All the Wrong Choices

Tom's Point of View

I hadn't talked to Nora after our encounter at Hogsmeade, or much of anyone else for that matter. The last I'd heard, her and that Orion Lovegood were officially together. I knew they would only last a week or two at the most. Nora was capable of much more than Orion.

Late one night, a few weeks after our Hogsmeade encounter, I opened my door to find that I was right. Nora was standing on the other side. It was evident that she had been crying by the way her eyes were red and puffing. I sighed when her eyes met mine and she gave me a desperate look. Her eyes searched mine for any sign of remorse but I was good at hiding it. I opened the door a bit further, hoping she would catch the hint that she could come in without me having to say it.

“I don't want to come in,” Nora spoke, “I just came to bring you this. I was going through my trunk and remembered it.” She raised her hand and opened her palm to reveal the locket I had given her.

“I don't want that, Nora. It's yours,”

Nora inhaled a breath of air and I immediately regretted saying what I did. I set myself up for it. Here we go. “I don't want it, either. I don't want anything that reminds me of you. I wish I had never met you, Tom Riddle. You're… stupid. Just like this locket. You're stupid and I hate you. So take your stupid locket or I'm flushing it down the bloody toilet.” The volume of her voice raised and I knew she'd be causing a real scene soon. I glanced past her both ways before pulling her inside of my dormitory and shutting the door behind us.

“What's the real reason behind you coming here tonight?” I asked her. “Do you want to pester me further into telling you that I love you? How can I love someone who tells me they love me one day and then is going with someone else the next? Better yet, how can I love someone when I don't even know the first thing about love?” My normally calm, cool, and collective voice rose to a shout. Nora looked at me in surprise before stepping closer to me.

“I can show you how to love, Tom. All you have to do is let me.” By now, she was just inches away from my face. She lifted her hand and placed it on my right cheek, once more searching my eyes for any sign that she had gotten through to me.

“You're with Lovegood. You made your choice. Now get back to your dormitory before–”

“Before what? Before you write me up and dock house points? For Merlin's sake, Tom, give me a better excuse than that. It seems that every time you want to avoid a topic you threaten me with your Prefect status. Write me up if you wish, just stop keeping me in the dark.”

I opened the door to my room and stood next to it, motioning outside.

“Get the hell out of my room, Nora, or I swear I'll–” She didn't give me a chance to finish before she smashed her lips onto mine and slammed the door to my room shut with her foot. She pushed me back down onto my bed and crawled on top of me, keeping her lips locked with mine all the while. I managed to pull back from her for just long enough to ask her what she was doing.

She gave me no answer, and before I could even blink she had pulled her shirt off, revealing her chest in all of it's glory. As much as I wanted to look I refrained, turning my head to the side and closing my eyes out of respect for her.

“For Merlin's sake, Nora, put your shirt back on.” I reached to cover her chest up before realizing exactly what I was touching. I quickly pulled my hands away but she caught them with hers and placed them back onto her breasts.

I was by no means inexperienced in this game. I'd done this with various different girls, but never with someone that I even remotely cared about. I opened my eyes and looked up at her. Her face was reddened, her bottom lip trembling, her body shaking as her hands fumbled with my belt and tears welled in her eyes. I could tell by her demeanor that she hadn't done this before in her entire life. In her sixteen years of living she had not yet been deflowered. Completely untouched by foreign hands.

“Stop it, Nora,” I spoke, glancing up at the ceiling.

“You wanted proof that I love you. Here is your proof.”

“Trust me, you don't want to do this–”

“I do, Tom. I love you.”

“I'm not going to take that from you.”

I shoved her off of me and she landed on the floor with a thud. That didn't stop her, though, as she unbuttoned her pants clumsily and shakily, nevertheless succeeding in getting them off. She stood before me, now fully naked as I buried my head in my hands.

“If I did that, Nora, you would regret it,”

“I would never regret it,” Nora assured me. I felt the bed sink next to me, groaning at the thought of a totally nude Nora being the reason behind the shift. She didn't know what she was doing. She was stupid, naive, and simple-minded. “You love me, Tom. And I know that you have a hard time saying it. If you won't say it to me, then will you show me?”

I rubbed my hands over my face. Against my better judgment I pulled my sweater over my head and shrugged my dress pants onto the floor, opening my eyes to see a beat red Nora watching me. She quickly looked away in embarrassment and I took her jaw in my hands, lifting her head to look at me as I placed my lips on hers. I laid her back on my bed, placing a pillow behind her head.

I showered kisses all over her chest, her breathing so heavy and rigid that I could practically hear her wheezing each time her chest rose and fell. She sat up on her elbows. “H–Have you done this before, Tom? With other girls?”

“Yes,” I mumbled into her stomach, glancing up to gauge her reaction. She wasn't punching me off of her and running out the dormitory, so that was a good sign, but she seemed even more self-conscious than she was before.

“I just want to let you know that I've never done this before.” I ignored her, going back to kissing her soft, tanned skin. She sat up higher, forcing me to make eye contact with her. “I'm a virgin, Tom.”

“Really? I had no idea,” I spoke sarcastically, feigning surprise.

“I just wanted to let you know – in case you had high expectations.”

Her face grew redder. I waited for steam to come out of her ears.

I groaned. I didn't have patience for her imaginary insecurities.

“It's like tying your shoes, Nora. It's easy.”

Her eyes widened and she gasped. “I can't tie my shoes.”

“Merlin – just follow my lead then, yeah?” I said, trying to kiss her chest once more.

She put her hand on my chest and prevented me from doing so.

“I'm not as experienced as the other girls you've been with,” Nora warned me, her eyes wide with fear. Merlin, I wanted to grab her head and shake it. “I don't want you to be disappointed, or feel that this was a waste of your time.”

I bit my cheek. She wasn't letting me get out of this easy.

She needed reassurance and was mistaken if she thought she'd find it in me.

For tonight though, I supposed, I could humor her.

“None of those girls are even in the same league as you,” I told her, watching as her eyes darted around nervously, “None of those girls are as beautiful as you, or as nice, or as sarcastic, as funny, as smart, as incessantly annoying as you,” I watched as the smile slowly returned to her lips and I couldn't help but to smile back. The words caught in my chest but I forced them out. “I love you, Nora.”

Upon hearing this, she looked how I felt – a mix of nauseous and relieved.

I opened my mouth again, trying not to salivate from nervousness. “Does that answer your concern? Because all of your questions are ruining a relatively nice moment–” Nora put her hand over my mouth and nodded. “You're ready now?”

“Yes,” Nora nodded, “Yes, I think so.”