ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Serpentine, ch. 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Harmony slammed her door and leaned on it in frustration, wishing she could curse Barty to hell and back. The charm eased up a bit as she stood there. She was still upset with Voldemort, and she worried that he would come and check on her to ask what was wrong. But he never did. She imagined that he must have thought she was still just upset over their recent talk and left her to cool down.

She looked around her room for something to console herself-or at least to help get her mind off. She forced open the doors of a dusty old wardrobe in one of the corners. The clothes inside were timeworn and moth-eaten, and Harmony crinkled her nose at the musty smell.

A couple of white moths took flight as she moved several jackets out of the way. In the back of the wardrobe Harmony found a large box, and she pulled it out into the light. Although it was as tall as her hip, it wasn't much wider than the width of her hand. About a centimeter of dust covered it, but it crumbled away as she opened the lid and pulled out a large painting. She pulled it free and gasped in surprise.

The painting seemed to be of Master. He was wearing a well-fitted navy suit, his hair parted to the side, and on one hand he wore a ring with what she assumed to be the Riddle family arms on it. But then it occurred to her that the Voldemort she knew would never wear something like this, especially the Riddle family ring. She remembered he had told her he'd had all the paintings of his father taken down.

But as she looked at the father, she couldn't help but see him as some sort of alternate Lord Voldemort. He was handsome, charming, and very wealthy. It was no wonder his mother had been smitten. Several more paintings of the man were also in the box, and she looked at them all.

When she felt calm enough, she went over to the bed and ate her dinner. Once finished, she set the tray outside her door for Barty. Perhaps if she gave him no reason to enter her room he would stay out of it.

She noticed with a heavy sigh that Master's door was still closed. She decided to take a shower, going into the bathroom-the room conjoining hers and Master's-and made double sure to lock the door on his side.

Although it was still nothing like a modern bathroom, this one at least offered a little more privacy than the bathroom her old chamber had. This one had a shallow reservoir to catch the water, and the drain wasn't just a hole but the usual smooth circle with the small holes in it. The shower area itself was surrounded by a fancy curtain with large rings hung from a metal circle that encased the occupant inside and kept the water in.

Harmony shivered from cold when the water first turned on, and stood away from it for a moment until it heated up. She found a large bar of soap sitting in the ornate dish to the back and decided to smell it. It smelled of spices and the ocean-the smell on Master that she had noticed earlier.

She finished cleaning off and returned to her room in time to watch the sunset from her window. Another day gone, she thought, and another day of pretending to be someone I'm not. She went over to her bed, sliding under the covers, and sleep came to her in a wave of exhaustion.

She came to with a start when she heard footsteps in her room. It had grown dark, and her eyes went to the window as she saw Barty step out into the moonlight.

"You look so peaceful when you sleep," he told her. "You're usually all tense and into yourself. I hate it when women are like that."

"Only when they're around you," Harmony informed him crossly as she sat up in bed.

"Oh, you're witty," he said with a grin. "I like that." He plopped down on the end of her bed and rested his back against one of the posts.

"I want you to leave," Harmony said as she tried to find her wand. "Now."