Soulbound : Tom Riddle

8: Like Most People

Osgar's advice remained a part of Victoria's decisions throughout the next few days. She wanted to seek advice from Dumbledore the more and more she tried to search for answers elsewhere–which always led her nowhere. She'd looked everywhere but the restricted section of the library, which she decided to take a note and sneak herself in later. Somehow.

"Just stay insignificant to Riddle," Abraxas told Victoria after he warned her about Riddle's consideration. "Don't challenge him and forget that you ever knew anything."

"I can't forget it just like that, I refuse to," Victoria said defensively. "What am I supposed to do if something happens? Stay clueless? What if you go missing and I don't know where to start?"

"Is it better to know than to never have known at all?" Abraxas asked her, to which he never got a response. "If you want, I can erase your memories..."

Her response was constant and vigilant, always denying that route.

"I barely remember anything from last year since I woke up, why would you even suggest that in the first place?" she'd question Abraxas.

But she only underestimated how much he wanted to keep her safe.

Since Abraxas had told her about Tom's indirect invitation, she had grown more paranoid. Not paranoid of Tom but paranoid in general, as she couldn't help but think she was being watched. Everything she did, even as she and Abraxas were alone in his room, snuggled in his bed, his warm arms were not enough to make her feel at ease.

And for some reason, the person she thought she could turn to was Dumbledore. Just as Harry had done throughout his years at Hogwarts. There was no doubt that there was no other place to seek wisdom but Dumbledore's classroom. And so by the end of the day, she found herself making laps around the corridor to his office in contemplation.

Where would she start?

What would she even say?

That she was out of that world?

"No," she thought harshly. "No one must ever find out..."

Just as she turned around to leave the corridor, she heard her uncle's voice behind her.

"Was there something you wished to tell me, Victoria?"

She turned around with a jump from her shoulders. "Excuse me?"

"You've been lurking the corridor for quite some time now. My classroom is always open to students, especially my own blood–no matter the quarrels I have with your father."

Except, she wondered how betrayed he'd feel if he found out that she was not in fact even from that wizarding world.

A few minutes later, she's sitting quietly at one of the classroom desks with an unreadable expression on her face. She didn't want him to see right through her. Especially when he could do so to the great Lord Voldemort.

She played with her fingers and tapped her shoes nervously while her uncle sat himself across from her with the same unreadable expression. She felt as if she was being interrogated, but that was only the weight of the room and not what Dumbledore's eyes said.

"I know it mustn't be easy since you've woken up," her Uncle Albus said, beginning their conversation. "If you're here for a memory potion, you already know how your father feels about relying on potions."

Victoria shook her head. "It's not really like that." She quickly tried to craft something in her mind as she avoided his eyes, looking straight at the cold ground.

"I was just curious," she said. "I- how did I fall into a coma? I mean, who found me and what happened in the first place?"

Her uncle didn't seem to be too disturbed about the story as he didn't hesitate to answer. "Why, you were found inside the Forbidden Forest last school term. It looked like an animal attack, but the authorities weren't too positive because there wasn't a sign of any attack except for blood that couldn't have been traced at all.

"And as for who found you, it was one of the care for magical creatures classes," Dumbledore said. "It was such a sight, you hadn't been gone long but some of your friends said you'd been acting strange."

"Strange like how?"

"You'd have to ask them yourself to find out," Dumbledore said. "Now that you're awake and well, it hasn't been much on my mind–or your father's. Though he hasn't spoken to me since the end of the summer, I'm sure he's just as relieved that it was not a fatal accident."

"Oh, okay..." Victoria said, unable to wrap her head around the entire situation. "Strange?" she kept thinking. How was the other Victoria acting strange? That was something she'd have to find out from Druella.

But she had her suspicions... Maybe it was because she found out that Druella was a death eater... or that Abraxas was one... but she couldn't confirm anything yet.

After very short small talk, she excused herself to leave. She thought it was stupid to come talk to Dumbledore in the first place, but at least she didn't bring up Riddle. As much as she wanted to, she had this tiny knotted feeling that it'd be a mistake to do so.

A part of her couldn't fully trust the future headmaster of Hogwarts.

Besides, she was suspicious of the fact that her uncle already had his eye on Riddle.

As she wandered back to the common room, she heard a loud clatter from a suit of armour from around the corner behind her and jumped.

"Hello?" she called out but as she retraced her steps to the scene of fallen armour–no one's there. She sighed in annoyance at the sight, feeling an obligation to clean up after the culprit.

"Causing trouble again, are you?" Riddle's voice said from behind her.

She whipped her head around and his proposal surfaced on her mind again.

He had a cunning look on his face with questioning brows and crossed arms. His smile on his face only told her that he knew she hadn't caused any trouble whatsoever.

"I'm just here in the wrong place at the wrong time," she responded, hiding her obvious annoyance.

It was quite a literal statement.

Before she could take care of the mess, Riddle flicked his wrist and the fallen metal armour put itself together again without a single racket. He was quite the performer.

"I could've done it myself," Victoria said without looking at him, her eyes on the knight.

"Please, you're as skillful as a squib right now considering you just woke up from a coma not even three months ago," Riddle scoffed. "Most people say thank you-"

"I am most people," Victoria interrupted him, almost taken aback by his rudeness–especially after inviting her to become a death eater. "So thank you, Tom, but I have to be somewhere right now."

He did not cringe at the sound of his name when it slipped from her lips. In fact, he rather didn't mind it and he couldn't pretend he didn't notice it.

She turned and walked past him as he caught a pinch of her scent, his neck tensing as she disappeared past him. The same scent he caught in the broom closet when he'd revealed too much of himself.

A rush of annoyance filled him to the brim as he realised he was grinning to himself.

Not long after he, too, left the corridor empty with nothing but both their aura hanging behind, trapped in each other's presence.

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