Save the girl ... Save Tom Riddle

Chapter 11

Susan just thanked she wasn't a prefect, even if some of them dared to ask for her help.

Some of the girls were very noisy like they owned the Common Room.

Susan was trying to study but usually exchanged bored glances with Ophelia, whose funny espressions made her grin.

One first year girl was pretending she had some secret affair with Tom. That caught Susan's attention. She was planning something against her, when suddenly that girl stopped talking and Susan guessed why.

Tom just walked into the room with some books under his arm.

Ophelia barely held a laugh.

Tom stopped behind Susan and searched for her eyes, but she just smirked at the first year girl who tried to hide her embarrassment.

Susan felt his hand touching her shoulder, his innocent voice asking "What's up?".

She looked up at him amused "Mina here called you 'my Tom'. I didn't know you could belong to someone".

He sent a hard look to the girl, making her become brightly red and with watering eyes she ran away.

"So wicked" commented Ophelia bursting out laughing.

"Better a broken heart now than keeping illuding with stupid dreams".

Ophelia sent her a fake warning glare "Don't pretend to be more expert than me".

"I would never dare" Susan moved to make space for Tom to sit on the couch and focused again on the homeworks.

She wasn't feeling jealous. She noticed too that he was just getting more cute and many girls were dreaming on him, but she was sure she had no reason to worry. Nobody of them could understand him better than her and he didn't seem interested in any love game.

Same for her. She was just enthusiast to secretly break rules with him after the curfew. They were sharing all the knowledge they were gathering and there was no place for anything else.

And she couldn't ask for anything better.

"You're better at manipulating the teachers" she stated staring at Tom with a you-know-it-better-than-me gaze.

"Perhaps. But this time you can do a better job than me".

They needed those ingredients. The herbology store was forbidden to them.

"And why is that?".

Tom didn't look up from the notes he was scrabbling on a piece of paper "Beery fancies you".

"What the hell?!" She stared at him in disbelief. She just heard a word she never thought it could have ever come out from his mouth.

He put down his quill and looked at her amused "You're the only one who can't notice it. But trust me, he would do anything for you".

Susan just rolled her eyes "Poor man".

"Because you like someone else?".

She avoided his eyes, raising her shoulders "Perhaps, but definitely not him".

"Well, better for him not to know that. Your high grades in Herbology  depend a lot on you being his favourite student, you know that".

She gave him a hard look "Okay, then. You won, again. I'll go to talk to him".

"Good luck" he said smirking when she passed over him.

She just replied with an annoyed glance.

Being adored by the teachers was very useful, but Susan preferred Tom to deal with it. He had a natural talent in getting whatever he wanted. He knew when to be charming and what words to use to make the people vulnerable. And nobody seemed able to take his disappointed gaze.