A/N: A Christmas update!
His Reaction I
A few knocks on his window alerted Tom to the sight of an owl trying to gain entrance in his study.
Unlocking it with a swipe of his hand he watched as the owl fluttered down to his table in front of him, holding out the letter attached to his feet.
Getting the letter from the owl he fed it some of the nuts he kept on his table for such occasions. The owls get very happy when you show them such small acts of benevolence he had realised. Really all creatures act the same way, he thought as proved by his house elves. He didn't even know they could do better than before.
He recognised the owl as the one which had brought the letter from Esme. He had his doubts about the name of the girl he had met, but he knew it would all come out with time. He just had to have patience.
He would in time alert her to his real name, well the name he would go out in public with. He had no intention of ever letting out he was Tom Riddle. So he would be living publicly with his new but old identity. Now, wasn't that a conundrum.
May be he would tell her about it in his next letter. To give her some incentive to write honestly to him.
All the while he ignored the immense relief he felt at receiving a reply.
He had been oscillating between despair, very unreasonable – he knew rationally, and restlessness for the last few days, wondering if she would reply or not.
But now she had. And, and he was frozen with the letter in his hand. Thinking, what had she written. Is it another reason to make him rethink his decision, or plain denial to write to him at all?
Taking a calm breathe he just opened it.