Tom Riddle had a secret - he had murdered his family. Arabella Chambers knew his secret - she had witnessed it.
After Tom Riddle kills Arabella Chambers, he steals her wand for safekeeping. But, unexpectedly, Arabella shows up at Hogwarts, very much...
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Being back at Hogwarts was unsettling to Arabella. She didn't know how to feel about the castle, the memories it brought. And that book Tom had found... It lingered in her thoughts, even as she tried to push it aside.
December 31st had been a strange day. Tom's birthday wasn't something he celebrated, not in the traditional sense.
He had spent the day with her, walking around the gardens of her manor, the snow crunching beneath their boots. The cold didn't seem to bother him, though he declined her offer to try ice skating.
She had teased him, calling him stubborn, but he merely smirked, as if the idea of him skating was absurd. Instead, they settled for a quiet dinner — one she had prepared herself. A birthday present, she had called it.
New Year's came and went, marked by nothing more than the ticking of a clock.
And then it was back to Hogwarts, back to the familiar routine that had become almost mundane in its repetition. Weeks passed, and now it was mid March. The days had grown longer with a hint of spring in the air.
Arabella was utterly bored. It didn't take any effort on her part to be able to achieve top marks so, unlike Tom, she didn't actually have anything to do. She and Tom sat together again, he always aiming to outshine her, Arabella always beating him. A mundane routine. Nothing special.
Not until a conversation she and Tom had had at the beginning of that month.
It had started innocently enough, just another late evening in The Room of Requirements. But then, in that smooth, calculated voice of his, Tom had confided something darker. He had mentioned the creation of another horcrux, casually, as if discussing the weather.
This time, he wanted to kill a muggleborn, and in that chilling, deliberate way of his, he suggested that Arabella should assist him.
His eyes had gleamed with a twisted curiosity as he asked if she had ever taken another's life, considering how powerful she was. It was an intimate conversation, one that might have unsettled anyone else. But Arabella wasn't surprised. She lied and said no.
Now, on this day in mid-March, the pair were leaving the Chamber of Secrets after Tom had said he wanted to check on the basilisk.
They had levitated up the entrance and stood on the edge, ready to close the entrance behind them when Arabella suddenly stopped Tom, her senses sharper than his.
"Wait," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Do you hear that Tom?"
Tom paused, his brow furrowing slightly as a distant sound reached his ears. It was faint, but unmistakable — a girl's cries echoing from a stall. His expression shifted, his eyes darkening and his lips curled into a smile that didn't reach his eyes, a dark, unsettling smile. Arabella watched him, sensing the shift in his demeanour, the way his posture straightened with purpose.
