warnings: violence, blood
The visit to her father left Avani uncertain about her relationship with Tom. Was what she was doing too bad? She had no trouble lying, but when it came to her father, she tried to be nothing but honest. Deceiving her father left a perpetual sickness in her gut. And the fact that he liked Tom made matters worse.
Tom didn't seem to be affected too much by the scenario. No guilt that he was sleeping with the daughter of a man with whom he had shared a drink and a smoke. And it angered Avani. Tom's respect for her father was superficial, or he wouldn't have touched her again. But apparently, Tom respected no one but himself. He deemed himself to be a god, after all.
Avani had promised herself she would try to mind her escapades with Tom. But he muttered such blasphemous words in her ears and touched her so beautifully that she always found herself sneaking back to his chambers.
And there he would whisper apologies, so shamelessly fake that even the stars sighed when Avani believed them. He had her in his palm, and each time they fought, one finger closed. And it would not be long before she was trapped in his fist.
Then he would look in through the folds of his hand and ask her, do you still find my blood status funny, Avani?
Tom was feeding her venom disguised as saccharine nectar. And though she knew the taste was too honeyed... a mere hoax, she would drink it till it rotted her insides. Because if venom was anything, it was addicting. And Avani was its staunch devotee.
And as she sat in his classroom, she could not help but stare at the men who were corrupting her.
"Are you listening?" Circe said.
Avani flinched, her elbow slipping from the edge of her table. Tom concealed a smile with a cough.
"Uh, what?" Avani asked.
"I asked if you had done your homework."
Avani stared at her friend for a long time, her mind not fully functioning to capture the words.
"Oh, Homework?" Avani said when her overcast head finally cleared from the clouds of sacrilegious daydreams. "What about it?"
"Did you do it?"
Avani nodded. "Sure, why?"
"Could I borrow it to copy?"
Avani did not like giving up her stuff to people, but she would feel awful for saying no to Circe. They were good friends.
Avani took out her roll of parchment, handing it to her.
A heavy weight pushed against Avani's back, making her fall forward, and she placed her palms on the table to avoid cracking her skull open.
"Looks like the mudblood is too stupid to do her own homework," Mathias Black said, resting his forearm on Avani's back. Circe looked down, her fingers tightening around her quill.
Avani rolled her eyes.
"Get off of me, you bloody bulldog," she said, pushing him away from herself.
"Sit down, Mr Black," Tom said from the front of the class. Mathias and his friends tittered, lowering into the seat behind Avani and Circe.
"Hey, mudblood, how are things going on with the caretaker? Are you shagging yet?"
"Black, I will thrust my quill in your eye. Leave her alone," Avani said.
Mathias Black cocked an eyebrow at her, almost as a challenge. "Like you shoved a pie down my throat? Remember you were the only one who got in trouble for that?"
Avani scoffed, turning in her seat. "Don't tempt me. Or I might just chop off your appendage and shove that down your throat. How would you like that? I think you know what appendage I'm talking about, don't you?"
Mathias' friends laughed, and he clutched his jaw.
"You try doing that, why don't you?" he said, staring into her eyes. He undid the cap of an inkpot. He gave her a cocky grin as he slowly poured the midnight liquid over Circe's head.
The ink trickled down Circe's head, tendrils of shame staining her shirt and curly brown hair.
She kept staring down while the whole class gasped.
Avani stood up in her seat, her chair screeching against the floor. Tom sensed she would do something stupid in wrath, and he stepped between them.
"Twenty points from Slytherin and a week-long detention for you, Mr Black," Tom said. He stepped before Avani when he saw her fists tighten and her eyes burn with anger.
"Of course, professor," Mathias Black said. "But why don't you punish this whore? She helped her friend cheat on her homework."
"That's enough, Mr Black," Tom said, trying to dissipate the heating scenario more than anything else.
But it was too late. Avani grabbed the glass inkpot and stepped around Tom, smashing it into Mathias' head.
The glass piece pierced the skin above his left eyebrow, and the boy screamed, crouching to the ground as blood trickled into his eye.
Avani made to hit him again, but Tom grabbed her by her hand, pulling her back.
She glared at him, a silent warning to let her go, but when he didn't, she picked up her back and grabbed Circe's hand and walked out of the classroom.
.
"I'm getting away without punishment? You cannot be seriously serious," Avani said as she rested her feet on the table, tipping her chair backwards. She inhaled slowly. She liked the smell of Tom's room. It smelt like him, of black coffee and smoke.
Tom lit two cigarettes, handing one to Avani.
"I explained to Dumbledore that the attack was provoked. He let it go, though he said you would be expelled if you committed one more violent act."
Avani inhaled the smoke sharply, letting the white cloud escape her carmine lips. "I cannot see why the Blacks are not making a big deal out of this."
"I have good friends in that family. I talked to them, and they've settled it."
Avani looked at Tom, somewhat shocked. "You're friends with the Blacks? They're an important family."
Tom smiled, leaning against the table Avani had her feet on. He moved his fingers over the countless letters he had received, each from an equally established wizard.
"You underestimate me," he said, resting his hands around her calves, feeling her soft skin against his roughened fingertips.
Avani shrugged, crushing the tip of the cigarette in the ashtray. It was weird that Tom had established friends. She always imagined him to be a hard-working half-blood, trying to make a name for himself in the wizarding world. Avani knew he was important somehow, but how much? She was only figuring that out now.
She had embedded glass in Mathias' head, and the fact that the Blacks were not doing anything about it just because Tom asked them not to, revealed the power Tom had.
And it was alarming, she would admit. Alarming oh such that it left her feeling awry. When she approached Tom when he had come to Hogwarts, she knew sleeping with a teacher was a bad idea. But she had a sense of security. If things were to go wrong, she would have her father. He would have definitely taken her side, getting her out of trouble, and maybe blame it all on Tom. It was immoral, she knew, but in the bigger picture, it was either to blame him or have her reputation ruined forever.
She might make stupid decisions, but Avani would never tarnish her family's name.
But now she was finding that Tom had powerful connections as well, and it made her wonder that if their affair was to be released to the public, who would win between the two?
Because she might not know much about Tom Riddle, but she did know that a man of such humble origins could not have friends in such high places without committing some questionable acts. If they were to be outed, Tom would not let a girl like her put all that he had built at stake.
The sudden loss of security made Avani insecure, and she tried to hide it behind careless nonchalance.
"It's sweet of you that you went through the trouble of talking with the Blacks for me," Avani said.
"It's nothing," Tom said.
Avani smiled. No matter how his power might make her feel insecure, she would not deny that it was insanely attractive.
She liked power and the people who held it.
Avani licked her lips, her eyes falling on his hands and his long fingers, a golden ring with a dark gem glistening in the middle. "You can give me detention, though, can't you? Tomorrow night?"
Tom looked at her. "You want detention?"
Avani pressed her lips together, feeling a grin trying to spread over her face. "It'll be... fun. Everything has been so boring lately."
Tom shook his head. "Mathias' detention is tomorrow."
"Oh please, just send him to the groundskeeper. Perhaps a Centaur will kick some sense into him."
Tom laughed. "As much as I cherish the idea, absolutely not."
"Oh, don't be a mood killer. Let's leave a wild creature after him when he's in the forest. Please. I would love that," Avani whined, her dark eyes glistening with galaxies of mischief.
"Of course, you would love that, but no. I have promised the Blacks that I will be with Mathias in detention. They want to make sure he's safe. The other teachers don't like him quite."
"Well, he called me a whore. Are you going to let it slide with just detention?"
No, he would let it slide, but he could not just tell her that. So he said, "Yes. That's the smart thing to do."
"You're awful. Maybe I'll do something. Light his head on fire, perhaps."
"You will do no such thing, Avani. You'll be expelled."
"Like you would care."
"I would. And there's no need to turn this into an argument. I'm handling it."
"Well, Tom, I must say you're not doing a very good job at it. I want him to suffer. Do you know why the boys don't try anything stupid with me here? While they go around teasing the other girls? Because I don't let anything they do drop. I don't like them, and I make sure they know it. If one of them gets away with calling me names, my attempts of seven years will go futile."
"You're overreacting."
"I'm really not. You know how boys are, especially at this age. And the fact that they do not dare to look at me in the wrong way, let alone try something, is a big deal. I want revenge. Something better than just a tiny shred of glass in his skull."
"I'll handle it."
"How?"
"Trust me when I say I will. You don't have to worry. You'll know soon enough."
"I want to know now."
"Don't annoy me, Avani."
Avani crossed her hands before her, glaring at him.
Tom did not love Avani. He did not love anyone. But still, he cared that a boy had disrespected her, and he was not going to let it go. Not because he cared for her in a romantic way. The notion was wicked, a possessive hint to it. Avani was his, and no one could hurt her other than him.
Mathias Black was going to suffer, but Avani could not know just yet.
He had an elaborate plan. Take Avani's revenge and fulfil his need for vengeance against Dumbledore.
Dumbledore thought himself to be powerful, but Tom would show him what he could do right under his nose.
Because Tom was going to kill Mathias Black tomorrow night. And Hogwarts will be shocked.