What if He had a Choice?

One thing that Tom would admit to himself was that he had never really expected Draco to manage to cast the Cruciatus curse. The spell was incredibly difficult to cast, arguably more so than the Imperius curse, and it required one to channel their anger and hatred into the spell. It was not something that a person could easily cast, even if they had the potential for dark magic, such as Draco did. He simply doubted that Draco had the level of anger and hatred that was necessary to manage the spell, natural inclination aside, and if he could not do the imperius curse, the killing curse was going to be much more complicated.

Colour him surprised when he manages it on his first try. Tom had not expected it, to say the least, and to see it happen right before his eyes, just after having explain how it was he was supposed to do it, and how to channel the emotions so that he would be able to better perform the spell was something that he could not help but be surprised about. He felt it was more than understandable given the fact that it was an incredibly shocking event for him. Even he had had some trouble the very first attempt at this spell. Yet Draco performed it perfectly and with his eyes wide and glazed over as he did so, lips trembling from his anger as he poured everything into the spell.

Tom hastily had to move in to keep him from killing the animal, gently grabbing his arm and catching his attention. Draco blinked, startling himself from his anger, focusing on Tom Riddle as he did so, his eyes still slightly dazed. He tilted his head to the side, staring at him. Tom gave him a reassuring smile as the pathetic bunny bounced off as best as it could. The curse had only been held against the animal for a small while but it was not exactly shocking that it would try to get away as fast as possible. Tom distantly saw it struggling to hop away as fast as it could on it's small legs.

"I did well?" Draco asked, his eyes wide, staring at TOm with a sense of pride in his features. Tom let his face curl into a smile. After all, the Malfoy Heir had done well...quite well. Even if there was a lot of hidden anger and hatred in the boy.

And oh, Tom could not help but wonder what had caused it. What it was. How did that anger manifest? What would he do if Tom pushed him a bit more? A bit further than what his boundaries were? What would happen if the great Draco Malfoy was reduced to nothing but sheer anger, utter hatred, and a dark glaze to his eyes as Tom had seen in his eyes when he cast the curse. Tom shook his head, he needed to focus on something besides that. He could not wander off and daydream about this.

Though he was gong to have to talk to himself. Very sternly at that. He should have noticed the amount of anger that was bundled up within Draco, and yet he had not, which was a drastic error on his part. It was rather surprising, shocking in the fact that he had managed to keep those emotions from him so effortlessly. Tom wondered, how. Was he a natural occumens? Similar to how he was a natural legilimens? Tom would have to ponder that more, preferably at a later date as he had other things to worry about at this specific moment.

"Yes," Tom said simply, a smile on his face. "Yes you did amazing." He could not help the breathy awe in his voice as he spoke the words. Draco gave him a wide, jovial smile at his words, something which caused Tom to almost laugh, but he buried the instinct down. Now was not the time.

"When is father going to send us to Diagon Alley?" Draco asked. Tom started. He had not expected such a mundane topic to come up after the boy had legit just used an unforgiveable curse, and clearly enjoyed it. Still, he took the switch in subject in stride.

"I am not sure." He hummed.

"Well, Hogwarts letters are coming soon. We only have a month before school." Draco said with an elegant shrug of his shoulder. Tom nodded.

That was true. They would be getting their hogwarts letters soon, something which both excited and unnerved him. He wondered...How would McGonagall react to an extra 6th year entering Hogwarts this late. He wondered if it would interfere with his plans.

He would have to ensure that it did not.