ILLUMINATUM : A Journey Beyond Hogwarts [A Tom Riddle X Reader Fic]

CHAPTER 15: A note?

Continue your journey....

All you knew was darkness, you heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing. Your body was so light, it was floating, diving deep into a peaceful pitch black tunnel. There was nothing but only you and yourself. No worries, no facades, no lies, no pretence, no missions, only peace.

Sadly for you, this moment of peacefulness was short lived. A rush of heaviness was arriving soon and you can already feel the initial tinge of it. The pitch black tunnel's end was nearing, resulting in a faint glow throughout the last part of the tunnel, which seemed to increase with time. Something on top of your neck felt heavy, your head. The tunnel finally came to an end causing blinding bright light to enter your eyes but instead of shutting down your eye lids, you fluttered them open. That aroused a question
wasn't your eye lids already opened?, In the dreamland? Yes, but in reality, no.

You shut your eyes the moment it opened, unable to take in all the light around you. The skin around your eyes stretched uncomfortably, as if you were opening your eyes for the first time in a hundred years.

You took a few moments to compose yourself and steady your heart beat that has sped up due to the sudden return to consciousness. You felt more in your body in reality than you felt in the dream. It was as if you were outside of your body for a prolonged time and now you've returned. Maybe that was the reason why you felt so light in the dream. All that heaviness from earlier was coming from your head, which now you felt was unnaturally bulky. It didn't take you much time though, finding out the source of such burden being a bandage wrapped around your head. But why? You were baffled, unable remember anything.

The ceiling of a quite familiar room met your sight as you opened your eyes after readjusting its focus. As your senses travelled, even the aroma of the room told about its familiarity with you. Everything was so confusing, looking down at your nose you found further band-aids laid across your cheeks and the bridge of your nose. How did you get injured? All these questions was making you more irritated than ever. And as if too soothe your irritation and your condition, someone appeared beside your bedside, wearing a long white dress, and a soft pink coloured apron over it. She was carrying a tray of dark coloured potions.

"You are finally awake Miss (____), you've been quite a job", the woman said in a relieved voice.

Who is.... You couldn't complete your thoughts as all the events of the last 24 hours came flooding into the forefront of your mind; Care of magical creatures... Professor Hazel...the Quintaped....the gryffindor boy....the attack!. Your heart sped up once again at the thought of the accident and the way your magic was unable to protect you from the Quintaped's furious attacks. There were so so many questions you needed the answers to! So many things to ask Dumbledore, Dumbledore right! You required to meet him as quickly as possible. And also what about Riddle?! Your anxiety kicked in as you felt a calming hand on your shoulder. You didn't realise how hyper you were untill that moment.

"(____)", spoke a familiar voice gently. You didn't have to turn towards the other person to identify whom it was, so without any reply you hugged her. Her soft and tender embrace with a firm grip calmed down your nerves. She caressed your back in a circular motion, calming your tensed self. Your knuckles went white with the constant clutching and unclutching of her shirt at the back as your whole body shook with your quiet sobs, in her arms. You didn't know why you sobbed, perhaps from relief or from fear.

"Ssh....ssh it's okay",she whispered gently. Slowly you regained your control and composed yourself. Letting go of her warm embrace rather reluctantly, you looked up to her face, she was extremely relieved that you were alright.