DESIRE ; Tom Riddle

chapter one.

He hated her, and she knew it. The past few years he’d always pick on her when she wasn’t listening, making her answer questions which she didn’t know the answer to — he wanted to wound up, badly. Though he would always do this; she never knew the reason why. Maybe, it was because she was likely a problem all the time, and would cause trouble for no reason at all. But she didn’t know if that actually was the reason. Perhaps she’ll never know either.

It didn’t help that she was close friends of both Blaise and Pansy as well, they weren’t any better than Maia was, and would always bring her into trouble as well. Always messing about during classes, acting like there wasn’t even a teacher in the class with them. They acted like everyone else was invisible, and the only people in the room... was them. Though, they weren’t. Over thirty-five other students sat among them three, watching as they caused all the problems like usual. They didn’t care though — why should they?

Professor Riddle. What everyone called him, even the other Professors. No one dared to call him by his first name, unless you were someone like Dumbledore, and didn’t give a shit what to call him. Anyone else though — it’s Riddle to them. He has said many, many times.

“Maia.” Blaise nudged, taking her out of a distant gaze. “You’re daydreaming again. Your eyes have been strained to Patils’ head for the past ten minutes — are you alright?” he asked, furrowing his eyebrows she turned to face him with a confused expression. She never actually realised she was deep into her thoughts, and she never realised she had been staring at someone’s head most of the time too. Got carried away. Her thoughts were just all over the place. “Yeah, course. Just got carried away, that’s all,” Maia reassured him.

He gave her a look, like he didn’t believe her at first but shook it off when Pansy joined in with the conversation, pushing her weight onto her arms and poking her head around Blaise’s upper arm. “What’s happening? I wasn’t listening,” she spoke, making both their eyes draw over to Pansys’. “Nothing, apparently. Just making sure Maia was alright, that’s all.”

Maia gave a weak smile, hoping to play it off as she turned back around, facing the front of the class. Professor Riddle was where she looked, writing some sentences on a blackboard and using his wand to make the chalk move. He was sat down at his desk; one that was completely empty, and only had a few papers scattered across the top. The papers of their previous test scores from the week before. She failed it. She knew it already. It didn’t help that she had a death wish when it came to Professor Riddle, and all she wanted to do was cause trouble.

His white, collar-shirt was rolled up by the sleeves, resting uneasily at the crook where his arm folded every-time his wand drew a different pattern in the air. His right leg was perched upon his left thigh, sitting at a right angle on top, and trying to remain comfortable in his seat. Though, Maia knew he was feeling awkward in the position by the way he fidgeted every so often.

He wore black dress shoes, fixed to shine to make him look presentable. It was mostly the same work-like outfit every day, ever since he joined Hogwarts as a teacher, and would rarely have a different colour shirt on. It made everyone wonder how many of the same shirts he actually had back in his room. Wondering if he ever actually changed his style at all or if he even had a style. For someone like himself; he sure didn’t look like he would.

“Right!” Professor Riddle voiced, making a few students in the room jump out of their own conversations, and turn to the front. He had that power on everyone, like they wouldn’t dare step in his way, and cause any sort of trouble. Though, that was different for Maia. She and the other two didn’t care. “I’m hoping you are writing this down, as you will need this for your next assignment, and even so — your N.E.W.T. exams!”

A few students groaned, already feeling stressed by the amount of work he’d set in the past few weeks. On top of that — already a few exams to look ahead for, and start preparing for the worst of them all.

“Whine all you want. It’s not going to help you get out of any of them, no matter how hard you try,” he condemned, standing up from his seat with a pat on both of his thighs. The wand he held, waved around in circles and weaved between all of his fingers. Like a magic trick if you’d call it like that. Maia squinted her eyes slightly, though moving them away and taking a look at what was written on the blackboard ahead.

Aguamenti; a charm induced to conjure a jet of clean, drinkable water straight from the tip of your wand. Can be classed as either a conjuration, or even so, a transfiguration at some points. This is known as the opposite of the fire-making spell, which was used to conjure fire spells instead.

The hand movement for the spell would be shown as a smooth hand movement from right to left.

Maia felt like Professor Riddle was tired of all the easy charm spells we had to learn, and wanted to do more hardcore transfiguration, though he wouldn’t be allowed. He got bored very easily, and would just let the students crack on if he was on a good day, but if not, then they’d be living hell.

She scanned the writing on the board once more, reading it and acting like it would just stick in her mind without jotting it down like the rest of the class. Not everyone was though; not everyone could be bothered at the moment. “This configuration could be used to put out fires, deadly or non-deadly, and is mostly used in rough circumstances,” Riddle carried on, now walking ahead to the centre of the class. He stood below the row of seats, looking ahead at many of the students and fixing his eyes on each person for a few seconds.

“Miss Wilson,” he called. The movement of a few students turning around filled the room, making Maia’s eyes slowly turn to face him at the front. His arms were crossed, standing straight and his eyes fixed right in line with hers. “Are you writing this down by any chance?” he asked, raising one of his eyebrows higher than the other.

She pursed her lips, “Well, it doesn’t look like it right now, does it?” Blaise snorted quietly next to her, trying to cover it up like he was sniffing and wiping his nose, though Riddle didn’t buy it. No one did actually. “If you actually picked up your quill, and started to write down everything I’m saying — you’d pass your next mini-exam..,” he stated, pressing down on his heels and leaning slightly backwards. His arms were still crossed, showing the bulge of his arms that were visible for anyone to see.

“If I must have to..,” she replied with, trying to keep her voice as low as possible, though it didn’t work. It was like he had the ears of a hawk and was able to hear anything from a few miles away.

“I could hear that. If you speak that low when telling secrets, then you might as well not tell them at all, Wilson.”

He darted his eyes away now, moving back towards his desk on the side. His hands were placed flat on the wood, pressing down and letting the bones shape themselves in a way that showed his muscles through his skin. They popped out like it was nothing, though he didn’t bother hiding them. His body was slightly bent forward, watching over the students in the room.

“Everyone in this room will put all their effort into their work, no matter how hard it will be. I can go very harsh, and I don’t think any of you would actually like to see that, so please; do — your — work,” Riddle continued, now tensing his jaw and glaring around at everyone. They were all silent. Not one saying a word, or even a little cough from the corner. It was dead silent.

Blaise and Pansy were muttering between themselves though, hearing the giggles escaping her mouth as he whispered something straight in her ear. It made Maia feel sick how they would flirt around her, and not bother acknowledging who was around. There was no doubt that they’d hooked up once, or actually, more than that, as all they do is flirt constantly every day. Maia rolled her eyes, starting to become annoyed by how they were acting right now. All the ‘best’ just to get caught.

“Miss Wilson!” Riddle called out again, slamming one of his hands on the desk under him, making the hinges rattle. “Control your classmates’ behaviour wont you?”

She snapped her eyes towards him again, noticing as he was tenser than before, and glaring what seemed to be knives right at her. Again — he had it out for her, but for no reason at all. “What do you mean? I’m not in control of their behaviour!” she shouted back, throwing her hands up and giving the same look in return.

Riddle shook his head slowly a few times, raising one of his eyebrows again. “I see you’re talking back,” he spoke. His hands lifted from the table, but kept his eyes drawn to hers and not bothering to lower them at any point. “I’d like to take away thirty points for the attitude, but I say a little chat will put you in a better place.”

Her eyebrows loosened now, furrowing as the confusion wept over her face. She didn’t know what he meant by that sentence, but didn’t have time to answer when he snapped his head away and picking up his wand to make it wipe the chalk off the board. Though Maia only spoke a few words; the anger made her slightly tired of it all, resulting in her back slouching in the chair.

“Why does he hate you so bloody much?” Pansy asked across from Blaise, making her eyes turn to look at them both. She was bent forward slightly, letting her get a good look at Maia ahead. Maia’s arms were crossed over my body, keeping them held tightly against herself. “You tell me. It’s like my presence just annoys him when I’ve done nothing in the past to offend him or anything else actually!” She replied, with her voice whispering, irritated.

“Maybe he has that boyish crush on you, like where they act mean, but really has a soft spot for you and just can’t show true emotions,” Blaise spoke out, making her eyes slowly move along in slight confusion. Though that confusion turned to a playful smirk, “Look at you, acting like you know everything. Is this why you hate Pansy back in the fourth year — couldn’t show your true dying-love emotions for her.”

“Oh, sod off Maia... I just know a few things alright,” He mumbled, forming a slight crease between his eyebrows.

Pansy was staring off into the distance, though she wasn’t looking at anything in particular. Her thoughts were just in action at that point. “What if—.” she started, “what if he actually does have a crush on you. How amazing would that sound?” her head was now turned back towards Maia, her face lit up as the thought made her feel excited.

Everyone else was muttering with their own friends, hopefully not able to hear the conversation they had going on. Maia quickly searched around, hoping to catch someone staring at us, but she didn’t.

“So you’re saying you’d get with a teacher?” Blaise asked, starting to sound dumbfounded more than offended at that point. Both of them weren’t dating, yet as Maia called it. They would always flirt, laugh with each other and yes, even hook up once in a while, but they never made it official. To be honest — Maia thought they wouldn’t for a while. “Well... if the teacher is hot like Professor Riddle, then maybe, yes,” Pansy replied, lifting her hand as an action to her words.

Blaise faced was astonished, moving slightly away to take a good look at her facial features. He was surprised by the things he was hearing, as both Maia and he always thought she wasn’t the teacher-fling type, but now they knew they were wrong. “What? It’s the truth—. Wouldn’t you do it, Maia? You must have thought about it once.”

She noticed how Pansys face started to feel worried, as if the other two were starting to judge her, though they never would. Maia shook her head, chuckling at the way Pansy started to feel scared about the way the both of them would respond to how she actually felt about it all. “So you wouldn’t? Merlin, now I feel like a whore,” Pansy whined, resting her chin on the palms of her hand, upon the wooden desks ahead of them.

“I’m not saying no... but I’m not saying yes either,” Maia replied, fixing her posture in the classroom seat she sat in. They were always so uncomfortable, giving it hard to sit down without a movie for an hour straight. It was literal pain for everyone in there. “If it came to the circumstance, and we both liked each other, then yes, maybe. But not if it was just for a grade, or some cliche shit like that.”

“Either way, I bet Professor here is good in bed. He has that body type that just makes you think—.” Pansy was cut off by Blaise covering her mouth with his hand, silencing the rest of her sentence. “No one wants to hear about your sexual desires with the teacher.”

She shook his hand away, giving him such a death glare. Maia couldn’t help but laugh at the way they acted, still knowing well that they were good for each other, but only saw it as a fuck-and-go situation. Just, they never actually go anywhere; they carry on being friends after, and pretend it never happened.

“Off you go now. The class has ended,” Riddle spoke from the front, waving his hand to let everyone go. The students scurried to grab their things, shoving all their equipment into their similar backs and shuffling out the class, alongside their friends. “Wilson. Can I speak to you for a few?”

Maia stopped midway down the steps of the seats, confusingly looking back and forth between sir and the other two, though they didn’t pay much attention than what she did. “Uh... sure, yeah.”

Riddle nodded, signalling for her to walk over to his desk, where he now had papers stacked upon, but still, nothing else to be seen on top. Blaise and Pansy had left the room now, not even bothering to look back at Maia as they walked away.

He stood up from his seat, making his way around the table before she’d even reached to where he motioned her to stand. His back legs pressed against the table, sitting down slightly but his thighs took most of the weight. “I have a few things that need to be acknowledged, and acknowledged well...”

Maia slowly nodded, the same confused expression painted over her face, though she wanted to be mad but couldn’t.

“Your recent exam results... you’ve failed it,” he stated, raising both his eyebrows this time, instead of one. Maia was shocked with the news, but then again still had a slight feeling it would happen. It wouldn’t have been like that if she’d stuck to her plan and actually tried to study, though it never works with Pansy in the room all day. “Is there a reason as to why you failed? Issues, or just something you don’t want to pass in?”

“No, sir. I don’t know why I actually failed..,” she lied. She did know the reason as to why — her own fault as to why. “Well, is there anything you are going to do about it? I’m not going to be responsible for your childish acts. Unless you start to act maturely about it all; we’re going to have a slight problem,” he said, crossing his arms.

As she said — he has it out for her. There was one hundred per cent other students who failed, though, he doesn’t give a damn about them. Only her. He wants to annoy her and get her wound up, but it would be hard for him to get what he wants. Out of her anyways.

She was about to speak up again, when he decided to cut her off swiftly. “What about in class? Does that distract you? That’s your own fault if it does, as I’ve given you many, many warnings Wilson.”

“I- no, I don’t think so..,” Maia responded quickly, trying to stop the slight accusations he was giving to her, though she never asked for it. “I think so. You have a big mouth miss Wilson. Maybe you should put it to better use,” Riddle said.

Maia almost choked on her own saliva when he said that. For a second, she’d thought she’d heard it wrong because of what Pansy said earlier, but she never did hear it wrong. Her ears were not deceiving her, and we’re working properly as they were before. Maybe it was her mind making her see and hear things, but she was sure it wasn’t the issue. It really was what he said.

“I’m sorry?”

“Eating. It’s lunchtime how, Wilson,” he replied, dropping his eyebrows and staring ahead at her. She felt a huge weight like feeling behind hoisted off her chest as he cleared it up quickly. Though he said he was talking about eating — Pansy had made her thoughts think about different things. Naughtier things. Some things that didn’t deserve to live her thoughts, though they did. “I think we’re done here now Miss Wilson. Hopefully, you now understand that it’s important to study and listen during class. I don’t want to punish now.”

Her eyes widened slightly, but she dropped them quickly before he noticed the quick change of her expression. Her eyebrows now relaxed, making her facial features seem more softened. “I understand,” she replied, giving a weak smile. Riddle didn’t return it, not that he’d do it to anyone anyways. She just wanted to make it seem like she wasn’t confused by it all. She didn’t want to sound utterly dumb around him.

It would be embarrassing for both of them and more for Maia. The small ‘talk’ between them both concluded, though Maia knew she’d be having thoughts about it for the rest of the day, due to the play on words he had used. She’d always been known as one of the most sexual girls, not that she wanted to, but she’d been known as that. Of course, she’d think his word choices were dirtier, but she did blame Pansy for what she said before.

Maia left the room a few minutes later, scurrying her self away but stopping outside the door. Her body half turned, taking a peek at Professor Riddle inside the now empty, spaced room she was just in with everyone else. He was quick to sit back down on his desk, taking out a few papers and writing whatever with his quill on top. He didn’t seem relaxed — more tired than anything. His arms were tended, and so was the rest of his body.

She’d noticed it since the beginning, and ever since her eyes landed on him again during class. Before he caught her lurking; she moved along towards the great hall, hoping to catch Pansy and Blaise on the way there. The thoughts were gone for now, but soon enough they’d return and make her end up in another daydream.

It wasn’t that she was complaining, she just hoped they weren’t as bad as she’d think. Maia saw the other two up ahead as she rounded a corner, noticing the familiar like harris from behind. “You look a bit worn out. That must’ve been a quick fuck then.”

“You’re really funny you know,” Maia sarcastically responded to Blaise’s remark, rolling her eyes in addition. They all laughed about it, finding it a way of joking about the whole situation. Though Maia was laughing — she wasn’t into the conversation as much, due to the daydreaming starting already. It was quick to appear, but there wasn’t a huge surprise really. She knew it would’ve happened sooner than later.

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