No Pain, No Glory | Tomarry

15: We made ourselves

The day has come.

The day that Burga, Abraxas, Cadmus and Adrian will finally take a stand against Tom's tyranny. They have suffered enough as it is.

Let the bastard make up whatever plans he has without them. Geniuses often work alone, isn't that how it usually goes?

It's almost time for their weekly meeting.

First thing they do is find Yaxley and Mulciber.

They put them under a sleeping curse. These two are in Riddle's side, enjoying the play with many unsuspecting classmates, as if they are mice. They match their leader in deviousness and cunning. The quartet just doesn't need more problems than it can handle.

After that, they enter into the Secret Room above the dungeons.

Burga had asked Tom to allow them arrange the meeting there instead, so he couldn't control it, like the Room of Requirement. She had found it first and the room obeyed her.

Riddle is already there, standing in a corner, mouth pursed. He is not impressed by their tardiness.

"Well?" He asks smoothly. "Why the sudden urge for another gathering? And where are the other two?"

"They won't be coming." Says Abraxas. He appears to be a tad agitated.

"Really?" The word is pronounced with a mocking undertone. "How so?"

"They're sick." Answers Adrian, voice cracking at times. "They're in the hospital wing. Stomach ache."

A brow is arched. "Stomach ache?"

"Mhmm." That's Cadmus, nodding.

"Oh well.. That's peculiar." Tom detaches his back off the wall he's been leaning against and gives them a surveying look. "And what about you four, hmm? I was informed that you decided this. What do you want?"

"To talk to you about something." Says Walburga, not hesitating a bit.

"Do you, now?"

She nods briefly.

He locks eyes with her for the moment. "Alright, go on."

"Well, the truth is... we do not find the ways of your treatment acceptable. We never did."

"What are you saying, Burga?" He asks, brows furrowed. "Be clear."

"We're leaving, Tom!" She shouts, surprised with the intensity of her own voice. Then a bit more calmly, "We're leaving."

"We? Who's 'we'? Who else wants out?"

Silence ensues in the room.

"Well, go on." He glowers, eyes moving from one individual to another. "You said you wanted to leave. Who else is with her?"

The Malfoy heir finally finds the confidence to raise his head and not look down the floor. "Me, Riddle. I'm with her."

"Abraxas." Tom laughs and it comes out a little dark. "Oh, I've always known you'd turn out to be a coward."

The blond boy sneers. "Your definition of cowardly is different from mine."

"You cannot leave." Says Slytherin's heir, panic just appearing on the surface of his eyes.

He didn't know why he needed them. They were useless, all of them, except for Walburga.

But now that they are telling him to his face, that they're abandoning him, he cannot feel like handling it with the proper calmness.

"Tom-" Tries Walburga, but is ignored.

"You cannot leave. You are nothing without me. I created you."

"No, you didn't."

He turns his head the other way, to only find a brunnet boy, the one he had recently cursed, staring back at him. "You as well, Nott?"

A small huff. Eyes of steel and thunder.
"Exactly. And you didn't create shit! We were already brainwashed by our parents when we arrived here! You did half a job! Don't be so proud of a half assed accomplishment!"

Tom doesn't speak upon that. What is left to say? Cadmus was right. Tom didn't like it, of course, but he was right.

"What else did you expect?" That's Adrian talking. "You're torturing us every week! You think we would just grin and bear it? Well, we're not. Deal with it."

"What will you do? Gather around a new leader? There is no one of such like me." Says Tom, who doesn't feel the floor below his shoes, who now is barely holding himself together.

"There is one muggle like you," Drawls Abraxas, his gaze not fearful. First time that happens at such a huge level, Tom guesses. "One with a funny mustache and a God complex as high. I searched him up... and I can certainly see the similarities. He was rejected by a high standard art school... and his father. Who rejected you, Tom?"

He wants to curse them, all four of them. He wants to see them bleed and cry and holler. But not yet. Not yet.

"We're out, Riddle. Out. You're on your own." Adds Cadmus with a snarl so sharp that it cuts glass.

"If you're so smart and we so stupid, go conquer the world all by yourself, eh? How hard can it be?" Mocks Adrian.

"Who organized this?" Asks the dark eyed, stomach rolling in dread. "I refuse to believe that only Burga is responsible for this little mutiny."

"All of us did." Says the girl, stepping into the conversation once more. "It was a team effort. We can function perfectly well without a leader - unlike you."

"We don't have to obey anything that comes out from your mouth from now on. Inside or outside of the Common Room. You're done for." Announces Abraxas, with his generic calm voice, for he had found himself again, after such a bolt move of defiance.

Walburga then opens the door with her wand. The four children walk out of the room, without sparing him one little glance.

Tom is left in the dark.

He really had not seen that coming. Or, to be more precise, he had and just refused to believe it. The three boys were cowards. They always have been.

Or so he thought.

And Walburga... he had been right to dream of her fall from grace.

Just one more slip. One more and he will crush all of them.

'I'm the one who's done for, huh? Ask me that in a week from now Abraxas, my 'friend'... and we will see who will be the one 'done for'.'

_________

A/N: This was a short chapter because abandonment lasts a few seconds;)

Tom is slowly descending into madness.

To write this, I imagined talking to an imaginary toxic ex, which I've never had.