Hello, dear readers. Chapter 13's up now. Thanks to all those who read, fav'd, alerted and especially to Namine1993 for reviewing.

Don't have anything else to say, really. Here we go.


"He's working at Borgin&Burkes?" Alphard shook his head in disbelief.

"He was one of the most brilliant students Hogwarts has ever seen and now he's working at Borgin&Burkes?"

I shrugged. "He gains some weird form of pleasure from it. I don't know... it's probably all these antique things – that's some obsession of his."

Alphard shook his head once again. He had found – although he already owned a reasonable amount of money – a position in the ministry. "The almighty Tom Riddle works as a shop-helper for Mr. Burke. That's something. I wonder why the Prophet didn't make this his head story."

I laughed. "Probably because no one outside Hogwarts has ever heard from him."

It was a nice day, actually. Diagon Alley wasn't overfull like it used to be in August. In the middle of May, it was neither empty nor full. The sun shone bright and warm and we had used that to drink our tea out in the fresh air.

"You won't tell your family, will you? Tom would kill me."

"Of course not."

The best thing about having Alphard as a friend was that although he was born into "the most noble and ancient house of Black", he didn't share all their ideals. And thus, he wasn't one of Tom's little slaves. I had expected his hold on them to loosen once we were out of school, but the opposite seemed to be the case.

"I don't know why he does it. It can't honestly make him happy, it won't be enough for him," I continued our previous discussion, now that I had made sure he wouldn't spill. "So, he must be planning something."

"I would be dying to know what that is."

I scoffed. "I don't know. Sometimes I think I would just rather not know."

"It can't be so bad."

"We're talking about Tom. Of course it can be bad."

Alphard laughed. "Shouldn't you be the supporting and loving girlfriend?"

"I never quite fit in the role."

We fell silent for a little while.

"Did you hear it? My sister is going to marry Orion."

"Orion?" I frowned. "Aren't they... I mean. How close are they related?"

"We're second cousins to Orion and Lucretia."

"Second cousins? That's..." I hushed before I could say something that would offend him, but Alphard merely shrugged. "That's disgusting. I told my father somyself. He wouldn't listen."

"He was surely disappointed by you."

"He was. He said I wouldn't get it. That we had to preserve the purity of blood..."

"By marrying close relatives? That's... that is..."

"Disgusting, as I said it. Good thing Lucretia was already married off to the Prewetts. I wouldn't have obeyed if I had to..."

"That's a good thing. You all have to learn to stand up to your parents! I mean – what does your sister say?"

He scoffed. "That's the irony. She's beyond happy to serve the purity of our blood, our family. She's glad."

I shook my head. "Strange family you got."

"Yeah, sort of..."


"How's everything going?"

Tom shrugged and threw his cloak on the bed. "Well, everything goes as usually. People going in and out not wanting to be seen... they shouldn't be. I wonder why the Ministry never closed the shop. I'm going to see Mrs Smith tomorrow...she's always good for having something of value – see what I can get."

Tom was apparently very good at charming people into selling him their family heirlooms.

"Did you now Orion and Walburga are marrying?"

"Huh?" He was already in the bathroom. "Mhm-mhm," he muttered in consent.

"Did you approve?"

"Sure I did." He returned and eyed me suspiciously. "Something not right with that?"

"I, personally, find the thought of marrying my own cousin sickening, but obviously we don't exactly share opinion there."

"I hate to break it to you, but in old pureblood families marrying relatives is..."

"Oh, stop telling me about old pureblood families."

He glared at me, obviously wanting to start one of his "I'm-the-heir-of-Slytherin-and-you're-just-a-blood-traitor"-talks. He didn't, though, maybe he got that I was not in the mood. Instead he just asked: "How do you know about it?"

"Alphard told me today. We were having tea..."

"You were having tea with Alphard Black?"

I raised an eyebrow challengingly at his jealousy popping up once again. "Yes? And?"

"I think I told you to stay away from him."

"And I think I told you that I'm not one of your slaves that you can order around."

His lips suddenly crashed on mine and I gasped. I hadn't seen that one coming. Of course, he had me giving in at once. I melted into his touch and he pulled me even closer.

"You're mine," he whispered as he finally pulled back. "Mine alone."

I sighed. "I never said anything contrary to that."


I had only once seen this expression on his face. Right before we went to look for Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. This look of absolute craving for something. I knew it meant no good.

"Tom?" I asked carefully as to not anger him. "What is it?"

He didn't answer but he seemed beyond angry.

"What is it? Tell me."

"She indeed owns some very valuable stuff." There was this hint of red in his eyes and that never was a good sign. "The cup of Helga Hufflepuff. Mrs Smith is obviously her descendant..."

"Well, no wonder she likes you so well. As descendants of the owners..."

"Oh shut up!"

I gasped at his rudeness, but he didn't seem to care.

"She simply fancies me... it's disgusting. But guess what she's bought from Burke. Slytherin's locket."

"What?"

"A locket that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. She said that Burke had bought it years ago from a young, poor girl. For ten galleons."

I gasped again. "Your mother?" I guessed.

"I always knew that she must have been dumb, falling for that muggle. But selling Slytherin's locket – do you realize what it is worth? It's priceless – selling that for ten galleons! That proves it."

"Poor girl," I whispered. "She must have been desperate."

"Well. If she had sold that for a reasonable price, she wouldn't have been poor anymore. Could've survived."

My eyes narrowed dangerously. "I don't actually think that she wanted to survive."

"Not even for me, huh? Just say it. I'm not worth to be alive for..."

"Merlin, Tom, that's not what I wanted to say."

"WHAT DID YOU WANT TO SAY?"

I squared my shoulders. "Don't yell at me, Tom Riddle."

"It's Lord Voldemort, you know?"

I laughed bitterly. "I don't love Voldemort."

"See, my mother didn't, too."

"I'm fairly sure she loved you."

He grabbed my arm and I winced in pain. "I don't care if she loved me. She had no honour and she died. All I care about – is that locket."


I hurried through Diagon Alley, but didn't pay attention to any of it. Someone said my name, or better, shouted it, but I didn't turn to see who it was. I had greater problems. I looked around to check if anybody was watching me and then I entered the small lane that led to Knockturn Alley.

My steps felt much too loud. Borgin&Burkes was one of the first shops. As I entered, a bell rang strepitously. It only took Burke a second to appear.

He froze in place and eyed me suspiciously. "If you are from the Ministry, Ma'am, I can assure you that I sell nothing that..."

"I'm not from the Ministry," I interrupted him harshly. "I'm looking for Tom Riddle."

"Tom Riddle."

"I know he works here... he went out yesterday, claiming to have to visit a client – but he never came back."

"He resigned from the job a few days ago. He didn't visit any clients for me yesterday."

I stared at him. "He – he resigned from the job? Why?"

"Didn't name any reasons. If you don't want to buy or sell anything, Ma'am, I suggest you better leave."

I sighed heavily. "Very well." I turned to leave, but stopped when I was at the door. "And you're absolutely sure?"

"Absolutely, Ma'am, there is no doubt."

The door fell shut behind me and I hurried back to leave this horrid place behind me. When I finally reached Diagon Alley, I leant against a wall and only then realized that I had started to cry. When he didn't return home last night I had suspected that something was wrong. He was usually so very reliable.

"Lorraine? Lorraine? Hey, what's up with you?"

I brushed my tears away and looked up to find Alphard standing before me, a worried look on his face.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have to work?"

"Don't you have to work, too?"

I shook my head. "Free day."

"You're crying. What happened?"

"He... he's gone, you see, he's gone...Tom."

His eyes went wide. "What do you mean he's gone?"

"He just disappeared. Obviously, he quit his job and left...He's nowhere to be found."

"He'll come back, I'm sure."

I tried to pull myself together, but I didn't fully succeed. Obviously, Tom hadn't wanted to tell me where he was going and he didn't want me to find him. And if Tom didn't want to be found, I wouldn't find him.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm here to speak to Mr. Burke. We know he currently was in negotiations with Mrs Hephzibah Smith."

I stiffened as he mentioned the name.

"She was found murdered this morning."

I stared at him in horror. This couldn't be a coincidence. "Was anything missing? I mean – was she robbed?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. We don't know for sure yet."

"You'll keep me up-to-date, won't you?"

He shrugged. "It's not a very important thing. An everyday-murder, if you ask me."

"Still."

"Alright, fine, I'll tell you if there is any news. Want to sell it to the Prophet, don't you?

I didn't bother to answer that. Of course the poor lady had been robbed and they would figure that out soon enough. Tom had murdered her. Killed her and took both the locket and the cup. And then he fled. That moment, I simply knew it. It fit in the picture so well.


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