Lord Voldemort is dead. She had felt the absence in her heart before she had even been told. For any other person, this news would have provided joy and liberation. Alina Rosier found the knowledge somewhat relieving. However, this meant that Tom Riddle was also lost, which was an entirely different feeling. Alina lay in the foetal position on her bed, sobbing gently. Tears streamed down her cheeks and onto her duvet. She found herself rasping for breath, but could not stop herself from crying. A dull ache persistently attacked her chest. The man she loved more than anything was dead. This time, there was no hope that he could return to her. This time he was definitely lost for good.
She knew that he had gotten what he had deserved. He had died under his own curse, just as he should have done the first time all those years ago when he dared try to kill the most innocent creature on earth: a tiny baby. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. By fearing his death by this child, he had armed Harry Potter with the tools to kill him. She knew that he had deserved this from the moment that he had forgotten that a mother's love is the most powerful force on Earth, despite her history.
Regardless of this, she felt nothing but emptiness. She had been the only person that Tom had ever loved and he had been the one man who had touched her life and captured her soul. She did not even know if he still did love her. She did not know if he was still capable of love now that he had let such evil consume him. There had been a time, though, when he looked at her as though she mattered. They had been lovers since they were at Hogwarts together what felt like centuries ago. They had been friends from the very moment he had spoken to her on the Hogwarts Express. Neither of them had known that it would progress into love and a strong bond as it had. Even if his love had died, she was certain that his bond to her had remained, this being the reason why he never let her leave him. Little did she know back then that the handsome boy, whose smile had pulled her in from their first encounter, would become the most feared wizard in existence.
For a long time, she had refused to call him by the name he had adopted after he had left Hogwarts. Many people avoided it out of fear. They were never sure what his name would do to them, but many wizards did not want to make him any more real by using it. Alina, on the other hand, refused simply because to her, no matter what he did, he would always be her Tom. He would always be the charming, intelligent boy who had a way with words and an ability to worm his way into anyone's heart. He had changed so much since the days when they were inseparable. Still Alina believed that Tom existed deep down in his heart because when the two of them were alone, his cold, expressionless face would regain some of its former colour and emotion. He would seem less composed. He was usually driven simply by fear and power. When they were alone, she could see the hints of the other emotions that he had successfully locked deep inside. She held the key to unlocking all these emotions, but he had become better at suppressing them and more reluctant to let her in. They both knew, though, that he had loved her at some point. That was why he had always attempted to hide her away from the world.
She stood up now, knowing that she would need to collect the body for herself in secret before Harry Potter's side disposed of it, or worse: paraded it around the wizarding world as proof of their victory. She knew that he had been thrown precariously on a pile of dead back at Hogwarts castle and that it was her job, as his lover, to collect it and give Tom the right send-off. Even if she did not agree with his treatment of muggles, muggle-borns and wizard "sympathisers" alike, she believed that he deserved a proper farewell by someone who loved him more than anything. Even if Voldemort did not deserve that, her Tom Riddle certainly did. The Tom she knew had been slowly and painfully dying for a long time and now had been put out of his misery. The Tom of fifteen with whom she shared her first kissed deserved as much. Plus, she also needed the chance to say goodbye.
Alina turned on the spot, apparating into the old village of Hogsmeade, which she had loved to visit during her time at Hogwarts. She felt a rush of nostalgia mixed with the bitterness of loss as she began to hurry towards the school. It was not long before she realised that all the protections placed upon the Hogwarts Castle had been broken during the battle and that she could simply apparate directly into its grounds. She turned on the spot once again and reappeared in what she believed had once been the Entrance Courtyard of the place which concealed her fondest memories.
Like her heart, it was entirely ruined. The beautiful intricate stonework which had once climbed up the walls of the courtyard had blackened and lay scattered about the floor. The imposing pillars had been blasted to a charred old tree stump. The beautiful gothic castle seemed to weep with the pain of the loss of the hundreds upon hundreds of lives it had seen today. It had housed almost all the lost people. They had died in their old homes. However, the difference between her and the building was that her heart could not be mended. Over time, and with a great deal of hard work, they would be able to restore the original beauty of the castle. Her heart was broken beyond repair. There was no spell to fill the hole that Tom had left within it or the void in her life now that she would no longer be his lover. She would feel the scars of the battle long after the fighting had gone from news to history, from history to legend. She would never see her Tom Riddle again and there was no doubt in her mind that he was now burning in hell for his hundreds of sins.
Other people were also mourning their losses. There was a ginger-haired mother who was clutching a man who was clearly her fallen son, holding onto him as if he were a baby once again. As if she could revive him simply by protecting him. The boy, Harry Potter, was with his two friends a little way away from the others, staring at the cliffs below and talking in low voices. She knew that no one else was responsible for the death of Tom but Voldemort. Regardless of this fact, she could not help but feel a pang of hatred shoot towards him as the three friends hugged one another warmly, overjoyed that their seven-year struggle was finally over. She despised them all for celebrating when her love was dead. There was so much to despair about. For her, it could never be over. Still, she knew that she had to deal with her loss and come to terms with the fact that everything Tom had believed in was wrong.
Her already broken heart crumbled and turned to dust as she saw the body of Voldemort. For the first time in her life, she saw him in the same way that everyone else did. His eyes were still open and full of rage and malice. A small smile danced across his lipless mouth, seeming to tell her that he was anticipating the satisfaction of yet another kill. This was the first time that she had been able to see his true colours, doing what pleased him. It frightened her. He had never allowed her to witness his public persona, though she had heard many stories. He had refused to allow her to accompany him on what he called "business" and now she knew why. Strangely, she found herself somewhat consoled by this knowledge. As she thought of this, the fact that he concealed his life from her reminded her that he did have a heart. It was a soul he was lacking.
Alina could no longer stand looking into the angry eyes she could barely recognise. She placed her hand on his head and closed his eyes gently, feeling the slits he now had for lids flutter closed like cold, lifeless butterflies. Pulling out her wand and levitating his body away from all the others, she couldn't help but feel a small flicker of hope that she could still revive him somehow, but she realised suddenly that she had failed him by attempting suicide all those years ago. If she hadn't, she would still have been the one horcrux in existence that no one else could know about. She was unsure, however, whether she would have traded this for Voldemort continuing to cause terror and pain to all good people, magical or not, throughout the world. Conflicted, she settled for simply doing what she came to do: giving him what she considered to be a proper send-off by the one person who loved him unconditionally.
The fire spell caught and rapidly spread to his limbs, finally ridding all of the evidence of the terrible plague, by the name of Lord Voldemort, which had seized hold of Tom's body for decades. The flames turned an ugly shade of green and gave off a pungent stench that Alina struggled to ignore. No matter how bad, she could not leave his body until she had paid him this last act of kindness. She quickly collected the ashes in a small urn she conjured and prepared to make her way home, her hand resting subconsciously upon her stomach as she felt for the tiny, almost non-existent heartbeat of the child which belonged to this monstrous man who was now in the little vase in her hand. The heir to the Slytherin throne was growing inside of her.
I don't own anything! It all belongs to the genius who is J.K. Rowling.
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AndThatsShannii x