DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters. All is property of JK Rowling.
Ever since they were kids they were in love. (Was it really love?)
When they were six they first held hands as he led her into the darkness. She was scared, but he was with her, so it couldn't be that bad. (Her heart told her it could be much worse). Dennis followed them, his greedy grubby hands clasping onto her wrist, making her stumble and fall on the sharp rocks. (But the pain was never so sweet as when she was with him, even though she was only six.)
Tom leaves her with Dennis in the pitch dark. Dennis, who would rather sneak sweets than play with her; Dennis who made fun of her when she cried; Dennis who pushed her down the slide so she broke her arm. (But she didn't hate him, really).
Amy is scared when she sees something moving in the dark. She hears the hissing before she feels the snake crawling up her leg. (She's always been terrified of snakes).
She screams, and falls on the hard rocks, the snake slithering all over her. Amy doesn't know what's happening to Dennis. (If she stopped and listened, she might hear him screaming, screaming, crying, crying).
A hand grabs her and lifts her up. The snake is still on her.
"Be quiet," Tom tells her. Her mouth closes instantly, and it is then that she finally hears Dennis whimper and moan. He makes a strangled hissing sound, and the snake wraps around her neck. Amy whimpers, it's like he's controlling the snake. (And Amy knows that that's impossible).
"What did you do to him?" She asks. Her voice is small and quiet in the empty blackness.
"What do you mean, Amy? I didn't do anything," His voice is sickly sweet, and the tone of his voice indicates that he thinks she's being stupid. (But his voice is never sweet; he has never been sweet). The snake wraps tighter around her neck until she can't breath. Tears flood her eyes, and she feels a sharp pain on the side of her neck.
Tom hisses again, and the snake lets go. (He really can't be controlling it).
"Tom, I'm so scared. Can we leave?" Amy asks the darkness. He doesn't answer.
"You won't hurt her again," She hears Tom say, some distance away from her. "Do you understand me, Dennis?" His voice is cruel and mean, and Amy can't tell if that red glint in the dark came from him. (He's only a child, he's not a devil or a demon or whatever else she was thinking, right?)
Dennis doesn't answer, he's too busy moaning and crying.
Amy doesn't remember what happens next. She wakes up on the cliff-top, and both Tom and Dennis are there. Cuts and scraps cover her body, and though she can't see it now, a lone snake bit graces her neck. (She doesn't know that he's marked her for life).
After that day, both Dennis and Amy are never the same. Dennis just sits in the corner and stares as the world goes by. The grown-ups just don't know what's wrong with him. (Oh, but she does). At nights, she imagines the snakes slithering around in her room. (The nightmares are so vivid, it's almost like they're real). Tom tells her that she's just being stupid, and she believes him because she believes they are in love. (And maybe they are, but they're just children, and children just don't understand that type of love).
When Tom goes away to that school for special children, the nightmares always go away. (That's just a coincidence; he can't have anything to do with them). At times, Amy feels the scar on her neck throb and pulse like it has a life of its own.
The third time he comes back, he ignores her for a couple of days. Amy tells herself it's just because he needs some time alone. (She was always so good at lying to herself.) On the fourth day, Tom corners her in her room.
"Do you know what you are?" He asks her, venom in his voice. "You're a Muggle. A dirty, filthy Muggle."
Amy doesn't know what the word means, but she can tell that it's something bad. After he tells her this, he kisses her long and hard. It is a possessive kiss, and leaves her struggling for breath. He pulls her head back by her hair (his grasp is painful and terribly rough) and forces her to look into his eyes.
His eyes are dark and cruel as they stare at her. (That wasn't a glint of red in them, was it?) He is assessing her, examining her, and Amy feels naked beneath his glare.
"But you're my Muggle, aren't you? You're mine." One of his hands trace down to the scar on her neck, and presses against it. Amy whimpers, the area is throbbing and burning as he touches it. "Tell me, Amy. Tell me who you belong to."
Amy doesn't want to say anything, but she still thinks she loves him. (Loving someone has never been trickier.)
"I'm yours."
Her scar burns again, and Amy collapses from the pain. Tom doesn't bother to catch her, but lets her limp body fall to the ground. (She's just a filthy Muggle anyways, even if he does love her.)
The sixth summer he comes back from that school (that school that takes him away from her for much of the year) he acts almost happy to see her. (Not that he actually wants to be there.)
While he was gone, a new boy had come to the orphanage. He is a year older than Tom and Amy, and he is tall and good-looking and kind. (She always did have a thing for blue eyes.) Amy spends most of her time with him, and she is in love. (Only this time, she's truly in love.)
When she's not with him, she's alone reading Wuthering Heights, the book that she loves most. Tom is angered by both of her new habits- reading and spending time (kissing and who knows what else) with the new boy.
She comes into her room several days after Tom has come back. There is her book, on fire in the middle of her room. She tries to save it, but she is too late. Tom walks into the room, a knowing and satisfied smirk written across his face.
"Why did you do this?" She asks, trying not to show how upset she is. (Funny thing is, he always knows just how upset she is.)
"I didn't do this. Why would I burn your book?" Tom says, feigning innocence while his smirk grew wider. Amy knew he was lying, but didn't say anything. (He always did like destroying the things that she loved most.)
He turns serious as he sees the new boy pass by the window. (He always was the jealous type.) His glare falls on Amy, who shifts her feet.
"Who do you belong to?" He asks, knowing what the answer would be.
"You." (She is too meek and too weak to fight against him.)
"Do you love him?" His mouth curls strangely around the word 'love.' (He never has had much practice saying it.)
"No." Amy lies to Tom for the first time. She knows something might happen to the new boy if she said yes.
"Who do you love?"
"You." For the first time in all their years together, Amy finally knows this for a lie. Tom nods, then grabs her and pulls her body into his. He kisses her neck, on the same exact spot where the snakehad bit her all those years ago. (She had been carrying his mark for most of her life, now.)
Tom is leaving for his school for one last time. For most of the summer, Tom has kept Amy locked up in his room with her. He knows she loves the sunshine, so he keeps her as far away from it as possible. (He doesn't want her loving anything or anyone but him. She is his, after all.)
He kisses her roughly before he leaves for the last time. They both know he's not coming back. He doesn't say anything to her, no goodbyes or 'I love yous.' Just silence and a glare. (She should be used to it by now.)
Years later, and Amy is alone in her home she shares with her husband, Greg. (The new boy never stopped loving her.) She is still young, only nineteen. A knock comes at the door and she goes to answer it.
Standing very stiffly in her doorway is a handsome young man with dark hair and dark eyes. (Tom always was a good-looking boy.) His dark eyes bore into her, and she cannot look away.
"Who do you belong to?" He asks, not bothering with the formalities.
"You," Amy says, horrified but utterly transfixed by the man from her past. (He was only just a boy then, but they do grow up fast.) He pulls her out of her house and into the street.
He smiles a terrible grin at her, before pulling a thin stick of wood out of his pocket.
"Do you know what this is, Amy?" He asks, brandishing it under her nose. Amy shakes her head. (She can't understand why she feels so terrified of a little piece of wood.)
He flicks it in the direction of her house, and it immediately goes up in flames. (He never could stand her loving anything but him.) He grabs her arm, and they disappear as the fire department arrives.
Amy is sucked into a crushing darkness, with her only link to reality the hand that grasps her forearm. (It's hard to believe, but it's almost like magic.) She stumbles as her feet find solid ground.
They are surrounded by hooded and cloaked figures all in black. Amy is afraid, but she feels Tom's hand wrap around hers, and he guides her through the mass of black, just like he guided her through the darkness of the caves when they were six.
There is a table in the center of the horde. Tom lifts her up and lays her down on it, binding her arms above her head and her legs to other end of the table.
"You may all go," Tom tells the hooded figures. Slowly, they file out, not even bothering to look at the girl on the table. (She always had been sort of invisible.) As soon as they are all gone, Tom looks at her. Her strokes the hair out of her face, his hands gentle. (He was never gentle with her.)
"What are you going to do to me?" Amy asks, her voice trembling. Tom shakes his head, and continues to stroke her face. (If she didn't know him better, she would swear that that was compassion written across his face.)
"I love you. Even though you are a filthy Muggle, and completely unworthy of my love, I love you," He says thoughtfully. This is the first time he admits his love for her.
"I love you, too," Amy replies. This time, she knows it to be true. She has always loved him. (Or at least, she's told herself the lie enough times that she finally believes it to be true.) Tom nods, and continues stroking her face before placing a gentle kiss on her lips.
"You're going to do something important for me," He tells her, motioning to the one hooded figure that had remained. "You're going to make me immortal."
The hooded figure brings forward a tall, masked man. With a flourish, Tom pulls the mask off. It is Greg, the man Amy married and the new boy at the orphanage all those years ago.
"Don't do anything to her!" Greg yells, seeing his wife bound on the table. (He always wanted to play the hero.) Tom laughs, and pulls out that peculiar stick of wood. He points it at Amy, and her vision fades. (She can still see the snakes in the cave from all those years ago. They've never left her.)
When Amy awakens, she doesn't know where she is or why she is there. Why is she bound on a table? Why is she drenched in blood and why does her neck hurt so much?
She feels different from when she blacked out. There is something in the dark recesses of her mind, something that feels evil. She looks around, and sees Tom standing by her, drenched in blood. Behind him, Greg's lifeless body lies on the ground; his chest cut open and his eyes wide and staring. She wants to cry, but that thing in the corner of her mind won't let her.
"What have you done to me?" She asks, utterly terrified.
"I gave you a part of me. I gave you the part of my soul that loved you. Now we both can live forever," Tom tells her, wiping some of the blood off of her face. (Now that he mentions it, she can feel love in that dark corner. A dark, twisted love, but love all the same.) "Now I don't have to live with my love for you."
It hurts her, having part of his soul in hers. His is dark and longs to hurt her, even if she is the vessel that carries it. (Even though he loved her, her pain always was his favorite thing.)
Amy is horrified, and starts struggling against the bonds that hold her. Tom just stands there and laughs.
"You should be grateful, Amy. I've made you immortal now. You're one of my Horcruxes, you're the vessel for that part of my soul. Only things that can't be healed can destroy a Horcrux, so you will live forever. I've made your poor Muggle existence actually worth something," Tom laughs, his eyes glinting red in the poor light. (Maybe there had always been red in them, she had just been too blind to see.) "Now you're mine forever."
"You're mine. You belong to me." The piece of his soul that was lodged in Amy's echoes Tom's sentiments.
"Please, Tom. Please don't do this. Please just let me go. PLEASE, I LOVE YOU, TOM!" Amy yells with increasing desperation. Anger flashes over his face, and he has to wait a moment to compose his emotions.
"You love Tom Riddle, and Tom Riddle loves you. I am no longer Tom Riddle. No longer will I carry the name of my filthy Muggle father," He says imperiously. (He always had hated his name.)
"Who are you?"
His eyes are red as he stares at her.
"I am Lord Voldemort."
(She should've known he'd destroy her. First loves always do.)