Tom just barley dodged the spell Arabella had sent at him. Spell after spell, he dodged and blocked, having no time to fire back at her. She was fast. Too fast for him and Tom hated admitting that.
By now, the rest of the class had stopped their duels and stared at the two of them, gaping.
When Arabella and Tom had walked in late, Merrythought - the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher - had made them sit in the two empty seats at the front of the class and continued explaining the lesson. The class were to pair up with the person sitting next to them, and duel. She had said it was just for her purpose, to see everyone's skill level in the class.
But it seemed it had gotten a bit out of control. The students watched them like a tennis match, heads swivelled and eyes solely focused on the duel, their own long abandoned. Merrythought just stood at the front of the class smiling. Their duel was interesting to watch, to say the least. They fired spells that even she had only read about.
She knew Tom was more than great. He was the top of his class in everything and no-one seemed to beat him. Except for Arabella. She seemed to be better than him and Tom could now only block and dodge the powerful spells she sent his way.
She looked furious. She didn't even have a wand. Arabella skilfully fired spells of all different kinds, some she shouted at Tom, others she used non-verbal.
Arabella suddenly lifted both hands in the air - she pushed back and then pushed forward again shouting, "Tardius Occidere!" A bright burst of red flew towards Tom but he didn't know the spell, he couldn't block. And it was fast. Too fast to dodge. Faster than normal spells. He was quickly pushed into the wall at the back and dropped onto the floor as he bled and shook.
Panting, Arabella walked to him and crouched down to his level. His face tried to betray no emotion but she could easily sense he was in terrible pain. After all, Arabella had created that spell herself. She fully intended it for Albus Dumbledore, but Tom had made her furious.
They had started with small spells, Tom saying "I will go easy on you."
He had. But Arabella hadn't. After Arabella fired more harmful spells, Tom had turned to them too. It seemed he had also taught himself wand-less and non-verbal magic - she had disarmed him in the middle of the duel. He wasn't very good though, Arabella had realised. And he did not know how to do both at the same time.
Not as skilled as you appear, Tom Riddle.
When it turned more dangerous, Arabella grew more infuriated. He was good. But she was better and all she wanted was her wand back.
Looking down at Tom's bruised and bleeding face, Arabella casted the counter-curse - hovering her hand over his chest. She muttered "Salvare" repeatedly and the blood slowly disappeared, Tom's bones started snapping back together and his shaking slowly stopped.
Once done, Arabella grabbed her wand from inside Tom's robe pocket. "I think we both know who won this duel," Arabella whispered.
She felt the students' eyes on her as she grabbed her bag and left class just as the bell rang. Arabella spent the rest of her morning in Divination learning about Dream Interpretations (which she thought was complete bogus).
•••
Finally, at lunch she got to eat. Looking around the Great Hall, she searched for the dark, coffee brown eyes of Tom Riddle, but he seemed to have not come. Arabella concluded he never really came to eat which was the most insane thing ever, because who wouldn't want to eat?
Sighing in annoyance, she decided search for him. She thought he needed a little nudge into her direction, so Arabella could set her plan in action - finding everything she needed to know about Tom Riddle. Because, honestly? She had an whole eternity of living and nothing better to do. It was exciting, finally having something to do.
She grabbed a large tray full of food with her as she walked out the Great Hall. Many students looked at her strangely, but Arabella ignored them and went to check the library for Tom.
She thought Tom would probably be reading nearly every book in the Hogwarts library to figure out what spell she had used against him - because it seemed it was Tom's first time he had ever been beaten at anything and he probably didn't know how to heal his bruised ego.
Sure enough, Tom Riddle sat at the very corner of the large library with a pile of books stacked before him. Arabella took a seat a few desks in front of him and sat in the chair facing him. She knew he would come to her.
Tom looked up from his book just as Arabella slammed a huge tray of all kinds of food onto her table. She looked at him while chewing on her lunch.
He gave her an annoyed look before proceeding to read, his eyes trained on the book but unmoving. Arabella just continued eating while staring innocently at him. Exactly 4 minutes later, Tom shut his book with a huff and walked over and stood on the other side of Arabella's desk. He slammed the book in front of her and asked, "What do you want?"
Arabella just shrugged, swallowing a mouthful of Shepard's Pie. "Want some?" She slid a plate across the table to him.
Tom looked down at it disgustingly before looking back up at her. "No," he harshly replied, glaring at her.
"Suit yourself," she answered and proceeded eating. "So, what are you reading?"
"What's it to you?"
Arabella shrugged. "Just curious."
A minute later, Tom took the seat in front of Arabella, rolling his eyes as if he couldn't believe what he was about to say. "I'm looking for your spell." He already knew she knew. But she wasn't going to say anything until he said it himself. Until he admitted it out loud in front of her.
Arabella's eyes perked up at that and she set down her fork. "Yes! It was a great spell wasn't it? I had never actually used it on someone before. It was originally meant for Albus but you-"
Tom's eyes immediately widened, intently focused on her."Albus? You mean Albus Dumbledore?"
Arabella waved her hand in the air carelessly. "Yes, that old fool."
"You do not like him?" he asked her, curiously leaning closer.
"No." Arabella scrunched up her nose, "Of course not. I don't imagine anyone would ever enjoy his company."
Tom nodded. Arabella noticed he wasn't frowning like before - instead his face was calm. He almost looked impressed. With her? She didn't know.
"So, you created that spell?" he asked her.
"Yes, how was it?" Arabella begged him eagerly.
"How was it?" he repeated confused.
"Yes, how was the spell? Did it hurt? How did it make you feel?"
It made me feel like I should kill you again, Tom thought to himself. Unfortunately for Arabella, his mind was blocked.
"The spell was supposed to work like a heart attack but feel much, much worse. While your shaking uncontrollably, it's meant to feel like someone is like repeatedly stabbing you in the chest and all your bones feel like they are breaking as you bleed on the floor, helpless. You cannot move a single inch of your body," Arabella explained with enthusiastic arm motions.
"You really hate Albus," he commented, cocking his head to the side in curiosity.
"Oh, of course," stated Arabella darkly, her grey eyes narrowing at his sudden interest.
Tom didn't break eye contact with her as he asked, "What did he do to you?"
"Why do you want to know?" she inquired at him suspiciously.
"Did he do something to your family?"
Arabella suddenly realised what he was doing. "Oh, have you heard about my family?" she said, smirking.
"No, I have not. I've never come across the name 'Chambers,'" he grumbled.
Arabella shrugged. "My family is not important. They're all dead."
"Why do you hate Dumbledore, then?" He seemed to be trying to put her together.
"I can't tell you yet. You have to tell me something." Arabella had a mischievous glint in her eye.
"Okay, fine," Tom said, annoyed. "Those people I murdered were my family."
Arabella rolled her eyes. "Well, yes of course. I'm not stupid. Instead, riddle me this: why did you kill them?" She had a smile on her face, knowing how Tom hated what she just did. "And why with the wand of a Guant?" she added with a smirk.
Tom immediately look taken aback. "What?" he questioned in disbelief.
"That wasn't your wand you killed me with. It's different to the one you used today. And I read The Daily Prophet - 'Muggle Police Baffled by the Unexpected Deaths of a Muggle Family.' I read on about how Auror's got involved with the illegal use of the killing curse. The spell traced back to Morfin Gaunt who they sent to Azkaban." Arabella leaned closer and looked him in the eye. "You and I both know that is not what happened," she whispered.
"This whole matter is none of your business," Tom snapped, annoyed. "You were never supposed to be in that house, you were never supposed to come out alive, and you were never supposed to come find me at Hogwarts."
Arabella looked at him curiously. He had had a plan. She just needed to figure out what it was and why he framed the Gaunt family. "Who said I came out alive?" she hinted with a small smile.
She could practically hear the gears in Tom's head turning as he tried to piece together... well, anything. He then looked at her lost. "What do you want? You got your wand."
"I want to find out why you killed the Riddles. I want to find out why you framed Morton Gaunt. I want to find out why you have this whole school wrapped around your finger and I want to find out how you know such powerful, dark magic despite being raised by muggles." The last one was a complete guess, but judging by the surprised look on Tom's face, she knew she was right.
Then, as she did not enjoy being the one left behind, she walked out of the library, leaving a very confused Tom with piles of food in front of him (a extremely rare state to find him in).