Unexpected Encounters | Tom Riddle

Lilia was running away with the supplies in the satchel hanging to her bracelet, casting curses as death eaters kept trying to kill them. She watched the green light of the killing curses zooming past them with detachment that kept her mind at the forefront and her emotions concealed.

"Avada Kedavra!" She heard Ron shout the curse at a death eater whose body fell by her feet with a thud. She didn't stop to think about how Ron used an Unforgivable. This was war, and Voldemort did not play by the rules. As they approached the exit where they could apparate from, she felt time slowing as she watched Luna get hit by an orange light. She burst in flames almost immediately.

Screaming, Lilia ducked as her friend's body was flung all the way across the courtyard, the smell of burning flesh met her nostrils. "Fuck." Fred or Ron swore behind her as they all ran away. She watched in horror as Luna's charred body got up from the flames and spoke to Lilia, voice muting everything around them. "Why do you get to live a normal life when I had to die?"

Lilia woke up with a gasp, tears streaming down her face. She didn't deserve to be alive, she should have died just like everyone she loved and cared about. What was she doing here? Small sobs wrecked her body and she shook violently. It took her some time for her vision to focus on the person in front of her. Tom held her by the shoulders, hands firmly gripping onto her and rooting her to reality.

"Hey, you're okay. You're safe, Lilia. Just follow me: breathe in and breathe out."

He took a deep breath and looked at her expectantly.

"I- Luna- She- "

"Lilia, focus on me." She nodded and inhaled deeply, following Tom's lead.

He guided her respiration for a few minutes, slowly helping her nerves calm down. When her head cleared up from the nightmare, she realised that she must have fallen asleep in the common room.

"I'm sorry, Tom." She apologised in a small voice, staring at the boy who was kneeled in front of her. He wiped away stray tears on her cheeks, feeling her warmth underneath his touch.

At first, he had heard small whimpers, so low that he thought he was imagining things. But then, she had started crying and he assumed that it must have been a nightmare. She had been asleep for barely half an hour. It made him wonder if her nights were often plagued with nightmares like this.

"You are all right, Lilia," he said softly, caressing her hair. Her heart ached as she leaned into his touch, the softness he displayed in that moment unfamiliar to her. She didn't feel comfortable being touched but Tom's touch was reassuring. How ironical, a future dark lord was comforting her .

She looked vulnerable, felt it in the way her eyes were practically begging him not to leave her alone.

"You should go to sleep," he sighed, not stopping the gentle caresses. "What about you?" "I can't fall asleep." "Does that happen a lot?" "Yeah. It's hard when my mind is always thinking about something." "You need to rest, Tom." "So do you. Let me escort you back to your bedroom." His tone left no room for further arguments and she nodded.

They walked back to her bedroom and stopped in front of the door. "Thank you," she said softly. "You're welcome. Sleep well, Rousseau." "You too, Riddle." None of them pointed out that they had made the shift back to using their last names.

Using each other's first names had felt intimate and none of them knew how to interpret it.

For the first time in a while, Lilia felt rested when she slept that night.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Lilia and Tom never talked about the moment they shared in the common room. She felt embarrassed about the fact that she cried in front of him. He comforted her, not knowing that his future self was the cause of all her nightmares.