Turned - Tom Riddle

Chapter Thirty Eight

Elizabeth shrugged, "It isn't my decision."

"Do you want me?" he asked, abruptly. "Even just a little bit?"

"I think about that a lot... about you," Elizabeth told him. "I do, Joshua, I...," she hesitated, thinking of his fist coming down on her face. But then, she looked down at her ring. She thought of all of the times Tom hit her, pushed her, threw her to the ground. Joshua was the lesser of two evils.

Joshua watched her with hopeful eyes, "You... you what?"

"I... have to go," Elizabeth furrowed her brows, denial of Joshua's innocence overcoming her more rapidly than she could make sense of.

Just as the denial came, rage and lust overcame Joshua. "Elizabeth," he walked after her. "Wait!" He walked faster and grabbed her arm, holding her back.

"Let go," Elizabeth barked through gritted teeth. He refused. "Joshua, get your hand off of me."

From a distance, Tom watched in amusement, focusing so incredibly hard. Practicing the Imperious curse was always particularly entertaining when Elizabeth and Joshua were his subjects. Watching them fight and tearing them further apart brought him such joy. He sipped Firewhiskey from a silver flask as he smirked at the action, knowing full well that he was intoxicated.

He couldn't hear what they were saying, yet their body language said everything. Elizabeth turned away, Joshua pulled her back. She threw her arms up in frustration, he waved his own in a pleading manner.

"Joshua, you just need to stop! Don't come to New York, just leave me alone!" Elizabeth shouted.

Joshua pleaded, "No, you don't want that, please, Elizabeth." He pulled on her blouse in an effort to keep her from leaving.

Tom continued viewing the fight, waiting for the tension to build up enough. In the quickest of a second, Elizabeth roughly pushed his hands off of her shirt, and to Tom's utmost delight, Joshua's open palm began to rise. And to his disappointment, Joshua let his arm fall and pulled Elizabeth into a hug, mumbling a likely apology as she cried into his chest.

He couldn't hear what they said. Tom wondered if interfering was the best course of action.

Joshua and Elizabeth continued talking, almost as if he hadn't just attempted to hit her. Tom grew infuriated. He threw the empty flask into the moss and stormed off.

Elizabeth didn't know if she should feel happy at the fact that he was able to control his anger before he hurt her.

"I'm so sorry that it even came close to that," Joshua whispered, resting his chin on her forehead. He stroked her hair gently.

"Joshua, I'm just glad that you didn't," Elizabeth looked up at him with a faulty grin. He held her for a moment and then the two decided to walk back to the group. Their hands remained intertwined until they came in view of their friends.

The group pretended they hadn't heard Elizabeth and Joshua yelling at each other, continuing on with their conversation about throwing dung bombs into Slughorn's office.

-

"Oh bloody hell, Walburga, where is my blue jumper?" Matilda shrieked as she struggled to stuff her trunk with everything she'd forgotten to pack.