[2] after darkness → tom riddle

Chapter Thirty-Six: Fionn's The Only Way

It was Christmas of 1962. It was the last day of term at Hogwarts and pupils were soon to be stepped in off the train at platform 9 and three-quarters. There Ophelia and Tom awaited the arrival of their son.

Ophelia knew the risk of being seen by Anwen, Dove and Rune. So she and Tom lurked in the shadows behind the crowd of parents waiting to be reunited with their children after a long 3 months away. Ophelia didn't doubt for a second that Fionn wouldn't be able to notice her, she knew he scanned the platform in the hopes that one day his adoptive parents would finally pick him up after a long train ride.

Ophelia was doing this for the sake of Alexander Calvert. She couldn't directly speak with him about their mission whilst she was at the Manor, nor could she contact her husband whilst she was there. She just hoped Calvert kept his end of the stick and was regularly updating them whenever he visited.

The reason Ophelia knew Fionn's parents never picked him up when he would return home was because of Anwen. She had told Ophelia in a letter that she had sent to her whilst she stayed with Tom - it was certainly risky for Anwen to do such a thing but Tom was asleep and the sound of the owl arriving at their window didn't wake him.

The train pulled into the station and came to a halt. From there the doors swung open and hundreds of children piled out of the Hogwarts Express. From a distance, Ophelia saw Anwen step off of the train along with her father as she leapt into her mother's arms. Ophelia smiled as she watched the Lufkins be reunited with one another for the first time since September 1st.

Suddenly Tom gasped - he had spotted Fionn - but at the same time, Rune had spotted Ophelia. Tom called for Ophelia to follow him, as he wasn't looking she held up her arm and waved to Rune - she put her thumb up to tell him she was okay and as she walked away she told him not to follow and to leave with his family.

Ophelia caught up with Tom who was walking towards Fionn. Fionn was helping his friends remove their luggage from their carriage, one of the boy's had gotten stuck in the narrow door. Tom moved from the small crowd of boys and helped Fionn who was attempting to push it out of the door from inside the carriage.

Fionn was pushing with his back against the trunk and his legs pushing on the carriage walls, so he didn't see the face of his accomplice until he turned around.

"Thank you, sir," the boy whose luggage it was said. Said boy looked behind Tom and saw Ophelia - he knew who she was as Fionn had told every one of his friends about his mother - and when they all saw her in person back in October they finally had a face to a name.

"Fionn," one of the boys called - he was Welsh - Ophelia assumed it was the one boy they were talking about when she was reunited with Emory. Caradoc Andrews, she thought. The boy continued, "we'll leave you be, mate. Send me an owl later."

Fionn nodded his head, "yes, Doc," he saluted at his friend. Calling him Doc confirmed Ophelia's assumptions. "I'll be over later, Alaric," Fionn smiled to his friend, "I could never miss your mother's delicious spag bol."

Tom looked at Ophelia and rolled his eyes, he mouthed to her 'definitely something you would say', Ophelia smiled as she nodded in agreement with him.

The group of six boys and one girl, all of the Slytherin house, left Fionn on his own with his biological mother and father. He still had nothing to say to his father, he was confused as to why his mother and father were here to see him - after all the horrible things his mother and step-father told him, in the time of being back at school Fionn asked Anwen about his mother and what she knew about his father - all that he had heard wasn't good. But there they were, together, standing before him.

"Do you need help with your luggage?" Tom asked him.

Fionn shook his head. He turned back into the carriage and grabbed his trunk, he threw it out onto the platform floor - not caring if it broke.

Fionn stepped out of the train and as she was on the ground - his stared up at his father who was visibly taller than him, however, Fionn was tall for his age and he wasn't far off from Ophelia.