From Her Reflection {tom riddle}

part xx - testimony

A/n: I wanted this story to be a slow burn but some readers said it was a little too slow so I'm going to try and compress the chapters so that they're longer (since I'm anticipating a long story) Ok that's all -enjoy!

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The night before Fleamont Potter's trial

Y/n waited anxiously in her dorm, her fingers tightly gripped around her quill. 

School had quickly reopened following the capture of Genevive's "murderer", and the students of the school were more than happy to go back to their normal ways. 

But nothing was ever normal, not anymore. 

There was a dark cloud that hung above Y/n, one that had remained by her side since the day her parents announced the news to her. She spent days in her room, begging her parents to contact the Minister to alert them of the mistake they had made. Although her parents wanted to believe and support her, their say in the matter barely outweighed Genevieve's parents who were eager to throw the culprit in Azkaban.

Since her arrival at Hogwarts, Y/n had not seen Tom, and some part of her wished she had. She tried to owl as many students she knew to defend Fleamont's name at the trial, but most either thought he really did murder Genevieve or were too scared to speak out. Even Edward Woods was hesitant about speaking at the trial. But no one could blame him, he was wedged at the crossroads between his best friend and deceased lover.

But Tom knew about Fleamont's incompetence, and he knew that Fleamont could never commit the atrocity that he was accused of. Y/n depended on his words, as unreliable as they were. 

She wanted to owl to him and drop it off in front of his dorm, but even then she struggled to produce the right words. She didn't want to come off as needy- no, that was the last thing she wanted to do. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and Y/n had to swallow her pride for the sake of her friend. 

She wrote the note quickly and slipped it under his door before retreating to the end of his corridor. She crouched on the floor and pressed her stomach against the wall, peering her head past the corner, only ducking when Tom came outside to see who had sent him the note. 

As his eyes skimmed Y/n's signature that was signed at the bottom of the letter, Y/n could see a slight smirk crawling onto his face before he crumpled the note and reentered his room. 

Now, all Y/n could do was wait for Tom's next move. 

--

It had been several restless hours of waiting, waiting for Tom's response. 

She replayed his reaction in his mind, hoping to retain the memory of his brief smile, a memory that seemed to lighten her mood even during her darkest hour. 

She sat in the common room, thinking that it would be easier for him to approach her in a public area than in a room as intimate as her dorm. But even after the sun had set and moonlight had consumed the Slytherin common room, Tom did not appear to leave his room once. 

That was until Tom finally caught up to Y/n, who was defeatedly sulking in her dorm's corridor on her way back to bed. He had caught her by surprise, which made her jump and let out the small yelp. Tom chuckled softly as Y/n slapped away at the hand that had poked her so suddenly. 

"Don't scare me like that, Riddle." Y/n glued her eyes to the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with the 'monster' she had just begged to help her. 

"Sorry, I just thought this would be the right time to-" He paused to hand Y/n a large envelope which was addressed to Minister Moon himself. "-discuss your letter."