Pick Your Poison | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Fourteen: The Real Fire

||

"People inspire you, or they drain you. Pick them wisely."
Hans F. Hasen

||

○○○

Wednesday, November 22, 1943

By this time of the week, Eleanor's nerves were becoming more unsettled by the hour.

After the "fight" between her and Tom, she was surprised to see her friends, including Julius, seem more open towards her. It made her not even want to be friends with them anymore seeing how their loyalty shifts depending on who she was affiliated with. They told her she was better off without him and the other nonsense, despite there never being anything going on in the first place.

But nonetheless, she played her part through the days and allowed herself to get through her stressful week.

Wednesday evening, Eleanor was on her way to mail a letter to her family expecting their arrival but she needed to actually write the letter and she found herself walking into the Room of Requirements first.

At the other end of the room, she saw Tom sitting in the chair with his head in his palm and the fire seemingly losing its spark.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Eleanor asked, surprised to see him in here by himself.

But as she approached him, she saw that his eyes were shut and for a moment she had to stare. Not once had she ever seen his face so calm and relaxed. Well, there was a rare moment or two. But seeing him so peacefully asleep was something even more rare to her eyes.

Smiling to herself, she grabbed her notebook on her side table and took a quill to begin writing to her family. She was actually excited to see them. However she wasn't excited to know they'd watch her face a dragon.

As she made her way through the letter, she heard a strained breath from her side and looked over to see Tom, still sleeping. It must have been something in his dream or whatever.

Eleanor stared, watching his eyebrows twitch and his face just scrunch up a little bit. It was subtle enough to go unnoticed but she continued to look at him, wondering what was going on in his mind. But then, she felt herself slip into another state that startled her at first however she realized that she was being pulled into his own mind.

Eleanor was consumed by a darkness that shook her to the core and her eyes remained fixated on Tom as images sprawled out across her vision. She saw books with unknown spells, him standing among his friends in the Forbidden Forest, a mark on someone's arm with a snake and skeleton, but time seemed to slow when she came across another sight.

Myrtle Warren laying on the floor of the girls bathroom.

This time it didn't feel like a memory. It felt real. Eleanor walked in, her eyes falling on the monstrous snake and the dead girl. But the next thing she saw was Tom holding her in the reflection of the mirror with his hand over her mouth. Then she heard one word. Obliviate.

Pulling herself back, Eleanor stared at Tom who jolted awake and was paralyzed with the overwhelming information she had just received. She felt true fear at this moment.

"Please tell me none of that was real." Eleanor croaked, her throat feeling tighter the more she tried to speak.

But Tom looked angry at a whole new level she's never seen. His eyes glared as he stood up and in an instant reaction, she stood up and backed away. Was he really a murderer? She knew he was an arse sometimes but was he really capable of that?

"Eleanor, listen to me—" Tom said urgently, standing up in a tossled haze from his nap. "You don't understand."

Eleanor's jaw dropped and she laughed at him dryly, not an ounce of humor in her astonished expression.