but he had always assumed she was heading to the Great Hall or some other random place to socialize like he saw occur a few moments ago with her friends. It never crossed his mind that she was heading into class way earlier than she needed to.

"Well, yeah. I offer to help the teachers prepare for their next lesson. That way I can get an idea on what we're learning in class that day."

"I see..." They both go silent and Tom is desperate to find a way to either get out of this awkward conversation or change the topic entirely. Then he remembered the stupid bracelet. He fiddled around in his pocket before taking out the bracelet and holding it out to his right where Y/N is standing. "I believe this belongs to you."

He watches her eyes light up a little while trying to hide her joy for seeing the bracelet again and pretend that she isn't too fazed by is being in front of her. She tried to reach for it only for Tom to stop moving and holding it above his head, he was just tall enough that she couldn't reach for it without raising higher up onto her toes or jumping, both options he knew she'd refuse to do.

She sighed and crossed her arms taking a small step back, "fine, how about a trade?"

This piqued Tom's interest trying to figure out what valuable thing she could possibly have to trade. He placed the bracelet inside one of his pockets and chuckled a little while speaking, "and what do you have that could possibly be of value to me?"

After a few seconds of silence, Tom took it as a sign that he had won and was about to walk away when she had grabbed one of his hands and pulled it towards her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He had a spoke a little louder than he planned to, causing a few people nearby to look at them for a few seconds.

"Quit yapping, you'll draw unwanted attention." She placed something in his palm and closed his hand so he couldn't see what it was and the two stood there for a few seconds, not quite sure what to say. He tried to get into her head, figure out her thoughts, only to be forced out almost immediately. Y/N let go of Tom's hand and smiled, finally breaking eye contact when she turned away from him. "I'll see you in potions."

She was gone before he was properly given the opportunity to say anything. He opened his hand to see a small, empty glass tube and a note:

ℛℯ𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒾𝒸𝓉ℯ𝒹 𝓈ℯ𝒸𝓉𝒾ℴ𝓃, 10:30.

He turned the note over to see a little more writing on it:

𝒫.𝒮. 𝓅𝓇ℯ𝓈𝓈 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓅𝒽𝒾𝒶𝓁 𝓉ℴ 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝒷𝓇𝒶𝒸ℯ𝓁ℯ𝓉'𝓈 𝒻𝒶𝓃ℊ𝓈.

~°YN's POV°~

"Ugh, this is stupid!" The hufflepuff slammed her Transfigurations book shut and huffed, glaring at the cover.

Y/N and the othe two students watching this laughed a little. "Cmon, it can be that bad."

"Easy for you to say, Y/N." The hufflepuff crossed her arms, "You're a natural with magic, all these have come easy to you."

"Not true! I've struggled plenty during class." Y/N scooted closer to her friend to comfort them.

"Since when have to struggled?" The Ravenclaw sitting across from her laughed a little more, "I see you work in every class, and it's all nothing short of perfect."

"These are spells I was taught at a younger age, it isn't talent, just a strong work ethic." Y/N rolled her eyes and opened her friend's transfigurations book, "Now, What are you struggling on? I'm sure I can guide you through it."

***

Y/N ended up helping them with their respective assignments. She helped her hufflepuff friend with transfigurations, Ravenclaw with potions, and her Griffindor friend needed help with his charms work.

She set down her quill after helping out with the charms assignment and stood up, "Alright, I promised Slughorn I'd be in class early." She held her hand out to one of her friends, helping them to their feet.

"You know, Y/N, you'd make an amazing professor!" The hufflepuff hugged her textbook closer to her, smiling at Y/N

"She right, you made this really easy to understand!" The Griffindor pushed himself to his feet and helped the Ravenclaw beside him stand up.

"Oh, please, I can barely call what I did teaching." Y/N moved her hair out her face, looking to her friends as she walked across the courtyard.

"No, you definitely taught transfigurations in a way different from Dumbledore, yet it still made sense." The Ravenclaw nudged her playfully.

"Exactly! I thought I'd never understand that stupid class, but you really did help!" The Hufflepuff opened the door to the school, pushing her back against it so she could look at her friends.

Y/N watched as the young Hufflepuff trips as she pushes the door, stumbling a little to prevent herself from falling over. She attempts to hold back her laughter, but failed when the other two burst out laughing.

"Guy, it's not funny!" The hufflepuff pouts and stomps the ground.

Y/N smiles and looked across the hall, spotting a brown haired Slytherin standing there in the hallway, staring directly at her. She furrowed her brows slightly, isn't he usually in the library during lunch, what's he doing here? "I'll see you guys during dinner, alright?" She then looks to the Ravenclaw and smiles, "and I'll see you in potions."

Y/N waved to her friends and walked up to the brunette. She tilted her head at him, he didn't move a muscle, just frozen there in place. She sighed and waved her hand infront of his face.

"Yoo-hoo, earth to Riddle?" Tom jolted his head back instinctively and looked down at her.

"L/N." He glared down at her and turned around, trying to walk away. Y/N just shrugged and continued walking to class. "Why are you following me?"

She laughed a little and moved a few strands of hair out of her face. How entitled was this man? "I'm not following you, I'm walking to the potions classroom. Y'know- the class that we both have after lunch?"

He hummed slightly in acknowledgment and she watched from the corner of her eye as he reached into his robe pocket for something, "Are you usually arriving to class this early?"

"Well, yeah. I offer to help the teachers prepare for their next lessons. That way I can get an idea on what we're learning in class that day."

"I see..." They both go silent and Y/N debates whether or not to discuss a truce of some kind. She finally got the invisibility cloak and knew for a fact he'd be too curious to not take an offer.

She paused when Tom held his arm out if front of her. "I believe this belongs to."

She looked down at the bracelet and her eyes lit up, though she did her best to keep a straight face. She reached for it, only for Tom to stop moving and pull it away from her holding it above his head. He was just tall enough that she wouldn't be able to reach the bracelet without raising higher up onto her toes or jumping, both options she was far to prideful to even consider. She sighed and crossed her arms, taking a small step back, "fine, how about a trade?"

He placed the bracelet inside one of his pockets and chuckled a little while speaking, "and what do you have that could possibly be of value to me?"

She kept quiet, not daring to say anything that could give away her intentions. As Tom was begining to walk away, she grabbed one of his hands and pulled it towards her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She winced a little at the sudden raise in his voice, "Quit yapping, you'll draw unwanted attention." She grabbed the note and phial she had in her pockets and placed them in his palm, closing his hand so he couldn't see what it was. She looked up to see him already looking at her.

She kept his gaze and narrowed her eyes as she feels a hazzy feeling in her head. It never reached anything more than that, forcing the feeling away. She let go of his hand and smiled, finally breaking eye contact when she turned away from him. "I'll see you in potions."

She turned the corner and stopped in the corridor, taking a few moments to comprehend what she just experienced. She placed a hand to her temple, was he trying to read her mind? Did Tom Riddle know legilimency? She shook the thoughts out of her head and released the breath that was caught in her lungs. She straightened herself and took one more deep breath to calm down before quickly walking towards the potions classroom.

***
Y/N put on the ivisibility cloak the second she stepped out of her dorm. She made her way through the common room and waited by the door for the prefects to arrive. At this point, she had memorized their watch schedules and the times they left to 'guard' the school.

Right as she expected, she heard the sounds of the 6th year prefects walking down the stairs, immersed in their conversation. They almost made it too easy for her to slip through the door once they opened it, moving out the way as the two prefect continued down the stairs.

With the prefects out of the way, for the most part, Y/N's only obstacle now were the ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural beings that claimed Hogwarts as their place of haunting. She sat on the railing of the spiral staircase and slid her way down, holding on to ensure she didn't fall off.

Once she finally made it to the library entrance, she looked to see what could be used as a simple distraction for the prefect watching over the area. Her eyes very quickly landed on the suits of armor that rest on the opposite side of the room and took out her wand, "ᶠˡⁱᵖᵉⁿᵈᵒ•"

The armor came down with a sudden crash and she took thar opportunity to focus back on the library door, casting a mumbled 'aberto' in order to open it and sneak in whilst the prefect was investigating the noise.

She gripped the cloak as she made her way to the restricted section, transforming into her animagus form and slithering through the bars before shifting back to normal. She took a deep breath and waved her wand, casting the barrier spell that she was forced to learn at a young age.

She hated casting it, it was physically and mentally draining to keep it casted for long. Once she knew the barrier was safely cast, she removed the invisibility cloak and looked around at some of the books. She knew she had time to kill before Tom was supposed to show up, so she might as well get some reading done while she waiting.

***

Y/N was a little too eager when she found the book she was currently reading. She was so excited when she spotted it that she dropped that stupid cloak on the floor. Was she concerned about it? Not really. She had a good idea where it was dropped, besides, she was more focused on her reading.

She was about a quarter of the way through when she heard the door to the restricted section open. From the corner of her eye she could see a person staring at her as the disillusionment charm they were using was removed. It didn't bother her, she could clearly guess who it was.

She finally looked up from her book and glanced over at Tom, "wow, you actually came. Thought you'd blow me off and never let me see that bracelet again." She set the book aside and pushed herself off the table she was sitting atop of to walk over towards him. "Even a little early at that, were you hoping to beat me here"?

She noticed the confusion on his face and was a little amused by it, she could only imagine what he was thinking at the moment, though the obvious question would be how he didn't see her until he was inside the restricted area. She leaned a little closer to him and spoke a little quiter into his ear. "I modified a few concealment and barrier charms." She straightened up and went back to sitting on the table, continuing what she was reading. "Everything looks normal from the outside, but no one outside the barrier can see or hear what's occurring on the inside."

Y/N watched as he took a few steps closer to her, placing the phial down beside her, "And what exactly is the extent of this barrier?"

She pointed at the chair she had set there earlier while picking up the the phials with her other hand and placing them on her lap, refusing to take her eyes off the book, "from the entrance to that chair, in a dome like shape."

After a minutes of sitting in silence, she closed the book and set it aside. "You're a parselmouth...correct?" She picked up the phial and examined the contents inside it carefully. She needed to make sure the venom inside it was still usable to make her first set of antivenoms, she couldn't have another incident similar to what happened to Avery a couple weeks ago.

"A what now?"

"A parselmouth," she placed the phial inside her robe after looking at for a little longer. "You know, people with the ability to speak to snakes." She stands up from the table the was sitting on and waves wand around, controlling the barrier, and gesturing for Tom to follow her. "For someone almost all the staff keep calling 'magically gifted' you know shockingly little of the wizarding world."

"Not like magic is commonly used at Wool's..."

Though it was a mumble, she could still make out his words. No wonder nobody knew him before this, he grew up in a muggle orphanage. "Huh, strange..." She stopped and looked down at the floor beneath her "I was almost sent there...but they deemed it insulting to send a pureblood to a muggle orphanage and felt that wizarding ones were unfit to look after me, taking it upon themselves to raise me." She rolled her eyes, remembering what the caretakers had told her when she was very young, '𝕀𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕖𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕒𝕟 𝕠𝕣𝕡𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕒𝕘𝕖 𝕠𝕣 𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕙,' they said, '𝔹𝕦𝕥 𝕨𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕'𝕥 𝕝𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞 𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕞 𝕒𝕟 𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕔𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕓𝕒𝕓𝕪.'

"They?"

"The caretakers where I grew up. I guess it was kinda like an orphanage, full of people unwanted by the world that are forced to be looked after 24/7." She continued walking again, dragging her feet across the floor to feel for the cloak and stopped once her foot had kicked it. "Found it." She knelt down to pick up the cloak and turned to face him, holding her hand out. "This, for the bracelet."

She was certain she looked insane until Tom looked down at her hand vanished hand. She waited for him to reach for the cloak and feel that she wasn't simply messing with him before grabing his wrist and pulling him towards her "bracelet first, then you can get the cloak." Despire her quick words, she still did a good job keeping up a sweet and calm tone. Her patience was wearing thin and this stupid barrier spell was draining far too much of her strength for her to care about pleasantries.

He scoffed "and why exactly would I need a measly cloak." Despite the attitude, she could still see him reaching for the bracelet.

"Seriously Riddle?" She glared up at him, no longer caring about keeping up the appearance of calmness and perfection. "You think you're half-assed disillusionment charm will keep up in the future? It's painfully obvious you don't have experience with that spell or most spells for that matter. You said it yourself, magic is unfamiliar to you because of where you grew up." She tightened her grip on his wrist, drawing him closer, her calm demeanor and voice quickly fading into one of annoyance and disdain. "So, rather than relying on advanced spells that you clearly don't know all the well, take advantage of the invisibility cloak and sneak around the library to your heart's content. Now give. me. my. bracelet."

She could see the look in his eyes, she had seen in in her father countless times. It was the look of restraint; restraint from killing or lashing out violently. Not only should she see the self restraint, she could feel and anger radiate off of him. But she knew that she was right, she knew that she won this battle, and it seemed as if he did too.

He held the bracelet out infront of her so she was easily able to slide it on her wrist. She watched as the bracelet fell down her arm, she'd had to adjust it before she left. Her grip on his wrist loosen and took the cloak, draping it around him. She gently pulled at the cloak to ensure he was properly hidden and internally smiled, proud of herseld.

"I'm usually here Mondays and Wednesdays if you wish to know what days to not sneak I here and stay away from me." She pulled the hood over Tom's head, ensuring she didn't ruin his hair in the process. She wasn't sure why she tried to keep up his 'perfect' appearance, as she's heard so many people call it, but she did. She held up her arm and mumbled a simple "𝔠𝔩𝔬𝔰𝔢" to herself, watching as the bracelet tightened itself around arm.

She lifted up the hood of her robe and brought down the barrier spell, feeling all her energy almost drain from her in that very moment. Her body felt weak as she carefully leaned against the closest thing to her to support herself. Once she knew she wouldn't topple over from fatigue, and decided to try and test her luck a little further. "But, I will say. It was fairly nice being near the great Tom Riddle, while also not watching people fawn for you."

"I feel I could say the same you, L/N."

She grimaced a little at hearing her last name, Merlin did she hate that name. "Just Y/N is fine. We're the same age, there's no need for formalities. Plus the people who surround me are, for the most part, friends. You, however, have followers." She saw a hand reach towards her and grab her chin, turning her head to what she assumed was Tom's face.

"Would you not consider yourself a follower? You seem to follow me almost everywhere I go."

Y/N smiled and shifted to her snake form, reappearing slightly to the right of where she was previously. "I should be asking you that. The librarian said you practically ran out today once learning I was in the courtyard. I know you weren't there to help someone study either. Professor Dumbledore would never ask you to tutor someone in Transfigurations and I know you'd die before helping anyone with Herbology." She would've mentioned potions and flying, but those two study sessions would've occurred in their respective learning area.

She pointed her wand towards herself and mumbled the incantation of the shrinking charm. Just as she felt her body begin to shrink, she shifted into her snake form and rushed out the restricted section. Now that she was a smaller size, she could slip under the library door without much issue either, making her way back to the Ravenclaw Tower

Once she got to the staircase, she shifted out of her snake form and used the engorgment charm. She kept her hood up and leaned onto the railing as she moved up the stairs. If she disliked the stairs when she was full of energy, she most certainly hated them now that she had little to none left.

She stared at door and sighed, not sure if she had the will to answer one of its stupid riddles.

They come out at night without being called, and are lost in the day without being stolen. What are they?

Y/N blinked at the bird on the door and grumbled to herself, "stars...now let me in." She watched as the bird folded in its wings and the door opened. She let out a sigh of relief as she walked through the common room and towards the first year dorms.

~°Tom's POV°~

Tom snunk his way through the library with a disillusionment charm, which he had learned from a 6th year, and arrived at the restricted a few minutes early. He couldn't see or hear anyone inside and noticed the lock wasn't opened, assuming Y/N hadn't arrived yet and felt accomplished. With a simple use of 'aberto', Tom undid the lock and snuck in as quietly as he could.

However, when closed the door and took a few steps, he saw she was already there, sitting with her legs crossed on the table, book in hand. Her illuminated wand rested on her thigh and appeared to already be a few pages in. She finally looked up and noticed Tom had arrived, "wow, you actually came. Thought you'd blow me off and never let me see that bracelet again." She set the book aside and pushed herself off the table to walk over towards Tom. "Even a little early at that, were you hoping to beat me here"?

Tom was confused on several parts. How did he not see her when he first arrived? Since she arrived before him, why did the lock appear completely untouched? Plus, seeing as they're in the restricted section of the library, after curfew, why wasn't she trying to speak with a quieter voice in any sort of way? Furthermore, now that he decided to look around, he noticed a chair that was placed in the middle of the restriction section which he definitely didn't see before entering.

She seemed to have read his mind and leaned a little closer to him to speak a little quiter into his ear. "I modified a few concealment and barrier charms." She straightened up and went back to sitting on the table, continuing what she was reading. "Everything looks normal from the outside, but no one outside the barrier can see or hear what's occurring on the inside."

Tom took the vial out of his pocket, now filled with a clear liquid of some kind, and placed it next to her on the table "And what exactly is the extent of this barrier?" She pointed at the chair standing while picking up the the vials with her other hand and placing them on her lap, not taking her eyes off the book, "from the entrance to that chair in a dome shape". He wasn't able to see what she was reading and the words didn't mean a huge amount to him without knowing the context.

After a minutes of sitting in silence, she closed the book and set it aside. "You're a parselmouth...correct?" She picked up the vial and examined the contents inside it carefully.

"A what now?" Tom vaguely remembers hearing Dumbledore mention the same word when they met at the orphanage, but in that moment he was still trying to grasp the entire concept and reason why he felt so different from the other kids to remember what it meant.

"A parselmouth," she placed the vial inside her robe after looking at for a little longer. "You know, people with the ability to speak to snakes." She stands up from the table the was sitting on and waves her still illuminated wand around, gesturing for Tom to follow her. "For someone almost all the staff keeps calling 'magically gifted' you know shockingly little of the wizarding world."

"Not like magic is commonly used at Wool's..." He mumbled quietly to himself, ashamed to actually admit why he knew so little. It felt humiliating to him how he was clearly skilled when it came to magic but was burdened with never unlocking his wizarding potential until he was about to attend Hogwarts.

He watched Y/N walk a little deeper into the restricted section. Although this wasn't his first time in here, he had managed to sneak in after a month or so into the school year, it irritated him how easily she walked through it. How many times had she snuck in here unnoticed? Even when he had last snuck in he had to deal with a stupid ghost or two that was just waiting to snitch on wandering students. Furthermore, he was annoying with the spells she was using as well. She could cast charms that weren't yet taught and it seemed clear they weren't easy to use charms either. How long has she been studying magic and how powerful was her family if it meant she could accomplish seemingly difficult tasks with the littlest of effort?

"Huh, strange..." She stopped and looked down at the floor beneath her "I was almost sent there...but they deemed it insulting to send a pureblood to a muggle orphanage and felt that wizarding ones were unfit to look after me, taking it upon themselves to raise me."

"They?" He wasn't sure why he asked, he didn't actually care. If she had lived in Wool's Orphanage alongside him she would've just been another annoying person for him to have to put up with. Not like he ever dealt with the younger kids nicely anyways, he highly doubted he would've treated her any differently.

"The caretakers where I grew up. I guess it was kinda like an orphanage, full of people unwanted by the world that are forced to be looked after 24/7." She continued walking again, if that was what it could be called. She was dragging her feet across the floor, as if trying to feel for anything and stopped once her feet dragged against something that didn't sound like a carpet. "Found it." He watched her kneel down and pick up...nothing. She turned to look at him once again holding out nothing in front of her. "This, for the bracelet."

Tom looked down at her hand to see it wasn't there. She was clearly holding her arm in front of him but her hand was missing. He reached to where he assumed her hand would be and felt a sort of cloth there.

Unfortunately he didn't have much time to do anything else before she had grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards her "bracelet first, then you can get the cloak." Despire her quick words, she still did a good job keeping up a sweet and calm tone.

He scoffed "and why exactly would I need a measly cloak." He still reached into his robe anyways with his free hand to grab the bracelet He knew an invisibility cloak would be useful in the future, but like hell he would let her-even for a second- think she has the upper hand over him.

"Seriously Riddle? You think you're half-assed disillusionment charm will keep up in the future? It's painfully obvious you don't have experience with that spell or most spells for thar matter. You said it yourself, magic is unfamiliar to you because of where you grew up." She tightened he grip on his wrist, drawing him closer, her calm demeanor and voice quickly fading into on of annoyance and disdain. "So, rather than relying on advanced spells that you clearly don't know all the well, take advantage of the invisibility cloak and sneak around the library to your heart's content. Now give. me. my. bracelet."

At this point Tom wanted nothing more and to free himself from her grasp and strangle her until the light quickly dimmed from her eyes. She had absolutely no right to critique his magic ability or continue to talk as if she was any more talented than he was. However, it'd be far too risky to try anything and not expect to get caught. He had no person who could take the fall for her death nor a set plan on where'd he'd even dispose of her body while trying to look blame said fall guy.

He held the bracelet out infront of her so she was easily able to slide it on her wrist. He watched as the bracelet fell down her arm, appearing way you big on her. Her grip on his wrist loosened and he felt the cloak fall across his back and watched his body disappear as she wrapped it over his shoulders.

"I'm usually here Mondays and Wednesdays if you wish to know what days to not sneak I here and stay away from me." She pulled the hood over Tom's head, being and walked past him. She held up her arm and mumbled to herself, all he could hear was 'close' in what he now knew was parseltongue and watched as the bracelet seemed to move of its own to tighten itself around her wrist and forearm so it couldn't fall off.

He then noticed her wand was still illuminating light, which he originally assumed was because she wanted better light to read with, but now isn't so certain that's the case. Tom watched as she put on the hood of her very much visible robe and saw her wand stop illuminating. It struck him that she had been holding up the barrier spell this entire time and couldn't think to imagine how draining it mught've been, but he also didn't really care what little energy she mightve had let. "But, I will say. It was fairly nice being near the great Tom Riddle, while also not watching people fawn for you."

He tilted his head a little, although she couldn't see it. Sure he had a lot of people who admired him and followed him around, primarily those in the Slytherin House, but he wouldn't describe it was fawning for him. He also though back to all the times he's watched her from afar in between classes; she was never alone either. There was always at least one person who was standing close enough that she would give a breif expression of discomfort. "I feel I could say the same you, L/N."

"Just Y/N is fine. We're the same age, there's no need for formalities. Plus the people who surround me are, for the most part, friends. You, however, have followers."

He reached a hand towards her and grabbed her chin, turning her head so she was now looking at him. "Would you not consider yourself a follower? You seem to follow me almost everywhere I go."

Y/N smiled and seemingly vanished from his grasp, reappearing slightly to the right of where she was previously. "I should be asking you that. The librarian said you practically ran out today once learning I was in the courtyard. I know you weren't there to help someone study either. Professor Dumbledore would never ask you to tutor someone in Transfigurations and I know you'd die before helping anyone with Herbology."

She moved her wand around and mumbled a spell Tom couldn't quite make out and she vanished, but it wasn't a disillusionment charm she was used- he could tell that much. He didn't have the patience to try and figure out what she did and exited the restricted library, making sure it was locked behind him. Frankly, he was at a loss for words on how direct she was when confronting him and how she somehow knew the minor detail on his class preferences-

His eyes widened and he stopped in the middle of the library when it hit him. Obviously she would know Professor Dumbledore wouldn't ask him to help a student, after all, they shared the class and he clearly favored her over him. But, herbology however, was a class he shared with Hufflepuff students, not Ravenclaw. So how the hell did she, a ravenclaw, know that class was the bane of his existence and would rather suffer through a mandrake without earplugs than help a student in that class. The realization made his chuckle to himself and smirk...turns out he wasn't alone when it came to the constant attempts to be in the other's presence.