"Biscuit?" SLUGHORN PLOPPED onto a vacant recliner, extending a handful of sweets. The mere sight made Bella nauseous.
She had been so close to sabotaging everything she's been working for, so very close to baring vulnerability to evil incarnate.
Her moment of weakness may have destroyed all chances she had with overpowering Tom. He now knew she had developed feelings for him, courtesy of her breakdown, and he could use that information to his advantage.
"No, thank you. I'm quite alright," she says with a sly smirk, getting into character.
Slughorn shrugs and pops a sugary treat into his mouth, "Now, what is it you need my dear?"
Bella sighs, and now wondering if Tom had tuned in, begins to recite what she could recall from the memory she was once shown by her dear friend Harry in confidence.
"I was visiting the library the other day, the Restricted Section, and I came across something rather odd about a bit of rare magic." Confusion is apparent on the professor's face, but he gestures for her to continue. "It's called, as I understand it, a Horcrux."
This prompts him to choke on his bonbon. "I beg your pardon?" Spurs Slughorn. Bella feels the weight of another's gaze and realizes not only is Tom analyzing Slughorn's mind, but her own as well.
She tries clearing her mind but she cannot block his attempts while keeping an intelligible conversation.
"Horcrux. I spotted the term while reading and I didn't fully comprehend it," Bella answers, though she was very familiar with the matter.
The professor reaches for a pineapple, "I'm not sure what it was you were reading, Bella, but this is very dark stuff. Very dark indeed." There's a faint warning behind his words. You're treading in turbid waters, dearie.
Bella locks eyes with the confused man, perched high on his chair.
"Which is why I came to you." She was aware of his growing suspicion yet she made no move to console him, as she secretly hoped he would not indulge her any longer.
Slughorn pauses for a moment, "A Horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul." The once soft lighting now seemed to be blinding. "One splits one's soul and hides part of it in an object. By doing so, you are protected, should you be attacked and your body destroyed."
Bella leans forwards slightly, "Protected, meaning?"
A harsh tapping interrupts the professor, allotting him a quick escape. "Perhaps, we could leave this tête-à-tête in unquestioning purgatory, Miss Ambroius?"
Before Bella can detest, Tom jerks her towards the door, earning a mild protest from Slughorn. "Mister Riddle, what brings you here so late? Have the night terrors returned?" He mumbles something under his breath along the lines of I thought we had long tamed those qualms.
Bella's curiosity skyrockets, but Tom drags Bella closer to the exit more fervently than before. She glances up to see his jaw clenched and eyes glaring. "Are you ill?" She questions incredulously. He doesn't acknowledge her concern and slams the chamber doors behind him, leaving a nonplussed Slughorn behind.
They're both alone in the desolate hall, with everyone having returned to their dorms and common rooms.
The moonlight drops onto the pathway, giving Bella a clear view to the blood seeping from Tom's shoes.
![HEAT [sabrina x billie fanfiction] by sheeshwhatshappening](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/389472203-80-k22781.jpg)
Tom moves quickly down the corridor in hopes of evading her inevitable drilling. She huffs and tries matching his steady pace, though ultimately fails. In one swift motion, he has her pinned against the wall, only her heavy breathing filling the uncomfortable silence. Bella decides to address the elephant in the room, it being the suspicious goo exuding from his leather Oxford's.
"My intention is not to pry, but what the hell did you do while I was gone? You're breaking a sweat, what's gotten you so rattled?" Tom groans and tightens his grasp on her arm.
He avoids her gaze and fiddles with her hair, "I was attending to some personal business. Nothing to concern you with." His nonchalance is even more provoking than his secrecy, Bella decides.
"I'll have you know that everything you do, every slight action or occurrence, concerns me. You're unpredictable, impulsive, insolent, hazardous and, and," she sputters in one long, exhausting breath, "high-risk!"
She was beyond tired of his antics. Not only was she risking her own mission by helping Tom, but now he had the nerve to exclude her in his shenanigans.
This angered Tom, spouting back angrily, "And are you not just as exhausting? For weeks I've tolerated your incessantly contradicting and witty banter. You've served as nothing but a distraction from my endeavors, that while it may serve as a blow to your ego, are warranted crypticality.
Life has been unfathomably sterile with your company the past few months and it's proving time to unburden my load." Before he can get another jab in Bella lets out an racking sob. Tom retracts a bit and drops the wand he hadn't before realized was dangling threateningly over Bella. His face hardens and he watches as she falls to her knees.
Kneeling, Tom reaches out to her but is struck down by a powerful force.
"Strike her not, you insufferable prick." Tom's eyes dart up to meet Malfoy's.
Salvaging whatever strength she had preserved, Bella looks up to find Malfoy with her wand rendering Tom incapacitated, invisible shackles contraining him to the floor.
"You must've know this was bound to happen, it's been a long time coming," says Malfoy, a fire in her eyes.
"For months I've sat idly by and allowed you to toy with my brother and every other venerable dense drone akin; no longer shall I relinquish my liberty." She decides this is optimum time to jeer further at Riddle.
"You're a real dick, you know."
She sends Bella a coy smirk, "And a bittersweet sight this is, you pitifully kowtow before me." Lorelai spares one last glance to Bella and loses her composure, as well as her grip on Riddle.
Tom doesn't waste a moment before moving.
"Crucio!" A stifling shriek reverberates through Malfoy as she drops to the floor. Tom draws closer to the now languishing Lorelai, making sure to relish in the role reversal. He releases a throaty chuckle and there is an indescribable flare to his irises, one that Bella can only dub as deranged.
"You dare disrespect me? I knew you were a vapid girl, but I knew not the extend of your fatuity." A single tear cascades down Malfoy's face as her screams become subdued. He wags a thoughtful finger in the air, "As for me being a dick. That's a stretch, don't you think? I'm the righteous one, the scholar, the athlete, the ethereal godsend to all those who blindly worship me."
He pauses, "Why, if I were to, say, tediously and malignantly murder Bella right here and now; how affected would anyone really be. A few tears may be shed, a shrine perhaps would be made in spirit. A tribute by some, no doubt, half-baked gospel shmuck. Moral of the story, because God knows I don't enjoy hearing myself speak, is none would suspect me for a second. Hell, they could have a voluntary confession and configure a way to sweep it under the rug."
Tom laughs maniacally, with a hint of insanity laced with his words, "I'm invincible!"
It takes all within Bella not to laugh, he looked like sheer lunacy. No wonder he has no true friends, he's works himself up so easily, in mere moments!
Bella pipes up, "Consider me intimidated. Now, leave Lorelai out of this. She means you no harm."
This jerks Tom out of whatever spell he was trapped in long enough for Malfoy to scurry away. Before she turns the corner Bella caught her frantically muttering, "Dark magic, dark magic, dark magic." She sounded like a broken record. Poor thing, she had no idea what she was up against.
With weak limbs, Bella peeled herself off the ground and steadied herself. "A bit of help would be terrific, considering you just sentenced me to execution for the sake of a punchline."
Acclimating to the new candid girl before him, Tom comes to her aid. "I didn't mean it."
Bella sighs and lays her head on his shoulder, "If we're to ever be a double act you've got to give me some kind of signal, a cue. That was pure improvising on my end, but I'm sure crazy comes like a second nature for you. Anyways, how did you know she was coming?"
"I have my ways," Riddle quips. For a moment, Bella wonders if she had made the right choice. Should she have frightened Malfoy away, but files that thought under 'for another time.'
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that was a lot, i know. but i had to get a lot of that out of the way for what's to come, and i yearn to get on to the fun stuff.
i bid you adieu
