Marauder's Daughter (Eventual Tom Riddle X OC)

Chapter 61: Graduation

"Hey, I'm not dead." I say happily to Tom the next morning. 

I woke up very early and was alone, but I saw the diary had been placed in my hands while I slept, so I know Harry or Dad had been here while I slept. I wanted to reassure Tom first that I was ok, especially since I left him with me going off to battle once again, and him not knowing if I was alive or not. He was the first person I wanted to tell this morning. Also since I was in my realm, I could speak just fine. I still had a soreness to my lungs when I woke up, and Pomphrey had ordered me last night to not speak for a day.

"How did the battle go?" Tom asks quickly in worry. "Are you safe and unharmed now?"

"I got a weird attack used on me, so I can't really speak for the next day or so, but otherwise I'm totally fine." I grin confidently at him and he looks at me with more worry. "Oh take that look off your face, be proud of me, damnit! I took on my father's would-be killer and won. Dad's alive and she's dead. Though...." I trail off, remembering the dark shadows that had been leaking from me during the fight, lacing my spells.

"Though?" He prompts me to continue.

"I had a strange thing happen." I tell him truthfully. "I was... triggered during the battle. My opponent, she stopped being her, and became someone from my past. I saw red... and the next thing I know, my own little natural shadow magic was leaking from me, only it was not-so-little anymore. I was becoming cloaked in darkness, and it was spreading away from me and moving of its own accord, but I wasn't telling it to come out."

"What were you doing while it was happening?" He asks quietly, a thoughtful look on his face.

"I was murdering the witch." I answer bluntly. "I knew as I was approaching her I would kill her. In my mind, her laugh became my past enemy's laugh, and my dad was too close to her. My protective instincts took over, and I just knew I had to get my family away from the Clown. I had tunnel vision, my body was full of anger and hatred. I could only focus on killing her. Even my killing curse had a black shadow to it when I used it on her after driving her own knife through her chest."

"You killed her after already killing her?" He asks in shock, and I nod sheepishly. "Not that I needed a reminder to not be on your bad side, but that was rather dark. How much do you know about using dark magic?"

"Probably not as much as I should since I keep using it." I admit sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "Was that a side effect, the shadows?"

"Effects of dark magic take many different forms." He ponders out. "For some, it can alter their mind, in other's, their appearance. For you, it seems to be altering your spells. This darkness, these shadows you mentioned, are perhaps your own darkness seeping out of you, poisoning your own spells."

"But they didn't affect the spells at all." I counter back. "The wind spell still worked in perfect control, and the killing curse still killed. Is it just an aesthetic difference?" I ask ponderously, then remember my evil train of thought immediately after my kill, but don't voice my concern about that to him.

"I would not know without seeing it, I'm afraid." He admits, shrugging his arms in apology.

"Then watch." I brighten up at the idea and create a door within the treehouse. "Follow me, I'll show you my view point of the fight." I reach my hand back for him on reflex, and he just looks sadly at my hand before I remember he can't touch it, so I drop it lamely to my side. "Sorry, I forgot. Come with me please." I ask a little quieter, feeling bad once I see his sadness, but he smiles softly at me and joins my side all the same. 

We walk through the memory of the battle in companionable silence while he takes in the scene. I let it roll on for a bit after, I wanted him to see Voldemort, to really see him as he's weak and pathetic. Tom's face contorts in disgust as he steps away from me and towards the snake man.