complicity [tom riddle]

P R O L O G U E

The Slytherin common room had always been a ghastly sight, with wan tone couches and a strongly contrasting fire, flaming green — when it wanted to.

It was particularly harrowing when crowded with a certain group of six boys. Six boys just as charming as the other, six boys who had terrorised Heidi's life, her entire being. Tom Riddle, Abraxas Malfoy, Judias Avery, Rhydian Lestrange, Charles Rosier, and Tobias Nott.

Heidi Battleaxe was a timid young girl but not to be overlooked, for she was allegedly the brightest witch for her age. At least that was what was assumed. Considering she was the only match for Tom Riddle. A nemesis, or perhaps a worthy opponent.

Nonetheless, the cold and hard walls of Slytherin were generally a solace for Heidi. A place where she could sit in silence, alone, the way she liked it. Staying out of any bothersome person's way.

That was the regular until an egregious task was placed upon her head. By none other by the greatly esteemed Dumbledore. Granted, opinions about Albus Dumbledore were mixed, controversial, and divisive. However most trusted him anyways.

Heidi lost her parents to a dark magic provoked fire a few years back. She rolled her eyes at the muggle-sounding cliche of “Parents dying in a fire”. Not that she was a blood supremacist, entirely. The idea of blood and her own was a complex idea to her, Heidi herself is a half-blood, but put in the consideration of a certain Slytherin gangs taunting made her think of herself otherwise.

To reiterate, Heidi was shy, timid, and candidly the epitome of docility. Despite that it did not hinder her skill. Her efforts in Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts had generously swindled her way into the Slug-Club and by extension the prestigious, velvety parties produced from it.

Aside from her ladylike beauty and liberated brain, her shyness allowed her to slip into the clefts of Hogwarts crowds without the use of a disillusionment charm. Essentially, she was invisible. The point of the matter or the question is — why would Albus Dumbledore pick her for a task? Because it was her intelligence, invisibility, and inevitable closeness to Tom Riddle that made her so deliciously useful to him. It appeared to Heidi that Dumbledore's delusion is catching up with his age for he believes that frigid, stuck up school-boy Tom Riddle is a conniving liar with out of the ordinary ways that have struck suspicion in Dumbledore's mind.

Heidi could have said no, maybe she would have if she had her parents guidance, but Dumbledore promised a meagre promise that made Heidi's fragile throat craved for a sense of intimacy and power. He promised her a direct path to becoming an Auror. An almost superior community with power. The mere idea of that was orgasmic to Heidi.

Ever since her parents passed and the relentless torture from her peers, Heidi became closed off. The closest she ever got to something was the withering tip of a cigarette butt, but that too would feign to live. Truly her only sort-of friend was Professor DuLac and occasionally, she spoke with one girl, Mary Mulciber. She was kind, different. The only girl she had ever seen with short hair. Issue was, she was far too closely associated with the Slytherin posse for her liking.

Before this was a pained doubt in Heidi's mind but now was a sardonic way for her to slip right in to where she needed to be for her seventh year of schooling.

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