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Epilogue
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Marina gripped Tom's hand a little tighter. "Alright," she said firmly, "do it."

Tom nodded and his eyes slid from her face to the huge, circular door before them. Parseltongue slipped from his lips and Marina watched wide-eyed as the stone snake slowly encircled the edge of the door, sliding out of view again as it swung open with a metallic moan.

"Are you sure about this?" Tom asked quietly.

Marina nodded. "I want to see it."

He gave a small, slightly tense sigh and stepped forward, pulling her with him as they passed through the door and into the huge chamber within. It immediately defied her expectations.

The Chamber of Secrets was cavernous and dim, their footsteps echoing across the huge stone serpents lining the walls as they walked deeper, water pooling everywhere and at the far end loomed a face she recognised without knowing.

Marina stared up at Salazar Slytherin, blank-faced and impassive. She wondered what he'd think if he knew that there was a Muggle in his precious Chamber. If he knew his Heir was at that very moment, holding hands with said Muggle, his eyes trained intently on her face looking about as close to nervous as Tom was capable of getting.

"So this is where you did it," Marina said quietly, looking around. "This is where you tore your soul out."

Tom nodded slowly, expression very guarded.

Marina hummed thoughtfully. "Strange," she murmured, "to think of you doing that to yourself."

"I was not who I am now," he said, muted and reserved.

Marina met his eyes. "Why are you so worried?" she asked curiously, stepping towards him and absently placing her hands on his chest. "I already knew about all this, it's not like I'm going to scarper now that I've seen your dumb secret chamber."

A smile broke on Tom's face and he huffed a laugh as his eyes dropped to the damp floor between them. "Your way with words is truly unparalleled," he said very dryly, glancing back up at her.

Marina smiled too and leaned closer, coming up on the balls of her feet. Tom's arms immediately wrapped around her and he met her lips softly, dizziness engulfing her as she breathed slowly, every thought consumed by the feeling of him against her. She pulled back a little to look at him, and Tom's hand lifted to brush her hair back. "I thought it might make it more real to you," he said quietly, "seeing where I did it."

"That's why I wanted to see it," she said calmly.

Tom frowned, looking around the Chamber too, his arm still tightly holding her and his hand cupping her cheek. "It's strange to be here again," he said, tone suspiciously even, "though I suppose really, very little has changed."

"Are you joking?" Marina deadpanned.

"I still only have part of a soul," he said colourlessly, not looking at her. "My fate is quite unchanged from when I was last here."

She exhaled hard and let her forehead fall against his chest. That fact had not escaped her, but it seemed too exhausting to consider after the scale of their victory mere hours beforehand.

"Marina," Tom said quietly, "I… have something to tell you."

She lifted her head, frowning at him. "What?"

"Dumbledore was not entirely honest with you," he began carefully.

Marina snorted. "No shit."

"About how you came to be here."

She froze, staring at him in very sudden seriousness.

"And about your memories," Tom continued, watching her closely.

"What do you mean?" she whispered.

"I… always intended on telling you before… all of this…" he frowned, looking away. "I didn't realise how little time we had, or I would have said something at Riddle House…"

"Tom," she said loudly. "What is it?"

He met her eyes. "He told me it was an accident," he said slowly, "I was never sure if I believed him or not… but the reason you were so unwell when you arrived was because… the Room of Requirement isn't supposed to work on anything alive."

Marina frowned. "The… Room of Requirement?"

He nodded. "That's where he found you. That he was passing one day and summoned it without intending to, and when he entered you were there. Apparently the Room was in shambles, like bringing you here nearly broke it."

"It nearly broke me," Marina exclaimed despite herself.

"He said your memories were pouring out of you," Tom said quietly, "from your head, just pooling beneath you."

And Marina realised what he was saying very suddenly, wondered if there was ever going to be a point where, even after death, Dumbledore stopped disappointing her. "Dumbledore had my memories this whole time," she said quite blankly, looking blindly at Slytherin's stone face beside them.

Tom nodded silently.

"He kept them from me," she continued, something trembling beneath the numb feeling on her skin, "because... because…"

"He knew if you had them, you'd want to go home." Tom finished quietly. "You'd miss all the people you left behind. And you wouldn't help him."

Marina laughed disbelievingly, shaking her head as a storm of emotions buffeted her chest. "That man," she said monotonously, "never fails to piss me off."

"They're in his office," Tom said, watching her carefully, "if you want them."

She frowned, staring at him. All this time and her memories had been right there, all those hours spent in meetings and her life had been mere inches away, hidden by Dumbledore because he knew it would be strategically advantageous to keep her in the dark. "He said once," she whispered, "that having those memories would only cause me pain because I'd know what I'd lost."

Tom said nothing, eyes flicking between hers.

"I think… I think I need to know that pain," Marina said carefully, frowning harder to stop her eyes from welling up again. "I think I don't really make sense without those people. It's wrong not to miss them."

He nodded again, wordless and watchful.

"It'll suck though," she breathed, pulling away and turning to Slytherin. "It'll probably suck a lot, actually, since I'm stuck here forever."

She sat down with a huff, legs outstretched in front of her as she leaned back on her hands, staring up at Slytherin's blank, stone eyes. Tom hesitated for a moment and then he sat down beside her, mimicking her posture. "You know," he said with impressive nonchalance, looking up at Slytherin too, "McGonagall said something rather interesting to me when we were in the Hospital Wing."

"Oh?" Marina said with a small smile, glancing at him.

He briefly met her gaze, and her smile widened when she saw the glimmer in his eyes. "Yes," he said in the same tone, looking back at Slytherin. "She offered me a job."

"A job?" she echoed, bemused.

He smiled at the statue. "As Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. The position's become recently available."

Marina stared at him for a long moment, and then she snorted a laugh. "Unbelievable," she drawled. "That is truly incredible irony."

"She offered you one, too," Tom said quietly.

Marina blinked. "Huh?"

"You're a little overqualified, actually," he added wryly, looking at her again. "But there's an empty vacancy for a Professor of Muggle Studies, since the last one has also been thrown in Azkaban."

"Muggle Studies," she repeated blankly, thoughts racing.

"Not unlike Anthropology, is it not?" Tom said with a humorous smile. "And you did tell me once that you enjoy teaching."

Marina blinked at him. "Huh," she said simply, turning back to Slytherin. "Professor of Muggle Studies," she mused, turning the idea over in her head. "At Hogwarts."

"I mean, we do know that you have the capability to turn around peoples' anti-Muggle rhetoric," Tom said casually, leaning his head to the side. "I can offer myself as evidence for the case, if you like."

"I don't think McGonagall will take too kindly if I rekindle my trusty method of rapid-fire insults of wizardry," Marina grinned, "and I'd probably have to come up with something that involves a lot less swearing, too."

"You're good at marking essays, though," Tom said with a smirk.

"Then I better take the job," Marina snickered, "shit, can't believe I actually got employed with a BA… and they said it couldn't be done."

"Is that a future joke?" Tom asked dryly.

"Yeah, whoops. Think I just destroyed a timeline somewhere?"

"Most definitely yes."

Marina laughed softly again, and then a long moment of silence passed as they looked up at Slytherin glaring coldly back down at them.

"I thought…" Tom said slowly. "Perhaps…"

She glanced at him, attention captivated by the sudden hesitancy in his tone. Tom's brow was furrowed and he wasn't looking her way. He looked uncharacteristically shy. "What?" she asked, amused.

"If you would like to," he said quietly, looking down at the pool of water before them. "You might… come live with me."

Marina blinked, stunned.

"At Riddle House," he added, finally looking at her. The guarded look had returned to his eyes like he was gearing up for her to say no.

"You want to live in Riddle House?" she asked in disbelief.

He nodded. "It's mine, after all," he frowned, looking away again, "though you're very welcome to refuse. I already talked to Molly about it and she said she's happy for you to stay with them once they rebuild the Burrow, if you'd prefer, and I believe that Hogwarts would offer you quarters if you chose to stay here whilst –"

"Tom," Marina interrupted, smiling, "of course I'll live with you."

His eyes widened, flashing to hers like he hadn't been expecting the answer.

"Though I'll warn you now," she said with a smirk, "I take my socks off in bed and there's always about five hundred trapped at the bottom of the sheets by the end of the week."

A slow smile was building on Tom's face. "I believe I can handle that transgression," he said wryly.

"Good," she grinned.

Tom's eyes lingered on hers, and Marina felt something warm and overwhelming settle in her chest. "Marina," he said, his voice suddenly quiet and careful.

"Yes?" she asked, matching his tone.

"Is this…" Tom frowned, swallowed. "Are we in love?"

She blinked, the warmth taking on a strangely brittle quality. "Yeah," she whispered, not looking away.

Tom's eyes flickered, and he nodded slowly. They both looked back up at Slytherin at the same time.

"It seems a shame," Tom said blankly, "that I'm not… that after all this, my soul isn't…"

And something hit Marina like a truck. "Oh my god," she whispered under her breath, head reeling.

"What?" Tom asked immediately, frowning as he turned to her, his eyes raking across her form like he might spot the problem before she told him.

"No, nothing's wrong," she said quickly, "I… I think I just… listen, you gotta trust me but I have a dumb idea –"

"What is it?" he demanded.

She turned to him, looking him dead in the eye. "Think of a happy memory," she said clearly.

He stared at her. "Excuse me?"

"You're going to try to cast a Patronus."

Tom's expression became horribly patient. "Marina," he said in a low voice, tilting his head, "you know that I can't –"

"You can at least try, right?" Marina interrupted, "Remus always said that a fractured soul can't cast one, so if you can, then you know that your soul isn't damaged. That it's whole again."

"Part of my soul was destroyed," Tom said monotonously, not looking impressed by her latest stupid idea, "otherwise Harry would be –"

"Yes, thank you, I'm quite aware," Marina said in a clipped tone, "I said trust me for a reason."

He hesitated. "What are you thinking?" he asked suspiciously.

"Try it, and I'll tell you after," she said quickly, fixing him with an intent look. "Please, Tom."

He sighed, looking at her for a moment. "A happy memory," he said slowly.

Marina nodded quickly. "The happiest you've got."

Tom blinked calmly. "Alright," he said smoothly, and she watched him get to his feet and pull out his wand. He exhaled, and then lifted it, pointing it at Slytherin's face. "Expecto Patronum," he said evenly.

Nothing happened. He gave Marina a very pointed look.

"Are you joking?" Marina scoffed. "God, Tom, even I wasn't convinced by that and I'm a bloody Muggle."

"Well hardly the authority on the matter then," he snapped.

"Try harder," she said, waving a hand at him.

"Would you like to demonstrate?" he drawled sarcastically. "Since you're apparently the expert?"

"I think I could probably give it a better go than whatever the hell that was," she snorted.

"This is hardly helping," he muttered, looking back at Slytherin tensely.

"Tom," she said quietly, and he met her eyes at once. "I love you."

His face was wiped of all emotion at once. "That's very manipulative," he said quietly, but his eyes had gone dark and soft.

"It's also true," she smiled, cocking her head at him. "I've been in love with you for quite some time, actually."

"You're just trying to get me to cast the spell," he muttered, but he didn't seem quite able to look away.

"I'm both trying to get you to the cast the spell, and being uncharacteristially open with my emotions," said Marina, watching him with amusement. "I think I'd very happily spend the rest of my life with you."

Tom exhaled again, but it sounded significantly more fragile. He wrenched his eyes off her and looked back up at Slytherin, lifting his wand again. Marina watched his jaw tense slightly, and her heart skipped a beat. He looked like this time, he was really, actually trying.

"Expecto Patronum!" he said loudly.

And from the tip of Tom's wand burst forth a silvery blue shape that Marina recognised at once, her stomach flipping, of course, of course that was his Patronus, because he'd died, hadn't he? Every time he'd taken on a Horcrux he'd died and been reborn, and hours beforehand he'd died with a basilisk fang in his chest and been reborn, and years ago he'd died in this very spot, ripped from his body to be reborn decades later.

The phoenix let a long, musical note, spreading its burning blue wings and soaring up around Slytherin's face, and Marina and Tom watched it in blank astonishment as it turned and flew back down the Chamber, vanishing into the darkness.

There was a long silence.

"How?" Tom said hollowly, looking back at Marina.

"I… it was just a hunch," she whispered, staring back at him, "but… we gave you part of us when we wrote in the diary, me and Remus and everyone. That's how you came back. I thought that maybe… maybe it was enough to replace the part that was in Harry…"

Tom stared at her. "Part of my soul is made up of you?" he asked quietly. "And the others?"

She nodded silently. "I think so."

Tom blinked, and then looked back at where the phoenix had vanished. "So, when I die," he said slowly, and he swallowed hard like he couldn't carry on.

"You won't go to Limbo," murmured Marina, elation slowly budding in her chest again, "your soul isn't broken, Tom."

And he let out another long breath as he looked back at her, taking a slow step closer and coming to a stop in front of her. "Would you like to go find your memories?" he asked quietly.

Nerves splintered in her chest. "I guess it's in the spirit of becoming whole again, isn't it?" she said carefully.

He nodded.

"It's going to be hard," she whispered. "Especially after today. After… after Charlie." And her throat closed up again, tears welling in her eyes and she blinked hard to try to dispel them.

"I know," Tom said gently, and he held out his hand. "That's why I thought we could go together."

And Marina stared at him.

Suddenly, she could only think about all the times she'd been here, Tom before her, offering her his hand. Hours prior at the doors to Hogwarts, about to face down Voldemort, no idea what the future would bring – when Luna had been kidnapped and he'd come talk to her, somehow cheering her up with his strange, blunt manner and pulling her to her feet afterwards – in the Burrow before Apparating to Azkaban, what felt like years and years ago before she'd even been able to face her growing feelings for him – standing before her in the cellar at Malfoy Manor, covered in dirt, there to rescue her – years ago, years ago when they'd landed on the lawn outside Riddle House and she was covered in blood and dizzy with time sickness –

And god, the first time. In her room above Tomes and Scrolls after she'd fallen from her bed from yelling at him, just a ghost of a sad, angry boy, barely corporeal, and she'd passed straight through his hand, but he'd offered it, hadn't he? He got credit for trying.

She thought about him as Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. She thought about the Muggle Studies position. She thought about living with him in Riddle House.

Suddenly she felt like maybe, despite everything, after some time perhaps, once the ache of grieving Charlie and the bone-deep exhaustion faded a bit, once the pain of remembering all the people she'd lost in her old life had settled, maybe with him, with Tom, one day things might really be okay.

Marina looked at Tom's outstretched hand.

"Alright." she said quietly. "Together."

She took it.

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A/N: Well... that's it everyone. That's the end!
Thanks for coming with me on this journey, it was a hell of a ride. If you've ever reviewed my story, especially if you've reviewed multiple times, please know how much that meant to me. I was a wee baby writer when I started this, I'd not shared my writing with anyone really ever, and it meant the whole world to me to receive so much positive and constructive feedback.
Special thanks to sssalvatxre who translated this story into Spanish on wattpad for a bit and was just an amazing, incredibly kind person, it really meant a lot to me, I hope you're doing well :)
If you like my writing, check out my tumblr! Is it deadass called tmr-simp-pride, a place where I exclusively write incredibly self-indulgent Tom Riddle imagines based on prompts from random strangers? Yes, yes it is. Please hit me up there if u wanna yarn, or have a prompt I guess lmao.
Thank you again, for reading, for reviewing, all of it, I really, seriously appreciate you.
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