His Saving Grace

Chapter 26 - Holidays at Hogwarts & Closer to Action

Winter break, always an uneventful and dreadful time. Today, it had been one week since the Yule Ball and the first day of the holidays. During the week, people were finishing assignments, taking tests, packing their bags and saying goodbye to their friends.
Yesterday, Abraxas and I spent the day together finishing our work and I made him promise to write to me during the break.

Currently, it was just a few staff members, one or two other students and Tom and I at Hogwarts. We would be taking this time to further work on the horcrux because the Yule Ball had pushed our work almost two weeks behind. The only good thing about staying at Hogwarts was that I would not have to fight any students for butterbeer and it meant not having to receive any opulent gifts with zero sentimental value from my aunt. It was obvious her hypocritical gestures were just gifts bought by her assistant the day before, but I never complained.

Now, I laid in my bed curled up inside the warm silk sheets reading a muggle book. Hopefully, Tom would never find me reading these, but I loved muggle books. I was reading a Jane Austen novel, she was a muggle author that truly emphasized empowerment through her works even though they were mainly romance. I remembered when I found her first book, I was rummaging through the trunk filled with muggle objects I had found in the back of the Muggle Studies classroom when serving the only detention I ever had. The detention served for breaking into the Restricted Section of the library in fourth year. The title of that literary piece had intrigued me more than any other book title.

As a pureblood that comes from a prejudiced household, I would never openly possess these books or gain access to anything that had to do with Muggles without getting disowned. At least over the years, I had learned where to find these items and how to hide them.

After noticing how quickly time had passed, I hid my book and rose from my bed. It was already early evening and I was heading to the Room of Requirement to meet with Riddle. We had kissed a week ago, but again, everything had gone back to normal as if it never happened. Of course, there was definitely a change in how we addressed and perceived each other. We both tacitly acknowledged that we had some feelings for the other, but none of us were currently willing to take the valiant step and do something about it.

Now, he was desperate for any progress on his research concerning horcruxes and how to create one perfectly. If something went wrong, he could end up in Azkaban for life.

Standing in front of the same dull wall, I thought of Tom and the Room of Requirement door was revealed. I looked around to make sure no one had seen me and I went inside. I called out to him and waited for a response, I knew he would probably been here since early morning. Despite my assumption, I had not received any response. I kept walking and found him sleeping peacefully with some of his curls covering his face and tens of books were sprawled across his entire body. It pained me seeing him this way; so lost in his ambition that he was losing appetite and sleep, but I would help him change his ways even if it led to my demise.

I pushed his shoulder gently and whispered his name, trying to get him to wake up. Few seconds had passed and I retried getting him to open his eyes, this time it worked. He blinked a few times, straightened himself and went to grab his wand, but when he noticed it was me he relaxed and put his guard down.

"Sorry, I did not mean to startle you. You fell asleep, you looked to have been sleeping for a while."

He nodded and handed me a book.

We sat together doing our reading and taking note of any important finding. With every line I read, my anxiety and worries grew. Would he really go through with this? Had anyone actually succeeded in making a horcrux? Could you possibly revive the person you'd kill for this horcrux? Was there another way to make a horcrux that these wizards didn't know about? We were definitely much closer to action and had began discovering much more details about the necessary steps to successfully get away with what he was going to do. Also, we were better understanding how to place his soul in the chosen object. If I were not against this plan, I would have said to do it soon. We were nearly ready, but I wanted to stall for as long as possible.

An hour had passed, we were still trying to decipher what most of these books said and how much veracity did the words of the text truly hold. We could not risk being reckless when executing such magic, but I decided now would be a perfect time to further implant the idea of not doing anything at all.

"Tom, I have been thinking and I strongly believe that there are much better solutions to life's problems than taking over the wizarding world. At first, I was just concerned for you, but now I am scared. This is very dark magic, I do not know if we can handle this. Just consider stopping this operation before it gets out of hand.", I said in a pleading manner.

He hesitated with his response but said, "I have taken a strong liking to you, but your words will not change what is meant to happen."

Frustration consumed me, I felt as if talking with Tom about anything that was not school related was equivalent to talking to a wall. He would never actually listen to me, he did not care for his own well-being. I needed to get him to care for his own well-being if I wanted him to consider other people's lives as well.