ethereal | tom riddle.

library

"I'm not speaking to you, Tom. Take a hint, will you?" Eliza said through her door as Tom knocked on her door. He ignored what she said and opened the door, inviting himself in. "Leave me alone, you twat." She turned away from him, busying herself with her jewellery on the bedside drawer.

"I could've been changing, you know?" Eliza muttered.

"Nothing I haven't seen. We need to do our Potions project."

"I told you, I'll do it with someone else."

"No, you won't." He sighed. "Look here, will you?" Grudgingly, Eliza turned to look at him, her arms folded against her chest. "Good. Let's go to the library now and finish off at least the first half of the research, okay?"

"You clearly don't seem to be giving me a choice."

"Finally you understand. Now come, my darling." They were already in their uniforms, having just had classes end less than an hour before.

Against her will, she got up from her bed and fixed her hair in the mirror and straightened up her skirt, pressing down the pleats.

Tom looked as perfect as ever, with his shirt untucked with the first few buttons undone, blazer without a single crease and hair set in a wonderfully messy manner.

As she thought that, her mind quickly went back to her thoughts of him in her dream with his hair ruffled, shirt off and blazer tossed to the side.

"You forget I can read your thoughts, darling." The amused look made its way back to his face as he said that, smirking slightly.

"I swear to Salazar, I will not come to the library if you say anything like that, Tom. I'm not joking." She shot him the meanest look she could muster which only made him want to laugh. He kept it in however, knowing how much work it would be to convince her to come with if he laughed again.

They walked down to the library, Eliza angrily stomping in front of him as he casually strolled behind her. People gave them funny looks, but didn't think about it for long since they were used to seeing them behave strangely.

They made their way into a private little corner of the library. It was always quiet there and most people didn't go that far in so it was a good place to focus.

They split up and looked for any books they could find for their report on Wolfsbane for their Potions project. They met back at their table with stacks of books and began reading through them in silence. They noted down all the information they found useful on their notepads, both extremely involved in their work.

No one disturbed them in their corner, extremely distant from the usual places people would sit at. An hour later, they'd managed to finish off all the research they had needed to put the project together.

Eliza threw her head back against the chair, sighing as she looked at the ceiling. She rubbed her eyes, taking the books and going to put them back where she found them.

Tom did the same, returning before her. He sat on the chair waiting for her to come back, looking through her notes as he did.

They left the library together going over whatever they'd found out, and underlining important points they wanted to cover.

"Tom, I'm cold." Eliza said as they walked through the court yard. It was breezy and there was a tinge of cold in the air and in that moment she regretted not getting her blazer.

"I can't control the weather, Eliza." He scoffed, shaking his head.

"Could've offered me your blazer." She glared up at him, rubbing her hands against each other for warmth.

"It's your fault for not getting your own."

"Sometimes I don't know why I'm friends with you." She said. He, however, ignored her words and continued to talk about the research.

Realising she was not going to be of any use if she was angry at him, he sighed as he stopped walking. He took off his blazer and gave it to her. "Will you pay attention now?" He asked, as she put on his blazer and wrapped it around herself.

"Yes. Yes, I will." She gave him a bright smile, her mood drastically different when he gave her what she wanted.

They reached his dorm, going inside. Eliza took her usual place in his bed and he sat on the chair of his study desk. By the time they had reached there, all their information had been sorted and categorised.

Tom put the notepads in the drawer and got up. He began unbuttoning his shirt as Eliza traced little flowers onto Tom's plain black bedsheets. When she looked up to see what he was doing, her eyes widened.

She looked away suddenly, and spoke with her voice being higher pitched than usual. "What are you doing?!"

"Are you alright? I'm changing into something else. It's too uncomfortable to wear the uniform." He raised an eyebrow. "Don't behave as though you haven't seen me like this before."

"I-well," she sputtered. "Stop doing this."

"Doing what?" He smirked, coming closer and sitting down on the bed knowing all well what he was doing.

"You know what I'm talking about." She looked him up and down, referring to his shirt not being on.

"Why are you so suddenly against this? You were perfectly fine with this a few days ago." Tom questioned, despite knowing the answer to those questions. He edged closer, using his hand to turn her face towards him. His hand on her face slipped down to her neck, using his thumb to hold her face in place.

"You know very well the answer to that question." She didn't look away then, holding his gaze with the same intensity as he did hers.

"I think I do. But hearing them from that pretty little mouth of yours would be so much better." His grip on her neck didn't waver as she looked down at his lips and back up to his eyes.

"Tom?" Abraxas knocked rapidly on the door. "Tom?" Eliza and Tom pulled back from each other with a start, springing apart. As Abraxas walked through the door, he processed what he had walked in on.

What he saw was a shirtless Tom with a breathless Eliza sitting on the bed together a little too close. But he didn't question it. The two worked in strange ways and Abraxas had officially given up on trying to understand them.

"Are you two coming for dinner?"

"Yes. We are." Tom answered, standing up and taking out another shirt to wear.

"I'll be waiting in the common room with the others." Abraxas looked between them, before going to close the door.

"Wait! I'll come with." Eliza followed Abraxas out, tying her hair with the ribbon again.

*
a/n: i feel like this is just right down Tom's lane to do shit like this and i love it