She Saved Me | Tom Riddle

Adjusting

How do you think Tom will handle things??

6| Adjusting

Some time has passed since Ava left Tom to acquaint himself to his new room. Maybe an hour has passed, possibly two, he wasn't sure. He now sat on the edge of the bed thinking over everything that had taken place that day and what his stipulations are for the next months. As much as he would like to ignore it, his mind kept going back to his impending trial. He had no clue what will take place during the trial and how it will turn out. Dumbledore was adamant that Tom will be returning back to Hogwarts as a student again-although to Tom it wasn't 'again'-assuming the trial will end in Tom's favor. How could it? He was going to trial for the acts his older counterpart committed, since the two are considered to be different by those who are aware of him, and he wasn't as confident as Dumbledore.

No longer wanting to think on it, Tom ran his hands through his hair and closed his eyes trying to push down his thoughts. A minute later, he heard a knock on the door, which he assumed was Ava.

After giving her permission to enter, Ava came through the door and leaned against it. "Dinner will be ready in a bit, if you want to make your way downstairs."

Tom stood up and straightened out his clothes. "Thank you." He looked at her and noticed she had changed clothes into something more comfortable. He was only wearing his slacks and white shirt from his school uniform, the old uniform.

"Sure. We don't have to go down right away if it will help you." Ava crossed her arms loosely and gave him a half smile."I'm not sure if it will just be us tonight or if my sister will be home."

"You have a sister?" Tom asked this more out of forced politeness rather than genuine curiosity.

Ava nodded. "I have an older brother, Emmett, and a younger sister, Lizzie. She will be starting at Hogwarts this year actually."

"She's quite a bit younger than you then. How much older is your brother ?"

"He is four years older than me so yeah, there's a good difference in age." There was a pause. "If you get the chance to meet him, you'll notice he doesn't look like us."

That piqued Tom's interest. "Why is that?"

"He's adopted." Ava shrugged slightly when Tom looked surprised by that. "When my parents were younger, a few years after they married, they didn't plan on starting a family right away." She paused thinking of how to word the explanation. "They were into a lot of charity work and they happened to go to an orphanage one time. There, a little boy, only around one, caught their attention. They realized he was different, that he was magical." Ava shifted and turned her gaze to the ground before continuing, "They couldn't just leave him. Then four years later, they had me and when I was seven my sister was born."

"How..interesting." Tom trailed off after that, unsure of what to say.

Ava wasn't sure if Tom cared or if he was just making polite conversation. Either way, it didn't really matter since she answered his questions. "Anything else you want to know right now?"

"I don't believe so," Tom placed his hands behind his back and laced them together, "I will think of something else I'm sure."

"Okay, well we should probably go downstairs so we're ready to eat. Otherwise my mom might come drag us down herself." Ava laughed slightly at that and was glad she was coaxed a tiny smile out from Tom. That in itself was an achievement.

Ava moved out of the door for Tom to exit his room, waiting until he was standing in the hallway fully and he had closed the door. She turned around and started towards the stairs after Tom was ready. They almost reached the bottom of the stairs when she heard her parents talking and a third voice had joined them, a higher pitched voice. She was already smiling as she reached the landing before she heard her name yelled in a loud squeak. A second later, a small body was flung towards her almost knocking her over. Ava started laughing and hugged the small body that was of a child, her little sister.