Chapter 1: ⬪ MAY 1998
Notes:
Harry Potter Fanfiction
Story also published on fanfiction.net and wattpad
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
« THE RISE OF A KING AND THE FALL OF A QUEEN »
MAY 1998
Harry looked at the room. The headmaster's office - Dumbledore's old office - had not changed. It had remained the same as he remembered it, with the same furniture and trinkets displayed in glass cabinets that made a soft, comforting tinkling sound. Here, in this room, he had the impression of being out of time. It was as if he was elsewhere, far from the ravages of the battle, far from the living mourning theirs dead.
He was far away from everything.
He almost felt as if his professor would appear at any moment, eyes shining with mischief behind his half-moon glasses, and offer him some sweets before taking place in his armchair. But that was impossible. Dumbledore was dead. Like so many.
The young man held back a sigh, he didn't want to think about it. Not now. He took a few steps, and his green eyes were immediately drawn, like a magnet, to the finely crafted, gilded cabinet resting in one corner. The one that held all the memories Dumbledore had collected over the years.
Memories about Tom Riddle.
For a moment, Harry wondered what to do with them. Keep them ? Hide them ? Throw them away ? This was a life's work which had enabled him to defeat Voldemort. There was something almost sacred about it. Dumbledore had spent a considerable amount of time gathering them all, one by one, but now, what use would they be ?
He approached, looking closely at the many vials in which small white filaments floated. Memories locked forever in a hermetically sealed glass cage. Dumbledore's neat, cursive handwriting adorned the various labels, some of which had yellowed with age. It was then that Harry first noticed a drawer at the base of the cabinet, one he'd never paid attention to, until now. He frowned and opened it without further hesitation. It too contained vials of memories, far fewer in number than Tom Riddle's, but arranged and labeled with the same care. There must have been at most twenty of them. Harry took one delicately between his fingers and could read on the label :
« Aliena Bletchey - August 1944 »
Footsteps behind his back drew his attention. He turned to see Minerva McGonagall, features drawn and her usual strict bun undone, approaching slowly. She raised an eyebrow as she noticed the vial he still held in his hands.
"Who was Aliena Bletchey ?" Harry asked bluntly.
He didn't know if his former professor of transfiguration knew the answer, but he hoped she did. This girl - whoever she is - must have been some importance to be entitled to her own collection of memories kept by Dumbledore. An expression of genuine surprise passed over McGonagall's face.
"It's been a long time since I've heard that name," she paused, thinking about it. "Decades to be exact."
"Did you know her, Professor ?"
No matter how much Harry thought about it, he was certain Dumbledore had never uttered her name in front of him. Not even once. Who was she ? Who was this girl whose memories were stored alongside those of the greatest dark wizard of all time ?
McGonagall shook her head, moving a few strands of grey hair.
"No, not personally anyway. She studied at Hogwarts at the same time as Voldemort and, for a while, Professor Dumbledore thought they were linked," she replied, absent-mindedly running her fingers over the vials. "He collected several memories about them both."
Dumbledore had never spoken to him about this girl, nor about any supposed link between her and Tom Riddle. Dumbledore had secrets, many secrets, he thought bitterly. And he was still discovering new ones, long after his death. Harry was currently just recovering from one of them. The most important. The one that had spelled the end of the war, and the end of Voldemort.
"She died a long time ago, before she graduated." McGonagall released, finally.
"What happened to her ?"
"Nobody really knows, but it's a sad story. She died near the school." she sighed loudly.
Harry blinked.
"Do you think that ... that Voldemort could have killed her ?"
"It is a possibility. Dumbledore thought so, but rumors were rife at the time," she admitted. "It seems to me that her family had been killed by Grindelwald a few months earlier, so a lot of people thought he might have been responsible for her death too. That he wanted to finish what he'd started."
McGonagall cast a glance at the gold cabinet, before turning to face the boy.
"I guess we'll never know the truth. This poor girl died alone, and her only wrong may have been to cross paths with a black wizard. Was it Grindelwald, Voldemort, or both ? Who can say it now ? Those who knew the answer are dead. Stirring up the past is useless, it won't bring her back."
Notes:
In all honesty, I think I've had this story in my head for what ? At least ten years ? And I've never taken the time to write it properly. Aliena and Tom lived only in my head, and their relationship evolved a lot over time. Until few weeks ago, I'd never have thought of writing or even publishing this story, and yet here I am.
I've recently fallen back into my "Tom Riddle Era" following a reading breakdown, and now, all I can think about is this story. I've become obsessed with it. And it's impossible to get on with my other fictions, so let's go. I have to write it down to get it out of my head and move on.
And since I don't like the easy way out, I chose to write it in english. Why ? Because I almost exclusively read books and fanfiction in english now (and also because the vocabulary is richer. I seriously challenge anyone to translate "good girl" or anything like that into french without it becoming awkward !).
This story has no particular ambition (what a shame for a slytherin). There may be some gaps, scriptwriting facilities. I don't know how many chapters there will be yet, I don't even know what I'm getting myself into. But I've got to write it, so enjoy your reading and don't hesitate to leave a review.
Also, there may be some mistakes. English not being my mother tongue, and if that's the case, don't hesitate to correct me.
Chapter Text
AUGUST 1944
A ruined castle. The hiss of a snake. A dark-haired boy wearing glasses.
A myriad of images flashed through her mind without her being able to grasp their meaning. They collided with each others under her closed eyelids, so fast that she barely had time to memorize them.
A horribly familiar male silhouette. A medallion swinging in the void. A bone-white face whose eyes shined like rubies.
She had the impression of being trapped in the heart of the storm and, as a mere spectator, there was nothing she could do. She had to endure, powerless, the violation of her mind. She wanted to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth.
A cold laugh. Hundreds of screams of horror. A flash of green light, synonymous of death.
Aliena awoke with a start, breathless. Strands of brown hair were falling in front of her eyes and her nightgown was sticking to her skin. She gasped, before realizing that it had all been just a nightmare. She sighed loudly, and ran a hand over her damp face as she heard a succession of distant cracks from outside.
Dawn was just breaking. The young woman moved towards the window, noticing the timid sunlight seeping into her bedroom through the velvet curtains. Outside, four figures in black suits and wizard's robes were walking up the central aisle. She felt a weight compressing her stomach and acid bile rising in the back of her throat. That wasn't good. She knew it. She was waiting for her parent's return - who had left for a diplomatic mission ten days earlier - not for some ministry employees. Something had happened. Something bad.
Another loud crack sounded just behind her.
"Miss ? Ministry employees are here to see you."
Toph - the house-elf of her family - slowly approached, nervously wringing her long bony-fingers.
"Miss ?" she repeated. "Ministry employees are—"
"I heard you the first time Toph," Aliena replied dryly before turning to face her. "Get them settled in the parlour, I'm coming."
The elf disappeared immediately after that and Aliena slipped on a cream bathrobe over her nightgown. She took her time leaving her room and descending the grand staircase, cracking the wooden floor beneath her bare feet as each of her step. She dreaded what was to come, but knew she couldn't escape it. Sooner or later, she'll have to face it. She forced herself to swallow back the nausea that was threatening her.
When she reached the small salon and the four men turned to her, she stopped. The Minister for Magic - Leonard Spencer-Moon - himself stood in her living room, right in front of the heart of the extinguished fireplace.
"Miss Bletchey," he greeted her solemnly - too much solemnly at her taste - almost sadly.
"Something's happened, hasn't it ? Something's happened to my parents."
All the men in the room exchanged embarrassed glances. The Minister for Magic sighed.
"I'm afraid I don't have any good news for you Miss, and believe me that I'm sorry. I would have preferred to come under other circumstances … Perhaps you should sit down," he gestured to the sofa on his left.
"I'd rather stand."
"Allow me to insist."
She finally gave in and sat down on the sofa.
"My parents … Are they … ?"
She didn't finish her sentence, but she didn't need to. The Minister for Magic confirmed her fears.
"I'm sincerely sorry miss."
She knew it. She knew it even before he opened his mouth.
"How … ?" was all she managed to say.
"Grindelwald's supporters attacked them during their visit in Leningrad*. Grindelwald himself claimed responsibilities for the attack," he revealed to her. "We suspected he had them in his sight for some time, but we were far from imagining that he would really take actions and strike diplomatic agents. The international magic scene is in turmoil."
The rest of his explanation was nothing but buzzing in her ears. Her parents both worked in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Her mother, Aleksandra Bletchey - born Petrovna - was a Russian witch who had emigrated there after graduating. She had met her father - Gareth Bletchey - during her training as diplomatic ambassador. Her double nationality was an asset in these troubled times, even if she had always openly taken position against Grindelwald's actions. No doubt that this had something to do with the fact that her maternal family had always mixed with muggle-born members of the Russian aristocracy. They didn't care about the purity of their blood. Blood was just blood and had nothing to do with their magic power.
A heresy in the eyes of the black mage's followers. And a shame for the pure-blood magical community.
"Your parents knew the ricks."
It was the word too much.
She remembered getting up, cutting off the Minister for Magic in the middle of his speech, and going out into the garden through the french window. The grass was cold and damp beneath her feet. Aliena hadn't even taken the time to put on shoes. She had walked without looking back to the river below, then dropped to her knees on the ground. It was only then that she had left released her first tears.
She didn't know how long it had been since she'd left. Ten minutes ? An hour ? Perhaps more ? She was still sitting by the river, knees tucked up against her chest, staring with a blank face at the water. The mist had lifted, making her shivers. Then, she thought hearing footsteps behind her, but wasn't sure ; it could just as well have been the lapping of the water.
"Miss Bletchey ?"
Aliena stiffened at the familiar voice timbre and turned abruptly. She leapt to her feet and, for a brief moment, wondered what her professor of transfiguration must think of her disheveled appearance. She was outside, wearing only a nightgown and a now-grass-covered bathrobe, while her curls were starting to frizz from the humidity in the air and her eyes were reddened. She sniffed. The next thought that crossed her mind, a much more rational one, was to wonder what he was doing here, in her garden ?
"Professor Dumbledore ? What are ..." she cleared her throat and wiped her cheeks. "What are you doing here ?"
"Professor Dippet asked me to accompany him," he replied simply. "Apparently, major security measures are going to be taken concerning you. Hogwarts is being considered to house you until the new school year starts, but personally, I don't think it's the best option for you. You mustn't be left alone in such a big place, specially at a time like this."
He held out one hand, inviting her to follow him. "Come on, let's get you inside before you catch cold. Moreover, these matters need to be discussed with you. You are of age, you have your word to say."
They walked up the garden in silence , but Aliena stopped a few yards from the french window.
"Professor. There are rumors that only you can stop him. Grindelwald," the young woman specified.
"That only you can have the power to stop this madness but, for some reason, you refuse to act."
Dumbledore stiffed. She saw a faint gleam in his eyes, but took his silence as an invitation and continued.
"If it's true ... If you can do something, you need to do it. You must stop him before it is too late. Too many people have already died because of his quest for power. It can't go on anymore. If you do nothing, if you let him continue, then … You're no better than him and you indirectly participate in his rise."
She turned to face her professor. He was already staring at her, studying her face carefully.
"If you continue to close your eyes, I won't be the only one to lose my family. There will be many others like me. Orphans. There will be many of us. So please, if you have the power, stop him."
And on these words, she went inside.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
Black waves breaking against a cliff.
Hundreds of decomposing bodies on the ground.
A handsome man whose face she couldn't recognize , nor could she remember his name.
Aliena winced and closed her eyes for a moment. She pinched the bridge of her nose and forced herself to take a deep breath. She counted to three before opening her eyes again. She was no longer only assailed by visions in her sleep, but also during the day. Deep down, she knew why. She'd know it since the beginning, but had chosen to ignore it, to forget it. Her hereditary gift of scrying** had suddenly awakened to its full potential. Tormenting her mind and weakening her body, as evidenced by the large purplish circles under her eyes.
The irony was that it had chosen the day of her parents' death to appear, and the only person who could have helped her to get better, to tame it, was no more. She missed her mother, a little more every day. Her death had left a gaping hole in her heart that she wasn't sure she'd be able to fill again.
"We'll be back soon Anya, even before you have time to miss us," her mother had said, kissing her on the cheeks before she left.
Aliena fought back the tears that threatened to spill over and glanced at the stack of old newspapers on the coffee table. Her parents' murder had been front-page news for days. She took the first one in her hands. A photo of the wizard couple illustrated the article.
« THE DEADLY ATTACK OF THE BLETCHEY COUPLE CLAIMED BY GRINDELWALD. THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC IN TURMOIL »
The events were described with an almost sordid precision, accompanying by the Minister for Magic's tribute speech. And at the bottom of the page, there was a smaller photo of her, all in black, taken on the day of their funeral with a caption.
« Gareth and Aleksandra - born Petrovna - Bletchey leave behind their only seventeen-years-old daughter, Aliena Bletchey, who will returning to her final year at Hogwarts in September. »
As if that detail would interest anyone. She put down the newspaper and glanced glumly out the window.
The little cottage she'd found refuge in was rather cozy, surprisingly tastefully furnished, and offered a breathtaking view of the sea. It was a beautiful day outside, despite the wind. The sun was shining high in the sky, illuminating the water with soft green and blue nuances. Nothing to do with the dark, raging sea, whose waves were hurling themselves forcefully against the rocks in her dreams. A long shiver ran up her spine.
She had to manage her visions, to control or even annihilate them, but that wasn't easy to do while she was under the protection of several aurors. She was hardly ever alone, even at night ; they all slept in the same room. What a little privacy she had, she owed to a screen that hid her bed. It was only in the bathroom she could hope to be alone, but never for too long. If she stayed in there for more than ten minutes without giving any sign of life, worried knocks will rang out against the wooden door, threatening to knock it off its hinges.
She sighed, resigned. For the moment, there was nothing she could do. She didn't even have the necessary ingredients for the ritual. She had wanted to send a note to Toph, but had quickly abandoned the idea. She couldn't receive mail, no one was to know where she was for her own safety. And if she sent even one letter, she was sure it would be read. She couldn't take such a risk. She should take it on herself, grit her teeth and endure this ordeal until school started. She could do it. Two more weeks, she thought. Just two more weeks.
Black waves breaking against a cliff.
Hundreds of decomposing bodies on the ground.
A handsome man whose face she couldn't recognize , nor could she remember his name.
She flinched, letting out a groan, while taking her head inside her hands.
"Are you alright miss ?"
"I'm fine," Aliena replied curtly, holding up a hand to stop one of the aurors getting any closer.
"You don't seem so."
"I know sir, thank you," she snapped back.
She didn't even know their names. Sometimes, she wondered whether she was a victim or a prisoner.
She saw blurry and spots of color danced in front of her field of vision. She took it upon herself, managed to overcome the feeling of unease that made her limbs trembled and then, blinked slowly.
"I just need some rest. I'll be alright … Everything will be alright."
An invisible grip tightened her throat and a violent headache threatened to shatter her skull into a thousand pieces, as if her body knew before she did that it wasn't true.
All would not go well.
This was the beginning of her downfall, but she didn't know it yet.
Notes:
*From 1924 to 1991, St-Petersburg was renamed Leningrad.
**The terms scrying and scryer don't belong to me. I got them from Joseph Delanay's saga « The Wardstone Chronicles ». I wanted to have another term to differentiate scrying from "simple divination".
Chapter 3: ⬪ SEPTEMBER 1944
Chapter Text
SEPTEMBER 1944
A ruined castle.
The hiss of a snake.
A dark-haired boy wearing glasses.
The train was about to depart. Through the carriage window, Aliena watched the locomotive spew wisps of smoke onto the station platform. She was in a compartment, alone with two aurors who hadn't uttered a word since they leaved the cottage. She held back a sigh ; she was used to it by now. And even if their behavior was putting on edge, she still found some comfort in their presences.
To them two, they prevented anyone from venturing into her compartment and pouncing on her to ask a billion questions. She had become a freak. Everyone whispered about her and didn't care if they were discreet or not when they pointed at her. She had become the girl who had lost her parents.
One more girl whose life had been reduced to nothing by the hand of Grindelwald.
At least here, between the partitions of the wagon, she could still enjoy a moment of respite. After that, she would seek refuge in her dormitory or in the desert classrooms on the third floor. She felt a pang of bitterness towards Professor Dippet and Professor Dumbledore. They had refused to take her in charge at the school during the summer, putting forward numerous arguments. But if they had accepted, she would at least have been able to put her time to good use, scouring the grounds and spotting her future hiding places.
Suddenly, laughter rang out in the corridor, catching her attention. Aliena slowly turned her head. A group of slytherin students passed her compartment. They were all members of her graduating class, and she recognized them at a glance. Abraxas Malfoy's haughty bearing. Cyrus Avery's charming smile. Marius Lestrange's silky, medium-length hair. Keiran Nott's deep voice. And Thomas Rosier’s lanky figure.
She was about to look away when a sixth figure entered her field of view. Tom Riddle was walking just behind them, chin lifted and hands deep inside his trouser’s pockets. She met his inky-black gaze for a quarter of a second. And all hell broke loose.
Everything had set up in her spirit.
The “handsome man whose face she couldn't recognize , nor could she remember his name“ she was seeing every time in her visions. It was him. It was Tom Riddle. She hadn't recognized him before. She sensed she knew him, but her mind remained perpetually in a blur, preventing her from finding an answer. His name was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't pronounce it. Her fingertips touched his identity, but she couldn't get closer. But now, there was no room for doubt.
It was him.
And, just as the last piece of the puzzle fitted perfectly into the intricacies of her mind, a new series of flashes blurred her vision. She closed her eyes and winced. Tom Riddle’s beautiful face was replaced by another, more demonic, more horrible, which made her break out in a cold sweat. He became more reptilian, more savage. His features were skeletal and his eyes have been substituted by dark scarlet holes with cat-like slits for pupils. His mouth opened in a deadly smile, and she fluttered her eyelids.
It took a while for Aliena to regain her senses and realize that they'd left the train station. A verdant landscape now flashed through the window. She groaned, and must have looked distressed to the two aurors, enough for one of them to speak.
"Are you alright Miss ?"
She blinked at him, she didn't even remember having heard his voice before. She nodded slightly.
"Yes. Just the stress ..." she lied.
A dull anguish weighed down her stomach and compressed her lungs. She passed a hand over her throat and swallowed hard. Her heart drummed frantically against her sides. She could feel the panic gradually taking over every part of her being : her veins, her muscles, and finally her bones. She didn't understand, or rather, she didn't want to understand.
She was afraid to understand what her visions meant.
She forced herself to calm down and took long breaths, but when they arrived at the Hogsmeade station several hours later, Aliena wasn't feeling much better. She tried to ignore her visions. It could mean anything and nothing. She needed to study their meaning carefully, but for the moment, she couldn't. She had to face her other demons.
The aurors waited until almost all the students had disembarked from the train before getting off in turn. She followed suit and was greeted by gusts of wind on the platform. Aliena pulled her wizard's robe tighter around her and buried her nose in her collar. She had barely taken two steps when her name rang out in the air. Turning around, she was greeted by a tornado of dark brown curls. Elaine Rosier, her roommate and closest friend, stood before her.
"For Merlin's sake ! You're here. I wasn't sure you'd come. I thought maybe …" she shaked her head, moving her hair around her pale face. "But my brother told me he saw you on the train."
Aliena flinched lightly. She had indeed caught a glimpse of Thomas Rosier, just before—
She shook her head at her turn, she didn't want to think about it. Not now.
Elaine reached out and grabbed her shoulders.
"How do you feel ? No, forget that, it's a stupid question. You don't have to answer—"
"It’s fine ... I’m fine, really."
Elaine smiled softly and hooked her arm around hers, dragging her along in her wake, the two aurors hot on their heels. They walked up the village's main alley and took their places inside the carioles. By the time they reached the castle's main gate, the aurors had disappeared down the corridors, presumably to the headmaster's office, and there were hardly any students left outside. Most of them were already enjoying the warmth of the great hall.
Finally, they went to the room and took their seats at the slytherin table, next to a pretty, light-eyed blonde girl. Aliena's back was to the other houses tables, but even so, she could feel the burning stares of some curious students on her neck. A murmur spread through the room, soon eclipsed by the entrance of the first years.
She paid no attention to the repartition, barely participating in the applauses that sounded each time a student joined their house. Her pupils remained stubbornly fixed on her empty plate while she was fiddling with the hem of her skirt. All she wanted to do was running away like hell and disappear. But if she did it, she'd be proving them right - all of them - and giving them even more to talk about. She breathed in.
Then, Armando Dippet spoke, and she deigned to glance in his direction, but her gaze stopped on the profile of another person. Sitting a little further away, in the middle of his usual group, Tom Riddle listened attentively the headmaster's words. She took the time to observe him at length : the fine features of his jaw, the curve of his nose, his flawless pale complexion and the curls of his black hair, as dark as his eyes.
As dark as his soul.
He must have felt the weight of her look on him, for he turned his head ever so slightly towards her. She immediately averted her eyes, forcing herself to look at the teachers' table. And when the meal was served, she was extremely careful not to meet Tom's gaze again and looked directly at the dishes that had appeared in front of her.
She ate almost nothing, spending most of her time muddling her food with her fork and didn’t participate in Elaine and Isadora's conversation. As the meal drew to a close and all the students began to stand up, Aliena gave a pleading look to the two young women sitting in front of her
"Could we ... you know, just wait a bit ?"
"I have to accompany the first years to the common room," replied Isadora Selwyn.
Obviously, she was a prefect. She had to do this.
"I'll stay with you," Elaine assured her before turning to Isadora. "We'll meet you in the dormitories."
The blond-girl nodded, refraining from comment.
"The password is ‘’Vipertooth’’."
And after that, she headed for the door.
"Tell me about your vacation," asked Aliena. "To pass the time."
Elaine did so, and took great care to tell her as many details as possible, so when they left the great hall, they crossed no one in the corridors. They went down into the slytherin common room. It wasn't empty yet, but most of the students - the younger ones - had already gone up to their dormitories. Only a few seventh and sixth years remained. The two young women hurried up toward the staircase leading to the girls-dormitory, when a deep, masculine voice, sounded behind their backs.
"Bletchey."
Aliena froze in place and cursed Salazar Slytherin himself before turning around. Tom was advancing in her direction, only stopped when he was inches from her.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Riddle ?" she asked, showing exasperation inside her voice.
They weren't friends, never really had been. They were in the same year, taking the same classes, sometimes competing for first place in certain subjects, just a few, but that was all. Most of the time, they ignored each other and never spoke. She had always found him a little annoying, too perfect to be real.
She didn't like being alone, face to face with him. Her instinct had always prompted her to be wary of him, of his too perfect appearance and his beautiful words. In his presence, she always felt a little sense of unease, chilling her blood. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was annoyingly handsome and smart. It was something else, something deeper. And now she couldn't help wondering if he wasn't hiding something, if there wasn't some truth to her visions. That was even worse.
"I just wanted to know how you were doing."
She was surprised, really surprised, and not in a good way.
"I beg your pardon ?"
"I heard about your parents," he continued. "I'm sorry, truly, and I wanted to offer my condolences in person."
She gritted her teeth, her jaw contracting under the effort.
"I don't need your pity, Riddle. You can keep it to yourself," she spat at him before turning on her heels.
She heard Elaine's soft voice echo behind her before she closed the door to her dormitory. "Don't take it personally Tom, it's just that she ... You know. She needs time, she'll get over it."
Elaine arrived a few moments later. "You could have been a little more polite."
"Do you have to defend him all the time ?"
"Stop it, Aliena," she sighed. "It was considerate of him. At least, acknowledge it."
Aliena made a face, clicking her tongue against her palate in annoyance. "As if I need to thank all the people who rushed to me, offering their hypocritical condolences while they spent all their lifetime spitting on my mother’s back."
"I hear what you're saying and I understand. But don't blow off anyone who takes a step towards you. Not everyone is so mean."
Not everyone, but maybe Tom Riddle was.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
A horribly fam iliar male silhouette.
A medallion swinging in the void.
A bone-white face whose eyes shine like rubbies.
Aliena had naively thought that being back at Hogwarts would make things better, that having her mind occupied would help deal with her visions. She was wrong. It was even worse, as if magic attracted magic. Visions came one after another in an incomprehensible jumble, draining what little energy she had left.
And despite this, she had to work even harder than in previous years to keep up with the frenzied pace of classes. The teachers were not sparing the seventh years and had already piled them with homework, with ever-shorter deadlines and growing demands. On the first day, they had only had the word “N.E.W.T” in their mouths. A week later, it was still the same.
Aliena sighed and swept away the few strands of her brown hair that stuck to the sweat of her brow. Sitting at a workbench at the back of the potion classroom, she stared blankly at her cauldron. Truth be told, she did her best not to spit out her breakfast, but the heavy smells that permeated the room's air turned her stomach. She took long breaths, but nothing helped. At this rate, she was going to faint before the end of the class.
"Are you sure you're fine ?" asked Elaine, concerned. "You really don't look well. You almost look like you're going to throw up."
"Don't be so dramatic, it's nothing."
"You don't be so dramatic. Have you looked in a mirror lately ?"
She didn't answer. Elaine was right, she knew she was scary to look at with her waxy complexion and dark circles, but she wouldn't admit it out loud.
"You should go to the infirmary."
"I can't miss class, I'm already behind on some of my homeworks," she complained.
Elaine was about to retorted, but she didn't need to as if, to prove her point, Aliena had a retching. She couldn't help wincing and closed her eyes for a few moments, resting her head against the wooden table.
"Enough. Don't be so stubborn."
And before Aliena could stop her, her friend called out to the Professor Slughorn.
"Sir. Aliena is not feeling well. She needs to go to the infirmary."
She reopened her eyes just as Slughorn turned his head towards her, eyebrows raised. He looked at her intently, a worried expression on his face. "Indeed, you do look very pale, Miss Blethey. I think you'd better go."
She sighed and, resigned, reaching for her bag.
"I'm going to come with—" began Elaine.
"Tom, my boy," said Slughorn "Would you please accompany Miss Bletchey to the infirmary ?"
Aliena froze, holding the strap of her leather bag with her fingertips, and didn't dare look up toward Tom.
"Of course Professor," he agreed.
She gave Elaine a pleading look, but her friend misunderstood her thought and added with a reassuring voice.
"Don't worry, I'll pass you my notes. You need rest, I’ll see you later."
With a heavy heart, she left the classroom without turning around, Tom on her heels.
"It's true you know," said the young man as they reached the castle hall. "You really do look awful."
She twitched. She didn't know why his comment irritated her more than anything else. Maybe because he was always so perfect. His uniform was always neat and tidy, his tie perfectly knotted and his hair impeccably styled, only a few rebels strands fell over his forehead, accentuating its natural charm. No matter the weather. No matter how many times they had to go back and forth through the corridors to reach their various classrooms. No matter how much opaque steam escaped from the cauldrons in potion class. He was always perfect.
"Try not to sleep and we'll see about your look," she retorted dryly.
"You don't sleep ?"
She ignored his question and walked past him, up the first steps. "You can leave me here. I'll go on by myself."
"And risk having my status as Head Boy revoked because I left you passed out in a hallway ? I don't think so. No offense Bletchey, but you’re not worth it."
"You should try not to care what people think of you."
"Like you ?" he didn't give her time to answer and held out one hand towards her. "Give me your bag."
She blinked and unconsciously tightened her grip of her bag.
"It was not a question," he insisted, irritated. "The sooner you make up your mind, the sooner I'll get you to the infirmary and go back to potions."
"As if you needed it." she grumbled, obeying him all the same.
She nearly stumbled several times on her way, and surprisingly, Tom had the decency not to remark on it, which irritated her even more. He'd seen her, it was obvious. When she reached the first floor, she suddenly felt her stomach contract painfully.
"Wait a minute ..."
Aliena approached a window and leaned against it, resting her burning forehead on the cold glass.
"What's wrong with you ?"
"Nothing, I'm fine. It'll pass …"
"No, it won't. It's nothing to do with lack of sleep. You're sick, and it looks like not just a little."
"Are you a mediwizard now ? I must have missed that in your already long list of qualifications..."
He sniffed, but waited patiently for her to get up before moving on. As she walked through the door of the infirmary, the dim light, the warm silence and the smell of clean linen and disinfectant relieved a bit her nausea. Noreen Blainey - the school’s matron - arrived shortly afterwards, and Tom handed back her bag before hurrying off again without a word.
"You've got a fever miss. Has it been going on long ?" asked the matron while touching her forehead. "When did you have your first symptoms ?"
A month ago should have been the answer.
"A few days," she shrugged.
Madam Blainey pouted, slightly skeptical. But Aliena didn't need her cares. She knew what she needed for. The fever wouldn't last, it would be gone by the weekend. What she needed was a potion to clarify her visions, to regain control of her mind, and she wouldn't find it in the infirmary cupboards.
"I'm fine, it's just the after-effects of ... It's fatigue, I'm not sleeping very well at the moment ..."
She didn't need to explain why. Her parents' death had been front-page news for days, no doubt the matron - like the entire teaching staff - was aware of it. Admittedly, it wasn't the only reason, but she wasn't going to go into details.
"I can give you a sleeping potion, but you mustn't overdo it."
Aliena nodded.
"I'd be grateful."
The old woman went looking something from her office cupboard and Aliena made her decision in the same time. She would send a note to Toph this evening, ask her to send what she needed and then everything would be better.
At least she hoped so.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
A cold laugh.
Hundreds of screams of horror.
A flash of green light, synonymous of death.
The sleeping potion had helped a little. Aliena was sleeping better. She could finally regain her strength and enjoy several hours of dreamless sleep. She was no longer continually assailed by visions, at least not during night. But even though she was feeling better and had regained colors, she knew it wouldn't last, the solution was temporary. The sleeping potion just shifted the problem, it didn't solve it. She needed a more permanent solution.
Sitting at the slytherin table for breakfast with Elaine, she ate her porridge without much appetite. Her friend was just complaining about their latest arithmancy homework when Cyrus Avery came to sit beside them, his usual charming smile hanging on his lips.
"Good morning my sweet Elaine, I'm glad to see you," then he turned toward Aliena. "You too Bletchey, you seem well."
"What do you want Avery ?" Elaine demanded, suspicious.
"Just enjoy the pleasure of your company," he took a piece of bread. "Why ? You don't like it ?"
He bit into his bread, punctuated his sentence with a mischievous wink and Elaine stifled a laugh. But Aliena had already stopped listening them. A little tawny owl had just landed beside her, a parcel tied to its legs. She quickly untied the rope, freeing the animal to which she handed the rest of her bowl.
The package Toph had sent her contained only a small black leather notebook, barely larger than her hand, which various spells were carefully transcribed in cyrillic script inside ; and a small tin box. She didn't need to open it to know what it contained : scales and powdered-eggshell of chimaera.
These two ingredients were indispensable for the potion she had to prepare. Without them, she couldn't proceed with the scrying ritual. The problem was that they were hard to find, especially powdered-eggshell of chimaera. The chimaera eggs were classified as non-tradeable goods and their sales were forbidden. Her mother had to source them on the black market, from strange and disreputable wizards.
As for the other ingredients on the other hand, she had no worries, she knew where to find them. She'd already started snicking a few in small quantities during potion classes. Discreetly. A little at a time.
She carefully placed the parcel in the bottom of her bag. Next Saturday would be a full moon, the perfect time to perform a scrying ritual. She could do it then. She'd just have to wait a few more days to get her mind right.
Or it would be the beginning of her own personal hell.
Chapter 4: ⬪ SEPTEMBER 1944
Chapter Text
SEPTEMBER 1944
A damp room full of snake statues.
The snake hiss echoed by a male voice.
A black-leather book on the wet ground.
The classroom was lit only by the rays of the full moon. Aliena locked the door with her wand and applied a number of enchantments on it. The last thing she wanted was to be disturbed during her ritual. She'd scouted the place a few days earlier and came to one conclusion. Nobody was coming here, as evidenced by the thick layer of dust on the furniture and the stone floor. Here, she'd have peace and quiet.
She made her way to the back of the room and dropped her bag to the floor with a thud. She knew what she had to do. With her wand, she traced the outline of a pentacle, in the center of which she placed a small cauldron - barely larger than a bowl - which she filled with water. Then, she took a knife whose blade glinted in the moonlight, and slashed the palm of her hand without the slightest hesitation. She grimaced, before tracing several runes with her blood all around the cauldron.
Next, Aliena set about mixing the various ingredients. She had the presence of mind to prepare everything in advance, cutting up and crushing the roots to save time. One by one, she threw them into the cauldron, stirring the mixture regularly in one direction, then the other. She knew the recipe by heart, having watched her mother make it so many times she couldn't even count. Her heart sank at the thought, but she ignored it, pushing it to the back of her mind.
Finally, she added a scale and three pinches of chimaera powdered-eggshell. The potion crackled in her cauldron, forming little sparks on the surface. She was almost finished. She positioned her wounded hand over the container and clenched her fist. Three drops of blood fell into it, as she recited the same phrase over and over again, like a sweet melody.
"Pod bleskom zvezd tayny raskryvayutsya, proshloye, nastoyashcheye i budushcheye perepleteny, V zerkale sud'by tayny vremeni prostirayutsya pered moimi glazami"
When she had finished, the potion was as black as ink, so opaque that it seemed to have the power to swallow any source of light. Wisps of white smoke rose into the air. Aliena approached slowly her nose and sniffed. The potion had no particular smell or texture. It didn't stick to the sides of her cauldron neither.
It was ready.
Carefully, she filled four small vials. That would be enough for now. She tucked three of them into her bag, and kept the last one handy in the pocket of her wizard's robe. She would drink the contents just before bedtime. She knew the side effects. She wouldn't feel well for few hours. She'd feel dizzy, even nauseous, so it was better she took it in her dormitory than alone, in a dirty-deserted classroom, long time after the curfew.
Putting away her utensils, she cleaned the floor to erase her marks and tended the gash on her hand before leaving. Aliena put her ear against the wood of the door. There was no sound on the other side. But she didn't let her guard down as she cautiously opened the door, glancing into the corridor. The castle seemed to be asleep and she crept discreetly to her dormitory.
The room was plunged into darkness, and only the steady, sleepy breathing of her roommates could be heard. Aliena held back a sigh of relief. She would avoid a session of interrogation and suggestive innuendo on their part, at least for tonight.
She changed quickly, swapping her uniform for a nightgown, and dropped onto her bed. For several minutes, she watched the vial of potion nervously, moving it between her fingers before making up her mind. She drank it in one gulp and winced slightly, disgusted. Her mouth tasted of ashes.
She let her head fall back against her pillow, dreading closing her eyes. But soon, numb with the potion, she could resist any longer and fell asleep.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
She was walking along a dark tunnel. Only the sound of her footsteps, echoing against the ground, was perceptible. She frowned. Something else was going on. A faint, wet sound could be heard as she walked. It was water. The ground was soaked.
Aliena heard a hiss in the distance, raising her head. She squinted as advanced cautiously. The path she was on was surrounded by snake-like statues, menacing, open-mouthed, ready to pounce on her. She shivered, remembering having seen them before, partially, quickly, in a previous vision. Now she could take the time to observe them from every angle. They glowed in the dark, increasing her fear a notch. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest as her blood was pounding against her temples. Her instincts were screaming at her to run away, to leave without looking back, but her legs decided otherwise and she moved forward.
At the far end of the room, the face of a bearded, long-haired man was carved into the stone. Salazar Slytherin. She knew it was him, she couldn't explain how or why, but she knew it. She studied him for a moment, then finally noticed a presence. A little further ahead, a dark-haired male figure turned his back to her. She felt her blood freeze in her veins and stopped. Aliena didn't dare call his name, even though she recognized him perfectly. She knew who was in this room.
An icy shiver ran up her spine and her shirt clung to the sweat on her chest.
Tom finally turned to her, his face impassive. He opened his mouth, but she didn't understand a word he said. Hissing. She could only hear hissing. And suddenly, she felt a heavy presence behind her, something brushing against her back. She didn't know where she found the courage to turn, but did so anyway. And her breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her lips.
In front of her, several meters long, stood a huge snake with dark green scales.
A basilisk.
The name tingled on the tip of her tongue.
Aliena took a step back, then toppled into the void.
The scenery around her changed abruptly. She was no longer in the cave, but in a far less unusual room : the washroom. The floor pitched under her feet and she barely caught herself on the edge of a white porcelain washbasin. Aliena looked up, meeting her own reflection in the mirror. Strands of hair stuck to her forehead. She was breathing rapidly, too rapidly, and tried to calm herself when a tiny silver snake emerged from the tap. She jumped back, watching it wriggle into the sink, like a fish out of water, before it froze on the plumbing.
The next moment, another hissing sound was heard, making her recoil. But she tripped over something and nearly toppled backwards into one of the toilet cubicles. She grabbed the wooden panel of the door and looked towards the floor. There was something on it, or rather, someone. She stared in horror at the lifeless body beneath her.
It was a young ravenclaw girl. She couldn't have been more than eleven, twelve at the most. Her complexion was waxy, her eyes bulging. Her thin blue lips were half-open, but no more air passed through them. Her chest remained immobile.
The hiss sounded again, much, much closer this time. Aliena looked ahead.
The washbasin had given way to a gaping hole in the floor, from which she could see two big yellow eyes staring back at her. The basilisk reared up, opened its mouth and attacked. It lunged at her, closing its sharp murderous fangs on her.
She screamed.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
Aliena woke up swimming, tangled in the sheets and blankets of her bed. She panted, gasping desperately for breath. Her body was shaking with tremors. She struggled to her feet, her legs barely supporting her, and headed for the bathroom.
She paused for a moment as her gaze fell on the plumbing, then shook her head to banish the memory of the tiny silver snake. She ran water over her face several times, before resting her forehead against the cold porcelain of the sink, eyes closed. Until she felt a warm liquid flowing from one of her nostrils and brought her fingers to it.
Blood.
It was blood. She was bleeding.
"I though you were better," came an accusatory voice from behind her.
Aliena gasped and looked up at the mirror.
There, she met Isadora’s polar-blue pupils, who had been staring at her from the doorway.
"I am," she replied, still panting a bit.
"You don’t seem so."
"Thank you for your consideration Isadora," she spated.
Elaine, traces of sleep still visible on her face, appeared at that moment. "Aliena ? Are you alright ?"
She turned to face them, sighing. "I'm fine, it was just a nightmare. It’s not still forbidden, is it ?" she said, slightly annoyed.
She ran her hand under her nose, wiping away the last traces of blood. It was a nightmare. It had to be. How could it be otherwise? It had to be the only explanation. Aliena refused to let it be anything else. She'd had a nightmare, but as she climbed back into bed, she couldn't help trembling. If it had really been a nightmare, then why had it seemed so real ? And why did it fit so well with the events of two years ago ?
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
The next few days, Aliena acting on as if nothing had happened. She ignored her nightmare - or her vision - and avoided the second-floor corridor like the plague. The problem was, every time she caught a glimpse of Tom Riddle in the common room, the classroom, or even around the bend in a corridor, she couldn't help but think about it.
What if it was true ? What if he had unleashed a basilisk on some muggle-borns ?
What if he was responsible for the murder of one of them ?
Her stomach weighed heavy in her chest.
A damp room full of snake statues.
The hiss echoed by a male voice.
A black-leather diary on the wet ground.
She broke down less than a week later, couldn't take it anymore. She had to know — She needed to know. She was tired of asking herself thousand questions and worrying, perhaps for nothing. She wasn't as stupidly brave and fearless as the gryffindors, but she wasn't a coward either. Aliena hadn't been brought up that way. So one evening, she plucked up the courage after leaving the library. Curfew would fall in less than five minutes. Normally, she'd barely have time to get to the common room, but damn for damn …
The young woman walked slowly, as calmly as possible, and arrived in the dark - and thankfully deserted - corridor on the second floor. She could see the door of the girls' washroom in the distance, and every step that brought her closer drove a nail into her gut. She stopped in front of the wooden door and took a deep breath before stepping inside.
The door closed behind her with a dull creak. There was no one there, nor any other sign of life. No girls had come here since Myrtle Warren's death. Aliena relaxed a little ; she'd almost expected to run into the basilisk and felt stupid at the thought. A giant snake could never have passed unnoticed in the castle corridors, it didn't make sense.
It was stupid. She'd either really had a nightmare, or misinterpreted her vision. Maybe it wasn't as clear as day ? Maybe she had to try and make sense of it, interpret the signs ?
She sighed, then moved towards the washbasins, tightening the strap on her bag. She approached and watched her reflection in the mirror for a while, before setting her eyes on the silver faucet. Slowly, apprehensively, she placed her fingers on the cold surface of the plumbing. She enjoyed the cool, perfectly smooth feel of the piping beneath her skin. She let out a sigh of relief, before freezing.
Under her fingers, she could feel a raised pattern, like an engraving in the metal. She bent down, and in the moonlight, she caught the delicate, fine engraving of a small snake. She stepped back abruptly, her back striking a rigid surface behind her. Aliena turned around just as the door of one of the toilet cubicles swung open.
She was pretty sure it was the same one she'd seen in her vision, when she'd spotted Myrtle Warren's lifeless body.
Fearing, she ran away. She ran through the deserted corridors of the castle, her heart racing. She didn't know where she was going ; it was as if her brain had stopped working. She was unaware of her surroundings, unaware of her thoughts or even her movements. All she could see, all she could though about was the lifeless body of the ravenclaw girl.
Aliena stopped abruptly at the corner of a corridor, lungs on fire, legs flailing. At the other end of the corridor, a horribly familiar figure walked slowly in her direction, wand in hand. She could almost have whimpered in despair. She'd run straight into the wolf's mouth.
Or into the snake's mouth.
"Bletchey ? What are you doing here, at this hour ? You know it's long past curfew ?"
She twitched.
"I could ask you the same," she retorted.
Her voice was rather trembling and she cleared her throat to regain composure.
Tom let a low chuckle escape his lips.
"You could. And I'd answer that, as Head Boy, I have to make regular rounds at night, in case there are any disobedient students outside their dormitories. Students like you," he punctuated his sentence by stopping right in front of her.
Aliena had to lift her head to be able to look him in the eye.
"Are you going to take points off me ?" she dared, bordering on insolence.
"That would be shooting myself in the foot. We are on the same house after all."
She moistened her lips slightly, then glanced over his shoulder in search of someone else. A teacher, another prefect, even a ghost. Anybody that would mean that she would no longer be alone with him.
"I didn't know you got special treatment," he continued.
Aliena turned her attention back to him and raised a questioning eyebrow.
"That you were allowed to break curfew," Tom explained.
"I don't. I just wanted to be ... Alone. I didn't see the time."
"You're trembling," he pointed out.
She took it upon herself not to back down, not to betray the fear that was creeping through her veins. Unconsciously, she groped for her wand in the pockets of her wizard's robe.
"I'm just cold," she lied.
He nodded, before taking a step to the side.
"Come on. I'll see you out."
"Don't," she almost choked, causing Tom to frown. "I can ... I can do it by myself, I know the way. You probably have other things to do. Don't worry I'll be fine."
"I cannot. If you meet another prefect or teacher, they won't be as forgiving as I am. You would be making slytherin lose points."
"You're Head Boy, I'm pretty sure you can sort it out."
He ignores his comment
"Let's go."
It was not a request, it was a order. Skillfully disguised, but an order nonetheless.
Tom started walking before turning back to her, waiting. He left her no choice so, with a heavy heart, she followed him. Aliena remained silent all the way back, taking care to walk several paces away from him, never brushing up against him too closely or meeting his gaze even once. She stubbornly kept her gaze raised straight ahead, her throat dry. She knew, and she could no longer pretend not to understand.
Her visions were true.
And Tom Riddle was a part of them.
Chapter 5: ⬪ SEPTEMBER 1944
Chapter Text
SEPTEMBER 1944
A green skull with a snake protruding from its mouth, shining in the sky.
An heirloom gold ring, setting with a large, black stone.
A group of hooded, masked men.
Aliena held back a sigh. The book she was currently reading didn't contain any information that might help her, but that wasn't surprising. It was a book about art of divination, and that wasn't what interested her, or even what she had any particular talent for. It was scrying, but apart from her mother's notes, she had access to nothing on the subject. There were no books related to scrying in the library, at least not in the part accessible to students. She might have been able to find something in the restricted section, but she still had to have access to it.
She was faced with a major problem. She wasn't taking any divination-related classes, and had never set foot in this classroom. In her third year, she had chosen to study arithmancy and ancient runes. It seemed a wise choice at the time, as runes were directly linked to her mother's magical culture and to scrying. Divination was only good for children. Everyone thought they could read the future in the stars or tea leaves, but it didn't work like that. It wasn't that simple. Scrying, on the other hand, offered more possibilities. Those who mastered the secrets of it could not only see the future, but also past events and so, have a clearer, more precise vision of the course of events.
And because of this, Aliena couldn't go to the divination professor and ask him to give her the authorization she needed to access the restricted section — Not him, not anyone else. Everyone would find it strange that a seventeen-year-old girl with no particular attraction to divination should be interested in its obscure alternative. They weren't stupid, they'd soon understand why. They'd ask questions, make the connection with her mother and her family heritage, and understand what she was. What she was capable of, and then, troubles would begin. She couldn't afford that.
"Can't they go bellow somewhere else ?" snarled Elaine beside her, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Aliena looked up from her book. Her friend was glowering at a group of slytherin students, clumped together in a corner of the common room, who were bawling their eyes out.
"It's quidditch trials tomorrow, they're all excited as pixies," she replied, plunging back into her reading.
She frowned. She already read that sentence before. She kept rereading the same page, but couldn't even memorize a single word because what she was reading seemed so insipid. And downright stupid.
"Argh, Dumbledore's going to have my hide with this transfiguration homework !" complained the brun girl, running a hand through her hair. "How does he want us to go fifty centimeters of parchment about the method to turn a toad into an ammonite ? We're doing it, period. There's nothing else to say !"
"Want to take a look at mine ?"
Elaine shook her head, moving some strands that had escaped from her bun.
"No, he'll figure it out. It's fine … " she sighed. "What are you reading by the way ?"
"Nothing important," Aliena shrugged.
Elaine, intrigued, lifted the cover of her book with her fingertips to read the title. She couldn’t hold back her giggle any longer.
"What the ... ‘Divination - Meaning of signs and omens’ ? Aliena, for Merlin’s sake, why do you read that ?!"
"Personal curiosity, I guess."
"Aliena, please. You don't even follow the divination class, you never did in four years. You don’t like divination. You said divination is—"
"Divination is bullshit," cut in Keiran Nott, who passed right by the table where they were studying.
"Nott," Aliena hissed through her teeth.
He greeted them in turn, then, with a movement of his chin, pointed to the book she was reading.
"You've changed your mind ? You've decided to open your closed, narrow mind to other ... Forms of magic ?"
Aliena didn't answer, and gave him an evil look, which made the slytherin boy smile even more. She hated that little smug smile he had the secret. She would have liked so much to make him swallow it. That and his whole person.
"No of course not, you’re too good for that," he said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "But if you want, I can help you. I got an E on my O.W.L.s in fifth year."
"See Elaine ?" Aliena replied, looking at her directly. "Proof that divination is bullshit. Idiots can have good grades and think they are good on it. Yet, even the world's worst soothsayer would know that I'd rather kiss a ghoul than ask Nott for help."
"Don't began Blethey, I was nice," he warned her.
"You don't began. I don't need your help, for this or for anything. You can go now, thank you."
Nott rolled his eyes.
"You're lucky I have other, more urgent things to do."
On these words, he walked away, joining Abraxas Malfoy and Marius Lestrange who were waiting for him near to the common room door. She watched as the three of them made their way down the dungeon corridors, while Elaine cleared her throat, uncomfortable.
"Aliena you ... You don't try to ..." she stammered, searching for words. "I don't know what you are or aren't doing but, reassure me … It has nothing to do with your parents’ death, does it ?"
Aliena turned back to her. And at her friend's worried expression, the weight of remorse came to weigh down her stomach a little more. Her research had absolutely nothing to do with her parents' death, but she preferred not to deny it. Perhaps it was better for Elaine to think that, rather than knowing the truth.
"I can't imagine what it's like, to lose the people you care about the most …. But if you want to talk about it - or not, I'm not forcing you to do it - I'm here. You know that. I'll always be there for you, you’re my friend."
Elaine placed her hand on hers and squeezed it gently.
"I know. And don't worry, it's nothing important. Really. It's just keeping me busy while you finish your homework," she taunted her with a wry grin.
The brune girl clenched her jaw, skeptical, but returned all the same to her parchment, grumbling.
Aliena looked at her with a heavy heart. She couldn't tell her. She couldn't tell her about her visions or about Tom Riddle. It was too much to handle. She couldn't tell anyone. She had to keep it to herself.
It was for the best.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
At the end of September, Professor Slughorn’s class took a turn that Aliena had not anticipated. The seventh years were already few many, only the best - those who had scored above a E in their OWLS - were allowed to continue this cursus. And that day, Slughorn had had the brilliant idea of having them work in pairs. He seemed so delighted with himself that his large moustache twitched with every word he uttered.
The young woman met Elaine's gaze, which was just as depressed as she was. The chances of them being together were close to zero. Slughorn was going to divide them by level group, and he always made a point of honor at mixing boys and girls together. For social mixing, he said. Aliena would have like to make him eat his hat. It was just an excuse he put it forward during class, because afterwards, he'd organized little dinners behind their backs with only his male students. What a hypocrite.
"I warn you, if I end up with Duarte, I will pretend to faint," her friend whispered.
Aliena smirked. She agreed with her. Denis Duarte was a real walking danger. He still sometimes confused asphodel root with aconit root ; and had the power to make any liquid explode, even water. He'd achieved this feat in his third year and yet, no one had figured out how he'd done it. It was a miracle he was still in potions. And alive.
"Sallow and Pewerett."
"Rosier and Abbott."
"Bletchey and Riddle."
Aliena held back a sigh.
Of course he did it. Slughorn hadn’t been able to resist putting together his two best students.
"Lucky girl," Elaine purred with a mischevilious winke.
"We can switch if you want," she snarled.
"And deprive this poor Slughorn of the pleasure of seeing his two best students together ? By Salazar Slytherin, I wouldn't dare !" Elaine said, placing a hand over her heart, pretending.
Aliena rolled her eyes, then looked towards the table occupied by Tom a little further on. The other students were already gathering their things and joining their partners, but he didn't move though. He wouldn't, she knew it. It was up to her to move. She gritted her teeth and joined him, dragging one's feet. She hesitated for a long time to throw her bag on the workbench to show her displeasure.
"Don't make that face Bletchey, it doesn’t suit you. Besides, everyone would love to be in your shoes. With me, it's the best grade guaranteed," Tom grinned.
"I don't need you to get a good grade," she replied, stung to the quick.
"No, that's true. But I didn't expect any less from a future mediwizard. That's still what you want to do after graduating, isn't it ?"
She lifted her eyes to him, surprised. How did he know ? She had spoken to Slughorn about her desire to become a mediwizard in fifth year, and in view of her results, he had strongly encouraged her in that direction. Since then, he would sometimes make a comment in class when she passed one of the potions with flying colours : "Well done, Miss Bletchey, but that's not surprising coming from a talented future mediwizard". It was anecdotal. And yet, Tom had held it back ?
Aliena nodded all the same, lips pursed, then chose to seize the perch that he had unwillingly handed to her.
"And what about you ? What are your plans after Hogwarts ?"
"I'm still thinking about it," he shrugged.
She frowned slighly. Thinking about what ? To murder other people ?
"Sure," she replied, looking him in the eyes.
Tom raised an eyebrow at her slightly condescending tone.
"Excuse me ?"
"I'm sure that, given your prestigious results," she pressed deliberately her words. "You're spoilt for choice in terms of your future. You'll drown in job offers after graduating."
He didn't answer, but she saw the features of his face harden lightly. He moved, and a glint on his left hand caught her attention. He was wearing a gold ring with a dark stone and it clicked in her head. "An heirloom gold ring, setting with a large, black stone." It was the ring she had seen in her dream. She knew it was important to him, but she didn't know how much. The rest was still hazy in her mind, just waiting to come out, but she didn't want to take another scrying potion. Not now, not so soon after the last one. She still shuddered at the memory of the ravenclaw girl's lifeless body. And sometimes, she felt like the basilisk was following her down the corridors, ready to attack. She could almost hear its high-pitched, menacing hissing in her ears.
Aliena shook her head. This was not the time to be thinking about that, not when she was less than a meter from the source of her visions. From Tom.
"Take this exercise as a first training for your futur N.E.W.T exams. It's nothing impossible if you've been paying attention, we've already seen most of the potions together in class."
Slughorn passed between the tables of the new pairs, handing out a list of ingredients for the potions he wanted them to prepare. Aliena took a quick look on it. It wasn't as simple as he'd said. The potions - a poison and its antitode - were complex, even for their level.
"I'll take care of the poison, and you the antidote ?" suggested Tom, even if his question was purely rhetorical. He didn't expect an answer. "That seems rather appropriate to me."
She winced ; he couldn't have meant it better. But she refrained from commenting and, taking care to keep a safe distance from him, began her potion. She follow the instructions in her book. It was a complicated antitode, which requiring a great deal of rigor and attention, but nothing impossible for her. She began by finely cutting the wiggentree bark, then grinded the newt eyes. She added them to her mixture which gave off a faint smell of treacle. It was a good sign.
She and Tom worked meticulously, preparing their respective potions in the greatest calm. They didn't speak to each other. Nor did they pay attention to the few complaints from neighboring tables. They were solely focused on their tasks, when suddenly, Tom stretched out his arm towards her.
"Give me the —"
Aliena jumped back, staring in dread at his thin-fingered hand, which hung in the air just in front of her nose. She turned her head towards Tom. He was already looking at her, his eyes dark and his eyebrows raised. She could have sworn seeing a spark glow in the depths of his ink-irises. A spark that disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, to the point where she finally wondered if she hadn't imagined it.
"— belladona,” he breathed, finally.
A cold shiver ran up her spine. With a trembling hand, she handed him the jar, taking care not to touch his fingers in the process, and then, turned fully her attention to her cauldron. She cursed herself inwardly, but did her best not to let anything show. She could still felt Tom’s burning gaze on her, but she ignore it.
Or at least, she did her best to ignore him and refrained from looking in his direction.
At the end of the class, she didn't linger any longer and hurried out of the dungeons. As if the fires of hell were chasing her.
She had screwed up and she knew it. But it was too late, the damage had been done.
Chapter 6: ⬪ TOM RIDDLE’S POV
Chapter Text
"Did you say anything to your sister ?" asked Tom, hiding the annoyance in his voice.
Thomas Rosier looked at him, eyebrows furrowed.
"To Elaine ? No, why ? Did she say or do something ?"
Tom held back a sigh, the lines of his jaw contracting imperceptibly, though he strove to maintain a neutral expression.
"No, not her. Bletchey did."
"Bletchey is just a brat," replied Keiran Nott, leaning back in his chair. "She's an insufferable little pain in the ass, smug and full of herself."
"Just like you Nott, which is probably why you two get on so well," scoffed Cyrus Avery, a sneer on his lips.
"Shut up Avery."
Tom pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking. Aliena Bletchey had been acting strange since school started. Her parents' death could certainly explain it, but there was something else. He could feel it. He knew it. They had never been particularly close. They were in the same year, taking the same classes, sometimes competing for first place on certain subjects, even if he always won in the end. Most of the time, they ignored each other and barely spoke.
And yet, her behavior toward him had changed. Tom felt like she was running away from him. He'd seen a strange burst gleaming in Aliena's glare during the last potion class. She seemed almost afraid of him and probing him — No, not him. She was probing his soul.
Or at least trying to, because there was nothing to probe.
"She is nothing, just a filthy-blood bitch," spat Nott in disgust.
Tom sniffed, imperceptibly.
Aliena's blood wasn’t considered fully pure, just like his. Eventually, not her mother's blood. There was many rumors about it. And it was enough to make some pure-blooded noble wizards - like the Nott family - cringed.
"Anyway, she gives herself a genre. The other day, she was reading a book about divination just to make herself interesting. She needs that to exist now that nobody's talking about her parents' death."
"Careful, Nott. You almost sound like you’re in love with her," purred Abraxas Malfoy, sarcastically.
"With that insufferable little pest ? I'd rather die."
"Aliena reading divination ? You dreamed Nott. She hates it," added Rosier.
Wait a minute — Divination ?
Tom twitched at the mention and suddenly, something clicked in his mind. He understood. No, not divination. But something else, something darker. And just like that, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place before him.
Aliena’s mother was a Russian witch. And he knew that Russian didn’t have the same vision of magic as the rest of the magical world. Some forms of magic, some spells, which were considered as black-magic, were tolerated, even acclaimed, over there. The rules were not the same. Scrying for instance, that obscure form of divination, was allowed in Russia. It was a rare gift, transmitted by blood. True scryers were very rare these days. There were rumours that Grindelwald himself had looked for one, unsuccessful, even though he was himself known to be a powerful seer. Proof of their magical superiority or the decline of Grindelwald's powers. Or both.
Tom got up without saying a word, then left the classroom where they had all gathered. No one tried to stop him, they'd all known it was pointless. With quick steps, he made his way through the corridors of the castle, his wizard's robe flying behind him, before entering in the Room of Requirement. He'd discovered its existence last year, when he'd been scouring stacks of the library for information about horcruxes, but he was well guarded to share this information with anybody.
The Room of Requirement resembled to a gigantic library with shelves stretching as far as the eye could see. It contained old, forgotten books, far more extensive than the Hogwarts Library. And far more interesting to him.
A glass ceiling revealed a fictitious night sky, whose the moon illuminating the marble floor. Stone pillars, surrounded by ivy, supported the two upper levels. But Tom didn't dwell on the decorative elements - which he already knew by heart - and headed for the section he was interested in. He carefully examined titles of the books before grabbing one. He took a seat and quickly perused the content of his book. Scrying was a hereditary gift transmitted only from mother to daughter, intensifying over the years in the lucky few or it could be abruptly triggered by a traumatic event. A shock.
Aliena's parents' death could be one of them.
The apparition of the gift was different from one person to another, but most suffered from the same heavy symptoms the first weeks : violent headaches, fevers, vomiting. The list was long and not exhaustive.
"Aliena is not feeling well. She needs to go to the infirmary."
"It's true you know. You really do look awful."
"Wait a minute ..."
"What's wrong with you ?"
"Nothing, I'm fine. It'll pass …"
The symptoms eventually disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. It was only a matter of time.
"You too Bletchey, you seem well."
A ritual was needed to perfect the visions, to make them clear and understandable. Scryers had to perform a blood ritual in order to prepare a potion. Had Aliena done it before ? She probably had. He thought about this possibility and froze. The evening he'd passed her in the corridors, well after curfew, she'd seemed nervous. Even maybe a little bit frightened. She'd come from the second-floor corridor and — Fuck.
Fucking shit.
"Bletchey ? What are you doing here, at this hour ? You know it's long past curfew ?"
"You're trembling."
"I'm just cold."
"Come on. I'll see you out."
"Don't."
She knew. Of course she knew, that little bitch as Nott called her.
Tom swore, while massaging his temples. What if she told someone ?
He tried to calm down. She had no proof - did she ? - and it would be her word against his. That wouldn't be enough to incriminate him. Besides, scrying was forbidden, punishable. She risked a lot if she said anything. And who would she tell ? Aliena had no family left to share this information. Elaine Rosier ? No. Slughorn ? He already had him in his pocket. Dumbledore ? He had doubts of course, hadding him in his sights for years, but that’s all. He had no proof neither. And his behavior towards him hadn't changed, so Tom could assume without making a mistake that he didn't know anything.
For now.
He gritted his teeth, fiddling unconsciously with his ring before taking a look at it. He interrupted his gesture. The black stone sparkled in the candlelight. Aliena had kept glancing at it in potion class, as if she knew something about—
A unpleasant shiver ran up his spine.
Could she know about his relative ? Or worst, about the horcrux ?
She couldn't have. He hadn't told anyone, but maybe ...
He hadn't done anything yet. Something was missing, he knew it was only a matter of weeks before he found the missing piece of the ritual, but for now, he still hadn't create any horcruxes. And more, he wanted to start with the diary. That was the most important thing. He had to make sure someone would continue his task after his depart from school. Someone who would accomplish the noble task of his ancestor. The ring would come later.
But Aliena seemed to know something. Something he didn't know, something he hadn't done yet. So he was going to make one - at least - and succeed ? That was why she'd been watching it. She might not know exactly what she was looking at, might not know its exact nature, but she knew how important it was to him.
This little brat could ruin everything, all the plans he was just beginning to put in place. He had to find a way to put her out or— He ran a hand over his face. Or he could turn the situation to his advantage and use her, use her gift. Perhaps she'd be useful to him after all ? If only to help him in the creation of his horcrux, find out if his projects would succeed, or to avoid the obstacles in his way.
Tom had always thought that Aliena, for all her viperish looks, was just a uninteresting pretty face. For once, perhaps he'd been wrong.
Chapter 7: ⬪ OCTOBER 1944
Chapter Text
OCTOBER 1944
A very handsome dark-haired man with a not particular beautiful woman.
Hundreds of decaying bodies at the bottom of a black lake.
The patronus of a doe.
« The manticore is an extremely dangerous beast, based in Greek and classified as a creature of rank XXXXX by the International Magical Community. As dangerous as the chimera and just as rare, the manticore has the particularity of singing softly as it devours its prey, usually humans. There were two breeds of this magical beast ; a feline-like mainstream breed and an insectoid breed. »
Well, that was a beginning.
Aliena looked down at her homework assignment on defence against the dark arts, biting slowly her lower lip. She reread her paragraph, before returning her attention to the books around her, all open to the chapter on « Level XXXXX Creatures », known for their dangerousness and impossibilities to domesticate.
Very sympathic.
She tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear. She'd tied back some of her hair, but a few rebellious strands still tickled her face, distracting her. The library was filled with the soft sound of quill pens scratching paper, books being opened and closed, and studious murmurs. She had settled herself at a table a little way off, at the back of the room, away from the comings and goings of the front door.
Someone pulled the chair in front of her, snapping her out of her thoughts. Aliena looked up to see that none other than Tom had just sat down at her table, without a word or a glance for her. She opened her mouth to say something, surprised, but then thought better of it. It's nothing, she repeated to reassure herself. It means nothing. The seventh and fifth years had taken the library by storm, even those who never usually set foot in there had come to study. There was no room anywhere else. Tom had simply taken the first available seat. She had to calm down. Above all, she had to concentrate on her paper due the next day and think of something else. And especially not at Tom sitting right in front of her.
Aliena gave him a sidelong glance, watching him stealthily. He had taken out his belongings and scribbled a few notes inside a black leather notebook with his name written on the back. She froze as she recognized it, but finally forced herself to get back to her work. She fidgeted in her seat, uncomfortably, then dipped her quill in his inkwell and resumed writing her parchment.
They didn't utter a word for the first five minutes, before Tom spoke, breaking the silence between them.
"Why are you afraid of me ?"
She looked up at him, her mouth suddenly dry. He was already staring at her.
Aliena frowned. "I'm not afraid of you," she cleared her throat to gain composure and strengthen her voice. "What makes you think so ?"
"You've been avoiding me. Ever since school started, you've been... weird. Something's changed. You've changed," he precised.
"And it didn't occur to you that, perhaps, my weird behavior as you say had absolutely nothing to do with you ? But everything to do with what happened to my parents this summer ?" she hissed, bitterly.
"At first yes, and then ..." Tom tilted his head to the side, studying her face minutely. "There's something else."
"Look, Riddle, we're not friends. We never have been and we never will be, so stop trying to read in me, okay ? I have work to do."
"Being you friend doesn't matter to me, I'm interested by something else. I think you can bring me a lot, that your talents can be useful to me. In a certain way."
He spoke in a smooth, calm voice that made her shiver. She swallowed hard.
"And which ones ?" Aliena managed to ask. "Need I remind you that you're first in absolutely every subject ? On the rare occasions when I pass you, you manage to crush me the next time. It seems your ego can't survive such an affront." she taunted.
Tom grinned, but she noted that his smile, even though it curved the corners of his lips, didn't reach his eyes. He was faking it, as perhaps everything he did or said. She'd never noticed it before, being fooled by his pretty face and fine words, but now she couldn't help noticing all those little details. The curve of his jaw that twitched slightly when something didn't please him. The menacing sparkle that shone quickly, almost ephemerally, in his inky eyes. His polite but authoritative tone that left no room for discussion. His smiles that weren't smiles at all.
Was all this just a game to him ? A role he was playing in front of others ?
"By the way you talk about it, I get the impression it's more your ego than mine that's affected. But if you must know, and as much as it pains me to admit it, there's at least one area where you ‘crush’ me as you put it."
Aliena stared at him without batting an eyelid. Morality ?
That was probably what she would have answered if she were suicidal, but she valued her life.
"If you say so," she shrugged, pretending indifference.
"I do. You see things other people don't, even when they're right under their noses. It's not just observation. It's something else, something more … Instinctive,” he paused. “Like a little hidden talent."
She did her best not to let on. Tom’s words resonated strangely, horribly, inside her. But he couldn't know - could he ? - it was impossible. He was toying with her. She had made the mistake of showing him that she was afraid of him. She might have lit the spark of doubt in his mind, but he knew nothing. He couldn’t. He was just preaching falsehood to get at the truth.
She just had to play the same game as him.
Aliena didn't react to his innuendo and continued writing her homework, feverishly.
"You're a scryer."
She skidded and her quill made a hole in her parchment. She widened her eyes, staring in horror at the ink stain that sat now in the middle of her paper, before blinked. Aliena digged deep into her to perfect her mask and make her face as neutral as possible. She couldn't let on that what he'd just said had touched her. That he'd hit the nail on the head.
She lifted her head and met Tom's black pupils.
"I'm sorry … A what ?"
"Don't," he warned her darkly. "Don't even try to play with me. I know what you are."
She frowned, hesitating. Aliena had a choice, she could continue to deny it, playing the perfect little fool - even though there was little chance of him believing her - or she could confront him on his own ground. Stupidly, she chose the second option, going exactly where Tom wanted to take her.
"And I know what you are too. What you've done."
"Good. We can play cards on the table then," he replied, sinking a little further into his chair, in a nonchalant and deceptively relaxed posture that was totally out of character for him.
"How do you know it ?" she finally asked, squinting suspiciously.
No one had expressed the slightest doubt, the slightest suggestion. Absolutely nobody knew. Nobody.
And yet, Tom had found out her secret in less few weeks ? Impossible.
"It's make me time to discover it, I admit it. But now, it's so obvious. I wonder how I managed not to see it sooner. Everything was just in front on me since the beginning."
"What do you want ?" she snarled, almost spitting out the words.
"I told you, I think you be useful. You can help me."
The tension in the room rose a notch, becoming palpable. Aliena could almost hear the air vibrating around them. Their eyes were locked on each other, and it would be the first to look down who lost.
"What makes you think I'm going to help you ?"
"Intuition."
"I don't think you need me. You seem to be doing very well on your own," she breathed, coldly.
He suddenly seemed interested and leaned a little more towards the table — More towards her. He crossed his hands under his chin. Like this, he gave her the impression of a snake staring at its prey, just before pouncing on it to strike.
"What exactly do you know ? Or rather, what do you think you know ?"
"Enough to get you locked up in Azkaban for the rest of your life," she threatened.
A small smirk appeared on his lips. The next thing she knew, invisible claws were closing around her skull. She flinched slightly at the violence of the attempted intrusion into her mind, but stood her ground. She focused hard on guarding her mental barriers in place. Tom's smile faded immediately and she saw him bite the inside of his cheek.
"How long have you been an Occlumens ?"
"I'd say about as long as you are a Legilimens."
She glared deadly at him.
"I'll have to find another way to get you to talk then. Don't worry, I'll figure it out. You may not know it yet, but you’ll find I can be very ... Persuasive," he rolled the last word over his tongue like a promise.
Tom stood up, scraping the legs of the chair across the floor. He quickly put his things away and took a step to leave.
"What ? That's all ?” she sounded surprise. “You're not scared ?"
"Scared of what ?" he asked, turning back to her. "That you're going to tell someone all this ? If you wanted to, you'd have already done it. There are only two explanations for your silence : either you don't want to and the question is why. Or you can't, and in this case, we both know why".
"And why ? Please, enlighten me," she said, insolently.
He moved closer, then leaned over to bring himself up to her height, resting one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the table. The scent of his masculine odor invades her nostrils. A woody scent with notes of parchment, ink, and something else... Something heavier and darker. Aliena holds her breath.
"On this side of the sea, scrying is akin to black magic and is forbidden. If you make me fall, you'll fall with me. Then I'll have to find a way out before take you down. Not that I wouldn't like it, but... " he stood up slowly. "I think you'll be more useful by my side than against me. It’s not every day you come across a scryer, ask to Grindelwald. I'm pretty sure he made the same offer to your mother before killing her."
Aliena flinched at his last words. He wanted to hurt her and it worked.
"I won't help you, Riddle. Ever," her voice was icy, sharp, but also slightly pained.
"Hmm ... We'll see about that."
Tom looked at her one last time with all the smugness he was capable of, before turning on his heels.
She only allowed herself to breathe long after he had disappeared from her field of vision. She ran a hand over her hair and realized that she was trembling. Whether with rage or fear, she didn't know. The only thing she was sure of, was that Tom acted as if he’d already won.
And it bothered her a lot.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
The days that followed were a strategic dance of avoidance and icy stares. Aliena made a point of staying as far away as possible from Tom, even turning back when she spotted him at the other end of a corridor. It was only during potions classes that she couldn't avoid him, thanks to Slughorn who insisted on pairing them up to almost every lessons.
Aliena held back a sigh while she glanced at the draught of living death simmering in her cauldron. She added the powdered snake fangs, then turned the preparation clockwise three times, and anticlockwise three times. She regularly glanced at her potion manual to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything in her preparation.
"Have you had time to think about my proposal ?"
Tom's deep voice made her frown. Most of the time, she ignored him, forcing herself never to look in his direction, pretending he wasn't there, less than a meter from her. And as strange as it may seem, Tom let her did it. He didn't impose his presence on her any more than necessary, didn't assail her with questions everyday, didn't pressure her between classes. He didn't do anything. In fact, he acted as if they'd never had that discussion in the library, as if he hadn't discovered that she was a scryer and had asked - no, rather imposed - for her help.
That's what pissed her off even more. He was toying with her, and it set her nerves on edge.
If she had to choose, she would almost have preferred him to harass her. At least, Aliena would have known where she stood. Because right now, she felt the situation was getting out of hand. She was no longer in control and hated it.
"It didn't sound like a proposal,” she replied without looking up from her cauldron. "More like a threat."
"A promise," he nuanced.
"Don't play on words," she snapped back.
She glared at him and her heart raced around in her chest when she saw that Tom was already watching her.
"So, have you thought about it ?" he asked again after tossing some valerian leaves into his own cauldron.
"No need, my answer's always the same. It's no," she insisted through gritted teeth.
"I'd have been surprised if you'd accepted so easily. You're really stubborn when you put your mind to it, but in case you hadn't noticed, I'm even more so."
"Yes, I thought I understood. You can be very persuasive when you want to," she scoffed "But you're wasting your time, Riddle.”
They were interrupted by Slughorn, who came up behind them to check their work. He didn't stay long at their table, just enough time to congratulate them, especially Tom, which irritated her even more. Their potions had exactly the same look, color and smell. They were similar in every way. Aliena thought that if they'd exchanged chaudrons just before their teacher came to see them, he'd still have insisted on her comrade's perfect potion. He always did. It wasn't the contents of their cauldron that interested him, it was Tom's. And there was a nuance.
"Jealousy doesn't suit you," Tom teased her.
"I'm not-" she paused abruptly.
At what point had she stopped ignoring him or not treating him like public enemy number one ?
She sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of her nose. She took a moment, before facing him again.
"I'm tired of your little game, so tell me now. Why do you want my help ? And why are you so sure I'll do it ?"
"You offend me Bletchey, I thought you were smarter than that. Don't you have any idea ? "
Aliena didn't answer and turned her attention back to her preparation. She had a vague idea on the subject - several, in fact - but they were all just guesses, and each one made her more shiver than the last.
"You're going to help me, not because you particularly want to, but because you're curious. "
She held back a cynical laugh.
"Curious about what ?" she asked, voice low so he would be the only one to hear her. "About how many corpses you've got in your closet ? It's you who offends me. I don't want to know the details of your extracurricular activities - or school activities ? - I don't know exactly how you'd qualify killing a student on school grounds."
Tom's facial features hardened slightly.
"Are you trying to be humorous ?"
"I'm trying to make you understand that I'm not interested in anything to do with you."
"And yet, you have visions about me, don't you ?" he smirked - not a true smile however - mischievously.
She gritted her teeth. Tom was right, to her great misfortune.
"And to answer your question. You're curious about what I'm capable of. About what I can do and will do, but more than anything …" he slowly approached her, inches from her face, whispering the last words. "You want to know what it's like to have power, to have others fear and respect you."
"Be careful, power could be your undoing," she said darkly.
"Or yours, if you continue to be so stubborn," he shrugged nonchalantly.
She stiffened. Here was the threat, the sign that Tom's patience was about to reach its limit and that soon, he would no longer ask politely. Soon, he would act and take what he wanted.
Aliena couldn't take her eyes off him for the rest of the class, almost making a mistake by putting fluxweed instead of asphodel in her potion. Tom, on the other hand, no longer addressed her a single word or glance, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
Aliena had drawn up a whole list of potential threats. Ranging from a simple altercation in a corridor to few drops of poison in her breakfast tea, but she hadn't thought she'd have to face a group of slytherin boys waiting for her one morning outside the door of the charm class. She had seen them from a distance, all five of them, leaning against the stone wall, their eyes fixed on her.
Tom’s little gang.
She frowned as she moved closer to Elaine, who was walking beside her.
Cyrus Avery, his usual charming smile hanging on his lips, came to meet them — Well, not her. He walked towards Elaine and captured her full attention. Aliena did her best to refrain from rolling her eyes at her friend’s silly face and took a confident step towards the door, just before Marius Lestrange blocked her way with his arm. She sniffed disdainfully.
"Do I get a welcoming committee ? So unusual from you."
"Don't play naughty girl Bletchey. I’ve already told you, it's annoying," replied Abraxas Malfoy, calmly.
She turned slowly her head towards him.
"Or what ? What are you going to do to stop me ?"
"You don't want to know," Keiran Nott huffed evilly.
She ignored him, focusing all her attention on the sleek white-blond haired boy in front of her.
"What's going on ? Riddle sending you to do his dirty work for him ? He's finally realized that I'm not going to fall for his sweet words, so he asked you to pressure me ? I’m impressed," she added, sarcastic.
"Trust me, he doesn't need us for that, he can do it himself. Think of this as your last chance to make the right thing. It’s your last warning, afterwards ... Well, you might not like it."
She looked straight at him for a moment. Malfoy was a few centimeters taller than she was - not as tall as Tom, she couldn't help noticing - and everything about him exuded aristocratic arrogance and the heritage of his family. He despised her, perhaps not as openly as Nott, but he did it all the same.
"Last warning, really ?" she sneered. "And you're the one I have to give my answer to ?"
Aliena moved a little further to Malfoy, glaring at him coldly.
"You know Malfoy, there are several ways of sending a message. And if there's one thing I've learned from my mother's family, it's how to deal with messengers. They do believe in killing the messenger, you know why ? Because it send a message too."
"Is that a threat, Bletchey ?"
"A warning. For all of you," she glanced at the other boys. "Leave me alone."
Malfoy remained unmoved by her comment, even a little amused, unlike Nott. Fists clenched, he took a threatening step toward her, only to be cut off by an authoritative female voice.
"What are you waiting for to go to class ? Do you think I'm going to teach in the corridor ? Hurry up and take your seats ! You're seventh years, you know how it works now. I shouldn't have to tell you," ranted Emerald Reynards, their charms teacher.
She glared at them with her raptor eyes, then turned towards the other side of the corridor.
"Avery ! Rosier ! I won't repeat myself. Unless you want to get in detention."
They all moved as one in front of the barely veiled threat.
And Thomas Rosier took advantage of this to slip in beside her while the others entered in the classroom.
"A word of advice Aliena, you should accept. I don’t know exactly what Riddle want from you, he hasn’t told us and probably never will. But believe me, he always ends up getting his way. So the sooner you accept, the sooner this will be over. And after, he’ll leave you alone. We’ll all do it."
He didn't give her time to reply and walked to his seat. Thomas had raised an important point and that was the whole problem. When would Tom be finished with her ? Beside, would he ever be finished ? Wouldn't he always ask her for more ? Aliena didn't even know what he wanted from her exactly. He'd never given her a clear answer, although she suspected it wasn't as innocent as giving him the answers to final exams - he didn't need them anyway - or telling him which girl he'd end up marrying.
She suspected it was something worse, something darker. Which raised another question that made her break out in a cold sweat. When he no longer needed her - if that was even possible - would he really leave her alone, knowing everything she knew ?
There was little chance of that. Tom would never take such a risk. She already knew too much about him, although he didn't seem to be worried about it at the moment. But if she became too much of a nuisance, he'd get rid of her without an ounce of remorse.
And that's what frightened her most.
Chapter 8: ⬪ OCTOBER 1944
Chapter Text
OCTOBER 1944
An strange hourglass decorated with emerald green snakes
An heirloom gold ring, setting with a large, black stone.
A old man with a blackened, dead-looking hand.
Aliena glanced nervously at the small glass vial she held between her fingers. Night had fallen several hours ago, the candles were gradually fading and through the closed curtains of her four-poster bed, she could hear the last murmurs of her roommates.
She was going to have to do it. One more time.
She couldn't hope to confront Tom without being at least one - or even two or three - steps ahead of him. She took a deep breath, and then, swallowed the black liquid in one gulp. Grimacing at the raspy taste that weighed down her tongue, she wiped her mouth and lay back on her bed. She was apprehensive, as shown the weight compressing her stomach or the drops of sweat running down her back. What if she was still dreaming of the basilisk and its deadly fangs closing in on her ?
A shiver ran through her spine.
Aliena shook her head, she had to concentrate. She had to try to control her visions. The last time, she had let herself be dominated by them. There had been nothing she could do but endure. This time had to be different. She needed to find answers.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe calmly, breathing in and out several times.
Once … Two times … Three times …
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
The room was strangely familiar. She knew this place. She recognized the furniture overloaded with knick-knacks of all kinds, the tapestries on the walls or the dark wooden desk on which rested a strange hourglass decorated with emerald green snakes. Slughorn's desk. She was in her potion teacher's office.
Aliena noticed him, standing in front of the fireplace, staring absently into the flames. He was wearing a three-piece suit, quite different from the wizard's robes he wore during potion classes, which could only mean one thing : he'd had dinner with the male members of his little club. Slughorn glanced at the half-empty glass of alcohol in his hand, then stirred absent-mindedly the amber liquid that it contained.
A slight clink sounded behind him, attracting the attention of her potion teacher — And hers as well. She turned her head and her eyes landed unsurprisingly on Tom's slender figure. He was standing by the desk, watching the grains of sand inside the hourglass with feigned interest.
"Look sharp, Tom. Don't be caught out of bed after hours," said Slughorn before noticing his student's stranged expression. "Something on your mind, Tom ?"
"To be honest … Yes, sir. And I couldn't think of anyone else to turn to. The other teachers, well ... " Tom paused. "They're not like you, they might misunderstand. "
"Go on," Slughorn invited him to continue while taking a sip of his drink.
Tom took a few steps into the room.
"I was in the library last night. In the restricted section," he clarified. "And I read something rather strange about a very rare form of magic. It's called, as I understand it, horcrux …"
The word awakened absolutely nothing in her. She didn't know what it was, but from the almost horrified expression that passed over Slughorn's face, she guessed it wasn't just anything. It wasn't something trivial, on the contrary.
"I beg your pardon ?" stammered Slughorn, blinking.
"Horcrux," repeated Tom in a calm voice while folding hands behind his back. "I came across this term while reading and didn't fully understand it."
"I'm not sure what you were reading, Tom, but it's very dark stuffs. Very dark indeed."
"That's why I came to you," Tom explained, innocently. "What is it exactly ?"
Slughorn sighed loudly.
"A horcrux is an object in which a person can concealed part of their soul."
"I don't understand how it works, sir."
Aliena ticked, his too perfect, too innocent behavior irritated her — Well, no. What irritated her was that Tom had fooled her so easily, like all the others, over all these years. She always found him annoying, distant, sometimes even unpredictable ; but she was far from suspecting that a murderer was hiding behind his handsome face. But now that she could see through him, now that she knew, she couldn't help but face the harsh reality. Tom was good, very good, to manipulate those around him and he knew exactly what he was doing. He always had the right intonation, the right word to appear like the perfect-charming student, so that nobody wouldn't suspect his real intentions. Aliena couldn't even blame their potion teacher for falling into the trap Tom was setting before him.
Herself would have fallen into it if she hadn't known.
"You split one soul and hide part of it in an object. By doing so, you are protected if you doing be attacked and your body destroyed."
"Protected ?" asked Tom, raising his eyebrows.
Tom had moved closer, slowly but surely, like a snake stalking its prey before pouncing on it. He was now only inches away from Slughorn.
"The part of your soul that is hidden lives on. In other word, you cannot die."
She shivered as she realized. Tom was looking for a way to survive death, but why ? He was only seventeen, he still had life ahead of him, so why worry about death now ? What or who did he fear ? Someone who might get in his way ? Prevent him from achieving his dreams of greatness ? The only one she could mention at the moment was Grindelwald. But he was in Northern Europe and had certainly never heard of Tom Riddle. He was no threat to him. He was nobody.
The ground suddenly pitched under her feet and Aliena almost stumbled. She ran a hand over her forehead, suppressing a groan. The scene blurred. She could no longer make out the contours or the furniture of the room, only the fireplace and the two men. Through her half-closed eyelids, she saw Tom turn towards the flames burning in the fireplace. They cast shadows on his face, hardening his features, but not making him any less attractive.
"And how one does stretch its soul, sir ?"
"I think you already know the answer to that, Tom," Slughorn whispered weakly.
"Murder," Tom replied without an ounce of hesitation.
"Yes, killing rips the soul apart. It's a violation against nature."
Aliena fought her headache and moved closer. She stopped when she noticed the black ring Tom was wearing, over which he ran his fingers. The ring she'd seen several times in her visions, which came back again and again.
What if ...
What if he wanted to turn it into a horcrux ? Or if he already did it ? He was asking questions, which was proof that, at the time of her vision at least, he still hadn't made one. Except that she couldn't correctly date the scene unfolding before her eyes. But she was pretty sure this had already happened. Deep down, she could feel it.
Had he ever tried to make a horcrux, and worse, had he succeeded ? She suspected his questions were not innocent. He was interested in horcruxes because he wanted to make one. She couldn't see any other explanation. That ring kept coming back into her visions, as if it were the key to something she didn't yet know the importance of.
"Can you only split the soul once ? Or for instance … Seven ?" Tom finally asked.
"Seven ? For Merlin's beards, Tom. Isn't bad enough to consider killing one person ? So to rip the soul into sevens pieces …"
The answer was no. After all, Tom'd already killed. In a way.
"This is all hypothetical, isn't it Tom ? All academic ?" Slughorn asked suddenly, his body was stiff and his face pale, as if he'd just realized that their discussion had gone too far.
As if he'd just realized his mistake.
Tom turned slowly towards him and Aliena squinted, struggling to stay conscious. All she could make out were blurred, abstract shapes. The darkness gained in intensity and soon she could see nothing, hear nothing, except for one last sentence that echoed in a loop in her mind.
"Of course, sir. It'll be our little secret."
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
Aliena had woken up with a horrible headache that made her want to bang her head against the walls in the hope of making it go away. The bright sunlight in the great hall almost made her groan, and she gave up trying to swallow anything for fear of immediately vomiting her breakfast.
In spite of everything, she followed Elaine and Isadora in the corridors towards their history of magic class, but not without some foot-dragging. Professor Binns’ classes were always boring as death — No pun intended. And every time, she wondered why she persisted and had not given up the class after her OWLS.
She entered the classroom and glanced at the ghostly figure of their teacher hovering in front of his desk, before looking at the person sitting in the front row. Tom was already getting his things out of his bag, and she noted the empty seat next to him. She thought no more about it and made her way to him, ignoring the calls of her roommates who were already sitting in their usual places. She pulled out the chair, scraping its feet against the stone floor, and drawing Tom’s attention to her.
"We need to talk," she said as soon as she was seated.
He raised a questioning eyebrow, then finally returned his gaze to the blackboard in front of him.
"Not now," was all he answered.
"This is the last time I'm going to ask you. Why do you want my help ?"
Binns was already spouting off about Emeric the Evil, but Aliena wasn't listening. She remained stubbornly turned towards Tom who, ignoring her completely, began to take notes. She gritted her teeth, inwardly fuming. She wanted to take his sheets of parchment and tear them up right in front of him. Tom was the one that had led them into this situation. He was the one who had come to confront her, who needed her to do something she knew nothing about it. And now, he was ignoring her ?
Her nerves were severely tested.
"I asked you a question, Riddle," she hissed through her teeth. " Why do—"
"I said. Not. Now. Bletchey," Tom cut her off as he turned to face her.
Aliena met his stern inky-pupils, which sent a shiver down her spine. Suddenly, she had no desire to play with fire and try her luck any longer. Tom gave her one last dark look in warning, his jaw clenched, before refocusing on the lesson. It was only at the end of the class, as she was hastily putting her things away, that he leaned toward her and said :
"Come to the astronomy tower tonight, I’ll join you after my rounds. And don’t be late."
"Aren't you tired of playing this little game ?"
He didn’t answer her and walked away without a backward glance. Aliena pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a sigh, before imitated him. She joined Elaine and Isadora who were waiting for her outside. They both turned to her, and the young woman could see their questions shining in their eyes.
"What were you doing with Tom ?" Isadora asked, suspicious.
"I had some questions about ... Advanced rune studies homework that Juniper gave us the other day. I wanted to know if he'd found the same answers as me."
"And ?" Elaine insisted, on a tone of voice that clearly implied something she didn't like.
"He didn't want to answer me."
At least on that last point, Aliena wasn't lying.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
The wind whipped across her face, tangling her long brown hair. Aliena suppressed a shiver and pulled the flaps of her wizard's robe tighter around her. Leaning against the railing of the astronomy tower, she glanced down. Because of the darkness, she guessed more than she could actually see the outlines of the castle and the forbidden forest afar.
She let out a sigh, then looked over her shoulder at the massive clock hanging on the wall behind her. It was over an hour past curfew, and still no sign of Tom. Did he even intend to come ? Wasn't all this just a game to make her lose patience, play with her nerves and, in the end, make fun of her ? Maybe it was all just a trap, and in a few moments, a teacher - or worse - would turn up to give her a hard time.
Aliena shook her head. He needs me, she tried to convince herself. He wasn't going to ruin everything by letting her down. She was the one who had the advantage in this round, who had an ace up her sleeve. And yet, she had the horrible feeling that the game was already lost. That it was rigged.
She heard the door crack below, followed by footsteps on the stairs, and leapted to her feet. She grabbed her wand and pointed it straight ahead. Tom came into her field of vision, and stopped as he noticed her wand pointed at him. He frowned.
“Calm down, it's just me.”
Perhaps that was what worrying her most. It was him.
She finally lowered her wand, but kept it close at hand all the same.
“You're late," she said with an accusatory voice.
“And yet, you're still here," his lips curled into a smirk. “So, what did you want to talk about ?”
Tom walked toward her.
“You know about what," Aliena said impatiently. “I want you to answer my questions.”
"Only if you answer mine first. What do you know ? "
He stopped a few inches from her, looking straight into her eyes. She straightened her head.
“I know what you did. I know it's you."
"Who did what exactly ? Can you be more specific ?"
"Who's responsible for the muggles-born attack two years ago. That it was you who killed that girl in the bathroom," she spat.
Tom let out a cold laugh. He shook his head, plunging his hands into his trouser pockets.
"Well, technically it's not me."
"Your basilick did it for you."
Tom suddenly turned his attention back to her. He remained silent for a few moments, watching her fixedly. She felt trapped by his black eyes, and didn't dare move. A dark thought crossed her mind, giving her goose bumps. What if he thought she knew too much ? That she was a risk and not worth it ? What if he decided to throw her off the astronomy tower ? Aliena wasn't even sure she could stop him and tightened unconsciously her grip around the wrought-iron railing, the cold metal burning her bare hand.
"Impressive … " Tom finally blurted out. "What else ?"
"Stop it," she clicked her tongue against her palate in annoyance. "Tell me now. Tell me why you need me. What do you want from me ?"
"You really have no idea, do you ?"
She almost wanted to slap him and make him swallow his smug look. But instead of that, she gritted her teeth.
Then, Tom took his hands out of his pockets and removed the black ring he was wearing.
"Do you know what it is ?" he finally asked, showing it to her more closely.
She frozed.
"A stupid ring ?" she managed to ask.
"I'm pretty sure you can do better."
"A stupid hideous ring that means anything to you ?"
"What do you know about horcrux ?"
At least he didn't beat about the bush. She crossed slowly her arms against her chest.
"If your question is : do I know that you're planning to do some - or have already done - and that you've asked Slughorn about it ? Then the answer is yes."
"I'm beginning to think you're obsessed with me, Bletchey."
"Quite the opposite, actually. So ? Did you succeed ? "
Tom's jaw contracted slightly. She knew the answer even before he opened his mouth and couldn't prevent a small, sly smile from curving the corner of her lips.
"I guess not ?"
"It's only a matter of time, I still have to fine-tune certain details," he replied, strangely calm.
She raised an eyebrow, puzzled but also surprised by his frankness. Was he telling her the truth or was he leading her on ?
"How can you be sure you can do it ? That it will work ? Has anyone ever made one of these before ?"
"Herpo the Foul did it."
"And what happened to him ?"
"He died when his horcrux was destroyed," Tom responded nonchalantly, shrugging as if it was nothing.
"Isn't that what's supposed to prevent a horcrux ? From dying ?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"It's a little more complicated than that, but it’s what can happen when you take the first object that comes along. Herpo the Foul learned this the hard way. I wouldn't make the same mistake."
"Sure," she sniffed dismissively. "But that still doesn't tell me what you want from me."
"You want a straight answer ? You won't get one, and deep down, you don't need one. The proof is, you're here tonight," he replied flatly.
She clenched her fists imperceptibly.
"But for now, let's say I need you for something. I just don't know what it’s yet."
"Are you fucking kidding me ?" she said, her anger rising.
"It's full moon in a week," he added, ignoring her comment.
Aliena swallowed hard, trying to hide her discomfort as best she could.
Of course he knew about that too. He'd done his research.
"Yes, and ?" she asked, glowering at him.
"Are you planning a ritual ?"
"It’s not your business, Riddle," she replied defensively. "You're wasting both our time."
"If you think I'm going to tell you everything, you’re wrong. I don't trust you."
"Neither I."
"Smart girl," he whispered, in a sweet voice, too sweet for her taste.
"Don't call me like that," she spatted back.
Tom chuckled, which irritated her even more.
"Do what you have to do and we'll figure out what to do next."
"There is no us, Riddle. I never said I was going to help you," Aliena retorted dryly.
"You didn't say you wouldn't either," he pointed out to her, smiling mischievously. "You want to know what's going to happen next as much as I do, maybe even more. And that reminds me, I've got something for you."
He reached into the inside pocket of his wizard's robe and pulled out a book.
"I think it will help you," he said, handing it to her.
She took it, glancing at the cover, then froze. The book looked old, as if it had survived the centuries. The green leather cover was damaged in places and the pages, yellowed by time, were horny, threatening to tear under her fingers. Some of the words had even become illegible and a strong smell of mildew assailed her nostrils. But what caught her attention the most was the title in worn gold lettering. It was wrote in Russian.
"Where do you find this ?" she asked, looking up at him.
Such a book couldn't have come from the school library, nor from the restricted section. Where had he found it ?
"You have your secrets and I have mine. Well, not really anymore, thanks to you."
She watched him for a moment, before returning her attention to the book.
"Well, if that's all you wanted to talk about ..."
He had walk away and was now near the stairs. Aliena hadn't even heard him move.
"Good night Bletchey. Don't get caught on your way back."
And with that, Tom left, leaving her alone at the top of the astronomy tower.
Chapter 9: ⬪ OCTOBER 1944
Chapter Text
OCTOBER 1944
A dead snake nailed to the wobbly door of a small, run-down shack.
Powerful hands that hold her head firmly under water, threatening to drown her.
A statue of a winged angel of death, holding a raised scythe, stood beside a marble headstone.
Aliena let out a slight sigh as she pushed a lock of brown hair behind her ear. She glanced casually at her watch. Lunchtime was almost over and she had to hurry if she wanted to grab something to eat before her first class of the afternoon. The young woman quickly tidied up her things and hurried off to put the dusty old books she had borrowed back in their place. They were all about divination, prophetic predictions and study of signs and omens, but they contained nothing of interest, nothing that could help her.
Nothing like the book Tom had given her the other night.
At first, she kept it as far away as possible from her, refusing to read it. Refusing to accept anything that came from him. She had hidden it in the bottom of her trunk, but the more the days passed, the more she thought about it. She was drawn to it, inexorably, like the glow of a candle attracting a moth in the dark. Consumed by curiosity, she finally gave in and has read the first few pages. At first glance, deciphering its contents didn't seem that complicated. She'd been reading cyrillic since she was a child, and even though some of the words had disappeared from her vocabulary, she understood - or guessed - what they meant. No, the hardest part was reconstructing the sentences that had become illegible over time, the ink having disappeared in places. But the little she had read had immediately captivated and intrigued her. It was more than a supplement to her mother's notes ; this book was much more complete and enriching. She had to face the facts, even though she had known it for a long time. It wasn't in the books from the divination section of the school library that she would find answers to her questions. But in a book of dark arts magic.
Aliena put a grimoire away on a shelf, then turned on her heels. She gasped and stepped back, narrowly missing hitting the piece of furniture behind her, when she noticed Tom's presence. Leaning nonchalantly against one of the shelves a little further away, arms crossed against his chest, he was staring at her.
"Is everything alright Bletchey ? You seem nervous," he said as he approached.
"I'm not nervous, you just surprised me," Aliena replied, glowering at him.
"Am I ? I didn't even think it was possible. I thought nothing could surprise you anymore, not now that you see and know everything. Or almost ..."
She ignored his provocation and frowned. Unconsciously, she clutched against her the only book she still held between her hands. Tom must have caught her movement because, with a movement of his chin, he pointed to it.
"What are you reading ?"
He gave her no time to answer and took the book from her hand. Tom snorted as he read the title.
"Nostradamus' predictions ? Seriously ?" he asked, raising a mocking eyebrow. "Should I understand that you didn't like the book I gave you ?"
She took back it to him.
"I thought you hated divination and anything remotely close to it. I admit that I'm a little disappointed, I didn't think you paid much attention to that sort of ... Things. Nostradamus was—"
"A fool who liked to speak in riddles to cast a mysterious shadow around his unimportant predictions." Aliena cut him off. "He was only good at predicting the weather or people's deaths. Which is no mystery, everyone dies one day, even those who try to thwart it. Death is impartial and, at the end, it always wins."
Tom tilted his head to one side, moving a few strands of dark hair across his forehead.
"Is this a prediction from Nostradamus, or one of yours ?"
She remained silent, watching him narrowly for a few moments. Aliena knew that Tom was aiming for immortality with his horcruxes, playing against death itself. But why ? To what end ? She hadn't managed to get any information out of him. She knew everything and nothing at the same time, and that was particularly irritating. He irritated her.
Very much.
"What do you want, Riddle ?" she finally asked in a cold voice.
"Just talking." he shrugged, as if it was nothing.
"Don't bother. I've got nothing to say to you."
"Hmm ... Really ?" he shoved his hands into his trouser pockets.
Aliena didn't answer and pushed past him to get back to her table. She heard footsteps behind her.
Tom was following her and she restrained herself from running away, leaving her belongings behind.
"Trust me, you will. It's just a matter of time." he whispered in her ear.
"Well, I don't trust you, remember ?" she replied, facing him again.
"That will come too, don't worry."
He was so sure of himself, so confident. For him, he had already won. But won what ? She didn't know, and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out. They stared at each other in silence for a while. Finally, Aliena grabbed the strap of her bag and made a gesture to leave.
"See you tonight, Bletchey," Tom breathed as she walked past him.
"I don't think so," she said, her pursed lips.
Her tone was unmistakable.
"It's funny, you know ?" a sneer spreading across his lips.
"What ?"
She doubted very much whether Tom was capable of laughter, or even humour.
"I don't even have to use Legilimency to know what you're thinking," he purred, leaning towards her. "It's written all over your face."
"I don't like you. You know that, isn't it ?" Aliena hissed back.
Tom smiled wryly at her. "Lucky for both of us that I don't need you to like me, then."
No, he just needed her gift.
Not her, not her person, not her feelings. Just her gift of scrying.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
For the rest of the day, Aliena had done everything she could to avoid Tom. What did he expect ? That she'd give in so easily ? That she'd agree to help him because he had given her a book ? That she'd invite him to take part in her ritual ? He could always dream.
Especially as she hadn't originally thought of doing another one straight away. She still had a small stock of potion left - two vials to be exact - so she could wait until next month to do another ritual. But in spite of herself, Tom had pushed her in the opposite direction. She had to do another one, she had to be ready.
Just in case.
She'd given Elaine and Isadora the slip as the three of them made their way to the great hall for dinner, pretexting to have forgotten something in the library. She couldn't afford to sneak out just after dinner or later in the night, at the risk of running into Tom and leading him straight to her hideout. At least now, it might take him a while to notice her absence, and even if he had the attention to search every nook and cranny of the castle — Well, he'd be at it all night. She could be anywhere.
Smiling at this thought, the young woman locked the door of the abandoned classroom where she'd been the last time. She traced a pentacle on the floor, carefully added the blood runes around it, then began to prepare the potion. The full moon hadn't yet risen, there were no rays filtering through the window, so she would have to wait before withdrawing the potion. But this gave her time for other things. Aliena sat down on the floor and took the old cyrillic book out of her bag, along with the notes she'd taken. She skimmed through them quickly.
« Scrying is nothing like divination. The few who have received the gift of scrying through blood ties don't need to look for signs in the stars or in the tarot cards to get answers to their questions ... »
« Scryers can learn to control and master their visions. The potion obtained as a result of the lunar ritual helps them in this respect, plunging them into a state of semi-consciousness in which they can more easily access to their visions. The exercise may be laborious and require practice ... »
The young woman glanced at the two vials protruding from her bag. She delicately picked one up and twirled it between her fingers. She swallowed hard. She could do it, she could succeed, she just had to concentrate. Taking a deep breath to give herself courage, she opened the vial and drank the dark liquid down. She grimaced slightly - she'd never get used to the ashy taste - then let the back of her skull rest against the wood of the old desk that sat in the classroom. Aliena closed her eyes, then inhaled deeply, trying to control her breathing. To remain conscious while being not.
It would be difficult, but she could do it.
She had to do it.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
The rain was raging outside and tree branches were throwing themselves against the broken windows of the shack. In fact, it looked more like a hovel about to collapse. Dust and grime were accumulated on the furniture and floor. Scraps of unidentifiable food were rotting on the kitchen table, in dirty pots and pans. Aliena couldn't hold back a look of disgust.
She took a step forward into the room, noticing a man sitting in a gutted old armchair in front of the hearth of the extinguished fireplace. He was thin, very, very thin. His skin pale, his hair matted with dirt, and his dark eyes looked in opposite directions. She didn't know who he was, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know. His physical appearance put her off.
Suddenly, knocking sounded against the door, attracting both her and the man's attention. The door opened with a sinister creak, before slamming against the opposite wall with the wind, and Aliena's heart missed a beat. Tom stood in the doorway, wand in hand, his hair and long coat wet from the storm outside. He entered the shack without an ounce of hesitation.
For a few seconds, the two men looked at each other silently, then everything happened very quickly. The man leapt to his feet, brandishing both a wand in one hand and a short knife in the other.
"You !" the man spit. "You filthy muggle !"
He lunged at Tom, who reacted quickly and overpowered the wizard with ease. He grabbed him by the collar of his dirty, holey shirt and pinned him against the wall. Tom hissed something through his teeth and the man froze in place, startled, his eyes wide. Words were exchanged between them, or rather, whistles. Aliena couldn't make any sense of it, couldn't make out a single word, and frowned. A bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, illuminating the scene before her eyes, as well as the dead snake nailed to the open door, which swayed in the wind. And that's when she understood.
Parseltongue.
They were speaking in parseltongue, the language of snakes.
She knew that Tom was a parselmouth. She had heard him speak it in one of her previous visions. It was a very uncommon skill and was known to be an almost exclusively hereditary trait. Which meant —
Her mouth went dry. The most famous parselmouth was none other than Salazar Slytherin. The young woman felt an shiver run up her spine as she realised what this meant. She had already understood it in fact, but had refused to think about it, to think about the consequences. Tom was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, that's why he spoke parseltongue and was able to control the basilisk. But what about the other man ? Was it the same for him ? Was he a descendant of Slytherin too ?
Aliena caught a movement out of the corner of her eye, causing her to lose her train of thought.
Tom slowly lowered his wand, then stepped back from the man.
"You're not Marvolo. Where is he ?" Tom finally asked.
"Dead," answered the other man "He died years ago."
Tom's jaw contracted slightly, a sign of his growing annoyance.
"Who are you, then ?"
"Morfin." he said.
"Marvolo's son ?"
Morfin nodded as he pushed a lock of dirty hair back from his forehead.
It was then that Aliena noticed the shiny black ring on his left ring finger. The ring that Tom now had in his possession, and which he intended to transform into a horcrux. How had it come into his possession ? Had he stolen it, snatched it from the wizard's hands ?
Morfin leaned forward, squinting his bulging eyes to get a better look at the young man in front of him.
"I thought you were that muggle," he sniffed. "You look like him."
"Which muggle ?" asked Tom, sharply, his teeth clenched.
"That muggle my sister liked so much. You look just like him, like this Riddle. The one who lives in the manor house further away, but you're not him, aren't you ? You can't be him, you look younger."
Aliena frozed. Had she heard correctly ? Had Morfin really just said Riddle ? Like Tom's last name ?
Tom's inky-black pupils darkened. He had never looked so fearsome, so dangerous, as he did at that moment.
"And what's about him ?" his voice was as cold as ice.
"She left with him. She dragged our name through the mud by getting involved with that filthy muggle, and for what ? Nothing. He left her at the end." Morfin spat on the floor. "That little whore is gone. She stole from us, stole it from us ! Where is it ? Where's the locket ?"
Morfin seemed to be looking for something in his trouser and shirt pockets before he thought better of it.
"She took it —That little slut, she stole it. But this, this she couldn't have taken." he cried, waving his hand with the ring in the air. "No, no, she couldn't have taken it — Where is it ?"
Morfin alternated between english and parseltongue, in a speech that had neither head nor tail. Himself didn't seem to be aware of the gibberish he was spouting. Tom remained silent, watching the man raving in front of him. Finally, Morfin began to fidget, gesturing with his arms, pulling at his clothes, his hair, even the skin on his face.
"It's just me. Me, me, me ! She disgraced us, that ungrateful little bitch," he looked up at Tom. "It's over, there all dead ! You're too. You're going to die filthy muggle !"
He took a step forward, but Tom raised his wand and the man fell unconscious to the dirty floor. Tom approached Morfin's inert body, not without concealing the disgusted expression that twisted the fine features of his face. Tom kicked him, flipping him onto his back, and grabbed his wand. Then he stormed out of the shack, the rain pouring down on him again.
Aliena followed him out, but as she crossed the threshold, she toppled over and landed heavily on a tiled floor. She was no longer in the dingy, unsanitary little shack, but in a completely different place. The vestibule in which she had landed was clean and tastefully decorated. Rich tapestries adorned the walls and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, illuminating the steps of the grand staircase with soft light.
A knock on the door sounded again and a man crossed the room in front of her. Aliena's eyes widened and she shook her head. For a fraction of a second, she'd thought it was Tom, but it wasn't. The man was older, probably around forty, and headed for the door. He opened it, revealing a figure concealed beneath a long coat, strands of wet hair falling over his forehead.
Tom. It was Tom. And his eyes, black as night, flashed with anger.
"Who ... Who are you ?" the man stammered, recoiling.
"I suppose that you have a little idea, father," snapped Tom, the last word sounding like the worst insult in his mouth.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
Aliena fluttered her eyelids slowly. It took her several seconds to regain consciousness and remember where she was. She groaned as she massaged her temples, in a vain attempt to stop the migraine that was piercing her skull.
He'd killed them all.
Tom had killed his own father, as well as his grandparents, even though to him, there was no real link between them. But that wasn't all. He had also carefully covered his tracks, making sure that his uncle was blamed and punished instead.
Aliena glanced to the empty vial in her hands. Her vision had been useless, it hadn't taught her anything new — Well, it had, but nothing useful. If Tom hadn't shown any signs of nervousness when she'd told him about the basilisk and the death of the young ravenclaw, it wasn't the death of his muggle family that was going to worry him.
She raged and grabbed the last vial from her bag. She took a long look at the inky black liquid through the glass. The most powerful scryers were able to direct their visions, to concentrate precisely on what they wanted to see and know, and even to have several in a row. When she was alive, her mother could do it. But she had also always told her to be careful, not to overestimate herself and to take her time. Except that she was no longer there to give her advice and help her, she was alone. Aliena was on her own.
Deep down, she knew she should have waited. Waited until she was safe in her dormitory at least, but she didn't give herself the chance to think about it any longer, or to change her mind, and popped the cork. Aliena swallowed the potion in one gulp with a grimace. The next moment, a throbbing pain burst through her head. She let out a groan of pain and clutched her face in her hands.
Hundreds of decomposing bodies lay beneath her feet. They were everywhere as far as the eye could see. The putrid smell of death invaded her nostrils and the air soon became unbreathable. She made her way up the mountain of corpses. More than once, she almost fell, slipping on faces and torsos, tripping over arms and legs. When she reached the top, a man had his back to her.
No, not a man. A monster. There was nothing human or mortal about him any more. He was no longer a man, but an obsessive creature, enslaved by the idea of immortality, blinded by his quest for power.
Dressed in a long black wizard's robe, a wand made of bone in his right hand, the dark wizard turned towards her. He had a bald head, a waxy, almost grey complexion and two red eyes that stared at her with an evil gleam. He twisted his mouth into a smile, dispelling any doubts she might have had before. When she still had hope that this man who haunted her nightmares and Tom wasn't the same person.
Except she'd been wrong.
Tom and him were two sides of the same coin. They were one and the same person.
The black wizard raised his wand towards her and a green beam hit her in the chest, sending her flying away. As she fell, Aliena heard the cries of suffering, pain and agony of many people. Images of slaughter raced through her head. Names whistled in her eardrums, but she didn't know them, had never heard them.
Hepzibah Smith - Dorcas Meadowes - Bertha Jorkins
All she knew was that he had killed them, like so many others.
Bones - Mckinnon - Potter
He had - will - killed entire families in his rise to power.
Her back hit the hard surface of the floor, knocking the air from her lungs. She felt a hot, sticky liquid soak her clothes. Aliena raised her hand. It was red, red with blood. She tried to stand up, but a weight prevented her from doing so, pinning her to the ground. She glanced worriedly at her chest and stiffened. A lifeless body lay on top of her, then another and another. She felt panic overcome her. She was trapped under dozens of bodies. She was going to die, suffocated by all those corpses and the blood pouring over her, seeping into her hair and mouth. The metallic taste stung her tongue. Aliena opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out and a black veil fell over her eyes.
Chapter 10: ⬪ OCTOBER 1944
Chapter Text
OCTOBER 1944
A boy with a lightning bolt scar.
The lifeless body of a woman with long red hair.
A name, Voldemort — He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Aliena couldn't hold back her nausea any longer. She twisted onto her side and vomited. She winced, her cheeks streaked with tears. Whether it was the pain or what she'd seen, she couldn't tell exactly. Probably a bit of both.
She remained in this position for long minutes, suffering the violent contractions of her stomach. The only thing she was aware of was the bitter taste that invaded her mouth and her wheezing. Everything else was a blur, so she had no idea how she had managed to get out of the classroom. In truth, she couldn't even remember. One minute she was half lying on the stone floor, the next she was wandering like a ghost through the dark corridors of the castle.
She walked along the hallways, barely aware of her steps. She almost fell several times, stumbling against the uneven floor, reminding her all too well of how many times she'd almost fallen climbing the mountain of corpses in her vision. The bodies haunted her mind, she kept seeing them over and over again.
Aliena still managed to form a coherent thought, she couldn't stay like that. She had to get help, she had to tell someone. She didn't know who, but she knew she couldn't keep it to herself. It was too much. It was too much for her to handle on her own.
She climbed the first set of steps, which left her breathless. She felt her legs wobble under her weight, threatening to send her tumbling backwards. Trembling, beads of sweat sliding down her forehead, she struggled on. Aliena didn't know where she found the strength to continue, but she forced herself to reach the landing. Her eyelids were heavy, and they fluttered several times, fighting against the sleep that threatened to engulf her. She couldn't pass out here. She had to keep going, she just couldn't remember why. She leaned against a wall and closed her eyes, before feeling her body tilt forward. But her face never met the cold, hard surface of the floor. She was vaguely aware of an inflexible grip around her waist. The next moment, she toppled over into the darkness.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
When Aliena opened her eyes again, she had no idea what time it was, or even where she was. The only thing she knew was that a horrible headache was threatening to smash her skull to smithereens. She ran a hand over her burning, sweat-soaked forehead before glancing around. Through the glass ceiling, she can see the night sky, full of clouds that intermittently hide the full moon.
She squinted, before suddenly widening her eyes. The young woman stiffened. As far as she knew, there was no room where she could see the sky through the ceiling, with the exception of the great hall and the greenhouses, but she knew she wasn't in either of them. She tried to concentrate, but her memories of the evening were hazy. She wasn't in the classroom where she had taken refuge to carry out her ritual.
She remembered falling in the corridors, but she definitely wasn't there either. She was lying on a soft velvet sofa. She sat up suddenly and let out a plaintive moan. She felt dizzy, nauseous, too small and too large all at once. She was afraid her head would explode, her whole body would explode, it was all too much for her. Everything was getting mixed up in her head and she was on the verge of another crise.
"If you throw up on yourself, don't expect me to clean you up."
Aliena stiffened, goosebumps spreading across the skin of her arms. This voice, it was—
She risked a glance to the side. Tom was there, leaning nonchalantly against the edge of a table. Hands in his trouser pockets, he was staring at her with undisguised disdain.
"Where are we ... ?" she asked in a plaintive voice. She hated the way her voice sounded weak, making her look even more miserable. And more than anything, she hated feeling like this just in front of him.
"Hogwarts," Tom answered as if it were obvious.
"There's no such room at Hogwarts," she replied sharply.
"That you believe."
Aliena remained silent, keeping her acid remarks to herself. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm the tremors in her body. Finally, she sighed and looked around. The walls were covered with shelves full of books. Stone pillars, surrounded by ivy, supported the two upper levels. She held back a disdainful sniff. Tom was making fun of her. They definitely weren't in the school library, or even in the restricted section so, for Merlin's sake, where were they ?
"I'll ask you again, where are we ? Where have you taken me ?" Aliena said, her anger rising.
"At Hogwarts, as I've already told you," he insisted, slightly annoyed. "In a secret room that only appears when you need it and changes to suit your needs. You're in my version of the Room of Requirement."
"No cage to lock people in ? I'm almost disappointed."
"It's not a prison, you can leave whenever you like," Tom tempted her.
"I suppose this is where you found the book you gave me," she huffed.
The young woman glanced back at Tom, who still hadn't moved. He was staring at her, impassive. Acidic bile rose in her throat, but it was nothing like the bile she had vomited earlier.
No, this one was full of bitterness, resentment, against herself. She felt stupid, and if she'd been alone, she would have cursed herself aloud, but she wouldn't give that pleasure to her one and only spectator. She didn't want to look any more stupid than she was. Because she must have been, not to have made the connection earlier between the handsome man standing in front of her, whose glow from the candles reflected off his profile, plunging the other half of his face into darkness, and the red-eyed monster from her visions. Aliena knew they were connected somehow. She just hadn't understood how, or she had covered her face and deliberately chosen not to believe it, so as not to have to face the harsh reality. But now she could no longer pretend. She could no longer ignore it.
Tom Riddle was a killer. A true monster.
"What did you see ?"
Tom's deep, suave voice drew her out of her thoughts. He slowly crossed his arms against his chest and raised his head a little higher, in an attitude which clearly suggested that he was superior to her. And that irritated her even more. She gave him an evil look, and a sharp remark stung the tip of her tongue, but she barely held it back. The image of the black wizard with the red eyes superimposed itself on the boy's silhouette. Was he going to become a monster, or was he already one ? He had already killed. It wasn't the first time. There was nothing innocent about him any more.
"Don't tell me you didn't have visions, given the state you were in when I found you. I even suspect that you wanted to push your limits by having several, to make your ritual more profitable."
"You're a monster," she snapped back.
"Is that all ?" he sneered. "I'm a bit disappointed, you've got me used to better Bletchey."
Aliena looked up at him and their eyes met.
"Why did you kill them all ?" her voice was a barely audible whisper.
Tom's eyebrows furrowed. "Who do you speak about ?"
A cold shiver ran up her spine. She couldn't confront him about murders he hadn't committed yet. And why all these murders anyway ? How could someone who was so keen on immortality have so little regard for the lives of others ? And above all, why was she having visions about this, about the future — No, not the future, but his. It was always about him.
But why her ? What was the purpose, the hidden meaning of all this ? That she should do something to stop him ? Stop him by opposing him for the rest of her life ? The burden would be too much for her shoulders alone to bear. Tom wouldn't let her, she'd had a taste of it in her visions. She still remembered the impact of his spell against her chest that had propelled her into the air. He'd get her out of the way as easily as pulling a weed.
She swallowed hard.
She couldn't ask him about it, couldn't let him know how far she had seen his future. So she chose to steer the discussion onto less slippery ground, where she could hope to get out of it with less difficulty. "Your father and his family. Why kill them all ? What did it get you ? I'm pretty sure you didn't get any personal satisfaction out of it, and that's perhaps the worst of it."
"I wanted nothing to do with them," Tom replied darkly, in a voice so cold she shivered.
"Please, you didn't have any. No one ever made the connection between you and them."
"He abandoned me. He abandoned me and my mother, he deserved nothing more."
Aliena stiffened at his words.
"I wanted nothing to do with this filthy-muggle," he continued "I already share his blood and his name, and that's too much."
"So, you are indeed a half-blood," she said, more to herself.
"Don't insult me, Bletchey," Tom warned her darkly.
"It's not an insult, it's a fact," she defended herself. "And if you think no one else suspects it, you're wrong and it's you you're insulting. I thought you were smarter than that, Riddle. You can't have been a muggle-born, otherwise you wouldn't be in slytherin."
"Of course I'm not a muggle-born," he hissed threateningly.
"But the chances of you being a pureblood with an unknown name were also very slim."
Tom's jaw contracted slightly, and he glared deadly at her.
"Not everyone wears their pathetic family heritage as proudly as you do."
"Are you trying to insult me ? By insinuating what ? That my blood is dirty, or rather, my mother's ? You sound like Nott," she scoffed. "And for what it's worth, my blood isn't dirty, nor was my mother's. My grandmother's, on the other hand ... Well, by your standards, it probably would be. Her father was a muggle, but in the end, it's only blood. Blood is just blood, it means nothing, it doesn't characterise who you are. But if you're really ashamed of yours, just take your mother's name instead of killing everyone around you."
Tom sneer coldly, making her frown. "Believe me, there's no glory in being likened to her either. Her name lost all its fame a long time ago."
Her gaze fell on the black stone ring on his left ring finger, its contours shining in the candlelight. This led to another question, the answer to which she already knew, but wanted to be sure. "Who was he ? The man you stole the ring from ?"
Tom followed her gaze, looked down at his hand, then smirked mischievously.
"Morfin Gaunt. He was my uncle on my mother's side."
She looked up at him. The name was vaguely, strangely, familiar.
"Gaunt like ... Like the pure-blood family that is one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight ?"
Tom nodded.
"And known to be the last descendants of Salazar Slytherin," he added with a superior tone.
Aliena held back a sly smile. Salazar must be turning over in his grave, he who had always advocated the purity of blood, he who had always been against muggle-born, he who had even brought a monster into the castle to hunt them down, to kill them, and whose last living heir was a half-blood. How ironic.
"You're proud to be the heir of Slytherin, but you despise the family thanks to which it's possible ? Hum." she teased Tom before standing up.
The young woman leaned on the armrest to straighten up, wincing at the effort it took, and especially at the stabbing pain that burned every muscle in her body. She felt like letting go and falling back onto the sofa. She'd probably have done it if it didn't mean staying alone with the devil himself.
She had to get out of here.
"You should stay a little longer, get some rest. You look scary," Tom said, wrinkling his nose.
Aliena glowered at him. "No way."
"I suppose you won't be thanking me for helping you either ?"
"I didn't need your help." she spit angrily.
"That's not exactly the impression I got when I found you half-unconscious in the corridors. What would you have done if it had been someone else ?"
"I wish it had been."
Tom raised an eyebrow, tilted his head slightly to one side, flicking a few strands of hair across his forehead, before smiling. A narcissistic, carnivorous smile. The smile of a predator who knew that he had won the hunt, that he had cornered his prey and was about to sink his fangs into its flesh at any moment. Aliena suppressed a shudder.
"Oh really ? And what would you have done if someone else had found this ?" he asked, taking a small vial of dark liquid out of one of his pockets.
The young woman's throat suddenly went dry and if she hadn't held on to the sofa, she would surely have lost her balance. She tightened her grip, turning her knuckles white. Tom was holding one of her vials between his fingers. A vial of the potion she had prepared this evening. She looked at the table behind him and saw her bag lying carelessly on it.
Tom had found her hiding place. He had found it and obviously retrieved her things. She hoped he'd also been thoughtful enough to clean up after her, as she hadn't been able to do it herself, far too distressed by her visions.
"I hope you've cleaned up after yourself," Aliena hissed through her teeth.
"Who do you think I am? I'm not as careless as you," his words had the effect of a slap in the face.
She had been careless, imprudent even, and she deserved the remark. If she hadn't wanted to do too much, if she hadn't pushed her limits, she would be in her dormitory right now, and not in Riddle's hands.
She forced herself to lift her chin and staggered forward. "You've got them all, I suppose ?" Tom nodded. "You can keep them, they won't be of any use to you. Although, you could always try, and if you could choke on them at the same time," she retorted dryly as she walked past him.
She didn't try to snatch the vial from his hands, she had enough pride not to try. She wasn't that desperate, and she knew it wouldn't do any good. Tom was just doing it to taunt her, to get on her nerves. And it was certainly working.
Stupid, stupid little girl.
She chastised herself inwardly. She had been so stupid. She'd thought she'd outsmarted him by disappearing before dinner so he wouldn't follow her, wishing him luck in finding her if he had to search every nook and cranny of the castle. Which he'd had to do, and well too. He had succeeded. She thought back to what he had said earlier, fortunately it was he who had come across her things, and not a teacher. At the very least, she would avoid a harsh interrogation, expulsion and maybe worse.
Dark magic was forbidden and always came with a price.
She moved forward cautiously and reached for her bag, but Tom was quicker and grabbed her arm, forcing her to face him. "What do you think you're doing ?"
"I'm leaving," she declared, taking a step backwards.
"Please, you can barely stand."
She could hear the irritation in his voice.
Aliena wriggled out of his grip, staggering slightly. "Anywhere will be better than here, with you."
She lifted her head and met Tom's black pupils.
"Except that you're stuck with me now," Tom smirked, leaning towards her. "Don't think I'm going to let you off that easily, you still haven't answered my questions. You've obviously learnt a lot from the book I gave you, so I'm waiting for you to return the appliance to me, which is only fair, isn't it ?"
"If you believe that —"
"I don't believe anything, Bletchey, I know it," he cut her off. "And it's not like I'm giving you a choice, either. It's been fun watching you try to avoid me so far, but I'm tired of your little game. I'm giving you a reprieve, because you look like you're going to faint again, and I've already given enough for tonight. But afterwards, I'll come and you can tell me all about it. Good night Bletchey, you need it."
She grabbed her bag and sped off. She headed for the door, which she opened without trying to be discreet, and glanced around the corridors. With the pale stone walls, devoid of tapestries and portraits, she assumed that she was indeed still in the castle - upstairs - but she didn't know where exactly. She turned and glanced over her shoulder. Tom was already watching her.
"You want to know something, Riddle ? You're chasing a fantasy. You'll be walking beside your own death for the rest of your life. Horcruxes or not. You won't delay the inevitable, and that will be your downfall," she spat before walking down the corridor, disappearing into the darkness of the castle.
Chapter 11: ⬪ OCTOBER 1944
Chapter Text
OCTOBER 1944
A dark lake at the bottom of a cave, where hundreds of dead hide beneath the surface.
A man dressed in a black cloak, walking through a pool of blood.
A glass sphere with white smoke floating inside.
The vision she had the other night was still haunting her. Every time she closed her eyes, every time she lost herself in her thoughts, flashes came back in waves, threatening to overwhelm her. She saw the lifeless bodies again, so many she couldn't count them all. She saw their livid complexions, their eyes and lips frozen in a painful expression. Some faces would haunt her for the rest of her life, but the worst was the reptilian face of the black wizard. He made her break out in a cold sweat.
Aliena shifted in her chair and tightened the sleeves of her uniform around her fingers. She looked ahead at the tables in the front rows. Tom had his back to her and seemed to be having no trouble following Professor Emerald Reynards' charm class, unlike her. She squinted, watching him so intently that she could have burnt her retina. She almost expected to see him change shape before her eyes, in this classroom, but she knew that wasn't going to happen. At least not yet. The vision she'd had wouldn't come true for several years, several decades perhaps. She still had time, but time for what ? She wasn't sure.
Throughout the day, she had caught many times Tom's dark gaze on her, though perhaps surprised wasn't the right word. She hadn't caught him looking at her. He wanted her to notice him, to know that her time was running out and that, sooner or later, he would come to claim his due. She didn't even want to run away or give him a hard time any more. Aliena was tired, so when she emerged from her last class of the day, she wasn't surprised to hear footsteps behind her. She knew very well who it was, she had prepared herself for it.
"You're persistent, I've got to hand it to you," she said with a sigh, turning to face Tom.
"It's one of my many qualities."
"As is modesty, I suppose ?"
Tom smiled mockingly at her. She lifted her chin, trying not to show her nervousness, but imperceptibly tightened her grip on the strap of her bag. For a moment, she was tempted to look for her wand in the pocket of her wizard's robe, but she knew that such a gesture would not escape Tom's steely gaze. He would probably guess her attentions, and she didn't want to prove him right. She didn't want him to think that she was afraid of him, that she feared him, even if it was definitely true.
Tom took a step towards her and she stepped back.
"You're afraid of me," he hummed, tilting his head slightly to one side.
"I'm not," she replied, dryly.
The young man let out a small laugh. Not a real laugh, but a slight throaty noise, somewhere between a forced laugh and an amused chuckle. "You little liar. I can see it, the question is why ? Up until now, I've done nothing to give you reason to fear me. I've even been patient with you, more than with anyone else. So why are you so afraid ?"
He savoured every moment. He was in a position of strength, he knew it and he was taking advantage of it.
"It's not you I'm afraid of. Not of you now," she clarified, cutting Tom off as he opened his mouth to reply. "But of what you would become, which is not the same thing."
She didn't know why she was being so honest with him about it. Because, perhaps, she couldn't see how she could get out of this situation with a simple lie. In any case, she would never have had time to come up with a convincing one, so she might as well put her cards on the table.
And precision was important. Aliena broke out in a cold sweat at the mere memory of the black wizard, but the boy standing in front of her right now didn't inspire her the same fear. It was true that she feared him. Only an idiot wouldn't fear him knowing everything she knew, but she also knew that he was not yet the man he would become. He was getting dangerously close and even if she had a killer in front of her, who had already killed in cold blood, she was not yet dealing with a mass murderer who would leave a mountain of corpses in his wake. She was right about one thing, he was going to walk beside death for the rest of his life, his own and others’. Especially others’.
"You like playing with words, don't you ?" Tom asked, slightly irritated.
Even though his sentence sounded like a question, it didn't require an answer. Tom didn't wait for her to give him one and moved a little closer. Aliena took another step back, feeling the muscles in her back brushed against the stone wall behind her. She raised her head a little more, focusing her irises on his.
"Are you going to go on like this for much longer ? It could be quick, you know. You tell me what you saw, down to the last detail, and I'll leave you alone until the next full moon. Or …" he left his sentence hanging for a moment before continuing. "Or you can persist in your silence and force me to use the hard way which, just in case, won't be pleasant for you. Take your pick, although I won't hide that I have a clear preference for the second."
Given his threatening tone, and what it implied, Tom was surprised to hear her laugh. Aliena shook her head, brushing a few curls of brown hair from her shoulders before turning her attention back to him. A slight sneer curled the corner of her lips.
"Threats, always threats. That's all you ever talk about. Don't worry, your little gang have already given me the message and they've made it very clear how unpleasant it would be for me not to cooperate," she mused.
Tom's face hardened. She had never noticed before how sharp his jaw lines could be when he gritted his teeth. But perhaps she was only noticing it now, because he had dropped the mask. He was no longer playing the game of the perfect, charming student with her. He didn't need to pretend any more.
"You know, Bletchey," he said, annoyance piercing through his voice. "When I want something, I always get it, one way or another."
"And yet here we are, you and I, talking in a corridor away from prying eyes. It's not good, is it ? she teases him. "Not being in a position of strength."
His eyes became even darker than they had been and she could have sworn she saw the muscles in his fists tense, almost contract. Aliena savoured the emotions that passed over Tom's perfect face just before he pushed her violently against the wall. The back of her head came into contact with the cold stone wall behind her and she let out a low moan of pain, then bited her lips before letting out more. Slight flecks of colour passed before her eyes and she felt dizzy, but she took it upon herself to maintain the animosity of her gaze on Tom.
"You're such a brat, you know that ?" he shouted, his dark face coming closer to hers as he said the words.
"Sounds like a compliment in your mouth."
"Oh trust me darling, it's not." he tightened his grip on her arms a little more, causing her to wince. "Now be a good girl and do what I asked you to do. Or next time—"
"You're a monster," she said through clenched teeth.
Tom leaned even closer to her, so much so that she felt his breath crash against the skin of her face.
"Tell me something I don’t know." he said, threateningly.
His words sent a shiver down her spine.
He didn't have time to continue as dynamic, determined footsteps came in their direction. Tom glanced quickly down the corridor before turning back to her and walking away abruptly. He had regained his composure and charm, and she could breathe again normally as he put distance between them.
He turned to her. "I warned you, you're not going to like what comes next."
Aliena opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the slender figure of their rune studies teacher - Zarah Juniper - who had just appeared at the end of the corridor. She noticed them and didn't seem surprised to see them here. Why should she be ? From her point of view, she was dealing with two students from the same class and who were simply chatting in a corridor. Nothing more than that.
She had no idea what was really going on.
"Tom. Aliena. You'd better hurry, you'll be late for dinner."
"Yes, professor, you're right," Tom replied in a polite tone that made her want to rip out his tongue and force it down his throat. "We were just having a chat with Aliena. A fascinating discussion on what we saw earlier in class, we happen to have a few disagreements, but I'm sure we'll find some common ground in the end."
"I have no doubt about that. Two students as talented as you are in this subject, your discussions must be exciting." exclaimed the woman, delighted.
And painful. Aliena still had pain in the back of her skull, where it had collided with the stone. But she didn't let it bother her any longer and seized her chance, which had just materialized in the person of her teacher, to escape Tom's clutches.
"To tell the truth, Professor, I'd like to ask you a question or two about the next assignment," she took a step forward. "Can I tell you about them on our way to the great hall ?"
"Please, Aliena. What the matter ?"
Juniper seemed worried, and she knew why. Since the beginning of the school year, some of her teachers had been paying particular attention to her. They'd known her for a long time, had seen her grow up and were perhaps a little overprotective of her because of her parents' death. And she was going to take advantage of it. She hated herself for having to sink so low, but it was her only way out for the moment. She walked alongside her teacher and, until they are out of sight, she felt Tom's inquisitive gaze burn on her neck.
He was going to make her regret it, she knew it.
▬▬▬ ▲ ▬▬▬
There was a certain amount of commotion in the slytherin common room. Several students had gathered around the various work tables and were feverishly exchanging notes. They all seemed overwhelmed by the amount of homework required of them, especially the fifth and seventh years. Aliena herself was struggling with her advanced arithmancy homework. She was about to finish her chart when she froze.
“Shit,” she said abruptly, rereading the first few lines.
”What's wrong ?” Elaine asked, without looking up from her herbology homework.
“Nothing, I just …” began the young woman before grunting. “I skipped a line and now I have to start all over again, as if I had the time. I've still got to write my herbology paper, I didn't have time to do it before.”
Elaine raised an eyebrow, holding back a small mocking grin.“Did you get distracted and make a mistake, you ? I thought you could fill in the arithmancy charts with your eyes closed,“ she purred.
“I'll do without your comments, thank you,“ Aliena retorted, stung to the quick.
“Don't take it the wrong way. I was just kidding.“
The brunette seemed about to add something, but finally changed her mind and turned her attention back to her homework. Aliena rummaged in her bag and pulled out a new sheet of blank parchment, before pushing it back a little further onto the table. Too far, because it fell to the floor, crashing with a thud and spilling several of her belongings onto the white marble floor of the common room.
She swore loudly before crouching down on the floor to pick up her things. Her friend did the same, lending a hand. Aliena stuffed her belongings into her bag. She'd put them away properly later, when she had time. She then looked up at Elaine, who was on her knees with a quill and a book in her hand, and reached out to retrieve them.
“Can you—“
“What is that ?“ her friend cut her off abruptly, showing her the old book in her hands, open to a random page.
Aliena froze as she recognized it. It was the book Tom had given her a few weeks earlier. The inscriptions, barely legible with time, were written in cyrillic, but even if Elaine couldn't read it, she could get an idea of its contents from the page alone. Drawings of bones were depicted in the center of a pentacle, with runes scattered around. It wasn't necessary to understand the inscriptions to know that this was a necromancy ritual. Aliena had never seen this page. Obviously, the book wasn't just about scrying, but she was far from having translated it in its entirety and discovered all its secrets.
“It's nothing. Just an old school book of my mother's,“ she lied.
She made a gesture to take the book back, but Elaine put it out of her reach.
“Don't lie to me, Aliena. And don't take me for a fool,“ Elaine lowered her voice so that only her friend could hear her. “This is a book of black magic, you could be expelled for this.“
“Just because it's written in russian doesn't mean it's black magic,“ she replied dryly, grabbing the book and shoving it into her bag.
Elaine watched her, her face serious. “You've been acting strange lately, like you're hiding something. You’re distant, you even disappear in the middle of the night for hours.“
Aliena holds back a grimace, she thought she had been discreet, but apparently, not so much.
“At first, I thought it was your way of mourning, of moving on,“ continued Elaine. “But I'm not stupid, you know, I've got eyes. I've already seen you reading this book, and others, which have nothing to do with the courses you're taking this year. And you're seem ... Always on your guard, as if you were afraid of getting caught. What's going on ?“
“Nothing. Nothing's going on.“
“For Merlin's sake, stop it ! Why won't you talk to me about it ?“
It wasn't the first time Elaine had expressed doubts, but it was the first time she had done so with such insistence. She knew that her friend was hiding something and, until now, she had accepted it. She had accepted that she kept secrets, that she hid things from her, but right now, Elaine gave the impression of having reached her limit.
“Aliena, this is serious—“
“You wouldn't understand !“ her tone was emphatic, without appeal.
There was a moment's pause between the two of them, during which neither spoke. Only the creaking of the logs in the fireplace, the feathers on the parchment and the bursts of voices from the other tables reached them. Then, with extremely calculated slowness, Elaine straightened slightly.
“So, there is something.“
It wasn't a question, but a statement.
Aliena rose to her feet, stubbornly silent.
“I'm not the only one who's noticed, you know. Thomas said the same thing to me the other day. You think you're being discreet, but it's just the opposite”.
The mention of Elaine's twin brother clearly didn't have the desired effect on her. Aliena felt her blood boil in her veins and gritted her teeth. Had Thomas Rosier noticed that she was different ? That something was wrong ? Well, Thomas was perfectly placed to know what was behind this sudden change in behavior, since it was his “friend” who had caused it. And that he himself had taken the trouble to slip a few words of advice into her ear on the subject.
“Your brother should stop meddling in other people's business, especially mine,“ she spat, glancing at the young woman. “And you too.”
Elaine wavered slightly at the coldness of her voice. ”I'm only trying to help you, to support you.”
“I don't need your help !”
“Well, in that case, you're on your own. Don't worry, I won't meddle in your affairs anymore. Neither will my brother,” she declared before standing up and grabbing her herbology homework.
Aliena then seemed to realize what had just happened, and what she had just said.“Elaine, wait...”
But Elaine didn't look back and went off into the dormitory, leaving Aliena alone. She sighed and dropped back into her chair. She took her face in her hands. Everything was going wrong, absolutely everything. She no longer had control over anything, and it was slowly, but surely, beginning to suffocate her.
Chapter 12: ⬪ OCTOBER 1944
Chapter Text
OCTOBER 1944
A huge snake m akes its way between the legs of a muggle gardener.
A woman screaming in the dark night.
A handshake that seals her fate.
In the days that followed, Aliena made sure she never went anywhere alone, and when she couldn't do otherwise, she always made sure she had her wand close at hand. The last thing she wanted was to find herself face to face with Tom without magic.
So, as she left the library, she felt a lump of anguish compress her ribcage. It was late and the castle corridors were deserted. The librarian had almost kicked her out. Aliena quickly descended the stairs to the lower levels and walked along the study rooms overlooking the courtyard. Suddenly, she stopped in the middle of the corridor. A heavy, distant sound echoed, startling her. She froze in place for a moment, before forcing herself forward.
The noise came from a staircase a little further on, access to which was normally blocked. The open wooden door, which swayed on its hinges against the wall in the wind, opened onto the park. The young woman glanced around quickly. She could see nothing outside, just the blackness of night. Another gust of wind rushed through the doorway, sending it crashing against the wall with a thud, sending a shiver down her spine.
She grabbed her wand, holding it firmly in her hand.
“Something wrong ? You need something ?“
Aliena gasped and turned, pointing her wand at the source of the gruff voice. She didn't know by what miracle she hadn't screamed, only a faint whimper had escaped her lips. She raised her arm in the air, tightening her grip on the wood of her wand until her knuckles whitened.
In front of her stood a boy, already well-built for his age, who towered over her by several heads. He had a shaggy mass of hair and small black eyes that looked at her with curiosity. She swallowed, she recognized him. It was Rubeus Hagrid, the half-giant who'd been expelled from school two years earlier, had his wand destroyed and was now gamekeeper. The same boy who had lost everything, for a murder he hadn't committed, who had falsely accused, because of Tom.
Now she knew it, and yet it made no difference.
“What are you doing here ?“ she asked in a sharp voice that bore no sympathy or warmth.
She didn't lower her wand.
“I just ... Just ..." stammered the young boy, raising her annoyance a notch.
“Go away,“ he looked at her with big, round eyes. “I said go away !“
Hagrid stepped back, almost tripping, then stammered an apology. Aliena waited until he was out of sight before sighing with relief. Finally, she lowered her wand and let herself fall against the wall behind her to catch her breath. She's become paranoid.
Aliena descended the steps two at a time, no longer bothering to be discreet or on her guard. The slytherin common room was only a few meters away, so all she had to do was walk a little further, then turn right twice and she'd be there. She would be facing a cul de sac whose wall concealed the entrance. But as she walked down a dark corridor where armored statues were stored at regular intervals, she froze. She seemed to hear muffled footsteps behind her back, as well as a cloak sliding across the floor. She turned, squinting. She could hardly make out anything in the darkness, and the farthest torch wouldn't let her see more than three meters.
“Is anyone there ?“
No answer. Aliena waited, and just as she was about to turn around, a spell ricocheted off the wall beside her, inches from her head. Her eyes widened, and then, everything happened very quickly.
Aliena acted by pure automatism. She deflected another spell, whose crimson glow told her nothing good. Then, she made out two hooded figures, their faces hidden, walking straight towards her. They exchanged spells, which ricocheted off the walls and sent a suit of armor crashing to the ground, producing a horrible clang of metal. Her attackers were made her back off, and even if she managed to stand up to them, deflect their spells and even cast some, she was still losing ground. She had to find a way out of this situation before they cornered her and took her exactly where they wanted her. Aliena cast a spell on one of them - the largest - and knew she'd hit him by the painful scream that escaped from his mouth.
The next moment, it was her who groaned. She felt something hit her lower back, sending her toppling to the floor. Aliena dropped her wand, which she heard bouncing on the floor inches from her head, and struggled not to close her eyes. Her vision was blurred, misty, just like her mind. Sounds came to her from afar, as if through a glass bell.
“Did you get her ?“
“Who do you think I am ? I'm not an incompetent like you two.“
“Shut up and lift her.“
Hands grabbed her under the arms and lifted her effortlessly. The three wizards led her outside, where they were greeted by gusts of wind that shook her to the bone. She didn't understand what they wanted, or who they were. Well, no, that wasn't quite true. She knew their voices, they were unpleasantly familiar.
Tom wasn't part of the group, she hadn't recognized the authoritative timbre of his voice, but even without him, it could only be his little gang. Her foot struck a rock, causing her to grimace and snap out of her torpor. At last, she seemed to realize what was happening to her and moved. She struggled, surprising her two attackers, and struck one of them in the face. Her fist met his nose with a loud crack, and she only stopped because the other was holding her arms behind her back.
The young man let out an expletive, pinched his nose through the fabric of his mask and removed it. The moon's rays dimly illuminated the area around the park, and she managed to make out Keiran Nott's murderous gaze. A trickle of blood dripped from one of his nostrils, ending up on his lips and chin.
“You little bitch,“ spat Nott, beside himself. “You'll pay for this, believe me.“
Nott brought his hand down on her cheek, making her stagger. If the other hadn't held her back, Aliena would have fallen to the floor.
“What are you doing ? Bring her over here.“
She clearly recognized Abraxas Malfoy's disdainful, aristocratic tone. She was pushed forward and her gaze landed on the smooth, dark surface in front of her. Aliena stiffened.
The black lake. They were taking her to the black lake. A drop of sweat slid down her back. She was afraid to understand, to have known it all along. A flash appeared in her mind, of hands holding her head firmly under the water, deaf to her mute cries, as cold water seeped down her throat.
“What are you doing ? Let me go !“
She looked around frantically. There was no one but the four of them. No trace of Tom. The young woman didn't know if that frightened or reassured her.
She struggled even more and Nott lost patience. He grabbed her hair and pulled her forward, ignoring her cries. Him and Lestrange, for she had come to recognize his gruff build, took her into the water. They forced her to her knees in the mud, then held her arms and shoulders firmly. The water, cold against her skin and clothes, was only inches from her chin.
“I warned you Bletchey, but as always, you just did as you pleased. You didn't want to listen, either through stupidity or overconfidence, but no matter, the result is the same." Abraxas sighed wearily, as if disappointed. "Things could have been different if you'd decided to cooperate. You've only got yourself to blame, really, it's a waste. And as promised, what's coming next isn't going to please you."
She opened her mouth to protest, but didn't have the time. Abraxas nodded, and Nott and Lestrange forced her head' under the water. She felt as if a multitude of needles were sinking into her skin and throat. The icy cold took her breath away and she felt panic compressing her chest. They weren't going to drown her, were they ? She'd expected Tom to retaliate, of course, but with a spell of his own, by attacking her mind or torturing her to extract her knowledge, not by eliminating her outright. And above all, not with such a primitive method.
She suddenly felt herself being pulled back. Aliena coughed, before trying to catch her breath.
“Have you decided to talk, or still not ?“ asked Abraxas, calmly.
In other circumstances, she would have laughed, but she couldn't at the moment, too busy catching her breath.
“I didn't hear you Bletchey, what did you say ?“
She hadn't said anything. Abraxas was playing with her nerves.
She gritted her teeth. "Fuck you Malfoy. Fuck you all."
Her head was plunged into the water and the ordeal began again, this time for longer. When she was finally able to catch her breath, she thanked the drops of water that trickled down her face, hiding her tears. She didn't want them to see her cry, she didn't want to give them this pleasure.
“Has anyone ever told you you're stubborn ? It's terribly annoying. But I suppose you get that from your mother, she must have been stubborn too. Pretty sure that's part of the reason why Grindelwald killed her.“
Aliena froze at the blond man's words and turned her dark gaze on him.
“Just do as Tom asks and you have my word we'll leave you alone."
She scoffed. What was a snake's word worth ? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
"Your word is worthless, just like his."
"Don't say that, you don't know him. You don't know what he's capable of."
"Neither do you." she hissed.
On this point, she was certain she was right. She'd seen what Tom had done, what he was going to do — No, not Tom. The black wizard. Even now, she made the distinction between the two.
"Why are you doing this ? Why are you helping him ? What does he have against you or what did he promise you to make you follow him so blindly ? For you to do his dirty work for him ?"
She couldn't understand how someone as full of himself as Malfoy, who believed himself superior to others by his name and the purity of his blood, could so submit to the orders of a half-blood, slytherin heir or not ? Was he even aware of this point ? Had Tom bragged about it to strengthen its position, or had he kept it under wraps ?
"He's promised to great things," Abraxas replied.
Promised to great things ? Yeah, killing hundreds of people could probably be considered to great things.
Dark, horrible, great things.
"And to achieve his ends, it would seem he needs you,” Abraxas looked at her disdainfully. ”So I ask you one more time, are you willing to help him ?”
Aliena glared at him, she didn't need words, it was still no. Abraxas took a step forward, until the tips of his shoes almost skimmed the water's edge. He towered over her. His regal figure, with its perfectly coiffed blond hair, gave him a superior allure. He resembled a king who, from his ivory tower, looked down on the peasants - inferior beings who were no match for him - knowing that he had the right of life or death over them.
"Then you're of no use to us." he asserted, stiffly.
One of the two boys in her back - certainly Nott if she had to bet - began to press her head, but was interrupted by the slam of a cold, icy voice with dangerous overtones. "You're having a good time, I see. May I ask what you're doing ?"
Abraxas half-turned and Aliena saw the colors of his already pale face disappear. Tom stood a little way back, staring at them. He raised an eyebrow.
"You know I don't like to repeat myself, Malfoy."
Abraxas stammered. He seemed to have lost all his eloquence, all his poise, and it wasn't like him. "She …" he gestured in her direction. "She would have ended up giving you what you wanted, my Lord."
Aliena flinched at the use of the title. What the hell ?
Tom came closer. "By killing her ? How were you going to get her to talk once she was dead, Malfoy ?" he asked, anger darkening the tone of his voice, making his interlocutor shudder, as did the two boys at his back.
"No, I ... It wouldn't have gone that far."
"She was under the Ministry's protection this summer, you idiot ! Didn't you think for a moment that her death, or even the fact that she was only slightly injured, might draw attention on us ? On me ?!"
A drop of sweat trickled down her back. Tom hadn't known about their ambush ? He hadn't asked them to get rid of her for him ?
"I only wanted to help, my Lord."
"What are you saying ? That I needed you ?" Tom scoffed. "I certainly didn't need you to decide to take a midnight dip to get what I want from her.”
Abraxas stiffened, but lifted his chin all the same. "I would have taken responsibility, in case things got out of hand."
"Oh, believe me, you will."
Tom pointed his wand at Abraxas, who immediately toppled backwards, an expression of pure pain spreading across his face. He writhed in the grass, screaming. Aliena recoiled, held in place only by the grip on her shoulders of her classmates. He was torturing him. Tom was torturing Abraxas, the boy he'd always been stuck with, whom he had known for almost seven years. She couldn't understand how or why he was doing it.
Abrasas' screams eventually died down, but he didn't get up. He lay motionless on the ground, his chest barely heaving. Tom turning to the others. She felt the two boys tense at her side and tighten their grip on her, as if they were hoping to use her as a shield.
Was Tom going to torture them too ? They hadn't seemed surprised when he'd used the crucio spell on Abraxas, proof that it wasn't the first time he'd done it. How long had this been going on, and why did they accept it without doing anything about it ? No, she knew why. Tom wouldn't hesitate to kill them at the slightest sign of rebellion. She could count herself lucky to be alive.
"Take him back to the castle," he ordered the other two. ”I'll deal with you later."
Neither Nott nor Lestrange were told twice. They left her in the water and took hold of their friend, who groaned weakly as they straightened him out. Aliena didn't dare move or make a sound. Perhaps if she made herself very small, they would all forget her presence.
Unfortunately, she wasn't so lucky. Tom turned to her, piercing her with his inky-black eyes. She felt a shiver run down her spine, which had absolutely nothing to do with the cold water she was in. Tom took a step towards her and Aliena instinctively stepped back. He frowned, as if he didn't understand why she was reacting this way, before sighing.
"Come on, get out of there. You'll catch a cold," he said, holding out his hand.
Aliena looked at his hand suspiciously, as if she expecting at any moment that it would be his wand he was reaching for, not her hand. As if he didn't intend to help her, but to make her believe and ultimately, drown her himself.
"Bletchey, I haven't got all night,” he complained and she could clearly hear the annoyance in his voice. "If I'd wanted to hurt you, I'd have done it differently, believe me. You wouldn't even have had time to understand what was happening to you."
"How do I know this isn't a trap ?" Aliena managed to ask, chattering her teeth.
He shrugged. "My word may be worth nothing to you, but know that it's not my attention. Not tonight, anyway. Come on now."
She capitulated, then grabbed his outstretched hand. Once on shore, Aliena tightened her arms against her chest and her damp clothes. Tom watched her with his usual cold gaze, devoid of the slightest emotion. She felt so fragile, so weak, under his penetrating gaze. She had the horrible feeling of being a fragile little thing about to break, and she hated herself for it. Tom moved, removed his wizard's cloak and pulled it around her shoulders. Aliena flinched at the contact and recoiled. She raised her head, meeting the young man's dark eyes for a brief moment. But eventually she agreed and pulled the collar of Tom's wizard's robe tighter around her neck, so that the wind would no longer make her shiver.
Tom pointed with his chin towards the castle and they walked in silence, a thick silence that dragged on and on, making the young woman increasingly uneasy. She wondered when Tom was going to speak up, say something, maybe even apologize ? She shook her head, pressing damp strands of hair against her cheeks and forehead. Tom would never apologize. He really wasn't the type, and he proved her right because, when he finally opened his mouth as they wandered through the deserted corridors of the dungeons, it certainly wasn't to apologize to her.
"I must admit I'm a little surprised you fell into such a pathetic trap," the word sounded like an insult in his mouth, an insult to her and their comrades. "I thought you could see the future."
"Well, as you quite rightly pointed out, my visions all have one thing in common : they concern you," Aliena said, annoyed.
"I'm flattered," Tom breathed amusedly, a slight sneer forming at the corner of his lips. "And how do you explain that ? That your visions are all about me ?"
"I can't explain it."
Tom stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned to face her. "I have a theory about that. I'm convinced it's because you and I can do great things together."
"You won't need me to lay the magical world at your feet," Aliena hissed bitterly. She knew it. She'd seen him in her visions, and laying the magical world at his feet wasn't even strong enough to say what he was really going to do.
For a brief moment, a sparkle shone in Tom's eyes. "So, I'll succeed ?"
"Why are you doing all this ?" she asked without answering his question "Horcruxes ? Power ? What's the point ?"
"Power is everything."
"But power is nothing if you don't use it to do something."
Tom smiled, "And what would you do if you had the power, Bletchey ?"
She laughed, as if the question was completely stupid and didn't even need to be asked. She opened her mouth to answer, but Tom cut her off before she could say a single word.
"I'll tell you what," he took a step forward, bridging the meager distance between them. "If you had the power, you'd take revenge on Grindelwald for everything he's done to you without hesitation. Don't say you wouldn't." he cut her off again. "Deep down, we both know it's true, you're just too scared to admit it. To see that you're not as full of values and morals as you think."
Aliena said nothing, she didn't agree with him, but she didn't contradict him either. And perhaps her silence was the most obvious answer. Tom's words had opened a wound in her heart. A wound she tried to ignore every day. She knew it was another of his attempts to manipulate her, but perhaps there was a little truth in his words, and that scared her.
"I'm not your enemy Bletchey," he breathed softly.
"You're not my friend either."
"Trust me, it's a good thing for you. I don't have any friends," he said, tilting his head to one side and watching her for a moment. "And for the rest, it'll take as long as it takes, but eventually you'll open your eyes and see that you need me as much as I need you. Maybe even more."
She understood the implication, which made her mouth feel dry.
Tom finally turned on his heel and started walking again. She followed him and they came to a dead end, in front of the entrance to the slytherin common room. He uttered the password and the wall moved, revealing the entrance to the quiet common room. Aliena made a gesture to enter, but was cut off by Tom's soft, suave voice. "Don't worry about the others, I'll take care of them. No one will try anything against you again. I'll make sure of that."
She said nothing, what could she have said anyway ? She wasn't going to thank him for — For what ? Torturing them ? Punished them ? Deep down, she'd rather not know. So she just nodded silently and continued on her way to the protective walls of her dormitory, never looking back.
Chapter 13: ⬪ TOM RIDDLE’S POV
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Tom watched the young woman climb the stairs to the girls' dormitory, before heading for his own. He opened the door, and his dark eyes immediately fell on the figure of Abraxas Malfoy. Sitting on the edge of his bed, his face pale, he was painfully massaging his chest. His facial features were drawn and small beads of sweat were beading on his forehead. He seemed to be in agony, and Tom felt a pang of satisfaction at seeing him like this. He closed the door behind him, then took a few steps into the room, while untying his tie.
"I didn't know you were such a good actor, Malfoy,"he said, his lips curled into a smirk.
Malfoy snorted disdainfully, before wincing at the pain he felt deep in his bones.
"Did she even believe it ?"
Tom nodded, before leaning on his dresser."Now, all her attention is on you three. She thinks you acted on your own, and that it's thanks to me that she got through it. And while she's too busy being suspicious of you, she'll let her guard down with me. She already has."
"What do you want from her ? Why is it so important ?"Abraxas asked, wheezing.
Tom glared at him, sign the white-blond haired boy's question was annoying him. He had no intention of sharing this kind of information with his knights. They didn't need to know everything. On the contrary, the less they knew, the better for him.
"Let's just say that she can help me gain power, but the hard way is not the way to deal with her. She must think she has more to gain than I do. She must think she needs me to get her way. All it takes is for me to whisper the right words at the right time, and when she starts to doubt, well... Things can finally get serious"
Abraxas remained silent. He didn't know all the ins and outs. Tom smiled to himself. At first, he'd thought Aliena was a threat, a threat he had to eliminate, but then he'd thought twice about it. She could play a major role in his quest for power, become an asset in the game he was about to play. All he had to do was get her to eat out of his hand, by making her believe that she needed him for revenge for example.
He also had to make her trust him, so that she no longer saw him as a monster, but as a potential ally. At least, at first. And that's what Tom had started to do tonight, by positioning himself as the white knight and not the killer of her visions. Part of him was almost disappointed that she'd fallen so easily for it.
Tom had taken a risk, a big risk in fact. His plan would have collapsed completely if she'd seen him in action in one of her stupid visions. But her behaviour suggested otherwise, Aliena didn't know she'd been manipulated.
He had a plan, a plan that would take time. Like a game of chess. He'd just played his first move. Now it was Aliena's turn to play the next.
Tom shook his head, knocking a few strands of black hair from his forehead, then straightened. He moved towards Abraxas, who tensed, then pointed his wand at him.
"In thanks for tonight,"Tom breathed in a sweet voice, gesturing his wrist.
Abraxas felt better immediately. He breathed a sigh of relief, no longer feeling the slightest twinge of pain in his body.
"Thanks you, my lord,"he said, humbly.
Tom turned away from him, before pausing."And let Nott know I want to see him,"he said, his voice deep, full of promise."He must learn to stay in his place."
Abraxas nodded, knowing that what awaited their comrade would not be pleasant. But extremely painful.
Notes:
As a little anecdote, this chapter makes exactly 666, which I saw as a sign.
The devil is in the detail.
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