SERPENT HEART° TOM RIDDLE

039. ACTA NON VERBA

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
— deeds, not words

       TOM STORMED INTO THE COMMON ROOM, fury written all over his face as he made a beeline for the girl sitting in one of the chairs and flipping through a book on Dragons. Rhea's gaze barely left the page she was on when Tom's shadow loomed over her. She could predict what he was going to say before the words even left his mouth and she wasn't in the mood to fight with Tom when she was on the brink of greatness.

"You lied to me." Rhea thought she was mistaken when she heard the tone of betrayal in Tom's voice. She glanced up at the seventeen year old boy, wondering if he had truly believed she was going to follow whatever orders he gave her. "You said —"

"Some opportunities are too important to pass up, even for you." Rhea rose from her seat and Tom watched with a confused gaze as an excited smile began to form on her face. "Come with me, Riddle. I have something to show you."

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her, but didn't protest when Rhea grabbed his hand and dragged him from the dungeons. In fact, Tom didn't seem to mind at all when Rhea continued to hold onto his hand as she led him all the way up to the Room of Requirement. He was rather taken aback when he felt something warm begin to spread through him and he snatched his hand away from Rhea's at once. The girl hardly seemed to notice as a door cropped up in front of them and she sprung forward, eager to show Tom whatever it was that she had hidden away inside.

"Look, isn't it wonderful?" Rhea breathed out, waving Tom towards her. He followed, keeping his eyes trained on the smile on her face. He'd seen her smile a few times — usually whenever they were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing — but he didn't think he'd ever seen her so happy before. Her whole face lit up as her eyes danced across the room, trained on something in particular. Slowly, Tom slid his gaze from Rhea to what she was looking at and —

"Bloody hell." Tom gasped, staring at the crimson baby dragon that hopped around on top of the fireplace. It let out an angry screech when it heard Tom's voice. Rhea sent Tom a scalding look.

"Watch your words, he's only a baby." Rhea said, causing Tom's jaw to drop before she stepped forward to dote on the beast. Rhea ran her finger along the top of the dragon's head and it let out a cooing sound as it curled up to her and allowed her to take it into her arms. Tom watched as Rhea cradled the dragon close to heart, surprised to see Rhea care for anything other than herself. "I haven't decided on a name yet. Nothing seems to be good enough for him."

"Where did you get it?" Tom asked, staring at the dragon in wonder.

Rhea narrowed her eyes at Tom.

"I got him from my father. He's a marvelous little thing, don't you think? Some Chinese Fireballs grow to be twenty-five feet but I have a feeling this one's going to get even bigger. He's already growing a pretty fast rate."

Tom took in Rhea's expression of delight as she held the dragon in her arms and all he could imagine were all the ways this could get her in trouble. What if someone found out? Or worse — what if she actually raised the thing into an adult and it decided it wanted her for dinner one day?

"Rhea, you can't keep a dragon in here. Don't you remember the last time we had a beast hidden away in the castle?" Tom asked. Rhea let out a huff, being taken back to the beginning of her and Tom's relationship as they dealt with Slytherin's Basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets. "Dragons aren't domestic pets that you can raise. They're unpredictable beasts —"

The dragon shot a tiny puff of fire from its nostrils at Tom, managing to burn a small hole in the corner of his robe. Rhea smiled happily at the dragon and turned to Tom with a sneer.