Nameless Darkness

Part One

Chapter One

A Lost Girl

Present Day

"My dear, do you remember anything at all?"

Alina met the gaze of the man with the silver beard and the half-moon spectacles and looked away again. She missed the cold cottage that smelt of heather and pine. It was safe there… easier. Here it was harder to face the truth. Alina fiddled with the smooth silver bracelet around her right wrist. Her name was engraved there. That was one of the things she was sure of; her name. Alina.

She connected with the eyes of the elderly man again.

"I know that my name is Alina. That I am seventeen years old and I am a witch." Alina's voice broke from disuse.

"Do you remember where you were or what happened to you?" The man said again kindly.

Alina shook her head. No.

Albus Dumbledore sighed heavily, although not harshly.

"You were found in a small house in the highlands of Scotland. You were living with an elderly man. A muggle actually, but someone with no blood relation to you whatsoever. He was dead, from natural causes apparently. The townsfolk found you up in the moors; hungry and alone."

Alina flinched from every new hoard of information thrown at her. It was too much.

Dumbledore continued his tale with compassionate eyes.

"The Ministry of Magic was finally alerted to your case due to tales of a wild girl with amnesia who had been found talking to snakes."

Alina sucked in a breath and closed her eyes again. No, no, no.

"I am sorry, my dear. It appears that you have been through a terrible ordeal. I am loath to bring up anything more that hurts you. However, I feel that the more information you know about yourself, the better the likelihood it is that you might recover some of your memories." The man's eyes seemed to almost fall out of his face with sincerity and sympathy. Alina swallowed the rising lump in her throat and gave one quick nod in agreement. Dumbledore continued.

"You were brought here to St. Mungo's. We have failed to recover your lost memories. A very powerful curse was placed on you. It seems as if your mind cannot remember past events and each day it was wiped clean to start anew. An endless cycle of unknowingness and the inability to recall the previous day. A horrific curse. We weren't able to reverse all of it. However, we were successful in overturning part of the spell. You are now able to remember everything that has happened to you from the moment you left Scotland and was brought here. The Ministry and I are hoping that overtime your memories will return to you and this mystery will be resolved. Yet, it seems likely that the only way you will gain your memories back is if the witch or wizard you placed the curse on you comes forward to undo it."

Alina closed her eyes again and layback on the bed as silent tears streaked down her face. She heard the man sigh again.

"I'll leave you to rest Alina. Tomorrow, we journey to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

As Dumbledore left the ward he thought to himself and remembered another strikingly similar girl called Alina from fifty years ago. A girl who had been thought dead for many years.

Before – October 1935

Tom Riddle despised their insistent chattering and shrieking. Why were children his age so tedious to be around? Tom gritted his teeth in annoyance and distain. He was seething in the corner of the common room at Wool's Cottage in London. Common room was a too nice term for the place, Tom thought contemptuously as he tried in vain to read an old scientific journal on the human anatomy, if only the rest of them would shut up. Maybe he could make them shut up.

He closed his eyes and rested his head back again the worn, weathered armchair. When will this end? Tom was only eight years old but he already felt the weight of hundreds of years upon his shoulders. He had lived in this godforsaken orphanage his entire life and he hated it. He felt no connection to the other orphans or to the matrons and caretakers of Wool's. They were different from him. He could not place his finger on why but he felt for sure he was on a level above and beyond them. For starters, he could do things none of them could do. Move objects with his mind, set fire to the clothes of the children who were mean to him. He even recently discovered a new ability on a field trip the orphanage had taken to the Lake District a couple of weeks ago that he could talk to snakes. To snakes! Tom smirked to himself. At his young age, he imagined himself a god compared to his simple-minded, in-unique brethren.

Tom's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Mrs Cole, the head-matron, was trying to gain the attention of the room. By her side was a small girl.

"Oi! Listen up you lot. We have a new kid staying with us. Her name is Alina Blackweather-". Mrs Cole was cut off by a couple of children giggling at the young girl's strange name. "Alrigh', alrigh', shut up now! I expect you lot to be nice to our new addition and welcome her to the Wool's family."

With her part now done, Mrs Cole left the little girl to the vultures in the common room and departed.

"She don't look like much with that fancy posh name and all," young Billy sneered. Two hulking girls went over to Alina. They circled her and jeered at her. Picking at her clothes and tugging at her long blonde hair.

Usually, Tom chose to stay out of the orphans' petty games and bullying. But as he looked up and made eye contact with the new orphan he made a startling discovery. As the grey eyes met his green ones, Tom knew that this small girl was just like him.

Tom rose from his perch on the scratchy armchair.

"Step away from her if you know what's good for you."

The two circling girls stopped their heckling and scurried away from Tom, remembering his cruel tricks on them in the past. Billy did not have the same sense of mind as them.

"What is it, Riddle? Upset that we've disrupted your valuable reading time?" Billy mocked at Tom.

"If you don't let her go at once, I'll break off all your fingers." Tom retorted threateningly.

Billy snorted.

"As if you could."

In his anger, Tom's hand came down on the arm that was holding the little girl. Billy yelped out in pain and dropped the girl.

Tom and the girl left Billy Stubbs screaming and crying at the burn mark that had miraculously appeared from Tom's touch.

Finally, Tom thought to himself, I am not alone.

July 1938

Professor Dumbledore stared up at the steps of Wool's Orphanage. It was a dreary sight, he mused, as he observed the stark depressing grey of the building and its surrounding neighbourhood.

He made his way inside and charmed his way around the matron, a Mrs. Cole; in order to find his way to the two young magical children he believed to be inside this disheartening establishment.

The boy, a Tom Marvolo Riddle, had been at the orphanage his entire eleven years of life. Tom was a boy whom Dumbledore had never heard of before but was sure to remember. The boy's jealous and cruel nature came to life at the discovery of stolen items in his closet and from tales of his apparent torment of the other muggle orphans.

The girl, on the other hand, was someone Dumbledore had heard of before. Alina Blackweather's parents had died in a flash flood in Oxfordshire some years ago and since she had no other living relative, magical or muggle, she was sent away to an orphanage. At eleven years of age, she was small and slight, with long silken light-blonde hair and a shy demeanour.

However, this was not what struck Dumbledore upon arriving and meeting the two orphans.

Tom and Alina were inseparable.

Dumbledore had meant to interview them individually to tell them of their acceptance into Hogwarts, but when Riddle had found out he caused such a storm of fuss. Tom was adamant that Alina would not be taken from him. Dumbledore should have remembered this fact then and not later when it would be too late.

"You can't come in here and expect to separate Alina and I," Tom seethed at Dumbledore upon arrival. "I know who you are and why you're here. You've come to take her away, back to a long-lost relative or to a family-friend. We knew this day might come, but if she's going then so am I."

Tom seemed to almost blow up from anger and agitation. There was a high colour on his cheekbones and a near-maniacal expression in his eyes. Until a small dainty hand placed itself on his forearm.

"Tom, it's alright. Calm down. I'm sure the professor has a reason for being here that involves us both. I don't think he's going to hurt us."

Tom Riddle's expression softened and his rigid posture relaxed. Dumbledore thought it was if Alina had a calming effect on the boy through her gentle touch and soft voice. Tom removed her tender hand from his arm and held it in-between his own two.

Dumbledore had then placated young Tom Riddle by explaining that he was not at Wool's to take Alina 'away', but rather to accept and introduce them both to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as their new home for most of the coming years.

"I knew it. I knew we were different. Special." Tom's eyes glowed with triumph and small note of relief. After that, Tom's stealing and other exploits were revealed, Tom was chastised, and Dumbledore left the two with letters, lists, directions on how to navigate London's streets to the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, and finally, tickets for Platform 9 3/4s.

September 1938

Tom looked on in horror as Alina was sorted into Ravenclaw House.

He had been reading up on Hogwarts' History all summer after emerging from Diagon Alley. He was sure he was more suited to a house such as Slytherin due to his drive for more ambition and recognition, rather than Ravenclaw's prize for intellect.

Indeed, when it was finally Tom's turn to take the stand, the Sorting Hat had barely grazed his hair when it yelled out: Slytherin!

25th December 1942

Tom's eyes took in Alina greedily as she descended the stairs of Ravenclaw Tower.

"I hope you wore your loose robes for tonight, Tom", Alina chirped. "You'll need them if you expect to keep up with me during the Christmas Feast!"

Although Tom and Alina had been sorted into different houses in their first year of Hogwarts, it did nothing to separate the bond between them. They were as close as ever and if Tom were being true to himself, he would admit that their sorting had worked out for the better, as he was able to gain his followers more discreetly without alerting Alina. Alina had never understood his pride of the pureblood heritage. In all the years they had known each other, so far at the ages of fifteen this was the only major qualm they had with each other.

Alina bounced off the last black marble step and beamed at him.

Tom Riddle noted all of his favourite features in one glance. His eyes quickly admired her slender body; wrapped up her finest silky indigo robes, her pale golden hair; done up in a sophisticated knot, which he hated; he preferred in down or in braids, and her smile so wide her dimples seemed deeply grooved in her cheeks.

Tom absorbed all of this so fast, Alina had blinked and his admiration had gone.

"Alina, you know I am not the type of person to gorge themselves on trivial things such as food."

"Oh Tom," Alina chuckled. "You should really listen to yourself. Trivial things such as food. You sound positively dull and ancient! I need to lighten you up."

Tom smiled secretly. Alina was the only person who had ever managed to scrape the surface of his ice-cold heart.

"I heard that there will dancing tonight too. Oh Tom, you must join in. It will be ever so much fun!" Alina continued as they continued their journey to the Great Hall.

Tom groaned but then thought better of the action.

"I will promise to dance with you, Alina, if you promise to dance with no one else tonight," Tom compromised darkly.

"Dance with no one else?"

"I see the way Julian Chen looks at you."

"Julian Chen is just a friend. Nothing more. And if he wants to dance with me, what's wrong with that?"

Tom could swear he could literally feel his blood boil. He had wanted to hex Chen since the moment he saw that filthy mud-blood approach Alina after the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw Quiddich game the other night. Chen, a do-gooder Gryffindor Sixth-Year, had come up to Alina in the stands to ask her about her potions assignment. Alina had laughed so hard at Tom for cooking up such a fuss about it. He was still stewing.

The other students at Hogwarts had speculated time and time again the friendship between the clever and ambitious dark Slytherin boy and the witty, vivacious Ravenclaw orphan.

Tom, however, could never envision his life without her.

Of course, they had their differences and he had his secrets that he kept from her. But they had a bond only two orphans with special abilities and who had grown up together shared.

"Chen wants to be more than friends with you," Tom spat out.

"Well, what's wrong with that? I am fifteen you know."

Tom gripped his wand and brandished it in front of Alina's throat. His body pushed hers against the cold stonewall. Their breaths mingled harshly in the flickering firelight.

His eyes bored into her pale grey ones and his breathing quickened.

Alina's hand slowly, yet surely, reached out to cup his face.

"Shh, Tom, it's alright. I understand."

And really, Alina did understand. As she continued to make soothing noises and her hand gently stroked his face, she came to realise, like she had realised so many times before, that her and Tom's relationship was much too complicated. She acted as a buffer to his more temperamental moods and soothed his anger. Alina hardly even questioned his possessiveness over her. She knew it wasn't healthy but at the same time, she had accepted it. When someone had grown up and gone through all the hurt and loneliness they both had endured in the world, you could appreciate those who had continued to stick by you through thick and thin. Sure, she liked her new friends at Hogwarts, but she loved Tom.

It was more than just a friend-love bond and far more complicated than a brother-sister or romantic love bond. She loved Tom. And he loved her, in his way.

Soon enough, Alina had calmed him down well enough that the dark, tall, pale boy stepped away from her smaller figure.

They continued walking again towards the great hall like nothing had happened, and Alina thought to herself again that this really was not that unusual.

"I got you a present," Alina broke the silence. In her hands she held out an old book. The hard worn cover spelled out the title: Great Wizards and Witches through the Ages, by Wangador Troptov. She had found it in a second hand bookstore a few months ago on a trip to Hogsmead.

Tom read the cover and looked up at Alina. The smile that broke across his face was so wide that Alina did a double take. It was so rare for her to see his smiles.

"I got you something too," he murmured to her as he held out a silver bracelet with her name engraved on it.

"I love it, Tom. Thank you ever so much." Alina knew how much it must have cost Tom, who had little to no money, to afford this.

As he helped Alina put it on, Tom hummed against her ear, "Merry Christmas, Alina," and gently kissed her cheek.

The two orphans spent the rest of the night enjoying the feast, danced, took pleasure in each other's company, and Alina did not even dare look at Julian Chen once.