Gypsy

Chaper Twenty One

I wasn’t in a hospital, that much was certain. My room had looked like a hospital room, all beige and hideous, but the rest of the building was uniquely un-beige. The corridor I was currently hobbling down, was elegant. No other word for it. Huge portraits of blond Witches and Wizards lined the walls, an occasional settee resting against a wall and what felt like hundreds of doors leading to gods know where. I wasn’t game to open any of the doors, if I was where I thought I was then who could say what was behind them. So, using the wall where possible as a crouch, I slunk towards the end of the hallway like a slug. Before I got to the end, and door I was walking past was thrown open. Unable to stop its momentum, the handle smacked me in the hip. Pain shot up from the bone, vision going blurry I wheezed out in agony and tried to stay upright, but at least I made a sound.
“What an earth are you doing Mudblood?” a horrifically familiar voice snapped me out of my daze. Walburga. Lip curling she stormed up to me, one horribly thin finger was shoved near my face. “You are supposed to be in bed. Lord Malfoy said you must remain there until Lord Voldemort returns.” Oh bugger this, I’ve had quite enough of hearing the word ‘Lord’ thrown around. Quicker than I would have thought possible, I gripped the door that had hit me and slammed it back into that nasty Witches face. A crack was all I heard, then a surprisingly loud THUMP and she was on the ground out cold, a small sliver of blood coming from her nose. Glancing up and down the corridor, I was satisfied nobody had heard, except a few portraits who were gasping in horror at the evil ‘Mudblood’. It was amazing what six years stuck in your own head will do to your personality. Walburga’s wand had fallen from her hand in the scuffle. Snatching it up, I continued moving slowly down the hallway. Finally reaching a door that resembled a front door, or a back door, I was guessing Malfoy Manor had many doors. I opened it to reveal, a library. Cursing my luck, I practically fell through the doorway into the room. Hopefully it would have a fireplace with a connection to the Flu Network. It was a truly massive room, wall to wall lined with bookshelves. But then again, the Malfoy’s only had the best, libraries included. My luck was improving, right in the middle of the room, surrounded by soft looking sofas, was a fireplace. Shuffling over, I spotted a pot of Flu powder on the mantle. Thank you gods. This wasn’t my first time traveling by Flu, so I knew what to do. Grabbing a handful, I was about to throw it in and try and speak my mothers London address, when a loud CRACK nearly made me drop it. I felt him before I turned around, like a shiver up my back. Tom Marvolo Riddle, in all his black robed fury. The years had been extremely good to Riddle. He had been an exceptionally handsome teenager, even with the evil habits. Now though, now he was devastating. Taller somehow, with thicker hair and any baby fat his cheeks might have held was well and truly gone. He used to be the smaller of him and Malfoy, now I believe they are equal. But something was very different, very wrong. It was his eyes. They were red, not an occasional flash of red too quick to truly identify, but deep red. Like blood.
“Antoinette.” He growled out my name and beckoned his hand, like I was a dog who would follow his command. There was so much I wanted to say, but my voice was only starting to loosen up.
“Riddle.” My throat hurt from that alone, like trying to speak through a straw. He frowned at the sound, moved a step closer. Before he could blink I held up the powder, ready to throw it in the fire and vanish to a mystery location if need be. Face darkening in a familiar anger, he stopped moving and relaxed his stance.
“Where are you going to go?” My face must have given away my answer. “Your mother moved houses. Abraxas bought her a lovely little cottage to live in near Malfoy Manor several years ago.”
“What do you mean?” Even I winced at the sound of my voice.
Eyes not leaving mine, Riddle shifted closer and sat down in one of the sofas. I should have thrown the powder then, location be damned, but I needed to know what had happened. Even if it meant entertaining the Devil. Brushing invisible lint of his robes, Riddle motioned for me to sit down. Like hell. He smirked when I ignored him. Shrugging his shoulders as if I hadn’t refused him. He must think me a fool to not notice the tightening around his eyes, easy way to identify when he was furious.
“Very well little Mudblood, have it your way. I was hoping to have this conversation on equal grounds, but it appears that six years in a coma did nothing for your defiance.” I wanted to rip his head off, mate-bond or not, he was still the same.

“What happened!” My throat ached, my hand moved to it instinctively, trying to sooth the burn.

Riddle’s eyes narrowed at the motion. “You’re still injured.” I ignored him, and moved the powder closer to the fireplace, hopefully he got the message. “Fine. After Abraxas, accidentally, knocked you out. We waited for you to wake up. Even bought you to the hospital wing after several hours had passed. But that useless Mediwitch couldn’t do anything. So you were sent to St Mungo, and again, nobody could figure out why you weren’t waking up. At this point, we were becoming desperate and weaker. So I ordered Abraxas to give you his blood, and it worked. You didn’t wake up like we thought, but you were re-gaining strength and so were we. So we continued this for some time, several years actually. Eventually Abraxas got sick of sneaking in and out like a criminal. And we knew that your mother was struggling to pay for you to remain in the hospital. So Abraxas offered to buy her a house in a location of her choice, near to Malfoy Manor, and you could be moved to the Manor and be cared for here.” At my shocked look he elaborated. “Abraxas and your mother became quite good friends over the years, he told her he was your boyfriend at Hogwarts and he only wanted to take care of you.”

My mind was reeling. How had nobody done anything or said anything to stop this from happening. “Jenny.”

“Ah, your little blood traitor friend. She moved to France to be closer to her brother.” Oh god Jeremy. “Don’t worry about your little boyfriend, he’s married now, and running for Ministry office I believe. And before you think that we have you hidden away here, we don’t, anybody is free to visit you. Jenny visited a lot for the first few years, at least while you were at St Mungo, she couldn’t bring herself to come here though.”

I already knew that Jenny hadn’t been around for quite some time. She always felt such guilt whenever she visited me, if I could have cried I would have, but one day there was no more guilt. I assumed that meant no more Jenny. Now I knew why. Riddle just sat there, while I processed. In truth I was desperately trying to think up an address, any address I could say and disappear into the flames to.

“Be careful where you decide to go. Now that the Ministry knows your a Nymph, they won’t allow you to just wonder around.” Wait what.

“You’re not going to curse me into staying?” frowning I studied him. Nope, same evil Wizard, just taller.

Riddle laughed, a real laugh, it startled me enough that some of the powder slipped through my fingers. “I assumed you’d run. I’m not the same as I was, I am comfortable letting you run away this time. We’ll find you soon enough. My Followers are everywhere now. And if we decide to put out an alert that you have escaped, then those goody two shoes Ministry workers will be after you to.” He smiled a shark smile. “If I were you, I’d go somewhere without people, much safer.”

My breath felt tight, like breathing through a paper bag. There must be somewhere. Keeping Riddle in my sight, I tossed the flu powder into the fireplace. What I whispered obviously surprised him, I had the satisfaction of seeing him hiss in anger before the Green flames swallowed me.

Take me home