Ginny followed the small moving animals in the embroidered canopy of her bed, in the last room on the third floor of the Leaky Cauldron, until she could no longer bear their games of hide and seek.
She took a deep breath, trying to control her nerves, and turned on her side, focusing on the bedroom door that she had blocked with a chair; a childish decision that would do nothing against a wizard determined to enter her room, but it was the best she could do to fulfil her need for an additional physical barrier between her and the outside. She had tried to move the wardrobe when she first closed the door, but it would not move no matter how many spells she cast on it, or how much she pushed on its side so that humble chair had to do the job.
The light of the day was beginning to enter her room through the dirty window as the sun rose, and she turned down, burying her face on the pillow, almost in agony.
Tom, in the Borgin & Burke, should take a few more hours to wake up and notice her absence; there was nothing keeping him awake that night, nothing remotely similar to her furious mind and the feelings of guilt and despair that she could not control.
She wondered what he was going to do once he understood she had left. Would he look for her? Make her go back to the Borgin & Burkes? Curse her?
Ginny turned to the other side, looking at the dark wooden wardrobe in the wall that so dramatically contrasted with the clear and yellowed wallpaper behind it.
The room felt so small.
She still felt dirty.
She had been in the water of her bath for as long as it had taken for it to go from boiling and almost burning her skin when she sat in the bathtub, too cold, and she had stayed there until her fingertips started to turn blue, and she was shaking and even more miserable. Ginny redressed feeling the same way she did before she entered the bathroom, she could still sense his smell on her and the taste of his mouth.
Ginny massaged her neck, this time, there was no potion to save her looks and it was going to leave a scar, but she deserved it, she deserved that bite and all the scratches he had left on her, the black bruises that were starting to appear, from where he had grabbed her too hard and the soreness between her legs from having him inside.
How she hated him in that moment, she had never felt so much anger for someone in her entire life.
Except for herself.
She had not been able to resist.
She could remember every moment of it, imprinted as much on her mind as it still was in her body. She had not tried to the push him away, she did not even stop to think about what was going on when he finally managed to free the attic door from his paranoiac locking spells that almost sent them to the ground when he opened the door behind her.
It was her that torn his vest open and ripped his shirt with the rush of reaching for his skin. It was her that pushed him to the bed and sat on him before he could even catch his breath from the sudden fall, making him moan and grab on to the covers before regaining control and press her against the mattress between their laughs.
How could she justify her actions? She couldn't even blame him. She had wanted him more than he had wanted her during those hours.
Later, when the realisation suddenly crushed her under its weight, she pushed his arms away, unable to handle the feel of his skin against hers and the sound of him sleeping beside her. She looked for the clothes she had brought from 1999 and dressed her as fast as she could, feeling her throat start to close and tears threatening to roll her eyes. Ginny left most of the money they had given her during those weeks on the dresser, since it made no sense to take it with her and took the damned pocket watch from the first drawer, and headed to the Leaky Cauldron.
Now she waited.
She had done it; she had crossed that line.
How could she face Harry when she went back home? She could see now, how much she loved him, how much she wanted to be with him. She missed him so much.
Why did she push him away?
How would she forgive herself?
She closed her hand tightly around the watch and slowly sit, her hair falling in front of her face, hiding the tears that started to fall from her eyes.
She would kill him.
Tom exited the bathroom pulling his sweater down his head, feeling rested and relaxed in a way that he did not felt in years, he runs a hand through his wet hair looking at the small chaos around his room, at the path of fallen things from his desk to his bed.
There were some books spread on the floor around his desk, he had stepped on most of the buttons that used to be in his clothes on his way to the shower, and their clothes lay around his bed.
He made a spell to tide the room and sat on the couch pulling his boots from underneath it.
Tom had taken a long time to realise that Ginny was not at his side when he had awakened. He had moved his arm around her side of the bed waiting for his hand to find her body, but it only found her pillow. Tom would prefer to have her there by his side when he woke up, he always preferred to have her there no matter the situation, but after what they did, he expected her to stay. It was the middle of the morning and she had probably been hungry and left for the kitchen, so he didn't though anything about it.
Still half-asleep, he pulled her pillow to him, breathing in the scent of her that was trapped on the fabric, then he got up to find the shower, shivering when the cold surrounded his naked form.
He started to tie his boots while trying to hear something from downstairs, like the sound of a pot beating on the stove, the kettle or even some awful Muggle music from the radio, but he heard nothing but a heavy silent.
It took him a moment to understand that that was the sound of the empty store when he lived alone.
He walked down the stairs and stopped by the kitchen door.
Empty.
He took a deep breath when a wave of anger started to spread through him.
Where was she?
He knew, but he refused to accept it. She would not dare…
He entered the kitchen and looked around, trying to see if she had left him a note telling him where she was; he even opened the book he had left on the table and shook it pages down, but there was nothing inside.
'It cannot be.' He repeated to himself all the way back to the attic. He crossed the room to the bed and began to lift the books he had on his bedside table, leafing through them, he undid the bed over the vain hypothesis she had placed some note there, trying not to jump to the obvious conclusions. Only when he moved to the desk and saw the bag with money on top of it, he gave up.
The anger turned into fury while he walked around the room and with a sweeping gesture, he pushed everything that was on the desk to the floor, making books, leaves, feathers and ink bottles flew everywhere. He leant over the desktop, fists clenched on the wood and took a deep breath, completely focused on her, the nerve, the audacity of leaving him without notice.
Now he remembered how cold her side of the bed was, witness for how long she had actually been gone.
He did not even remember feeling her get off the bed. He, that had the lightest of sleeps.
Without realising it, Tom called on the primitive magic he had fed when he had bitten her, that had bonded their souls a little more together. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and let that magic expand around him like an echo, a wave that would come back to him when it found her essence, always letting him know where she was.
"The Leaky Cauldron" He said through clenched teeth and flipped the desk to the floor before walking to the bed in a few quick steps. He searched through the folded clothes for his wand, letting her bloody shirt and skirt fall to the ground in the process, indifferent. Tom run down the stairs to the fireplace and slow down on the hallway, trying to regain his composure before he entered the pub. He grabbed a handful of Floo powder and let the pot smash into the floor, not noticing how it marked the leg of his black trousers in a pale green, he threw the Floo at the almost dead fire, making it burst alive in emerald flames.
Tom pushed the wand into his sleeve and crossed the pub to the stairs that accessed the rooms. Not noticing the unnatural pull that was telling him exactly where she was, only focused on getting to her, on fiddling her and make her know how displeased he was.
He grabbed the knob, ready to burst in, but then he stopped himself. Tom gave a step back, and then another one.
What exactly was he doing?
Tom gave another step back, breathing harshly and shook his head. He had given in to his impulses, he had lost control… for her? He could barely recognise himself that moment.
She was not worth it.
He walked down the hallway, slowly, putting his wand away, just trying to understand what he was even doing there.
"Is everything all right, Tom?" Asked a voice beside him when he stopped in front of the fireplace, startling him.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Leaving the hand that was about to grab his wand fall to the side before putting it in his pocket. "Yes, everything is alright. Happy new year." He said with a friendly smile.
"Oh thank you." Dumbledore said. "I spent my night here, with my brother and some friends, something small and calm." He smiled, adjusting his half-moon glasses on his nose. "I'm now going home for a well-deserved morning of sleep."
"Ah yes, then I'm in your way, I'm sorry." Tom smiled and stepped aside to give space for Dumbledore to enter the fireplace.
"What happened with Miss Ginny?" He asked, without moving and making Tom look at him with fake confusion.
"She walked in at the middle of the night, asked for a room with a look of who was going into shock and then now you… You looked very distressed... Did something happen between you?"
Tom looked at him and adopted a neutral expression. "Nothing happened, sir."
Dumbledore tilted his head to the side, watching him carefully. "You did not hurt her now, did you?"
Tom, feeling as if he had ten years again and Dumbledore was asking what was on his wardrobe; he was being threatened. "I'm sorry?"
Dumbledore smiled and took some Floo powder from the pot. "Certainly, everything will end well. Women are the most complicated creatures on this planet; you will die of old age before you understand them."
Tom frowned and waited for Dumbledore to say something else because he certainly did not know what to say to that.
"I will see you another day." Dumbledore took his leave with a brief bow to which Tom replied and threw the Floo powder into the flames, disappearing into the flames.
When Tom dropped on one of the kitchen chairs with his face hidden behind his hands, he was still incredulous with Dumbledore's words, but more than that, he was worried by the fact that Dumbledore had a glimpse that things were not well between him and Ginny.
He had been careless, in his hazel to reach her he forgot to examine the space around him and look for potential threats. He had simply followed Ginny's track as if he was nothing more than a beast.
That was how out of himself he had been, and for what?
He leant against the chair crossing his legs and resting his hands on his lap, staring at the nothing.
Tom felt rejected for a moment, after the way they had spent the week, he did not anticipate that she could do this, she had given him exactly the opposite signs, but apparently there was not much he could do about it right now, whatever resentment she had for him, had woken again.
Rejection, imprisonment, death, those were all the things he most hated.
He grimaced in disgust.
He told himself that it was not the fact that she had left, that actually bothered him, it was knowing that he would never know what she was hiding.
The store was well protected with a number of spells that which without them it could not care its business: protection spells, barriers, soundproof in certain parts of the building that included his attic. The rooms at the Cauldron were not like that, the old wooden walls, the rotting floors. The spells in place were there to prevent the guest of creating the perfect environment to do something illegal.
As he would probably do if he had entered the room.
He had the horrible feeling of being letting something important fly between his fingers, but there were things that had more priority and that actually deserved his attention, like what he should do about Hepzibah Smith and Slytherin's locket.
He had no proved that he was right about his theory, nothing that he could use to justify going after Ginny.
Maybe if she stayed on the Cauldron long enough for him to figure what to do with Hepzibah, he could have the patience of going back there and talk to her without losing his cool for this affront. He could convince her to be reasonable, return with him to the store, and stay. Then he could think about what to do with her.
Tom thought about the wasted time on her, on trying to be nice and lull her into liking him. He thought he had achieved it, the way she had talked…
Lies.
And he had not seen it, and how could he? Only she could see through him like he was made of nothing but damn glass.
Tom run a hand from his stomach to his chest, stopping above his hearth. The place where she always rested her hands. It felt weird.
He took a deep breath and stood up, it was probably hunger, he had not eaten well during the dinner at Hepzibah's house, with the old witch always pulling his arm when he was cutting his food. Tom made some tea and went down to the store with an apple on his mouth while pulling his sleeves up, he need to find the entry for Hufflepuff's cup and unlike the locket, he had no idea when Hepzibah could have bought it.
He sat on his stool at the store and finished the logbook where Burke had recorded the locket and, then he pulled the book that Ginny had been searching.
Tom sighed looking at the cover and then his eyes fell to her stool. He pushed it against the shelf behind him in annoyance.
He rubbed his face and shook his head, he needed to focus, and so he opened the logbook and started reading the entries from January 1926. But his attention was always going to the stool behind him, and the way she sat on it, and the things they had done against it, and the talks, and the silences.
He signed again, looking to the front of the store.
It really was silent now, only with the wind blowing against the windows and making the door tremble on its frame to keep him company.
'Good.' He thought. He had missed it.
The apple rested by his side, only a single bite taken from it. He was not hungry.
Ginny carefully opened her door, peering into the hallway.
Empty.
Feeling relieved for the fact that he had actually gone away.
Ginny had heard him coming and had waited for him with her wand on her hand in the middle of the room, ready to defend herself when he broke in. She really did not care what made him change his mind and go back; all that mattered was that he was back to his store.
She closed and locked the door, dragged the chair to its original place on the desk and sat down on it. She pulled Dumbledore's note closer to her and activated half of the mechanism, just because she could, feeling relieved at the clicking sound coming from it. Now she would only need a couple of seconds and she could go whenever she wanted.
And that would be when she was done with her new mission.
Ginny had decided to go ahead with her decision about killing Tom, deciding to take the risk, confident that there were greater things than she, like the Horcrux had hinted on Christmas Eve, so there was no reason to worry. She was almost certain that her parents would fall in love, even though there was no war to help them get closer, all her brothers and she would be born, they would probably have a very different life from what they had now.
Maybe her parents could have more money and a better house. She could never meet Harry and become a healer as her mother suggested so many times when she was little, which was not a bad option as well. It was something she could deal with, especially since she felt she no longer deserved to be with him after what happened that night.
It would be a better future, just because there would be no war and no Voldemort
Now she just had to find the courage to go back to the Borgin & Burkes and more than that, face Tom Riddle.
She absently rubbed her neck, feeling it hot and swollen against her palm.
If he had taken the trouble of looking for her and follow her there (she could not understand how he had done that), it was because he had been really pissed off. It certainly was not because she had broken his heart and he had come to beg for her to take him back. She could not even start to imagine what he could have done to her if he had opened the door.
But maybe Tom should have entered, she could have tried to settle things right there and now she could be home.
Ginny eventually remembered when he was going to see Hepzibah Smith again, but she couldn't find the courage to leave the room in the meantime, too nervous at the thought of even going down to eat, not wanting to run the risk of meeting someone she knew. Then the days she had to wait passed and she could not keep hiding from the world there, she had to act.
She also wanted to try to prevent Hepzibah's death, it was less a death on his hands.
Ginny hesitated in front of the fireplace, looking around, absorbing the sounds and smells of the only place which had remained the same through time, and that she could relate to the concept of home.
She was hoping to be back there soon, but not in 1946.
She firmly held wand until her knuckles turned white and took a deep breath counting to ten, then she threw the Floo powder into the flames with a dry movement.
This was it.
Borgin & Burkes' kitchen was empty to her relief; the last thing she wanted was to bump into Tom the time she exited the fire.
"Tom?" She called him, walking into the hallway, wand ready in front of her. "Tom!"
"He's not here!" Shouted Burke from the ground floor. Ginny walked down the stairs carefully, it could be Burke, or it could be Tom controlling Burke. It made no sense and she was being paranoid, there was no reason for him to do that, but paranoia was half the way to survive Voldemort, she had to be alert, keep her guard against anything that crossed her and most importantly, she could not hesitate when the time came.
"What's the matter?" Burke asked looking worried at Ginny when she emerged from the stairwell with her wand in wrist. "Where have you been?"
"Where is he?" Ginny ignored Burke's question, looking around, trying to see in the dark corners of the dimly lit store.
"He is having dinner with a client." Explained Burke starting to feel uncomfortable. "Is everything alright? Tom did something to you?"
"With which customer?" She needed him to say it aloud.
"Hepzibah Smith..." Burke took his own wand and pointed it at Ginny. "Now lower the wand and tell me exactly what's going on..." Burke stepped in Ginny's direction but she turned on her heels, knocked him out with a spell and run back to the kitchen.
She had no time to play with Burke.
Those were horrible news, she was late, the information she had was wrong and Hepzibah Smith was going to die that night if she was not already dead.
Ginny spill half of the Floo powder around her trying to grab a handful of it and held her wand to her chest before entering the flames screaming her destination.
She exited the fire to a room she had not been at during the party, there were no lighted candles on it and the darkness seemed to want to involve her. She walked to the window, looking at the garden below, but heavy clouds covered the moon and the stars, but even if she was able to see clearly, she did not recognise that part of the garden.
She bit her lip, trying to ward off the anxiety that was beginning to wrap her throat like a ghostly hand. The same feeling she had when she saw Tom hold Slytherin's locket was returning, she should not be there, she should not interfere and should not see what was happening somewhere in that house.
Screams coming from above called her attention to the ceiling and made her sprint into the hallway, almost crashing with an oriental vase opposite the door when she did a thigh curve into the direction of what she hoped was the stairs.
She ran as fast as she could and was relieved to find the house's entry hall. She run up the stairs, feeling her legs getting heavy because of the lack of her regular Quidditch training.
When she entered the hallway that led to the Hepzibah drawing room, she had to cover her eyes with one arm because a white bright light flooded the area that moment, leaving through the drawing room door. Hepzibah's house elf Hokey was huddled in the doorway, shielding her old face with her tray.
Ginny shook her head, trying to clear her eyes from the bright spots left by the strong light; she had missed it.
Hepzibah was dead and Tom had a new Horcrux.
She slowly walked closer but stopped when the old house-elf rose from the floor with a scream and ran into the drawing room holding the tray above her head like a weapon.
She heard the dry sound of wood hitting a body and the correspondent surprised growl from Tom, but she could not move, she did not want to go in, she did not want to see Hepzibah lifeless body on the floor, and she did not want to see him under those circumstances.
Ginny shook her head, exhaling trough her mouth.
He was just Tom Riddle, not yet Voldemort.
The house elf's furious screams became panicked cries.
"Look at what you have done to your master, elf!" Tom's voice filled everything around him, strong, controlled and clear. "Look at it elf! Look! You've killed your master!" Ginny did not recognise that voice, or the cruel cold laughs that made her soul tremble. "Say it elf! Say it! SAY THAT YOU HAVE KILLED HER!" He shouted.
Shaking, she closed the distance to the drawing-room door, supporting one hand on the wall beside her, as if she was afraid to fall.
"HOKEY DID NOT DO IT! HOKEY IS A GOOD ELF! YOU DID THIS! I WILL TELL! I WILL!" Screamed and shrieked the house-elf, but Ginny could barely hear her words under the sound of Tom's laughs and then Hokey stopped screaming and Ginny feared that she too had died, despite knowing what was going to happen.
She walked to the door by the time Tom was releasing the elf from the floor. Hokey looked at Hepzibah as if it was the first time she saw her, her lips trembling, deformed hands outstretched towards the body of her master.
Tom was sitting on the floor and leaning against a side table trying to pull himself up, breathing hard, and not looking at the house-elf when she passed by his side in Hepzibah's direction. "There was no one else here tonight, only Hokey, Hokey poisoned her, Hokey put poison in her drink and killed her, Hokey is a bad elf." Tom gave a strangled laugh, finally managing to stand on his knees.
"What have you done Hokey?" He asked, looking at the house-elf over his shoulder.
"I put poison in Master's cocoa and I killed her." She said falling on her knees. "I am a bad elf..." Ginny screamed as the elf began to hit her head on the floor, she ran toward her to try to stop her, to tell her that she was not guilty and that she had to stop. She raised the elf in the air, but Hokey kicked until Ginny dropped her, and continued to hurt herself.
"You..." Ginny turned around and stepped back, looking shocked at Tom.
She barely recognised him, not because his appearance had changed, but because he... was not himself.
His presence was completely different, he had a dark horrible aura surrounding him, she could feel black magic dripping from him and there were those horrible red eyes...
It was Lord Voldemort who looked back at her.
Ginny covered her mouth with her hands and walked back until her legs touched the couch behind her. She could not believe her eyes. Harry's story did not make justice to this moment, this was one of the most horrible things she had ever seen.
Tom knocked down the side table he was still holding on to when he rose, and walked toward her with a maniac look on his face and completely out of himself and insane. When he took a staggering step, the golden reflex of the chain around his neck called her attention.
Slytherin's locket was open against his chest and Tom Riddle's eyes, those cold blue eyes that she had to get used to seeing every day, were staring back at her, and she could not look away.
Those eyes knew who she was, she just knew it, that Horcrux was just like the diary, he recognised her, she could see the thirst on them, they called something deep in her.
Ginny began to shake; she raised her wand, but her arm was stuck between her and Tom when he put his arms around her, a delicate gesture that did not fit him in that state.
"You should not have seen this my little Ginny..." He muttered against her ear with a tired sigh. Ginny could feel him burning against her, hear how hard he was trying to breath. He was sick. Ginny felt a chill raise up her back as she felt the medallion pressed against her chest when he lost his balance for an instant. "What am I going to do with you?" She felt his cheek twitch into a smile against hers.
Before she could push him away, Tom appareted. Ginny was not ready to travel like that when the spell closes around her, and she thought she was going to get out of air when her feet touched the snow in front of the Borgin & Burkes. Tom immediately pushed her against the window, resting a hand at the side of her head and clenching on her sweater, to keep his balance, catching his breath.
Ginny clung tightly to him, her arms passing under his arms and holding on tight to his shoulders when her legs began to fail her, pulling him down with her.
They fell, her knee between his legs and his between hers. She pulled him even tightly and stared at the store across the street, barely registering the dark shadow that moved inside, closer to the window.
Tom rested his head on her shoulder, trying to catch his breath, his hands resting above her head.
He laughs, softly, against her neck, making her shiver.
He freed himself from her and stood up, giving a step back before regaining his balance, then he grabbed her by the arms and pushed her until her back was against the window and dragged her until she rested on the store's door.
"What am I going to do with you?" He asked again. "My dear silly little Ginny, what will I do with you?" He laughed, leaning down to talk in her ear, but not lowering his voice. "Maybe I should cut your tongue off so you can't tell anyone about what you saw, what do you think?" He rested his forehead against hers. "No, not that... then how will you be able to tell me about your secrets?" He lowered his head to the curve of her neck where his mark was, almost touching it. "Do you still know my name?"
"You're mad..." She told him harshly, straightening up against the door and making him rise. She put the tip of her wand under his chin, making him smirk at her. "This ends here, I will not allow y-" Tom opened the store's door behind her, and she fell back, hitting the floor unprepared. Her head hit the dry wood boards making her feel dizzy.
She could hear him laugh, she shook her head a few time to make her head stop spinning and opened her eyes. Tom had slipped to the floor leaning against the doorjamb, a cruel smile on his lips, amused; raising a hand to his chest he closed the locket, imprisoning those blue eyes inside of it for the first time. "What ends here Ginevra? What are you going to do?" Tom mocked her. "What can you do against Lord Voldemort?" He laugh is a way he should not be able to and began to stand up; looking at her with a smirk and then leaving his face fall into emptiness. "Who sent you here?" He asked raising his voice, as he entered the store and closed the door with a kick.
"What's going on!?" Burke shouted walking off the stairs with his wand in his hand, paralysing mid-step when he saw Ginny lying on the floor and Tom standing atop of her, leaning towards her threatening and a strange reflection on his eyes.
"You should go to the warehouse Burke, count the potions." Tom said with a hoarse voice and a cruel smile. The other wizard blinked a few times before disappearing into the warehouse as Tom suggested.
Ginny looked horrified to Tom, she had underestimated him. He could have made her talk whenever he wanted!
Or… his red eyes focused on her, was he not aware that he had already achieved this level of power?
Her heart skipped a bit. She did not know him at all…
"Who sent you?" He asked again, wand in hand and a look of loathing. "Tell me who sent you to kill Lord Voldemort!"
Ginny began to crawl back.
"Calm down Tom! You've to calm down! Please!" She shouted back.
Tom caught on with her and lifted her up by one arm. " .you?" He articulated slowly, centimetres from her face, and ignored her plead. Ginny glared at him with hate, challenging him when the grip around her arm tightened.
"You're completely mad..." She stated in a whisper pointing her wand at his chest.
Tom growled and yanked the wand from her wand, and then dragged her to the attic, furious, pulling her tougher when she stumbled, pushing her hard against the walls to tell her something he would not say, shaking his head and walking again.
When they reached the attic, Tom threw her to the ground and started tossing the books he had on his desk to the floor. Unable to find what he turned to his bookshelf, letting his books fall to the floor on top of Ginny's shoes.
"Where did you put it?" Tom shouted looking furious at Ginny. "Where did you hid my diary?" Tom walked back to his desk letting their wands to the ground when he started to undress, taking the tie that suffocated him off and throwing it to the floor, then pulling his coat that seemed to weight on his shoulders in an unbearable way.
Seizing the opportunity, Ginny took her wand and began to crawl back, passing through the curtains and just stopping when her back was against his bed. She swallowed when she heard him flip the desk and closed her eyes when he started to pull his other books to the ground. She did not saw him pass through the curtains, ripping half of them out of their support because she closed her eyes.
"It knows! It knows who you are!" He shouted grabbing her arm throwing her on the bed, then sitting on top of her, pushing her down with his weight. "It hides my secrets, but it will tell me, it will tell because Lord Voldemort is its Maker." Tom grabbed her shoulders digging his fingers into her muscles. "TELL ME THE TRUTH GINEVRA!" He yelled.
"You're hurting me! Let me go, Tom!" Ginny tried to push him but to no avail, she scowled, noticing how his hair was stuck to his face with sweat and the large drops of water that were dripping down his neck.
"I'm hurting you?" Tom laughed cruelly. "You don't know what pain is..." He became very serious again and he wrapped his hands around Ginny's throat, strangling her with all the strength that his feverish body allowed him to use.
Ginny squirmed under him, the body pleading for the air he was keeping from her.
She was about to lose consciousness when he released her, falling against her, breathing hard.
When Ginny was able to breathe again she tried to push him to the side clutching her wand tightly on her hand with strength, she hoped he was unconscious by the way he felt like a dead body against her. However, Tom was not and with a tug he pulled her wand from her hand and with the effort he sat back again, swallowing with difficulty, he gave a deep breath, filling his lungs with air that seemed to not be enough for him to live.
He pulled his sleeves up, he had work to do.
Creating the first Horcrux had been easy; he had barely felt it when the first piece of his soul passed to his diary. With the ring, he already felt some of the side effects of the magic, falling sick in the middle of the move of the orphanage to the countryside during the war with Germany.
He did not expect that breaking his soul for the third time would be any easier than the previous time, but he did not expect this. He felt burning on the inside and it destroyed his self-control. He hated it, it caused him a great distress the weeks after. He still couldn't remember how he had found his way back to the orphanage after that night with those worthless Muggles because of this.
The same had not happened in Albania; in those months he looked for that damn Ravenclaw's diadem at the middle of nowhere. He had been careful, learned his lesson, having a place to go back to recover, the potions to numb the pain and bring his sanity back waiting by the bed.
But he was not the same since then, there was a crippling madness always in the back of his mind, ever present no matter if he was 16 and helping taking care of the Muggle children that last summer he passed with them in the orphanage, or watching Ginny make her dinner.
It was his future, that madness.
If he could, he would fear that the next cuts on his soul would make him completely mad and question if it was worthy, but he could not, because, in that state, he loved that madness, he embraced it.
If he could, he would decide it did not matter, he wanted seven Horcruxes, it was the only way he would live forever and he was almost half way through, he would stop at nothing.
But now he didn't think about such silly things, he was too far-gone for now, too busy.
Tom smiled, more of a grim then a smile, and focused on the woman beneath him.
"Ginevra…" He said aloud, caressing her face with one hand and pushing her shoulder down with the other. She should not have been there; she should have not seen him like this. Now she had to pay, she had to silence her. No one could know.
"Get away from me!" She screamed and took her elbow to his face and tried to sit, but Tom quickly regained his balance and sat on her legs again, putting a hand on her face and pushing her down with a wave of adrenaline that left him a little closer of unconsciousness.
She screamed, almost hopeless, and grinded her teeth. She was not going to be taken down this easily.
"Crucius…" Tom said placing the tip of the wand against Ginny's chest, the red light of the curse flashing between them for an instant. Tom tried to keep his concentration to maintain the curse, but it was getting hard to focus, he was weak. Tom clutched the blankets around her head when Ginny grabbed on to him, screaming and in terrible pain, ripping his vest; he tried to focus on her contorted face with pain, drink her screams because they were fair, she was paying.
"This," he said when he stopped the curse, looking at her with disdain. "Is to teach you that you should not run and hide after we fuck, Ginevra... You are mine, you cannot leave me..." He put a hand around her throat and pushed her wand against her cheek, pressing it down. "And from now on, it will be to convince you to tell me who the hell you are." Ginny screamed again, but Tom did not let go of her neck, pushing her hard against the bed, ignoring the scratches she left on his arm, taking pleasure at seeing her struggle under him, enjoying her screams with a coy smile on his lips, despite preferring to hear her moan to this, preferring what they had done the last time they been in that bed, to this.
He tortured her, over and over again, until he dropped on her, almost unconscious, no longer able to focus on the curse and what he was doing, letting the spell stop.
Ginny gasped against him, clinging to him, warping her arms around his back, grasping his hair just because she need to make sure that he was actually there, against her and that she was no longer being stabbed by the ghostly knives that characterised that curse.
She hid her face on the crook of his neck, feeling the unpleasant feeling of the wet shirt on her skin.
He moved and she pulled him even closer, desperate, waiting for him to pull back and torture her again, but he didn't move, he groaned against her ear.
She pushed Tom to the side, but he barely reacted, groaning in pain when she pressed her hand against his chest or pulled his thigh to free her legs.
It was her opportunity.
There he was, defenceless and at her mercy, lips parted trying to breathe, pain in his face.
It was time.
She rested her hand over his heart, pushing the locket against the wet shirt that covered his chest, catching her breath. It was time.
Tom looked at her under heavy eyelids, his eyes red, that blood red that did not fit him and she would never grow used to see on this body, so distant from his cadaveric body at the battle of Hogwarts.
She stood up from the bed, almost falling back. "Avad-" She thought about Fred. "Avada-" She thought about her father that almost died with a bite from his snake. "A-" She thought about her friends and Lupin and Tonks that had left a baby behind.
Tom grabbed the cover under him, clenching his teeth and arched his back, pressing his head against the bed in pain, then he relaxed again, breathing hard, relieved for a moment.
Ginny turned her back to him, running a hand through her mouth. What was she going to do? She could not do this. All the time she wasted closed in that room at the pub, collecting herself, planning, were completely for nothing, because she could not kill him.
"Lord Voldemort." She said aloud, feeling the tears stroll down her face, she sobbed inconsolably. "Tom…"
What had he done to her? She was broken! She was not able to kill the man that killed her brother.
She was not able to do it because it was wrong to kill, or because she was going to do it out of vengeance or because she was going to do it as a coward, taking his life when he was laying there at her mercy, not able to defend himself.
She could not do it because she simply could not and did not know why.
Any illusions of love she had nurtured for him had died in that bed a couple of nights ago, so what was stopping her?
Ginny screamed in despair and sat back on the bed, holding her wand until it almost broke and hid her face on his chest, ignoring the cold touch of the locket against her face.
A bad decision after a bad decision and she could not redeem herself.
She rose and caressed his face, making him sigh under her touch, almost relieved. Tom raised a hand to touch her but was not able to lift it above her leg, so he let it rest there, closing his fingers over the fabric.
Ginny stood up and stepped back, she lifted her wand again, but still, could not find the courage to do it, so she bent over him, letting her thigh rest against his side and her hands beside him, one by his head.
She gazed at him with despise, when he opened his eyes, still red under the influence of the spell he made to create the Horcrux, she felt disgusted. By him, by her, by everything that happened and did not happen in that store and on that bed.
Ginny leant down and kissed him, slowly and calmly, a goodbye kiss that would close him out of her life forever. She saw him close his eyes again, felt his hand under her sweater, touching the skin of her waist.
She would never miss the diary again and she would close the months she lived in 1946 in a dark place of her mind and never go there again.
She could not kill him, but he was completely dead to her now.
He was dead in her time as well, so what was the point in taking him with her?
She sat back and watched him fall asleep.
It was over.
Ginny shook her head and walked out, feeling empty and numb.
She walked down the stairs and took out the watch from her pocket, activating the mechanism, just as Dumbledore had told her to do.
She waved to Burke that was still in the warehouse and was giving her a silly smile and had his hands full of bottles.
Ginny stopped by the door, and looked back at the dark store behind her for a moment, then she opened the door in a fluid movement and stepped out.
When she crossed the door to the street, she was pushed back inside, as if a giant hand wrapped itself around her chest and pressed her downwardly.
Ginny fell back, hitting the floor of the Borgin & Burkes hard, hitting her head again on the wooden boards for the second time that day.
"Weasley..." said a rough, deep voice before her. Ginny opened her eyes breathing hard and focused on the man looking down at her.
Kevedo looked at her with contempt, one hand inside his coat, ready.
Ginny crawled back, feeling a small déjà vu and dropped the watch.
She was back.
"What do you think you are doing?" Kevedo asked running his eyes up and down her body.
Kevedo, she remembered what they told her about it in the briefing of that mission.
He had disappeared soon after the Battle of Hogwarts and little was known about him in the recent years. The Aurors were interested in questioning him due to intelligence that put him on the most exclusive centre of the Death Eaters, the closest one to Voldemort, and there were several wizards on the Ministry interested in knowing what he was doing there because there was nothing more to say about Kevedo but that. There was no record of him having killed or tortured, of having robbed, manipulated, or done something illegal in general. They only knew that he was an important Death Eater and that was all, there was nothing that they could use to arrest him in Azkaban, especially nowadays, after the Ministry had abolished the penalty of imprisonment for criminal association, after having committed some crass errors made by insensitive and tired judges after weeks and weeks of incessant trials back in the 1940's.
Kevedo stepped closer to her and she stood up, shaking, feeling her head about to explode. She lifted her hands and started to walk towards the exit.
"I'm really sorry." She said, moving slowly, focused on his hand inside his jacket.
Kevedo would not tolerate any of this, he felt enraged. He had been living in London for the past weeks, hiding from the Aurors and their nonsense, waiting for the last object he needed to fulfil his master's plan. He had everything ready, he was so close that it almost scared him. The plan that Voldemort had to entrust him in case he died, so meticulously done and perfect, was about to enter the final phase, he would not let this silly girl stop him.
He walked to her and hold her by the sweater. Ginny took her knee to his stomach but missed when he pushed her back, nonetheless, it had been enough to make him release her. She stepped back, stumbling on her feet and fell down.
The moment she touched the cobbles of the floor she appareted, but it had not been fast enough to stop her from feeling something pass right by her head with a horrible speed that left her ear sizzling.
She sighed, feeling the rough grass outside of The Burrow on the palm of her hands and the back of her neck through her hair.
She stared at the blue sky above her and sighed.
Blue.
Just like his eyes.
She hated that colour.
The Watch
The End
A/N: Thank you very much for reading this.
I would really appreciate if you left me a review with your thoughts, it makes me feel loved and keep writing, I always send a happy thank you back. :)
17/01/2018: 1st chapter of the sequel will be up February 1st. The title is They Are All Liars (instead of Cold Summer). Hope to see you there. ;)
08/02/2018: I am having problems with my computer, sorry for the delay in uploading the new story. :(