Different worlds

Y/N traced her quill over the words she was reading, stopping everyonce and a while to take notes. She was by herself during lunch as the friends she'd normally have lunch with today were either in detention with a teacher or studying for a test of their own.

She didn't mind it much as her friends could sometimes be overwhelmingly full of energy. She was drawn out of her studying briefly when she got the feeling someone was watching her. She looked to her right to see Tom Riddle ever so slightly turning his head to appear as if he was look at his friend, who didn't seem too pleased.

She smiled a little and went back to her textbook; being interrupted again out of her thoughts, this time by an owl. She took the letter the owl was carrying and tapped her shoulder so the owl could take a moment to rest. As she was opening the letter, Y/N noticed a figure walking up to her, and sitting down.

"Does dear Y/N have another secret admirer?" Lestrange gently nudged her with his arm, causing a smile from her.

"Not sure, someone interrupted me before I could read it. Besides, how does your friend feel about you abandoning him?" Y/N rolled her eyes and unfolded the letter. From the moment she looked at the handwriting she knew it was from one of her caretakers, which meant the letter could be full of either really good or really bad news.

"Riddle didn't wish to take advantage of the rare moments you're actually by yourself, can't imagine why he'd prefer admiring from afar when you are so much more beautiful up close." Lestrange shrugged and scooted to be a little more infront of Y/N so she could read her letter with a little more privacy.

Y/N folded the letter and smiled, she could tell it was most likely good news but was too anxious to know for sure. She looked up at Lestrange, who was hoping for some kind of response to his comment. "I appreciate the compliment Lestrange, but you already know this won't result in a date or scandalous escapade someone in the school." She laughed and set the letter in her textbook, using as a bookmark.

Lestrange shrugged "didn't hurt to try Y/N, but I do have a request that sort of relates to that." He ran a hand through Y/N's hair, twirling some as he pulled away and leaned a little closer to her. "Make the ever prideful Slytherin jealous."

Y/N smiled, knowing exactly what he was referring to. "And what exactly would that entail?"

"Simply, let me spend time with you all week. Allow me to walk you to class, carry your things, give brief shows of affection. It's clear as day Tom gets irritated when a random student he doesn't know will walk up to your for a few minutes, so image how thrilled he would be to see someone he knows fairly well flirt with you for an entire week."

Y/N gave the owl a few scratches before sending it away, taking advantage of it flying in Tom's direction to analyze his expression. He appeared as if he wasn't too bothered, but she see even from the distance between them that his muscles were tense and the look I his eyes screamed he was anything but okay.

She looked back at Lestrange, who was holding his hand out, "and what would either of us get out of making him jealous?" she took his hand and watched him turn over her hand to place a gently kiss on the top of it.

"Seriously, we're both gonna pretend you don't care for him? You might be able to fool your other friends, but you sure as hell aren't fooling me " this was more true that Y/N wanted to admit. No one knew this, but she'd known Lestrange for years before even arriving ar Hogwarts. It's how she was able to learn more about Tom during those first few months as Hogwarts when he did nothing but ignore her or accuse her of following him.

"Okay, fair point, but what do you get out of making your 'supreme leader' jealous?"

Lestrange rolled his eyes, know she saw Riddle's posse as nothing more than a cult following (it is). "I'm not gonna pass up the opportunity to get under his skin the way nobody else can. It hasn't even hit him yet that the irritation he gets almost daily is jealousy...which you get to call him out on."

"Look, we both know Riddle, if he doesn't like something he ignore it. We both know the amount I see him in a day isn't coincidental, he'll start avoiding me like a plague."

"You're right, but that'll take maybe two days before he realizes that's an option. So, he'd probably start ignoring you Wednesday...which just so happens to be the day we have Transfigurations together."

Y/N wasn't sure whether to be surprised or concerned about how much though Lestrange put into this, but it was a hella solid plan. "And then he'd ignore me for the most part Thursday until Friday when our last class of the day is potions."

Lestrange snapped and pointed at her "exactly! Plus the day he decides ignoring you is an option, he's stuck in his weakest class where you'd usually be the one to "suggest" advice..."

"...which he won't accept and cause him to get even more irritated in that class." Y/N thought for a few seconds and saw Lestrange stand up, her textbook tucked under his arm, holding his hand out.

"So it's a deal?" She took his hand and he helped her to her feet, giving her a few seconds to brush herself off before holding out his arm, which she gratefully took.

"Deal"

***

It was Monday of the following week and Y/N finished helping her herbology teacher around the greenhouse. She was taking care of a few finishing touches when she heard someone enter the greenhouse and walk towards her.

"Didn't take you for someone with a green thumb." Lestrange stood beside her, giving her space to work.

"I would say there's a lot you don't know about me, but I'm sure that's not true by any means." She set down the shears she was holding and turned to look and the man standing beside her. "So, what do you need?"

"Two things actually. One, when have you last 'eaten'?" He lightly tapped at the snake bracelet on her arm. Aside from the professors and her caretakers, Lestrange was maybe the only other person who knew she was an animagus, he was the first person she told when she had become one years ago.

"Last Friday, long story short, Tom knows I'm an animagus." She picked up the shears and held them over her shoulder as she walked back to the shelf she grabbed them from.

"I'm sorry, what?" He walked beside her, not quite sure how to process what he heard. "What was he doing in the greenhouse, he dispises this place"

She set the shears in the container she was in, clapping her hands together a few times to get the dirt off them. "He heard the frantic noise of a snake, followed it outside to the courtyard."

"You attacked him, didn't you?"" Lestrange walked over to Y/N, arms crossed.

"Yeeeeeaaaahhh...he stepped on a twig and I paniced. Didnt realize it was him till he swore from the sudden pain." She walked over to where she hung up her robe to prevent it from getting messy and folded it over her arm, "managed to knock him out and inject him with the antivenom. Anyways, you said you had something else for me?"

Lestrange smiled and reached into his pocket, pulling out the envelope that had previously been in her textbook "it fell out of your book last class, but you walked inside the classroom before I could hand it to you."

Y/N rushed over to him and snapped the letter out of his hand, reopening it to see it was, in fact, the same letter she received last week. She hadn't touched it, or the textbook it was in since she recieved it. "You didn't read it did you?"

"Didn't need to, the stamp gave away who it was from." He tapped at the stamp which had the letter 'A' made from a broken wand. "Have you read it yet?"

"Not yet...I wanted to wait till I was back in the dorms." She closed the envelope again and adjusted herself to appear less nervous.

Lestrange noticed this and place a hand on her shoulder, "if it was a letter saying anything involving your parents, that letter would've gone to the Headmaster so he could make sure you were safe." He move his arm so it wrapped around her, gesturing her to walk. "If you're that nervous, then get to your dorm and rip the bandage off now. Or you can read it was we walk so you at least have someone here who can comfort you."

The two were walking though the courtyard when Y/N decided to actually read the letter. She took a deep breath and opened it, reading it to herself first to make sure it was nothing bad before reading it out loud for the person next to her to hear:

"𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒀𝑵,

𝑨𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚'𝒔 𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑨𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕, 𝒘𝒆'𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑨𝒛𝒌𝒂𝒃𝒂𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔.

𝑭𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕'𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒊𝒇 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒆𝒅.

𝑩𝒖𝒕, 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒓. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌. 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒖𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐, 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒘𝒍 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒎 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆. 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕.

𝑰𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒅 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔' 𝒘𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔.

𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆,"

Y/N closed the letter and fought back her smile, horribly.

"Does that mean-"

"Yes!" Y/N jumped and smiled widely, she hugged Lestrange tightly who picked her up and twirled her around, equally as happy for her. She was set back on the ground but didn't yet let go.

Lestrange eventually let her go, "I'll speak with the Headmaster to see if you can have a day off Friday. If he agrees, we can head to Diagon Alley and I will buy you whatever you want." He noticed the sceptical look on her face and laughed, "not as a date, but a celebration of finally getting away from your parents."

"We both know that's a horrible agreement, you don't have the money to buy me 'whatever I want'"

"I don't, but my family does. If they get mad at me, so be it, but they've known you far too long to be upset."

Y/N simply smiled and nodded, knowing there was no winning this argument. Lestrange took her hand and placed a kiss to it before giving her one last hug and walking away.

She watched her friend leave and looked back at the letter, holding it close to her. She set the letter back in the envelope and folded it inside her robe before turning around. "Oh, hi." She stopped for a brief second to see Tom was standing behind her.

Tom walked up to her, eyeing her up and down. "Thought you weren't interested in him?"

Y/N could tell almost immediately he was jealous, which gave her a rough guess on how long he was watching them speak. "And that response hasn't changed."

He didn't belive her, which made sense as all had stuck in his head was them possibly spending a weekend in Diagon Alley together. "Right cause going to Diagon Alley with someone and having them pay for everything doesn't sound like a date."

"Believe what you want, but it isn't, and I'm not letting ruin my good mood with your jealousy." She walked past him and heard a sigh

"Fine, explain it to me then." He turned to her, still seeing her back facing him, "Explain it differently as all I saw was this person who never mentions you, and vice versa, kiss your hand and say he'd take you to Diagon Alley."

Y/N turned to face him, little surprised she wasn't going to have to argue. "One, I've known Lestrange and his family since I was a little kid. However, we have our own separate friend groups that don't really intertwine much so we don't talk much outside of class." She gestured her head so Tom would follow alongside her as they started walking.

Tom watched as she held her robe in her arms and saw her struggling to untuck her tie and remove it. He chose to stop watching her struggle and help after she tripped and fell. They stopped in the middle of the hall and Tom undid the tie for her while she continued talking.

"Second, Lestrange offered to head into Diagon Valley as a celebration."

"Celebration?" He looked up at her and handed back her tie, which she took and also folded into her robe

"I recieved a letter from one of my caretakers and starting our winter break I'll be living in my own place. Lestrange wanted to celebrate me no longer having to deal with the hell hole I've called home my entire life."

"And where is this place you've lived exactly? You explained you live with caretakers, but not in an orphanage."

"That's a story for another day, it's not a long one but it's definitely complicated."

***

"I feel as if this should be the other way around." Tom looked back at Y/N who insisted on walking to the common room entrance with him, claiming she needed to talk to Slughorn, which she didn't.

"I need to speak with Slughorn anyways, plus it's less of a cardio workout than going up a spiral staircase." Tom came to almost a complete stop and turned to look at her. "Tom, you okay?"

"I'm...sorry for jumping to conclusions."

Y/N smiled and shook her head, waving her hand a little "No, it's fine I get it sounds bad without context-"

She paused when she felt Tom take hold of her hand and place a gentle kiss to it. "And...I'm happy for you, even though I don't get why leaving your caretakers is a big accomplishment." He lets go of her hand and gave a respectful bow before leaving in the direction of the Slythering dorms.

Y/N blinked a few times and heard quiet whispers of passerbys, who weren't sure they witness Tom Riddle showing real affection towards someone, or if it was just another witch he chose to charm I order to gain something. And if Y/N hadn't spent an entire week watching him wreak of jealousy, she'd be in the same boat.

However, she knew it was real, which shocked her far more as she never thought Tom would actually show any kind of affection infront of anything, not even the portraits. She looked at her hand and smiled, walking her way out of the dungeon and taking the trek back to her dorm in the Ravenclaw Tower.