A Lighter Shade of Black

Destroy Me

"She is coming."

The Dark Lord's words rang out through the vast rooms of the Riddle House. He did not sound defeated, nor excited at the thought. In fact, there was no sort of emotion in his voice at all. But, of course, this wasn't any new occurrence.

He looked to his minions with glowing red eyes. "Leave. I don't believe I'll need your assistance."

Something wasn't right.

Nicole stood staring to the vast manor as Laura, Taylor, and Charlie talked of some kind of makeshift plan. She could feel it in her bones, though. Nothing that they tried was going to work because he didn't want it to. Now, her thoughts wandered back to Goyle's last letter to her.

'…Only Ginevra can save him.'

A tingle went through her body as she remembered those words scrawled out on parchment. Now she understood. She knew that only Gin would even have a chance at rescuing Draco. And anything they did was futile to help.

Striding forward, Nicole reached out and jerked the handle of the oak door violently. It didn't budge.

"Oh damn it all!" she cried out, falling back on her bum, "It's useless! Only Gin has a shot!"

Ginevra stood outside the looming door at the top landing of the stairs, her breath coming in short puffs. She couldn't help the shudder that rippled through her body. Just the thought of Voldemort strong and powerful and just behind that door made her want to turn and bolt it.

"My dear, sweet Ginevra…" a familiar voice rang out, silky and smooth, "you have finally come back to my side."

She felt that nervous jerk in her stomach as realization hit. Tom. It was Tom Riddle behind that door, not the infamous Lord Voldemort. The sixteen-year-old boy who stole her soul.

"Come and see me, Ginevra." he called, "I long to see your lovely face."

She could feel his spell wash over her. As it did, she had the all too familiar feeling of loosing her control, but still seeing what was going on. It was like a bad dream she couldn't escape, no matter how hard she tried.

Reaching her hand out, she gently pushed the door open and stepped into the dreary room.

And there he sat, Tom Riddle in all his glory, chocolate brown locks and lovely blue eyes. He still had those some Adonis-like looks that made him so beautiful, but this time Ginevra saw past them. This time she knew exactly what this boy was about.

She watched him, transfixed, as he stood gracefully and stepped right in front of her.

"Sweet girl…"

He stroked her cheek with one hand and she couldn't quite bring herself to shiver.

"You've grow into true beauty, Ginevra."

She felt his hand at the small of her back and the other pull the emerald sword from her grip. She could do nothing but let him. His spell over her had always been too powerful. Now that she thought about it, though, this feeling he had over her was different… Nothing like when she was a silly eleven-year-old. Ginevra looked into his azure eyes and knew what was so different…

Desire.

She gasped as he slid his cool lips over her own. Her hands lay on his shoulders stiffly and one of his hands wandered up to cup her jaw while the other remained on the small of her back.

It was a few moments before he finally broke away and Ginevra could feel bile rising in her throat. What had she done? Allowing herself to be kissed that way by anyone other than Draco? She felt the color draining from her face.

"Why Ginevra, what's wrong?" Riddle held her by the upper arms and looked into her face.

She could almost swear he cared.

"I love you, Tom." she murmured, her eyes growing wide as soon as those words were out.

What was she talking about? She despised this creature! She didn't feel anything like love towards him! If she could have, at that moment Ginevra would've ripped him limb from limb and burned his vital organs in the glowing embers of him fireplace.

She could see the wicked grin flash in his face.

"I love you, too, Ginevra," he replied, barely hiding the wicked laughter from his voice, "Won't you come away with me and we can rule the wizards and muggles with our power?"

With his crazed words still fresh in the air about them, she felt control slowly return to her. That dreamy feeling slipped away quickly.

"NO!" she screamed, her hand raising up to connect with one of those high cheekbones of his.

"What?" he snapped, grabbing her wrist in a crushing grip before she could strike him, "What did you say to me, you insolent little twit?"

Tears sprang into her eyes as his grip brought her to her knees. "No!"

"We'll just see." he murmured darkly, "Come along."

She refused to stand and Riddle settled to drag her over to a door across the room. When he opened it, she could see Draco tied to that same chair and she let out a sob as she saw how rarely his chest was moving up and down.

"Oh Draco…" Ginevra murmured, wrenching her wrist from Riddle's grip and throwing herself down next to the man she loved, "Oh, please be alive… please…"

She reached to check the pulse in his neck where she had kissed him so many times before. It was faint, but still there. If she could only get him out of here quickly, Madame Pomfrey could help him.

"You are a very lucky little monster, Riddle," she said in that deadly hiss of hers as she stood, brushing off her jeans and the tears on her face, "Lucky that he's still alive, because otherwise you'd be worse off than what I'm still going to do to you."

Riddle arched his brow at her skeptically and a grin spread over her angelic face. The spell was out of her mouth before he even touched his wand.

"Je vous envoie dans l'obscurité! A jamais et un jour que vous resterez! Vos mals ont essuyé de la terre! Rien de vous restez!"

Her russet eyes changed into a cold, unfeeling black as she gazed upon his beautiful, fading self. Her trademark Weasley-red hair was shock-white and she could feel her pulsing veins growing close to her now pale skin. The intensity of this spell felt like it could suffocate her… power and magic filled the air and mingled with screams of shock and objection.

A whip-like crack sounded and afterwards… silence.

"He's gone," she murmured, a triumphant grin spreading on her face, "it's over."

Ginevra swayed on her feet before the floor rushed up to meet her and darkness ensued.

End Chapter