She Saved Me | Tom Riddle

The Full Story

Last chapter was a doozy huh? Well, things are going to be taken down a notch. And I think it's time for a few things to be addressed..

I almost titled this chapter "healing and revealing" but thought it was a little too cheesy 😬

Listen: Madness by Ruelle

29| the full story

Ava was sitting in her cot the next morning studying her bruised side. It was hard to see everything while sitting down, but she didn't have a mirror near her to look. What she could see offered a gruesome sight. Her entire side, from her ribs to the top of her hip, was a deep purple shade. She knew better than to touch it, considering how much it stung to even shift the left side of her body. At least she didn't have anything broken anymore.

"That looks horrible."

Ava startled at the sound of Tom's voice. She dropped the side of her shirt as she snapped her gaze to him. "How long have you been standing there?" She didn't even hear him approach her. Yet there he stood, hands casually in his pockets with an amused smirk on his face.

Tom lifted a shoulder. "Long enough to get a good look." He walked closer to hover by the end of the cot. "That is quite a nasty injury."

"Well the worst of it is gone," Ava said lightly, hoping the heat she felt on her face wasn't a full-blown blush. Of course everything indecent was covered, but she was still embarrassed that he walked in on her with her shirt up. "It's just a lot of bruising. Sore bruising at that."

Tom raised a brow, "does it hurt to move still?"

Ava nodded. "Sort of. It's very uncomfortable when I'm trying to sleep as well."

"When can you leave?"

"Um," Ava started as she thought back to her conversation with Madam Pomfrey that morning, "hopefully today. If not, tomorrow morning at the latest."

Tom nodded once in acceptance. He then sat in the chair next to her cot. "You must be ready to get out of here."

Ava shrugged, "I suppose. It is a little boring sitting here for most of the day." She readjusted herself to sit back, bending one of her legs to be more comfortable. "But with you guys visiting it hasn't been too bad. Lucia, I mean Professor Ravenwood, came by earlier."

"Did she?" Tom was surprised. He knew Ava was close to the Ancient Runes Professor, but not to the point of a personal visit. "What exactly is your relationship to her again?"

"Oh," Ava said at the sudden change of topic. "Well she was mum's best friend when they were students, still is. She's my godmother actually."

Tom crossed his arms. That was interesting to learn. "I wouldn't have guessed that."

Ava breathed out a laugh, "probably not." She wrung her hands together, "I didn't think to mention it before."

"Which is understandable."

Ava sighed, "so why did you come alone this time?"

"The other two were busy arguing about something," Tom said with a roll of his eyes. "I didn't feel like waiting for them."

"Typical."

Tom smiled thinly. "If only Liam would put in the same effort to find out what happened."

Ava looked down at her lap, "there's definitely more to it than the bludger simply getting out."

"How so?"

"Tom, bludgers are the first to be secured." She glanced up at him and took a breath. "They can't just get out on their own, and they don't go after someone directly like that either."