Wandless || Tom Riddle

Chapter Five

"I think our relationship started off on the wrong foot Riddle." Icara took a sip of her tea. "What do you think about a little deal?"

Today's Divination class was about Tessomancy and, as much as she wished to be with some random student for the practice, Riddle chose to sit at her table, observing her silently for twenty good minutes. 

"What kind of deal?" Riddle answered warily.
"Information trading." Icara said with a faint grin.
He looked at her a short time and diverted his attention toward the sugar bowl, picking two of the little white cubes.
"A sweet tooth huh?" She muttered behind her cup, but he heard her and instantly dropped them back.
"Why do you think I would want to share pieces of information with you, Lacroix?" He asked arrogantly, carefully taking his cup.
"Why would you not?" Icara asked back in the same tone. "You wouldn't be sitting here if you weren't curious about me."
They looked into each other eyes and he took a sip of the hot liquid, his face slightly flinching at the sour taste. Icara chuckled softly and slowly moved two fingers, making two sugar cubes fly right into Riddle's tea. 
His gaze became cold and she knew she just had whetted his curiosity, a wide, pretentious smile appeared on her face. 
"Tell me more about it then?" Riddle said coolly.
"It can't be simpler. I answer your questions and you answer mine, but you need to promise to tell the truth first." Icara explained.
He raised an eyebrow. "And you don't?"
"I wasn't going to lie to you in the first place, Riddle." She retorted.
"Then what tell you I'm not going to lie anyway?"
"Well," Icara snorted. "I hope you'll have a minimum of honesty!"
Silence fell for a short moment and Riddle seemed to think about the proposition. 
"Alright," he finally declared. "You first." He gestured her to begin.

"Let's start with the basics! We never had the opportunity to properly introduce each other so... How old are you?" She looked at him with a soft smile.
"Fifteen." He quickly answered.
"Where are you from?"
Riddle's body relaxed as he expected other kinds of questions, he laid back on his seat.
"London." He calmly said.
"Who are your parents and what do they do in life?" Icara inquired.
"I never knew them," Riddle stated.
She frowned, "Did they died?"
Riddle shook his head, "no, they abandoned me."
"I'm sorry to hear that..." She seemed uncomfortable about the situation. "Does that mean you live in an orphanage in London?"
He simply nodded as an answer.
Icara stopped for a moment and drank her tea, narrowing her eyes while she thought about more questions.
"How long have you been the best student here?" She eventually asked.
Riddle's calm expression shifted into pride and arrogance. "Since my very first year."
"Oh well?" Icara grinned, amused. "And what does a great student like you wants to be in the future?"
He looked at her, pondering about the best reply he could give. Meanwhile, Icara examined the leaves in her tea, making them swirl with a soft gesture of her hand.
"I want to become someone whose achievements would be so great, so impressive... that my name would be remembered for a very long time. If not said forever." His words sounded extremely pretentious but the way he talked showed he meant them.
A glimmer lighted into Icara's eyes and she nodded approvingly, satisfied by his answer.
"I'll stop there and keep the remaining questions for another time." Icara leaned on the table, smiling with excitement. "Your turn Riddle."

He took his time, thoughtfully considering the questions he could ask her, and chose to start with similar queries.
"How old are you?"
"I'm fifteen, like you." Her voice was calm.
"Is that true you were the best student of BeauxBâtons?"
"It is," she slowly nodded. "Four years in a row," she added smugly. 
"What do your parents do?" Riddle asked, genuinely curious about it.
"Well..." Icara hesitated for a minute. "I never knew my father, I did some research about him but it always led to a dead end, apparently he was linked with some of Ministry of Magic's sensitive cases." She paused, seemingly thinking about it. "And I can't tell you about my mother, it's confidential."
"Confidential?" Riddle repeated, surprised.
"Confidential." She confirmed.
Their gazes met and Icara could see he was obviously not happy about her answer, but it wasn't like she could just say her mother was the Goddess of Intelligence! She was pretty sure he would not believe her anyway.
"Anything else?" Icara said, tilting her head to the left. 
Riddle's face became severe. "What were you doing in the staff room earlier?"
"I was..." She started. "Wait... How do you even know that?" A puzzled look appeared on her face. "You spied me, didn't you?"
He didn't say anything in return and kept watching her with cold eyes.
Icara sighed, finding him annoying. "Nothing really important, I just gave Professor Binns an essay about Salem's Trials." She felt his gaze growing darker, apparently he still wasn't over the event.
"Who taught you wandless magic?"
"Nobody," Icara coolly said. "I learned it by myself," she lifted her head, an arrogant smirk adorning her face. "Are you going to ask me to teach you?"
Riddle scoffed, "absolutely not."
"Then why are you asking me?" Her gaze was as cold as his.
"Not many students here master wandless magic you know," he leaned on the little round table, getting his face closer to hers. "Especially when they're in fifth grade, Lacroix."
With the most condescending tone, Icara stated, "I'm not many students, Riddle."

They stayed like that for a while, eyeing each other defiantly, when something caught Riddle's attention.
"The professor is coming." He briskly said.
They hurriedly finished their teacups and made the leaves swirl three times like the teacher told them earlier.
Icara actually liked Divination, it was one of the only classes where she couldn't expect the outcomes when it came to practice.
A tall woman approached them, she had emerald green eyes, long, straight ginger hair, a pointy nose and a few freckles. Her name was Manabella Lynch.
"Isn't it our new student Ms. Lacroix here?" She exclaimed with a bright smile. "Well well, I'm impatient to read your future!"
Icara handed her the white cup and the professor observed it, fully focused.
"I see a lot of stars, you'll be met with success in everything you do! But you must be careful Ms. Lacroix, among all those stars a skull is hiding! Danger!" She dramatically exclaimed before giving the small cup back to Icara who immediately looked at it in confusion.
A student from across the room called Lynch and she left without reading Riddle's cup.
Silence fell between the two and Riddle watched Icara examining the inside of her teacup, concentrated.
"She missed something..." Icara mumbled. "There are tiny lines between the stars and the skull... which can only mean one thing!" She looked at Riddle. "Success will lead to changes and those changes will expose me to danger."
Riddle interest seemed to be close to zero but she asked anyway.
"What did you got?"
"I don't believe in that kind of things." He coolly stated.
A disappointed look came over Icara's face, "oh come on!" She stretched her hand toward his cup to grab it. "I'll read it."
He kept staring at her while she studied the leaves and he saw her expression change from excitement to concern.
"What do you see?" He asked in a deep voice.
"A lot of things." Icara mysteriously answered, not letting her eyes away from the teacup.
"And what is it?" Riddle asked again, getting irritated.
She looked back at him intensely and declared in a low voice. "Danger, changes, hardships, suffering, failure and death."
Instantly after saying these words, Icara saw something change in Riddle and he almost wrenched the cup from her hands.
"Didn't you said that you don't believe in Divination?" She mockingly said.
He didn't reply and inspected the leaves.
She was right, the symbols were imprecise but clear enough to be read. At the center, surrounded by a multitude of signs, was a small grim, the omen of death.
The sound of the bell cut him of his thought and he looked up, seeing that Icara was standing next to him.
"Did you see anything else?" She asked, her voice almost getting drown under the loud noises of the students leaving the classroom.
He shook his head, "no, nothing more."
"Good." A soft smile appeared on her lips. "I guess we'll see-" She didn't finish her sentence, she saw his "friends" coming over and just waved her hand as a goodbye while leaving.

Deep in the forbidden forest and late in the night a group of hooded figures gathered in a circle, waiting for someone.
Minutes passed and another hooded figure appeared from in between the old trees, stopping in the middle of them.
He took off his hood and the other followed him.
 

They were The Knights of Walpurgis.  

Oliver Avery
Cedric Rosier  
Oscar Lestrange
Elric Mulciber
Abraxas Malfoy
Fabian Nott

and their leader
Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Riddle was the only one to speak.
"Knight of Walpurgis, if I summoned you tonight not in our common room but in the forbidden forest it's because our next objective is concerning a Slytherin student." He took a pause and looked into every single member's pair of eyes. "Her name is Icara Lacroix, I need you to search for any information you can find about her.

We need to get her on our side.

She'll be a valuable asset."