Wizarding One Shots

T O M • R I D D L E

Strangled Serpentine

"T H E   H E I R   H A S   C O M E."
I could hear them again. Those voices that kept me up at night and beckoned me to them. I turned around in curled into myself trying to ignore them. It was just passed midnight. It must have been. Because that's when I hear him.

All of the other voices drown out when I hear him call to me.

Don't others hear it too?

—

"Miss Grimm, are you quiet alright?" Professor Slughorn asked when I hadn't exited the class when everyone else had.

I scraped my chapped lips together in a failed attempt to make them appear a little better.
"Yes, Professor." I cringed at the sound of my own raspy voice.

The old man gave me a disbelieving look that told me I couldn't fool him even if I wanted to.

"Your grades are slipping. And I've noticed you picking at your food for the past few months. (Y/N), you're falling apart at the seems my girl."

I offered a half smile to the man who had become like a father to me during my time here at Hogwarts.

"I'm not sleeping, sir. The voices won't let me."

Concern clouded his gentle face. "Do you wish for me to make you a sleeping draught? At least for a while. You need to take care of yourself."

I could have cried if I wasn't so tired.

"I'd like that very much, sir." I said standing up from the rickety stool.

It was at that moment that the door opened and gave way to a new voice. A voice that I often heard during the midnight hours.

"Professor Slughorn—"

I could now put a face to the all too familiar voice that haunted me at all hours. He was definitely not a snake, though. Sometimes I had trouble distinguishing the languages from each other and chalked it up to that.

His dark eyes landed on me.

The dry air in my throat wouldn't allow me to swallow. But I could offer him a small nod as I started to pack up my things.

"Mr. Riddle, at last you meet Miss Grimm. You two are my finest students, you know." The burley man gave a hearty laugh. "Come in, come in my boy."

I watched through my lashes as Riddle was ushered in. Trying not to let my eyes wander over his face too much.

"Professor, may I...?" I didn't want to talk about my sleeping habits in front of this familiar stranger.

"You may just before curfew. I don't want you getting into any trouble."

I nodded at him before trying to rush out the classroom to escape Riddles' harsh stares.

My blood sugar and pressure had other ideas as I collapsed onto the floor, blacking out as my head hit the corner of the hard table.

•••

"Could she be the heir of Slytherin?"

It was their hushed whispers that that brought me back from the brink of oblivion.

"You heard her. It was clearly parselmouth."

"And just because of that you are willing to accuse an innocent girl of murder?"

My eyes fluttered open with a hollow feeling in my stomach.

"Miss Grimm, welcome back." Dumbledore's voice was the first one I recognized.

•••

It had only been a few weeks since the incident. Slughorn had been supplying me with dreamless draught and had been making sure I eat. I felt better. The voices had stopped.

Or so I thought.

I rounded my way around the corner of the library when I heard him.

Tom.

His voice lured me in like a sadistic lullaby.

"So it's true, then?" His smooth voice snapped me out of the trans he had induced.

My eyes snapped up to his in fright. Of course he would also accuse me of murder. The only reason I was still here was because they could not prove anything against me and I knew it.

"You're a parselmouth." Hé stated matter of factor.

I said nothing and kept a blank face.

"You're like me." He continued.

My jaw clenched for a moment. "So it was you that I heard. I recognized your voice that day in Slughorn's classroom." I was trying to reply to him as calmly as I could, but my voice came out breathy.

"I won't let them hurt you."

I looked at him in confusion.

"I won't let them expel you."

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