Not Broken, Not Yet | Tom Riddle

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The moment I saw Wool's orphanage I knew that I would hate it. The boring grey facade. The tall fences. It looked like a prison and nothing less. I couldn't imagine spending two entire summers in the place, no less my entire life.

The inside was as suffocating as I had imagined. They had without a doubt tried to make the place feel homey. Feel like something more than a place where dreams came to die. But it had been a failure. The very walls echoed a hundred children's crushed hope. It was supposed to be a sanctuary but I couldn't help but feel like a prisoner.

Even the room Mrs Cole showed me to felt like a cell. One window, a desk, a chair, a wardrobe and a bed. Lifeless and empty.

After Mrs Cole had left me to make myself comfortable I found myself sitting down in the bed as Julius explored the withins of the four walls that would become our home this last week of the summer holidays. At least one of us was enjoying themselves. A shame it wasn't me.

I walked over to the window, leaning over the desk to see a small garden with a great oak and a bench outside. I made a mental note to check the place out later.

Tentatively I met the two green eyes meeting mine in the reflection in the window. They looked as hollow as I felt. I tried to smile, to will my lips to curl into something someone could mistake for joy. What looked back at me was but a bleak version of what a sixteen year old girl should look like.

I had been described as looking haunted by one of my Professors at Ilvermorny. It had not been a compliment.

In an attempt to lighten up my appearance I changed my hair colour into a deeper mahogany instead of my normal light brown. If nothing else that would take people's eyes off the rest of me. And hopefully Mrs Cole wouldn't comment on it.

Julius pressed himself against my legs and purred.

"Like it, huh?"

He purred louder and for the first time that day I allowed myself to smile.

"Let's get you some food and water, my love. You have earned it."

We walked together out of my room. Julius and I. Most doors were open and I saw children running back and forth between them. Laughter and voices echoed between the walls. A stark contrast to the silent glumness I had come to expect. Most doors were open. And voices and laughter echoed from the rest. From all door except one. The one next to mine.

At dinner I had been placed with two girls about my age. Both of whom I had forgotten the names of just about as quickly as they had told them to me. One of them was short blonde with freakishly blue eyes while the other was a dark-eyed brunette. They were probably perfectly pleasant and nice normally but the way they looked at me you could almost think they'd never seen an American before. Come to think of it, they probably hadn't. And by the looks of it, they rarely had good gossip around.

The eager questions came shooting at me one after another. I would have been annoyed and overwhelmed where it not for the fact that I had never gotten that kind of attention at my previous orphanage. All the other children had been wary of me, scared almost - rumours of what had happened to me reaching the place before I had. This was a fresh sort of breeze. Being around people who didn't know of the darkness that dwelled in me.

Because despite my silence and often reserved nature I did enjoy the presence of other people. I longed for it, even when it scared me. I loved being alone. But I hated being lonely even more.

The years of isolation had scared me, but it never killed the part of me that longed for... belonging.

"Sooo... Tell us Amberly. How are the boys in America?" The blonde asked with a wink.