𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧’𝙨 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨.
Summary: How Severus Snape watches his student decide to change his destiny during his final year at Hogwarts.
A/N: This is just a lot of fluff I needed to put somewhere. I couldn’t get out the idea of Severus looking weird at you when he finds both Tom and you spending time together. Please let me know your thoughts. Love you.
Severus Snape was, above all, an observant professor.
Specially of the deeds among his students. Everyone knew better than to speak too loud or too often about their plans inside the Slytherin common room or the potion’s class; while the first years were often left to test their own luck until they were caught red-handed somewhere around the enormous castle. Red cheeks under the scrutinizing gaze from Snape and the seventh year’s mockery.
Tom Riddle was one of the few students who never faced the humiliation.
The girl who arrived in London a few months ago and was sorted into Slytherin before the hat was even fully placed on her head, has been safe so far too.
Severus, however, after so many years teaching inside these walls, is sure no student leaves without having to bite their tongue in front of his face. So keeps on paying attention.
The first time he notices them is while a Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw match is being played on the Quidditch field. Severus couldn’t be any less interested; whatever the results were, the next winner will be going against Slytherin team. And whoever was that, they’ll still lose.
He crosses the common room doors, passing along the portraits and smaller photographs around the tall walls, until he reaches the sofas surrounding the always lighted chimney and the windows facing the depths of the black lake. There, he first catches a glance of the sitting figure on one of the smallest sofas. Tom.
The boy is so absorbed in the book on his hands he doesn’t even look up when he hears the footsteps coming closer. That isn’t new. He probably hasn’t left the room in the whole day, but the boy barely attends two Quidditch games through the year. That also isn’t new.
“Good evening.” Severus greets without stopping his pace.
“Good evening, Professor.” Tom’s voice is low, as always.
But as Severus continues his walk, the sofa right across Tom’s, the largest one, reveals itself containing another figure. This one isn’t even fazed at his hoarse voice, it doesn’t even move. He has to take a second look to catch the hair color and the hidden factions against the cushions. It is the new girl, completely and totally asleep.
Yep, that’s new. But not necessarily a big deal, every single student under his wing has their personal particularities. Severus is always glad to catch on with the harder ones, the ones who moved in late or the ones coming from an exchange. Those two fit each in one of those categories.
And what was really interestingly new was the fact that Tom chose to remain sitting in silence with another person a few meters away from him instead of going back to his dorm, like he would usually do if someone dared to be in his presence.
“Mhm.” Severus hums to himself, letting it slide for this once as he keeps walking all the way to his personal office.
Second, third and fourth sighting.
The next couple of times don’t bring anything new, but a pattern instead. Tom Riddle, his cryptic seventh year student, is willingly staying in the common room at the evening hours between the end of classes and dinner, when she also comes back to the dungeons to sleep her daily nap.
For any other, the situation wouldn’t even make them raise an eyebrow, but Severus knows his students. And for Tom to tolerate the presence of another human being while relaxing, this couldn’t be anything.
During Potion’s class nothing seems too changed neither. Tom sits at the front along with the few classmates he exchanges words during the day: Malfoy and Nott. Both were the personification of everything Riddle wasn’t: Loud and restless. Still, Severus believed he tolerated them because among all other things, both of them were pretty smart at their own. Never giving any trouble to complete the tests ran on their table.
Far behind, shoulder to shoulder, is the girl, who chose her place between the few Slytherins that had no trouble working with some Gryffindor students. Their table is far more relaxed, with a few in-between-class laughs that get scolded away as soon as they start. And their performance… Well, it isn’t that bad.
“Open your notebook on yesterday’s notes. We will continue with the elaboration of…”
The next time Severus has to go into the Slytherin common room is around a week later to retrieve and old recipe. He walks in a little bit distracted, still thinking about the latest conversation he held with McGonagall, and when his eyes drift to the sofas, announcing his presence with a solid: “Good evening” he expects to find everything just about the same.
Everything it’s just about the same. Except Tom is not sitting on his usual spot, instead, he has his back to the door, neck slightly bended forward with his spine straight, as he greets Severus back without moving at all.
Tom is sitting in the sofa right beside the one she is sleeping on again.
The days keep on passing. Nothing really changes for about two weeks. Not even their places on the living room. But on class? There was another story going on.
Severus notices, he always does, how Tom’s pencil stops on its tracks the moment he picks up her laugh coming from behind; and it stays that way until it stops. Until he hears what is she laughing about. Then, there is her eyes perking up whenever Tom stands to grab some ingredient, there is softness in them, even when she looks away almost immediately after he turns around.
Severus recognizes both: the softness, and the escape. That’s why he can guess the muggle-born status she had, had something to do with it. He knows his students, and neither Draco nor Nott have never been assertive with their comments through gritted teeth about the ones they called ‘mudbloods’. Could Tom be any different? He doesn’t think so.
But the boy is also so prideful in his own way that Severus finds difficult to believe any of his friends could say anything to him about his recent ‘sitting-coexistence’ with the muggle-born.
On some Tuesday afternoon, it happens for the first time. He finish class warning them about the upcoming exam and lets them collect their things as he does the same, getting ready to impart the next lesson.
Tom is one of the last to leave the classroom, “Have a good evening, professor.” The boy says before starting to walk to the door, and Severus doesn’t really looks away from his own affairs until he hears her voice:
“Have you already finished the transfiguration project?”
His brows raise. She is waiting for Tom at the door, and throws her head back when the boy nods at her question. “Can you help me with the last part? I have been stuck there for two days straight.”
“It’s quite simple.” There are his walls.
“Everything is quite simple for you.” And there is her patience.
She turns around and the boy keeps his steady pace by her side, as Severus notices how she hasn’t stopped talking. And for the first time, he sees his cryptic student paying attention to something —and someone— that isn’t for his own good.
It is during one visit to the library, Severus catches a glimpse of both again.
She is sitting beside Tom, a transfiguration book in her hands —Yes, that one is definitely giving her trouble— and a pencil sitting between her teeth, suffering the consequences of her concentration. Tom is reading another book about Hogwarts History, paying little to no attention towards anything apart from their table.
“Mr. Riddle.” Severus raises his voice and both of them, in their own way, turn to look at him. She, with big curious eyes that resembled those of an owl, and Tom, slow and composed, his gaze is courteous but never gentle.
“Please help me carry these books to my office, if Ms. Y/L/N is so kind to lend me her tutor for a minute.” The girl smiles at him, nodding even though she knows it wasn’t a question.
“I’ll be glad to.” Tom sighs, standing up from his chair and lifting his book for a second to grab a little rectangle from the table to place inside, right in between the last page he was reading. Severus has to look at it for a couple of seconds more to recognize The Starry Night art printed on it. It’s a bookmark.
A simple, muggle, bookmark.
Tom closes the book. Then actually says it: “I left the bookmark in there, don’t let them take it.”
She nods, sliding the book in front of her to guard it from the unstoppable librarians always looking for unordered books.
Severus turns to glance at Riddle as the boy carries himself with definitely more books than he should, trying to find what question would be more appropriate to ask without pointing at the fact that he could save the page with magic instead of worrying for a mundane object inside it.
Instead of worrying for a muggle object someone definitely gifted to him.
Severus opts to keep his mouth shut.
It is during the winter break when something happened. Severus was woken up by Professor McGonagall knocking firmly at his door.
“One of yours is at the infirmary. It’s bad.” She whispers. That is enough to get him moving.
Inside Madam Pomfrey’s domain, on a lonely cold bed, there is Tom Riddle, clenching at his own clothes, sweating as if the castle wasn’t a second from being under zero. His shoulders tremble when he refuses Pomfrey’s orders to lay down, and even on his state, he tries to straighten himself the moment the muggle-born girl rushes inside behind Severus.
“Tom, what happened?” He demands to know, standing right in front of his bed.
The girl drops by the side, trying to take as little space as she can but refusing to be taken away. Madam Pomfrey sighs.
“I already tried, Professor Snape.” The woman shakes the bottled remedy in her hands up and down. “He won’t say a word.”
Severus fixes back his gaze on the boy, and Tom holds it, breathing loud and troubled, as if every inspiration made his whole body hurt. The girl only purses her lips, clenching her fingers around Tom’s sleeve, who dropped his arm closer to her without really looking, clenching his teeth at every word the Professors said at him.
Pomfrey was right. No matter how much they tried, Tom never said a single thing.
Late that night, Severus hasn’t put his mind at rest. He walks into the Slytherin common room, worrying little about his strong footsteps, there won’t be anyone around at this hour anyway. Professors had been very clear about an unknown danger around the castle and the fair punishments that would be applied to any student found wandering through the corridors.
Severus notices her frame by her usual spot. The flames don’t do anything for her skin, showing her as pale as he has ever seen her. Her eyes are bright when she looks at him, nodding respectfully to his presence.
But he calls at her name then. “What did he do?”
She drops back her shoulders, pride neck when she shakes her head side to side. “I have no idea, but you and I, Professor…” She connects their gazes. “Can already think of what could this be, isn’t it?”
He believes this is the first time she has spoken more than two words to him. And he doesn’t like that it is when she looks this fragile.
“Go to sleep. I had just come from seeing him, he’s alright.” Severus points to the dorms door with his head, hoping to see her let it go for a minute and rest for the few dark hours they still have. “You can go see him first thing tomorrow.”
She stands still. The Slytherin in her it’s what Severus can watch now, the way they understand each other as members of the same family. As carriers of the same burdens and keepers of the same secrets. Her lips tremble, but she doesn’t waver, not even when a single tear manages to scape from her lashes.
“I can’t see him getting hurt like this.” Her hands point at the doors behind Severus back, as if she could feel his presence all the way to the infirmary. “But I can’t let him alone if he’s going to get hurt… Because what if the next time he can’t even come back to the castle by himself?”
“Who is going to take care of him then?” Another tear.
Severus clenches his jaw. “We’ll get Salazar away from him, alright?”
She takes a deep breath before nodding, hugging herself as if the flames weren’t enough to keep her warm. But down here they never really were.
“Tom will get away if you stay right by his side.” He states, sure of his words. “And I’ll step in from now on.”
Severus is certain her presence these last months was enough to drift Tom apart from the path he was always wondering if his student was following or not. The wrong path. The bloody one. Where his curiosity has turned to danger. So this last incident has finally come to his hands to intervene in what was kept a secret from him all these years.
Six months. As soon as Tom steps out of the castle, Salazar won’t be able to reach him again.
Long weekend. The girl’s parents were hosting a party back home for her birthday.
Tom was obviously reluctant to go.
Severus doesn’t blame him.
Thursday night: Tom can’t stay still. He finds him pacing around the sofas, both hands behind his back. Draco and Theo are bickering about the latest drama among the pureblood families, only turning their heads to the black-haired when they needed a third opinion.
When Severus comes back, only the two boys remain sitting, making him laugh to himself. His poor serious student is probably thinking about a thousand things to tolerate someone else’s preoccupation.
Friday night: Tom has been writing and perfecting his notes since the morning. He was at it at around 9am when Severus first walked in, and he’s still at it now at 7pm. It just changed the notebook from charms to DADA.
His hand looks red already but Severus decides to keep it to himself.
Saturday: Is Quidditch day. Tom won’t leave the dorms.
Severus loses track of time going around the castle with everything the team assured they needed. The game is fantastic, they beat Ravenclaw in the first hour with Draco catching the Snitch high in the sky. And of course, the whole team is starving after, so when he goes to the Common Room looking for his spare robe, there is only Tom in there.
“Good evening, professor.” His voice is a bit, and only a bit, faster than it is in other days.
He’s absorbed by the flames inside the chimney. His eyes are fixed on the way he moves the fire poker pushing the logs around the burning ashes. He doesn’t even blink.
“Do you already have the gift?” That catches his attention. He can almost see his ears perking up as if he were a dog. “For what I know, she should be arriving first train tomorrow. Are you going to get her?”
“Yes, Professor.” He lets out almost immediately, but just as an answer to the last question, after that, he remains quiet, holding Severus gaze.
“I do believe you can go even all the way to London. The city won’t kill you, you know?” The Professor purses his lips, tilting his head slightly to a side in order to catch a glimpse of Tom’s expression.
But there is more to it, isn’t it? And it is impossible for his student not to have understood that.
So Severus turns around, resuming his walk to the office, but he can’t put his feet one in front of the other more than three times before Tom’s voice stops him:
“This is it.” The boy is holding an small necklace with a silver pendant on his hand, letting it swing from side to side as he shows it.
Severus walks back until he’s in front of him, bending his neck to look closely at the object. “What is it?”
“The button of the only drawer I had on the orphanage.” Tom says without thinking twice, almost as if he knew that if he stopped now, he wouldn’t say a word ever again. “I transfigured it into this so she could have it. It is the only thing that was mine on the world outside these walls.”
Severus notices the soft pattern of a flower around the pendant, shining every time the flames reflect on it. Tom clenches his jaw.
“I do not have a family, Professor. I can’t imagine what it is to have one and I may not be ready to do it yet. That is why I declined her invitation to spend the whole weekend with her parents.” He stands proudly, not a single ounce of doubt behind his eyes. “Not because any other unreasonable belief I could hold.”
Severus takes his time to answer, holding both of his hands behind his back and taking a deep breath without looking away from the necklace until he’s ready to speak:
“We… Choose our family, Mr. Riddle.” He begins. “And you have the opportunity to choose one of the most important members of it now. Whatever you see in her home, you may see it with you and your own children. So you must choose what you like, and what you don’t. Don’t doubt to keep close the people who fight to keep you close too. Next year, you dress up, you buy some flowers for her mother and give her father a handshake, and that’s about it, alright?”
Tom takes his time too, but he nods.
And Severus sees, for the first time, a won battle.
It is June. There is only a few days left of the school year. Then, the oldest are finally leaving.
The air around the castle is warmer, more cozy than in any other season. Every single student runs through the corridors with the last of their projects and assignments yet to deliver, enjoying of the laughs his friends can still offer.
So when Severus comes inside the common room for a last time this week and finds it completely empty, he shouldn’t find it rare. But he does.
His prophecy is coming true at this very moment and he can’t waste the chance.
He changes his walking direction, stepping right into the door leading to the dorms. The stairs are long and quiet right now, and he’s thankful for that, because when he knocks at the third door on the left hall, the sound seems to travel all around the place.
Behind the wooden piece, Tom Riddle’s face peeks out, straightening immediately after he recognizes who is at his dorm. Yet, he doesn’t open.
“Yes, Professor? Can I be of some assistance?”
“Get the lady out of your room, Mr. Riddle.” Severus sighs. “Right now.”
The boy takes a deep breath, pushing the door all the way back to let the professor see the inside. On top of his bed, the girl hugged a pillow, closed eyes, snoring and… Drooling. “She’s asleep, Professor. We just got back from our last exam and I think the stress finally caught up to her.”
Severus raises a brow, humming.
“Thirty minutes. Then I want to see you two downstairs with an acceptable personal space between both.”
Tom nods, and Severus catches the smallest of glimpses of the left corner of his lips raising up.
The call comes by the morning.
The day hasn’t really started yet. His bags are by the front door, his coffee already steaming, his bread leaving crumbs on the little plate he placed it on. A new year in Hogwarts starts today.
“Yes?” Is the first thing he says when he picks up the phone.
“Professor, is Tom Riddle.” Four years now since the last time he saw him. “And me!” Them.
“How are you two? Needing something so soon?”
“Yes.” The bo-man answers. “Well, someone.”
“And what do you need me for now?”
“We are getting married. December.” She says. “And both Tom and I would be really happy to have you here, Sir…”
Or how Tom Riddle got his happy ending outside of Hogwarts…
“—Wait, ‘there’? Is the wedding happening in New Zealand?”
Her laughter is loud, but is Tom who answers, sounding genuinely and completely at peace: “Yes, professor. We decided to go pick you up if you say you can’t come.”
“You wouldn’t dare, Riddle. London has changed too much since you two left. You wouldn’t find the way to my house even if your lives depended on it…”
“Well, my dearest Professor once told me no city will ever kill me.”
And there was no reason for a chosen one, because there was no war waiting to happen. Not yet. Not with them in.
