He was darkness.
He was death.
He was pain.
He was suffering.
He was a mystery. One she intended to solve.
"You wouldn't kill me, Tom." "Avada Kedavra!"
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September Nineteenth, 1943
The room was so silent it woke Arabella up from her heavy sleep. So used to the chatter from the girls in her dorm, Arabella knew something was different when all she could hear was silence. She turned over sluggishly and almost fell off the bed, and she cried out in fright. "Jaelyn?" she said softly once she was back safely cocooned in the sheets but there was no reply.
Arabella swung her legs out of the covers and shivered as the cold air hit her legs suddenly. She frowned as her bare feet landed on a plush mat instead of the familiar cold concrete of the Slytherin dorms. Her mind worked overtime as she tried to visualise anything that might have happened during the last twelve hours but remembered nothing. Arabella sighed and pushed herself out of the foreign bed and picked up a golden cup full of steaming pumpkin juice that was sitting on the edge of a small chair next to the bed. Taking a sip of the hot drink, Arabella bent down and examined the chair curiously. The emerald cushion had an indent in it still from where someone had sat and from the depth of the sunk chair, Arabella suspected that the said person had been sitting there for a long time.
Arabella rubbed her forehead and sighed. How did she get there? Putting the goblet back, smoothing her crumpled robes down and slipping her feet into her shoes at the foot of the bed, Arabella made her way to the door and pushed it open. The sound of the Hogwarts bell suddenly chimed and surges of students donned in reds, yellows, greens and blues exploded into the hall and glancing up, Arabella noticed a painting that she always passed on her way to Charms which was on the seventh floor. Odd, she had never known of a bed chamber on the seventh floor before but when Arabella turned around to face the room she had just emerged from, there was nothing. Not even a door. The breath caught in her throat and Arabella's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Where had she just been sleeping?
She turned back around on her heel and made her way towards the staircases and her dorms where Arabella hoped Jaelyn would be. Descending the staircase quickly incase it moved, Arabella missed the shocked faces of the students around her. She missed the mutterings and whisperings of her fellow classmates as she passed them in her hurry. "Look! It's that Arabella Caerwyn!" "She's right there!" "Hasn't she been missing for the past four days?"
Soon, the familiar greens and snake emblems started appearing and Arabella found herself at the Slytherin Common Room entrance. Someone was standing at the wall, back hunched and shaking with sobs that rattled through Hogwarts plumbing like an earthquake. "Hello?" Arabella said softly, reaching forward slowly. She touched the crying girl's shoulder and they jumped and spun around in fright.
"Arabella Caerwyn!" the girl shrieked and flung herself into Arabella's unsuspecting arms. The two girls toppled to the floor but the unnamed girl still didn't let go of Arabella.
"Um, hello?" Arabella said again and the mysterious girl lifted her head to reveal a comforting face. "Jaelyn!" Arabella threw her arms around her best friend and hugged her tight.
Jaelyn pulled away first and got to her feet, holding out her hand for Arabella to take. "Merlin's Beard, Arabella you got us all so worried!" Jaelyn exclaimed, hauling Arabella to her feet and yanking her in for another hug.
"What? I was only asleep for a few hours," Arabella replied, frowning but the exasperated look on her best friend's face told her otherwise. "What?"
The blonde girl with tear tracks lining her cheeks delivered what Arabella thought to be the worst news she could hear. "Bella, you've been missing for four days."
"What?"
Jaelyn nodded. "After you left potions for the meeting with Professor Dippet you never came back and when no one could find you or remember anything, Dippet announced you missing. It was scary." Jaelyn hugged Arabella again quickly like she never would again and sniffled. "I thought you were dead! What happened to you?"
Arabella tried to remember but came up empty, like before. "I woke up in a room on the seventh floor and that's all I remember." Arabella shrugged pathetically and hung her head in defeat. "My head aches, Jaelyn, can you take me to the Hospital Wing?"
Jaelyn nodded and gripped Arabella's forearm tightly and guided her up and out of the dungeons. While waiting for the stairs to stop moving and face the right direction, Arabella leant her head on Jaelyn's shoulder and silently praised her best friend. She didn't know how she would get through their O.W.Ls without her, let alone waking up in a mysterious room after being missing for four days.
The stairs locked into place and the two girls began making their way up when someone turned a corner and almost bumped into them. "Arabella!" They said, surprised. Jaelyn frowned, though she looked surprised at his emotive tone and looked away in distaste but Arabella glanced up and her eyes met with the glittering emerald ones of Tom Riddle. Tom's eyes flickered over to Jaelyn and he coughed. "I wondered where you managed to wander off to," Tom said haughtly and Arabella frowned, the sudden change in his tone confused her.
"Well I'm sure you would love to know, Riddle," Arabella snapped, not knowing why her heart sunk deep into her stomach when he glared at her cruelly.
"No," he said and smirked, "I only wished that you fell into the Black Lake on your walkabout."
Arabella pursed her lips and felt the sting from Tom's ugly words. She couldn't think think of anything else to say and just pushed passed him roughly. Tom breathed out softly as their shoulders made contact but showed no other sign of emotion from the encounter. At least, not to their faces.
"You're dragon's dung, Riddle," Jaelyn said harshly and waltzed passed him, grabbing Arabella's hand. The two girls disappeared over the landing and left Tom standing alone with the exception of the odd student sprinting to class.
Tom Riddle frowned and fiddled with his wand absentmindedly. He hoped that Arabella had some of the drink he'd left for her in the Room of Requirement as it had took Tom ages to brew the perfect memory so she wouldn't remember anything about him carrying her or anything about the death of the nosey Ravenclaw prefect. He couldn't have her poking about in his personal business, she was almost too close to what he was doing and having her as a liability would ruin everything.
And so Tom Riddle wandered downstairs and tightened his bowtie, smoothing down his dressrobes. Avery came round a corner and nodded to Tom repectfully. "Good evening, Tom-"
Tom's head whipped to the side, eyes blazing. "Avery, what have I told you over and over again to call me in private?"
Avery hung his head, cheeks burning. "Sorry Lord Voldemort."
Tom nodded and kept walking as though nothing had happened. "I hope you know of what is going to happen tonight?"
His fellow Slytherin nodded and put his wand in the pocket of his robes. "You're going to ask Slughorn about something important and we all have to be on our best behaviour." Avery looked curiously at Tom. "What are you asking about, may I ask?"
Tom glanced at Avery with disdain. "No."
And the Tom, with Avery only a step behind made their way to Slughorn's small gathering with a clear goal in mind.
