Chapter Nine: Tainted

"Hi, Tom." Ella greeted him. They were in the meadow again, daisies wilted deliciously, purple darkness surrounding them.

"Oh...Ella, I didn't think you would come tonight." Tom said, surprised.

"Well, you are the one who helped me get out of my shell a bit...Sorry, if you didn't want me to interfere with your dreams. I just wanted to thank you for showing me the beautiful night sky. My mother and I used to watch the stars in the summer. I'm glad that I got a chance to watch them again, Tom." She thanked him.

"No! I mean...no, you didn't interfere with my dreams, Ella." He smirked.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to learn more about...this." She smiled. Even in dreamworld, she was still the most beautiful creature that Tom had ever seen. "You taught me so much about magic...I feel like I'm not very useful to you, Thomas."

"Of course you are useful, Ella! And I think that I would absolutely love to learn more about the dreamworld."

Ella blushed. "Thank you, Tom. You are truly the bestest friend that I have ever had. If that is a word." She giggled. She was so...so innocent. Tom thought.

"As are you, Ella."

"Do you think that Filtch will find us up here?" She asked.

"Filtch can't enter our dreams." Tom said, confused.

"No, silly! Up here, I mean, on the Tower."

"Oh...yes." Tom said, feeling stupid. No, Tom was not stupid, he was strong, brilliant, powerful... "I mean, no...I don't think he will...You have my invisibility cloak.." He muttered.

"...Thomas...may I ask you something?" Ella asked him.

"It depends what it is that you're asking." Tom replied with a grimace.

"Well, it is rather simple. What Avery was saying...What did you do over the summer? I mean...before I came to Wool's..." She asked.

"None of your business." He snapped, then regretting his decision to lash out on Ella, he apologized. "Sorry, Ella...I didn't mean to say that."

"It's okay, Tom. I understand. My past is quite...different, as well as yours." She told him.

He wondered at what really was her past. "May I ask you...Ella?"

"Well...okay. It's rather boring, I must admit. My past was refined, as well as rebellious. I was always the "popular" girl at my old school. My Muggle academy, you may call it. The boys yearned for me, the other girls striving to be like me. But underneath my layer of prettiness, was a girl that just wanted to be...I wanted to be free. Free of them. I was always different, and my mother tried hard to conceal my magical abilities. We were not rich, nor poor. She had a decent job to pay for my tuition at the academy and for rent. Every time some "incident" happened at school, like changing Elizabeth Miller's hair purple, or torturing another pupil by pure anger, my mother would simply alter their memories, or make up an excuse. It was hard...for me. Then I started to control people...control things. My old headmistress didn't like me, she suspected me of witchcraft...and wanted me thrown out of the school. So I went into her dreams, and I killed her. I killed her...her mind. It was gone. She was labeled "Mad" and never seen again by us students. You can't really kill someone in a dream, you can only tarnish and tear their soul. And that's what I did, Tom. I hurt people. And...and I felt good about it." Ella explained.

Tom was at a loss for words. What he could say, or couldn't...

"I am surprised...Ella." He said.

"Are you? I'm sorry...I shouldn't have told you those terrible things that I've done. I'm a bad person...Tom."

"There is a difference of a bad person...and a powerful person." He explained. "You are powerful. They are the weak. They deserve what they got."

"Oh, Tom...I thought that you would surely hate me. That's not all though...I've killed before, Tom..." Ella started to cry. Tom liked to see pain, and even death, but he had always hated it when they cried...especially girls. Crying showed weakness. And he was surprised, none the less. Yes, power, but killing? That just didn't seem to fit Ella's profile. That was more of Tom's thing.

"I don't hate you, Ella. How could I hate my friend?" He reassured her.

"Thank you, Tom. Are you sure that you're not lying to me?" Her big doe-eyes glanced up at him.

"Of course not. Ella, don't be angry at yourself. I..." He began, wondering if telling Ella that he had killed before as well, would be the right thing to say right now. "I- have killed too." He patted her on the back, just two fifteen year old kids in a meadow of darkness...

"...Tom? I wouldn't expect that of you..." She said. "But it's okay. If it's like you said, if they deserved it..." She told him.

"They did. That's why I killed them."

Ella didn't ask who exactly that Tom had killed, for she was polite, and respected Tom's decisions. "I know. I just...I didn't want my mother to die. She was the only one that I cared about. Truly." Ella told him.

"I didn't want my mother to die either, Ella. Yes, for we are the same. She was the only one that I cared about...She...She died giving birth to me, Ella." He told her, but still, he kept strong and held a face without emotions.

"I'm sorry, Tom." Ella said, giving him a hug. He tensed up, as always, then accepted the embrace. "I think I should go now, Tom. See you later." She said, after freefalling off the cloud into a stormy sea of chaos.


Ella got up, and unraveled the silky invisibility cloak off of her. Tom was laying next to her, still sleeping. She looked at him. He looks even more angelic when he sleeps. She giggled.

"Good morning, Tom." She said.

"Oh, hello, Ella." He muttered as he got up from the stone floor.

"Are you sure that I'm not a bad person, Tom?" She asked.

"Of course not, Ella. You are amazing." He told her.

"Thank you, Thomas." She thanked.

"Lets go down before Filtch catches us." He said as he draped the cloak over them and quietly went downstairs to the Slytherin common room.


Please Rate, Favourite, and Review!
My Readers are amazing. Almost as amazing as Tom Riddle himself.