Death's Daughter || Tom Riddle

Invitation | 12

The next day, Caelum noticed Abraxas being a bit more distant than usual. Perhaps last night seemed to have knocked something into his thick skull that he, did not want to join their club. It was when Nyx and he attended one of their classes for the day, Potions. Professor Slughorn had separated the two and paired them up with other students who managed their way into the N.E.W.T. class. Coincidentally, he was paired with the Malfoy Heir whilst his best friend was paired with Henry Grooves. A much meaner and darker version of his twin, Hunter Grooves.

The two friends made their way to their pairs and sat beside them. One Caelum got closer to Abraxas, he noticed some bruises around his arms and face. He had black shadows under his eyes and looked extremely exhausted. When he tried gesturing to the blonde boys' bruises, Abraxas winced and retreated from his hand.

This took Caelum by surprise. What could have happened to him? And then, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Tom Riddle, watching the pair interact.

Riddle.

Riddle was definitely behind his friend's sufferings. It was obvious Riddle was the leader of his small group of Pure-bloods and his friends worshipped him. He thought of the idea of him accepting the offer Abraxas had proposed.

Would he have ended up like him if he failed to do something?

He shook the thought out of his head and started reading the instructions on the board.

Nyx made her way to the boy who resembled so much of Hunter she could have mistaken him for the same person. But if it wasn't for the way he held himself like he was their ruler and his absent smile.

She sat down beside him and they got to work silently. He went to get the ingredients while she set up the cauldron.

They were getting along quite well, to be honest.

"What's your relationship with Hunter?"

Never mind, the one topic she didn't want to discuss with him had to be brought up.

She continued to stir the potion clockwise and answered, "We're friends."

He gave her a disgusted look and continued. "Friends with him? The filthy Blood-traitor? Someone I am ashamed to call brother? An annoying Gryffindor? Please, you must be joking!" She didn't answer him but continued to stir and grit her teeth.

"Our family are Pure-bloods, every single descendant has been sorted into Slytherin and he broke that tradition. He became a Gryffindor and fancied a Mud-blood in his third year. How pathetic he is." He watched her reaction closely like a hunter watching their prey and she did not like it. She preferred to be the hunter and he, the hunted.

She hated how he spoke so lowly of his own brother and wanted nothing more than to hex him right on the spot. She was no blood supremacist, she held no grudge against the Muggle-borns. After all, she was a Half-blood, she had no right to say Pure-bloods were the superior when she wasn't even one.

She took in a deep breath, "Thank you, for your comment but I think I can be friends with whoever I want, so fuck off." She glared at him and went back to chop some ingredients to put into the now boiling potion.

Grooves glared at her throughout the entire class which annoyed her very much but she pretended to not even notice his existence.

She left the class early with Caelum beside her when the bell rang. They headed towards the Great Hall for lunch and sat at one of the long tables.

Like usual, Caelum started stuffing his face with large amounts of food as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. It was not long after that he started choking on his food, causing her to start patting his back. "You eat like a pig." She muttered under her breath but he seemed to have heard her. "Oh please! You say it like you're perfect," he said with his mouth full of food which made her cringe. "Swallow your food before you speak, geez."

"Like honestly, you call yourself a Black but you don't know simple eating manners."

Caelum swallowed down his food quickly, "Well at least I can dance. Dancing is harder than eating. Can you dance?"

She didn't have time to question him any further about why he chose to use 'dancing' as a defense or answer his question with a 'no' because he seemed to have remembered something a millisecond after what he had said.

"Of course! How could I forget? This Christmas, the Malfoy's are inviting Pure-blood families to attend their Christmas party or whatever they call it. My family's invited, that includes me and I need a dancing partner to go with me or else my parents are going to make me go with that dreadful girl they're planning on making me marry once I'm older. She's terrible and I prefer to stay away from her as far as possible." He paused to take in deep breaths from his ranting and continued, "And I was thinking, you don't have to say yes of course but I'm just giving it a shot, would you want to go to the party with me?" The look of desperation in his eyes was very visible and she didn't want her friend to suffer so she said yes of course.

"Yeah, sure, but I can't dance."

"Don't worry, I can teach you. We've got like, what, three months? You're a fast learner too."

He smiled at her reassuringly so she smiled back. One of the things this boy could do that others couldn't was bring a smile to her face. So far, that ability was only reserved for him and Hunter.

Tom Riddle watched the pair exchange smiles and scoffed at himself.

So far, he has opened the Chamber of Secrets and let out a monster that would once and for all, rid all the Mud-bloods. The main idea was to get rid of all the Mud-bloods, yes, but he had hoped the basilisk would cause the death of somebody quickly. He needed Nyx Rivers to meet her father again and ask for him to make another powerful wand like the Elder Wand Grindelwald is in possession of now.

But the main question was, would Death linger around the dead for a long time? Would it be long enough for Nyx to find him and speak with him?

He knew not of the answers to the questions.

He was very tempted to kill one of the students if the basilisk did not strike soon.

Rivers and Black had now gotten up from the table and began walking out of the Great Hall. He noticed the slight excitement in Black and constantly turned around to face Rivers and held up his arms to spin around an invisible person as if they were dancing. Dancing. He remembered Malfoy speaking about it at one of their meetings. It was a good opportunity to connect with other strong and powerful wizards. Malfoy had promised to get him on the list of invites and that he better find a partner to go with since coming alone was not going to be a good impression.

How stupid of him to think I would come with a girl to make a good impression. Merely my presence is a good impression enough.

So no, he had no intention of taking a girl with him. He was going solo.