Poison Ivy | T. Riddle ✔

[33] Futility

Tom was pacing back and forth in the room, his eyes flickering time and time again towards his long term prisoner, who at the moment was asleep on the couch, exhaustion dripping from each feature.

He had had no intention of subjecting him to such a state initially. But Perseus had become a little difficult for him to handle due to his instability and perpetually lost attitude. He had given him a sleeping drought so that he would not have to worry about dealing with him temporarily.

He couldn't believe that Perseus Burke, the one person who had sworn to not let him succeed in his dark objectives, had been reduced to nothing but a harmless yet damaged puppet. He didn't remember his past, his brain was horrifyingly empty of memories and Tom could still not fathom what exactly had caused him to deteriorate in such a way.

Three years of agonizing physical and mental torture hadn't been able to break Perseus yet two days of leaving him unsupervised with former Auror Nathan Whitburg had taken such a toll on him.

It all seemed quite odd to him, his face was set in a thoughtful expression as he was pondering on all sorts of possibilities for what might have happened at the cottage in his absence. He was furious that Nathan had escaped from his clutches, even more furious that the volumes of Dark knowledge stored in Perce's brain were no more but still he couldn't figure out what was the reason behind it all.

He recalled the dust which had filed the cottage when he had returned that day. The mere thought of that black powdery substance, rising from all corners as if to suffocate him, swirling around Perseus's frail form was enough to send a chill down his spine. He knew that dust was what Perseus referred to as his power. So it clearly meant that he had used his power to help Nathan escape.

Slowly but steadily, all the puzzle pieces were starting to fit in his brain. All the words of advice Perseus had said to him were rushing back and gradually the whole situation had begun to make sense.

Of course Perseus had used his power. And the state he was in was most probably a side effect of that act. Just like Tom's deteriorating human appearance was a side effect of creating horcruxes, Perseus's lack of control on his mind was a side effect of using his power.

He remembered clearly the time when the power had first broken forth from Perseus, he had begun to smash his head on the mirror like a crazed individual. The destruction he had caused that night was still fresh in Tom's memories, still enough to make him recoil in fear.

The sage Kushtim, who he had gotten rid of soon as he had received all he needed from him, had warned him about Perseus stating that he had the venom of the Dark coursing through his veins. The black dust swiveling around him had been proof of that. The sage had warned that if Perseus was provoked, he could wreak up much more destruction than he had done that night and it would in turn damage his brain permanently.

But Tom had paid no heed. And now he was beginning to realize how much of a fool he had been to keep underestimating the young Burke. He wasn't aware of the full extents of Perseus's power but he knew that whatever he had done to help Nathan escape was undoubtedly intense enough such that it had extracted all of his memories from his brain and left him as empty as a hollow vessel.

His wild train of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door. He waited a bit, not sure if he had imagined the sound or someone was actually out there. At the second knock, he went up to the door and opened it.

He wasn't surprised to see Abraxas Malfoy standing outside, his head bowed in a servile manner, eyes respectfully lowered before him, "greetings, my Lord."

He let him step inside and closed the door after him. Abraxas stood in the same respectful position before him, not venturing to speak without his consent.