Catharsis [Tom Riddle]

Chapter Forty-Three

"Get off the table, it's vintage!" he yelled, yanking two girls off of it before his eyes landed on Xavier, who was pouring firewhiskey into a girl's mouth, half the contents spilling onto the carpet. "I swear on Merlin's grave-"

Meanwhile, Avalon laughed as she and Orion danced together in the center of the room. She had gone easy on the drinking, though still felt giddy enough to be incapable of stopping the giggles from escaping her lips. Orion took her hand and spun her around, the two of them enjoying the night as they were surrounded by swarms of other drunk students and strangers. As he twirled her, though, her eyes caught a brief glimpse of Tom.

He was standing in the corner of the room, surrounded by a group of gawking girls and jealous guys, all of them fawning for the future Head Boy's attention, but his eyes were focused only on Avalon.

She gently took a hold of Orion's arm and gave it a little squeeze, zoning the drunk blond's attention back onto her. "Mind if I go talk to Tom for a moment?"

"Oh no, have I upset him by stealing his girlfriend?" he gasped, laughing when she whacked him across the chest.

"Next time, I'll hex you," she warned, earning a wide grin from her beaming friend as she walked off toward Tom. Before she even reached him, he excused himself from the rest of the group and met her halfway. Though, instead of greeting her, he grabbed her by the wrist and started dragging her to the side of the room, distanced from everyone else. "This isn't the direction of either of our bedrooms," she said jokingly.

He didn't say anything until they reached the far left side of the expansive room. When they were far enough from the rest of the group, he finally dropped her arm and took a step back before crossing his arms, giving her a stern look.

She looked up at him, a blissfully ignorant grin stretched across her lips as she put her hands on her hips and lightly bounced up and down on her toes. "Why so glum?"

"Having fun?" he asked, a look of slight irritation on his face.

"Yes, actually," she smiled. "Orion and I were having a grand time since it appeared my previous dance partner was uninterested," she said, referring to their dance at the Yule Ball. "And I've told you a million times that Orion and I are only friends."

"Does he know that?" he asked, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice.

She couldn't help but laugh to herself as she thought about how Tom had absolutely no idea that one of his inner circle friends had an entire secret girlfriend that he didn't know about. "You do realize Orion is the one that shoves us together every chance he gets, right? Surely, you've picked up on that, Mr. Head Boy?" she paused for a moment before adding, "I mean, it's not like you were going to dance with me, were you?"

"I--"

"The answer is no you wouldn't," she said, cutting him off. "So my options were Xavier and Adonis, who want me dead... Mulciber," she said, her eyes landing on Demitri across the room, his tongue shoved down the back of some girl's throat, "who appears to be preoccupied... That guy," she said pointing to a random Slytherin who had his tie wrapped around his sweaty forehead, shuddering before adding, "who seems like a real charmer... and Orion. Tell me, Tom, who would you rather I dance with?"

"How much have you had to drink?" he asked, shaking his head.

"The better question is, why haven't you had anything to drink?" she retorted, her focus zoning in on the glass of spiked butterbeer in his hands. "Is that butterbeer?" she asked, laughing. "What are we, Tom? Twelve?"

"We need to discuss," his words were cut off when she tried to snatch his drink away, but he just raised it out of her reach and laughed, "your drinking problem tomorrow."