The Girl in Blue

"Who do you think you are?!" Aurora hissed, loud enough so that he could hear her, but not too loud that the librarian would kick her out.

Tom looked up and furrowed his eyebrows, wondering why she was there. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed, but no one had.

Tom looked back at Aurora and he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm Tom."

She rolled her eyes and said, "I know that. We were at an orphanage, remember?" Tom's eyes flashed with something that Aurora was not familiar with. Tom slowly stood up.

"Okay, Rose," He said. Aurora's blood froze at the sound of her old name. "You want to be angry? Then be angry."

"I don't understand you, Tom!" She almost exclaimed, but composed herself upon the realization that she was in the library. She didn't need the librarian to hate her on her first day of school.

Aurora's heart was beating a million miles per hour as she watched Tom as he remained calm and unabashed. She thought she had at least some part in his heart for him to feel something for her. She was so alone and friendless there, she thought he would be something for her.

"I don't know what you want me to do, Rose." He shrugged.

"Don't lie to me!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Tom stared at her. "Lie about what?"

"The orphanage." Aurora hissed. Tom's posture changed from calm and relaxed to tensed. His dark brown eyes pierced through her, but she tried to not let it get to her. She remembered those looks.

"I hated it." He shrugged, quietly. "Not a lie."

"Hated." She commented. "Past tense. Does that mean you left?"

Tom ignored her comment and looked around the library, hoping that not a single soul could hear their conversation. Aurora looked around too, but the library looked empty for it being after dinner, anyway.

"Aurora," He finally said her first name. "Please stop talking about that place. Nobody can know."

"Why not?" She asked, crossing her arms. "Are you ashamed?"

Tom stared at her for a second before he burst into laughter. She furrowed her eyebrows at him as he continued to laugh.

"Rose, you have no idea," His face suddenly turned serious. "What that place was like after you left."

"What was it like, then?" She asked. "And stop calling me Rose! If anything, it's Jenkins."

Tom smirked but he ignored her question again. "Its time to leave. I'm a prefect, so if you don't go back to the dormitories then I can report you to Headmaster Dippet and deduct points from Slytherin."

Aurora stared, her jaw on the floor, as she watched Tom ignorantly pack his stuff up and walk away. He turned around and motioned for her to follow, and she did, even though she still felt abashed by their confrontation.

"Are you always this rude?" She asked, as they silently walked through the halls towards the dungeons.

Tom smirked again. "Only to certain people."

"How come you ignore people when they say things? Are you too cowardly to answer their questions?" Though it may be a huge mistake, Aurora wanted to fuel something inside of him so that he would tell her something or at least let her back in again, like they were eight years prior.

Tom stopped suddenly, not facing Aurora, but she stopped too, behind him. He didn't say anything, but he let her words go.

They walked back to the dungeons silently, Aurora kept glancing at Tom, seeing a muscle in his jaw flex as he tried to keep his anger inside of him, rather than exploding in the halls of the Hogwarts castle.

When they reached the inside of the Slytherin common room, Aurora almost tried to speak to him again, but Tom turned around suddenly and said, "Don't be friends with me. Trust me." and he turned around and walked up the boys staircase, leaving Aurora with her jaw on the ground, again.

That was it. She needed a plan. Tom Riddle was the seven year old boy who saved her from all the boys who hit her, who talked to her when she needed someone to talk to, the person who made a promise to not leave her. That Tom Riddle was her one and only friend at the place she hated the most (but apparently not as much as Tom).

She wanted that Tom back, and she was going to get him back.