elysium | tom riddle

2 | act i, scene ii

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𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖜𝖔

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𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐃𝐍𝐄 𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄 to watch the path to her House as the atmosphere got colder and colder by the second. It wasn't a cold that could have pierced your skin. Instead, it was more like that soothing coolness that comes from taking a glass of water with ice cubes after a run in the heat of summer. The House lay behind a concealed entrance down in the dungeons.

A door that led down the marble staircase was on the right side of the Entrance Hall facing the castle's front gate. A series of stone steps led down into the dungeons behind the gates. She felt the iciness wrap around her like a cloak as they got near the entrance of her House—the nonstop whispers of talking engulfed her, too, as they went near the door. The novice saw that the many witches and wizards were talking while looking at the door, their lips didn't stop moving, but she couldn't read what they were saying from afar.

Her nails dug into her palms, preventing her from lashing out at the students whispering about her. Instead, Ariadne breathed profoundly and walked to the door. She stood in front of it and waited until she got too impatient.

"Trouble?" A voice behind her called out.

Ariadne turned to look at the blond boy she had met earlier and met his steely silver eyes. He gave her a smirk, biting into an intensely green apple.

She scratched her head, trying not to appear like an imbecile. "Yes, I don't know how to open the door."

"Seeing that I am a prefect m'lady, I find it my duty to explain further about the door. It has a password. The password to the common room changes every fortnight, and it is posted on the noticeboard," he announced to her while the novice only cocked her eyebrows.

"Right, well. Would you mind giving me the password?" As she watched the boy, the assassin asked with a hint of obviousness in her timbre.

"Sure."

Ariadne waited in uncomfortable silence as his eyes glared at her figure. Men, they're always the same.

She was growing impatient, and the dagger strapped to her thigh beckoned her to grab it and put it against his throat to tell her the password. How often had she faced men who didn't take her seriously or only watched her like a prize? She was ill from such behavior but didn't let that anger show in her eyes as she exhaled. Ariadne couldn't help but try to think what it would feel like to wipe that grin off his face with a swipe of her knife, how his crimson fluid would drip drop as she sliced his neck for looking at her like she was a fool.

"Oh right, sorry. It's Basilisk." He declared, a grin still on his face.

The lovely vision exploded like dust from a slammed book as the door opened, revealing little of the interior of her House. Her breath hitched as she could finally get a place to sleep and rest.