Hi everyone, I couldn't keep away so I went ahead and wrote the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy. Comment so I know your thoughts, you guys are my inspiration!
"A terrible, terrible tragedy! Wouldn't you agree, Albus?" Professor Slughorn said while taking out his handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his brow. He was clearly in distress over the death of Myrtle, she was a part of the slug club after all so to him it must have been like losing a potential trophy on his wall of fame.
"Indeed professor." Replied professor Dumbledore solemnly walking with Slughorn to the girls lavatory.
"Has anyone informed the child's parents yet?" He asked loud enough for the other teachers to hear. "If need be I can greet them at the door, I feel I must since I knew the girl." He said to his fellow colleagues.
"Yes, Professor. We've informed them about half an hour ago. They will be coming in via floo powder directly to my office shortly I believe." Head master Dippet explained openly.
"That's all fine and dandy but how are we going to explain to the parents who murdered the poor girl? They're going to demand answers and probably ask for the ministry to investigate." Said professor Beery, the Herbology professor.
"I'm afraid all we can do is leave them in the dark for the time being. We have no evidence of a killer. If they do call upon the ministry we'll simply have to take it one step at a time and cooperate with their demands.' Dippet tried to reason.
"The hell you do! You can't just leave them to ponder how this-this monstrosity has happened to their child! Those poor parents will never have a single piece of mind if we do! We can't give them no explanation, it would be downright treason to leave it be." Slughorn protested furiously.
"Slughorn, your soul is in the right place but right now your mind isn't. I want to give them a reason as much as anyone else here does. But I simply can not when even we don't have any answers ourselves, much less clues." Dippet reasoned.
"Well, we can rule out the death being caused by a witch or wizard." Said the head nurse who came out of the bathroom, her robes drenched from examining the body.
"What information did you collect, Nurse Fennigan?" asked the Headmaster. The other teachers lay silent, awaiting for her to speak.
"There are no signs of blunt trauma in any shape or form nor any magical residue. No killing curse, no hex, nothing to indicate magic of the wand or any object. Whatever it is that killed her it must have happened instantaneously. Purhaps she suffered a heart attack?" She proclaimed loud enough for the other teachers to hear.
"Also-" Professor Kettelburn emerged from the bathroom. "After questioning Myrtle herself, the ghost claims she saw great big yellow eyes before she died."
"So Miss. De La Lune was speaking the truth then." Professor Dumbledore concluded. "Poor girl, to see such a terrible sight must have given her quite a shock. It's a bit of a miracle she had the strength to run all the way to the great hall without fainting."
"Albus, don't forget she is so far our only suspect in this crime." Dippet said with a huff.
"Headmaster I highly doubt Miss. De La Lune has the capacity to do something so corrupt as to take anthers life… the young girl wouldn't have the power to as a witch her age." Slughorn defended. " To kill another human being is a crime against soul itself, it tears it right in half…" The teacher shuddered at the mere thought of it all.
"Regardless professor, it's highly suspicious she found the body."
"As if a young woman doesn't need to use the bathroom! Dippet, be reasonable! Innocent till proven guilty and you yourself said we have no evidence so far." spoke up Nurse Fennigan, clearly angry that Headmaster would ever suspect a student like Juliet.
"Excuse us, Professors." A voice interrupted.
The teachers turned around to see Tom Riddle along with three other students, two Ravenclaw boys and a female Huffelpuff prefect. Dumbledore's gaze went up and down Tom as if he was sizing him up.
"What are you four doing out here for?" Albus inquired.
"W-we're here because we volunteered to move Myrtle's body…" The girl spoke up meekly.
"We brought the stretcher from the Infirmary…" One of the Ravenclaw boys piped up, the other nodded while presenting the said stretcher to the teachers.
"Very well then." Professor Dippet said with a nod of approval. "Nurse Fennigan, if you could help them that would be nice." The nurse gave a curt nod and lead the students in the bathroom.
It took a bit of patience but it didn't take them long to move the body properly onto the stretcher. Once they did the four each had their hands to support one end of the stretcher to distribute the weight evenly.
"Alright, I will escort you to the hospital wing. When you have finished with helping me with the body I will then take you four all back with me to your dormitories so you stay safe. Understood?" She asked to the young witch and wizards.
They all gave a nod and proceeded to follow the nurse out of the bathroom. Upon moving the body away, teachers who had hats all took them off out of respect, others who did not have hats bent their heads to the ground, some reciting a prayer, few just doing it out of pity for the dead girls fatal end. Tom observed every one of his professors, especially Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore beat him to it. He too bore a hole with his bright blue eyes as he gazed directly back at Riddle. it was like the insinuation of a warning almost, a warning to not cross a line he knew he couldn't win at. At least not yet. It took all the willpower Tom had to suppress the urge to glare or to make his eyes turn red at the teacher he held unfathomable hatred for.
Dumbledore was a different professor compared to the other teachers at Hogwarts. He was not a blind fool like Slughorn was and Tom feared him more than anything.
Tom shifted his gaze though back to following the Nurse to the Hospital wing, remaining stoic with cold unfeeling eyes.
"Many thanks to you four for volunteering, not many have the heart to look at a dead body, much less carry one all the way here. I'm sure Myrtle's parents will be grateful for the kindness and sympathy you showed for your fellow classmate." Said the nurse as she finally placed a white sheet over Myrtle's corpse on the autopsy table.
"Now, because most of you are not from the same houses I will ask you to stay here as I take first Miss…" She pointed to the Hufflepuff prefect.
"Wenlock." She replied.
"Miss. Wenlock back to her dorm first. You three boys stay here, do I make myself clear?" The young wizards nodded.
"Come along then, Miss. Wenlock." The girl nodded and followed Nurse Fennigan out of the Infirmary and disappearing with her into the dark halls.
The Ravenclaw boys spoke to each other due to not dare speak to Tom Riddle, one of the most prestigious Slytherin's in the school. They were not as bold as a particular Gryffindor witch was.
Tom busied himself by watching the moonlight, keeping his raging thoughts in his head.
It all went so wrong so fast.
He was drunk on the feeling of desire and insanity. He remembered feeling her warm flesh pressed against him, how he strived for dominance over her. How soft and little she was when he held her so tight, she was like a little bird that wandered into a cage. He drank in the memory of how dizzying it was to see those bright blue eyes ignite in a wave of hatred toward him. He remembered her sweet plump lip spew spells toward him. He was captivated, he wanted more, he wanted only her. He wanted to be consumed by her every touch, he wanted her to be enveloped into him, he wanted her all for himself! Then he remembered his fury upon her rejection of him. How her thoughts were not on him but another man. That blush that adorned her sweet soft cheeks were directed toward someone other than him, how her eyes were timid upon bringing him up and how he could practically feel her heart flutter at the thought of the German. He would not have it, he would not let this pretty bird that flew toward him and sing such a sweet song fly away. He was willing to become the cage, he was willing to bring this beautiful creature sadness.
Yes, this was what true insanity was. To hold and to treasure yet break and dominate. He was both, he could not take a side, his mind was filled with only the desire to keep Juliet with him.
It took a while to compose himself after for so long he kept up with using his stoic mask in public. The serpent went along to carry out his masters plan as Tom decided to sneak out of the chamber by going through the girls bathroom on the 2nd floor. He mastered all the secret passageways in the castle thanks to Alistair and the Basilisk for roaming the pipe systems, it was usually how he was able to beat everyone to class or when he needed to sneak out. What he didn't take so far as to realize was that even in rare cases do students find use of abandoned rooms. That was when he made his miscalculation with Myrtle.
The girl was wailing her eyes out in the bathroom when he emerged from the passageway. The Basilisk was only following his master to the door since it too had to use one of the pipes to begin its search for the German.
At first Tom payed no mind to it. He was quiet enough and he thought there would be no way through her insufferable sobs would she pay attention to her surroundings.
That was when fate cursed him.
A puddle, of all things, a puddle was what caused Tom to lose his footing. He didn't fall but his shoes made a loud squeak in the process, cutting through the air loud enough to make Myrtle gasp in surprise.
"Who's there?" She yelled out loud, opening the bathroom door to peak outside.
Tom immediately rushed away from the scene only to look back to see that the Basilisk looked to the girls direction in curiosity as she opened the door. It was at that moment as she was about to scream did those terrifying yellow eye meet her to her untimely end. She fell to the floor dead, the door shutting close.
Tom wanted to kill the Basilisk at that very moment.
"You idiot!" He hissed, eyes blazing red with fury.
The giant snake closed its eyes and bowed deeply in shame for making it's master so angry.
"Go! And do your job without being seen you ridiculous beast!" He roared.
"Yesssssss Masssssterr." The snake hissed in parseltongue.
The Seperent must have been embarrassed because a loud clanging noise interrupted Tom from walking away. He heard a low rumbling before all the sinks suddenly burst with water uncontrollably. The Snake must have burst the water pipe by accident.
Tom face palmed and then began to murmur hexes under his breath.
After that all he could remember was closing the entrance of the Chamber and upon leaving used a drying spell without anyone watching to not cause suspicion among students once someone found the body in the bathrooms state.
The Young wizard broke out of his trance to notice he was the only one left in the Hospital Wing.
Taking that as his cue to leave, Tom strode over to The nurses desk and with perfect penmanship wrote a letter to Nurse Fennigan in Professor Slughorn's handwriting. After many graded papers and many of his own letter from the buffoon he was able to perfectly write in his teachers handwriting without making a mistake.
My dear Miss. Fennigan,
I was walking back to my study when I noticed Mr. Riddle still waiting to be escorted back, so I took it upon myself to walk him to his dormitory. You've already worked hard enough and It just didn't feel right leaving the poor boy alone here without supervision.
Have a good evening!
-Slughorn
Tom put the pen down and walked over to the autopsy table. He swiftly placed the note down without a second thought while straightening his robes.
He took one look at the body of Myrtle and glared at the corpse. It wasn't the first nor did he think the last he will ever see a dead body through his eyes
"You wanted me all to yourself when little did you know that someone else stole what I thought was never there to begin with." He hissed at her corpse while pointing to his heart. "You were an annoying, disgusting creature and you got what you deserve you dirty mudblood." He spat before departing with single wicked smile.
The wizard didn't have a single sense of remorse for the girl, not even pity.
The stoic mask was finally beginning to crumble.
Ouch, thats cold Tom. Not even a hint of regret of her death? No? Okay, okay sorry I asked.
Will Robin, Chekov and Hanz make it out alive as the Basilisk races to capture them? Will Juliet be able to find Tom and find it in herself to forgive Tom's horrible actions? Will Tom's hands be soaked in the blood of the German? Tune in next time for chapter 39!