Making Us~T. Riddle

Chapter 3

One of my favorite books was not something typically seen in the hands of a young wizard, or even a young muggle. It was written by someone who's name I couldn't be bothered to remember, but the book itself was something I often came back to.

I had unintentionally stolen it when I broke away from our school group and came across a small untidy bookstore that looked like it had seen better days. When I got inside I searched through mounds of books until one finally grabbed my attention, but a large man had clamped a meaty hand on my shoulder the second I picked it up.

He had yelled at me that the store was closed, and I startled when he started to drag me towards the back door. In my panic I had done something truly frightening.

It was not the first time I had used my abilities, but it happened so rarely that I had started to think that it wasn't real.

The windows of the small store had shattered and the man let go of my arm, I didn't even turn to see his shock, only bolted through the gaping hole and ran and ran and ran. I was three blocks away when I realized that I still had the book.

It was on the seven deadly sins.

Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Envy, Lust, Avarice and Wrath.

It became one of my favorite reads and after reading the book for the third or fourth time I had started to make notes of my own, and by the time I was in third year, I started to recognize these sins in other people.

Most of the time it was subtle and you had to pay close attention to catch it, but everyone had some form of it.

I had studied them so closely. I had focused so hard on these things that no one else seemed to care about, that I hadn't even realized that there was an eighth sin, one that was not documented, until my fourth year.

I had been thinking on that eighth sin when I made a grave mistake.

I hadn't planned on saving Cerelia Sallow's life.

Professor Slughorn had been distant and sweaty the first week after my visit. He had cancelled all his get togethers and avoided eye contact. And though I had played my roll well in disguising my reason for the interest of the horcrux, I thought that maybe this time I had gone too far, maybe this time I had slipped.

But time always seemed to be on my side, as two weeks later he was fluttering around and laughing and pretending like it never happened.

It only proved the point that our minds were our greatest enemies. If he hadn't convinced himself that I was asking about horcruxes purely for academic reasons, if he hadn't decided to ignore it and pretend like it never happened he could have caught me out and stopped my plans before they could be set into motion.

I had been sneaking into the restricted section more and more and reading every book on dark magic I could get my hands on, in whatever privacy I could find. More often than not that privacy was only available in the dark forest.

This was where I was hiding when I heard the scream.

I wasn't sure why I jumped up, and allowed the book I had been reading to fall to the ground, but next thing I knew my wand was out and I was on my feet, listening. At fist all I heard was the rustling of trees and branches, but then, not ten seconds later it sounded again.

High pitched and afraid and before I knew what I was doing, before I had the sense to remind myself that I didn't care if other people suffered, because they didn't care when I did, I was sprinting towards the sound. Feet pounding against the earth and wind roaring in my ears.

She was flat on her ass and backed up against a tree, tiny and fragile with arms thrown up to try and block herself, but the girl was not what had caught my attention fist, rather the thing she was cowering away from.

The Thestrol was abnormally large and foam was dripping out of its mouth. It was dirty and had scratch marks across its face, and I wondered what kind of animal had gotten the best of it.

It reared back and slammed its hooves back down mere inches away from the girl, who I now saw had long and bleeding slashes across her forearms. I swore before throwing up my wand and casting confrigo, which caused the creature to slam into the nearest tree.

Before it could get back up again I grabbed the girl's bloody arm and just like that we were tearing through the forest. She was yelling something at me but I didn't listen, only continued to surge forward, never releasing my iron grip on her wrist.

I only slowed down when I heard the snarl of an angry animal chasing after us, and I spun, taking aim and blasting the creature with another confrigo.

"Stop! You're hurting it!" The girl screamed, and I took the briefest second to look back at her as she yanked my wand from my hand. I decided that I would be dumbfounded by her stupidity later, then grabbed her arm again, and we didn't stop running until we were out the forest and on the other side of the black lake.

I braced my hands on my knees in an attempt to catch my breath and Cerelia simply collapsed onto the grass on her back, stealing gulps of air, still clutching my wand to her chest.

It took a few minutes before either of us were able to talk, and I noticed we were the only people on the castle grounds, probably because it was dinner time.

She spoke first.

"You didn't have to hurt it." She mumbled, and her voice was quiet and gentle. It pissed me off.

"You get attacked by a rabid animal and the first thing you say to the person who saved your asrse is that?" My eyes narrowed into slits as I glared at her, not fully comprehending her foolishness.

Her head jerked up defiantly and she scrambled to her feet with little struggle. She invaded my personal space, trying to intimidate me, which I found amusing seeing as she was nearly a head shorter than I was.

"It was hurt and scared, you only made the situation worse." She snarled up at me.

I leaned in closer, our noses nearly brushing. "Well next time I'll be sure to ignore your screams and just watch you get ripped apart."

She flinched and backed away from me, suddenly finding the ground very interesting.

"Sorry." She breathed.

"Thank you for saving me." It was said so quietly that I almost didn't hear it.

I rolled my eyes and held out my hand to her. She stared at the long slender fingers in confusion for a second before seemingly realizing that I wanted my wand back.

She carefully placed it into my palm and I slowly closed my finger around it. She only hesitated a second longer before she turned her back to me and started marching towards the school.

"Where are you going?" I asked when she was only a few steps away.

"To Madam Pomfrey." She claimed as she held up her arm like it was obvious. I rolled my eyes before closing the distance between us and lightly grabbing her wrist to get her to follow me.

"No you're not. If you go to the hospital wing they'll ask questions, and I don't feel like detention for being in the dark forest."

She had clearly been about to protest, but I cut her off by quickening my pace and pulling her along.

Nobody would be in the hallways, which meant we weren't likely to be seen slipping in and past the infirmary.