November, 1944
𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐃 gone by since Daisy and Dumbledore's meeting, and the weather was starting to get chilly, the student bundling up in their enormous winter coats.
Daisy had barely seen Tom in those two weeks. In the beginning, she had wanted to go and visit him in the hospital wing, certain that it had been him next to her hospital bed. She agonised over it for several days, torn between wanting to resolve what she had done to him, and scared at her lack of remorse because he deserved it.
By the time she had finally pulled herself together and walked over, the nurse had told her that he had been released the morning.
Now Daisy, Gabriela, and Anika were sitting at the Hufflepuff table, having just discussed matching outfits for the Winter dance which was approaching rapidly. It was to be held in exactly 2 weeks. Since their love lives were practically empty, they had decided to go as a trio.
Now they were eating their breakfast in a thoughtful silence. At least, it was until Gabriela spotted someone coming towards them over Daisy and Anika's shoulder.
"I hope you're not coming here to speak to us," Gabriela snapped with an acidic tone.
The blonde and brunette spun around in their seats to see a dejected Julian Lestrange stopping in his tracks. The charismatic boy had dark circles under his usual glimmering, grinning blue eyes, and his full lips were pulled into a constant frown.
Anika grimaced at the state of him, feeling the familiar tug of pity in her gut as she took the sight of him in. The truth was, she was ready to forgive him for the scenario, but her friends were determined to stay angry at him.
"There is nothing worse than a bystander," Gabriela would say furiously whenever Anika had brought him up.
"I have to speak to Patel. She's my partner today in the joined Potions class," he mumbled.
There was to be larger Potions class today, mixing several students from all 4 houses. These were to occur monthly, in an attempt strengthen the 7th Year's companionship in their last term. As luck would have it, all three girls were in the same group as well as Tom and Julian.
Anika excused herself from the table to follow Julian. She could have sworn she heard a joint growl from her friends as she left.
"You know what? This really sucks, because I really did like him. I was even hoping to go with him to the dance." Gabriela sniffed in frustration, watching the pair go.
"Did?" Daisy raised a brow.
"I think so," the Spanish witch pushed her food around uncomfortably. "I don't want to have feelings for someone who isn't a good person."
"Look, I don't want to excuse his actions, but it could have just been a moment of weakness. It can be hard to step up against someone that you're dating," Daisy speculated.
"Speaking of complicated males," Gabriela changed the subject. "Have you spoken with Riddle yet?"
"About what? Me almost killing him with someone released ungodly evil within me?" the blonde quipped dryly. "Nope. He's avoiding me like the plague. Well, I'm actually avoiding him too, so..."
"Well, you'll need to today," her friend said with a little too much glee Daisy thought. "You've been paired with him today in the Potions class."
"Ugh are you serious?" Daisy groaned, finally opting to read the sheet they had been given for the peculiar class arrangement. "Great, and Fleamont is paired with Euphemia. Everyone knows she's had the hots for him since the 3rd year."
"What? Worried your little boyfriend will find someone else?"
"He's not my boyfriend," Daisy rolled her eyes, feeling herself flush. "We're just friends right now."
"Mhm, okay," Gabriela smirked. "Let's get going, I need to go to the bathroom first."
The two girls got up, abandoning their plates and heading out of the Great Hall.
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Anika followed the tall boy, unsure where he was leading her. He finally stopped and sat down on one of the benches in a corridor. He motioned for her to sit, looking nervous. She did, feeling on edge herself.
"So, what did you wish to speak to me about?" she began cordially.
"In all honesty, I couldn't give a damn about Potions class right now," Julian stated, and at her widening eyes, continued quickly. "I just wanted to apologise to you without your vulture friends around."
"Don't insult my friends," Anika was quick with her reply, very protective over people close to her. "And you're already apologised, frequently."
"I know, but I needed to it again," he tossed his hand upward to shake the black curls out of his face, looking down at her with an unidentifiable expression. "I really am sorry, Patel."
"Why is this apology so important to you?" she said softly. "I didn't take you for someone who would care this much about something that isn't even necessarily you're doing."
"Yes, well, I condoned it," he said, a shadow passing over his face. "But not anymore, Cecilia and I are done. I'm trying not to surround myself around people who could taint my character."
"Unfortunately you might find yourself friendless if you take that path," Anika joked, trying to lighten to mood. She hated it when people were gloomy.
"That's different," he assured without a further explanation. "But yes, you're right again. So, do you forgive me?"
He looked at her tentatively, scared to look in her hypnotising doe eyes for too long in fear that he might forget how to speak. Her dark skin glinted in the pale sunlight, looking wonderful in the contract of her small golden hoop earrings. He had truly never seen any girl like her.
"I forgave you a long time ago," she smiled sweetly at him. "I was just waiting for the right moment to tell you."
They gazed at each other for a few long seconds, the air between them seeming to zap with electricity. Anika's throat tightened with emotion as a few butterflies danced around in her stomach. She gulped at the sensation, quickly clearing her throat and standing up.
"Well, thank you for speaking to me," she expressed gratefully. "And if we are to be friends now, I would much prefer it that you call me by my first name. An–"
"Anika," Julian finished. "I know your name."
"Brilliant," she jabbered, blushing. "Okay, well, I'll see you in Potions, Julian."
He watched her go until he couldn't see her anymore, a stupid smile spreading across his face.
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"Now, I don't want you to get too excited, but today we are making an especially fascinating potion," Professor Slughorn boomed to be heard over the couple dozen students, his round body practically shaking with excited energy. "Now, that's a pretty vague description, but any guesses?"
Almost every student raised their hand, and the professor looked surprised at the enthusiasm. He chose a girl at random.
"It's Amortentia, sir," she droned, pointing at the sheet she was given. "It's literally in the title on the information paper we were given."
"Oh," the older man deflated a little, but then perked up again. "Would anyone like to explain the purpose of the potion?"
Daisy wanted to show her Professor how much she had improved in her worst class, and was preparing to raise her hand, but a pale on shot up before her. She looked to the right of her in mild annoyance at Tom Riddle.
They were already seated with their partners, but no one had had the chance to speak with one another yet.
"It is the most powerful love potion in existence," he recited as from a textbook. "And when ingested, causes an imitation of the person falling in love."
Daisy smiled smugly, for she had noticed a mistake in Tom's words.
"Actually Professor, if I may add?" she asked politely. "The most important thing to know about the potions is that it does not actually mimic love. Instead, it simply creates a powerful infatuation or obsession between the drinker and the person who gave it to them."
"Wonderful Ms Kennedy!" Professor Slughorn beamed. "I'm pleased to see you climbing the ranks. Perhaps Mr Riddle should be asking you for help."
If looks could kill, Daisy would have been a pathetic pile of dust on the desk due to the mutinous scowl Tom gave her. She refused to shrink back however, matching his glare with one of her own.
"Now, please read the instructions on how to make it and delegate who does what with your partners."
Finally, the highly anticipated moment which Daisy had been dreading. Being forced into conversation with Tom.
"Okay, so the first step is to–"
"I know how to read, Kennedy," the boy snapped cruelly.
"Sorry, just trying to be cooperative."
"Fine, you may be cooperative by staying quiet and letting me do the work. I won't have you messing the potion up," Tom ordered, snatching the instruction page to his side of the desk.
"Yeah...that's not going to happen," Daisy gritted her teeth in frustration and slid the paper back into the middle. "Look, I get your ego is damaged from me beating you in DADA, but that does not mean you get to treat me like I'm some dimwit who doesn't know my hands from my ass!"
Slowly, the raven-haired wizard turned his head towards her, eyes blazing. He regarded her with a poorly disguised look of loathing.
"Listen to me very carefully," he said in a quiet voice. "If you think what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts was you besting me in the duel, you would be mistaken."
"Oh yeah?" she taunted, leaving behind her plan of being nice. "Then what was it, huh?"
"I don't know," Tom replied, feeling annoyed at his lack of information. "But I'm almost certain you don't either. Whatever you did was not based on skill or talent, merely raw chaos and sloppy spellwork. I would have been impressed, had you had any control over it. But it'll most likely end up destroying you from the inside out, something I'm looking very forward to seeing."
Her face remained motionless, but her insides were skittering with fear at his words. It was almost as if he could read her very worries which had been eating at her for weeks. She decided she would go to Dumbledore after the lesson, if only to assuage her concerns.
She cleared her throat severely and decided to give no response, reading the instructions with a new level of concentration.
Finally, after much arguing about who does what, Tom and Daisy had completed making to potion and it looked exactly like it should. Feeling pleased, the girl called on Professor Slughorn to show him their craftsmanship.
"Wonderful work Miss Kennedy and Mr Riddle. I'm pleased that your tutoring has brought you closer together and has led to you willingly choosing each other to work with," Slughorn beamed at them.
"Actually, sir," Daisy corrected sheepishly. "All the partners are assigned, so we did not choose each other."
"Oh right," the older man rubbed his head. "I'm getting old. Well, I'm sure you would had I not assigned the partners, am I right?"
"Of course, Professor. I can only thank you for setting up our tutoring," Tom stepped in, overdoing the charm so much that Daisy cringed in distaste. "May we clean up the potion now?"
"Not yet by boy!" the Professor waggled his finger. "Don't you want to smell the potion?"
"I would prefer not to," the boy said coldly. "But I'm sure my partner would enjoy it."
While Slughorn waddled away, Daisy bent down to smell the pearly liquid, curious as to what she would smell. She had never given much thought to who she would smell when the situation came, and was looking forward to revealing it. However, no matter how hard she sniffed, she didn't smell anything. Instead, the inside of her nose was just left feeling uncomfortable cold.
"Oh, lovely!" she put on an act, not wanting to share the unsettling information. "I really didn't think it would work!"
"What did you smell?" Tom asked, annoyed at his own curiosity in the question.
"I would prefer not to disclose that information," she said to him curtly.
"Don't want to admit you smelled someone you knew?" he jeered snidely.
"Yup, that's totally it," she retorted placidly. "Let's just clean this up. The lesson's over in a few minutes."
They cleaned up in silence, Tom being in charge of diluting the potion and then pouring it down the drain. Daisy was cleaning up the equipment used to cut the ingredients, eager to leave since she was going to go see Dumbledore.
"Do you smell bad today, Kennedy?" her partner suddenly asked, causing Daisy to look at him in confusion.
"Excuse me?"
"Because only a person who reeked especially would put so much perfume on," he continued, enjoying riling her up. "Honestly, that mango scent is starting to sicken me."
"I don't have any perfume on today," she replied, giving him a dubious expression.
"Whatever you say, Kennedy," he rolled his eyes, getting up from the desk.
"Can you clean the rest of this up? I have to go," she asked hopefully, not wanting to waste any of her free period.
"Where to?"
"Well, if you must know, I'm going to speak to Dumbledore about something," Daisy admitted, unsure of why she just shared that information. "So you see, it's important."
Surprisingly, Tom nodded silently and let her go without another word of rebuttal. She decided to think nothing of it, but all Tom was doing was thinking.
He had been watching the first for the past two weeks, ever since he got out of the Hospital Wing, which had been when she starting seeing Albus Dumbledore. What she had done to him, he had never experienced or read about before. And the fact that she thought she had physically hurt him made it ever more complexing.
He hadn't landed in the Hospital wing with a single scratch on him. Oh no, what was ailing the Riddle boy was his mind. The nurse had told him he had been unconscious for 2 days, yelling in his sleep so often they had to give him sedatives. He had said one word the most: Mum.
He still did not know what she did, but he knew he needed to find out. And the only way to do that, was to get closer to her.
Because if this darkness within her was really as powerful as it seemed, how else would he get her to join his cause?
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A/N: Any ideas for ship names yet guys?
Also, who's feeling the vibes between Anika and Julian? 👀