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Persephone dreamt that night, she dreamt she was trapped in some kind of small box — the area around her dark, yet familiar, comforting. She felt safe and then she awoke, her skin erupting with thousands of tiny goosebumps as she noted that she'd kicked her sheets down the end of the bed at some point during the night.
The room was silent and she was vaguely aware of the lack of presence in the room. Her jumbled mind took a few seconds to remember that it was the weekend and her roommates were at Hogsmeade for the day.
She practically burst out of her bed and hurried to get dressed into a plain blue dress that fell to her knees and a pair of flats as she realised she finally had to chance to visit the library undisturbed. It was not that she disliked her new friends it was just that she was not awfully interested in involving herself in petty gossip and wasting time. Persephone had a thirst for knowledge, it bloomed in her heart and spread through her veins like fire — a hunger for knowledge so deeply engrained into her that she wasn't sure how she hadn't been to the library yet.
The common room and the halls were abnormally quite, the bustle of students she had seen yesterday absent allowing her a much needed reprieve from social interaction as she studied the glorious architecture that surrounded her. There was no doubt in her mind that Hogwarts was beautiful, the ancient stone walls seemingly filled with secrets and stories in every crevice, and every scratch.
Persephone entered the library, the door pushing open with ease as she breathed in the wonderful scent of old books. It was glorious to be surrounded by so much knowledge, she wasn't sure where to start. She ignored to librarians suspicious glare — their weren't many visitors to the library on a Hogsmeade Saturday — and waltzed over to the shelves with a new found confidence. She felt safe, surrounded by the books, strangely comforted.
Picking up books all on different subjects she took her impressive pile to a table in the back corner of the room and nestled herself in for a day of reading.
By the time she pulled herself out of her book haze it was night, her large stack of books only having grown, meaning she was completely submerged and hidden within their grasp — it also meant she couldn't see the boy sat patiently across from her until she removed another book from the top of her pile.
Persephone let out a choked gasp, hand clutching her chest as she felt her heart pounding beneath her flesh. The boy sat across from her merely tilting his lips up into a lazy smirk, his entire posture relaxed as he leaned back in his chair and twirled his long wand between pale thin fingers as if it was an extension of himself, "Tom, you startled me!" He simply shrugged, "how long have you been here?"
"A while," the words were spoken with such ease and she noted that this was the first time she had heard his voice. It was deeper than she had expected, a slight husk to it, "Malfoy was worried when you didn't come to dinner or the party."
"Oh, I must have lost track of time," she started moving the books to the side a bit more as to remove the barricade she had unknowingly created between them, "why did you come to look for me? You don't even know me."
His lip lifted ever so slightly as if he had heard an inside joke that he shared only with himself, "I realised I had been quite rude and abrupt at dinner last night — I wished to apologise."
Persephone had a feeling that apologising was not something he did a lot.
"It's quite alright," she cleared her throat gently as she sorted the books into two piles of things she had read and hasn't read to see what ones to check out, "why didn't you just interrupt me?"
"You looked at peace," he replied simply, "I don't particularly enjoy it when people interrupt me when I'm working."
She nodded hand reaching out to grasp another book just as Tom did. Gasping as their skin made contact she pulled back like she'd been burned as the boy held onto the book, "May I ask why you're reading a book on Alchemy?"
"I was reading about the ouroboros. It's the common room password and it interested me — I wanted to see if I could find a drawing of it." She shook her head, "No such luck."
"The ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and continual renewal of life." He looked deep in thought as he told her before suddenly picking up her quill and a blank piece of parchment — his fingers moving at an impressive speed across the page while she watched transfixed.
It took him a few minutes, and then he turned the parchment to face her, it was beautifully horrifying — a snake consuming it's own tale, stuck in a cycle of destruction and rebirth.
"Thank you." Persephone's words were spoken so softly she wasn't sure Tom had heard her until she received a small nod of acknowledgment. "So you're an artist?"
"I dabble," he spoke humbly — though she had no doubt he found it hard to keep the smugness out of his voice. They're was more to Tom Riddle than what was on the surface. "What about you?"
"I— I have no idea." Her words were honest and she was once again reminded of her painful lack of knowledge of herself. She could learn and learn, read every book in the library but she still wouldn't know herself. That wasn't something she could find in a book, "Well it's been a long day, I best get to bed." Despite the fact that she hadn't eaten since the previous evening she felt strangely fine, her hunger for knowledge having been sated for now at least.
Tucking her hair behind her ear she stood and placed over half of the books back in their rightful places before checking out the books she still had to read. Struggling to open the door as she carried all the books, Persephone let out a breath of relief as the weight was removed from her arm, "Let me." Tom's smooth voice sounded from beside her as he used his wand to levitate the pile of books to follow behind them.
"Thank you... again."
Persephone let out a nervous laugh, focusing on her shoes and the specs of dust and dirt she could see on the floor, "My pleasure." Had she been looking into those cold blue eyes she may have seen the scheme forming in them, or the cunning twist of his lips.
Then again maybe she wouldn't have seen it beneath his mask.
AUTHORS NOTE! Do I have online uni class in the morning? Quite possibly, who knows if my lecture will be off for the third week in a row. It's almost 2am but I was desperate to get a chapter out as I haven't been able to write much as I've been stressing trying to organise a house for next year and stuff. Very stressful — so sorry if this isn't great just wanted to get something up!
Thanks for reading! Remember to vote, comment and or share please lovelies!
Unedited -summer
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