two can keep a secret,

chapter thirty-one.

Lilith.

Something like hurt flashes over his eyes, but it's gone as soon as it came. He lets me go and we go our separate ways. No, I did not sleep that night.

Now, I'm back to avoiding him. Trying to at least. It's been days, and Christmas is in two days.

You know how I said I'm at least trying to avoid him? Yeah, I'm trying, but he sits down on the couch across from me in the common room anyway. We sit in silence. He studies me as I read a book, trying to pretend that he isn't here.

"You know," he says, "when I said that I didn't want that to change anything between us, I meant it." I nod. He sighs. "Snape, things have changed. You avoid me, and you need to stop. We were fine at the dance, and we were fine afterwards. What happened, us doing that, it shouldn't change anything. It has changed, and it needs to go back."

"What do you want me to do, Riddle?" I ask, setting my book down in my lap. "Pretend like we're best friends? Like fucking each other makes us good friends?"

He shakes his head. "No, that's not what I mean. We hated each other, but it was half way tolerable. At the dance we were closer, and after we were back to normal but with a little more. I don't want you to pretend we're best friends, I want you to not avoid me, to try to go back to how we were. How we were before, during, or after the dance. Something."

I pick my book back up and shrug. "We all want things, Riddle."

"I get what I want," he says.

"Not this time."

He rolls his eyes. "Snape, if I have to shove you up against that wall and kiss you until you can't think straight, will you stop being so stubborn for once?"

"Hmmm, probably not."

"Well, I'm about to."

"No balls."

"Excuse you?" he says, his eyes narrowing. Thank Merlin no one is in the common room right now.

"I said, you don't have the balls."

He scoffs and shakes his head, putting his tongue to the inside of his cheek. Now he's mad.

Oops :)

Next thing I know, my book is on the ground and I'm on my back with his lips on mine. I roll my eyes back, my hands going to the back of his neck.

Electric.

"This how you release your anger now?" I ask, out of breath when I pull away.

He smashes his lips on mine again roughly, pulling away for only a second. "Apparently." And his lips are on mine again. He swipes his tongue along my bottom lip and I open my mouth a second later.

He moves his lips to my jaw, then my neck, then my collarbone.

"Riddle, I thought that was a one time thing."

He hums against my skin, sending shivers down my body. "It wasn't," he whispers. He trails his lips up my neck and to my ear. His breath is hot against my skin, and I have to fight back another shiver. "Don't worry, I won't fuck you out in the open. But, you're mine now, do you understand that?"

I don't answer as he starts kissing my neck again. "Do you understand?" I nod and he shakes his head. "Use your words, Darling. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I breath.

"Yes?" he asks, getting to a certain spot. I try not to make a sound, which makes him smirk against my neck.

"Yes, I understand." The last bit is hardly understandable. I'm surprised he even knows what I said, but he does.

"I don't want anyone else to touch this body. Only me."

He doesn't own me. I'll never let him.

☯︎︎

Dad comes into the common room to see Riddle and I having a staring contest while sitting across from each other. I'm glad I put a hoodie on after our— anger management time.

We don't break eye contact even as my dad stands in front of the table separating us. We're glaring at each other.

"This is nice," Dad says after standing there for a minute.

We both nod at the same time and continue to death glare each other.

"Why are you two doing that?" he asks. The other kids in the common room are very uncomfortable. We've been sitting like this since they walked in too.

"I technically can't set him on fire, so this is the next best option," I say.

"There is another option," he says, smirking slightly. I don't take my eyes off him, but my glare gets harsher.

"I think I'm good. This option is better."

"You sure about that, Princess?"

"Okay then," Dad says, obviously uncomfortable. "Minerva wanted you two to go to tea with her."

We both snap our head to him. "What?" we both ask at the same time, loudly. Unbelievable.

"Yes. She thinks you two would be able to— bond more over tea. She would like the three of us to join her."

Riddle and I glare at each other as we stand up and start to follow Dad out of the common room.

I can tell you already. We've bonded well.

He opens the door to Minnie's classroom and gestures for us to walk in.

"Ladies first," Riddle says and I have to refrain from flipping him off as I walk into the classroom and sit down at on of the chairs in front of Minnie's desk.

Riddle sits down in the chair next to me, and Dad leaves.

"What did your father tell you?" she asks me, picking up her cup.

"That you said we could bond more over tea," I respond.

She smiles to herself and nods, putting her cup down.

"Well, yes, I did say that," she says. "I saw the two of you at the dance, and you seemed to be having a lot of fun together, isn't that correct?" We both nod. "And suddenly, you two are worse to each other than you were. Now, I'm not going to pry, but I do think the two of you could become closer."

"We don't know how that's possible," Riddle says. I know what he wants to say. 'We don't want to do that.'

Minnie shrugs. "Well, you have to start smaller. Figure out things about the other person. Like, what is Ms. Snape's favorite band?"

"Queen," Riddle says without hesitation.

"See? And what is Mr. Riddle's favorite class?"

"Potions," I say, also with no hesitation.

"More things like what calms the other person the most."

"Sitting in the Astronomy tower," we both say at the same time.

"Very good," she says, nodding to us. "Who is someone the other can't stand?"

"Astoria Greengrass," he says.

"Cassius Warrington," I say.

"See?" she asks. "You both know enough about each other. You just need to talk more and get along. You two should try to get along more. Mr. Zabini and Mr. Malfoy aren't here to hold the two of you together, you need to be able to tolerate each other without their help."

We nod.