Chapter Eleven: Always
They were both, secretly, dreading this day for years now.
It was Tom's sixteenth beach day with Wool's but come New Year's Eve he would turn seventeen thus ending all legal obligation to stay in the muggle world. Free to live his life in the magical world, untethered by the past.
"Sorry I'm late," he announced, as he climbed down from the rocks to find Ariel swimming patiently in the same area he first met her. "Someone syphoned the gas from the bus again so we had to walk the rest of the way."
Ariel rushed to the sandy bank, saying, "I'm just glad you made it." When she plopped herself beside teenaged Tom, she traced over his changing face with longing eyes. "Oh, Tom…You look so different every time I see you," She breathed, her hand reaching up to caress his beautiful, pale, sharp cheek. "When did you get so handsome?"
Tom rolled his puffy eyes, bashfully, though he never tired of her affections. Even if the voice in him that despised vulnerabilities told him to.
"But you look so tired…" She observed with concern.
"It's my own fault. I keep staying up late to read." He half-lied. Half-lies were good for him. Nobody, except her, got anything close to the truth out of him.
Ariel scoffed, then pinched his nose playfully. "You need to sleep more, ya dork."
Tom smiled at her tenderly before he said, "I got a job offer."
"That's fantastic!" She exclaimed. "Oh Tom, I'm so proud of you."
"You don't even know what the job is," he retorted.
"Doesn't matter. You always get good grades, all your teachers seem to adore you and you're always working so hard…I'm so proud of you Tom. I just know whatever you do in life, you're going to be great."
Tom listened quietly, his eyes averted to the ground, suddenly inexplicably embarrassed by her praise. The two of them lapsed into an awkward silence until Ariel broke it by saying,
"I know you hate goodbyes…"
"Stop," he cut in without conviction.
"Please let me have this," she begged her voice so soft and cracked with emotion he had to relent and she continued, "I know you hate goodbyes, but I just wanted to say," (she grabbed his hand and gave the first four fingers a loving squeeze) "That I am so proud of you and that I love you so much and that I wish you nothing but the best of luck with whatever path you choose in life."
Tom listened to her speech, his mouth fluttered open, looking so torn and anguished by her declarations. He drew his hand out of hers, flung his arms wide, and coiled them around her, declaring, "I'll always love you, Ariel."
For a while, they merely held each other. Until Tom pulled himself out of her embrace and asked, somewhat sheepishly, "Will you sing to me?"
"Of course." She said with a sniffle. "Any song in particular?"
"That one you always sing," he said as he lowered the top half of his body, resting his head on her tail.
"But that's such a sad song." Ariel protested, half-heartedly, as her finger began to trace the conch-shaped outline of his ear, knowing it would the last time she would get to do so.
"I don't care," he croaked, his tears rolling down her tail and blending in with the drops of lake water that hadn't yet evaporated.
Ariel played with a lock of his black wavy hair and began to sing,
"Look at this stuff, isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think that my collection's complete? Wouldn't you think I'm the girl, the girl who has everything…"
Fifty-four years later and somehow that little boy from the cave was still making her cry.
Ariel was sobbing quietly in front of a roaring fireplace in an extravagant gold and scarlet themed office while Snape clued in Dumbledore on the events that transpired.
"Are you sure?" Dumbledore inquired, incredulously. "I mean, this is Voldemort we're talking about. Voldemort can't love. Direct-descendent from Salazar Slytherin, the product of date rape potion, soul split seven times, talks to snakes, can't feel love. That's his whole thing, right?"
"Albus, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it for myself," Snape swore stealing surreptitious glances at Ariel's depressed body as she laid stomach first on the floor in front of the fireplace. "But he really seems to adore her."
Dumbledore looked over at Ariel's silent figure, his twinkling eyes widened with awe. "Merlin's beard…You must be one hell of a person for Tom Marvolo Riddle to openly care about you, Miss. Ariel."
"Yeah, I'm great." Ariel replied sarcastically as she lifted herself up from her couchant position. She turned and shot a piercing look at the elderly wizard as she added, "Tried being nice to a kid in a cave and look what happens? The kid grows up and commits mass fucking genocide."
"Ariel," Snape said with the sadness of someone bitterly familiar with regret. "You mustn't blame yourself."
"The man literally called me his 'hero'. He told me that 'I wouldn't be the wizard I am today if I wasn't for you'." Ariel ranted, her voice rising with anger and shame as she pushed herself from the floor and started to pace. "He literally called me his origin story. I am the reason that Lord Voldemort exists. I'm the reason there are little kids running around with no parents. I'm the reason millions of creatures are dead. I'm the reason—"
"You're putting too much blame on yourself," Dumbledore insisted. "You're not the man's mother."
Ariel made a derisive snort. "I might as well be." Then her angry face contorted as another crying fit came over her. She squeezed her mouth in an attempt to make the tears stop but he quickly succumbed to weeping and the two men had to watch, helplessly, as she croaked out, "I loved that boy so much." She buried her head in her hands and moaned, "I loved him so much…" She lifted her head and told them, "I would've adopted him in a heartbeat if I could've. If it wasn't illegal…If I had legs…you have no idea how often I fantasized about what I would've done…I would've taken him away from that awful place…" She let out a sad laugh. "I would've kicked the crap out of every worker in that shithole orphanage and then I would've loved that little boy 'til my last dying breath." She wiped her face with her sleeves and forced out a bitter laugh, "I guess I still do. God, what's wrong with me?"
Snape looked at Dumbledore who wagged his chin towards her. Snape took his cue and went to her side, giving her a small embrace which she gratefully took. "There is nothing wrong with you. You were just trying to be there for a child who needed it most." When he let go of her, he told her, "Unfortunately for you, no good deed in this universe goes unpunished."
"So, what should I do?" She rasped. "I mean…I still love the guy. Which scares the living shit out of me, because I know the longer I stay on the land, eventually he's going to ask me to do something that I won't be able to do."
"I'm afraid there are few options," Snape informed her, holding her close to him afraid that this was going to be one of his last chances to feel her body pressed against him or to be the focus of her crystal blue's eyes. "You can either reverse the glamor charm and go back to the ocean…"
"I'd rather die," Ariel said vehemently.
"Or you can stay on land," Dumbledore piped in, "And, hopefully, use your influence on Voldemort to do some good."