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OCTOBER 1944
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An strange hourglass decorated with emerald green snakes
An heirloom gold ring, setting with a large, black stone.
A old man with a blackened, dead-looking hand.
Aliena glanced nervously at the small glass vial she held between her fingers. Night had fallen several hours ago, the candles were gradually fading and through the closed curtains of her four-poster bed, she could hear the last murmurs of her roommates.
She was going to have to do it. One more time.
She couldn't hope to confront Tom without being at least one - or even two or three - steps ahead of him. She took a deep breath, and then, swallowed the black liquid in one gulp. Grimacing at the raspy taste that weighed down her tongue, she wiped her mouth and lay back on her bed. She was apprehensive, as shown the weight compressing her stomach or the drops of sweat running down her back. What if she was still dreaming of the basilisk and its deadly fangs closing in on her ?
A shiver ran through her spine.
Aliena shook her head, she had to concentrate. She had to try to control her visions. The last time, she had let herself be dominated by them. There had been nothing she could do but endure. This time had to be different. She needed to find answers.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe calmly, breathing in and out several times.
Once … Two times … Three times …
The room was strangely familiar. She knew this place. She recognized the furniture overloaded with knick-knacks of all kinds, the tapestries on the walls or the dark wooden desk on which rested a strange hourglass decorated with emerald green snakes. Slughorn's desk. She was in her potion teacher's office.
Aliena noticed him, standing in front of the fireplace, staring absently into the flames. He was wearing a three-piece suit, quite different from the wizard's robes he wore during potion classes, which could only mean one thing : he'd had dinner with the male members of his little club. Slughorn glanced at the half-empty glass of alcohol in his hand, then stirred absent-mindedly the amber liquid that it contained.
A slight clink sounded behind him, attracting the attention of her potion teacher—And hers as well. She turned her head and her eyes landed unsurprisingly on Tom's slender figure. He was standing by the desk, watching the grains of sand inside the hourglass with feigned interest.
"Look sharp, Tom. Don't be caught out of bed after hours," said Slughorn before noticing his student's stranged expression. "Something on your mind, Tom ?"
"To be honest … Yes, sir. And I couldn't think of anyone else to turn to. The other teachers, well ... " Tom paused. "They're not like you, they might misunderstand. "
"Go on," Slughorn invited him to continue while taking a sip of his drink.
Tom took a few steps into the room.
"I was in the library last night. In the restricted section," he clarified. "And I read something rather strange about a very rare form of magic. It's called, as I understand it, horcrux …"
The word awakened absolutely nothing in her. She didn't know what it was, but from the almost horrified expression that passed over Slughorn's face, she guessed it wasn't just anything. It wasn't something trivial, on the contrary.
"I beg your pardon ?" stammered Slughorn, blinking.
"Horcrux," repeated Tom in a calm voice while folding hands behind his back. "I came across this term while reading and didn't fully understand it."
"I'm not sure what you were reading, Tom, but it's very dark stuffs. Very dark indeed."
"That's why I came to you," Tom explained, innocently. "What is it exactly ?"
Slughorn sighed loudly.
"A horcrux is an object in which a person can concealed part of their soul."
"I don't understand how it works, sir."
Aliena ticked, his too perfect, too innocent behavior irritated her — Well, no. What irritated her was that Tom had fooled her so easily, like all the others, over all these years. She always found him annoying, distant, sometimes even unpredictable ; but she was far from suspecting that a murderer was hiding behind his handsome face. But now that she could see through him, now that she knew, she couldn't help but face the harsh reality. Tom was good, very good, to manipulate those around him and he knew exactly what he was doing. He always had the right intonation, the right word to appear like the perfect-charming student, so that nobody wouldn't suspect his real intentions. Aliena couldn't even blame their potion teacher for falling into the trap Tom was setting before him.
Herself would have fallen into it if she hadn't known.
"You split one soul and hide part of it in an object. By doing so, you are protected if you doing be attacked and your body destroyed."
"Protected ?" asked Tom, raising his eyebrows.
Tom had moved closer, slowly but surely, like a snake stalking its prey before pouncing on it. He was now only inches away from Slughorn.
"The part of your soul that is hidden lives on. In other word, you cannot die."
She shivered as she realized. Tom was looking for a way to survive death, but why ? He was only seventeen, he still had life ahead of him, so why worry about death now ? What or who did he fear ? Someone who might get in his way ? Prevent him from achieving his dreams of greatness ? The only one she could mention at the moment was Grindelwald. But he was in Northern Europe and had certainly never heard of Tom Riddle. He was no threat to him. He was nobody.
The ground suddenly pitched under her feet and Aliena almost stumbled. She ran a hand over her forehead, suppressing a groan. The scene blurred. She could no longer make out the contours or the furniture of the room, only the fireplace and the two men. Through her half-closed eyelids, she saw Tom turn towards the flames burning in the fireplace. They cast shadows on his face, hardening his features, but not making him any less attractive.
"And how one does stretch its soul, sir ?"
"I think you already know the answer to that, Tom," Slughorn whispered weakly.
"Murder," Tom replied without an ounce of hesitation.
"Yes, killing rips the soul apart. It's a violation against nature."
Aliena fought her headache and moved closer. She stopped when she noticed the black ring Tom was wearing, over which he ran his fingers. The ring she'd seen several times in her visions, which came back again and again.
What if ...
What if he wanted to turn it into a horcrux ? Or if he already did it ? He was asking questions, which was proof that, at the time of her vision at least, he still hadn't made one. Except that she couldn't correctly date the scene unfolding before her eyes. But she was pretty sure this had already happened. Deep down, she could feel it.
Had he ever tried to make a horcrux, and worse, had he succeeded ? She suspected his questions were not innocent. He was interested in horcruxes because he wanted to make one. She couldn't see any other explanation. That ring kept coming back into her visions, as if it were the key to something she didn't yet know the importance of.
"Can you only split the soul once ? Or for instance … Seven ?" Tom finally asked.
"Seven ? For Merlin's beards, Tom. Isn't bad enough to consider killing one person ? So to rip the soul into sevens pieces …"
The answer was no. After all, Tom'd already killed. In a way.
"This is all hypothetical, isn't it Tom ? All academic ?" Slughorn asked suddenly, his body was stiff and his face pale, as if he'd just realized that their discussion had gone too far.
As if he'd just realized his mistake.
Tom turned slowly towards him and Aliena squinted, struggling to stay conscious. All she could make out were blurred, abstract shapes. The darkness gained in intensity and soon she could see nothing, hear nothing, except for one last sentence that echoed in a loop in her mind.
"Of course, sir. It'll be our little secret."
Aliena had woken up with a horrible headache that made her want to bang her head against the walls in the hope of making it go away. The bright sunlight in the great hall almost made her groan, and she gave up trying to swallow anything for fear of immediately vomiting her breakfast.
In spite of everything, she followed Elaine and Isadora in the corridors towards their history of magic class, but not without some foot-dragging. Professor Binns' classes were always boring as death — No pun intended. And every time, she wondered why she persisted and had not given up the class after her OWLS.
She entered the classroom and glanced at the ghostly figure of their teacher hovering in front of his desk, before looking at the person sitting in the front row. Tom was already getting his things out of his bag, and she noted the empty seat next to him. She thought no more about it and made her way to him, ignoring the calls of her roommates who were already sitting in their usual places. She pulled out the chair, scraping its feet against the stone floor, and drawing Tom's attention to her.
"We need to talk," she said as soon as she was seated.
He raised a questioning eyebrow, then finally returned his gaze to the blackboard in front of him.
"Not now," was all he answered.
"This is the last time I'm going to ask you. Why do you want my help ?"
Binns was already spouting off about Emeric the Evil, but Aliena wasn't listening. She remained stubbornly turned towards Tom who, ignoring her completely, began to take notes. She gritted her teeth, inwardly fuming. She wanted to take his sheets of parchment and tear them up right in front of him. Tom was the one that had led them into this situation. He was the one who had come to confront her, who needed her to do something she knew nothing about it. And now, he was ignoring her ?
Her nerves were severely tested.
"I asked you a question, Riddle," she hissed through her teeth. " Why do—"
"I said. Not. Now. Bletchey," Tom cut her off as he turned to face her.
Aliena met his stern inky-pupils, which sent a shiver down her spine. Suddenly, she had no desire to play with fire and try her luck any longer. Tom gave her one last dark look in warning, his jaw clenched, before refocusing on the lesson. It was only at the end of the class, as she was hastily putting her things away, that he leaned toward her and said :
"Come to the astronomy tower tonight, I'll join you after my rounds. And don't be late."
"Aren't you tired of playing this little game ?"
He didn't answer her and walked away without a backward glance. Aliena pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a sigh, before imitated him. She joined Elaine and Isadora who were waiting for her outside. They both turned to her, and the young woman could see their questions shining in their eyes.
"What were you doing with Tom ?" Isadora asked, suspicious.
"I had some questions about ... Advanced rune studies homework that Juniper gave us the other day. I wanted to know if he'd found the same answers as me."
"And ?" Elaine insisted, on a tone of voice that clearly implied something she didn't like.
"He didn't want to answer me."
At least on that last point, Aliena wasn't lying.
The wind whipped across her face, tangling her long brown hair. Aliena suppressed a shiver and pulled the flaps of her wizard's robe tighter around her. Leaning against the railing of the astronomy tower, she glanced down. Because of the darkness, she guessed more than she could actually see the outlines of the castle and the forbidden forest afar.
She let out a sigh, then looked over her shoulder at the massive clock hanging on the wall behind her. It was over an hour past curfew, and still no sign of Tom. Did he even intend to come ? Wasn't all this just a game to make her lose patience, play with her nerves and, in the end, make fun of her ? Maybe it was all just a trap, and in a few moments, a teacher - or worse - would turn up to give her a hard time.
Aliena shook her head.He needs me, she tried to convince herself. He wasn't going to ruin everything by letting her down. She was the one who had the advantage in this round, who had an ace up her sleeve. And yet, she had the horrible feeling that the game was already lost. That it was rigged.
She heard the door crack below, followed by footsteps on the stairs, and leapted to her feet. She grabbed her wand and pointed it straight ahead. Tom came into her field of vision, and stopped as he noticed her wand pointed at him. He frowned.
"Calm down, it's just me."
Perhaps that was what worrying her most. It was him.
She finally lowered her wand, but kept it close at hand all the same.
"You're late," she said with an accusatory voice.
"And yet, you're still here," his lips curled into a smirk. "So, what did you want to talk about ?"
Tom walked toward her.
"You know about what," Aliena said impatiently. "I want you to answer my questions."
"Only if you answer mine first. What do you know ? "
He stopped a few inches from her, looking straight into her eyes. She straightened her head.
"I know what you did. I know it's you."
"Who did what exactly ? Can you be more specific ?"
"Who's responsible for the muggles-born attack two years ago. That it was you who killed that girl in the bathroom," she spat.
Tom let out a cold laugh. He shook his head, plunging his hands into his trouser pockets.
"Well, technically it's not me."
"Yourbasilick did it for you."
Tom suddenly turned his attention back to her. He remained silent for a few moments, watching her fixedly. She felt trapped by his black eyes, and didn't dare move. A dark thought crossed her mind, giving her goose bumps. What if he thought she knew too much ? That she was a risk and not worth it ? What if he decided to throw her off the astronomy tower ? Aliena wasn't even sure she could stop him and tightened unconsciously her grip around the wrought-iron railing, the cold metal burning her bare hand.
"Impressive … " Tom finally blurted out. "What else ?"
"Stop it," she clicked her tongue against her palate in annoyance. "Tell me now. Tell me why you need me. What do you want from me ?"
"You really have no idea, do you ?"
She almost wanted to slap him and make him swallow his smug look. But instead of that, she gritted her teeth.
Then, Tom took his hands out of his pockets and removed the black ring he was wearing.
"Do you know what it is ?" he finally asked, showing it to her more closely.
She frozed.
"A stupid ring ?" she managed to ask.
"I'm pretty sure you can do better."
"A stupidhideousring that means anything to you ?"
"What do you know about horcrux ?"
At least he didn't beat about the bush. She crossed slowly her arms against her chest.
"If your question is : do I know that you're planning to do some - or have already done - and that you've asked Slughorn about it ? Then the answer is yes."
"I'm beginning to think you're obsessed with me, Bletchey."
"Quite the opposite, actually. So ? Did you succeed ? "
Tom's jaw contracted slightly. She knew the answer even before he opened his mouth and couldn't prevent a small, sly smile from curving the corner of her lips.
"I guess not ?"
"It's only a matter of time, I still have to fine-tune certain details," he replied, strangely calm.
She raised an eyebrow, puzzled but also surprised by his frankness. Was he telling her the truth or was he leading her on ?
"How can you be sure you can do it ? That it will work ? Has anyone ever made one of these before ?"
"Herpo the Foul did it."
"And what happened to him ?"
"He died when his horcrux was destroyed," Tom responded nonchalantly, shrugging as if it was nothing.
"Isn't that what's supposed to prevent a horcrux ? From dying ?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"It's a little more complicated than that, but it's what can happen when you take the first object that comes along. Herpo the Foul learned this the hard way. I wouldn't make the same mistake."
"Sure," she sniffed dismissively. "But that still doesn't tell me what you want from me."
"You want a straight answer ? You won't get one, and deep down, you don't need one. The proof is, you're here tonight," he replied flatly.
She clenched her fists imperceptibly.
"But for now, let's say I need you for something. I just don't know what it's yet."
"Are you fucking kidding me ?" she said, her anger rising.
"It's full moon in a week," he added, ignoring her comment.
Aliena swallowed hard, trying to hide her discomfort as best she could.
Of course he knew about that too. He'd done his research.
"Yes, and ?" she asked, glowering at him.
"Are you planning a ritual ?"
"It's not your business, Riddle," she replied defensively. "You're wasting both our time."
"If you think I'm going to tell you everything, you're wrong. I don't trust you."
"Neither I."
"Smart girl," he whispered, in a sweet voice, too sweet for her taste.
"Don't call me like that," she spatted back.
Tom chuckled, which irritated her even more.
"Do what you have to do and we'll figure out what to do next."
"There is no us, Riddle. I never said I was going to help you," Aliena retorted dryly.
"You didn't say you wouldn't either," he pointed out to her, smiling mischievously. "You want to know what's going to happen next as much as I do, maybe even more. And that reminds me, I've got something for you."
He reached into the inside pocket of his wizard's robe and pulled out a book.
"I think it will help you," he said, handing it to her.
She took it, glancing at the cover, then froze. The book looked old, as if it had survived the centuries. The green leather cover was damaged in places and the pages, yellowed by time, were horny, threatening to tear under her fingers. Some of the words had even become illegible and a strong smell of mildew assailed her nostrils. But what caught her attention the most was the title in worn gold lettering. It was wrote in Russian.
"Where do you find this ?" she asked, looking up at him.
Such a book couldn't have come from the school library, nor from the restricted section. Where had he found it ?
"You have your secrets and I have mine. Well, not really anymore, thanks to you."
She watched him for a moment, before returning her attention to the book.
"Well, if that's all you wanted to talk about ..."
He had walk away and was now near the stairs. Aliena hadn't even heard him move.
"Good night Bletchey. Don't get caught on your way back."
And with that, Tom left, leaving her alone at the top of the astronomy tower.
