Extreme Ways ( A Tom Riddle fanfiction )

Chapter 44 - Epilogue

"The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed"

HP3

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An annoying knock on the door made her groan.
She ignored it, wanting to fall asleep again.
The knock turned louder and more insisting "Evelyn, wake up!".
It was a familiar female voice. Then she heard another familiar one with a hostile tone "Let her sleep. Clearly she's too lazy to go to school".
Evelyn abandoned the idea of lingering in her laziness.
She just realized she woke up from a very weird dream and she was trying to make out what was going on.
She rolled on her bed and felt something heavy around her neck.
Her fingers revealed a golden necklace with a pendant. Slytherin's locket.
Evelyn's heart started to beat furiously as she realized that maybe her dreams weren't just dreams.

She immediately hid the locket under her pillow as her aunt opened the door.
"Evy, come on! We have to hurry. Surely you don't want to miss your train to Hogwarts".
Evelyn's jaw dropped at her aunt. She looked much younger than she remembered her, but what shocked her the most were the word Hogwarts and seeing a sane Milly beyond the door.
When Evelyn jumped up and ran to the bathroom, she stared in shock at her reflection in the mirror. A blonde, slightly chubby girl. She was evelyn again!
In her latest, confused memories or dreams she was an adult witch of twenty one and now she was back eleven.
She didn't have time to linger on all the ideas that crossed her mind because her aunt kept making her hurry. They all believed that little Evelyn was going to Hogwarts for the first time, but Evelyn had memories of having already been there. And she wasn't looking forward to face all the exams again.

Her uncle offered her a rich breakfast while her aunt made her wear cute clothes and combed her hair just to force her into a photoshoot session. Evelyn could feel clearly Milly's hatred for all the attention that was taken away from her.
Finally they used the floo powder to reach the King's Cross Station in London. And there Evelyn faced her destiny, her mission.
She was given a second opportunity and it was because she changed the story of someone.
She looked for him through the crowd, but she was too short. So she said goodbye to Milly's parents and jumped on the train, getting a better view on the crowd.
She checked from many windows in the compartments until finally she spotted an eleven year old Tom Riddle standing apart with a hooded figure.
Evelyn sighed, recognizing the profile of Merope Gaunt under the hood.

It was a touching scene, seeing a mother saying bye to her son.
Evelyn felt deeply positive and proud of herself.
When she looked for an empty compartment, she got shoved away as she remembered that happened ages ago, in her alternative life. She just didn't remember that Milly was that nasty, but she promised herself to be patient with her, no matter how evilly she could behave.

The train whistled and slowly started to move.
Evelyn approached slowly the last compartment, seeing Tom's feature through the glass of the door.
She inhaled deeply and after a quick knock, she opened the door.
The boy raised his dark eyes meeting hers. It was awkward that he couldn't recognize her. She hated being a stranger to him.
"Hi" she said forcing herself to control her strong emotions "Is there place for me?".
Tom lingered his eyes on her, insolently scanning her, then replied with a nod.
"Thank you" she said with a smile walking in and closing carefully the door behind her.
She sat in front of him. His clothes and few books were all second hand. She wondered what was into his mind, she wished to ask him everything about his life, but she didn't dare to open her mouth and speak, sensing that he didn't want to be disturbed.
Tom put away the book he had on his lap and kept inspectioning her.
"What's your blood status?" He asked curiously.
She chuckled. Usually people asked their names first. But Tom Riddle wasn't a common person and never would be.
"Pureblood" she stated "Does it please you?".
He shrugged, looking out of the window while the train started moving faster.
"I'm Evelyn Burke" she extended a hand to him.
He inspected it too like he feared she could trick him, then gave it a short shake saying coolly "Tom Riddle".
She ignored the electricity that she felt in the quick touch of their hands "Halfblood?".
He frowned "How do you know?".
"Intuition. A muggle born wouldn't dare to ask the blood status".
He smirked.
She grinned back.
Yes, things were about to chance radically.
That Tom Riddle had never been an orphan, he grew up in the wizarding world.
It didn't mean that Tom was now perfect. But the most important thing was that he had a mother who loved him. And Tom should have been able to love back.
Hopefully there would have been no Lord Voldemort, no Death-Eaters. But darkness always finds a way to corrupt ambitious hearts, and history disliked to be manipulated.
Nevertheless, Evelyn felt positive. And ready to face any new challenge, starting from unsolving this new riddle called Tom Riddle.

THE END

A/N
Omg I can't believe I made it!
When I started to publish this story I didn't think I would ever be able to properly finish it.
And here I am, publishing this last chapter.
I started to post the first chapters at the beginning of 2017 and now it's August 2019, so this journey was like feeling this story growing slowly and I'm really amazed by how it turned out, so much that now I'm even writing a sequel and I swear it's a lot of fun because I can add Merope, Morfin ect...all those characters linked to Tom and that somehow helped the creation of Voldemort. It's a mess now but I'm patiently to make all the ideas fit into the new chapters.
Thank you all for your support and your lovely comments and messages! ❤
If you want, you can join me in the new adventure that is the sequel to this book, in an alternative universe, and an alternative (?) Tom Riddle. It's called "Extreme Remedies" and you can already check the intro and the provisory cast 😊🐍