PROMPTS:

cWritten for The Houses Competition

House: Slytherin

Position: Muggle Studies

Prompts: Tom Riddle/ Being mistaken for somebody else.

Drabble/Standard:BONUS

Word Count: 1075


Reunited In Life

The fleeting realization that lit up within her eyes left Tom Riddle momentarily perplexed. While the world settled down to an unavoidable halt, Hepzibah lay in a beaten heap on her living room floor. Ancient antiques were scattered across the wooden floor, pieces of shredded papers and teacups with their matching saucers were tossed into a million tiny shards all over the room. How ridiculously easy it had been to overpower her in her frail state?

Just when he was about to strike his final blow, she whispered something, but he didn't hear it. Wand in hand, her living room a complete disaster from his own doing, he watched her for what seemed like hours in the pursuit to discover what she'd just said. Tom hovered over her like a territorial hawk waiting to strike. He'd come for what he wanted, so why the hesitation? A crushing weight began to pin him down and he soon felt something he'd never felt before.

"Aegir," she whimpered, her immensely large body shaking with the effort to bring air to her lungs. "Aegir, you're here!"

Tom didn't move.

"Not knowing what to do or how to act after being called by a name he had never heard before, he stood there and continued to watch."

Perhaps this Aegir was an old lover or a long lost nephew she never knew she had?

"Please come to me," she begged, body still shaking.

Before Tom could stop himself, his feet moved him forward. He now stood above her, his wand automatically reaching out to point at her head when he saw the desperation glittering in her eyes.

This woman really believes I am this Aegir, he thought, surprising himself by the amount of confusion he felt.

Fascination was a befitting word to describe what he was truly feeling.

He had Salazar's locket and Helga's cup. What was preventing him from finishing her?

"Hepzibah," his smooth voice said, "I am not the man you are desperately searching for. You know who I am."

Surely, in the sudden act of being disarmed she'd knocked her head, but Tom could not be so certain. The poor woman was so delusional that even he could taste it. Prolonging the inevitable only brought more pain, or so he imagined.

Again, something was holding him back. He didn't wish to continue this charade. Though, entertaining as it were to watch her struggle to sit up and regain her bearings, something was keeping him from killing her.

"I knew we would be reunited," Hepzibah said. She looked ridiculous with that large wig on her head and that bright smile on her wrinkled face. It was pathetic.

Tom frowned. "Reunited, you say?"

Again, it was a conundrum. A part of him wished to know who this man was. Another part of him forbade it.

This war had gone on for so long, and when he thought his ambitions and values outweighed what was right, something always drew him back in.

He was tired of it.

"Tell me, Hepzibah, who is Aegir?" he asked, humoring her.

Her laugh was filled with delight as if he ought to know who he was.

"You were always one for jokes, Aegir," she said. "Such a silly boy. Always knew how to make me laugh."

Tom smiled. "Of course, but humor me one last time."

Hepzibah's eyes twinkled when he spoke.

He wanted to send her off but not before he found out who Aegir was to her.

They spoke for some time, during which she regaled him of how they supposedly met and fell in love. Fresh out of Hogwarts, they united and travelled the world, doing odd little jobs to supply their passion for exploring. As she spoke, it was hard for Tom to convince himself that he wasn't her deceased lover. Something about her story resonated with him; at one point he truly believed he was Aegir and that his life was cut short through a tragic accident that could have easily been prevented. Hepzibah spoke so highly of the man she'd mistaken him for. Through her stories he was able to learn a lot in such a short amount of time.

Aegir's twenty-fifth anniversary fell on Tom's birthday.

Coincidence, one may say.

However, Tom thought highly unlikely. He didn't believe in reincarnation, nor did it fall under the same category as his precious immortality.

People died and that was it.

He aimed to ward off death completely, but who is to say that the strange feeling he ignored during their time together wasn't coincidental?

Hepzibah doted on him during their months of friendship. She spoiled him and had she not stumbled into the shop, he wouldn't have discovered the treasures she possessed.

On the other hand, they wouldn't have been reunited in such a terrible twist of fate had it not been so cruel.

"It sounds like we had a wonderful life together," he told her after a while, playing her.

Whatever ailment she concealed was slowly eating her. For a moment, he believed that it wouldn't be his own hand that ended her life, but some mysterious illness she'd kept from him. Although his intention was to use her to get to the cup and ring, Tom had fallen for the older woman. Romance was not a part of it; he was simply mesmerized by her. Like a perplexing puzzle that could never be complete.

A part of him was lost to her, thus the familiarity he'd felt on the cold winter day some months ago. He'd felt it then and it was as strong as it had been even now.

"We did," she nodded. "I am so tired."

"Why don't you rest," he offered, sitting down next to her.

Tom peered around the room, the destruction was evident. He was going to let her go on her own terms. No need to pursue something that was already destined to happen. Hepzibah was dying and he finally realized what he'd mistaken as guilt.

It was sadness.

Being mistaken for someone he wasn't had taught him something valuable. As he closed the door to her home, erasing all trace of his presence, he turned toward the dark road that led from her house. He had learned that no matter how hard he tried, he could not escape from the past he never knew existed. The only way out was to forget about it and focus on the foreseeable future.