Author's note: Hello gorgeous people, here comes a new chapter. I might change around the posting day from Sunday to whenever during the weekend, since it became more difficult for me to post on Sundays lately. I hope you won't mind. Thank you so much for the very kind comments and for following and favouriting this story, it is sooo motivating! I wish you a lovely weekend!
August 1943 - The Oak Tree
"So, tell me, last time you said that you know what half of the school is secretly interested in" asked Tom with a raised eyebrow as he glanced at the girl from head to toe.
The two of them were in Leeds, for a brief stopover, and the pleasant smell of puffed pastry was filling the air. Annabel, who had finally recovered from the young man's booing regarding her dubious literary taste, had insisted that they tried out the local cuisine.
"What do you want to know?" she asked, all the while staring at the handwritten menu.
"Tell me about Nott and Lestrange"
"Are you spying on your roommates?" she smirked, shooting him a knowing look.
"I won't believe you if you say you haven't done the same"
Annabel flashed him a guilty smile.
"Well, in my defence, I was trying to find inspiration for their Christmas presents" she protested while glancing at the content of her purse. She took a coin between two fingers and raised it in front of her eyes to thoroughly inspect it. She was struggling to differentiate the pounds from the pennies which he found cute. The man from the food booth darted her a curious glance as he placed ginger beers and stuffed savoury puddings on the greasy counter.
Tom settled their order despite the girl's protestation.
"You cannot pay for everything" she chastised him once they found their seats inside the local train that headed to North Yorkshire.
He ignored her comment, willing to go back to the initial topic.
"So?" he insisted, his tone pressing.
She took a bite of her food and looked up, as if to recall her time in detention.
"Well, Lestrange is easy, he barely borrows anything at all" she began.
"Nott is rather… eclectic. He has some typical Slytherin's interests…"
"What are "typical Slytherin's interests"?" Tom asked with a chuckle and a raised eyebrow.
"You know..." she rolled her eyes. "The usual things. Potions, the Dark Arts. Anything that tries to confirm directly or indirectly the pseudo theory about the purity of blood… Anyway, he also has some strange interests, like anatomy… And a weird fascination for rabbits" she remembered, her index finger patting her chin thoughtfully.
Tom composed a detached look on his face as he remembered having asked Leonus to investigate any potential relationship between such animal and the death curse.
"How about Avery?"
"Brother or sister?"
"Brother"
"Magical creatures, dragons, werewolves… Basilisks" she enumerated before she frowned at the last word. The souvenir of Annabel's judgement about the very few creatures that had the power to petrify people back in June, as Tom was planning to frame that half-giant boy for his crime, crossed his mind.
"Let me guess for Alastair" he interjected wittily, to create a diversion. "Quidditch, History and Mythology, books about plants so he can follow your conversation"
It seemed to work, for she let out a small giggle.
"I see that you have a great Menschenkenntnis Mr Riddle" she quipped with a disarming smile.
Tom's heart skipped a beat and he peered through the window to keep his cool.
"How about Walburga Black?" he queried, failing to notice the mischievous smile that stretched her lips once he asked.
"Hmmm beauty-enhancement elixirs, lust philtres…" she began, taking another bite of her food and chewing slowly while daintily hiding her mouth with one hand.
"Chick literature such as 'How to make him want you'..."
"Oh, and love potions of course"
Tom's stomach churned at her words and he repressed the urge to loosen his tie. He really needed to stop lazing around with that Black girl. He had made the great mistake of yielding to her overtures a few times, and she proved to be excessively possessive. She did indulge him in some of his fantasies, worshipping him and all that, but he was not ready to sacrifice his freedom on the altar of sex.
"What's wrong, you've grown abnormally pale" frowned Annabel, jolting him out of his thoughts.
He looked at the girl, finally acknowledging the sarcasm in her voice. He noticed how she was biting her lower lip, struggling to contain the chuckle that threatened to escape her throat.
She finally bursted in laughter.
"By Merlin Tom, I was only joking. You should have seen your face" she chortled, wiping away a tear with one knuckle. His eyes widened in disbelief, and when he dropped a falsely vexed "very funny", she was bent over laughing.
He shook his head in relief and took a sip of his drink, finding out that he could not help but smile as well at the girl's glee.
—
Everything was extremely still around them, to the exception of the pleasant swishing sound from the wind in the tree leaves. It was about fifteen o'clock, and they had finally made it to the village in a moist heat and greyish sky.
The hamlet was small and bucolic, with barely nothing else than a chapel and a pub. A bigger mansion stood in the distance, majestic in comparison to the destitution of the town, and Annabel had pointed out that they were probably the holder of the land.
They were crouching on a flowerbed, gathering plants for their herbarium. Tom had made a wise choice with the location, the forest was rich in various plants and trees, the varying degree of acidity of the soil allowing for a broad diversity of species.
Yet, Annabel had a foreboding since the beginning of their trip, and she could not shake off the feeling that this journey was a mere pretext for something bigger. She found it odd that Tom Riddle, who was usually so cautious about how he spent his time, found a five-hours trip worth his attention. And that just to go pick up a few sticks…
"Tell me" she began, removing with the back of her hand a strand of hair that kept falling on her forehead.
"Are we only here for the sake of the herbarium?"
He shot her a hard glance that surprised her.
"I mean... that place is great, don't get me wrong. But… it is a fairly long journey only to gather some plants, don't you think?"
His eyes left hers to have a look at what he was doing. With a distinct sound, the shears that he had in hand severed the thin green stem of the flower.
She believed he was thinking, for she had learned from the few occasions she had spent time with him that a long silence from the young man did not necessarily mean that he would ignore her. He often took a while to respond, looking stoned-face, before he would give in to her curiosity.
He finally sighed, as if he had seen this coming but had wished to defer such questioning.
"There is someone here that I would like to meet" he began, his voice low and reticent. "Someone who potentially knew my parents"
She darted him an incredulous glance before she quickly lowered her gaze, transferring her attention on the plant she was collecting for she did not want to be rude.
"Do you know that person?"
He shook his head.
"I don't. And I don't even know how I would recognise him. What I know though is that he is a middle-aged wizard who fancies attacking Muggles"
"Is he some kind of distant relative or something?" she asked before she bit her tongue, chastising herself for being so nosy. She quickly added, shamefaced:
"I'm sorry. I did not mean to be intrusive"
She noticed that he was looking at her when she raised her eyes but she could not decipher his expression.
"It's all right. Everyone is curious" he shrugged, matter-of-factly, yet not answering her question and she wondered if she had aimed accurately.
She considered him for a while but he did not look at her again. She peeked at her watch, acknowledging the time. She stood up, dusting off her hands to remove the earth that was sticking to her fingers.
"You know, we do not have to keep each other company for the entire afternoon if you have some unattended business here" she declared. "I can go to the oak tree while you search for that one person you were looking for, and we can reconvene in an hour near the graveyard. It should leave us enough time to go back to the station then…"
"We'll be faster if we separate. My next train leaves from Great Hangleton at five. Besides, it looks like it will start raining any time soon and I would rather not be standing in the middle of the forest during a thunderstorm" she insisted, omitting to mention that Elena had declared that they were having seafood that evening, which Anna wouldn't miss for the world.
Tom glanced at the small patch of grey sky that was visible through the trees, as if to gauge whether her arguments were a good enough reason to leave his team-partner alone in the woods.
"I'll be fine. I have an excellent sense of direction" she added.
"All right. I'll meet you at the graveyard at four" he finally nodded before he turned around and she headed towards the hill where the oak tree was supposed to be.
After a good fifteen minutes walk, she reached some ruins of what seemed to be a monastery or whatever place of worship Muggles had.
She was humming as she walked, thus missing to hear the rushed footsteps behind her.
—
Tom was standing near the cabin, peering through the wooden planks that had been placed on the windows in lieu of shutters. He was careful not to get a splinter from the rough surface of the boards, for he was peering through the darkness of the shack through the cracks in the wood. He discerned a table and a chair, and his gaze followed the back of the room towards what seemed like a hearth directly dug in the floor.
The cabin was empty.
He moved backwards and headed towards the entrance where a dead snake had been nailed. He was about to push the door open when his stomach churned.
He stopped, his hand lifted.
He felt his blood curdle before he heard her scream.
When her shout pierced the silence, harrowing, he was already heading back. He ran, rushing past the flowerbeds where they had gathered plants earlier. He reached a stream and he jumped over the water, speeding when he heard her yell a second time. He hopped over a fallen tree, and his stomach lurched when the scream turned into a sob. He was about to head to the oak tree, only to find her at the bottom of the hill, her silhouette partly concealed by some ruins.
She was sitting on the ground, dishevelled. Her eyes were wide.
He noticed the rock in her fist, a thick cobblestone. He spotted the earth stains on her hands and knees, the grass in her hair.
Only then did he see the man that lied just a few inches away from her.
"What happened?" he struggled to articulate, his chest constricting at the sight of the missing buttons of her blouse.
She finally glanced up, acknowledging his presence.
"He-" she began, her voice trembling.
"He attacked me from behind and… It all happened so fast"
Tom noticed the man's wand on the back pocket of his trousers. He reached for it and casted a spell to repair Annabel's torn clothes. He kneeled in front of her and grabbed the stone she was holding. He struggled, for her grip was tight.
"It's all right" he soothed her, and when she finally let go, he noticed the red and viscous liquid that covered the edge of the stone. Tom's eyes turned to the man and the wound on his head.
"Do you think he's dead?" she squeaked, horrified.
He stood up and turned around the lying body with his foot. The man was still breathing.
"He's just unconscious"
"Is that the man you were searching for?"
"There is only one way to find out… Can you stand?" he asked and she tried to hoist herself on her feet but her legs refused to move.
Tom seized her hands to lift her. She was shaky and she gripped at his sleeves to stabilise herself. He took a step back, slowly, once he was sure that she could stand on her own. He properly glanced at the man. He was dirty, strands of hair sticking together in thick and disgusting locks. He thought about the cabin. Based on his sloppy appearance, he was certainly the one who lived in such pigsty.
"We need to bring him back to his place"
The Slytherin casted a full-body bind curse on the man in case he would wake up and try to fight back, and he spoke a spell that lightened his body.
He could have levitated it but displaying magic so openly in a Muggle village was risky.
Tom grabbed one of the man's arm and indicated to the girl that she should do the same. They began to walk, dragging the body between them in the direction of the shack.
"What are we going to do?" she asked, her voice still shaky.
Tom watched her for a while as they rhythmically walked next to one another, taking a bigger step every now and then to avoid a root or a branch on the tortuous path.
"He's yours once I'm done with him. You can make him pay for what he tried to do to you if you like" he offered, half-ironically. She shot him a glance full of innuendo, and he thought she looked like she was about to say yes.
—
It began to pour.
When Tom heard the drops falling on the shack, he went to check on Annabel. She was sitting on a rock under a tree, staring into nothingness. Once the man had waken up, he had shot her a few lewd glances that had made her run off. A conversation had ensued between the two men, and Tom had learned a few things. His father was a Muggle, and he was very much alive.
And that man was his uncle. And they abhorred one another.
"Do you want to have a word with him?" Tom asked once he stood in front of the girl but she refused.
"I missed my train" she remarked in a toneless voice.
He glanced at his watch.
"We should find some place to sleep" she whispered, all the while glancing cautiously at the sky where a lightning showed and a roaring sound followed. The rain worsened and she shivered.
Tom took off his jacket that he delicately placed on her shoulders. For a split second, he recalled the gorgeous mansion in the distance, and he cherished the hope that if the two of them would knock on his father's door, they would be offered shelter. Instead, he replied:
"There was a pub in front of the station. They might have some empty rooms…"
"Come" he issued, offering her his hand, that she took, and he lifted the girl on her feet.
"I'm sorry" he whispered as he guided her out of the woods, his hand still tightly clasped around Annabel's. "I did not mean to drag you into any of this"