Chapter Five
Hogwarts, June 1944
The Slytherin Common Room was empty for the afternoon, students having gone to study in the library or Great Hall.
In his hands he held the special services medal, a smooth and circular piece of bronze. It had his name engraved on it and everything, but it wasn’t real – not that Tom particularly cared. Did he care that Hagrid had been expelled because of him? No, not really. He was an oaf anyway, could hardly do magic to begin with. He was just as bad as the Muggle borns, he almost wished he’d set the Baslisk on him as well.
Tom smiled cruelly down at the medal. If he had killed that half-breed as well, then who would he have blamed the attacks on? No, this was better. Hagrid was forever disgraced and Tom was a hero.
On his bedside was Gwyn’s latest letter, a last plea for him to come home for Christmas.
I’m so lonely, Tom. Many of the girls have left, either to the nunnery or to become nurses. I tried to get into the nursing jobs, but they refused because of my heart. It seems my heart has kept me from all kinds of things.
Tom knew that Gwyn’s heart did not cause her much pain, but no one had wanted to adopt a baby that could die any minute. Gwyn would make a rubbish nurse he knew; she was too clumsy and had never been good with blood. As for the nunnery – ha! He couldn’t help but laugh; Gwyn had always detested church and praying.
Several of the younger kids have gotten influenza and have been transferred to the hospital. The doctor said that if I get it too I will not make it a week. He’s rather grim.
This made Tom panic a little. If Gwyn caught influenza he would lose his only ally at Wools. But she wouldn’t, no – Gwyn was stronger than the doctor’s thought.
Deciding maybe he needed to encourage her faith in him a little more, he grabbed a quill and wrote a quick letter. A thought struck him, and he grabbed the trophy and slipped the medal in the envelope as well.
Grabbing his cloak, Tom took the letter and headed out of the Slytherin Common room. He climbed the stairs of the west tower, feeling the draft coming from the open windows the owls swooped in and out of. The owlery was one of his favourite places, maybe because he thought Gwyn might have liked it even if it was cold and covered in owl droppings.
As he neared the top of the stairs he heard crying and almost turned around, but went in anyway.
“Oh!” a girl jumped up and Tom recognized her as a Ravenclaw in his year. Betsy or Beatrice or something. “Sorry Tom, I –” she sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I didn’t hear you coming.”
Tom stood awkwardly in the doorway. “Erm, sorry. Should I –?”
“Oh, no!” she cried, shuffling towards the door. “Um, owl your letter. I was just…”
Not particularly wanting to ask, Tom mumbled: “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah.” She smiled sadly. “I was just thinking about Myrtle.”
“Myrtle?” Tom asked, fumbling for a face to link to the name. And then he remembered. “Oh. Myrtle, yeah.”
“She was my little sister.” Offered Betsy or Beatrice.
A little voice in Tom’s head said he should feel bad, or at least a little sorry for killing off his classmate’s sister. “I’m sorry, Beatrice.”
“It’s Meredith.” She said gently. “And it’s…well, it’s not okay. But thank you.”
Tom knew Meredith found him handsome and that she was embarrassed that he didn’t know her name. “Well, I –”
“I couldn’t go home for Easter.” Meredith blurted out. “My parents, they…well I went home for the funeral last week and was supposed to stay for the break. But I couldn’t, not without Myrtle.”
“I don’t have any siblings.” Tom supplied edging away.
“We – I mean I – have an older sister, in seventh year. Jeanine.” Meredith was still talking. Silence was heavy between them for a few moments.
“Thank you, by the way.” She said, eyes going watery again. Tom had forgotten how much he hated crying. “You turned in that monster.”
“Oh, yeah.” Tom gave her his winning smile, the sympathetic, charming one. Girls loved that smile. “I was just doing what I thought was right.”
Meredith inched towards him. She was a very plain, beady eyed girl, but she had a lovely, soft body that Tom knew his male classmates liked to talk about. “Tom? I was wondering, there’s a Hogsmeade trip in a few weeks. Would you like to go with me?”
Thinking fast, Tom smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry Meredith, but I – ah – have a girl back home.”
“Oh! I didn’t know –”
“No one does,” Tom said. “So don’t tell, okay? I hate gossip.”
Meredith nodded eagerly, happy to know a secret of Hogwarts’ hero. “Of course Tom, don’t you worry. What’s her name?”
“Gwyn.” Tom said without thinking, holding up the letter. “See?”
When Meredith finally left the owlery Tom sent off the letter, wondering if Meredith would really not tell. In a way, Gwyn was his secret girl at home. No one knew of her and that was the way he wanted it to stay.
That evening Tom held his exam gift from Gwyn that had arrived in the mail the day before. It was a leather bound journal that he knew she’d either stolen or convinced a shopkeeper to give her for free. She was too pretty for her own good.
School would be over soon, and Tom didn’t want to go back to Wools. There was still things he had to learn how to do, magic that the library at Wools could not teach him. He would hold onto the journal, for future purposes. Bu first, he scratched out the inscription from Gwyn.
Tom,
To write all you do at school so you can look back, years later, and realize all the good you do.
Yours,
Gwyn
A/N: Tom RIddle indeed was a cold hearted person. He could look into the face of the sister of the girl he murdered and console her.
Question: See what I did there, eh, eh? Where do you think Tom will take things next?
Rose
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The Years of Riddle
Fanfic"From a very young age he realized it was good to have someone to vouch for you, to believe you were good - especially if you enjoyed doing bad things." Tom Riddle couldn't love. There was no changing that, but was it possible for someone to love...
