Extreme Ways ( A Tom Riddle fanfiction )

Chapter 11

"(Caractacus Burke) a little old man revolving slowly in the Pensieve, silver as a ghost but much more solid, with a thatch of hair that completely covered his eyes"
HP6

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The summer holidays turned out to be different from the previous ones.
Vincent wrote to her constantly and Milly didn't dare to tease her cousin, maybe fearing that the handsome boy could knock on their house's door sooner or later.
Evelyn accepted his invitation to spend one day in the Ministry of Magic, visiting the offices of the highest authorities.
The girl felt privileged like when she played Ravenclaw.
But she didn't earn it. Again other people decided for her without caring of her real point of view.
Many people wished to join the Ministry, to become an authority. Many girls craved for visiting the Minister's office itself next to the popular and gorgeous ex minister's nephew.
Evelyn didn't care much of all of it.
What she really looked forward was to spend the last weeks with her uncle in Knockturn Alley.
That was the place she felt at home together with Hogwarts.

"Affairs are not going well, my darling" her uncle confessed her when she noticed how the shop looked poorer "The bloody Ministry claims too many taxes and affairs nowadays are not so good".
"You need some assistant, uncle" she said softly.
"You're more than enough, dear. I tried some boys but they were too clumsy to work here. I personally kicked them out of here" he gestured the kick making her laugh.
"I wish I could help. Just three years and I'll move here" she promised.
"Don't worry, I can handle his all. Now it should go better since right yesterday I sold one of the most valuable relic we kept here to that crazy Hepzibah Smith. She wanted it for her collection so I had to remove it from ours".
"What did you sell her?" Evelyn approaches him with worry.
"The Slytherin medallion. Ten thousand galleons I asked. And she agreed finally. She discussed for months".
"But you said it wasn't the real medallion".
"Do you think she cares? She wanted it, so I gave it to her".
She scanned the old objects that were still on the shelves "If you warned me, I would have seeked more things into the castle".
"Enough with stealing, my darling. Or next time you will get expelled and I couldn't forgive that".
She eyed him pondering her idea "Listen, uncle. I'm with someone who could help us. Well, he is the ex minister Fawley's nephew. I'm his girlfriend so I could ask him for some help".
Caracturus Burke sneered "I heard about it. Rumours reached also your old uncle. No, I don't want anything from you nor from your friends. He better stay away from here, do you understand?".
His firm tone made her sigh "Alright. Let me help you at least".clothesyn turned again familiar with the unusual and ancient wizarding artefacts that made that shop unique and ambiguous.
She never talked to Vincent about that shop. He came from a wealthy and clean family, although his uncle was known for being blind to the menace of the dark wizard Grindelwald when he was the minister. While her uncle Caractacus was suspected of supporting Grindelwald only because he owned some dark objects.
Evelyn decided to use her image to improve the atmosphere of the shop. Her uncle was growing old and clumsy, so the place lacked of modernity.
She started to wear light, almost provocative clothes and took care of herself, enough to steal some positive glances from the clients and to improve some affairs. Nobody from her school would have known about her working there, probably nobody would have recognized her in those dresses. She was only worried because she didn't have much time to spend there. The holidays lasted few weeks and she was getting letters from her school, for her high final grades, for the new books and to announce that she became a Prefect.

On a quiet morning in the last week of holidays, an unexpected visitor walked into the shop.
Evelyn was scanning a small relic her uncle just bought from a bizarre fat wizard and shot a fast glance to the new customer. But she had to look up again, recognizing a familiar handsome face dressed in ordinary old robes.
When Tom Riddle crossed her shocked eyes with amusement, she stiffened.
He always saw her in her school robes or in her night dress or the large costume of Ravenclaw. She felt uneasy that now he was insolently scanning her provocative clotles.
Evelyn felt tempted to make appear a shawl to cover her deep neckline.
Not even Vincent could see her like that. And she never dared to invite him into that shop.
"What are you doing here?" She asked sharply when she found her voice again.
"I didn't expect to find you here" he said innocently.
She scoffed at him "I must say the same".
Riddle moved his eyes beyond her shoulders and said incredibly politely "Good morning, sir".
Evelyn stayed petrified, eyeing her uncle reaching her at the counter.
"Mornin'" the old wizard said tiredly, then he shot a questioning look to the girl.
She eyed a smiling Riddle "He's...a schoolmate of mine".
The tension was softened when someone else stepped in. An ugly witch entered eyeing impudently the boy.
"Can I help you, madame?" Mr Burke politely caught her attention.
"Yes" the with said loudly "I came to sell that old ring I showed you last week".
"Oh, great. This way, ma'am" mr Burke led her to the back of the shop.
Evelyn grimaced at the sinister smell the woman left behind, then eyed Riddle, who was mesmerized by all the artefacts that surrounded him.
She bit her bottom lip, she needed to talk to him about something, but she couldn't do that in public. And regretted that she didn't pull him in the back of the shop before her uncle did it.
"I'm tempted to ask you what all these incredible devices are for, but I'm afraid I would annoy you" he said lively.
"I'm sure you can easily guess what they are and what they are for" she smirked.
"I wouldn't be so sure" he gave her a wide smile. He liked the place, she understood.
"So, I guess you're not buying anything. So why are you still here?".
"You're so impatient to get rid of me? Maybe I just came to visit you" he approached her at the table, but her uncle and the client came back. So he politely said goodbye and walked away.
The witch followed him and stepped closer to him to hiss "Don't lose hope, boy. Girls like to be complicated".
Riddle glanced at her, then hurried on his way.

"Why didn't you take him to a visit of the shop? He looked very interested" Caracturus teased his niece.
Evelyn distracterld herself with some masks hanging from the walls "He is not a client".
"So? You said schoolmate huh? Or did you mean a suitor?".
She frowned at him stunned "Suitor? Seriously?".
"If I didn't know about the young Fawley, I'd have say that that young wizard was your sweetheart".
Evelyn grumbled "Uncle, there's no sweetheart. He's kinda a rival. And Vincent, well, he's more a close friend than anything else".
"If you say so. What's the name of this other mysterious boy?".
"Who cares? He's a Slytherin".
"I was a Slytherin too. And I feel more sympathy for this mysterious boy than the kid from the Ministry" her uncle shot her an eloquent glance, the left her alone with her messed up mind.