The Dark Dyad (Tom Riddle & ofc)

Chapter 12. The Visitor

August 30, 1938
Tuesday

August was inexorably coming to an end, as was the illness of Billy Stubbs and Eric Walley. The boys surprisingly came down with a severe bout of sudden "chicken pox" just the day after the accident with the cute bunny. Martha took good care of the boys, but they didn't get better until a week later. For some reason, the usual treatments didn't help much.

It was still warm outside during the day, but in the evening, it was already quite cold. It was pitch black outside the window after lights out, and Irene and I tried to seize every moment of the day, just to enjoy it. Today she came to my room just after lunch, having snatched the chess sets beforehand. It was raining cold outside, so leaving the orphanage was obviously a bad idea. And now we were sitting comfortably, making cunning plans for the future, scrutinizing the pieces on the board.

Somebody's speech was heard in the corridor. Irene fidgetily shoveled the black and white chessboards into a box and tossed it into the closet to the right by the entrance. The footsteps approached inexorably, and in the next instant the door swung open with an unpleasant creak.

"'Tom? You've got a visitor." Noticing Irene, Mrs. Cole added, "Irene, leave the room."

Irene nodded, heading to the table to pick up the book we'd found in town, and now we were taking turns reading it. The book was lying completely unattended on the table of a sidewalk café, and we felt it was our duty to keep it from perishing in the blazing sun. Of course, a certain gentleman in a strict suit with a cigar in his teeth, coming out into the street to his table, looked around with a bewildered look for a long time... Apparently, he had lost something. But we were already quite far away and did not want to ask about his sorrow.

A gray-haired, bearded man in a suit appeared in the doorway. His face was already wrinkled, but it was still unclear how old he was.

"How do you do, Tom?" he said and glanced around the room.

When Irene heard the voice, she turned around sharply. Her eyes were all glazed over, which made me wonder if she was scared. Did they know each other? But the mess of thoughts in my head was packed and tied in a tight knot. There was no need to be overly emotional. I looked at the man carefully and answered:

"Hello."

After making sure everything was quiet, Mrs. Cole disappeared into the hallway. He, on the other hand, spoke in a good-natured and friendly tone:

"Can we talk in private?"

For the first time in eleven years I had visitors. I was a little embarrassed, which made my question sound a bit of a challenge:

"Who are you?"

"I am Professor Dumbledore."

"I'm Tom, and this is Irene." I nodded toward the girl, not taking my gaze off the stranger.

"Tom, this conversation is very important to you," Dumbledore seemed to insist that Irene leave.

There was an invisible storm cloud in the room, and that cloud was Irene. I could feel with my entire being that from the moment Dumbledore appeared, she was tense, and it was getting worse by the second. The next moment, the light bulb under the ceiling began to blink. Irene rushed away from the table.

And I froze, not knowing what she was going to do in the next instant. Her movements were sharp, her gait firm. Once she was exactly in the middle of the room, between me and Dumbledore, she declared:

"You want to separate us. You want to take him away. Don't you?"

Dumbledore looked at the light bulb. His eyes were filled with surprise, and then a faint smile touched his face.