Chapter 17: In Inceptum Finis Est

"How long do we have?"

Tom stared into the pool of the Pensieve, its enchanting, sea-foam green and blue glow reflecting and lightening the darkness of his eyes. He didn't avert his gaze as Albus Dumbledore answered, "I'll send for them immediately, we have until midnight."

Tom turned after a few seconds to see Albus open a window, the growing storm outside kept at bay against a magical barrier just beyond the ledge. By the light of a lightning flash, Tom saw Albus cast a familiar spell he'd seen only once before. Beginning as just a silvery cloud, it took form and Tom beheld a massive, beautiful bird the color of Dumbledore's lightning blue eyes as it soured through the magical barrier int o the rain outside for a few seconds before perching on the windowsill. Albus muttered something Tom didn't hear and the bird, soundless and impervious to the storm, swooped out into the night and dove just as Tom ran forward and leaned out the window to follow its path.

Albus smiled at Tom and chuckled, "It's form resembles the spirit of the caster, bringing warmth and contentment to everyone in its aura. One of my favorite spells, not the least for its defensive capabilities. Mine however, is a modification of my own invention and today was my first attempt. We shall see if it worked. Shall we have tea while we wait? I could use a good Grey."

Tom watched as the lighting blue phoenix looped and dove into the covered courtyard below, its form fading like smoke into the brick and out of sight. He nodded to Albus and retook his seat a few meters from the still glowing pensieve. As much as he wanted to dive in already, the only thing that could make the experience better was likely about to be awoken in the deeper bowels of the castle. Albus swished his wand and before them appeared an ornate, gold flower filigreed tea set and a matching plate with assorted biscuits floating down to the coffee table with it. Tom grabbed his mug and saucer before it stopped and held it out. The tea pot obeyed without his command and poured a luscious, fruity, earthy smelling black liquid into his cup at the perfect temperature. He sipped and shook a little as the tea ignited his chest. He felt his leftover anger fade in place of a calm warmth that rose to behind his eyes and gave him goose pimples up the back of his neck and tingled the edges of his fingers.

Tom sank in his chair and smiled genuinely at Albus, "Every time I think I've had the best tea in the world…Where is this from?"

Albus blushed a little as he took his first sip and Tom giggled at its effect on the professor. Albus twirled his finger and summoned a biscuit to his hand and said as he dipped it in the tea, "This particular leaf and oil his from India and China, respectively. Though its history is long, marred, and unfortunate, there is no finer proprietor of tea than the muggle East India. Try the biscuits, they are made from the same orange grove as the coating on the leaves."

Tom nodded and, thinking for a moment to try the same spell as Albus, thought better of it and leaned forward to grab a couple biscuits to place on his saucer. He dipped it in the same way Albus did, steeping it for only a couple seconds before biting off the sunken half and indeed, the citrus and sweetness of the cookie paired perfectly with the notes and aroma of the tea. He wanted to drink it all in one but held off. He simply nodded at Albus and dunked another as they waited.

Silently, they enjoyed their tea, taking turns to marvel at the Pensieve or shiver at the effects of the tea for a few minutes before a faint voice came from beyond the closed door to the office. Tom sat up but Albus smirked, "Perhaps a moment… Humble an old man's curiosity?" Tom's eyes narrowed a little and he stood up to move closer to the door. The voice grew louder but he still could't comprehend what they said other than that it kept saying single words. After half a minute, Albus chortled and relented, "Okay, you may go."

Tom set his mug and saucer on a nearby, onyx colored bookshelf after snagging his last tea-steeped biscuit and descend the stairs and recognized the explicit maiden voice booming beyond the now replaced griffin gargoyle.

"Bollocks it all… I'M ON MY WAY, TOM. HANG IN THERE… OKAY…Sorry Dippet…BOMBARDA!"

Tom reacted just in time, closing his eyes and sidestepping the giant stone head of the griffin gargoyle as the entire guardian exploded inward. Tom brushed off the debris and blew the rest off the leftover half of his biscuit as he held it out to the sweating, heavy breathing Piper now visible just beyond the stairs. "Biscuit?"

"Oh, fuck you. And fuck that old man too!" Piper huffed and puffed as they pushed Tom aside, took the offered biscuit, and stomped up the stairs. Tom giggled and followed them up and giggled some more as he overheard them go off on Albus. "… said he NEEDED me. Operative word there, Professor. And that there wasn't much time. You emphasized that part. Sendin' a bloody lightning chicken to scare the piss outta me in the bath. Fine dreams, those bubbles made me have."

Tom opened the door just in time too see Piper pick up a mug for themself and take a sip mid-rant, "I thought the bath's were a bloody sacred…Oh…Merlin's smaller right trinket, those are some rum leaves, Professor. Tom did you…" They steeped a hefty biscuit into their cup and took a bite, "Oh man…Dom…You've godda dry id wiv duh…Aaah, almost went Blink-y there… Have you tried dunking it?"

Tom took his seat on the other side and chuckled as he nodded and turned to Professor Dumbledore, "In the bath, Albus? How crude."

Albus took a deep gulp of his tea and protested as he left his cup and saucer to hover just in front of his left shoulder, "I simply guided my Patronus to find Mx. Nobel. Who, might I add, has in the past 3 minutes broken nearly 31 school rules and demolished a gargoyle that has guarded this office for nearly a millennia."

Albus smirked at Piper who responded in the middle of another bite, "Zorry…I…" They took a gulp of their tea to wash down the biscuit and continued, "I can fix it. You know I can, Professor."

Albus stood and with a flourish of his wand, the cups, saucers, tea pot, and biscuits vanished with a pop. "If not for my earlier row and teetering tenure at this school, I would suggest waiting until Headmaster Dippet returned to fix it. But perhaps Tom here can inform you of your necessary attendance while you both repair the 984 year old stone gargoyle. Impressive spellwork during your exams today, both of you. I especially liked your self-sowing beetle-button, Piper."

Tom looked at Piper in mixed jealousy and pride as he mouthed, "Self-sowing?" They slipped each other a five and got up to go back down the stairs. As Piper methodically replaced each piece of the gargoyle like they rewound time, Tom explained the abilities of the Pensieve without delving too much into his own experiences with Albus inside. He still wasn't sure if he wanted Piper to know about the golden, magically illuminated door in his nightmare. Piper nodded and asked a couple questions but remained laser-focused on repairing their damage, down to the dust and debris littering the floor both inside and beyond the stairway.

When they both ascended and reentered the Headmaster's office, Albus was already standing over the Pensieve and beckoned them over with a simple finger wave over his left shoulder. They took their places and Tom snickered as Piper fell into its enchanting light and only snapped out of it when Albus began, "I trust mister Riddle has informed you of the Pensieve's functions and our use of it?'

Piper shook themself loose and answered, "Yes… I mean, he's still a vague, withholding prat but I understood. Who's memory is this?"

Albus smiled and noted, "You choose you friends wisely, Tom. I am thankful. This is not one of Tom's memories. I would not void our trust and let you see them without his commitment and permission. This, however, I believe is something of a gift to him. One I did not believe he would enter alone. Piper Nobel…"

Tom recognized the look the professor gave Piper, his eyes piercing them over his half-moon spectacles, searching for any hint of deceit as he inquired, "Do I have your word this memory, and your involvement in its viewing, will not leave this room? Not even to younger master Crockett, and most especially not Headmaster Dippet?"

Piper smirked and jested, "For Godric's sake, Tom. Now I see what you meant… I…"

Albus cut them off and leaned closer, the light of the Pensieve amplifying the color of his eyes, "Mx. Nobel…"

Piper leaned in too and said, their scar growing up from their clavicle as they growled, "I blew apart a magically bolstered, giant stone griffin to get to him. You have your answer, Professor."

Albus's stern, thin lips loosened into the first toothy grin Tom had seen from him and stood back up straight to say, "Brilliant. Ad intellectum!" and plunged his face full into the Pensieve. Much to the surprise and instinctive recoil of both Piper and Tom, it didn't splash. Piper's cackle drowned out as they both dunked their faces in as well and Tom felt a familiar sinking sensation as he fell through a multi-tiered roof like it were smoke and felt his feet find purchase on the tile floor a room he knew well.

Tom opened his eyes and slowly spun to examine the off-color kitchen around him. He recognized the wooden cabinetry, though they weren't aged and falling apart as he knew them. They looked relatively knew and with a fresh coat of varnish, barely visible through the filter the Pensieve applied to memories. He ran his finger along the same counter top where he "helped" a younger Billy Stubbs force out his first loose tooth when they were both six. As Piper stood in awe and failed to from words as they waved their hand in front of their face and tried to pick things up, to no avail, Tom's attention switched to the lightly snoring, younger yet still recognizable Ms. Cole.

Tom looked around the see Albus leaning on the doorframe to the main hallway, which Tom also saw didn't have the wear and dents it did the last time he saw it. He continued to look around the kitchen, finding small yet noticeable differences and asked, "Did you witness the entire memory?"

Albus stepped away from the doorway and turned around to sit down on the second step of the first set of stairs. When Tom joined him, pulling Piper with him, Albus answered, "None at all. I am… confident that Ms. Cole's recollection will be as accurate as the human, Muggle mind can be."

Piper asked, getting used to their sense of touch as they grazed their hand along the wooden bannister, "I still don't understand…Why is this one important? You said this wasn't one of Tom's."

Albus smiled and pointed to the still snoozing Ms. Cole, whose agape mouth lay half concealed by her awkwardly stretched arm and the wooden table she rested on. "This one is hers, from a night with true love and terrible tragedy…This…" A faint, metal scraping sound cut him off and each of their heads turned toward the source beyond the closed front door. Tom's heart thumped and sank in his chest. Even through the magic of the Pensieve, he could feel his pulse quicken and he took one step forward before Piper's soft hands grabbed his lagging left wrist.

"Tom…Wait. Something isn't right…Why can we see this if she is still asleep?" Piper pondered aloud as they kept a hold on Tom's hand, holding him back.

Albus answered confidently and without the slightest hesitation, "Watch the clock."

Both Piper and Tom looked to the only clock in the room, an ancient grandfather sitting at the end of the hallway next to the stairs and noted at the same time, "It's stopped." Tom remembered one of his first trips into the Pensieve, inside his memory of an astronomy class and explained to Piper, "The Pensieve can only see what the mind of the owner has seen. She hasn't woken, so the clock is still frozen. She won't know until…"

Too on queue, another, longer sound of metal scraping across the ground took their attention and all but Albus Dumbledore jumped as Ms. Cole suddenly woke up and noisily scooted back her chair across the tile. The same moment that Ms. Cole rubbed her eyes and peered out of the kitchen doorway to look at the grandfather clock herself, the clock spun until it matched the time of the memory and from then on moved normally.

Tom walked in circles around Ms. Cole as she straightened out the apron over her night gown and took three attempts to light a small lantern found on small table by the entrance. Just as she reached a slightly shaking hand out to open the door by its tarnished brass handle, muttering to herself about the cold, the time of night, and how it better not be "another one", another woman, one Tom didn't recognize and far older than this version of Ms. Cole, softly descended the last steps, through the smoky form of Albus Dumbledore, and onto the tile hallway.

"You have drool on your face, Ms. Cole. Did you sleep in the kitchen again? We discussed…" the new woman, in the same outfit as Ms. Cole except with a sleeping cap started.

Ms. Cole cut her off, "I was counting our stores, Ms. O'Shea, when sleep took me. Who could it be at this time of night? And in this snow and fog?"

Tom stepped aside as the elder woman called O'Shea almost strode through him, flicked on the porch-light and peeked out the door with Ms. Cole. Tom looked to Albus, who sat with his hands clasped in front of his face as he watched, unmoving, from the stairs. When Albus still didn't budge, Tom and Piper both followed and Ms. Cole opened the door fully and fell to her knees help up a heavily dressed figure.

""Oh, my dear. My dear, what are you doing out so late in the freezing fog?" Ms. Cole asked kindly but with a failed attempt to hide her wrinkling nose and a fretful look to Ms. O'Shea.

The figure spoke with a pained, female voice from beneath the many blankets hiding her face, "My baby… please save my baby. I have some…I have money…" Tom moved close, just behind Ms. O'Shea who held a hand up to cover her mouth and nose. The unknown woman reached far into her blankets and brought forth a single gold Sovereign clutched in her hands behind overgrown fingernails caked with dirt and grime. She reached another hand in and held out a few bronze and silver coins Tom recognized to be Knuts and Sickles. The pieces clicked all at once in his mind and Tom collapsed to his knees on the steps. Even though the Pensieve didn't allow the cold to reach him, he still felt it flow from his extended fingertips and up his arms as he reached forward and his hand moved through the female figure's form.

Piper knelt next to Tom as the figure and the two women moved past them and the memory continued. Though they hesitated at first, Piper put their arm around him and asked, "Is that…Oh Tom…We don't have to…"

Tom brushed them off without a word and stood to follow the memory as it unfolded and dark, inky clouds overtook the scene outside. He entered the hallway just as the elder woman in her sleeping cap finished saying, "… is Ms. O'Shea, Delia O'Shea."

Tom watched the female figure remove its makeshift blanket hood to show a ratty, knotted mane of black hair and say, looking down at her stomach, "Riddle. Merope Riddle. Please, Ms. O'Shea, save my baby. Please." But just as soon as she said it, the same inky cloud covered the scene, overtaking Merope Riddle and Ms. O'Shea's cloudy form. Tom's anger peaked and he ran past Piper, past the grandfather clock at the end of the hall, and outside where Ms. Cole frantically attempted to pump out water with a force rod.

Tom rounded on her on her and boomed, "GO BACK INSIDE, YOU USELESS, DRUNKEN COW. GO! BACK!" When Ms. Cole's cloudy form didn't obey, he tried to kick the bucket over but his foot passed right through it and he screamed, "I SAID GO BACK. I NEED TO SEE HER. GO. BACK!"

Unmoved by his unheard, angered pleas, Ms. Cole continued in vain to pump out water until she knocked over the bucket herself and picked it back up to run back inside. She ran straight through the cloudy form of Piper as they ran out to see Tom with a look of worry and sorrow on their face. Tom pushed past them as they tried to say something. They sighed and followed Tom back inside and the inky clouds took the outside world too.

Tom's face screwed up as hateful thoughts overtook his mind. He angrily stomped around as he watched Ms. Cole impatiently wait for the water of the shower she stood just outside of heat up. When the bucket finally filled all the way up, she grabbed a few clean looking towels from a nearby rack, left the bathroom, and went back into the room where Merope Riddle and Delia O'Shea were.

As she set the bucket down, Ms. Cole said in a hurried voice, "Apologies, Ms. O'Shea. Pump outside…"

Tom screamed over her, "IT'S SNOWING OUTSIDE, YOU DAFT BITCH. OF COURSE IT'S FROZEN. I…" Tom realized that the memory paused and looked angrily at Albus, who stood just out in the hallway with Piper, who held their arms folded across their body and tears lightly flowed down their cheeks. A faint blue light emanated from Dumbledore's wand and he softly began, "Tom…She cannot hear you… This is j…"

Tom angrily walked forward, stepping through Merope's form on the bed and bellowed, "I KNOW THAT! BUT THAT… That dumb Muggle…"

Albus held up his hand and Tom immediately stopped, though he still stared angrily into Albus's noticeably saddened, electric blue eyes. "Please, Tom. I know this hurts. It is why I wanted Mx. Nobel to be with you. This will hurt. But…Ms. Cole told me every detail as she gave me this memory. It is a part you MUST see. Please, let it continue."

Piper reached out a hand as their massive scar continued to overtake their neck to meet the tears now dripping down their chin. "I'm here, Tom."

Tom looked down at their hand, his own tears hot behind his eyes and his hand shaking at his side. He wanted to leave. He wanted to leave and never see Albus again. Even if it meant running away from everything he came to know and enjoy. Abandon magic altogether if it meant he didn't have to be here anymore. But when Piper grabbed his hand again and yanked him close, pulling his head down to rest just beneath their neck, Tom heard their heartbeat. Tom could feel Piper's desperate efforts to calm their own emotions and slow their heart. The pace of it easing in both intensity and speed against his face gradually calmed him too.

Even as Albus resumed the memory, Tom stood there in Piper's arms for a couple minutes before letting out a deep, necessary sigh and raise himself back up to full height. He looked down at Piper, who smiled through their the tears, the scarring on their face contorting it near the edges due to damage. "It's okay to be angry, Tom. I still plan the violent deaths of the men who did this to me and burned down my home. Every day I want to scream and break every mirror in the school. But I don't. I don't."

Tom nodded and when Ms. Cole hurried out of the room, running through their forms, and took the stairs two steps at a time, Tom, Piper, and Albus with his hands inside the pockets of his long robes followed. Ms. Cole rushed through three vacant rooms upstairs to find an unused candle and then into a small bathroom to take a small bar of soap off the counter. When she returned with Tom, Piper, and Albus behind her, she took her seat and handed everything to Ms. O'Shea. Albus flourished his wand and conjured three spectral, smoky chairs for them and they each took a seat around the room but out of visual range of beneath Merope's threadbare clothing.

Tom watched intently, his hand gripping Piper's tight when he saw Delia pull away and throw a blood and feces-soaked rag into an empty bucket, grabbing a fresh one from the water bucket Ms. Cole brought. "Alright, Merope. Give it a good shove. Clench your arse and let's get that babe out." Tom winced as he squeezed Piper's hand even harder and Merope wailed as she too squeezed with everything she had.

After two more cycles of reassuring words from each of the two women and heart-wrenching screams from Merope, Tom let go of Piper's hand and brought his chair closer to Merope and looked into her brown, unnaturally cocked and bloodshot eyes. He wrung his hands with his elbows digging into his knees. Piper moved closer as well just as the baby's head and neck emerged and Ms. O'Shea beckoned to Ms. Cole, "Alright, scissors, clamps, and forceps, Ms. Cole. Ms. Riddle…" The elder matron gently stroked Merope's face. "…You've done…"

Both Tom and Ms. O'Shea looked down at the small baby boy in her arms. Just out of his periphery until his eyes shot to them, Tom saw goose pimples rise up on the back of Ms. O'Shea's neck. He looked back and forth from her neck to the baby's eyes, his eyes, confused. The baby's chest rose and fell quickly against the pressure of Ms. O'Shea's fingers but no cries came from it. Tom looked to Merope, zoning out the rest of the noise in the room and watched helplessly as her head teetered and struggled to stay up, falling through the smoky form of his outstretched hand to catch her.

Ms. O'Shea moved through him and started to shake Merope after handing the baby to Ms. Cole. Tom felt a massive pit, ever growing, form around his heart and into his stomach. Ms. O'Shea pleaded, "Come on, girl. Stay with us. You haven't lost much blood. I've seen far worse and kept girls from seein' Styx…

O'Shea continued to shake her for a few seconds before Merope roused and immediately looked around, asking, "Where… Where's my baby? Where's my boy?" Tom watched her lock eyes with Ms. Cole in a mix of hate and relief as she reached out to take her son from the young woman. Ms. Cole guided her hands to properly hold the baby and stepped back. "Oh, a beautiful boy. He has his father's eyes. Oh, my Tom…"

Tom stared at his just born self in the memory, taking Piper's reaching hand as Merope continued, looking up to Ms. Cole "Tom, that will be him name. After his wonderful father. Yes, Tom. And Marvolo, after my father. He must keep our line. Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Tom looked to his mother and saw her cracked, toothy smile widen as she looked down at her baby. Tom's lips quivered as he saw her slowly close and reopen her eyes. She kept her grip firm on the child, even as she struggled to keep her head up against the wire railing. Tom felt Piper reach change hands and reach an arm around him to hold him as Merope's breathing slowed. Tom couldn't understand much of what his mother muttered in her last moments, but he knew he heard it. The one thing keeping him in this memory. Something he has wanted to hear all his life but didn't realize that someone, his own mother, already told him with her last breath.

"I love you…My beautiful boy. Oh, I love you so mu…"

Tears fell down Tom's face and he gripped Piper's hand tighter than ever. He felt the firm but welcome grip of Albus on his shoulders standing behind him. Tom silently wept as he brought Piper in closer and balled himself up in his chair. He felt Piper's tears soak through his dress shirt as they buried their face into his shoulder and tightened their hold on him.

Even as Ms. Cole and Ms. O'Shea took turns attempting to resuscitate Merope after laying the now bawling baby Tom Riddle, the three stayed put. Huddled over the dead form of Tom's mother. After a minute or so, his tears drying and caking his face, Tom sat up and asked between sudden, convulsive sobs, "Can… can you take it back… to…to…"

Albus nodded and squeezed Tom's shoulder as he the faint blue light returned to his wand and he rotated it to rewind the memory to Merope's last moments. Tom let go of Piper's hand as he scooted his chair even closer, hoping to hear all of what his mother said. But he couldn't hear it. It didn't matter. He just wanted to hear her say it. It was all he wanted.

"Oh, I love you so…" Merope said again, her head drooping.

Without looking away, Tom commanded, "Again." Albus obeyed, rotating his wand.

"I love you so…"

"Again."

"I love you."

"Again," Tom said as tears began to form in his eyes again.

The cycle continued four more times until Piper, silent tears falling down their face again, retook Tom's hand and said themselves, "Again."

"I love you."

Both Tom and Piper said in unison, "Again".

Albus sat down in his own chair and rewound the memory six more times until Tom raised his eyes, bloodshot and struggling to stay open from the strain of crying, and turned to Albus. Albus halted the scene immediately as Tom said, taking deep breaths, "Thank you…Thank you."

End of Book 2.

Stay tuned for Book 3: Abridging an Aberration, which begins on April 11, 2021

A/N:

SO... yeah. That's the end of Book 2: The Maze Within. My original intentions for the end of this book was more climactic and involved a dream sequence. Definitely not my best idea, and it proved so because every draft I wrote of this last chapter felt wrong. I knew this scene had to happen but the method and people involved changed with every iteration until I settled on this version. Was it the right decision? Who knows. I don't. But I know that I felt really good after writing this ending, as good as one can be writing a son watching his mother die in front of him.

To every single person who reads this and has stayed with this story despite the erratic upload schedule, thank you. Though I can draft whole chapters in just a few hours, I am a HORRIBLE copy-editor and miss way to many mistakes to be acceptable. Maybe one day I'll just commission someone to do it for me, because it is the WORST.

Anyway, thanks. See you on the 11th. If you like my style of writing but want different, maybe less depressing stories, check out my Teddy Lupin fic "Lunam Absconsa" or my James Potter fic "His Palms Were Sweaty". I'm kinda a one trick pony when it comes to detail and narrative driven writing. Apologies.