Disgustingly sweet | Tom Riddle

chapter 1

The fire from the fireplace dimmly lit the Slytherin common room. Alice listened to the soft crackles of the flames as her eyes tiredly slid over the pages. She grew bored of the book's content having already memorised all of the potion recipes ages ago. What kept her seated in the dark arm chair towards the corner of the room was her curiosity about him. The charming golden student.

Almost in the middle of the room quite a few yards away from her a group of boys sat on the posh looking sofas. Their usual talkativeness was replaced with anxious silence. She wondered why. Alice turned to the next page eyeing the boys over the edge of her book. She knew a few of their names from classes. Avery kept nervously bouncing his right leg while Nott emotionlessly stared into the fire and Lestrange fiddled with his thumbs. They looked rather pathetic.

The faint but clear sound of shoes tapping against the cold floor outside the room getting louder by the second snapped Alice out of her thoughts. She lead her eyes back to the old cream coloured pages as the door to the common room swung open. It was him. She didn't look. She just knew it.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

People would lie if they said they didn't fantasize about being someone Riddle would voluntarily talk to even once. The only thing bigger than the admiration everyone felt for him was the respect towards him.

The steps stopped approximately in front of the fire place. She turned to the next page still not even glancing towards him.

"Everybody is dismissed."

His confident and stern voice erased any possible doubts she might have had about his identity. The few other students besides Alice and the group of boys hastily crammed together their belongings and immediately left the room making their way to their according dormitories.

Alice just flipped to the next page instead.
After that she could practically feel the groups gazes burn trough the back of her book.

The boys started nervously glancing between her and Riddle. A moment later Riddle would adress her for the first time. They did have classes together but he never seemed to notice her. Just like the most girls.

"Do you require a special invitation to leave?"

His voice was like velvet but she didn't like his tone. Alice slightly raised her brows, her eyes still glued to the book.

"As far as I know you don't own the common room.", her voice was rather monotonous with a slight hint of mockery. She flipped to the next page.

Riddle wasn't amused by the disrespect.

"You don't seem to know who you're talking to?"

One of the boys whose name she didn't know decided to interfere before Riddles' mood worsened:

"Miss you should really be going now. Please it's for your own good." His voice sounded almost pleading.

"Don't worry I won't bother your little meeting."

Every fourth Thursday evening they would gather there talking about who knows what. She tried to eavesdrop a few times but they would put a spell on the room making it impossible to understand what they were saying. This time Alice wanted to find out.

"But you see it's a private 'little meeting'."

For a moment it was quite. Her eyes were still glued to the pages.

"A private meeting? Huh. Pretty stupid to hold it in the common room then."

Lestrange tried to hide his chuckle.