An Otherworldly Experience (Tom Riddle Era)

Chapter Twenty Five

She ignored him and turned the tap on, wetting her face and wiping away the tears from throwing up. Then she walked to the door without looking at him. "Right now is the last time I'm going to speak to you outside of being generally polite," she told him before stepping out.

"It's a shame, you were just commended for being loyal to your friends."

She didn't respond, instead turned down the hall towards the dungeons to the Hufflepuff common room.

_

The following week was relatively peaceful - at least on Tom's front. They were both just too angry with the other to care about what the other person was up to. But it was only relatively peaceful due to the extra sprinkling of anger at the questioning, "If you're so smart, how are you just in Hufflepuff and not in Ravenclaw?"

Kelli's patience didn't really last very long, getting angry at the fourth person to ask that question, a sixth year Gryffindor. It came to an altercation that went something that went along the lines of, "Did you say just? Do you know what being a Hufflepuff is? We're hard workers! I work hard! I spend hours upon hours on learning as much as I can about the wizarding world! Do you know how boring History of Magic is? Do you? Have you ever tried to write notes through that class? That's so much hard work! And the sheer amount of classwork I had to catch up on in such a short amount of time for the OWLs - it was just too much for someone who doesn't have the hard work and dedication of a Hufflepuff, let me tell you-"

"Aren't you lot supposed to be kind and nice?" he commented, looking totally taken back.

"We're also supposed to be patient and tolerant but I'll be damned if I let my house be smeared through the mud like that. Just a Hufflepuff - I'll be so damned if I'll let someone who's supposed to be chivalrous tell me that my house is just."

"Ah, jeez, I'm sorry. Sorry," he said, not really meaning it but not wanting to get involved with a scorned Hufflepuff, backing away swiftly.

It was an interesting altercation, not many people had asked her about it from then.

_

The week after was another long quiet one, but Kelli could feel it. She wanted to go over to Tom and make a teasing comment that was probably way too mean and scathing and not get killed at the end of it, but she forbid herself from even saying hi. And Elizabeth and Lauren were both adamant in making sure that Kelli was being reasonable. Of course they'd heard about how she'd promised that she just wouldn't speak to Riddle. They both spent time with her and steered her clear from Riddle.

_

"Watson, where are you going?" he asked as Kelli walked past him.

Kelli almost looked back, she wanted to look back at him.

"Are you seriously still ignoring me?" he asked, catching up to walk beside her.

She raised her hand to her hair and pulled her hair to cover that side of her peripheral vision. She just didn't want to look at him, to see him. Because for some messed up reason, she enjoyed his company - he wasn't even that nice of a person!

"It's not even that big of a deal, Watson."

As he spoke, she ignored him, instead riling herself up with her inner monologue. She was just so mad at herself for thinking she could make enough of a difference with someone who was so filled with hatred. Who just didn't know what love was and what it meant to other people.

"Watson?" he prompted.

With a loud groan, the only acknowledgement he received from her, she started to run. She didn't give a damn that running in the hallways of any school anywhere was against school rules, she just needed to get away from him before she snapped at him. Just that groan was more than he deserved.

"Ugh, what a prat," Elizabeth groaned after Kelli had recounted the incident to her two friends. "I'm literally going to kill him one day. He'll, like, die."

"Ah, I wish," Kelli responded.

"Don't you guys live at the same orphanage?" Lauren asked with a frown.

Kelli nodded. "We share a room. It's going to be a serious struggle, but if I get through that just two more times, I'll be free. Free from Tom Riddle for as long as possible."

"Hopefully until a ripe old age," Elizabeth added, "where you'll never have to hear his name again. Or his kinky name."

Kelli threw a pillow at her, but with a grin. "I don't care to know his kinks anymore."

Both girls laughed, but then Lauren went serious. "Just do your best. I'll even visit!"

"Oh Lord," Kelli replied. "I believe Westbrook would try and murder me in front of you."

"We'll visit Riddle, then," Lauren replied. "She might break free of the imperius curse if she thinks Riddle has a harem going on."

"Sorry, love, not going through any kind of murder-suicide pact with Riddle, seems a little dark," Kelli answered. Elizabeth laughed softly.

"Look, I know we've got the next few days together before the end of year, but let's make the most of it. We need you to be really chill going back to the orphanage, and we need to know that you're chill so we can be chill and everyone will just be chill."

Kelli couldn't help the sly smile on her face. "You're learning my weird language terms."

Elizabeth laughed again. "Yes, I am. They're wonderful at expressing a certain mood, a fantastic language technique."

She knew she was making fun, and Kelli laughed. "I'm going to miss you guys so much."

_

Kelli had somehow managed to survive an entire summer holiday without speaking to Riddle at all beyond what was necessary. It was difficult because he chose a way that she wasn't expecting him to go - he was being nice. He was being charming and a general delight and she wasn't prepared for that. She was prepared for unkindness, for misery, for torture and trying not to get stockholm from him as an abuser. And his kindness took her aback.

He was letting her do things that the previous year he hadn't done - like letting her go out when she wanted, sneaking food, being an all round pain for Matron Westbrook. It set her on much more on edge, because she didn't trust him, she knew she couldn't trust him, but she desired a conversation with him, at the very least.

It was absolute hell and misery for her. But she'd managed it. An entire summer break without speaking to Riddle. It was the cruellest thing he'd done to her and she recognised the genius of it. It was something that she learned - that kindness could be exceedingly cruel because she felt terrible for her refusal to acknowledge him.

But because of it, both of them knew it was because of his decision and therefore an acknowledgement, Hufflepuff won the house cup two years in a row. She had done it because his house also knew it was because of him and her. It was a win and a loss for them both, but she didn't know which one was a more important win to Riddle. But she took it as a win for her, because she had achieved her goal at the end of the day. For him to have less respect.

Strangely, Hufflepuff were totally fine with the pettiness - "hell hath no fury like a Hufflepuff scorned" one of the muggleborns had said and it was a generally agreed upon statement. Especially when the scorned Hufflepuff was Kelli Watson.

~

Hey guys, thanks for reading. So yeah, I decided to end this book here. It's over ;-; I'm also sorry about how it ended, in this weird format. I am writing a sequel, but it may take a really long time for me to post it just to make sure everything meshes together well and that something at the start makes sense in the end, that kinda thing.