Always || Tom Riddle

Aragog

The first streams of sunlight were entering the Slytherin girl's dormitory, it was empty, which meant that Penelope had been half asleep when she awoke and forgot to wake me. Hauling myself out of bed, I slowly began to dress, feeling weak due to not having eaten much the day before. Delving into my bag, I looked for my timetable, upon finding it, my eyes scanned the contents before I rushed off towards Potions; thankfully it was in the dungeons, so I was not going to be too late. I entered the classroom unannounced thankfully, due to Slughorn being too busy helping out the students. Hesitantly, I placed my bag beside Tom, who didn't even flinch, nor look in my direction but merely continued to stir his potion, placing in the barbs of two Joberknoll feathers into the cauldron before continuing to stir. Normally, Tom would allow me to collect ingredients, read out instructions to him, or take over stirring for him, but today he was completely ignoring me, so I stood watching silently as he pushed on making from what I had caught a glimpse of in his book; the Confusing Concoction. 

"This needs to be left to boil for half an hour. Can you go and get a leech" Pleased that he had finally allowed me to do something, I pushed my stool away from me and made for the back of the class, where all the ingredients were kept. One minute I was walking, having to hold onto tables to make sure I didn't fall as I grew increasingly dizzy, and the next, the stone floor of Professor Slughorn's classroom grew closer and closer, until suddenly, my fall stopped short, and I was lifted back up, my saviour having to take my full weight into their arms as I struggled to orientate myself. 

"Merlin's beard, what happened?!" Slughorn along with the rest of the class had now turned the attention to me, as I clung to Tom for support, slowly, with his help, I managed to get to my feet, forcing a small smile for the concerned professor. "I tripped is all" A short nod of acknowledgement was all I was to expect, as the professor sent a student to go and fetch the nurse, apparently my lying skills had become a bit rusty over the years. "Tom, my boy, if could ensure that Miss Pevensie get's on alright, I will take your cauldron off the heat and you can finish it when you return" 

"Of course, sir" It didn't take very long for the nurse to arrive, not long after Tom and Slughorn had finished the nurse entered the classroom, pushing a wheelchair in front of her, a blank expression on her face. "I can walk, I don't need a wheelchair" I protested as the nurse gestured for me to take a seat. "You really are stubborn, aren't you? Now get in the wheelchair before I lose my patience" Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I took a seat allowing her to push me along back to the hospital wing. "If you could lift her onto the bed for me" Tom quickly complied, gently moving me from the wheelchair and onto the hospital bed, all the while avoiding any eye contact before he regained himself and met my eyes in a stare so unwavering that I was forced to look away from it. After the nurse had taken some tests and investigated into reasons why I might have collapsed, she decided to give me some medicine to help me sleep, that would enable me to gain my strength and ordered for some soup to be brought up. 

Just the sight of the chicken soup that was brought up by the house elves made bile rise up into my mouth, as I covered my nose with my hand, turning away from the house elves as they placed the tray onto the bedside table. I lay down, facing away from Tom and the soup, wanting desperately for both to go away. "Clara, you have to eat" Silencing him with my hand, I closed my eyes, wanting nothing more than to be left alone; only to have the air beside me move as Tom moved to face me, crouching beside the bed, to which I opened my eyes as he began speaking in a hushed voice. "Don't think I came all this way just to see you die from malnourishment!" Rolling my eyes and sighing, I yet again turned away from him, coming face to face with the soup to which I crinkled my nose up at and sat up. 

"It's not my fault I am too ill to eat!" Ill. That was it, I had been craving strange things for ages, come to think of it, I was late. I had originally put it down to stress, but now I was no longer being chased by Aurors, I could relax a little. Notice how I said only a little because dealing with any version of Tom Marvolo Riddle was hard work. "What is it?"  He asked, a frown appearing on his forehead as I felt him trying to break down my guards. "N-nothing, I am just thinking" Thinking about the possibility that I was pregnant. Tom, realising that I was not going to allow him into my head, stopped trying turning his attention to the tray holding the bowl of soup, placing it in my lap as I attempted to push it away. "Clara, don't be stupid, just eat the bread if that is all you can stomach" Snatching the bread from the tray, I allowed Tom to place the tray back onto the table, while I tentatively picked at the small roll of bread. Having finished the roll, I took the sleeping pills with a swig of water, lying back onto the bed and turning on my side, so that I faced a very tired looking Tom. 

"I'm sorry, Tom. I really am" I muttered under my breath, before closing my eyes and allowing the sleeping pills to do their job. Once I had awoken the next morning, I knew exactly what I had to do to stop Tom, while I had been ill, he would use it as an advantage to prevent me from succeeding in my mission to stop him. Using the element of surprise, I left the hospital wing, looking for Charlus, whom would be able to help me to find Aragog, without him, Tom could not use him to frame Hagrid for any attacks the Basilisk might have managed to do before Victoria had killed it. "Charlus" Eventually, I managed to find him at the top of the Astronomy tower, looking out to the Forbidden forest. 

"I need your help" A smug smile appeared on his lips as he turned to face me properly, inching towards me. "And why is that? Aren't Slytherins supposed to be extremely independent?" He was playing with me, he knew I only ever asked for someone's help if I felt they would really need to be involved. "We are, but you have connections that I need to make use of" Brushing past him, I moved to the railings, turning back to Charlus who remained where he was. 

"What makes you think you can trust me?" It was my turn to look smug, for I moved towards him until we were inches apart. "If you betray me, even to Penelope, I swear there will be nowhere you can hide from me" A flicker of fear ran across Charlus's face, before he regained himself. "Very well, what is it you want?" 

"I need you to take me to where Hagrid keeps his pet spider. You are after all a close friend of his, do this for me and I will be in your debt" Charlus paused, considering the pros and cons of helping me in this task. "Follow me" He said at last, as I followed him away from the Astronomy tower and out of the castle, heading for the Forbidden forest, the corridors were strangely quiet for this time of morning; and due to Tom having a reputation of getting up early, I kept an eye out for him. "Hagrid is normally here early so he can feed Aragog and be inside before anyone notices his absence" Sure enough, as we drew closer, the brown, hairy speck in the distance did indeed turn out to be Hagrid, who was occupied feeding and talking to the spider in a loving manner. "Hagrid?" The giant of a boy turned to face us, the loving smile he had sent to Aragog still partially quirking at his lips, that was before he noticed me, and suddenly, he froze; his body going tense. "What do you want?" 

"I merely wanted to speak with you" Hagrid relaxed ever so slightly, allowing me to take a few steps closer to him. "Well...what about?" Turning to Charlus, I nodded my head, having told him about what would happen to Hagrid if we didn't do this, while afraid of the pain killing Aragog would inflict on Hagrid, it was the only way we could ensure that he was not used for him to be framed. Charlus quickly grabbed his friend, pushing him against the tree in a bid to prevent him from running to his beloved pet, while I withdrew my wand from my sleeve. 

"Clara, please, don't! He won't hurt anyone! Please, don't hurt him!" Upon seeing my wand drawn as I steadily walked towards the spider, Aragog began to back away from me, sensing the danger. "It needs to be done, Hagrid, there is no other way" 

"Can't we just set him free, in Romania perhaps, or give him away to someone?!" I stopped, turning my head over my shoulder to come face to face with a distraught Hagrid, he truly loved Aragog. "Tom will hunt him down and find him either way, the only way to stop him from being harmed is to let him go. I'm sorry it has to be this way" Continuing forwards, I sent the killing curse at the spider a few times as he fled, managing to miss a few times, I cast the Immobilus spell on him, thankfully, that paralysed him, allowing me to give him a quick death with a flash of red sparks. Upon the spider being killed, Hagrid fell to the forest floor, tears falling onto his cheeks. 

"You killed the only friend I had" I wanted to comfort him, but from the look Charlus was giving me; warning me to leave before Hagrid did something he might regret, comforting Hagrid would be out of the question, so I  quietly made my way back to the castle, guilt building up within me. At least I would not have to go through the pain of watching him being expelled for Tom's actions. With the Basilisk dead, it could no longer do any harm, and now any of the Basilisks sightings or attacks could not be blamed on Aragog, and consequently used to frame Hagrid and get him expelled; the books on Horcruxes were now burnt to ashes, and any advantage that Tom had over me had been thwarted. I had a funny feeling that this time turner would take me back to my time extremely soon.