Dose of Darkness | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Thirteen: I Need an Answer

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"Love is like a match to a wick. It takes that right combination to strike a flame. But once the flame is there, it can either give warmth, die out or burn your world to ashes. Even kill you. It's how you sustain the flame, feed it, and moderate the amount of energy in balance."
--Anthony Liccionie

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It was all a nightmare.

That's what Eleanor would have liked to believe, however, when she awoke to the dry air and scent of candles, she at least knew where she was in the infirmary. Her eyes opened to find the high, arched ceiling, and the faint hue of light out the corner of her eye.

Eleanor was met with instant dread.

Professor Dumbledore and her mother were the first to rush to her side, and Eleanor shakily sat up, swinging her legs over the bed to find she was still in her dress stained with dirt.

"Eleanor, what happened? Abraxas came running to us with Aaron and then that Riddle boy brought you in--" her mother rambled, stopping herself short just to hug Eleanor tightly.

Over her mother's silk covered shoulders , she could see Abraxas sitting with Aaron and Tom asleep in a chair beside her bed.

For a moment, Eleanor couldn't find the words to say for her memory was blurry. But it came together quickly.

"Aaron and his friend went outside after the curfew. Abraxas and Tom came to me and when we got outside, we found them being chased by a werewolf and father's band of dementors seemed to follow."

Eleanor repeated the words flatly, staring at Abraxas the entire time, simply repeating a variation of what he told them when he came running in with Aaron.

But everything was churning inside of her, remembering the strength she used and what it cost her, and her hands reached out to the small trash bin where she threw up everything that was burning to come up.

"We will let the Headmaster know this in the morning and call the boys family." Dumbledore sighed.

When Eleanor coughed her contents up, the bile burning her throat, she had to sit back on her bed, finally now having clearer senses.

Both of them stood there in their night clothes, seemingly disrupted from their night no less than she was.

"I'm sorry." Eleanor croaked.

If she had any sense earlier, she would have went straight to them before the night became the way it did. Tears stung her eyes as she glanced over at Aaron peacefully sleeping under the moonlight, the chandeliers above their heads dimly lit with candles.

"Eleanor, you were perfect. No one was killed. You were strong and brave and saved your cousin!" Marjorie said in awe, sitting beside Eleanor on the bed.

But instead, she shook her head, every muscle going weak in her as the tears flowed over her cheeks.

When Eleanor looked up at Dumbledore, who stood there with a somber look hidden in the aging features behind his short gray beard, they shared a look of understanding.

"But Aaron was struck by a werewolf and as the story goes, it seems the boy will not be exempt from what happens in this case."

The grief numbed her, but in a way that ached her heart greatly. Eleanor nearly lost the ability to breathe as it weighed on her chest.

"Eleanor, this was not your fault. Those boys were being foolish going out into the Forbidden Forest like that." Marjorie assured, looking at Eleanor as her arms went around her.