Blinded By The Past, Ignored In The Future
Chapter 9
NINE: Give It Up
Response To Reviews:
Deadly fate: I know now that Hermione insulting Riddle was sorta out of character but not to much so.
radarPLO: I'm trying to update as soon as I can! *runs around desperately to try and find an idea* Oh and you may have already read the Riddle's dream from my other story but please don't get mad!
Marauder1prongs: I soooo didn't steal it!
Emma Ackroyd: The reason I hate Bush is because, if I could borrow a British term, he is a git. His father was once president while we had problems with the Middle East and now it's happening all over again. Personally a lot of people think he's only president because his father was and now he's paying the Middle East back. Have you ever heard one of the government people talk or give a speech? It goes something like this, "I *everyone claps* hate *everyone claps * the *guess what…everyone claps* world *everyone claps*.
dolphingirl79: I will!
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Previous Chapter: He could see each of them give him a look that said quite plainly 'Who-Gives-A-Damn-About-Him', but he finished doing what he came to do. "Do not tell Dumbledore who gave you this information." He sighed before continuing, "The entrance to the secret room Riddle is currently in is on the second floor and the password is Slytherin's Great Heir. Good luck." Done with his business, he took off, leaving Hermione to decide whether or not to go to the Headmaster, and a very confused Potter and Weasley to stare at her.
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Riddle managed to roll onto the floor from the velvet, green couch and unfortunately he landed on his wounded leg. He grabbed it in obvious pain and shifted so he could sit up against the furniture.
He didn't want to go back to the Hospital Wing and spend the rest of his bloody life there. Dumbledore would never let him out. He would never trust him again. As he attempted to heave himself to his feet but failed, he prayed that Ho-neaou didn't go to get Dumbledore or any of the professors. He wondered how much time he had left before someone found him as he mopped up his torn and bloody leg with his already dirty robes.
Always use your resources first…
Riddle tore piece of his robes off and carefully wrapped his leg up with it. Slowly he attempted to push himself to his good leg then gently to his unstable one. His leg shook under his weight but he forced himself to stand. Only one thing was on his mind; he had to get out of here.
Another glance at the wall revealed to him memories that haunted his dreams; carvings of the three most powerful, dark creatures I the world.
On the South wall was carved a beautiful fox. Only it's red eyes were colored in so the figure didn't capture the true majesty of the animal. Its paws, made of ice, had frozen the ground in the carving and its bushy tail's tip was made of ice too. All of it's characteristics gave it the name Vulsidus meaning fox star. Riddle turned around to the West wall and gazed upon his favorite one.
A slithery King Cobra's turquoise eyes starred back at him. The serpent's two pointy teeth were revealed through his open mouth along with his forked tongue. Its name was Incenser, which also meant fire serpent. With a heavy sigh he turned to the East wall and studied the last one.
Fulavitus, lightning bird, was a grey-eyed falcon. Only real life could reveal that he was really a yellow bird with black-stripped wings. His serious face was what made him so intimidating.
Suddenly he collapsed upon the couch, exhausted from standing. Deciding that it would be better if he sat and waited for someone to come he put his head down on his arm and tried to drift off it sleep.
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(Dream)
A scream pierced the night. Riddle ran to where it had come from. Looking down by the lake he saw a tall figure picking up some one way smaller. He strained to see who it was as he ran toward them. Riddle eyes widened when he saw it was Grindelwald and he had Ruby!
"Grindelwald, no! Don't hurt her!" Riddle yelled calmly, running to the scene. "It's me you want anyway. Is it not?"
"Tom Riddle, just the person I was hoping to see," Grindelwald said while dropping a tear stricken Ruby to the ground.
The wind howled fiercely blowing Riddle's hair into his determined face. The only sounds that could be heard was the red headed girl's uneven sobbing.
Riddle took a step toward her, but Grindelwald grabbed her by the hair and forced her ruby red eyes to look straight up. He pointed his wand at her throat and said in a superior tone, "don't let your foolishness be responsible for killing the only person that ever accepted you into their family."
At these words Riddle took a small step backwards, all the while keeping his eyes on Grindelwald. "Good choice, Riddle," the dark wizard practically laughed. "I don't wanna hurt you. You were expensive. But if you refuse to obey me I'll have to and I will. Now hand over you wand."
Riddle removed his wand from his pocket and tossed it in disgrace at Grindelwald's feet. Silent tears began to form in his turquoise eyes as he realized that there was no way he could win this fight. Dumbledore, the Headmaster and all the other teachers were sound asleep. Not to mention Lucius didn't know where he was. That was probably the main reason why Ruby was crying.
Grindelwald lazily picked up Riddle's wand and twirled it between his fingers, but his gaze never once left Riddle. "Bow down to me, Tommy," he ordered, smirking evilly.
Unfortunately for Grindelwald it wasn't that easy. Riddle didn't even move a muscle or show the slightest indication that he heard him. He was too caught up in his thoughts. He had two options: he could either break the pat he made with Lucius and Ruby and obey Grindelwald or die trying to defend him and Ruby (who Grindelwald would most likely kill).
"Didn't you hear me you worthless piece of filth!" Grindelwald roared. "Bow down now!"
He made up his mind. As reluctantly as he could he sank down to his knees and did as Grindelwald ordered, but he found he didn't have the willpower to get back up as Grindelwald's evil laughter rang through the night.
The tears that had first threatened him had become overpowering for the first time in years. Not only had he broken his promise with his only friends but also he had failed Ruby. He had neglected his duty as a friend.
A sudden kick in the chest made him jump up and fall flat onto his back. His gasping for breath only made Grindelwald laugh more.
"This is too easy," gloated Grindelwald, looking down at Riddle disdainfully. "If only the world in the future could see the next Dark Lord."
"You're…wrong, Grindelwald," said Riddle, in between gasps, "I'm… never gonna… be…like you."
"For someone who is so small you sure have a big mouth," drawled Grindelwald. "Here let me fix your problem." He pointed his wand at Riddle, who was attempting to get up, and cried, "Crucio!"
(End of Dream)
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Riddle jumped up, sweating again and his eyes darted around the room. Why was everything and everyone haunting him now? His body ached from the Crucio that had been used on him in his dream and his head was pounding. He became aware of the voices shouting.
"There he is!" Hermione shouted. Many blurry figures appeared in the staircase's doorway and he blinked in confusion. As quickly as they could, Riddle saw them come down to him.
"His leg is torn up pretty bad, Headmaster," came the worried voice of the Defence teacher. "We need to get him to the Hospital Wing. I have a feeling that chocolate isn't going to help this time."
He felt two strong arms pull him up and he became enraged that someone would bother him. Blindly he tried to fight off the person and almost prevailed except he was handed to someone else.
"He's delusional, Remus. He doesn't know what's going on," said Dumbledore's kind voice. Suddenly the voices became distant so he was barley aware of them as he felt the person begin to take him up the stairs. The air changed to warm and he guessed that they were no longer in Slytherin's secret hideout.
Riddle cried out in pain when he was placed upon a bed a few minutes later in, what he guessed was, the Hospital Wing. "I don't wanna be here!" Riddle shouted. "Why did you bring me here? Let me go!" Blindly Riddle searched for his wand that happened to be in his pocket but in his struggle he couldn't quite pull it out.
It took three pairs of arms to restrain him onto the flat bed. Only then did he calm down enough to see that no more than five Professors were present: the half giant that looked quite familiar, Professor McGonagall, the Headmaster, Professor Snape, and Professor Lupin; all of which were members of the Order of the Phoenix.
There was a period of silence before someone finally spoke. "Headmaster, it just isn't safe to keep him here," said McGonagall, turning to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore nodded sadly and riddle watched him as he said, "Alas, Minerva. I fear you to be right." He and the other Professors turned and left as Madam Pomfrey walked over to him, wand in hand.
"You must have done something quite bad to get Dumbledore to give up on you, Mr. Riddle," said the nurse.
"I didn't do anything," mumbled Riddle. "He just can't deal with who I am."
"Who are you?" Madam Pomfrey said, turning the conversation toward him.
"None of your business," snapped Riddle. The nurse pointed her wand at his leg and muttered a few spells. Soon enough the cuts were healed and his leg was felling a bit better. However when he tried to get up the nurse pushed him back down and said sternly, "you're not getting out of that bed until Dumbledore comes to get you or says you can go, got it?"
Riddle watched her turn his back on him and return to her office, his brows furrowed. What was it with the nurse and her patients? Not wanting to face her wrath, he lay his head down and waited until he would be able to go…even if that time was two months from now…
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(Dream continued)
Ruby stopped her sobbing the exact second Riddle's tortured screams reached her ears. She had completely missed what had just happened and couldn't stand it if Riddle got hurt because of her.
"Stop, Grindelwald! Please! Stop!" she begged, throwing herself at Grindelwald's feet. "Stop! Please stop!"
"What is this? A mudblood telling me what to do?" asked Grindelwald, amused.
"No, I just-"
"Now I see. You don't want me to hurt your little boyfriend. Is that it?" continued Grindelwald, showing no pity. "I dare say even he, a lowly half- blood deserves better than you."
Ruby couldn't think of a response to that. She had never thought of Riddle that way, and she was sure he didn't think of her like that.
"Well?" Grindelwald demanded.
"I-I-I don't know," she finally answered, not even attempting to hide her fear as she got up to her knees.
"Tell you what," stated Grindelwald, waving his wand and magically making a piece of parchment appear, floating in front of him. The parchment started to glow a reddish color as he continued, "if you can get Riddle to agree to my terms I'll let both of you leave alive."
"No, Ruby, don't listen to him," Riddle objected weakly. "Don't listen to him. He's lied to my mother every day till she died and to me ever since I was seven." He had barley managed to stand up while he was talking.
"Riddle, there's no way I'm letting you do this alone." cried Ruby. " You can't even stand!"
"Yeah, Riddy," said Grindelwald, "spread the fun around!"
"Shut-up, Grindelwald!" Ruby said absentmindedly, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.
"You'll pay for that, mudblood!" growled Grindelwald. "Crucio!"
Riddle saw the world in slow motion as a jet of light emerged from Grindelwald's wand and a magical barrier appeared around Ruby as she closed her eyes and braced herself for the spell to hit…but it didn't. It rebounded upon Grindelwald who simply reflected it with a counter-curse. An odd shimmering showed the shielding charm being used by none other than Lucius who was furious at his father's master for attempting to hurt Ruby.
Apparently Grindelwald noticed who was helping her. "No, now, Lucius. What will your father think when he hears about this?"
"If he was a good father he might be happy that I'm not going to grow up and be an ass like you two," Lucius sneered, taking the barrier off of him and Ruby.
"Language, Malfoy, language," Grindelwald said.
"Get behind me, Rub," instructed Lucius and Ruby did what she was told.
"You must be joking," laughed Grindelwald, raising a brow at them.
"If I am you are," Lucius retorted. "So prove yourself." The blond raised his wand to prepare for battle.
"I'm with Lucius, Grindelwald. Ever since I first came into contact with you you've been tellin' me that you're the best sorcerer in the world, and no one can match your power. Well then here's your moment of truth," Riddle said, his voice dripping with hatred as he continued talking, "You keep tellin' me that I'm distend to become the next Dark Lord no matter what. So let's match the strength of Lord Grindelwald, present Dark Lord against me, Tom Marvolo Riddle, future Dark Lord, heir of Salazar Slytherin."
"Okay but remember," smirked Grindelwald, pointing his wand at Riddle, "you asked for it. Imperio!"
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Riddle wailed in his sleep. He tossed and turned, unaware that hours had passed and he had been asleep for four hours. For once in his life he didn't want to wake up. Just being able to be back in his time made him happier than he would ever let on.
Merlin forbid what had happened to his two friends in the future. But whatever it was Riddle didn't want to know for he was sure it couldn't be good.
