Poison A Tom Marvolo Riddle Fanfiction completed

Chapter Fourteen - Connections

A few days later Cassiopeia received a letter from her brother asking  her to come home because their father was seriously ill. When she left  Tom and the diadem behind she clung to the hope that he wasn't going to  do what she expected. Her father died shortly after her return, leaving  Houlton Manor to his children, Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Cepheus was busy  working for the ministry and came to the Manor only occasionally. That  left Cassiopeia all on her own. As time went by she started to wonder if  she was ever going to see Tom again, if he was ever going to come back.  She had heard nothing from him since the day when she had left Albania. 

Tom had finally turned the diadem into his third Horcrux. To his  dismay, the procedure had lost nothing of its horror, being as painful  and humiliating as ever. Sometime after he had returned to England he  apparated to Houlton Manor. When his gaze fell on the property he  remembered the summers he had spent there. He was ripped from his  memories when he saw Cassiopeia open the front door. Obviously, she  intended to leave. Quickly, he stepped out of the shadows and approached  the house. When she saw him, a smile flickered across her face. She  waited until he was next to her.

"Do you want to come in?"

Tom simply nodded and they entered the house.

"Are you alone?"

Now Cassiopeia nodded.

"I want to show you something." Tom held out his arm for her to take.  The moment she touched his arm, she was pulled into the spinning  darkness of side-along apparition. Quickly, she tightened her grip,  trying to stay by his side. When they reappeared she found herself in a  place that looked very similar to the hall of the Chamber of Secrets.  Obviously, Tom had put various charms on the place to resemble his  ancestor's Chamber.

"Where are we?" Cassiopeia let go of Tom's arm and examined her  surroundings. There were no windows and the dim light reminded her of  the dungeons at Hogwarts.

"That doesn't matter," Tom answered. "Now that you've been here, you will be able to apparate again."

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. "Surely, you put strong wards on this place that prevent Apparition."

Tom smirked. "Quite right. However, you'll be able to enter once I'm  finished." He took his wand and grabbed her hand. Without waiting for  her to reply, he slashed his wand across her palm, cutting it open.  Cassiopeia stared at her hand. Blood was leaving the cut. "I only need  some of your blood and then this place will let you return." After a  moment he added, "Don't misuse this. Otherwise things might get somewhat  – uncomfortable, shall we say?"

Cassiopeia slowly nodded, still staring at her blood dripping on the  floor under the pressure that Tom was applying to her hand. Tom waved  his wand and muttered various complicated incantations. The blood that  had been pooling on the floor vanished. Finally, he released her hand  and with another wave of his wand the cut healed.

"So this is what you did the past months," Cassiopeia stated.

"Why don't we take some time to catch up on everything? Don't friends do that?"

Cassiopeia sneered. "Maybe friends do that. We wouldn't know, would we?"

Tom smirked. "Come on, you always knew how I am. Stop chasing shadows at last!"

He motioned her to follow him to the fireplace where they sat down on  the sofa facing the flames. They stared into the fire and for a long  time neither of them said a word. Cassiopeia closed her eyes, biting  back tears. It felt like Tom had never been away. They were back at  Hogwarts, in the Heads' common room, the one place where everything had  been easy and nothing impossible. She wished time would stop and they  were never to move again. Tom's magic was crackling around him, subtly  touching her own magic, comforting her in a way she had missed for so  long. Cassiopeia deliberately chose to ignore the subliminal violence  his magic was exhibiting.