Blinded By The Past, Ignored In The Future
Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE: True Understanding
Response To Reviews:
JenCarpeDiem: *blinks* Is it really brilliant? Wow…thanks! If you like this story maybe you could check out my other two fics that I've been told are OK: A Riddle of The Bond Called Friendship and I Am Dansmesyeux Riddle.
inu lover: It's OK to get titles mixed up since I do that a lot. I love music! It is essential to all life! Well at least that what me and my friends say…*sniff* I'm feeling bad because no one wants to check out my story A Riddle of The Bond Called Friendship! But I guess I can sorta live with it…
Deadly Fate: Don't hate appreciate (just joking). *sniff* I happen to like Good Charlotte since I'm part of the GCA (Good Charlotte's Army) and Simple Plan rules too but don't worry. He'll be getting more CD's soon and then recommendations from you all (along with the songs) will be welcome.
uNeArThLy eYeS: It was depressing, huh? But I'm hoping that I can lat Tom become happy soon…Oh and Linkin Park rocks!
Nemesis: That's actually very possible…hmmm…oh well.
Emma Ackroyd: School is very hellish, huh? Oh well just nice to know that you found the time to read my story!
Liz: Classic reflection fic? Is that good or bad?
*********
Previous Chapter: To his surprise he heard a sound. Not sure of what it was he searched through all of the broken stuff and found his portable CD player. It was playing a song with the volume all the way up. But that was impossible, wasn't it? It was broken.
"It's been a long hard
road without you by my side
Why weren't you there all the nights that we cried?
You broke my mother's heart, you broke your children for life
It's not OK but we're alright
I remember the days you were a hero in my eyes
But those were just a long lost memory of mine
Now I'm writing just to let you know that I'm still alive
And sometimes I forgive, yeah and this time I'll admit
That I miss you, I miss you...hey Dad"
******************
Tom blinked as he thought about the song's lyrics.
"It's been a long hard road without you by my side."
A brief image of Lucius and Ruby confronting him about the Chamber of Secrets incident (if you could call it that) flashed through his mind and he saw himself retort that they knew nothing about him anyway..
"Why weren't you there all the nights that we cried?"
Like a movie screen his mind moved onto a different moment from his past; one of the very many he had spent crying, alone and beaten in the cold basement of that retched muggle orphanage. "You broke my mother's heart, you broke your children for life" Tom didn't even know where to begin with this line. He never knew his mother and therefore wouldn't know if she had been depressed when his father had left her. But that didn't stop the only picture of his mother that he possessed from appearing in his mind. From all the stories that he had been told by a few teachers who had known her she sounded perfect; everything anyone could want in a friend, wife, or Mother. "It's not OK but we're alright" When he stopped to think about it he really was OK. What had happened in his life wasn't the best or hell even remotely good but at least he had always had Ruby and Lucius to turn to when he wanted company or just someone to talk to. What his father did was not OK but it was true that he was all right; what Grindelwald had done to him and his best friends wasn't Ok but they lived through it…even if barley so. "I remember the days you were a hero in my eyes"Truth be told Tom never really though of having a hero figure. He supposed it used to be Mike Rosewood, Ruby's father, but now everything was so complicated. Could Remus possibly be the person he looked up to? Tom snorted. What the hell was he thinking? It was almost pathetic. He, Tom Riddle, heir to Salazar Slytherin, was looking up to a Gryffindor werewolf? Wow…he really was going metal…
"But those were just a long lost memory of mine"
"Damn straight," Tom said aloud. "It couldn't have been put in a better way."
"Now I'm writing just to let you know that I'm still alive"
Tom shrugged. OK so he wasn't writing to let anyone know that he was alive but that was a good idea. Not that anyone would care but it might annoy someone enough to make the effort worth it.
"And sometimes I forgive, yeah and this time I'll admit
That I miss you, I miss you...hey Dad"
How could anyone forgive their father for leaving them? Especially when the only time he had even seen his father was the night that he had killed him? Well Tom could easily say that he didn't miss him since he never knew him but still…before he had killed his father he still had the comfort of knowing that someone in the world was blood related to him.
He sighed and looked around at the mess in his room. There was no way that he was cleaning it up. It wasn't his fault that he was angry. Tom gave another sigh in frustration and he kicked out, sending something flying across the floor.
***********
A very tired Remus sat at the table that Harry and his friends had sat at earlier. It was late at night and no one else was around. He found it hard to fall asleep when he knew that Tom was sick and very likely angry with him. He didn't blame him. After all anyone had the right to be angry after being treated like that.
Yet Remus had the right to be angry too, didn't he? He had seen how Tom could behave but still he chose to act cold and as if he couldn't care what anyone thought. It wasn't something that was behind common sense.
The werewolf sipped at his tea and wished that he could have Tom make his. Remus wasn't afraid to admit that it was way better but he was a bit afraid to talk to the Slytherin alone. He rubbed his temples and realized that he had been thinking about the teen for at least an hour. It was definitely time for bed.
Just as he made to stand up a small book lying across the floor caught his attention. There was nothing special about it; it was just a small, black leather-bound book but still Remus found himself picking it up and he recognized it as the very one he had seen Hermione with once. Setting down his tea he flipped through it and his brows furrowed when he found nothing.
"Strange," he said to himself. He flipped through it again and as he went to close it a black and white photograph caught his attention. It was of a small, pale boy who was sitting on the edge of a dusty old bed, crying freely. Remus's hand came in contact with the picture and before he knew it a flash of white light blinded him and he felt the ground beneath him leave.
***
Remus felt his feet hit solid stone ground and he looked around but only saw darkness. The sound of dripping water reached his werewolf ears and he looked around but couldn't find the source of the noise. A cold draft was coming from somewhere around him but because of the darkness he couldn't see where.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when a door from ahead slammed shut and the walls truly shook. Before he had time to move out of the way a tall, man, whose face resembled that of an angry bull, stormed past him, not giving Remus the slightest indication that he had seen him. It was then that Remus realized that he must be in someone's memory; that would explain why that man (who ever he was) hadn't noticed him.
As the ex-professor made to follow the man he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the soft crying of a child coming from behind him some distance. Brows furrowed slightly, he traced the sound to its origin and found himself facing an old style door. His hand went straight through the doorknob when he tried to open it so he closed his eyes and walked all the way through it.
When he reopened his eyes the first thing he saw was a little boy, he couldn't have been any older than four, collapsed upon the floor, shirtless and weeping. The sight of his pale body made Remus want to just kill whomever had caused him so much pain. The boy slowly got to his feet and starred straight ahead blackly, as if he were looking straight through everything and that was when Remus got a good look at his turquoise eyes.
This was Tom's dairy!
Small Tom turned his back on him and Remus saw that his bloodied up back was covered with scars that made the werewolf cringe. It wasn't hard to tell where the marks had come from but if that was the case what didn't Dumbledore tell him that Tom's orphanage years were absolutely horrible? Could the Headmaster possibly not have known? Actually he was almost certain that Dumbledore didn't. It was just like Slytherins to hide their problems and find a way to deal with them on their own even if that meat failure to recognize the problem.
Before Remus could get a second glance at Tom the image faded and he found himself standing in some sort of stone chamber. Before him was a twelve year old Tom, a red head girl, and most defiantly a Malfoy(…as a matter of fact he looked something like…Lucius Malfoy?) all sitting on a very expensive, fancy couch.
"I can't dance!" Tom exclaimed, obviously carrying on with a conversation that Remus had missed part of.
"Of course you can!" the girl snapped back but in a rather polite voice.
"Well let's see you dance, Kimberly," Lucius challenged her.
The girl call Kimberly glared a glare at him that would put Severus Snape in his place and she said in a snobbish yet indifferent tone, "I said for you to call me Ruby."
"Well first name or middle it's my house and I say you have to dance," sneered Lucius and Tom snickered behind his hand.
"I'm not your entertainment, rich boy!" retorted Ruby. Lucius's jaw dropped in surprise but he quickly recovered and stood up.
"Take that back!" he snapped.
"Only if you prove that you can do something that you're trying to force others to do!" Ruby replied.
"Fine!" Lucius walked into the middle of the room…but whether he took Ruby's dare Remus wouldn't find out; the image once again faded from view as if it were a painting and its watercolors were being washed away.
****
Remus was thrown from the book's pages and he landed upon the floor, laying flat upon his back. It didn't take long for him to find that he was sweating heavily and the realization hit him that the house was completely lit up but not from the sun; it was still the middle of the night.
Out of nowhere he heard McGonagall shout, "Please, Mr. Riddle, hold still!"
Remus ungracefully got to his feet and he ran to where Tom's room was. Standing outside the door was Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Ginny all of whom were in their pajamas, comforting Hermione (for she looked as though she had been through a traumatizing experience) and they were all watching the scene that was taking place in Tom's room. He pushed passed them and forced his way into the room. What he saw was Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Moody, Snape, and a few other random people crammed into the small room.
Arthur was attempting to hold Tom down to his bed, which was sloppily made, and Snape was standing over him, holding a small potion in his hand. It took a third person to restrain Tom completely.
"Riddle, if you do not take this sleeping potion willingly I will use muggle technique and inject it into your arm using a needle!" Snape growled at the struggling teen. However Snape's threat did nothing to alter Tom's attitude. For an unknown reason Remus stood their, completely unsure of how to react.
"What happened?" Remus managed to ask the nearest person who happened to be Harry.
"All I heard was that Hermione came in here to talk to him and she found that his room was a mess and eventually he jumped her," the raven hair boy replied.
Remus watched as Moody helped to pull up Tom's left sleeve and in doing so he exposed the area in which Tom had cut himself some months ago. Next to him he heard Ginny gasp and one of the twins whisper something to the other as Snape prepared to carry out his threat.
The werewolf looked at Tom and studied his expression. His eyes looked like the very ones that he had when he was a child. When Remus took a closer look at them he could see easily that they were betraying his emotions. Tom was indeed frightened; no terrified and he longer for understanding.
Remus walked forward and knocked the injection out of Snape's hand and soon after he forced everyone to let Tom up. Remus grabbed him and pulled him into a tight embrace. The confused orphan jumped up and shrank back at Remus's gentle gesture. It took a while for Tom to realize but he finally understood that Remus was hugging him. Unsure of what to do he relaxed and allowed his emotions to claim him.
************************************************************************************
A/N: I'm sorry for any mistacks but I really want to post cause I feel bad for falling behind!! And for anyone who actually is interested in Ruby, Lucius, and Tom's school days please take the time and check out this story!!!!!!! It's called: A Riddle of The Bond Called Friendship.
