Somewhere Over The Rainbow

OH HOW LONG IT'S BEEN. Well, I won't go on a tangent, because I know you want to read the chapter. I'll just state that during my re-reading of this series (so much I wished I could change and fix. Sigh), you'll notice a shift and change at this point. The quality about halfway through this chapter will be better, and simply my style of writing, since it has improved since I last left off. You'll also notice that some consistencies will be off, if you haven't already noticed before. I'm trying to pick up the pieces of my mess and make things work from now own. I've made a lot of notes, and I've refined my previous ideas.

You will seem more of that as it goes on, so I won't get into it.

Anyway, it's great to be back. Don't forget to check my profile and blogs for updates and things concerning my fics.

RANDOM FACT:

What Iris saw in the Divinations class, was a Scrying Bowl. A black bowl filled with water that is used as a divination tool.
Much like the bowl Frodo looks into in the Fellowship of the Ring when he's in Lorien.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.
Like father, like daughter

After Tom left the Slytherin Common Room, I waited until the door slid shut before I walked up the dorm steps and softly knocked on the 6th year girls dorm, where Iris would surely be trying to eavesdropping by putting her ear on the door.

The door slid open and I nodded my head to the side, motioning for her to follow. I lead the way to Tom's dorm and once we were inside, I shut the door for privacy.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she sighed, sitting on the bed.

I remained standing, my arms crossed as I leaned against the door frame, "You were assaulted, Iris, you can't be fine."

"Well I am," she replied with an air of annoyance.

"Fine. You're fine now, but you have been acting weird for a while. What's wrong?"

I watched my sister closely, rubbing her brow and avoiding my eyes as much as possible. I knew something was up, and she was going to tell me. If it was Russo, and he had been doing this for far longer….

"It's nothing…"

"Tell me," I said a little more forcefully than I intended to, and it actually startled Iris.

"What's gotten into you?" She asked suddenly.

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been different. At Christmas it was like you were half dead. Now you're… you're-"

"I'm what?" My arms remained crossed as I stood up from the door frame, my nostrils flaring, obviously annoyed by this accusation.

"Different," She repeated, standing up from the bed. "You've been spending too much time with Riddle; he's rubbing off on you."

I rolled my eyes, arms swinging to my side, "Oh, that's bullocks, Iris." If anything, I was acting more like myself than I had been all of December, where I was a complete shell, afraid of Tom, afraid of what was going to come.

"Oh, really?" She stepped up to me, so close that her eyes seemed glazed. Was she about to cry? "He's going to be the death of you, Evan. He's going to kill what ever makes you human, and then he is going to kill you."

My jaw set and my nostrils flared at this assumption. She saw me as weak? Where the hell has she been the last semester? I could handle what Tom Riddle dishes out. "I am not weak," I hissed, my face heating up.

"He will break you-"

"He won't break me!" I shouted. I had broken before, but I had fixed myself. Iris didn't know what she was talking about, and I was about done with this conversation. "I am stronger than you think, Iris. I took care of you, I took care of Hector and Basil, I can take care of myself."

Iris growled in frustration, her hands up at her face with her fingers twisting into her palms to make tiny fists. "Listen to me, Evangeline. Tom Riddle isn't your sibling you're obligated to take care of. You've dug yourself into a huge mess and got too involved!"

"Dug myself into a mess? As I recall, we wouldn't be here if it weren't for your stupid disrespectful impulses!"

"This isn't about me! You are and will die, Evan. I've seen it."

My eyes narrowed, "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

"I saw it in a scrying bowl in the Divinations classroom. You were older…. You were in front of him next to a house, outside, and then he killed you."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes, and pushed her off, "You've been mistaken, then. Tom would never do that. He can't. He won't."

"Tom? Tom Riddle? Maybe he won't, but Voldemort sure would, and you need to remember that. Put it back into your mind that very soon Tom Riddle will cease to exist and Voldemort will take his place. Voldemort cannot love, you know this better than any Harry Potter fan I know."

I felt my teeth grind, I spun around and wrecked the door open, slamming it against the wall and pointed a stiff finger through the arch.

"Out," I demanded.

"You can't be serious-"

"OUT!" My eyes were wide, and likely my face red with anger.

Iris pursed her lips, her fists clenched to her side as she marched towards the door, but stopped once she got to the frame to give me a look as cold as ice, "You sound just like him, you know."

My bottom lip fell open slowly, my face softening to that of shock and embarrassment rather than anger. My eyes watched Iris as she left, her shoes hitting the stone steps as she made her way up to her dorm room.

December 24th, 2007

The house was silent, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. It was a typical night before Christmas. Except the wind was harsh that night, and the snow was heavier than the typical London quota. Everyone was asleep, at least that's what it seemed to look like. For now at least. It was only five hours ago that this house was white hot with noise, and it wasn't from Christmas music or from a party. It was from the heated arguments between father and daughter.

"Robert, don't!" Katherine yelled, marching up to him.

But it was too late, the door flung open, hitting the wall behind it. He pointed a rigid finger at the open archway, the harsh winter wind blowing into the house.

"Out," he said through gritted teeth.

Evangeline stood there, face red with anger, eyes bloodshot from crying. In the back of her mind she knew that this day would come; she had pushed her father to such limits that he would eventually kick her out. Though the reality shot at her face like the stinging of cold wind that wafted her hot tear stained cheeks.

"You can't be serious," she breathed, her lip curling into her teeth. You have got to be fucking kidding me."

"I SAID OUT!" Robert bellowed, his foot kicking the door again, it banging against the wall so hard, the knob dented the wall.

"That is enough!" Katherine marched between the two. Her hand went to her husband's chest in a simple gesture for him to calm down.

"I've had enough, Katherine," he looked down at his wife, his hazel eyes aflame. "She's hardly home as it is, always sneaking out. And now this? It is Christmas, and she wants to go frolicking with one of her dead-beat boyfriends."

"You don't even know him!" Evan spat in.

"His name is Gizzards! I know him plenty by that fact alone," Robert completely ignored the hideous glare that his eldest was making at him. She had sported that look since birth, it was not going to start bugging him now.

"You want to talk about who's hardly home as it is? What about you, huh? You're never around when we need you, half the time we don't even notice you're not around. I may sneak out, but at least I admit to sneaking out."

Katherine turned to her daughter this time, hissing her name, "Evangeline!"

"Oh, please, mother, don't pretend you don't think about it too"

"Your father is working," she insisted, but the unsteadiness in her voice betrayed her already growing suspicions.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Evangeline," This time Robert's voice was low, almost threatening in a way. His own daughter was implying that he was having an affair in front of his own wife. Though he knew that wasn't the case, and he hoped that Katherine knew as well that wasn't it either.

"Oh, really? Remember that time in the summer, where you said you have to work double time, and wouldn't make it home until sometime after midnight? I was out that night, at the book shop, waiting for the release of Deathly Hallows, where I saw you walk out of the building next door with a woman."

Katherine's brows knitted in confusion, turning to Robert for some kind of explanation. His jaw was solid shut, gritting his teeth as he matched the poisonous glare of his daughter back at her. He then forced himself to look at his wife, his features softening.

"Katy, it's not what it looked like…. It was work-"

"What kind of work?" She questioned, growing suspicious.

Rob sighed, "It was- I had…It's complicated."

"Really?" Her hands folded, and her hip was locked to the side, and then her voice began to raise. "Because it doesn't sound too complicated to me."

"Katherine, please, this is not about me-"

"No, it isn't," she began, her voice dangerously controlled. "It's never been about you. You're never here, you're never part of this story, so it's not about you at all. You're out there, writing your own story with other people that are not your family. And you wonder where our daughter is getting this behaviour? Look in the mirror. If anyone is going out that door tonight, it will not be her."

"Katy-"

"Get. Out."

Five hours later and Robert was still in the car. He refused to leave, which was the exact opposite of what he was doing for nearly a decade. Always leaving. If they only knew why… If he could explain. Though, Robert knew he couldn't, because the explanation would not only make him look like a desperate liar, but a crazy fool as well. Maybe he was a fool… Maybe if he didn't go chasing after a world he was no longer apart of he would actually have a healthy, functioning relationship with his kids and wife.

He sighed, hugging his body tightly through the layers he had on. Surely he would end up dying out here, if the car stopped working. He thought about finding a motel to crash in, but remembered he only had seven pounds with him, and his wallet was in the house, where he knew Katherine would be guarding like an over protective pit bull, snarling and foaming at the mouth.

His breath fogged up the mirror, along with the car heater, blocking the view of almost everything outside. It wasn't like he would have seen much anyway, because it was just a blur of angry wind and vengeful snow. He briefly closed his eyes, deciding that falling asleep for a few minutes would ease his mind. However, a distinctive bird call from outside made his eyes snap open. Robert turned to the driver's window, and wiped the fog off, and his eyes widened at the display before him.

The snow that blanketed their house was riddled with black feathery birds the size of a small cat. Ravens sat on his fence, tree, bench, and gutter of his house. Dozens of them to the point where you could have sworn there was more black than white outside. Their beady eyes were to him, and as soon as they realized he was looking back, they began to all sing a chorus.

This was no mere freak of nature, Robert was her calling card. She was after him.

I laid my head on Tom's pillow, staring at the ceiling and watching the ceiling that disguised itself as the night sky. The room was quiet, but my ears rang with the argument that happened a little under an hour ago and Iris' last words to me.

"You sound just like him, you know."

My gut felt like wrenching at the mere thought of that being remotely correct. I strived my entire life to be as little like Robert my entire life; how could I possibly be like the one man in this universe and the other that I despised more than anyone? Everything was his fault…if it weren't for him… we wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be going to marrying Lord Fucking Voldemort, Iris wouldn't be getting groped by men three times her age, Hector wouldn't be walking on eggshells, and Basil wouldn't be crying for mom every other night.

I am not Robert Bilson.

With a scowl I flopped onto my stomach and buried my face into the pillow, screaming into it, and pounding my fists into the mattress in frustration. I didn't sound like him…but I did sound like someone… I flipped back on my back and sat up, blinking back the anger I had towards my sister's accusation to what I had told Riddle earlier.

Did I really ask him to kill a man?

Something cold and heavy landed in the pit of my stomach, and I could feel the warmth in my body leave upon that realization. I was completely frozen on the spot trying to recall my exact words, hoping that it was only just words that I made up in my head but never voiced. Hoping that he would walk through the door and tell me that he had changed his mind. Though, no… I did just tell Tom Riddle to kill a professor, and even though many would think he deserved punishment for preying on the young, it was still not my right, or anyone's right, to determine he had no right to be alive.

I was no murderer…I had done some viciously cruel things in these past few months. Manipulated a boy into liking me for my own means; sleeping with a boy in a broom closet in a drunken stupour; gave a girl a black eye; beat a friend of mine to a pulp; wiped the memories of innocent students; and tortured a friend into temporary insanity. I didn't want murder to be put on that list of things I've done at Hogwarts.

I pushed myself off the bed and made for the door, but before I could reach the doorknob, it turned and opened. I was frozen again when Tom walked in, looking nonchalant and only briefly giving me a look before closing the door behind him and putting his robe on a hook.

"…Did you?" I found myself asking, watching him curiously.

"No," he replied after a moment. A wave of relief washed over me, the lead heavy ball in my gut lifted somewhat, but I wondered if he was just waiting for a better moment. "I've erased his memory of this evening…"

"Oh," was the only thing I could say. I tried to swallow down my thoughts as I began to slowly sit back down on the edge of the bed. "Are you…?"

"Going to kill him?" He turned to me, his hand on his tie as he loosened the noose around his neck. "If I let women tell me how to do my job, I wouldn't be much of a man, let alone a Dark Lord."

I didn't know if I should feel annoyed or relieved, but either way, I was still frozen on the bed, not knowing how to take in what I had done. Tom watched me from the other end of the room, unbuttoning his shirt and revealing the wife beater underneath.

"You don't look disappointed or annoyed," his tone wasn't surprised at all.

"I never wanted anyone to die," I stated the truth, seeing as there was no reason to lie.

"And I never killed anyone," his words brought my eyes to him finally. He was bare chested by now, and it would have been distracted hadn't been for the fact that my mind was still on heavier ideas.

"There's a first time for everything."

The weight of the night's activities had been on me all day, not allowing me to lift my attentions to my classes. Before I knew it, I was already in Theatre class, sitting at my desk while the flurry of students gathered around a bulletin board to see what the play was, and who got what part. I vaguely heard some comments about the bias choosing of me being one of the main characters, and my sister being the other lead. If I really cared how other people thought of me after it, I wouldn't have casted it as I did. Besides, I had bigger problems. The only bit of chatter I really paid any mind was people laughing at seeing Keiths name up there, when clearly he auditioned as a joke. Joke's on him.

Soon a pair of hands slapped down on my desk forcing me to look up into the red-faced blond that I had forgot existed until this moment.

"This is a farce, Bennett. I told you to make me the lead and not Lucretia! She plays your stupid character's sister!" Heidi Abbott stared at me like an angry ferby, though in my mind's haze, I could only meet her gaze impassively.

"Lucretia's part has no lines, she's in it for twenty seconds. She's a dead character who dies in the first minute of the play. You have your own solo in a song, the last prisoner singing in Cell Block Tango. That's the best you're going to get, because your audition was salty. The only thing going for you is your half decent voice —" She opened her mouth to say something but I continued on, "—If you have a problem with this, feel free to drop out of the play, because you're easily replaceable."

That shut her up considerably, enough for there to be an opening for someone to end the conversation. Alphard Black stepped up to my desk, looked between me and Heidi and asked if he was interrupting something. Standing up from my seat, I smiled at the Slytherin and shook my head, "Nope. Nothing important."

We walked a short distance over to the window where I sat down and looked at the modest boy, wondering how the hell he ended up in Slytherin, he bore one of the traits other than having the infamous family name Black. "Need anything?" I ask, noticing his hesitance.

"No, no, I just wanted to… thank you for a role. I didn't expect to get a bigger role than some of the names on that list…" he ran his fingers through his hair, showing the redness of his ears. I still couldn't understand how he didn't have a girlfriend, he was positively gorgeous and modest, and again, why the hell is he in Slytherin? I don't understand.

Smiling, I lifted a shoulder in a shrug, "You're very good, Alphard, you just need a little more confidence in yourself, you might get bigger roles in the future if you're less timid."

He bit his lip, "I guess it's a bit hard to find confidence…"

I blinked at him curious, "Why's that?"

"Acting isn't… exactly the ideal career or hobby choice for a son of my father's. He was open to it until he came to my first performance in fourth year, and thought it was completely horrible. Thought I was completely horrible"

This is the first time Alphard had ever opened up, or even talked about his family. It was strange for him being so open about it, and even stranger that he thought he could do that with me. Unless it was common knowledge about his father, and it was just old news, but it still was something to hear. I felt even more pity for him, and for every child that was burdened with the last name Black.

"Your dad sounds like an asshole," I stated bluntly. I didn't care who his father was, what name he had tacked to him at birth. Dating Voldemort desensitizes your sense of endangerment. Alphard clearly was taken back by my bluntness, but that didn't stop him from smirking a bit and nodding.

"He is, a bit…"

"Is he coming to this play?"

"Probably not… He's never returned to the school to see me in any play," he confessed, his confidence ebbing away as he talked.

"Well, that's fine. You don't need a hater in the crowd. He's going to miss a lot… you have your own solo, and play a pretty important role," I smiled and patted his shoulder. "Just remember to be a man, and you can make it outside of the school. Be a huge star, even."

He laughed, resulting in a cute snort. "Bennett, you are so very optimistic, but I don't think—"

"Shush," I booped his nose, "Confidence."

Dinner was spent with the Slytherins, and while small talk was directed in me in interest of the play, I found myself silent and in my own thoughts. Still Iris' words were on my mind, but what also was on my mind was how I came to this point, sitting in Hogwarts next to fictional characters, and engaged to Lord Voldemort. It sounded like an awful fan fiction to me, and only now had it started to settle on my mind that this was my reality now. What also dawned on me was the time that I had spent here already… It felt both short and long at the same time, like a pair of shoes I've worn for some time, yet still get blisters from. The third thing that dawned on me are the things that I've missed… 30th of November was Hector's birthday, and aside from vaguely recalling it and making a mental note to get him something, I don't think I actually did. I was so caught up in my life that I completely forgot that I didn't come here alone.

Not to mention I forgot my own birthday, which was the third of January.

"Oh God," I said out loud without realizing it, earning looks of those next to me.

"What is it?" Came Tom's voice from beside me. I could see from my peripheral vision that he was looking at me with odd curiosity.

"I'm old!" I wailed.

Sorry if this isn't the chapter of your dreams, but I promise you the next chapter will be more interesting and have more substance. I already had half of this chapter already written from years ago, I just had to push myself to end it in order to get to the next chapter.

Remember to check my profile for updates and links to the blogs and more info.

Happy Readings and welcome back! xoxox

qtj.