Part Fourteen
Down by the Lake
Sometimes, mostly when I was lying in bed at night, alone and tired, I thought about confiding in Laura. I could picture myself, strangely, in my mind's eye, telling her all the things I had done, all the things I was ashamed of, all the things that scared me.
But in my mind, it was as if I was looking at her with somebody else, for I knew, deep down, that I could never tell her anything. So I stopped myself, telling myself that this was just my weak side, a side I wouldn't want her to know anyway, because after all, why would she?
Under my influence, Laura had, unwittingly, become an expert at deception. Not that she wasn't good at it before, but she learned from me what it took to never get caught, and we never did, all the nights we spent together, both in the castle and out with her beloved unicorns in the forest.
She would still visit them alone, sometimes, but more often that not, now, I would accompany her, for after all, I would reason, should she be caught and sent home again, we could not be together.
"I should hate that," she had declared vehemently, kissing me, hard.
"I want to be with you forever,"
And so she learned, learned to love me more, learned to lie and deceive even her friends and teachers and even her father.
Particularly, her father.
O O O O O
It was not many weeks after I had assumed leadership of the group, that Professor Dippet announced the Ball. The meetings continued, and we were never caught; the room provided our basic needs of privacy and secrecy, and I taught the others, to be better, but never to match me. Not that I thought any of them could, and I was right. But this suited me perfectly, for even the Seventh years were in awe of my ability. They began to call me their 'Lord'. It began as a joke at first, slightly enviously, I suspected, from Emiliov, one of the sixth formers. But after some time, with some small encouragements, of course, it became my title, and they referred to me as such in private, and hushed tones, and all seriousness….. for they learned quickly that I would be taken so.
School was breaking for a week's half term in two days time. The Great Hall filled up slowly to hear assembly that morning in early April. William Tisker had already pushed past me on his way to the Ravenclaw table.
"Going home to the Home, Riddle?" the girls with him tittered. I recognised one from Laura's dormitory.
I think Laura heard, but she didn't look up, just stiffened her shoulders slightly, and carried on stirring her tea.
I was still looking over at the Ravenclaw table when the Headmaster rose to his feet, and held up his hands for silence.
Nobody paid Dippet much attention, no-one ever did, but I tore my gaze away from Laura, whose eyes were still fixed resolutely on the teacup in front of her, and instead, looked politely and expectantly at the platform. Dippet noticed me, I was, after all, easy to notice, being the tallest at the table, and he smiled approvingly at me. Eventually, the rabble went quiet, and Dippet was able to speak.
"This Summer," he proclaimed, "This Summer, I feel it is time to bring our four houses together. There has been fighting, conflict and discourse in the Wizarding world for too long now, as Dark Wizards revel in creating chaos and destruction,"
"Therefore," Dippet continued "I propose that we unite against the forces of Dark Magic….. together," Here, Abraxas caught my eye and smirked, raising his blond eyebrows, and I heard Dolohov suppress a snigger which he quelled quickly, as I turned, and gave him a furious look.
"I propose a Great Feast," intoned Dippet dramatically "Followed by a Ball. But this will not be an ordinary ball. You are asked to invite your partner from another House only. No exceptions…" Dippet glanced at two sixth year Hufflepuffs who were holding hands across the breakfast table."
"When is it, sir?" asked a Gryffindor prefect.
"It will be held in thirty days." he said. "On the night of the May Day celebrations. I wish you all luck in your preparations, and in finding a partner from another house."
Dippet resumed sitting between Professors Slughorn and Dumbledore. I looked back over at Laura again, wondering whether she would expect me to go to the Ball with her, as we had agreed to keep what we had a secret. Would it be obvious, if we went together? I feared it might not be so easy to pass it off as just a means to appease Dippet's exacting terms. I would be expected to find a partner, as a prefect, I knew, but if I couldn't conceal my feeings to myself, then how on earth would I conceal them in front of a whole roomful of people, especially Abraxas and the other members of the club we referred to as the Death Eaters.
The raven brought the scroll. I noticed it at once, swooping low over the neighbouring table.
It circled once, gave a low, gutteral cry and dropped a scroll tied with a black ribbon at Laura's elbow, swooping off without waiting for a reply.
Curious, I watched her. She did not get many letters, much like myself, having no family left to send them. But suddenly, as if she knew I was watching her, she looked up and straight at me, giving me the kind of smile that I knew meant something was about to happen.
I was right.
O O O O O
A few hours after the train had left, leaving me behind in the empty Slytherin dormitory, I wandered out to the lake. The sun was warm on my shoulders and I didn't really need my winter cloak anymore, but I took it with me, and it wasn't long after I had sat down in my favourite spot - the spot furthest from the castle and hidden by a copse of dense yew trees, that I heard light footfalls coming through the trees.
Hastily, I flicked the cigarette end between my fingers into the still lake, and stuffed the near-empty box of Players -pilfered from Mrs Cole's private 'entertaining' room, back inside my cloak before I looked up.
"I watched you leave," Laura said. "I guessed you would be down here."
"You guessed correctly, then," I said, smiling at her.
I took off my cloak and spread it out on the grass next to me.
"Sit down,"
"Thanks," she said, leaning over to kiss me.
"You smell odd, like burning." she told me
"I passed by the savage's hut," I answered her, waving a casual hand in the direction of the gamekeeper's lodgings. "He's always burning something or other."
She pulled a scroll out of the pocket of her grey pinafore, and I recognized it at once as the one the bird had brought at breakfast.
"I was supposed to be going home again," she muttered.
"It was from your father, then, I take it?" I said. "Nice bird." I smirked.
"Yes." she said, vaguely, not really hearing me.
"He says I'm to stay at school because he won't be at the farm and it's all locked up." she said, and then paused, taking a deep breath.
"But I'm going home all the same, I think."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, turning to look at her.
She had picked up a pebble, and in silence, without looking back at me, she proceeded to skim it along the surface of the still lake. She watched it go a short way, and sink with a plopping noise, before she turned around, wearing a look that I now recognised as the precursor to her various plots and plans.
"What I said. I'm going home whether he's there or not."
"What for, then?" I asked her.
Laura grinned properly then. But she had skimmed two more stones across the lake, terrifying the orange-billed ducks that were swimming serenely in the late sun's rays, before I got my answer.
"It'll be…..more fun…without him." she answered, at last.
"Because………I rather hoped that you would come too."
O O O O O
"Come with you? To your place?" I asked her, with undisguised surprise.
She nodded.
"Say you will!"
It wasn't the first time her enthusiasm had infected me, but so, too, this time, had curiosity, not just about her, and the peculiar place she described as her home, but about Aster Ames and his seemingly rather shadowy existence. I couldn't pass up such an opportunity, could I?
I picked up a stone myself, from the dark, dry earth by my battered shoes, turned it over in my palm, and flung it across the lake with the expertise gained from stoning boats across the Thames as a scruffy orphan with nothing to do.
"I would be…honoured." I told her, with a grin.
The stone skidded right across the water, and hit the opposite bank with a loud crack.
To be continued...
A/N... The Thames is the river that runs through London, for anyone who doesn't know that already.
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