Arms crossed and feet tapping the stone floor, I waited for Tom to exit the Slytherin common room. I hoped he'd hurry up because being down here in the dungeons when it wasn't time for my potions class was really uncomfortable. Bellatrix was sneering at me from the outside of the corridor, where she was lazily hanging around with Lestrange and Avery. I blinked and they were gone. Talk about weird.

Sighing, I leaned against the cold wall, wrapping the blanket harder around my shivering body and stared at nothing. First Nora, and now Colette and Olly. Things couldn't have possibly gotten any worse. I only had to put up with them for about another three months, any ways.

Something flicked at the back of my head, and my hand naturally went straight to the back of it and I turned around in confusion.

"What, are you mad or something? You foolish little girl," Tom hissed at me, nostrils flared.

"Wha - did you just flick me?"

"I sincerely tell you not to go looking for trouble - that I don't want harm to be brought upon you. And what do you do? You go looking for trouble."

I was flattered by the obvious fact that he had been worried about me, whether he tried to deny it or not. But I was still annoyed that he thought he could boss me around. I really didn't understand this whole turn around in his attitude toward me.

"I didn't look for trouble," I tried telling him. "Not deliberately, any way."

Tom huffed and stared down at me in disbelief. "Merlin's beard, Abigail, you do not get it, do you?!"

"Get what?"

"You just..." Tom paused, and his eyes trailed above my head and I could tell he was trying to search for the right word. "You cannot be harmed. You must be protected."

I groaned loudly in frustration. He wasn't giving me much information and he just expected me to understand what he was saying. I swallowed and paced in front of him, biting my lip. "Look. Just because you like me -"

"I don't like you."

" - or something, that doesn't mean you have to -"

" -You did this to yourself, Abigail! It's your fault."

I trailed off and frowned, giving Tom a questioning look. My fault? What could have possibly been my fault? Half of anything that Tom had said to me within the last two weeks made no sense to me whatsoever. His mood swings were getting a little more annoying than usual, also.

"What's my fault?" I asked quietly. Tom didn't even look at me. Growing more perturbed with Tom, I reached out, forced his face over to look at me, and slammed my hands back down against my thighs, allowing the hospital's blanket to fall from my shoulders. "Look at me. What are you talking about?"

"You can't know," he said simply, all expression leaving his once bothered features.

"Why are you being this way towards me?" I asked slowly, getting completely off topic. I could tell by the way Tom stiffened that he needed me to be more specific. Tom had many attitudes and mood swings toward me and he was well aware of that just as much as I was.

"How do you mean?"

"Why are you being so...nice?" The word itself was a question. Was nice the right word? He sometimes called me names but nice was the only word I could get out. "All this time you've treated me like I wasn't even human. I've always been a sort of an object to you. You've blackmailed me, used me, hurt me, confused me, scared me and you've been nice to me. I don't understand you sometimes."

I could tell, by the way Tom's face scrunched up, that he himself didn't quite understand it, either. Whether it was my imagination or it had actually happened, it looked like there was a slight smile on Tom's face. But then I blinked and it was gone. I blinked again, hoping to see it back on his face, but it was long gone. It was a little upsetting because he looked more handsome when he was giving a genuine smile rather than a cocky smirk.

"That's preferable," Tom said in a sharp tone. "Nobody understands me." Licking my lips, I stood straighter. "All you need to know, is that you must stay safe."

I hadn't noticed that, with each word, Tom and I were much more closer than we were before. Literally. With each word, from the both of us, we had been trying to prove our point of views by using actions. Yet he didn't even have to speak -all he had to do in order for me to hear a word he said was whisper.

And, though I was completely ashamed after it all, I found myself glancing at Tom's lips. I knew he saw me. I said, in a very weak voice, "I kind of want to--"

I cut myself off, realising how stupid I sounded. How stupid I looked.

Tom frowned down at me. "I don't recall you and I ever actually -"

My laughter cut him off and he looked more confused than ever - he didn't even seem bothered by the fact that I was moving closer each time.

"I didn't mean...that. I mean..." I paused, finally realising how unbelievably stupid I'd sounded. I chuckled dryly to myself, possibly looking like more of a fool than I'd already felt, and said, "never mind. I have to go."

I picked up the grey blanket off the stone floor and brushed past Tom, feeling more stupid than ever.

"You just...you need to be protected..." Tom murmured from behind me.

Stopping dead in my tracks, I stared over my shoulder, smiled, and jokingly responded with, "well then by all means protect me."

A frown masked Tom's features, and before I knew it, I was carrying the mask with me as I exited the dungeons.

//

"Boy, do I love detention!" Emily chirped, scrubbing away at the trophies with a wet rag.

"You can thank Riddle for it," Billy rolled his eyes, Chris and a few other boys nodded their heads with agreement. "That bloody scum has no idea how to have fun."

"He was probably jealous that he wasn't invited," a girl with pink hair giggled. I recognised her as one of the girls who followed him around on a regular basis.

Rolling my eyes, I blocked out all the fuss and comments about Tom as I scrubbed a big, bronze trophy. At least we weren't sent off into the forest with only an axe to chop down trees all day. Scrubbing trophies wasn't so bad. I was expecting worse. As a matter of fact I was quite happy Tom had caught us that day. If he hadn't, then I'd be touring Colette and Olly around the castle instead of cleaning trophies.

"Oh, leave him alone, the lot of you!" Nora Parkinson snapped, scoffing loudly. "He was only doing his duty as Head Boy. Do you not get that? He's the perfect Head Boy! I believe he deserves some credit not negative comments from you downer bast-"

"Hey, I didn't know Riddle had a trophy!" Longbottom cut in, examining a golden trophy with crease in his brows. Then he scoffed and tossed it aside. "Of course he does. He's Tom Riddle. All the teachers love him."

"What's it say he got awarded for?" I frowned, absently polishing a little silver trophy.

Longbottom looked over at me. "Apparently he caught the heir of Slytherin. My ass he did."

Emily glanced over at him. "You mean your longbottom he did."

A few of us serving detention laughed at this, whereas Longbottom rolled his eyes and replied with, "good one."

Finishing up with the silver trophy, I wandered back over toward the large, brown shelf containing at least a hundred trophies. I smelt of steel and wood and, though it was a little odd, cologne. Emily then showed up beside me without the others noticing.

"Have you heard?" she whispered. "There are two new Slytherin's in our year. Twins."

"Yes, I know," I rolled my eyes. I sighed in annoyance at the thought of the Prescotts. "I used to go to school with them at Beauxbatons. The Headmaster wants me to show them around tomorrow I believe."

"Ergh," Emily coughed, shaking her head as she scrunched up her face. I raised an eyebrow. "Those two are god awful. I saw them in the common room this morning when I came down for some breakfast. All I did was smile and that stupid girl now believes I fancy her brother. They've been teasing me about it every time they see me. How on earth did you put up with them at Beauxbatons?"

"I didn't," I said. "That's why I came here."

Emily gave me a sympathetic look before the two of us moved on to looking for more trophies to clean.

-