"she was the type of person who'd explain how she was going to stab you in the front before she actually shoved the knife in... and you'd let her.
she'd probably even pass the knife to you so you can shove it in your own chest...and you would."
tom...
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t o m h a d gone to Helena Ravenclaw as Evelyn had instructed. She had been more than hesitant to tell him where the Diadem had been hidden, but Tom had been patient, persuasive. It had only taken two weeks for the ghost to spill every gruesome truth about the Didem's history and whereabouts.
When he had finally learned it was somewhere deep in the forests of Albania, he had somehow known Evelyn had already been aware of that. He had told her shortly after attaining the information, and the way she had gently tilted her head in acknowledgement had told him this was just another way to nudge him into a game she had long before won. If he hadn't felt like so much of a child, he would have been impressed to know how far her schemes went.
They had planned their trip methodically over the next couple of weeks in order to be prepared for their winter holiday break. Tom had set out a map, and with Evelyn's knowledge of history, they had concluded where the diadem might be in the forest. Their circled area was large, but it was easily an area they could have searched twice in their week's stay in Albania. Tom had been trying to convince Evelyn to stay at her manor on the way back, but she had declined every time.
"It would be less suspicious if we looked as if we stayed at your home," Tom tried again. "It would look as if we spent Christmas there."
He was packing his bags for the trip. When he became Head Boy, he was given a larger, separate bedroom attached to the boys' dormitory. It was more common now for them to speak in his room than to go all the way to the Room of Requirements or the library to discuss their top-secret plans. Evelyn had shown up to help him pack and hand him a purse-like bag, spelled to expand the space within. She was sitting on the edge of his bed, reading. She wasn't actually, Tom knew, because of her constant comments about what he was packing, which had made it clear she was watching him.
"I really don't like repeating myself, Tom," Evelyn said without putting her book down.
"You are being so stubborn about this," Tom huffed as he threw another book into his bag, which Evelyn quickly removed and placed back on his shelf without even moving from her position.
"There is no need to stop at my house," Evelyn flatly stated, before softly adding. "I do not want to disturb my mother, it'll only upset her if I come home too soon."
"Wouldn't she be happy to see you?" Tom asked as he furrowed his brows. He placed another shirt into his bag before tying it up and turning towards Evelyn.
"No, it's a terrible process of waking her and her believing I had abandoned her," Evelyn explained, finally putting her book down, and looking at him. Tom watched Evelyn intently. He saw the scowl on her face that she had revealed something he wasn't supposed to know.
