[2] after darkness → tom riddle

Chapter Twenty-One: Morgandy's Issue

Anwen's return from Hogwarts had caused great excitement among the family of friends, and when it all died down, the request for Anwen to inform the family of every single detail of her second year had started off with a few simple and not that interesting stories, to Dove and Rune's delight, Anwen's time at Hogwarts was nowhere near as complicated nor problematic as theirs.

Ophelia had baby Nikolai on her lap, zoning in and out of the conversation as she focused on keeping her son happy. Emory walked over and took him from her, "go get yourself something to eat, you haven't eaten anything since last night."

Ophelia stood up and kissed her husband on the cheek to thank him. She walked over to the breakfast bar and held up the box of cereal as she made eye contact with Rune. Rune nodded his head, and Ophelia began to pour herself a bowl.

As she turned to grab some milk from the fridge, Tom's wand fell out of her blazer pocket and onto the floor, causing the sound to startle some of the group. Ophelia left it on the floor as she poured the milk into her bowl, Harlen walked over to Ophelia to help and when he realised that the wand on the floor wasn't Ophelia's and it was Tom's, he started to freak.

"Ophelia, why the fuck is Tom's wand falling out of your blazer pocket?" Harlen yelled as he caught the attention of everyone else.

Emory and the others rushed over to where Tom's wand was led on the floor. Ophelia and Emory looked at each other as Emory began to worry why Tom was randomly popping up in her life so much. Ophelia shook her head as she could feel the angry look coming from Nicole and Dove, "it's not what it looks like."

"Before you all start," Michael interrupted, "Tom turned up at the house yesterday, I punched him and he fell back and dropped his wand, Ophelia kicked it away. He must have left it on the floor, which is why Ophelia has it."

"Morg?" Emory turned to Morgandy for confirmation, offending Michael in the process.

"Why don't you believe me?" Michael asked.

"No offence Michael, but Tom has a wand, you have fists," Caspian interrupted.

"I've got a mean right hook, I'll have you know," Michael said as he held up his fist.

Archer rolled his eyes as she stepped in between the two boys, "Emory, I was there," Archer explained, "Tom left a note on Morg's desk, Morg came to tell me and Ophelia, when Ophelia finished her chat with Lucretia when rushed straight over, and resolved the whole situation. If you don't believe that you can even ask Franko as was Theodore, he was there too."

"I can vouch for Michael having a mean right hook," Theodore held up his hand, "it's not as mean as Ophelia's but he hit him hard alright."

"I think we all need to have another conversation on honesty," Emory said sternly, it was obvious he was annoyed, "we had this conversation the other day when Orion was next door, and we're already hiding things."

"Well we didn't exactly want to bring this up and ruin the night for Anwen, did we now?" Ophelia snapped back, "we didn't intentionally hide it from you, we just didn't want to tell you in front of our children, especially Anwen, who by the way now knows everything."

Everyone looked at Anwen, the attention caused her to turn red in the face, "Tom? Who's Tom?"

Dove turned back to Ophelia, widening her eyes as a way of sarcastically saying thank you for her now having to explain who Tom was, "no one. He's a boy from our year at Hogwarts, he's just Ophelia's ex-boyfriend."

"Tom Riddle?" Anwen asked.

Everyone put their attention back on Anwen. "How do you know who Tom is?" Rune asked.

"Me and some of the group found the award cabinets for when you were all at school, we wanted to see if you were given anything," Anwen shrugged, "we found the majority of your names, along with Tom's and like three other people who I don't know."

Morgandy looked up, "who were they?"

"Two girls named Avalon and Starr, and then a boy named Abner," Anwen recalled.

Morgandy's heart broke when she realised that Dove and Rune never told her about Abner and Starr, "I can't believe you never told her."

"Abner and Starr..." Anwen repeated, "but those are your children's names."

"Morg, how could I tell her? She was too young, still is too young!" Dove exclaimed.

Morgandy held up her hand as she turned around, picking up Abner and reaching for Starr's hand, "you could have at least told her who they are, not what happened to them." Morgandy stormed out of the house, closely followed by Michael and Emory.

Dove turned around to face Ophelia and Nicole, "please tell me you would have done the same?"

Nicole contemplated it for a second or two, "Amelia knows about Starr and Abner, she doesn't know what happened, but she knows of them. I'm sorry Dove, but I'm with Morg on this one." Nicole gave Dove and Rune an apologetic look, quickly kissed Anwen on the forehead and left to go after Morgandy.

Ophelia sighed, "this is just what we need."

The room was silent for a while. A few people contemplated going after Morgandy, a few went with it and the rest stayed put. When Helen left, Harlen sighed.

"I think we all need to have a proper group talk, children and everything," Harlen spoke up, "I don't care how young they are, we can't shelter them like our parents did. We need to help them."

Anwen was trying to hold back her tears, she felt like she was the one to cause the argument, but it was no ones fault. "I'm sorry..." she let the tears slip.

Ophelia opened her arms for Anwen to come to her, Anwen walked over and cried into Ophelia's chest, "don't you ever blame yourself," Ophelia said as she played with Anwen's hair, "Starr and Abner are sensitive topics for Morgandy and Nicole, they're sensitive for all of us but unfortunately, Morgandy and Nicole are not completely accepting of them being gone."

"I don't think she ever will be accepting of Abner being gone," Theodore admitted, "I know he was one of my best mates, he still is, but I feel like I'm second best compared to him, and I know this sounds selfish and horrible, but he's not alive anymore. Why is he still number one?"

Harlen looked up to Theodore from where he was rubbing Anwen's back, "I know it's painful mate, but Abner was Nicole's first boyfriend, some part of her will always love him, even when he's not around."

"Who are Starr and Abner? The proper Starr and Abner, not Morgandy's children," Anwen asked, lifting her head from Ophelia's chest.

Ophelia looked over to Dove and Rune. Rune nodded to give his approval whilst Dove hesitated. When Dove finally agreed, the group knew instantly to walk to the living room, they all had their own part in the story of Starr and Abner, it was a difficult topic to break to a 12-year-old.