Stolen Time A Tom Marvolo Riddle Fanfiction completed

Chapter Fourty

Author's note:
So this is it - the last chapter of the story!

I thank you all so much for reading and keeping with the story for so long! I've had so much fun writing it and I really hope you've had as much fun reading it!

I would have loved to continue writing but it seems my inspiration has somehow run dry.

I've had the ending written from the very beginning, so now here we go...

If Cassiopeia was honest she had always known there wasn't going to be any happily ever after.

She had known it from the very beginning.

And still, somewhere deep inside, she had harboured the hope that even in darkness there might exist happiness. Lasting happiness.

But darkness was consuming.
Darkness was inexorable.
And darkness was lasting. Everlasting.

Sadly, right now, the darkness she was facing wasn't dark at all, it was actually coloured rather threateningly by the lights of all the curses that were illuminating the cottage.

Cassiopeia gripped her wand tightly, trying to gain the upper hand against the four hooded opponents that had somehow blown their way into her peaceful home.

She didn't know why they had come although, of course, she had a vague idea that Tom's ruthless life had come haunting her once again. She neither knew who they were nor how they had found her, how they had found this secret hiding place that was supposed to be unknown to others. But in the end it didn't actually matter anyways. They were here and their intentions were obvious. They had come to destroy.

When they had hit the house, she had barely had time to make sure Ben and Grace were able to apparate away safely. But, thus, she hadn't been able to leave herself before the four men had stood opposite her.

Cassiopeia pressed her lips together. Where was Tom when she needed him? This was his fight, this was his war that had closed in on her so mercilessly yet again when she had just started to dare thinking that things might finally turn into a different direction.

She closed her eyes. There was no different direction. Darkness was consuming. Darkness was inexorable.
And darkness was lasting. Everlasting.

*****

Tom tried to apparate to Cassiopeia but he couldn't enter the cottage. He scowled. Obviously, additional wards had been put on the house, preventing him from going inside. Tom felt his wrath spread throughout his body, mixed with another feeling he had never experienced before. It was anxiety.

Tom clenched his teeth. He pulled his wand from his robes and summoned his Death Eaters. The moments seemed to stretch endlessly before they finally appeared at his side. When they had gathered around him he hissed through gritted teeth, "Defend this place."

His knights nodded and left as silently as they had arrived.

Tom concentrated on taking down the wards that prevented him from apparating to Cassiopeia. He quickly eliminated one after the other before he finally broke through the last and apparated inside.

He found her immediately. She was on the upper floor, half sitting, half lying behind the corner of the corridor that led to the stairs. Around the corner he spotted four unconscious bodies lying sprawled on the stairs.

Tom's gaze shot at Cassiopeia. She had her wand in one hand and was clutching her body with the other. Her face was ashen and her eyes were hollow. When she saw him, the ghost of a smile crossed her face but it was instantly replaced by a pained flinch and Tom saw tears building up in her eyes. His jaw clenched and with a few strides he was next to her.