Mildly Infuriating | Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 11

Every day for the next week, Evans found a new way to irritate Riddle. His creativity and irksomeness had no bounds. Tom found himself hanging from the ceiling of the Great Hall dressed in robes and wings while Evans sang him praises from below. Something about his voluptuous locks and delicate lips, Tom couldn't hear much of the monologue through his seething anger. The next day, Evans took the phrase "the way to a man's heart is his stomach" way too literally and Tom nearly gagged recalling the memory. At some point, Tom decided to avoid the Great Hall during meal times and planned to do so at least until the Yule Ball came to pass.

Tom round the corner on the way to the kitchen and found himself splayed on the floor with his hands at each side propping him up. The dust of Hogwarts' ancient halls clung desperately to his trousers. He tried to ignore the stinging in his rear and it felt like he ran into a wall. Tom tried to reign in his emotions as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before looking up at the culprit. He had an amicable reputation for upkeep. Of course, who else could it have been?

Harry Evans, in all his glory, was standing over him, no dust on his ill-fitted trouser. His emerald eyes held his own for a moment before Evans offered a hand to help Riddle up. Any thought of being amiable left his mind and Riddle slapped the hand away and got up himself.

He patted the dust from himself and spoke through a strained smile, "Good Morning, Evans," He dropped the smile and brought his face closer to Evans', "I do hope you'll be more careful in the future. You never know who could be on the other side of the corner." It was said more in the tone of a concealed threat. As per usual, nothing Tom said got through Evans' thick skull and he mentally prepared himself for perhaps another confession of love or invitation to the Yule Ball or invasion of personal space. Really, Evans was getting predictable.

To his surprise, Evans took his words at face value and left him staring in thinly veiled shock at the empty spot where Evans once stood.

That was weird.

After distractedly eating breakfast and attending his morning class, Tom decided to take advantage of Evans' lack of interest to eat lunch in the Great Hall. A fatal mistake.

Yet again, he found himself dressed as a Victorian prince while Evans tried to woo him with suggestive invitations and surprisingly well-composed verses of poetry. Evans spoke theatrically, uttering the words as if he were breathless and groaned in anguish at the fact that Riddle had yet to accept his invitation. Evans had dressed as a commoner or peasant judging by the state of his clothes. Rather than a bouquet of roses, he offered a sack of his "finest potatoes" and he transfigured one of them into a cow.

"This is Bessie, my finest cow as an offer for the hand of the finest man."

Tom eyed the professor's table where Dumbledore seemed more impressed by the cow transfiguration than the obscenities coming from the boy's mouth. He looked back to the shameless Hufflepuff who was still making kissy faces towards him, before rejecting him for the umpteenth. He'd perfected his script at this point given the number of times he has needed to reject this boy. He cited his blatant disregard for decorum and Hogwarts rules with the showy confessions and as a prefect, he could not entertain this mockery.

This pattern repeated with a curious observation. Whenever Tom encountered Harry outside of the dining hall or not in front of a huge crowd of people, the boy would give him an uninterested glance before returning to joke with his friends. Particularly that one sandy blonde Hufflepuff. His obnoxious laugh rang in Tom's ears. However, when Tom, unfortunately, encountered Evans with a bigger audience, he would immediately adopt his lovestruck persona. This boy was becoming more and more of an enigma.

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Harry was having the time of his life. He'd learned from some romance novel he read centuries ago about the importance of the push-and-pull method. Of course, he had to intensely pursue Tom, but if he wanted to truly act like he was courting him, then he would have to employ tactics from ancient texts.

Tom's confused expression whenever Harry was enacting the pull part of his tactic was incredibly adorable. To most people, Tom would look completely unfazed, but Harry knew better. The slight furrow of his brow or twitch of his pink lips was enough evidence.

Harry sighed happily as planned his next proposal. The school was already abuzz with excitement as the ball was coming up in a couple of days, and most people had already landed dates. The number of longing stares across the great hall had increased recently. Harry didn't contribute to the number as Tom had been avoiding the dining hall lately, but that didn't discourage him.

Tom wasn't only being pursued by Harry alone. At some point, asking Tom out became a trend as it allowed just about anyone to have Tom's undivided attention for at least one minute. Tom Riddle was an unattainable flower for everyone, so this scenario was incredibly desirable. Although Harry had to note, none of the other confessions were anywhere near as good as his own.

In fact, his performances were only boosting Tom's fanbase. People were seeing sides of Tom they'd never seen before as well as elaborate costumes that accentuated Tom's defined features even more. Harry's had people come up and thank him.

Harry scribbled the final details of his plan until one of his roommates came in and tackled him onto his bed.

"Lucas, get off" Harry laughed before wrestling his way above the sandy blonde boy and getting up. An evil glint appeared in his eyes as he RKO'd the boy.

Lucas narrowly avoided Harry's elbow and get off the bed before he could be attacked again.

"Let's go idiot, we're playing a mock Quidditch game in the field. You down?"

"Say no more."

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