Sacred Silence | A Tom Riddle Story

6: Prefect duties, again.

Siobhan scattered into the small classroom 5 minutes late. She tucked some loose strands of hair back behind her ears and sat down quickly. The 8 prefects and 8 head boys and girls all sat in a large circle around a couple of pushed together desks.

Placing her bag beside her, she leaned back into her chair and listened as the Gryffindor head boy, who she had seen before at the slugclub, listed all the topics they had to discuss today.

Shiv spent the first 10 minutes observing, as the Slytherin head boy and Hufflepuf head girl got into a heated argument about Slytherin students sneaking into the kitchens at night.
Shivs fellow Ravenclaw prefect Leon Davies tried to defend the Hufflepuf by saying the Slytherins rarely disciplined their own students.

'Well, if you like to criticize us, I'd like to point out the fact that Selwyn still hasn't developed a sense of time management.' Tom spoke out of nowhere.

'Cunt..' Shiv mumbled under her breath.

Tom's eyes shot her way, as if he heard her. He narrowed his eyes at her, waiting for her to respond.

'I'm aware of it, I'm trying.' Shiv spoke stoic, without breaking eye contact with Tom.

'Well, you're not trying hard enough.'

The two were staring each other down and the room went quiet.
Tom didn't allow people to talk back to him in a way that undermined his authority. But as always, Shiv was stubborn and hated backing down.

'I'm sorry, your highness.' Shiv spoke most politely. She gave a small smile that was hard to take seriously.
She turned to Leon. 'Wait no, I heard they're forced to call him lord these days.' She turned her head back to face Tom and didn't change her cold smile.

The Slytherin girl prefect opened her mouth to defend Tom, but he raised a flat hand slightly to silence her.

'It's okay Melodie, not everyone can handle criticism well.' Tom directed himself to Leon. 'I suppose you give your colleague one last try before we decide to give the position to someone a little more.. deserving.' He seemed to pick that last word with care.

Shiv bit the inside of her lip to make herself shut up. She knew she was a chaotic mess most of the time, and she had to step up in that department.
She made a small sarcastic salute and mumbled something alone the lines of 'Yes, captain.'

The group discussed all the other topics, but Siobhan didn't speak a word. She felt frustrated and embarrassed. All she wanted to do was go back to her dorm and continue her nap.

Once in a while, she locked eyes with Tom. His face remaid expressionless. It was infuriating to see him so calm.
This last week there had been a rapid change in around who she was spending her time, and she wasn't sure she really liked the development.

Her headache seemed to slowly return. She closed her eyes and sighed. When she closed her eyes however, she wasn't faced with darkness. Juno, the knife, secrets of the darkest arts, the note her parents wrote, her bowl of cereal with a silver spoon in it.

Slightly panicked, her eyes shot back open. Looking around the room, no one seemed to have noticed her lapse in consciousness.

She was going insane. It was the only logical explanation.

Growing up in a loveless home, she was an expert at occlumency, so she crossed out the option of someone trying to get inside her head.

However.. yes, she was skilled. But she had to humble herself. There was a threat, and he was sitting across from her.
She couldn't help but realize that she had managed to outshine anyone but him. He was smart. He was cunning.