The Adventure of a Riddle

37- I Will Write You Notes

"Underneath the singing moon. Near the place where your feet pass."

She flipped a few pages of the translation book, both Tom's eyes on her as she tried to concentrate. " Hidden in the holes of your... couch? Wait no, Hidden in the holes of wintertime."

"And when you're alone for a moment—"

She stopped, snapping the book shut. Heat rose to her cheeks as she scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. Tom quirked a brow at her odd behavior, gently snatching both books to translate himself. It took him a while to find the correct pages, but when he did, he spoke with a smirk.

Picking up where she left off, he spoke in an alluring, yet slightly mocking tone. "And when you're alone for a moment, kiss me whenever you want. Kiss me, whenever you want," his eyes met hers before he repeated the final line.

"Kiss me, whenever you want."

Aurora coughed nervously into her elbow, refusing to look at either Tom Riddle in the room. She focused in on the murky ceiling of the music room, and with a tone of voice much higher than her own, she asked, "So... Er, do you, uh, come here often?" Rory winced at her own lame question.

real smooth, she thought to herself.

He took a while to respond, most likely reveling at how red her face currently was. "No," he said after a while. "I have a piano in the Room of Requirement."

She allowed her mismatched eyes to flicker over to him again before going back to the ceiling. "Right, yeah. I remember now. What song were you just playing?" She asked with actual interest.

The prefect closed the lid back over the keys, his posture perfect. "It is a piece I composed myself," he confessed, although Rory knew that he was subtly bragging.

The witch hummed in acknowledgment. "What's it called?" she entertained him, partly curious and partly wanting to stay off the topic of the poem.

His eyes glinted in mischief, a rare occurrence in itself. "It didn't have a name. Although now, I reckon that I shall name it Je Te Laisorrai Des Mots, after your riveting poem."

Rory groaned and put her face into her hands. "You're doing this to embarrass me, I just know it!"

Tom smirked, almost looking amused by her sudden shyness. "Perhaps, although you probably should have sung a poem you already knew the meaning of. You brought it upon yourself."

She lifted her face from her hands to look at him again. "Or perhaps," she spoke almost defiantly, "you do not need to know the meaning. Maybe it is more beautiful left a mystery. Maybe not knowing makes you appreciate it more."

Tom looked at her almost condescendingly. "I disagree. Knowledge is power, and power is something that I can appreciate."

Rory sighed. "Why did you really come here, Tom? Are you here to get revenge for our duel?" she asked mockingly.

He sat up a bit straighter, all light-heartedness gone. He tapped a pale finger to his chin for a few seconds, examining her as he did so. "No," he spoke calmly. Rory raised her eyebrows, wanting him to just get on with it already.

"You intrigue me," he confessed after a while.

"When I first met you, I'll admit that I thought that I had you figured out. Aurora Pink, an obnoxious girl who claimed to know Dark Magic on the carriage ride— when really, I thought you nothing more than a witless buffoon."