[2] after darkness → tom riddle

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Adonis Learn's the Truth

Tom Riddle welcomed the two men into his sleeping quarters and offered them a seat by the fireplace. One of the many wonders of Tom's sleeping quarters were the many seating areas, including his desk and usually sitting area. He didn't often have guests in his room, at least not usually. But ever since Orion has been seeing his sister again, they had more frequent conversations, mostly of Tom offering Orion advice on how he could improve his relationship with his sister further. Not only was Orion a more frequent visitor, but so was Abraxas. Late night conversations about Ophelia and the blood pact were more common than Orion and Tom's conversations.

Adonis and Abraxas sat on the sofa whilst Tom sat in the armchair. The green leather of the sofa not only matched the colour scheme of the room but reminded Adonis of his school days in the Slytherin common room.

"I see Slytherin was a heavy influence on the room," Adonis gestured to the leather and the curtains.

Tom only laughed to himself, completely avoiding answering Adonis' statement. "So, what is it you want to know, Lockwood?" Tom asked, a low devilish smirk on his face.

"Everything that was said in this room between you and my sister the last time she was here," Adonis replied.

"She returned my wand that's it," Tom shrugged. "There really is no big deal."

Adonis scoffed, "see, I think there's more to that story than you're letting on about, Riddle. So, I'll say this once and once only. Tell me everything, don't spare me the details, I want to know everything."

Tom poked his tongue into his cheek as he watched Adonis. "Fine, she gave me something else. Something personal, that only she and I knew of initially. I'm sure Emory has told you."

"Told me what? What did she give you?" Adonis questioned.

Tom let out a low laugh as he got up out of his seat. He walked over to his desk and opened the top draw, pulling out a folded up piece of parchment paper. Tom closed the draw and walked back over to Adonis, handing over the parchment for him to read. "You really are the last to know everything, huh?" Tom shrugged. "It's a birth certificate"

Adonis hadn't opened the parchment yet to see who's birth certificate, but he had a gut feeling who's it was. In fact, he had that gut feeling for a while, ever since 1949 to be specific. And when he opened the paper as saw the birth date "Tuesday 29th March 1949", he knew there and then that his gut feeling had been right all along.

Fionn George Riddle. There it was. Written in black and white on the parchment, Ophelia Lockwood; mother. Tom Riddle; father. Adonis shook his head, trying to wake himself up from this nightmare, surely Ophelia couldn't be that stupid?

"Did you know?" Adonis asked.

"What about my son?" Tom asked for confirmation.

Abraxas gasped, this was news to him, "that explains the blood pact."

"Yes about your son..." Adonis trailed off. Adonis snapped his head back to Abraxas who was sitting with his head in one of his hands and the other hand over his mouth. "Wait, did you just blood pact? You made a blood pact with my sister?"

"Yes to the last two questions. And to answer your initial question, I knew that Ophelia was pregnant from October 1948, yes. But, I didn't know when the baby was born, and Ophelia had a gut instinct she was pregnant with a girl so until Ophelia gave me that piece of paper, I wasn't aware when my son was born, or his name, or that he was a boy," Tom shrugged.

Adonis looked over the paper again examining every detail on it. That's when it hit him. King's College Hospital, London. That's where Ophelia gave birth to Fionn, that's where some leading clue could be. Adonis wondered why Ophelia gave Tom the birth certificate if she hid Fionn from him for so long, why was he all of a sudden allowed to know?

"The blood pact," Adonis said. "Was it created when you found out Ophelia was pregnant?"

Tom nodded. Adonis got up out of his seat and handed Tom the birth certificate.

"That'll be all, gentlemen," Adonis smiled down at the two men, "thank you for your hospitality." Adonis turned on his heel and headed out of the door.

Tom groaned, "I swear it's a Lockwood thing."

"What's a Lockwood thing?" Abraxas asked, genuinely confused.

"Leaving abruptly without any reason in needing to," Tom replied as he walked out of the room to chase after Adonis.

When Tom caught up with Adonis, he was about to disapparate but stopped when Tom called him back. "Where are you going? Aren't you going to interrogate me more about Ophelia's disappearance?"

Adonis shook his head. He laughed at Tom because Tom hadn't realised that Adonis now knew that Ophelia wasn't his enemy, but his weakness. "You have a son, and you have a blood pact. I know you weren't the reason she went missing, you could never hurt her after that."

Adonis disapparated, leaving Tom standing outside the manor on his own. He gulped as he finally realised, Ophelia knew she was his weakness, as did Abraxas, as did Orion. And now, Adonis did too. It was just a waiting game to see if they all used his weakness against him.

Adonis walked out of the alleyway he had just apparated into and walked across the road into King's College Hospital. The lady at the desk smiled brightly up at Adonis and asked him how she could help.

"Hello, I was wondering that potentially my sister may have left something here," Adonis stuttered out. "Her name is Ophelia Oliphant or Lockwood as her maiden name."

The receptionist looked at him for a second, as if she knew him but couldn't quite work out how. Whatever she was thinking was soon forgotten about as she started to rummage through a load of boxes filled with folders underneath the desk. She soon pulled out a blue paper folder that filled with quite a bit of stuff and handed it over to Adonis.

"Adonis Lockwood? Correct?" the receptionist asked.

Adonis nodded, "how do you know my name?"

"Your sister Ophelia left these here for you over five months ago," she said. "Ophelia said you would probably come to collect them in two to three months from the date. You're in luck, I was going to chuck them out. She told me to get rid of them after six months if you didn't collect them."

"What is it?" Adonis asked. "And how are you so sure that I am Adonis?"

"I don't know what it is, it's not my business," the lady shrugged. "And you have the same look in your eye as she does."

Adonis smiled, "thank you. Goodbye."

"Be safe now," the woman smiled as she waved him out.

Adonis left the building, feeling overly happy with himself. He finally got out of his dark place and finally followed a lead. He returned to the alleyway across the street and disapparated.

Apparating back into his home that he shared with his wife and child, his daughter ran to him when she realised he was back. Lottie came back and saw a big smile on his face and the folder in his hand. She took it from him and mouthed 'what does it contain?'.

Adonis ignored his question as he wanted to catch up on the lost time he had missed with his wife and daughter. As Lottie pressed for an answer, Adonis shrugged, "we'll have a look in a bit."