She Saved Me | Tom Riddle

Vertigo

Tom hummed, "yes?"

Hugging the book closer to herself, Ava felt her confidence disappear almost immediately. "It's not life that's overwhelming to me," she said instead of what she really wanted to. "Being captain for Slytherin is more involved than I thought it would be."

"Is your team continuing to struggle," Tom asked only half interested. He knew from their first practice that the Slytherin quidditch team would be far from perfect.

"You have no idea how difficult it's been to organize all of them." Ava could tell Tom didn't truly care about her quidditch problems. "I just hope our next practice goes a little better."

Tom nodded with her in agreement as he said the password for the common room. "You might be hoping for too much," he said flippantly. He's seen the way some of the other players act in classes, and he didn't hold much confidence in their ability to follow direction.

Ava let out a sigh, "you might be right."

"All you can do is try your best."

Ava held back a laugh at his horrible attempt to sound positive. "I'm doing everything I can," she said with an amused smile. She then gave him a small wave before going off to her room. She needed some time to herself to figure out how to approach Tom about her feelings. Clearly, she wasn't quite prepared yet.

During dinner, Ava found herself zoning out and ignoring her friends again. Tom typically didn't comment if he noticed, and Mia was too busy arguing with Liam to notice. She was barely able to eat anything either with how conflicted she was with her own emotions. But Liam was able to eat just fine for the two of them, which is what prompted the next little spat between him and Mia.

"How in Merlin's beard are you able to eat so much?"

This statement broke Ava out of her revere and she looked across the table to see the disgusted frown Mia was directing towards Liam. He merely rolled his eyes in response and took another bite while staring at her. He started to smirk when she huffed angrily at him.

Liam swallowed the food in his mouth, smirk still present. "Why does it matter how I eat to you," he asked snidely.

Mia scoffed, "it wouldn't if you had some self control."

"Self control is for the weak," Liam commented casually as he pushed his plate away. "I'm done, happy now?"

"Yes."

Ava sighed to herself and shook her head at them. Her attention moved to Mia's left where Tom was and accidentally met eyes with him. Startled, she quickly averted her gaze and tried to act like he hadn't just caught her looking his way. She had hoped he wouldn't call attention to it. But that hope was immediately crushed when Tom caught up to her in the hallway on their way to the common room afterwards.

"I need to speak to you," Tom whispered to Ava once he got her attention.

Ava swallowed nervously. "You do?"

Tom nodded and grabbed her arm once they were in the common room. He made sure no one was looking their way as he pulled her towards his room. It would be the only place where they could talk privately without any interruptions. It was time for answers.

Once inside, Ava went to stand in front of Tom's bed while he closed the door. She crossed her arms defensively and mentally prepared herself for whatever he was about to say. But she was caught off guard when he didn't immediately turn around to face her. Instead he stood braced against the door, seemingly trying to gather himself. Or work up the courage to start the conversation. Either way, Ava grew even more nervous.