Crimson || Tom Riddle [1]

𝖘𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

The night draped Hogwarts castle in an eerie silence. It was broken only by Arabella's faint footsteps from her slippers and the rustle of silk fabric as her maxi-length red nightgown whispered against her legs.

Moonlight filtered through stained glass windows, casting ethereal patterns of colour upon the carpeted floors of one of the smaller corridors she was walking through. The faint glow illuminated the corridor with shadows that danced along the walls.

Another night walk. And Arabella's mind was only focused on one thought: Tom's absence. She hadn't seen him today at all. She had asked Edmund, but he didn't know either. She couldn't shake the nagging curiosity about where he could possibly be. It was unlike him to miss classes, especially without a valid reason. Was he avoiding her? Arabella couldn't deny the flutter of amusement that had danced in her chest.

But then she had snapped out of the ridiculous thought when it finally hit her during Transfiguration (where she left after 5 minutes in the class, because what good was it to torture herself in Albus Dumbeldore's company when Tom wasn't even with her to share the mutual hatred?) - Tom was creating his first horcrux.

Arabella's thoughts on Tom's thirst for immortality and power were stark and uncompromising. How typical it was to resort to such desperate measures out of fear. Fear of death, fear of vulnerability, fear of anything that threatened to undermine a sense of power and control. But in Arabella's eyes, Tom's quest for immortality was nothing more than a fool's errand, successful at first but temporary because no human soul could fully become immortal. He was playing with fire, unaware of the inferno that awaited him.

To get rid of thoughts on Tom, Arabella had contemplated apparating to the woods again, but during the day, Albus seemed to pay her a little visit. In her dorm, she found a mini refrigerator with a note attached to it - 'the password is LemonDrop.' Arabella considered setting the refrigerator on fire but decided to see what was in it first. The refrigerator was filled to the brim with blood bags. Upon smelling them, she realised they were indeed not human blood bags, as Arabella had originally thought, thinking Albus was playing some sort of cruel joke on her, but bags filled with animal blood.

She had thought of either setting it on fire as she had planned, launching at Albus' patronising smile or even dropping a bucket of this blood over his head during dinner that evening. But, Arabella couldn't just waste all this blood, now could she? It saved her trips to the forest and made sure she could drink as much blood as she wanted - breakfast, lunch, dinner. And, if she ran out, she could just demand Albus to give her more since he had gone through all this effort in the first place.

Arabella knew Albus hadn't done it for her benefit - the last thing he wanted was Arabella becoming stronger. He had done it as a means of control, a mocking reminder that he was the very reason Arabella couldn't drink human blood. He was the reason no one in Hogwarts had had their blood drained out of their body yet.