Stolen Time A Tom Marvolo Riddle Fanfiction completed

Chapter Two

Cassiopeia drew the covers closer around herself. She slowly rolled to the side and lightly ran her fingers over Tom's bare chest. A smile crossed her face. "You know, you never cease to surprise me."

Tom glanced at her and grinned. "I despise being predictable."

"So what about talking now?" Cassiopeia eyed him curiously.

Tom looked at her for another moment. Then he sat up and leaned back against the bed's headboard. He drew a deep breath and exhaled sharply. Finally he stated, "I know who attacked us back then on Hogwarts' grounds."

Cassiopeia looked momentarily taken aback. Then she collected herself. "You know....what? But who was it? For how long have you already known?"

"For a while," Tom answered evasively. "And as for whom..." He paused. "It was another Lord Voldemort."

Cassiopeia gasped, incredulously looking at him, her eyes wide. "What?" She sat up as well, the covers closely drawn around herself. "You mean to say that you yourself tried to kill me?"

Tom deliberately avoided her gaze. Through clenched teeth he said, "On the very contrary. I myself tried to save our existences."

"By cursing me into the Hospital Wing?" Cassiopeia asked exasperatedly.

There was a moment of silence. Then Tom said with a shrug, "If you want to put it like that."

Cassiopeia narrowed her eyes. "Well, that's what it felt like for me," she hissed.

Tom didn't reply. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts. Cassiopeia let his words sink in and suddenly everything fell into place. Suddenly things seemed to make sense at last. Tom's refusal to tell her what had happened that night. Dumbledore's reaction. And finally Tom's sudden change of mind concerning the creation of further Horcruxes. Cassiopeia pursed her lips. Clearly, he had already known about the stranger's identity for many years.

"So you've known for a while, huh? Has been a rather long while, hasn't it?" Cassiopeia stated drily. Yet she was aware that even though she would have preferred if he had told her earlier, this time she couldn't actually blame him for keeping his secret. Messing with time was dangerous. The more people knew the riskier it was.

Tom threw her a sideways glance. He knew she didn't expect an answer.

Cassiopeia looked back at him, searching his face. He had to have told her for a reason. She wasn't fool enough to believe that he had simply wanted to confide in her. He always had an ulterior motive and she wondered what it was this time. Seeing that once again his face was the completely blank mask it usually was, she decided to ask him straight. "Then why tonight? What's the reason for your sudden honesty? What do you need?"

Tom suppressed a smirk. It still astonished him time and time again that she knew him so damn well. Finally he shrugged. "Well, there's a complication that only occurred to me today. In the former timeline I must have had access to a time turner that's completely different from the ones I know to exist. And for all I know I have to acquire an equivalent time turner in this timeline. Because there will come the time when I will have to go back to the past for time to stay consistent. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what might happen if I don't. So I need a time turner that can send me back more than a quarter of a century."

Cassiopeia's eyes widened just the slightest bit and she swallowed hard, not meeting his gaze. "You need a time turner that can send you back more than twenty-five years?" she asked hoarsely.

Tom slowly nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "Obviously."

Cassiopeia stared at the covers, her mind racing. Absentmindedly she replied, "I'm sure you'll find a solution, you always do."

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When Cassiopeia returned to Houlton Manor that night she stopped outside the gates, taking in the surroundings she had called her home her entire life. After her father's death her brother had inherited the mansion. The first years after her father's decease Cepheus had kept expecting for her to get married. But eventually he had come to accept that Tom or rather Lord Voldemort would clearly never consider getting married at all and that Cassiopeia would never consider marrying anyone else. Cepheus had never commented on her choice but he had let her stay at Houlton Manor. Cepheus himself had continued working for the Ministry for a while before he had quite unexpectedly quit the job and left for the continent. At least that had been the information in the last letter Cassiopeia had received from him so long ago. At first she had believed he had gone abroad because he had always been fond of travelling, open-minded and interested in other countries. But as time had gone by and Cepheus had never returned or at least written a letter she had begun to doubt that he had actually ever left. Still Cassiopeia had never tried to investigate his whereabouts because deep inside she knew that probably she didn't want to face the truth.

Cassiopeia strolled along the path that was leading towards the house. Tom had always been ruthless. She had known that from the very beginning. Still what he had told her tonight had been quite difficult to grasp. His future self had returned years and years into the past to save him from creating further Horcruxes. Doubtlessly quite a noble thing to do. But just like Tom was, his future self had stopped at nothing to achieve his aim. He had attacked them, attacked her, cursed her. Cassiopeia clenched her teeth. She could still recall the endless pain his curse had caused her. It had taken days and weeks for the pain to finally subside. The curse he had hit her with had been cruel and remorseless.

Cassiopeia exhaled sharply. If she was honest she wasn't surprised. Tom had never wasted any thought on the pain he inflicted on others after all. He always just did what he thought needed to be done, mercilessly and without batting so much as an eyelid.

Cassiopeia sat down on the bench in front of the house, facing the front yard. Involuntarily her thoughts travelled back all those years, reviving memories she had deliberately buried somewhere very deep down, intending to never recall again. Memories which were ugly, humiliating and painful. Slowly, in her mind's eye, an image started forming, a little clouded and very unbidden. A handsome face with piercing deep blue eyes and messy dark blond hair. A face she had wanted to never think of again and yet she knew she would never be able to forget.

She bit her lip. Eventually she would not only have to remember, she would have to share the memory, share it with the very one person she wanted to see it the least.

Cassiopeia bit her lip even harder. Why ever did it have to have been him who had told her about the time turner? Why couldn't it have been one of the various other wizards they had met? Cassiopeia bent forward and rested her head in her hands. She knew she would have to tell Tom eventually. But somehow she dreaded it, dreaded his reaction. Finally she got up and went to her room. It didn't have to be tonight after all.

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Author's note:

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