Soulbound : Tom Riddle

6: A Perilous Prophecy

Victoria found herself sitting alone inside the mirror, looking out. But rather than the Hogwarts corridor in front of her, it was her bedroom. Not her bedroom from Hogsmeade, but her bedroom from back at home. Her bedroom stood on the other side of the glass as she placed her fingertips against it.

Instead of resisting her touch, her fingers sank through like water as it rippled and all gravity seemed to go against her when she felt herself be thrown into the mirror. Her bedroom disappeared and she found herself in a dark space.

She tried to yelp, but nothing came out as she found herself falling down a rabbit hole that consisted of the Hufflepuff boy's druid mark along the dirt walls tree roots that she hit as she fell, scratching at her everywhere.

She fell slowly as words began to echo through the tunnel.

"Ripped away from her people's arms she was sworn to protect, she has not long until the pieces connect... Born with magic of earth's breath and gifted with the decay of a rapid fire... Destined to change the path of death, before the rise of a riddle unforeseen. Should the light not be found first, her people will face the very last verse."

At the end of the tunnel, a bright light seemed to grow larger as she fell, unable to find her voice until she jolted awake.

Her heart leapt out of her chest as she sat straight up in her empty divination's classroom. It was empty besides for the professor that stood beside her with a hand on her back.

"Professor Onai," Victoria gasped, realising she had fallen asleep through the entire lecture. "I'm truly sorry- I didn't mean to-"

"I understand that you are Professor Dumbledore's niece," she interrupted her. "And I see that you have been struggling to adjust to the school again after your illness. So for that I will excuse you, but Miss Wulfric, I'm sorry to say that this will be your one and only warning. Consider yourself lucky."

Victoria immediately nodded, embarrassed. This was her first time falling asleep in class, in both worlds. She would've never dared to do so in the other world. She'd never been so consumed by sleep before as she thanked the professor.

"You will need to get your notes from someone else. I suppose it'd be Lestrange or Riddle, seeing as they might be familiar faces. I don't get many Slytherins in this period," Professor Onai added as Victoria made her way toward the door with a slight bow, only listening to half of what she said.

She stepped outside the classroom, only hearing that she had mentioned Riddle. It had been almost a week since the Hufflepuff boy–who was identified as Benjamin Nicholson... brother of Richard Nicholson–died and had been declared simply "missing" by the head of Hufflepuff. It didn't take long for anyone to notice, but it was a challenging investigation for the Ministry of Magic, as most of their priorities lay elsewhere.

Osgar and Victoria didn't dare talk about the incident unless it was in the dark room they hid in on that same night. The room behind the mirror, which was not a tunnel. It was large and vacant, as if someone had packed up and left, but it was nothing special. Frequently, Osgar tried to talk to her about it, but she had been avoiding him, trying to ignore the bigger picture: that her friends were death eaters.

But she couldn't escape his questions, just like she couldn't escape Abraxas' questions the next morning after the Hufflepuff boy died.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Abraxas demanded as soon as she stepped into her dorm. He grasped her by the arm with panic in his eyes, as they were red with worry, knowing what her silence meant. "He could've killed you for gods' sake!"

"But I survived," Victoria had simply answered, dismissing his anger. "I survived and that boy didn't. What does it matter that I'm alive if I'm not guaranteed to live anyway?"