Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize as being Harry Potter based, is,
and it does not belong to me.
He was not crying.
Why? He though. Because of him.
He starred forward, not blinking. The old carpet where he had found his mother was lying there looking unmoved, as if nothing had ever happened. The room was dimly lit by a lamp that sat on the end table. The burgundy sofa was illuminated by the light.
He sat still. Only thinking. He thought back to the last time he saw her alive. Earlier that day. He had walked into her room in the morning to bring her breakfast.
"You are my little helper, now aren't you?" She'd said to him smiling as he set the platter in front of her. She'd looked much better today. Her dark blonde hair was hanging just above her shoulders and her eyes were gleaming.
"Come here." She said, holding up the covers of the bed. He climbed underneath them. They were warm and soft. He snuggled up to her and she gave him a hug. "I love you." She whispered to him. "From the sunrise, to the sunset. From winter to spring. You are in my heart."
He looked up at her and smiled.
"Aren't you going to eat?" He asked.
She laughed lightly.
"Always so concerned about my eating aren't you Vaughn?" She said. She picked up her fork and speared a piece of juicy sausage.
Vaughn was not his real name. It was a pet name that his mother had given him. "It means 'small'." She would always say. "And you are my small child." She had given him a pet name because it was starting to get confusing when she would call for 'Tom', because two would answer. She had chosen Vaughn in particular because it was that of her father's brother who she had loved as a second father. He had never minded her calling him this and the name seemed to stick.
He remembered this as she ate. He did not take his eyes off of her until she had finished the whole plate. Halfway through she'd asked him why he must stare at her while she ate.
"I'm grown. I can eat without supervision." She said. He did not answer he just said.
"Eat." He was not going to let her go three days without eating again.
When she was done she set the platter aside.
"Well," She said while sighing. "That was certainly a wonderful breakfast. I give my complements to the chef."
He smiled and snuggled into her arm. She stroked his hair.
She is so beautiful. He thought.
"This is nice." She said, still stroking his hair. "It would be better if your father was here."
At that moment Vaughn pushed away.
"No!" He said. "No it wouldn't. He just ruins things. Everything."
"Don't talk about your father that way." She said frowning. "He doesn't ruin anything. I do."
Vaughn jumped out of his mother's bed and pulled the covers down.
"Get out of bed mum." He said forcefully. "Go take a walk, or garden. Wouldn't that be nice. It's such a nice day."
She frowned at him.
"What's wrong? Why are you ordering me around. I can take care of myself perfectly well." She was looking at him, but not in the eyes and she didn't pull the covers back up.
"I'm not trying to get you upset. I'm sorry. I just want you to be happy. Just be happy mum. Please be happy." Vaughn could feel the edges of his eyes stinging. He turned away and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Oh Vaughn. I didn't know I meant so much to you." She said. "I was just about to get up. I have some things to do around the house. Oh, Vaughn." She smiled. "I know it hurts. It hurts me to, but the truth is, the problem wasn't with your father, it was with me. It's the truth." At this point she turned away. Her face was getting red. "Now why don't you go and let me change."
"Mum!" He said.
"Hush. Go and let me change." She watched him as he left closing the door on his way.
He waited for her in the hall. She took a few hours. Longer than she should of. He stood up at one point and peaked through the keyhole, but he could not see where she was. Finally, when three hours had passed, he banged on the door.
"Mum! Mum are you...Are you okay? Mum! Mum where are you? Mum come out now." He tried the door but it was locked. "Mum! Mum!"
He heard the click de clack of high heels and the door opened. She came out dressed in a red-orange floral designed dress with her hair pinned and curled.
"What's wrong? What happened? Is there someone in the house?" She asked looking a bit startled. He could see that her nose was red and her eyes were puffy.
"No. No one. Nothing's wrong." He said walking over to her. "Let's go downstairs and do something."
She smiled and nodded, taking the hand he offered to her. When they got downstairs his mother sat on the burgundy chair with it's back to the window.
"Why don't we sit and rest a bit?" She asked.
"No mum. We need to do something."
"Oh, Vaughn..."
"Mum get up! You're going to go outside and do something. Why don't you garden. You should get the mail. Something." He took her hand and tried to pull her up. "Come on mum." He pulled at her hand harder. "Get up mum! Come on get up!"
"Vaughn!" She yelled pulling her hand away. She took a breath and looked around. "Why don't you go and run some errands for me. I need some things for dinner tonight. While you're out I'll do some gardening as you suggested. Alright?"
He eyed her suspiciously.
"I promise I'll go out." She said.
"Alright." Vaughn said reservedly. "What do you need me to get?"
She got up and got him a list of vegetables and such.
"Now go and get these. Take your time and don't rush or else you won't get the best potatoes. And I'll be fine. Don't worry. We'll have a feast tonight!"
Then he had walked outside with the list in hand. Leaving his mother standing in the entry hall wearing that red-orange floral designed dress. Looking more beautiful than ever.
All of this raced through his mind as the officer spoke.
"Did you hear me boy? Are you listening to me?" The officer shook Vaughn hard. "Listen to me. You'll be needing to. Now as I was saying, go get whatever you want to take with you. But remember that you won't be having much were you're going. Now get upstairs and pack. The orphanage is expecting you soon."
Vaughn looked up at the officer blankly.
"Well did you hear me or not? Get on up there you little punk!" The officer grabbed Vaughn by the scruff of the neck and stood him up. "Now go on."
Vaughn stumbled as he headed up the stairs. He could hear the inspector speaking with the officer.
"Another case of Valium and alcohol." The inspector was saying.
"Well," the officer said. "At least it's not messy."
"That's true."
"I'd have killed myself too if I'd have had to clean up a shooting suicide." The officer said, helping himself to some tea on the table.
Vaughn moved slowly through his room. He picked out some pajamas and a fresh pair of clothes. He dug his face into them. His mother had washed them the day before and he could just make out her smell, one of freshly cut flowers. He closed his eyes and tried to picture her. What she had looked like that morning. Her hair bright and her eyes gleaming. His thoughts were interrupted by the officer coming up the stairs to hurry him up. The officer watched as Vaughn packed his toothbrush, a pillow, and some more pairs of clothes, then he went back downstairs with a warning about what happens to dawdlers. When the officer had left, Vaughn went into his bedside table drawer and extracted a picture. It was a picture of his father and his mother with himself, as a baby, on her lap. They were all smiling happily. His father had an arm around his mother but he was smiling a little less happily. His smile was fake and mocking. You could see it in his eyes. He was disgusted to be married to something like that. Vaughn pulled the picture out of it's frame and started to rip it up until there were pieces of it all over the floor. He ran into his mother's room. He needed something. Anything. Just something to remember her by. He scanned the room and his eyes fell upon her dresser. He ran over to it. Her makeup was set up neatly by her curlers. Her hairbrush lay gently by her jewelry case. He picked it up and looked at it. It still had some of her hair in it from when she had brushed her hair that morning. He held it close to him and went back to his room. He picked up just one more thing (a journal which he had never written in before that his mother had given him) and he went downstairs. He put his bag down and was about to go back upstairs to collect some more of his things when the officer pulled him back.
"Where are you going?" He snarled
"To get another bag. I've still got some things." Vaughn said tonelessly.
"Oh no you don't." The officer said pulling Vaughn off the stairs. "You won't be having much more than a bagful. Even this bag could pass as being too big." The officer indicated the small duffle bag that was almost smaller than Vaughn's school bag.
"But I've still got some things." Vaughn said trying to get out of the grip of the officer.
"Well, too bad. Now let's go. I want to get home by five tonight."
Vaughn glanced up the stairs and started to walk away from them reluctantly.
Well, he thought, At least I've got her hairbrush.
\ \ \
One police car ride later, during which Vaughn had ridden in the back like a criminal, they arrived at the orphanage. It was a tall, grey building with a large yard in the front and in the back too from what it looked like. There was a sign hanging over the door way that read: Maple Saplings Orphanage for the pitied child. There were some young children on the front lawn wearing grey uniforms and playing with toy trucks. A teenager was sitting on the stairs of the orphanage watching the children and looking quite bored. He looked up when Vaughn, and the officer got out of the car. He stood up.
"Is there something I can help you with?" He asked looking at the officer respectingly.
"Yeah. Where should I drop this off?" The officer asked pointing at Vaughn with a look on his face of pure disgust.
"Oh, is this the new kid?" The teenager asked looking at the boy without expression.
"Yeah."
"Alright. Hold on one minute." The teenager walked up the stairs of the house and called someone's name. About a minute later a woman came out wearing a grey business suit.
"Hello." She said in a bubbly voice. "You must be Tom. My name is Ms. Warren It's nice to meet you." She bent over unnecessarily low, exaggerating his height and held out her hand for him to shake. "I'm sure you'll like it here at Maple Saplings. We are all a big family here. I hope you'll be able to deal with not being an only child anymore. Unlike only children, we all do work to help out around the house, even when we're as young and privileged as you."
The officer grunted as if to say "Work him hard. He's a troublesome one this one."
Ms. Warren straightened up and turned toward the officer. "Thank you for bringing him down. You may leave now. I have it under control." Then she turned toward Vaughn. "Come now. Do you have your bag? Good. It looks so heavy. Are you sure you can carry it by yourself. You know you'll start having to. You actually have to do work here." She was looking down at him. Her cutesie way of speech was a quite offending. She took his hand and walked him up the stairs and into the house.
Inside it was small and dim. The walls were plastered with a yellow floral wallpaper that looked as if it had come straight out of a dumpster and onto the walls. There were a number of widows through which the light of the day was fading. There were only some children here. Some were sitting on the floor playing with cards, some were running about, but all of them had on the exact same grey uniform. Ms. Warren lead Vaughn up a narrow staircase up to the third floor.
"Now I never want to catch you on the second floor unless you are coming all the way downstairs do you hear?" She said couching down low again. "That is the girl's floor. The boy's is the third floor." She stood up and lead him down the hall, past multiple doors. "Here is your room." She said opening a door at the end of the hall. There were four other boys inside. One, blonde haired boy was sitting on his bed with the other's gathered around, obviously listening to a story. They were also dressed in grey uniforms. "You'll be sharing it with Lenny, Jacob, Marvin, and William." The boys looked over toward Vaughn and walked over to stand in front of him. "Boys," Ms. Warren said. "This is Tom Riddle. He'll be staying with you from now on. Make sure you're nice to him. He's new here and he doesn't exactly know how to work."
The blonde boy, indicated as Lenny, smirked and turned towards the other boys. They were all grinning at Vaughn.
"We'll be sure to set you up with a uniform soon. Now I must go, but if you need anything Tom, anything at all," Ms. Warren had turned back toward Vaughn and was on her knees this time. "All you have to do is ask one of the other boys. They'll be glad to help you." She gave another fake smile and exited, closing the door behind her.
"Tom is it?" The boy Lenny asked. He was smirking.
"Well, yes, but you can call me Vaughn." Vaughn said nervously.
"Vaughn?" Lenny asked laughing. He turned towards the other boys, they were laughing too. "What kind of a name is that?"
"My mother used to call me that." Vaughn said, getting defensive.
"Oh did she?" Lenny asked moving in on him. "Well, let me tell you something, no one here has parents. Not me, not Marvin, and especially not you." He was very close to Vaughn now, his dark blue eyes looking very serious. "How old are you?" He asked.
"Nine." Vaughn replied sheepishly.
"Yeah? Well, so are we. I'm nine and a half, so I can be better than you, but you try and be better than me and you'll have this to answer to." He lifted up his fist and shook it in Vaughn's face. "So from now on you're Tom, or whatever else we feel like calling you. And you'd better answer to anything. You'd also better learn to do work, because you'll be doing most of our's from now on." Lenny was smirking again now, and he had backed off so he was standing a few feet away from Tom. His cronies were gathered around him. "Let me introduce myself." He said. "I'm Lenny. I'm the boss, so you have to listen to me. This is Marvin." Lenny indicated a boy with brown hair and blue eyes standing next to him, frowning at Tom. "He's second in command. Then there's William and Jacob." Jacob was a bit small but pretty tough looking with black hair and a dark complexion, and William was almost twice the size of Tom. "So," Said Lenny putting on a Ms. Warren- ish type of smile. "On behalf of all of us here, I'd like to say welcome, to the end of your life as you know it."
He was not crying.
Why? He though. Because of him.
He starred forward, not blinking. The old carpet where he had found his mother was lying there looking unmoved, as if nothing had ever happened. The room was dimly lit by a lamp that sat on the end table. The burgundy sofa was illuminated by the light.
He sat still. Only thinking. He thought back to the last time he saw her alive. Earlier that day. He had walked into her room in the morning to bring her breakfast.
"You are my little helper, now aren't you?" She'd said to him smiling as he set the platter in front of her. She'd looked much better today. Her dark blonde hair was hanging just above her shoulders and her eyes were gleaming.
"Come here." She said, holding up the covers of the bed. He climbed underneath them. They were warm and soft. He snuggled up to her and she gave him a hug. "I love you." She whispered to him. "From the sunrise, to the sunset. From winter to spring. You are in my heart."
He looked up at her and smiled.
"Aren't you going to eat?" He asked.
She laughed lightly.
"Always so concerned about my eating aren't you Vaughn?" She said. She picked up her fork and speared a piece of juicy sausage.
Vaughn was not his real name. It was a pet name that his mother had given him. "It means 'small'." She would always say. "And you are my small child." She had given him a pet name because it was starting to get confusing when she would call for 'Tom', because two would answer. She had chosen Vaughn in particular because it was that of her father's brother who she had loved as a second father. He had never minded her calling him this and the name seemed to stick.
He remembered this as she ate. He did not take his eyes off of her until she had finished the whole plate. Halfway through she'd asked him why he must stare at her while she ate.
"I'm grown. I can eat without supervision." She said. He did not answer he just said.
"Eat." He was not going to let her go three days without eating again.
When she was done she set the platter aside.
"Well," She said while sighing. "That was certainly a wonderful breakfast. I give my complements to the chef."
He smiled and snuggled into her arm. She stroked his hair.
She is so beautiful. He thought.
"This is nice." She said, still stroking his hair. "It would be better if your father was here."
At that moment Vaughn pushed away.
"No!" He said. "No it wouldn't. He just ruins things. Everything."
"Don't talk about your father that way." She said frowning. "He doesn't ruin anything. I do."
Vaughn jumped out of his mother's bed and pulled the covers down.
"Get out of bed mum." He said forcefully. "Go take a walk, or garden. Wouldn't that be nice. It's such a nice day."
She frowned at him.
"What's wrong? Why are you ordering me around. I can take care of myself perfectly well." She was looking at him, but not in the eyes and she didn't pull the covers back up.
"I'm not trying to get you upset. I'm sorry. I just want you to be happy. Just be happy mum. Please be happy." Vaughn could feel the edges of his eyes stinging. He turned away and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Oh Vaughn. I didn't know I meant so much to you." She said. "I was just about to get up. I have some things to do around the house. Oh, Vaughn." She smiled. "I know it hurts. It hurts me to, but the truth is, the problem wasn't with your father, it was with me. It's the truth." At this point she turned away. Her face was getting red. "Now why don't you go and let me change."
"Mum!" He said.
"Hush. Go and let me change." She watched him as he left closing the door on his way.
He waited for her in the hall. She took a few hours. Longer than she should of. He stood up at one point and peaked through the keyhole, but he could not see where she was. Finally, when three hours had passed, he banged on the door.
"Mum! Mum are you...Are you okay? Mum! Mum where are you? Mum come out now." He tried the door but it was locked. "Mum! Mum!"
He heard the click de clack of high heels and the door opened. She came out dressed in a red-orange floral designed dress with her hair pinned and curled.
"What's wrong? What happened? Is there someone in the house?" She asked looking a bit startled. He could see that her nose was red and her eyes were puffy.
"No. No one. Nothing's wrong." He said walking over to her. "Let's go downstairs and do something."
She smiled and nodded, taking the hand he offered to her. When they got downstairs his mother sat on the burgundy chair with it's back to the window.
"Why don't we sit and rest a bit?" She asked.
"No mum. We need to do something."
"Oh, Vaughn..."
"Mum get up! You're going to go outside and do something. Why don't you garden. You should get the mail. Something." He took her hand and tried to pull her up. "Come on mum." He pulled at her hand harder. "Get up mum! Come on get up!"
"Vaughn!" She yelled pulling her hand away. She took a breath and looked around. "Why don't you go and run some errands for me. I need some things for dinner tonight. While you're out I'll do some gardening as you suggested. Alright?"
He eyed her suspiciously.
"I promise I'll go out." She said.
"Alright." Vaughn said reservedly. "What do you need me to get?"
She got up and got him a list of vegetables and such.
"Now go and get these. Take your time and don't rush or else you won't get the best potatoes. And I'll be fine. Don't worry. We'll have a feast tonight!"
Then he had walked outside with the list in hand. Leaving his mother standing in the entry hall wearing that red-orange floral designed dress. Looking more beautiful than ever.
All of this raced through his mind as the officer spoke.
"Did you hear me boy? Are you listening to me?" The officer shook Vaughn hard. "Listen to me. You'll be needing to. Now as I was saying, go get whatever you want to take with you. But remember that you won't be having much were you're going. Now get upstairs and pack. The orphanage is expecting you soon."
Vaughn looked up at the officer blankly.
"Well did you hear me or not? Get on up there you little punk!" The officer grabbed Vaughn by the scruff of the neck and stood him up. "Now go on."
Vaughn stumbled as he headed up the stairs. He could hear the inspector speaking with the officer.
"Another case of Valium and alcohol." The inspector was saying.
"Well," the officer said. "At least it's not messy."
"That's true."
"I'd have killed myself too if I'd have had to clean up a shooting suicide." The officer said, helping himself to some tea on the table.
Vaughn moved slowly through his room. He picked out some pajamas and a fresh pair of clothes. He dug his face into them. His mother had washed them the day before and he could just make out her smell, one of freshly cut flowers. He closed his eyes and tried to picture her. What she had looked like that morning. Her hair bright and her eyes gleaming. His thoughts were interrupted by the officer coming up the stairs to hurry him up. The officer watched as Vaughn packed his toothbrush, a pillow, and some more pairs of clothes, then he went back downstairs with a warning about what happens to dawdlers. When the officer had left, Vaughn went into his bedside table drawer and extracted a picture. It was a picture of his father and his mother with himself, as a baby, on her lap. They were all smiling happily. His father had an arm around his mother but he was smiling a little less happily. His smile was fake and mocking. You could see it in his eyes. He was disgusted to be married to something like that. Vaughn pulled the picture out of it's frame and started to rip it up until there were pieces of it all over the floor. He ran into his mother's room. He needed something. Anything. Just something to remember her by. He scanned the room and his eyes fell upon her dresser. He ran over to it. Her makeup was set up neatly by her curlers. Her hairbrush lay gently by her jewelry case. He picked it up and looked at it. It still had some of her hair in it from when she had brushed her hair that morning. He held it close to him and went back to his room. He picked up just one more thing (a journal which he had never written in before that his mother had given him) and he went downstairs. He put his bag down and was about to go back upstairs to collect some more of his things when the officer pulled him back.
"Where are you going?" He snarled
"To get another bag. I've still got some things." Vaughn said tonelessly.
"Oh no you don't." The officer said pulling Vaughn off the stairs. "You won't be having much more than a bagful. Even this bag could pass as being too big." The officer indicated the small duffle bag that was almost smaller than Vaughn's school bag.
"But I've still got some things." Vaughn said trying to get out of the grip of the officer.
"Well, too bad. Now let's go. I want to get home by five tonight."
Vaughn glanced up the stairs and started to walk away from them reluctantly.
Well, he thought, At least I've got her hairbrush.
\ \ \
One police car ride later, during which Vaughn had ridden in the back like a criminal, they arrived at the orphanage. It was a tall, grey building with a large yard in the front and in the back too from what it looked like. There was a sign hanging over the door way that read: Maple Saplings Orphanage for the pitied child. There were some young children on the front lawn wearing grey uniforms and playing with toy trucks. A teenager was sitting on the stairs of the orphanage watching the children and looking quite bored. He looked up when Vaughn, and the officer got out of the car. He stood up.
"Is there something I can help you with?" He asked looking at the officer respectingly.
"Yeah. Where should I drop this off?" The officer asked pointing at Vaughn with a look on his face of pure disgust.
"Oh, is this the new kid?" The teenager asked looking at the boy without expression.
"Yeah."
"Alright. Hold on one minute." The teenager walked up the stairs of the house and called someone's name. About a minute later a woman came out wearing a grey business suit.
"Hello." She said in a bubbly voice. "You must be Tom. My name is Ms. Warren It's nice to meet you." She bent over unnecessarily low, exaggerating his height and held out her hand for him to shake. "I'm sure you'll like it here at Maple Saplings. We are all a big family here. I hope you'll be able to deal with not being an only child anymore. Unlike only children, we all do work to help out around the house, even when we're as young and privileged as you."
The officer grunted as if to say "Work him hard. He's a troublesome one this one."
Ms. Warren straightened up and turned toward the officer. "Thank you for bringing him down. You may leave now. I have it under control." Then she turned toward Vaughn. "Come now. Do you have your bag? Good. It looks so heavy. Are you sure you can carry it by yourself. You know you'll start having to. You actually have to do work here." She was looking down at him. Her cutesie way of speech was a quite offending. She took his hand and walked him up the stairs and into the house.
Inside it was small and dim. The walls were plastered with a yellow floral wallpaper that looked as if it had come straight out of a dumpster and onto the walls. There were a number of widows through which the light of the day was fading. There were only some children here. Some were sitting on the floor playing with cards, some were running about, but all of them had on the exact same grey uniform. Ms. Warren lead Vaughn up a narrow staircase up to the third floor.
"Now I never want to catch you on the second floor unless you are coming all the way downstairs do you hear?" She said couching down low again. "That is the girl's floor. The boy's is the third floor." She stood up and lead him down the hall, past multiple doors. "Here is your room." She said opening a door at the end of the hall. There were four other boys inside. One, blonde haired boy was sitting on his bed with the other's gathered around, obviously listening to a story. They were also dressed in grey uniforms. "You'll be sharing it with Lenny, Jacob, Marvin, and William." The boys looked over toward Vaughn and walked over to stand in front of him. "Boys," Ms. Warren said. "This is Tom Riddle. He'll be staying with you from now on. Make sure you're nice to him. He's new here and he doesn't exactly know how to work."
The blonde boy, indicated as Lenny, smirked and turned towards the other boys. They were all grinning at Vaughn.
"We'll be sure to set you up with a uniform soon. Now I must go, but if you need anything Tom, anything at all," Ms. Warren had turned back toward Vaughn and was on her knees this time. "All you have to do is ask one of the other boys. They'll be glad to help you." She gave another fake smile and exited, closing the door behind her.
"Tom is it?" The boy Lenny asked. He was smirking.
"Well, yes, but you can call me Vaughn." Vaughn said nervously.
"Vaughn?" Lenny asked laughing. He turned towards the other boys, they were laughing too. "What kind of a name is that?"
"My mother used to call me that." Vaughn said, getting defensive.
"Oh did she?" Lenny asked moving in on him. "Well, let me tell you something, no one here has parents. Not me, not Marvin, and especially not you." He was very close to Vaughn now, his dark blue eyes looking very serious. "How old are you?" He asked.
"Nine." Vaughn replied sheepishly.
"Yeah? Well, so are we. I'm nine and a half, so I can be better than you, but you try and be better than me and you'll have this to answer to." He lifted up his fist and shook it in Vaughn's face. "So from now on you're Tom, or whatever else we feel like calling you. And you'd better answer to anything. You'd also better learn to do work, because you'll be doing most of our's from now on." Lenny was smirking again now, and he had backed off so he was standing a few feet away from Tom. His cronies were gathered around him. "Let me introduce myself." He said. "I'm Lenny. I'm the boss, so you have to listen to me. This is Marvin." Lenny indicated a boy with brown hair and blue eyes standing next to him, frowning at Tom. "He's second in command. Then there's William and Jacob." Jacob was a bit small but pretty tough looking with black hair and a dark complexion, and William was almost twice the size of Tom. "So," Said Lenny putting on a Ms. Warren- ish type of smile. "On behalf of all of us here, I'd like to say welcome, to the end of your life as you know it."