Catharsis [Tom Riddle]

Chapter Ten

"What? Scared I'll blow your cover as a half-blood-"

He cut her off before she could finish her sentence, his voice struggling to stay level. "I advise you to choose your next words very carefully, Hendrix."

She refused to look away as he glared down at her, his dark eyes filled with the same fury that hers bore. "You may have the entire school fooled, but I see right through your act. You're nothing more than a pathetic boy who is terrified of people finding out the truth about what he really is," she said, her voice gradually rising in volume as she grew more and more angry with the boy standing before her.

"You have the nerve to call me pathetic?" He laughed, and the sound was harrowing. "You, the girl who flinches whenever a book falls in class? The girl whose hands shake every second of every day? What are you so afraid of? That man coming back and finishing what he started?" He said, his mocking voice filled with pure venom as he referred to the man in her memories.

"You don't know the first goddamn thing about me," she yelled, shoving her hands against his chest, trying to push him away from her.

Instead, he quickly caught her by the wrists, holding her hands firmly against him as he held her struggling form in his, glaring down at her with ice in his stare. "I know all I need to know about you. You act so high and mighty, as if you're morally superior to everyone around you. But, it's all a lie. You're just as bad as anyone else."

"Watch your mouth," she snarled, balling her fists in his grip as she took a threatening step towards him.

"Your own darkness scares you at times, doesn't it? You wonder if all the abuse you faced finally took a toll on you? I can tell you, it clearly did. And it's not a bad thing-- I don't know why you try so hard to hide it. As much as you'd like to deny it, you don't fight darkness, you're one with it."

"I said watch your damn mouth." He didn't stop talking though. Her anger only motivated him.

"Face it, Hendrix, you're just as damaged as the rest."

"I may be damaged, but at least I'm not fucking broken like you," she hissed, yanking her hands away from him in one swift motion.

The drapes around them were pulled back, revealing the face of their Transfiguration Professor. She saw Tom's face quickly dissolve into a calm look of indifference, a slight smile finding its way onto his lips as he turned to face Dumbledore. "Hello, Professor."

"Mr. Riddle, Miss Hendrix...is everything alright?" he asked, looking between the two of them suspiciously. "If I'm not mistaken, the two of you should be in class right now, is that not so?"

"We were just about to head to Potions, sir," Riddle said. "We were merely discussing an assignment and lost track of time."

"I see," the professor said, nodding absent-mindedly. "Well, then. Off you two go. I'm sure Professor Slughorn will not want you interrupting his class so I suggest you do hurry."

"Yes, Professor," Avalon said, speaking for both her and Tom before walking past Riddle, who had moved to the side when he saw Dumbledore.

"I will see you both in Transfiguration at the end of the day," Dumbledore said, nodding at them as they scurried off towards the Potions class together. Neither one of them spoke to the other as they swiftly made their way across the castle grounds, both of them walking in a tense silence that lasted all the way until they made it to the classroom.

Tom opened the door and walked in, not bothering to hold the door for her as she walked in behind him. Slughorn's lesson was disrupted as they made their way to the back of the class-- Avalon sat by Xavier and Tom by Adonis.