Chapter 13

Tom had no word from Emma for the rest of the weekend, which was highly annoying, as he saw her sitting with Malfoy and Lestrange getting all cozy between the two.

"Stupid girl." He muttered one night when he saw her lying across Malfoy's lap, him stroking her hair softly. The more he let these thoughts enter his conscious mind, the more he couldn't wait to figure out how to split his soul. How to ultimately forget about all of his feelings. After that, he and Emma could just work together and there would be kissing, but for pleasure – not feelings. He'd thought it out quite a bit.

On Monday morning right after breakfast and as promised, Emma slid next to him in potions. "Morning, Riddle." She said as a Ravenclaw girl sat right behind them. "I hope you had a pleasant weekend?"

"Oh it was brilliant." He said, "Got lots of work done."

That was a lie, unless staring at Emma and cursing teenaged hormones counted as "work."

"Did you now?"

"Oh yeah, tons." He said, pulling out his notebook and slamming it down next to the cauldron on the counter. She looked over his shoulder. Tons of tiny, cramped writing and diagrams. "Here… read it and then we can meet up later to discuss it."

She nodded as Slughorn walked into the room, casting a weary glance at the pair of them, and sat down behind his desk. Emma couldn't help but glare at him, and, clearly uneasy, he stared at his watch until precisely 8:30 when he could begin his lecture.

"Today we are going to be talking about antidotes to common poisons, which will surely be on your OWLs at the end of the year…"

Emma snapped back into reality. She had totally forgot about the OWLs for maybe a month. Putting everything into perspective; school, OWLs, prefect duties, Tom, mudblood killing, her parents, Tom, Malfoy and Tom, she felt as though the rest of the year – which wasn't even half done, was going to be a killer.

The rest of the week went by in a haze. Tom, furious at Emma for having ignored him the past weekend, barely said a word when they met, forcing her to read his written notes and decipher them for herself.

On Friday night during a particularly intense round of Prefect duties, in which Emma was almost in tears from Tom's constant snapping and snarling, she confronted him.

"What in Merlin's name is your problem?" She asked, as she had just had to practically run up nine flights of stairs to keep up with him. He was leaning against the wall looking particularly venomous.

"You're a dumb bitch, that's what my problem is." He spat, but she barely recoiled. Emma walked over and stood next to him, slowly putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Tom."

He looked over at her, and she gave him a small smile. "Come on. You've been acting weird all week."

"Well it might be because you're driving me crazy."

She stared at him for a long moment. "How am I driving you crazy?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

She felt a wave of hurt flow through her. "Seriously?"

"It's nothing." He said again, "None of your business."

"Whatever." She muttered, "I'm sorry I ignored you last weekend?" She thought about it for a second, "That's the only thing that comes to mind."

"I just think that maybe you are letting your feelings get in the way of our responsibilities."

"What feelings?" Emma was genuinely confused, "What are you talking about?"

"Your relationship with Malfoy."

"Tom, can you please stop being jealous?"

"I'm not jealous." He snapped, "Quite frankly, Emma, I couldn't care less who you spend your time with. I just don't want it ruining your focus on our mission."

Ouch. In that instant, she wondered when she'd changed. When she'd become so submissive to him – when once upon a time, she'd been ruthless. She wondered when she'd stopped, and in the same moment, vowed to be the version of herself that she liked the most.

"And it won't." She said slowly, "I'm going to break up with Malfoy tomorrow."

Tom raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. I agree with you. My mind is always conflicted about my personal life, and I think it's time to get rid of those complications so that I can focus on what we need to do."

"Good." Tom said, "So since you won't be staying at his place during the holiday, I suppose we can make headway on this plan."

Emma nodded in agreement. "Yes, I suppose we can."

Abraxas did not take well to Emma breaking up with him, but he didn't question it either, which led Emma to believe that Tom had spoken with him prior.

On the second day of holidays, after everybody was home and there were very few people left (Emma, Tom, Myrtle – much to Emma's displeasure – and some Hagrid kid in second year that neither of them really knew) Tom decided to show Emma the Chamber.

"Really?" She'd asked, and he just smirked, taking her hand and leading her up the stairs to the Entrance Hall.

"Really."

He led her up to the second floor, down the corridor, and into the bathroom. "So what did I miss last time I was in here?" Emma asked, looking around. It was as small as she'd remembered. Tom closed the door to the bathroom behind them, locking it with a spell that Emma knew he'd changed a bit to be more powerful, and only undone by himself.

"This." He pointed to a sink with an engraving of a snake on the side of the faucet. "Stand back."

She took a step backwards as he started speaking in another language and all of a sudden, the sink began to move, creating an opening in the middle. When everything stopped moving, Emma looked up at Tom, a gleeful expression on her face.

"Now what?" She whispered, staring down into the gaping hole that sat in front of her. He smirked, taking her hand – and together they jumped in.

Authors Note:

So, it's been a long time and I am truly sorry! Over the past couple years (wow I'd hate me if I was reading this) I've had overwhelming support and gained quite the following on this story. If you're still following me, thank you so much. I've gotten lots of reviews telling me to get myself in gear and continue writing. So I apologize for the short update, part of the reason it's taken so long is because I wanted to write something good... but I haven't been able to produce anything I'm proud of and for that I'm sorry. So the next chapter is going to be updated much quicker. I've had writers block for SO long but when I started writing I had a clear path and direction for my story, as well as a map for the universe that it is a part of. I am kind of a perfectionist - I want to keep people in character while remembering the time period (the 1940's) and also keeping the story consistent as I go along. I've erased and rewritten this chapter MANY times and changed the course of the centre of the story so much over the past little while. Anyways again, I apologize for the short length and long wait for this chapter and thanks for holding in if you have.

- marinapanic