melody [tom r.] - Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Melody didn't know what she and Tom had.
They often met in his chambers at the ungodly hours of the night, and it usually resulted in the filthiest type of pure love as they crescendoed bedroom hymns. She was starting to think she was nothing but a toy to him, but he always managed to make her feel special, and in the end she'd just return.
She'd return to feel his embrace, cold fingertips tracing flushed skin and whispers of sweet nothings into her ear making her feel wanted, appreciated. His hands would run through her pale hair, entangling in silver threads until the smell of pomegranates resided on his palm.
But it was all in the disguising darkness of his bedroom.
When he passed by her in corridors he'd send her a discreet wink, leaving her blushing furiously and the students wondering why Melody Malfoy spent lunch smiling like an idiot. In class his eyes would linger on her a moment longer than necessary, and her heart would yelp in her chest, writhing against its cage.
It was their little secret, their murmurs of affection and lust concealed in the safety of his room. Being with him was an escape from reality, he had her trapped in a fantasy and she mistook the inferno as eden. Melody was falling.
Weekends were their only chance to meet during the day, his chance to clearly see the starry freckles dotting her complexion, her cheeks tinged red in his company. Winter still wasn't over and he truly wanted to drink in how she'd look like in the sunlight; how the golden hue would make her skin glow and hair shine.
It was a Saturday and they'd chose to sit in a corner of the library, Tom's magic completely concealing them from sight.
"The tale of the three brothers, do you think it's true?" Tom questioned, leaning against the table where he was sat next to her. He watched her as she took a drag from her cigarette, exhaling the grey smoke with a soft blow. If Madame Pince were able to see her, the latter would've certainly been expelled.
"Perhaps, but it's stupid," Melody answered, the cigarette bobbing up and down in her mouth when she spoke.
"Why do you think so?" He didn't know why he was questioning her, for she was certainly less educated and knowledgeable than him, but he liked the way her mind worked. He liked analysing her down to the smallest details.
"If death granted me a wish, it would be to die and come back to life. Just to know what it feels like, I guess." Smoke tumbled from her lips and her voice was a bit different, but there was nothing more refreshing than the feeling of tobacco filling up her lungs. "That's the best way to defy death: make it lose its thrill."
Tom did not answer, but accepted the cigarette she offered him silently. It was a ridiculous habit that he did not want to latch onto, but he figured he wouldn't get addicted from one try.
"It's quite obvious that you seek rebellion," he pointed out, his left hand resting on the wooden table while the other held the cigarette by his lips. "All you want to do is defy the stereotypical rules."
Tom paused, "And how do you feel about dying, Melody? Wouldn't you want to be immortal just to defy death?"
She considered him for a moment, her eyes drinking him in and he never thought he'd love the honey colour so much. "You have a point. But why not defy death by accepting it? People are always supposed to be afraid of dying, so I choose to completely embrace it."
He hummed in thought, but he would never agree with her. No, he couldn't accept that one day his time on earth will be over, that everything he'd worked on would simply become a useless memory. He wanted to reign, he wanted to be unforgettable.
Melody seemed to be awaiting an answer and he noticed her fiddling with the metal packet of cigarettes she always carried around. He knew she disliked awkward silence the most. As he watched her, Tom could make out three letters engraved into the hard material of the case. MMM.
Her initials were carved at the very bottom, below a patterned snake coiling around a musical note. "What's your middle name?" He suddenly asked, and she raised an eyebrow at him warily.
He didn't know what had gotten into him, he just felt the urge to find out more about her. "Melinoë."
"Like the goddess."
She nodded, chuckling breathily. "The bringer of nightmares and madness. Quite contrasting to Melody, don't you think?"
Tom observed her keenly, the ghost of a smirk lingering on his lips. "I think they go well together."
Silence landed upon them, and Melody itched to make conversation, just to reduce the searing tension that seemed to always lurk between them.
She bit her lip apprehensively before asking, "Speaking of, is there any god you prefer most?" Tom was about to answer when she cut him off, "Wait, let me guess. It's Hades, isn't it?"
He let out a breath of amusement, a peculiar gleam shining in his dark eyes as he nodded. "What about you?"
She wanted to tell him how passionate she was about this topic, and how she could describe her favourite deity without a second thought. Melody really wanted to open up to him, she wanted her eyes to shine and her words to jumble as she spoke about something so fascinating to her. She wanted to finally let someone in on all the thoughts overflowing inside her.
But just like she'd been used to, she pulled herself together and placed a smirk on her face. She never had someone to talk to –and the female Malfoy knew that she was the one to blame– but Tom Riddle should be no different to others.
"What do you think?" She countered his question with another question, desperately trying to escape the coercion of speaking about herself. It made her feel vulnerable and she hated it.
"Well, if I'm Hades, then you'll be my Persephone."
The smirk on her pale face only widened, bringing his attention to the faint dimple on her right cheek. It was barely visible, and he'd only noticed it because he'd been watching her acutely.
"Wrong," she paused, studying him."It's Apollo, the god of music and poetry."
He hummed in thought, his fingers drumming on the wood absentmindedly. "You're certainly different than what you let on."
Tom prided himself in his ability to decipher others easily. He liked picking at their pieces until there was nothing left of them and then he'd move to the next victim, stuck in a dizzying cycle. But Melody did a phenomenal job in hiding her emotions and what she truly was, she remained a mystery and he absolutely hated it.
"I can't believe you'd think I like someone as naive as Persephone, so easily deceived by Hades," she spoke once again, peeling him away from his thoughts. There was a glint in her eyes as she looked up at him, their cigarettes long forgotten between their fingers. Melody longed to feel his curls, but she'd never shown him intimacy out of bed. It felt suffocating, restraining.
"Why, don't you want to be the queen of the underworld, my dear Melody?"
He looked at her in a way that made her insides tug violently, and after the knowledge that she might be able to fall in love with him because of their common condition, she felt like running away. She was desperately trying to grip anything that would prevent her from falling in love with him. She knew that she'd fall so deeply she might even drown.
But it seemed impossible not to be so attracted to him. Every word he said made her realise how much she'd been craving someone like him.
Melody surrendered eventually, and pressed a searing kiss to his jaw, her hand stroking his neck. "Well, not when I'm swindled into being one."
But oh, Melody. You're just like naive Persephone.