To Answer A Riddle [Tom Riddle Era / Harry Potter]

Entry #23

"Queen to C-4," said Tom.

The queen moved and crushed the little white pawn that had been standing at C-4. Elliott grimaced. He was losing real badly this game of magic chess. Tom kept destroying his every attempt at getting closer at the black king.

It was the second day of winter vacations. Elliott's uncle had been surprised that Elliott had brought a friend over, even if he had received his nephew's letter. Still, he had been nice to Tom, even if he was still slightly overprotective of Elliott.

They had arrived late in the evening of last night, so today was the first real day where Tom and Elliott hadn't any schoolwork or anything to do. They were wearing casual clothes, Elliott having a pale blue polo with black pants and Tom a dark green shirt with grey pants. Elliott thought it was kind of funny to see Tom in another set of clothes which wasn't Hogwarts' uniform.

The day had passed quite quickly. A snowstorm had decided to invade the peaceful morning, so they had stayed inside all day. In the evening, they had decided to play a game of magic chess while Elliott's uncle cooked dinner.

Elliott moved his white tower towards Tom's own tower.

"It doesn't look like you like your uncle," said Tom softly.

He didn't want to speak too loud for the man to hear their talk in the kitchen. Elliott shook his head.

"I don't dislike him... I just don't seem to... I'm not able to feel comfortable around him. I can't trust him," answered Elliott as he directed a pawn forward, which destroyed a black knight.

"Why not? He's nice," continued Tom, "Knight to D-2."

"...He doesn't like me either. He just feels bad."

Elliott looked away from the chess game. His gaze met with the fireplace, where some framed pictures on its top. There wasn't any of him. He hadn't been here long enough. There looked like there were many of his uncle's youth, with a younger version of his father beside him in every photo.

"What do you mean?" asked Tom. He had noticed that Elliott had stopped paying attention to the game and followed his glance to the pictures on the fireplace.

Elliott rose from the couch and went over to the empty fireplace. He slowly took one of the framed photos in his hands. He went back to the table where Tom was sitting across him.

"See this?" Asked Elliot as he passed the picture to his friend.

"I didn't know you had a brother!" exclaimed Tom, very surprised. Elliott smiled.

"The resemblance is crazy, isn't it?"

Elliott pointed to the young boy with blond hair standing beside another boy with brown hair, who seemed younger. They both looked slightly younger than Elliott was at the moment.

"That's my father," he said, "And beside him is my uncle."

"Wow, you look exactly the same!" exclaimed Tom. He glanced at the picture, then at Elliott, then at the picture again, comparing the two boys.

"I know. I have nothing of my mother, except her personality. At least, that's what I heard from the few family friends we had. She died when I was born. Anyway..."

Tom threw the blonde a curious look and laid down the framed picture on the table.

"The thing is... My uncle and my father were very close when they were young. From what I've heard, they even got into some dark arts related trouble at Hogwarts. My uncle stopped, but not my father. He became a dark mage a few years later and my uncle was unable to help or stop him from doing so. He travelled to France, fell in love, and married my mother. She died a few years later. He decided to stay in France and cut most of his ties with his family, raising me alone. Something happened and I went to live with my uncle. And so he feels bad about abandoning his brother especially after what happened and hopes that he can save me from everything and anything that could give me some kind of danger. He's sure that I'll end up like my father."