how it feels to be alive {tom riddle}

thirty-four: first day

Lucia didn't know what to say, so she gave an appreciative smile to her Professor for his concern. She was tired of people telling her what she should or shouldn't do with her life, even if it was to try prevent her self destructive pathway.

"Mr. Rosier and yourself will serve your detention with Professor Slughorn this evening after classes. Best get it over with so we can move on." He said finally before turning to go talk to the other late-coming students about their timetables.

"Talk about an overreaction." Lucia chuckled as she turned back to the Scamander twins.
"He's got a point Luc, this is a really important year." Lorcan said apologetically.

"I don't even want a job at the Ministry, so I don't see why I need good N.E.W.T. scores anyway." She huffed, putting down her half-finished waffle.

She raised her eyes to scan the Slytherin table, and sure enough, her eyes found Tom.

He was wearing an emerald green tie, secured around a white shirt under a grey sweater. He was talking to another Slytherin boy next to him, eating a slice of apple whilst half-heartedly pretending to be interested in what the boy was saying.

He didn't look nearly as tired as she did, although she suspected this was just his seemingly faultless genetics.

Tom seemed to sense her gaze, because his eyes began to scan the Ravenclaw table. When he met her gaze, he smirked lightly and cocked an eyebrow. He seemed to take this as an opportunity to rise from his seat, not even bothering to apologise to the boy talking to him for his abrupt departure and he walked across the hall towards Lucia.

The uniform suited him incredibly well, but Lucia was yet to see clothing that didn't suit that man. She'd grown so accustomed to him in dark jeans that seeing him in dress pants threw her off a bit.

He approached where Lucia was sitting and slid a leg over the bench to sit facing her.
"Look at you, Mr. Slytherin." Lucia let her eyes wander across his body overdramatically, "Looking rather handsome in your new uniform."

"Thank you love, have you got your timetable?" He chuckled, placing a hand gently on her thigh out of instinct.

A couple of the other Ravenclaws surrounding them looked rather displeased at the sight of a Slytherin at their table, but Lucia shot them harsh looks of disapproval which caused most of the younger ones to mind their own business.

She handed him her timetable from Flitwick, "I got a speech about last night from a professor already, and we've got detention with Slughorn after classes." She sighed, sipping a glass of pumpkin juice enthusiastically but spitting it back into the cup disgustedly. She still didn't understand why anyone thought juicing pumpkins was a good idea, but still every year she tried to make herself like it due to its popularity at the school.

"Slughorn?" Tom looked at Lucia slightly uneasily.

"Oh." Lucia realised, knowing Tom had been rather... close with Slughorn during his time. They couldn't talk anymore on the topic though due to the others surrounding them.

Tom's eyes were scanning her timetable quickly, "We have a couple of classes together; DADA, Potions, Herbology..." He told her.

"Thank God, I don't think I could deal with this year if we didn't have at least a couple of classes together." Lucia sighed in relief, "We have DADA first though, which should be alright."

"By the way, you still smell like you just smoked, did you even shower?" Tom chuckled.

"So I've been told," Lucia scowled, "I slept in so I didn't have time this morning."

Tom reached to take out his wand, and without even opening his mouth cast a charm that rid her of the musky smell completely, replacing it with the soft vanilla scent she usually had from her soap.

"You may also want to re-cast the glamour charm on your neck. Not that I don't like people seeing, but I'd assume you would prefer not to have to explain them to other people." He chuckled.

"I'm literally such a mess." Lucia laughed, casting a glamour charm quickly, "How was it in the dorms last night?"

"It was fine, I don't think they'll bother me." Tom assured, "They were all passed out by the time I got back last night and I just brushed off any of their attempts at conversation this morning."

"You could like... try to be decent to them." Lucia raised her eyebrows.

"Fine, I suppose they could prove useful in the long-run." Tom acknowledged.

"Fuck Tom, I meant to have friends. Not every interaction has to be about getting something out of it." She laughed at his self conditioned habit of assessing the use of people when deciding to interact with them.

"Whatever, we'd better get to class." He shook his head, but Lucia thought she caught a hint of a smirk play on his lips.

author's note

I literally cannot thank you guys enough for 10k reads on this. the fact that a person's eyeballs have read one of my chapters 10,000 times is literally crazy.

I just wanted to thank all of you who have supported me from the beginning, and also those of you who have just joined recently. I absolutely love reading all your comments and reactions, it makes this story all the more worth writing.

I'm not 100% happy with this chapter but I think I just need to not overthink it and just get it out there. I have some more juicy chapters coming up (some of which I've already written lol), but they kinda need to settle into Hogwarts first.

I hope you all had a good thanksgiving if you're from america, I'm not but happy thanksgiving nonetheless <3