The Reason

Tom came home to find his mother gone. He was immediately worried. He went in the back yard, by the sea, assuming she would be there if anywhere. It was her favorite place.

As he came around the house, he saw a boat. In it, were his mother and father. He started running, seeing his father's angry expression. He pulled out his wand, but his mother had already been pushed overboard.

"Avada Kedavra!" he yelled, pointing his wand at his father, screaming at the top of his lungs. It wasn't even a curse he was supposed to know, but he somehow knew that he would need it someday.

He dove into the icy cold sea, searching for his mother who still hadn't come up for air. He searched desperately, not ceasing. It was cold, and the water was numbing his body.

He blacked out.

He told Hermione this; he told her all of it, waiting to see her horrified reaction. He told her about the next day, when the police came, when he found his mother's dead body upon the shore. He told her how it killed him

"I understand, Tom." She said, "I would probably kill the person who killed my family." There was an irony in her eyes, a sadness. He wondered what she was thinking. "I just have one question."

"What's that?"

"Why did you keep killing? Why didn't you stop at the person who deserved it? Why do you kill innocent people?"

He looked at her, she was very drunk, yet he knew she would remember his answer. He trembled a little bit and his vision blurred. However, it was not from the alcohol – he never got drunk, no matter how much he drank. No, this was from the pain. This was from the secret he had kept all these years.

Tom looked at his mother's dead, cold face. As he stared, a bitter chill arose around him. He glanced towards the police officers, wondering if they felt it too. They showed no sign of anything out of the ordinary. He looked back at her face.

There was a dark circle forming slowly around her eyes it was green on the edges, silver too. Tom gasped as her faced appeared in that circle, black and beaten.

"Tom," she or the blob asked, "Tom, you must avenge me, you must kill all the men who ever mistreated you or I."

"Why, Mum?" he asked, crying, terrified of this spirit.

"Because, they don't deserve to die." She gasped, fading away.

"No, Mum, don't leave!" he called to her clinging to the only thing he had left of her.

The police walked over to him, getting ready to ask questions Tom knew he couldn't answer. Not because he didn't know the answer, but because it was against the wizard's law. He knew they would ask him why his father seemed so untouched, why there wasn't even a scratch on his body or any type of bodily illness inside him.

Tom ran, knowing they would follow. He also knew that the officers were incredibly large and old compared to his more agile self. He ran quickly into the woods and pulled out his wand. He jumped behind a tree and apparated to Hogwarts, knowing that was a bad idea, and the only place he could go.

He thought of his mother, how her beauty had won his father's heart, if only for a moment. He thought of how she had been the star of her entire village. He thought of how she had had him when she was only sixteen, ruining her parents' views of her. He thought of how she had run away with his father, into poverty and loneliness.

He bowed his head, knowing he would do what she asked. He knew he had to because he was alone and she was the only one who had ever loved him.

He didn't realize, until that moment that after he had ran from the police, he hadn't ever really stopped.

He looked back at Hermione, lovely in the firelight. His memory burned like a thousand flames on his heart.

"Why, Tom?" she asked, sensing his trouble.

"Because she told me to." He whispered.

"Your Mum?" she asked, surprised. "But she was so kind."

"I know, and I wasn't thinking at the time, it was too painful. It wasn't her, it couldn't have been. I know that now. It was just my anger, my magic. It was Salazar Slytherin, he was telling me too. He wanted me to become the heir, and he knew my anger would fuel that for the rest of my life."

"Then why don't you stop? Why don't you end it now, surely you've avenged her already." She was confused.

"Because, Hermione, I was angry at everyone who was happy. Everyone who has what I don't deserves to die."

"But, Tom, you can have happiness. It's within your grasp. I'm here aren't I? I can be the happiness you want. I can make you happy!" It was as if she was trying to convince herself.

"Hermione, you'll leave." He said glumly, he knew it was true because he was destined to be angry, and unhappy.

"No, Tom, no I won't. I promise." She said smiling, she came towards him. He opened his arms to her, wanting to believe what she said.

Then he kissed her, clinging to the hope that she was right, that she would stay. For if she didn't he would never look back. He would press on and kill until his last breath. He would never smile again.

He looked at her as she crawled on top of him. She would be in pain tomorrow, and he shouldn't take advantage of her when she was so drunk.

"Hermione," he started, trying to ignore the way she was kissing his neck, "I must be off to bed, to sleep, and you should do the same."

"No, Tom, I don't want to sleep. I want to show you how much I love you." He groaned when she ran her fingernails down his arm.