Previously on 'The Redemption'... Cho crashes into a quidditch stand from her headaches, Arlene and Henry become suspicious and Tom realises that his time for lies is up.
Chapter 28- Confrontation
"She wants to see you"
The vial of bright blue liquid dropped from Tom's slackened hands, splashing over his pristine black shoes. He recovered quickly, though his movements were stilted as he waved his wand to vanish the mess on the floor.
"Pardon?"
Henry tried his best to keep the impatience out of his voice "She woke up early this morning and she wants to see you. Maybe you can visit after class?"
Tom's jaw tensed slightly, his eyes trained on reading the tiny labels on glass flasks inside the potions storeroom. He clenched his fist against his side, stopping the shaking of his hand that betrayed his nerves.
"I'm busy after class" said Tom smoothly, ignoring the flash of annoyance on the other boys face "But I'll visit after dinner"
The anger drained from Henry's expression and he nodded awkwardly at the Head Boy "Good. Well… I'll see you later then."
He turned to leave but Tom's voice stopped him.
"How is she?"
If Henry detected the slight edge to his voice, he didn't comment on it. "She's still a little bit shaken but the headaches have gone"
Tom paused, his tone surprisingly soft. "But how is she really?"
Henry's eyes met his with a hard look that was laced with concern "I don't know"
Tom let a beat of silence pass between them before he walked out of the closet, the vial still clutched in his hand.
Cho sat up against the metal headboard of the hospital bed, wincing as Arlene roughly pulled a brush through her long hair.
"Henry said Tom's coming to see you after dinner and it might be helpful if you at least looked half presentable" said Arlene amiably, trying to make her friend smile.
Cho felt like doing anything other than smiling at that moment but she gave her friend a weak grin anyway. What was she supposed to say? That the thought of seeing Tom again would give her enough conflicting feelings to land her in a coma? Or that perhaps neat hair was the absolute least of her worries especially considering there was a very real possibility that Tom would just take her out of the equation permanently for conveniences sake?
Arlene took out a small brush and powdered Cho's nose just as she inhaled, making her cough and splutter.
"Hey! Stop it!" said Cho irritably, a deep frown settling into her features while Arlene laughed.
"Fine, fine…" she muttered, putting down her utensils and stowing them back into her backpack "Do you want me to stay until he arrives or…?"
Cho shook her head with mock solemnity "I formally release you of your duties"
Arlene stood and gave her a one armed hug, squeezing a little too tightly for comfort "I'll sneak you some pudding later from the kitchens once lights are out"
Cho squeezed back "I'll see you later then. Thanks again for the makeover although it's not entirely appreciated"
Arlene snorted at the sarcasm in her friend's tone and walked out of the Hospital Wing's doors, leaving Cho alone to ponder her impending confrontation with Tom. Checking the clock in the corner, she realised there was only 20 minutes left. Or maybe 19 since Tom tended to highly value punctuality…
She sank back into the pillows, feeling every bruise and cut on her body but deciding it was infinitely better now that she knew the truth. It was better, but not easier, and if she was honest with herself, she still didn't know what she was going to do about Tom.
Tom Riddle.
A Head Boy, a brilliant student, a friend, a liar, a manipulator, the heir of Slytherin and Lord Voldemort.
She bit back the wave of nausea, feeling sick to the pit of her empty stomach. Whereas she had cried and sobbed at the realisation at Christmas, this time she was left with a sense of calm detachment tinged with anger at her own blindness this entire time. How had she not seen this coming? Was she really that infatuated that she couldn't see what was front of her?
But it wasn't just infatuation was it? He cared for you and protected you like no other – surely that means something?
Cho quashed that little voice viciously, knowing that she couldn't let this slide. Cho was capable of forgiving many things, but what Tom, no, what Voldemort would become and what he did to her was not something she could forgive. He was self-serving and cruel enough to take away her memories, curse Malfoy and Merlin knows what else – she could never trust a single thing he said while knowing what he would become.
So what could she do? Unravel all his sins and have him put on trial for Azkaban? Let him rot in a prison haunted by Dementors until his death?
Cho shuddered at the thought, unable to entirely separate the boy she thought she knew with the evil overlord he would become. In her mind's eye she saw him as he was now – merely a boy with dark eyes and a serious expression, wasted away by the dank prison surrounded by black waves and the screeches of other inmates. She couldn't send him there could she?
The echoing of footfalls against the floors of the Hospital Wing quelled her hesitation and she grappled for the wand hidden underneath her pillow with reflexes quicker than she would have thought possible in her current state. She watched with guarded eyes as a silhouette paused outside of the flimsy white curtains that surrounded her bed.
"It's me. May I come in?"
Cho swallowed the fear that bubbled beneath the surface, steeling her nerves and holding her wand at the ready but out of sight. She pulled the woollen blankets higher, trying to look dignified in her unflattering hospital gown.
"Yes"
Tom gently swept away the curtain, seeing Cho for the first time since the quidditch accident. His eyes travelled across the last traces of the mottled bruises that covered the fair skin of her arms, moving upwards towards the tiny puckered scar that looked like a cross which lay itself on her collarbone. His gaze continued upwards, towards the faint traces of the larger scar that ran down one side of her cheek before meeting her eyes that couldn't quite meet his. She was shaking ever so slightly, biting her lip so hard that white bloomed against pink from the pressure of her teeth.
She was scared and she almost certainly despised him, but she was as beautiful as he remembered.
Tom gracefully lowered himself into the lone seat next to the bed, careful to keep his distance no matter how much he wished he didn't have to.
"You wished to see me?"
"No," she replied with a bluntness that made Tom wince "but I feel like this conversation is long overdue"
"If you're going to accuse me, then don't bother. It would be nothing that I haven't thought of myself over the last few months"
A flicker of anger crossed her expression though she tried hard not to show it "It's not accusations if it's true Tom. Do you admit that at least?"
He deflected the question, not willing to admit to his guilt.
"I do not regret what I've done Cho," he said, his voice strong and sure "I know that in your mind, you look for the good in others but there is no redemption for me. I set out this path long ago, and I will not change it."
"Not even when you know the outcome?"
Tom heard the tinge of desperation in her tone, realising that despite her revulsion, she did still want to help him. It almost brought a sardonic smile to his lips, knowing that she was perhaps the most optimistic person he had ever met, and the one person who he would never deserve.
"You must think of me as some monster who perused all your innermost thoughts with glee, but I only saw what was necessary for me to determine that you are not from this time, and that you know who I would become. You can choose not to believe me, but it is the truth."
He could see she didn't believe him, but he had expected nothing less.
"But you know that you lose the battle, and that everything that you worked towards is for nothing? You know these things and you are still willing to waste your life for something so destructive?"
"Destructive?" questioned Tom, and he almost laughed at her diplomatic way of describing what he saw in her mind "I'm changing the wizarding world-"
"Self-destructive" amended Cho forcefully, her eyes burning "Do you know what this pointless quest will cost you? I realise that you may not care for anybody else, but I know that you care about yourself. Call it selfishness, self-preservation or just Slytherin logic, but can you not see what this will turn you into?"
He shrugged, the act deliberately careful so as not to let on how much her words bothered him "What you saw was destructive, but I can change that outcome"
"You don't know that"
"And neither do you" countered Tom "So I suggest that you stop wasting your time thinking that you can change my mind"
His coldness staved off her anger, and she met his eyes unflinchingly. "You knew that I figured out who you were since Christmas and you didn't-" she paused, trying to find the words, "get rid of me to protect yourself. You didn't have to alter my memories, you could have saved yourself the trouble. Why?"
Tom leaned forward slightly, his sharp eyes catching the way she shifted back at the movement. Forcing himself to lean back, he deliberated telling her the truth before deciding against it.
"I can't answer that" he replied softly.
Her expression morphed into one of frustration and anger at his sudden elusiveness.
"But why? I know what you've done Tom, and what you're capable of. I know that you were the one that cursed Malfoy, that the Chamber of Secrets was your doing. I know that you've manipulated and murdered and yet you draw the line with me? What am I to you?"
She looked almost feverish, the colour in her cheeks tinging pink and her voice loud enough to carry to the corridor outside if Tom hadn't had the sense to place a handy spell in place beforehand. He looked at her, looking into her eyes that were no longer afraid to look at him but found that he didn't know what to say.
What was she to him? And even if he did tell her how much she meant – would it really change anything in the end?
He ignored the question with no pretence of subtlety, his voice turning hard "Are you going to report me to the authorities?"
She deflated, the faintest hint of residual disappointment fading from her form as she regarded him. "I can't condone what you've done or what you're going to do."
His tone was matter-of-fact as though he had accepted this turn of fate a long time ago. "So you are going to turn me in?"
She turned away, her eyes glassy and crystalline "I didn't say I was going to do that either" said Cho softly "I know I should, that logically speaking, it would be the best thing to do but I can't."
Tom felt no relief from her words, instead pressing on. "So what are you going to do?"
"Nothing" she whispered, "I have to let you make your choices no matter how abhorrent they are because it's not my place to change the future. People will suffer and they will die, but if you let me live, I have to believe that you have it somewhere in you to spare the lives of all those who don't deserve that fate."
Tom would have smiled at her unfound confidence in him but he couldn't have managed the expression even if he tried while she was looking at him with such a heavy sense of sadness behind her dark eyes.
He hesitated, dreading the answer but needing to hear it from her.
"And what about you? Do you have it somewhere in you to forgive me one day?"
She shook her head, sending the infinitesimal shred of hope in his chest plummeting to its grave.
"You know I can't Tom"
He couldn't stand to look at her anymore, to see the pain and hurt in her eyes because he knew it was a reflection of his own. She had lost people at his hand – her boyfriend, her parents, her classmates; but he had lost people too. All his life he had been rejected and casted out. His father left him, his mother died before he could know her; all his classmates had initially hated him because of the blood status he was born with.
But Cho had cared for him, managed to make him feel more accepted in a few weeks than he had in his entire life. She made sure he remembered to eat regularly and listened to whatever he wanted to share and fought back when she didn't agree with him. She defended him to her peers and didn't care about his upbringing in the orphanage or the fact that he didn't have a galleon to his name. Cho was warm and welcoming, trusting and intelligent and it hurt so much more now that he had a taste of what it was like to have someone.
He got up, not wishing to prolong the moment any longer, "I'll leave you alone then."
He skirted around her bed, almost disappearing with the flutter of a curtain when Cho's voice rang out with surprising strength.
"Did any of it mean anything to you?"
Tom didn't bother feigning that he didn't know what she meant. Letting the curtain fall between them, he stood there, listening to the sound of his own breath.
"Does it matter?"
Cho didn't respond, choosing silence as she heard his footsteps recede further and further away from her.
A/N: This took about 5 re-writes but I hope you liked the chapter (or, not liked it since it's not a particularly happy reunion for these two...). Let me know what you think, and thank you for the reviews, story favourites and follows!
- DecoyDream