Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter nine: Nargles

"Good morning! And happy Halloween!" Slughorn said. He chuckled as Luna's phoenix hat extended its wings out, requiring him to duck to avoid being struck in the face. "You boys are all going to make it to my Slug Club party tonight, won't you?"

"Of course, sir," Tom said as Avery, Malfoy, Nott, and Lestrange nodded unctuously.

Slughorn clapped his hands. "Excellent! I shall see you all at seven o'clock sharp, then. And Miss Lovegood," he added, turning back to her, "if you keep up the excellent work in Potions, I might just have to invite you to the next Slug Club party! What with being Dumbledore's, er...."

"First cousin, twice removed," Luna supplied in an airy voice.

"Precisely! Well, I'd best be off. Have a happy Halloween, you all!" Slughorn bustled away.

The conversation amongst the others quickly returned to Nott flirting with Walburga, intermixed with talk of Slughorn's upcoming party. Tom watched in silence as Luna's eyes glazed over. He shook his head in vague disbelief as she began to slowly drift away from their table, walking backwards while gazing up at the enchanted ceiling, clearly uninterested in the conversation.

That night, as he was the last one to leave the Slug Club party, Tom spun the ring on his finger as he paced through the corridors towards the common room.

Slughorn hadn't provided him the precise information for which he had been hoping. The foolish man knew little more than Tom himself already knew about Horcruxes; less even, perhaps, since Tom had a piece of his soul already stored carefully in his old diary. Slughorn had, however, been of some use. His very resistance to the idea of multiple Horcruxes indicated that he thought it was at least possible, and the fact that he had never heard of it having been done before was no deterrent to Tom. If anything, it was fuel on the fire.

Tom chuckled softly to himself, and the sound mingled with his footsteps in the stone corridor. Not that it had mattered. Unless Slughorn had surprised him with a story of multiple Horcruxes having gone horribly wrong, Tom had already made his mind up. And Tom Riddle's mind made up was quite a difficult thing to change.

                                  •

The next few weeks passed rather uneventfully for Luna. She was excelling in her classes. Cat had taken it upon herself to loudly talk about her perfected Bat Bogey Hex and glower menacingly at anyone who teased Luna ever since the Malfoy incident had occurred, leading to a rather peaceful existence in the castle.

As for Tom Riddle, he had become increasingly reclusive and moody as winter approached. He not only avoided Luna, but also seemed to be spending less time with his Slytherin gang than usual. He continued to turn in impeccable work in class, but otherwise was often nowhere to be found. This worried Luna a great deal. A young Lord Voldemort hiding himself up somewhere was probably not a good sign. She shuddered to think what he might be up to.

Fortunately, as Christmas approached, Luna found it more and more difficult to dwell on Tom too much. Decorations flew up around the castle the last week of term, and the suits of armor were enchanted to sing carols in rusty voices, though they often forgot most of the words. Fairy lights and Christmas trees were everywhere, and Peeves had taken it upon himself to zoom around with mistletoe and harass random students until they kissed or managed to get away.

The Heads of Houses went around to their students as usual and collected the names of those staying behind over the holiday break. Luna signed up immediately, as she had no place to go, though she was one of very few. Cat, Lucinda, and Lorraine - indeed, all the girls in her dormitory - were going to go home for the holidays. They were anxious to see their families, given the near-daily stories about Gellert Grindelwald in the Daily Prophet.