For the Greater Good || Tom Riddle ||

Chapter Thirty-One: Black Hole Gravity

"Are you picking up on my bad habits now, Tom? Ditching class?" Gwen jested sardonically as they quickly cascaded down the winding staircase and poured out into the corridors of Hogwarts.

"I don't think a comparison can be made between leaving minutes early from a worthless lecture to you hiding out in filthy bar for a week, my dear."

Even though the pet name was tacked on at the end, Tom's tone was far from endearing—it was flat and condescending, and as they hopped down from the last step, he pulled his hand away as if he had never held hers at all.

He straightened his prefect badge on his robes before straightening his posture. "Not to mention, we have more important matters to attend to."

Gwen felt conflicted, his words had made her heart flutter, but the absence of his fingers made her stomach twist with disappointment. She recalled what he said earlier that day, in Alchemy, and concluded that they were, in fact, headed to the seventh floor in order to search for the diadem.

Gwen was still uncertain why Tom had become fascinated with the Founders of Hogwarts. She figured that perhaps that there were some interesting magical qualities pertaining to the items that made Tom desperate to seek them—or perhaps it was related for his desire for power and influence. Even so, Gwen found herself slightly curious about Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem. The little voice inside her head said that it would never hurt to have a bit more wisdom.

And so, she followed him when Tom began to make his way down the corridor, the pair of students stalking gracefully yet clandestinely down the halls in the lowlight like two shadows. It was nearing one o'clock, and that meant that the prefects would most likely be roaming the first floor of the castle to make sure no one had snuck out before heading back to their respective common rooms.

But they were wrong.

They rounded the corner, perhaps a bit too quickly, side by side, and before Tom and Gwen could even react, the eyes of Isabel Yarrow, the Hufflepuff prefect, were upon them. A smug smile twitched at her lips as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Gawmdrey, Riddle, fancy seeing you here. I didn't know it was a night for Ravenclaw and Slytherin to patrol." She pretended to think for a few seconds before dropping her smile. "Oh wait, it isn't."

Gwen didn't speak. It wasn't strange for two students to be seen together outside of prefect duties, was it? But perhaps it was a bit shady when taking into account that the majority of the student body had never seen them together before. In their eyes, Gwendolyn and Tom Riddle were two separated entities that circulated different social circles. Not to mention, Isabel was right about it not being their night for prefect duty.

But of course, Tom had an answer, slick and sly as ever. "We were just coming from Astronomy. Aren't you supposed to be patrolling downstairs at this hour? Closer to your common room?" The question came out a bit more haughty than necessary and the Hufflepuff girl wasn't going to have it.

Isabel's brown eyes narrowed. "There's no official protocol for that, Riddle, it's just a tendency, as you know. Why are you headed this way, together? The Ravenclaw common room is the other way. And the dungeons are obviously downstairs," she dished out in her own patronizing tone.

The girl was growing suspicious, Gwen could sense it and so could Tom. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tom raise his wand slightly, and when she looked at Isabel's face, she felt a pang of sympathy. She knew what it felt like to have memories erased.

Gwen moved forward, brazenly grabbing Tom's arm and lacing it through hers. She batted her eyelashes innocently and smiled. "We just want some privacy, Isabel. That's all. Can't really find it in the dormitories."