CHAPTER ONE
I HAD FIRST STARTED GETTING WORRIED when I drove up the driveway of Riddle Manor. The flashing lights of Healer vans, reporter cameras and Auror cars were the most dominant feature that I could see from here.
My breath quickened as I panicked, imagining the worst. It didn't take me long to reach the scene of people yelling at each other and bustling about. I rushed out of the car, my hands clammy and my heart beating painfully in my chest.
"Potter,"greeted Draco solemnly, his facial expression remained blank like all Malfoys were taught to do. He took a handkerchief out of a pocket from his dark grey trench coat, dabbing it at his forehead.
"What happened?" I asked quietly, my eyes aimed at the large front door to the manor.
"Potter...It was bad in there when I saw it,"Draco started off slowly and bowed his head, a tad hesitant about revealing what he knew to me.
"Draco,"I warned, crossing my arms over my chest.
The blond sighed before lifting his head up, his mercury orbs, careful not to make eye contact with me as he replied. "They're just going to bring his body down here now..." Was all he said.
Now I could feel fury bubbling underneath the depths of my skin. I growled and grabbed Draco by the collar of his white dress shirt, pulling him closer to me.
"Who's body?!" I bellowed loudly, effectively spooking those around us. "So help me Merlin that I don't knock the living daylights out of you if you don't tell me."
"Tom's body, alright!"Draco snapped at me, his face turning a bright shade of red in his anger.
I pushed him away from me roughly, causing him to stumble.
"What?" I asked dumbly.
At that moment, I felt my heart fall into my stomach, my lungs seemed to close up on me, a huge lump forming in my throat. My worries were not unfounded.
I shook my head quickly in denial.
"N-No,"I choked out. "There's no way that he's dead. No fucking way, Malfoy. You're pulling my leg."
I know that there was absolutely no way Tom could be dead. He's made of tougher stuff than that. Anyone who attacked him wouldn't and simply couldn't last long in a fight with Tom. It was simply implausible in my eyes.
I didn't notice when I broke into a run. My only indicator was when I could vaguely hear Draco yelling after me as he tried to catch up.
~0~
I froze when I reached our bedroom. Already Healers and Aurors were surrounded around our large bed. The room had been completely trashed as if there had been a struggle of some sort.
"Lord Riddle-Potter,"Healer Bones greeted me gently as she seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
I ignored her. I didn't have time for common courtesies. I needed to see Tom. To see him smiling at me after coming back from a long mission. To make him blush as I kissed along his neck, muttering about how much I missed him. To ravish him then cuddle up together in bed afterwards.
"Lord Riddle-Potter! Don't!"she cautioned me, but it was too late. I had pushed past everyone to see Tom's partly covered pale waxy-looking body.
I quickly took one of his slim hands into both of my larger ones as I kneeled down on the ground. They were as cold as a bitter winter. They had put a white sheet over him to preserve his modesty while they had observed him from where they stood.
My heart broke as I saw extremely milky blue eyes, denied of the brightness that the life in the corpse had given them.
Yes, the corpse. Why not Tom? It was his body wasn't it?
Yes and no. I just can't think of this lifeless husk in front of me as my Tom. The Tom who I had shared the best twenty years of my life with. The one who knew me better than I even knew myself as I did him.
I'd never get to see a blush grace his cheeks, a smile dance on his lips or feel his warmth as we clung to each other in the quiet nights.
I'd never get to hear his voice fill with excitement as he told me about something new he discovered that day or watch his eyes light up at something he found interesting.
I felt my own cheeks get stained with some hot liquid.
...Oh Merlin, I was actually crying.
I gazed at the shell a bit longer. I frowned when I saw multiple fresh scars along both its forearms and neck decorate the corpse's skin.
At those was when I finally lost my shit.
"You can't be gone," I choked out in between sobs that shook my frame. "Y-You can't be dead! You're not dead!"
Someone put a hand on my shoulder. I shook it off angrily.
"Do. Not. Touch. Me. Right. Now," I hissed at them.
"It appears to be a self inflicted injury, Lord Riddle-Potter. Your husband could have very well committed suicide,"a familiar voice murmured, unruffled by anything that happened.
I turned around to see that it was Daphne Greengrass-Weasley. She had managed to marry Fred out of all people and I'm still not sure as to how it even happened.
A mad giggle only the insane could be capable of producing slipped past my lips. messy locks of black fell into me eyes as I looked up at her.
"Suicide?"I asked incredulously. "Oh you simply must be joking! Tom wouldn't do such a thing!"
Another giggle slipped. Of course why wouldn't it? To think that Tom had killed himself? Preposterous! I know fact that my husband wouldn't do such a thing.
...Right?
Tom had been happy, hadn't he? But now as I think about it, looking back there could have been signs that I missed.
On Tom's 92nd birthday, he started wearing a strange little wristwatch that he had gotten from an unsigned gift-giver. It looked like the type you'd wear for fitness but it was made of sliver.
Sure it sounds normal enough, but wait for it.
That thing didn't tell time like a normal watch would. It was actually counting down to something as soon as Tom had put it on. He had never taken it off since then. When I say never—I mean never. Not even when we had sex in the shower.
And he had become more tired and jumpy as months progressed since then. Blue eyes always darting towards that watch, filled with fear. I always asked him what was frightening him so. He always dismissed me with a kiss on the cheek and my favourite lopsided smile, telling me that it was absolutely nothing to worry about.
And I had foolishly believed him.
Then in January 2018 was when a new arrangement started.
The Ministry liked to assign me field missions bi-monthly as apparently I was best for the job. The day that I was due to leave, Tom had had an absolute meltdown. Just as I almost had a foot out of the door, he had managed to dive for one of my legs, clinging to it tightly.
His pleas were still fresh in my mind.
~0~
"Don't go!"Tom shrieked, tears streaming down his red flushed face. "Please, Harry! Don't go! Don't go! Don't leave me alone! I don't want to be alone!"
I was perplexed. Why was he so terrified?
I helped him up from the floor and pulled his body close to my own. I kissed his hair as he wrapped his arms tightly around my neck. I could feel fresh, hot tears staining my navy suit as sobs wracked through Tom's body.
I didn't care. I could always wash my clothes. I lifted Tom up bridal style and grabbed his chin softly to make him look at me.
"H-Harry, I don't want you to go..."he whimpered pathetically, his red rimmed eyes puffy, hiccuping as he tried to calm himself.
"Why?"I asked. "What's worrying you, love?"
He shook his head. "Harry, please. Trust me on this, please don't go anywhere today. Something bad is going to happen. I can feel it in my very bones,"he croaked out.
If Tom felt that something was going to happen, then there's a huge chance that it could. My husband had an uncanny ability when he says something's going to go wrong, it happens.
~0~
And something did happen that day. People in my team who had gone on without me ended up being attacked by a strange force when they were tasked to capture a Wendigo in America to study it.
They had nearly died that day if the American Aurors hadn't come when they did.
But after I had stayed back that one time, Tom didn't want me to leave. He cried every time and it broke my heart, so I suggested that someone could come stay with him for the duration of my trips.
Sometimes it was Molly Weasley who came to watch him. She made sure that he ate, washed and slept properly because Tom had had an awful tendency to forget to do these things when his nerves were frayed.
Then there was Luna Lovegood. For some reason, Tom didn't mind the eccentric woman. He even—dare I say it—actually liked it when the blonde spoke about her creatures. She was the only one he'd actually listen to willingly.
Speaking of Luna, just before I left this time, he asked me if "Pandora and her daughter" were coming over again. I had blanched.
Who was Pandora?
After that little slip up—I dismissed it as Tom getting scatterbrained, it had happened more often leading up to his...death—he seemed to regain his senses and looked just as confused as I did. He muttered to himself before smiling at me.
"I meant Luna." he had told me. I had told him no, Bellatrix was coming to visit.
When I was walking out the door, Tom gave me a little silver necklace and told me one thing:
"To die will be an awfully big adventure."
I had frowned at him and asked him to repeat what he had said. I wasn't sure if I had heard correctly.
He shook his head and said something else just as confusing:
"Rien n'est éternel, Harry. Rien n'est éternel. " Sadly for me, Hermione wasn't there to tell me what that meant.
He hugged me tightly and told me he loved me so much. I returned it but I didn't say anything about his odd behaviour. Tom didn't like talking too much every time I left for a mission.
The last time I saw him was different. He told me he loved me over and over, as if he knew that he was either:
(a.) planning his death.
Or (b.) someone was coming after him.
And I find it quite hard to believe that Tom would kill himself.
No. Someone had murdered my husband. Someone far too clever for their own good.
I'm determined to find out who did it.
~0~
•1914 words•
I flopped on this thing. I don't know if you guys are getting the suspense element so please tell me...I don't know whether or not if I should be proud of this chapter.