Broken Wings / tom riddle

Chapter 44 - Breaking

Briar woke lying next to Tom in the room of requirement. He must have brought her here last night. She felt the rise and fall of his chest against her back.

Her eyes were swollen and puffy, the result of the rivers she'd cried last night. Briar shift to face Tom's still sleeping face. Her hand crept towards his cheek and stroked it softly, with that, he woke.

He blinked a few times and then looked into her eyes. Don't ask, she thought. Don't ask, she prayed. She would never be able to tell him, so she wished he would never ask again. Instead he said something that surprised her, "Are you okay?" Briar kissed him.

She was not okay. She would never be okay ever again. Sorrow was all she'd ever known, she was a fool for believing the universe would let her know something else. But she could not let Tom know that. "I'm fine." She sat up.

"You we're not fine last night. What did Albus tell you?"

"Nothing," she said with a small burst of anger. "He told me nothing. I was just being stupid and thought I wanted to face my boggart again, for extra training. It just scared me more than I thought it would." It was a pathetic lie, but she hoped he would believe it. Tom had always viewed her as emotionally weak, now she was using that to her advantage.

"Are you sure?" He sat up now and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Can I do anything?"

Briar turned to kiss him once more. "This," she said, tugging at the band of his pants.

"Briar, you're sad. I don't want to take adv-"

"This will make me happy," she whispered in his ear before straddling him.

Every time he touched her body, she tried to remember the sensation. Not only the physical, but the emotional, the spiritual. The feeling as though she was on top of the world every time he would whisper something sinful, or moan in ecstasy.

As soft grunts and feminine moans filled the room. Briar was not only lost in his rhythm, but everything about him. The way someone so rigid could let down his walls, for her eyes only. The way that someone so powerful, could become so needy for her body. The way someone so cruel, could care enough to ask if she was okay. And the way someone who could not feel love was providing her with the closest feeling of it she had ever felt.

An enigma to solve was Tom Riddle, and just when she was beginning to, she would lose him.

____

"Where are we going, Emeralds?" Aleks asked as he swatted a butterfly away from his face.

"My clothes are far too expensive to become covered in dirt," Abraxas said.

"Just stop complaining for a minute, it'll be worth it I promise."

The group of six made their way through the forest. Stopping at the wall of vines. "Come on," Briar said pulling them back. The boys entered the open forest space.

"This is," Casper could not finish his sentence.

"Merlin, why'd you keep this from us?" Aleks asked, pacing around area.

"It was my quiet place, but I figured I should share it with people I love." She interlocked her fingers with Tom's. "I brought us a picnic." She lifted the basket.

"We're not exactly the picnic type of group," Lestrange said.

"Well today we're one. Sit down." They exchanged looks before sitting down on the grass.