Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter eight: Blibbering Humdingers

Fighting with half a soul that's aching to be whole.
If you could only see what I see.
Recklessly running from the demons your heart hold,
can hide behind the scars that they leave.
Dreamer (Stripped Down) - Mokita feat. Kaptan

Love, love is a verb.
Love is a doing word.
Fearless on my breath.
Teardrop - Massive Attack

•

"I have a question for you, Lovegood," said Tom. They were in Potions, standing on opposite sides of the table as they resumed work on their Veritaserum. He had regained his composure after the conversation at breakfast, though he was still annoyed at his own behavior. Luna Lovegood, for reasons he had yet to elucidate, puzzled him, made him feel raw and unprotected and decipherable. Once Luna looked up at him over their cauldron, he continued, "Something occurred to me after we spoke at breakfast."

"Yes, Tom?"

"You mentioned that your mother died in front of you when you were younger."

"Yes, Tom."

"But the night we met, you said your mother wanted you to come to Hogwarts for an exchange year rather than returning to Koldovstoretz."

Luna blinked, but otherwise did not react. "Yes, Tom."

He leveled a triumphant look at her. "So is your mother a ghost, or do you admit you were lying to me?"

"Yes, Tom." She returned to prepping their potion ingredients.

He frowned. "What do you mean, 'Yes, Tom'? Yes, your mother is a ghost, or yes, you lied? And don't say 'yes, Tom!'"

Infuriatingly, the girl nodded and didn't look back at him.

"Admit you're a liar!" He slammed his palm down on the table in frustration with such force that Professor Slughorn looked over and called, "Ho, there, Tom! No destroying the furniture!"

"I apologize, Professor," said Tom, his voice immediately dripping with obsequiousness.

"And you say that I'm a liar."

Tom jerked his head around in Luna's direction at the words, but she was gazing off into space and humming, as though she had said nothing at all.

                                  •

September faded into October in concert with the leaves on the trees fading to new colors. In Potions each week, Tom scornfully ignored Luna Lovegood as she insisted on rambling about various subjects while they worked on their Veritaserum. One day it was gulping plimpies. The next it was a detailed list of conspiracy theories regarding the Ministry of Magic. Another day, she could not stop talking about her Mudblood friend, Litner. Regardless, Tom made a point of looking as uninterested as humanly possible...though this did not, to his chagrin, seem to deter her much.

And though someone would have had to Crucio it out of him, he also found that in quiet moments, in the library or while pacing the halls of the castle at night, if he wasn't vigilant, his mind would occasionally wander towards thoughts of her, like a curious child towards something interesting he'd seen on the ground. Was she really related to Dumbledore? Where had she really come from? Why couldn't he intimidate her? Why couldn't he read her? What exactly did she know about him? What exactly did she see when she looked at him? What would he have to do to get answers from her?