Water Lily | E. Riddle

[11] Burning Fire

Eridanus had come to stay with his grandparents for a few days just before the new term at Hogwarts started. He had wanted to spend time with them as well as Lucius and Aquila before he left for school, since they visited the Burke abode regularly.

Lucius, who was about to start his third year at Hogwarts, had assured everyone that he would take good care of Danny at the school and would also make sure that his little cousin didn't get into any unnecessary trouble.

Night had fallen and they had all retreated to their beds. Abraxas had long since taken his wife and son home with him and silence engulfed the Burke abode.

However, the fire was still crackling softly in the hearth as Perseus was sitting on a couch across from it, immersed deeply in a book. After visiting Caractacus at Knockturn Alley, he had stayed with his father for some time, since Caractacus had requested his son to be with him in his last days. But after his death just a few weeks ago, Perseus had returned to Belvina and Herbert.

He had brought his collection of books from their family home at Knockturn Alley as well as some of his remaining possessions that were still kept in his old bedroom.

He treasured each and every item he had found there; the photo albums, his old journals, the stash of letters sent by Renata Fawley. All those items connected him to his forgotten past, and he was trying to regain his memories by associating himself with all those things once again.

He was absorbed in reading The Tales Of Beedle The Bard when a slight movement shook him out of the imaginary world presented in the book, and he looked up to see Eridanus sitting beside him on the couch.

His face was expressionless but his grey eyes were struggling, as if trying to hold back immense pain within him. Perseus closed the book, deeply alarmed since his instincts warned him, stronger than ever before, that there was something quite wrong with the eleven year old.

"Eridanus, what happened?"

"I can't sleep," he mumbled, however his hands were clenched tightly in fists and he was slightly rocking back and forth, in an attempt to suppress something painful inside him.

He gently reached out to hold him but the instant his hand touched his arm, a sinister energy zapped at him and he pulled back immediately, "Danny, are you alright?"

Eridanus looked up at him with conflicted grey eyes, "I... I don't know, Uncle Perce. I feel... Terrible."

Ignoring the burning sensation that gripped him soon as he touched his nephew again, he pulled him close in a comforting embrace. With the boy so close to him, he could clearly sense a flaming entity raging in Danny's nerves, scorching him up internally.

He was in extreme pain, yet he was suppressing it inside him. It seemed as if there was something infernal eating him up, but he didn't know what he was exactly going through.

"He's angry," Perseus whispered in a low voice.

The statement startled Danny, "who's angry?"

Perseus could feel the anger ensnaring in the young boy's frail body and yet he knew that the cause of it was Tom Riddle. Eridanus had a mysterious connection to Riddle as he was his son, and at that moment, the fire inside him indicated that Riddle was beyond himself with rage.

Burning in such dangerous wrath that his son, though miles apart from him, could feel it hurting him as well.

"Uncle Perce..."

Perseus looked down at him, "I'm sorry, Danny. I can't do anything to stop it."

"But why is this happening to me?"

His hand gently stroked the child's head, "I don't know if I should tell you. But all I can say is that you have a certain connection to a very evil person. It's not your fault, Danny, you're not evil but the connection persists which is why you're feeling what he's going through right now. He's extremely angry at the moment, I know it."

"An evil person," at first he seemed surprised, but then realization dawned upon his features, "oh I see. You mean my real father, don't you?"

Startled, Perseus looked straight in his eyes, "how do you know?"

Eridanus dipped his head in a nod, "I know that Dad's not my real father. But I call him Dad because he's proved himself fit for that role in my life. While my real father... He is nothing but a threat to me and Mum."

Even though Eridanus had been just four at the time he had met Riddle for the first time and witnessed his anger at the Malfoy Manor, still he recalled the whole encounter vividly.

He had overheard Aquila and Demi once talking about Riddle and since then he knew that his biological father had always been a source of pain and torture to his mother and her family. But then Demi had married Nathan Whitburg, and he had made sure to never let Danny feel that he wasn't his actual father.

Eridanus knew the truth about his relation to Riddle, but Demi and Nathan were unaware of it. Still Nathan treated him as his own son and Danny appreciated that greatly. That was why he had always thought of Nathan as a father figure and deemed him worthy of his love and affection.

"Do you think maybe a distraction would help in making this terrible feeling go away?" Danny asked.

Perce shrugged not fully certain whether it would work or not, "we could try. Would you like me to read this book to you?"

Danny nodded, lifting his legs up on the couch and lying down against him. Perseus opened the book again, selecting the tale of the three brothers to read out to him.

He kept stroking his head as he narrated the story, pausing every now and then to check if he was alright. By the end of the story, Eridanus had fallen asleep and his tensed features had relaxed at last.

Perseus closed the book, blue eyes filled with concern at the state of the innocent child. None of it was Danny's fault yet he had to go through such a lot.

His body was feverish and exhaustion was dripping from his features even though he was sound asleep. Perce leaned back on the couch, closing his eyes as well in order to go to sleep right there. He could have woken Danny up or carried him to his room but he didn't want to disturb his nephew. He knew that Danny wouldn't be able to go back to sleep as peacefully as he had done so if his slumber was interrupted.

The boy needed rest or else the exhaustion could affect his health. And since he was shortly starting school, he needed to be in his best spirits. Perseus feared that if his connection to Riddle wasn't severed, it would regularly bother him in school as well.

But he had no idea how to release young Eridanus from that link which bound him to his father and was proving to be nothing short of a curse for the poor boy.

Unknown to them, at that moment Tom Riddle had been enraged as he had found out that Nathan had married Demelza and accepted Eridanus as his son. Abraxas Malfoy had tried his very best to keep the truth a secret from him but he had found at last and it had driven him to a destructive rage.

The rage was so intense that it had affected Eridanus as well. And there was nothing Perseus or anyone else could do to sever the connection Danny had to his biological father.

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