Tom Riddle smoothed his hair back, and tried to make himself presentable. He straitens the roses he plucked from a neighbor's garden, ties a large black bow around them, then taps them with his wand making them a deep crimson instead of a white. He knocked briskly on the door three times, hoping that retched woman or her excuse for a house elf would answer the door.
The house Elf answered the door with a squeak, "Why…Why hello Mr. Riddle, h-happy to see you again!" he looked down his nose at the elf, and spat. He bent down and whispered to the house elf with a slight hiss, "Get out of my way, you retched piece of filth…" The elf look stunned, but welcomed him into the house with a slight bow.
He strolled into the room, one hand in his pockets, and the other holding tightly to the bouquet of roses behind his back. He wove his way through the boxes, until he saw her. She was even more fat than he remembered! She had put way too much makeup yet again, as if she thought he would fall in love with her or something…in her dreams maybe…
She motioned for him to come over closer to her. He smiled, but in his mind, he was still frowning about this whole thing. Why had his boss sent him here? Of all places!
He gingerly sat down on a rather large pink fuzzy cushion, directly in front of her. Her perfume was strong, and smelled of ginger. He hated ginger.
He pulled the bouquet of flowers out from behind her back, and handed them to the woman. She thrust her shoved up pig's snout into them, and sniffed deeply, which made a horrible sound. He cringed, but made it look like a shiver, which only made her think he was cold, so she made the house elf light the fire, which made him even more hot than he already was.
The house elf stumbled onto the pink carpet, carrying what looked like a plate of tea and biscuits. He reached out to take one, but the woman slapped his hand, "No, no no, my tear Tommy, lady's first!" She snatched as many biscuits as she could hold in her fat little hand, and shoved them in her mouth. Tom reached out slowly and grabs the only remaining biscuit, the last out of eleven.
"So, what treasures do you have for me today?" Tom asks her, still smiling. She looks at him with a grin, "Oh, I think you'll really like this one, Tommy…" she pulls out a golden goblet with the Hufflepuff badger on the side, Tom looks at her, stunned, "Was that…Was that Helga Hufflepuffs!"
She smiles at his excitement, "Yes, Yes it is…I'm directly descended from her, you know…" Tom's eyes gleam red. He had never seen something like this before. He wanted it. The woman motions for her elf, who comes to her, "Get me the black velvet box on the mantle…yes, that one."
The elf points at a box, and after her master agrees, she skitters over and grabs the box, promptly delivering it to her master. The woman reaches her sausage-fingered hand into the box, and reveals a locket with a snake wound around the Slytherin symbol.
Tom grins, that gleam coming back to his eyes, "I'll be back…I must go to the bathroom." He acts like he goes in the direction of the bathroom, but fakes it and turns left into the kitchen. He realizes that the house elf isn't in the room, so he wanders over to the sugar bowl, mutters a spell under his breath and easily turns the sugar into a horrible and deadly poison.
He wanders back into the sitting room and looks at the woman, "Well then, I must be going…" he stands up, brushes off his suit, and steals away into the darkness, chuckleing to himself. All these wonderful things will be his and that foolish woman AND her elf gone…he saw no down side.
He sits in the darkness, waiting.He hears the clatter of china, and the last scream of the woman as she dies. He grins. He pears through the window, and sees the Elf cowering beside the dead body of her master, whimpering, "M-mistress?" she pokes the corpse. Just then, Tom jumps through the window. He pokes his head outside the window, knowing that the Minister of Magic lived near by, "MURDER!" he cries, loud enough for the minister to hear him.
The Elf was arrested the next day, tried in court and executed. Tom was included in the will of the old woman to receive all her knickknacks and whatnots. Tom drags himself into the house after a long day speaking with members of that wretched woman's family, and looks for some wine. He would enjoy a drink after all this messy ordeal. He spies the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, and laughs, a deep throaty laugh.
"Finally…" he murmurs under his breath, "I, Tom Riddle, the son of a.." he chokes out the word… "Muggle... have finally found the biggest trove of Hogwarts things in the wizarding world, and it's all mine!" He grins, thrilled with himself. He wanders down the long twisting stairway to the woman's wine cellar where he carefully chooses a bottle of red wine. He walks back up the stairs, cradling the bottle in his arms, as if it were a child.
Once he reached the top of the stairs, he looked around for a glass, but couldn't find one… "Hmm…" his mind wanders back to the thought of Helga Hufflepuff goblet….