𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐧 | 𝐭.𝐦.𝐫

𝟏𝟕

Aster seethes, murder at the forefront of her mind before she breathes herself back. It's herself she blames first. She let herself slip and the one thing that never should've been in the hands of another gets stolen from her grasp.

It was just a notebook after all. Except it wasn't really. Not when they learn the true nature of it. Not when out of all of her things to take it's just that one missing.

She accounts for the rest of her things and she's proven right. It was purely the notebook they're after.

It doesn't even dawn on Aster to accuse any of her roommates to taking it. Because there, in the familiar atmosphere so heavily masked with their magic by the months they've spent occupying it, was a stranger's prints.

It's immature at best, undeveloped. Definitely no one older than a Second Year.

It was only rational she suspects a Slytherin before a student from another House. Hopefully they hadn't sunk that low but she remembers the Yule incident and she's left wondering about security holes.

Aster waves away the idea of a search. How would she look in search for a simple diary, that someone had easily stolen from her? It wouldn't do. She'd have to do it by herself.

That, and none of her court even knew why she would be so adamant on getting a little notebook back. She rescinds herself. It was just a notebook. Why was she so desperate to get it back?

Maybe because she found no one else to be much like she was. No one was quite like Riddle when it came to falling in step with her ways that knew the truth of the monster that too lurked within her. The same way she fell in step with his moods whenever he bemoaned being stuck in a notebook and how sometimes he wanted to choke his other half.

It was a loss she felt within her bones with him missing from their usual banter and academic discussions.

But it's not simply loss that she feels. Worry seeps within its crevices with the what ifs that would soon befall Hogwarts when the monster lurking within that notebook sets its sight upon fresh prey.

The attacks had only stopped because Aster was skilled enough to keep Riddle at bay from getting into her mind. Whoever it was that stole him, could they have an idea? Or was it simply some ploy to get at her because of who she was in every sense?

She doesn't get to dwell on it much when what she expected for the worst happens.

It was on a Quidditch match before it got cancelled when it was announced that there's been a double attack. Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger.

Clearwater was pureblood. And it sets everything they thought they knew to ashes.

Slytherin House was in a frenzy and all Aster could do was set up precautions. She knew they were smart enough to know consoling words have no meaning in the unknown threat that faces them.

In all their conversations he never brought up just exactly what he wanted to achieve. Never meandered around the notion even if Aster actually brought up the attacks.

Weeks pass and Aster is further from finding the notebook than ever with the tense atmosphere that falls over Hogwarts. Students were escorted by the professors to their classrooms and no one can even go around a corner without fear of being pounced on.

A certain fear cloaked everyone, that any of them could be next.

Summer comes but none could appreciate its warmth. Not when the chill of being preyed upon still hangs over them. Dumbledore is removed from his post as Headmaster and it only skyrockets everyone's alarm.

In another time, Aster would have rejoiced. But not now when it comes at the expense of her Slytherins being under Riddle's threat. Not when there's talk of Hogwarts closing.