The Dark Dyad (Tom Riddle & ofc)

Chapter 8. Finding and losing

December was slowly enveloping Hogwarts in the winter cold. Irene had finally bought a warm robe after visiting Hogsmeade with Katherine. She liked the village so much that she wanted to go there again, but with the main condition — no boys. Katherine supported the idea, and there they were, ruddy and happy, spending time in the Three Broomsticks pub.

"Katherine, that's an insanely beautiful ring!"

"Ah!" Katherine smiled and held her palm out defiantly. "It was a birthday present from Abraxas. We've been engaged for a long time." She looked happy, and her eyes sparkled with joy. Katherine was a very warm person, but not with everyone. Irene had long ago noted to herself that she was cold and sometimes even arrogant, but only outside of her circle.

"It was your birthday? I didn't even congratulate you!"

"Yes, at the very end of October. It's no big deal! How would you imagine it would be? Irene, congratulate me, it's my birthday?" The heart felt warm from a ringing laugh, or maybe from a mug of cream beer.

"It still doesn't feel right."

"Come on! Where's your ring? You had one, too, as I recall."

"Can you believe, I can't find it!" Irene looked sadly at the glass of Gillywater. "I think I've been putting it away in my locker by my bed, but I still can't find it...."

"Why didn't you tell me before? We would have solved the problem right away! What if someone stole it?!"

"Absolutely not," Irene smiled slyly. Katherine, on the other hand, was completely perplexed. Irene sighed, "You won't tell anyone?"

"Of course not."

"Not even Riddle?"

"I can't promise that," Katherine admitted honestly.

Irene remembered that Riddle had been the first to nose out what the stone was on her ring, so even if Katherine did, it wouldn't be a great revelation to him.

"My ring has Morion on it."

The moment of awareness that it had been said in vain hung like a sword of Damocles over her head. And why the hell had she thought of Riddle and not herself first? Now she was literally fixing her gaze on the aristocratic face opposite, eagerly awaiting a reaction. After all, Katherine was far from stupid... Irene could only hope she was a bad actress.

"It's the most desirable mineral for dark wizards," Katherine whispered, not hiding the fact that she understood, "and the stone itself is one of the most amenable to the Dark Arts."

Irene nodded faintly, still staring at her without blinking. How would Katherine behave next? Would she alienate?

"But Irene, all this might sound doubtful, but only on the condition that his master..." A second's silence. In that time, Katherine reached the right conclusion and quietly said, "A dark witch."

Katherine suddenly realized something she would never have guessed. Her heart beat faster, and she felt a little sick. So that was why Riddle had told her to find out where Düster's ring was.

Katherine struggled to hold back the emotions that raged inside. For the first time in her life, she wanted to believe that her instincts about Irene had failed her, but the facts that had come to light said otherwise.

"Morion keeps the wizard's magic within itself. If someone had really stolen my ring, we'd have a corpse in the castle walls a long time ago."

Katherine swallowed, and then mentally recognized that Riddle was right: with Irene's arrival, the entire house was on a barrel of gunpowder, and everyone could take off into the air. Not that the Hogwarts Prefect was a saint himself, but he wasn't going to walk into the same trap twice, even with other people's feet, and he'd made that clear. And Katherine suddenly joined Riddle's strategy with her whole being, immediately speaking carefully, "Irene, I mean..." She looked around apprehensively, and then continued, "It's very important for each of us to finish our last year at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and–"