Not Broken, Not Yet | Tom Riddle

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Do you think they'll ever find out whatever happened to McDougal," I asked Tom the next day as we walked side by side over the snowy hills of the school grounds. I had found him by the lake during my afternoon walk and been invited to join his own excursion. To both our surprise I accepted. The school had been so lonesome that the company was quite welcome. Besides me and Tom only seven other students remained - none of them Gryffindors.

I suppose I felt guilty spending time around him, but that guilt was quite quickly overcome by the strange excitement that began at the pit of my stomach and spread throughout my entire body. I knew it was wrong, perhaps that is why I did it.

"They already do," he said matter of factly. "The teachers at least." He pursed his lips with a rather amused smile, by now he knew that I hated when he withheld information from me.

"Are you going to spit it out or do I have to guess?" I asked, rather annoyed.

"I would as a matter of fact be quite interested to hear what you would guess."

"Nevermind then," I huffed and walked on in silence.

I could practically hear Tom roll his eyes beside me. "Inferius, Amberly," he finally said. "McDougal was an inferius."

The word was unfamiliar to me and I stopped in my tracks to look at him. "Inferius?" I asked curiously. I felt my cheeks flush ever so slightly at not knowing, but considering they were already red from the cold crisp day I doubted he noticed. "What is that?"

"Really want to spoil the surprise? Merrythought is only going to start that field next term." His voice sounded almost teasing.

"Then how come you know?"

"I like reading ahead."

"Try-hard," I muttered.

"Perhaps," he agreed. "But it has served me well so far," he paused, "well?"

"Fine, tell me."

"An inferius is a corpse, Amberly," he finally said after a brief pause. His gaze was on me the entire time as he spoke, as if he was studying me to see my reaction to this. "A corpse that has been bewitched by a dark wizard to do his or her bidding. It's a sort of necromancy, one of the most complex forms of it." As he spoke his voice grew somewhat soft, dreamy almost. "It takes immense skill to perform it. No ordinary wizard would be able to muster even an ounce of the power."

His words sent shivers running down my spine and I felt the hairs on my arms raise. "Then he wasn't alone..." I whispered. "There was someone else. That... That was why Headmaster Dippet wanted to know if anyone had seen or heard everything." I swallowed and looked out over the frozen lake. "It isn't over."

"When is it ever?" Tom sighed, he had slipped out of his moment of dreamy fascination, driven back to reality by my words. "Darkness is eternal, Amberly, so is death."

I whirled around. "Why are you still so calm?"

He just smiled at me. "Why are you not crying over your boyfriend?"

That shut me up.

✹

At dinner most of the tables had been disposed of, leaving only a single table for the only nine students that had stayed over Christmas and those of the staff that had remained at school. Overall we were only seventeen people at the table. It was Christmas eve but the mood was not one of joy. Only Professor Dumbledore and Professor Merrythought tried to liven up the occasion with attempts at singalongs and polite conversation with the unsuspecting students who were stunned to be addressed directly by the teachers in a manner like that.