The fall was dizzying, but I knew it couldn't last very long. The tunnel was deep but it had to level off at some point. It was the landing I was most concerned about.
I stabbed my wand at the slippery wall to my right, ropes shooting from the end, if I didn't have such a strong grip on my wand I would have been falling to my death and wandless, -as it was my arm was nearly pulled out of its socket. I swung into the side of the shaft, taking the force with my side rather than my face. I hung there for a moment, arms burning with the weight of holding myself up.
I was silent, going so far to hold my breath as I heard Tom whoosh past me.
I was starting to plan my escape route upwards when he called.
"You never cease to amaze me Poppy," he called casually. "But there is a cushioning charm, did you think I was going to murder you?" I was silent. "Come down we have things to discuss."
"You swear there's a charm?"
"Yes," his voice sounded impatient. I didn't want to go to him, but my arms gave me no other choice. I fell.
He was telling the truth. The fall still hurt despite the charm, but I was not a puddle on the floor and for that I was grateful. I rolled to take the impact and as I stood my wand was trained on him.
"What are you going to do?" he asked, smirking. "Kill me?"
"You petrified my best friend," I said in a low voice. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't."
"You should," he replied, his voice easy, with a still with a hint of a polite smile. "But you won't. If you really were designed on revenge you would have gone to Dippet by now and told him." He paused. His dark eyes locked with mine, as if he were calculating. "You know me." He said simply.
"I don't," I whispered, my voice strangely strangled. His raised his eyebrows disbelievingly.
"You know more about me than any other person on this earth. As much as I loathe to admit it, you and are similar. At least we can have a sensible conversation, which is less than I can say for most people. And that's how I know you aren't going to turn me in. Because, you know, that to me, being an insignificant muggle is a fate worse than death. I would have suffered more." His stare didn't ease. "You're really here because you were intrigued."
I wasn't intrigued.
But I didn't want him to kill me either. Although he wasn't even holding his wand.
"You need to stop these attacks. Call off the basilisk." He laughed.
"Why you have been doing your research haven't you," he commented, as if we were merely discussing the weather. "You know who I am?"
"The heir of Slytherin," I told him. "But you have to stop."
"No Poppy, I don't have to do anything. I am free to do whatever I like and if you are going to try and stop me, I suppose we have a problem don't we?" His wand was in his hand instantly, trained on my face.
"Do you fancy a duel?" His polite tone had not changed, and that was all the more sinister.
I blocked the spell he sent at me, sending the red light crashing into the wall.
"Tom you have to listen to me," I said firmly. "You have to stop this." I blocked another of his spells.
He narrowed his eyes and smirked.
"Make me."
Watch me.
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted, and his wand shot into my hand immediately. The confusion on his face was priceless.
"Now Tom," I scolded, pouting my bottom lip. "That is no way to start a duel, especially not one with a lady. Did no one ever teach you any manners?" His eyes were murderous.
I knew I had to let him duel me, otherwise he would never respect me, and in my eyes. I had kind of won, with that little stunt.
"First," I said slowly. "We bow."
I dipped into a flamboyant duelling bow, only to rise and find him stiff as a board.
"I said bow," a flick of my wand was all it took. The look of humiliation on his face was worth it, even if he did kill me. I threw his wand back to him.
As soon as it was back in his hands I launched at him, parrying all his curses and firing back my own. He had to take a step backward.
"Well you can duel, I'll give you that," he said, as his attack got more fervent. One spell I had to physically dodge rather than block. Tom was a good dueller, but I was in better physical shape. There was more than one time when I thought I was gaining the advantage, but then Tom would smirk and his wand would move faster, his spells more powerful. I tried to dodge a hex, but because of the proximity to my face, my cheek split open with a gush hot blood
"Still trying to tell me what I need to do Poppy?" he asked, the torrent of spells getting faster.
"If you want to go back to the muggle world then fine," I replied, jumping over a spell of acid green. "I can learn magic just as well back at the manor."
He hesitated for a just second, resulting in a particularly potent battering hex going through Tom's shield and striking him in the stomach, winding him. But he did not falter for long at this.
"What do you mean?" he demanded.
"Did you really expect that they would keep the school open if none of the pupils were safe?" I asked incredulously. He was silent. "My grandfather is head of the school governors, he says one more attack and they are going to close the school."
I cried out in pain as a final hex hit me in the stomach, making me double over, clutching at my dress. But the spells stopped coming. I stole a look up; his wand was by his side.
"Why did you come down here," he asked in a low voice, eyes narrowed.
I couldn't tell him the truth.
He would kill me.
The pain in my stomach was unbearable, I fell to my knees.
"I knew it was you, so I was going to tell you about them closing the school," I explained, I licked my dry lips. "But I wanted to see it first in case it was too dangerous afterwards. I wanted to see… the power, the history, before you had to give it all up."
Tom's face softened, but looks are deceiving, in an instant his wand was pressed to the soft flesh of my throat. He knelt down next to me, holding my hair to make me look at him.
"How long have you known I'm the heir of Slytherin?" he asked, dark gaze searching my face.
"A while," I said petulantly, his grip on my hair tightened and his wand dug deeper into my throat. "I had an inkling, ever since the second attack, I remembered what I saw in your memories, about there being a snake in the garden of that house. I knew the legend of the Chamber of Secrets and I put two and two together. Then I remembered something, and I realised that it had to be you. Do you remember the first time we met? You walked me back to Ravenclaw tower and you introduced yourself. You didn't know because you were raised by muggles, how significant middle names are to wizards. You went right out and told me, yours was Marvolo," I explained, gasping for breath as the wand point restricted my air. "Salazar Slytherin named his first born son Marvolo. So I knew you were his heir and you were behind the attacks."
Tom surveyed me for a moment, as if judging whether that was plausible.
"My advice to you was never to leave an aggravated witness," he said in a dark voice.
"What are you going to do?" I asked. "Kill me? My grandfather will definitely close the school."
"On the contrary," he said lightly. "Tell me your middle name." My heart sped up.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you were so determined to keep me out," he said, lips quirking. "You've known my destiny since day one. I think it's only fair I know yours. If it's so important to you, you won't go around telling my secrets when I know one of yours."
I was silent.
"Tell me," he commanded, pressing his wand further into my throat. I gasped trying to suck in air to my lungs. My vision was starting to blur at the sides.
"It begins with M," he recalled as if we were playing a game, and he was guessing my favourite animal. "And it's your dark little secret. Tell me. Lord Black can't close the school if someone falls down the stairs and I would hate to have to lose you. Tell me."
I could use sorcery, but then he would know.
I weighed the two outcomes in my mind, know my middle name or know that I was proficient in wandless magic? He might kill me if he knew my middle name, he might see me as a rival. But I could use wandless magic to stop that if it came to it, couldn't I?
He would know something was special about me either way.
I pursed my lips in defiance, scrunching up my eyes.
"Tell me," he repeated, one final jab of his wand and I was undone.
Name or magic?
I was sure I was going to suffocate.
Wandless magic was my secret weapon, I had to keep that card close to my chest.
"Mor… Morgana."
Sweet air filled my lungs and his grip on my hair loosened.
"Morgana," he repeated softly.
His eyes were narrowed, but now he searched my face with curiosity rather than suspicion. His lips were slightly parted, a small frown made him look as if I had just told him I was from the future.
"Magic itself named you after the most powerful dark sorceress in history," he murmured thoughtfully. "And you thought you should hide that from me." His face broke into a grin; it lit up his eyes with an almost maniacal gleam.
He grasped hold of my hand and pulled me to my feet, saying nothing as he inspected my wounds.
"What is going on?" I asked him, but didn't pull away as my cheek knitted itself together. He just smiled again.
"You have such… promise in you. One with such destiny needs nurturing."
I was stunned by the difference a name could make. The name Black never carried any weight where Tom Riddle and I were concerned. He didn't have a House, so he had nothing that could be taken away from him, no money, land or political influence. So no Black had anything they could take away from him, not when he was so superior in magical ability.
I fought the urge to tell him that my destiny was not his to nurture. But since the murderous look had changed to one of reverence, I held my tongue.
"Just tell me, why Lizzie?" I asked. He smiled, if you could call it that, it was more a bearing of the teeth.
"She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said simply, his face the picture of innocence.
I wasn't sure if I believed him.