Summary: Amy Benson was six when she met Tom Riddle
The Quidditch League Fanfiction Round 4
Team: Falmouth Falcons
Position: Keeper
Prompt: Asylum
Word Count: 1,494
Betas: Ikuni Hattori
A/N: I hope Amy's story ties in to the timeline with what little we know of her.
Warnings: Implied torture and fear.
Also written for: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (challenges & assignments) (Additional prompts listed at bottom)
Criminology & Forensic Studies - Task 1: Write about someone becoming a victim of something.
Amy Benson's Story
Amy Benson was six when she became an orphan. It had been her and her papa for her whole life. Now it was just her.
Like the brave girl Papa had raised her to be, Amy went to Wool's Orphanage with a small bag of items and no tears. She nodded politely when spoken to and made no fuss when she was taken to the room she would share with the other girls there.
Amy Benson was six when she met Tom Riddle.
X
Tom was the first person Amy had ever met that didn't have love or kindness in their eyes. Even the tired adults who shouted still had a little kindness in their eyes.
She tried to stay away from Tom, which was easier in school as he was older, but this seemed to encourage him to follow her around. Amy started to feel like something bad would always happen if Tom was nearby, because usually they did.
Amy Benson was seven when they found Billy Stubbs' rabbit hanging from the rafters.
X
Dennis Bishop was Amy's friend. He was kind to her and always looked after her if someone was being mean to her; that didn't always include Tom Riddle because no one could prove what he did. If Dennis said a person or a situation was okay, then she trusted his word.
She really wished she hadn't when they went on that trip to the coast. Dennis wanted to see the cave and he didn't want to go alone with Tom. Dennis had been a good friend and it was time to be a good friend in return. They thought they would be fine if they were together.
Amy Benson was eight when they went into the cave.
X
Albus Dumbledore was a funny man who dressed in nice clothes with odd colours. Amy remembered the purple in his suit, it was her favourite colour. He came to talk to Tom Riddle. The other children didn't know how to feel about that; Tom was not a good boy and didn't deserve to have a kind man like Albus Dumbledore talking to him. But they also hoped this meant Tom was going away.
Maybe things would be better if Tom wasn't there anymore.
Before Albus Dumbledore left, he spoke to Amy – and Dennis – but Amy wouldn't know that. He asked about Tom and the time they went to the cave. His words were gentle and soothing, but that wasn't the effect they had on Amy.
Amy began to shake and cry and back away from Albus Dumbledore, fear racing through her veins. He was no longer a kind old man; he was skeletal and eyeless and made of nightmares.
"Please," she begged, "don't hurt me. I promised. I promised."
"Okay, Miss Benson. A promise is a promise," Albus Dumbledore said softly.
With those few words, Albus Dumbledore became a kind old man again.
Amy Benson was nine when Tom Riddle went to a different school from everyone else and the doctors came to talk to her.
X
Amy became used to the comment not quite right when they thought she wasn't within earshot, as did Dennis. They never spoke of that time in the cave, not even to each other, because when they did, it took weeks for the nightmares to go away. Amy never allowed herself to think about the cave. If she went through her day just right, she could almost forget what happened.
Almost.
The doctors still liked to talk to Amy and Dennis. Every week, on a Saturday morning, they would be taken to the asylum for exactly one hour. Sometimes the doctors would encourage Mrs Cole to leave them there, but Mrs Cole was a good woman that knew what asylums could be like and refused. She would tell them that the children were no bother, just a little quiet. Amy would make sure to listen to these conversations through the door. Just in case.
Amy was not prepared for the day they told her she couldn't leave the doctor's office until she told him exactly what happened in the cave. The more he pushed, the more she screamed and broke down as the doctor, who was no longer a doctor, decayed before her very eyes.
Amy Benson was fourteen when they kept her at the asylum.
X
Amy Benson was forgotten about for many years.
She quietly lived her life under the watchful eyes of the doctors of the asylum, never sure what she had done to be kept there for all those years. She never caused a fuss, she took her tablets, and she followed instructions.
Except one.
She would never talk about her visit to the cave.
Amy was there so long that doctors came and went and it was forgotten why they needed Amy to talk about the cave. All they knew was they couldn't back down until she had.
Amy never backed down.
She wouldn't be able to if she tried.
There were discussions about letting Amy leave the Asylum from time to time, but with no family, who would she go to? Who would look after her now?
One day, long into her adult life, Amy received a visitor: a man she hadn't seen since she was a small child. He had a longer beard, and it was grey now, but she remembered the kind face. Albus Dumbledore also wore Amy's favourite colour again – purple.
"I was very sorry to find you here, Miss Benson," he said in that calm voice she suddenly remembered so well.
Amy sat at a small table in the room they ate their meals in. It was a large room with pale green walls and dark wooden floors that echoed if you were alone in there. It was doing that now with just her and Albus Dumbledore, and the smiling nurse by his side.
Albus Dumbledore sat on the other side of the small table, his hands clasped on top of it, staring over his half-moon glasses at her. Amy liked his eyes, they made her remember happy times with Papa.
"If I had known what had become of you, I would have visited a long time ago," he continued when she'd remained silent.
Amy kept looking at the nurse that was with him. "Is she going to try and make me talk about the cave too?" Amy asked in a raspy voice. She didn't use her voice much, these days.
"You made a promise, Miss Benson, and you've been very good at keeping it," Albus Dumbledore said praisingly. "We're here to see if we can make you better."
Amy nodded.
When new doctors arrived, they would say the same words. Amy stopped feeling optimistic at those words a long time ago.
And they tried.
Albus Dumbledore took her hands over the table. The nurse stood behind her and did something with a stick. She cried out at memories she'd forgotten about. Memories she didn't know were there. Memories that suddenly felt very fresh and painful. So very painful.
And then they were gone again.
Now she was breathless and sweating and feeling like she'd been running for a long time.
"I'm so very sorry, Miss Benson. I thought we could help." He patted her hand. "I will make sure to help you in another manner."
Amy Benson woke up on her fortieth birthday in a small cottage in Scotland, having had the strangest dream she'd spent her adult life in an asylum.
X
After a night watching children have their fun in the village dressed as witches and ghouls and monsters, Amy Stewart née Benson was at home, settling into bed with her book. Her husband was already snoring softly by her side and she smiled at the fact that this man could love quiet Amy Benson who wasn't quite right.
She opened the hardback book, enjoying the crack the spine made, and settled down.
Suddenly Amy remembered everything about the cave.
All of it.
Meanwhile, another child was becoming an orphan in a little village called Godric's Hollow.
Amy Stewart née Benson was fifty-two when Albus Dumbledore came to visit her once more.
X
It was never explained to Amy what Tom Riddle had done, nor how she came to remember every detail of the pain and torture he'd inflicted on Dennis and herself. Without even coming near them or touching them.
It was a strange thing to remember.
It brought peace that she wasn't crazy.
It also brought unresolved pain.
But Amy Stewart née Benson had a husband who loved who she was when she wasn't her whole self. A man who had chosen to love her anyway.
And not once did he think to put her in an asylum when she finally sat him down to tell him her story.
He listened and held her hand and said he would keep her safe. Always.
Amy Stewart née Benson survived Tom Riddle.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (challenges & assignments)
Spring Seasonal
- Children's Book Day - 18. (character type) Write about an orphan
Spring Funfair
- Spring Paraded - Scooby Doo - Daphne - (colour) Purple
Yearly
- Scavenger Hunt - 12. Write a fic set in the Riddle Era
- 365 - 262. (colour) Purple