Popular Monster | Tomione

Chapter 05: Paralyzed

And the hero I'm waiting for me he won't show up
My body is fading and my mind's fucked up
I pray for someone to come and help me up,
help me up

I am paralyzed,
I am dead alive
There's no way out
so God give me an answer
~ Solence ~

~Malfoy Manor, 13th July 1943, Friday~

"Abraxas, you didn't tell me you're bringing any frien-", a woman in her late fourties said when she came down the stairs and stopped mid-sentence when she saw the dark-haired student next to him carrying a girl that passed out in his arms.

She clasped her hands on her mouth. "Oh sweetheart, what happened to her?", she asked and rushed down the final set of stairs and approached the brown-haired girl.

"She had been attacked by a professor of ours", Tom spoke and caught Abraxas slowly clenching his jaw. Interesting, Tom thought. Perhaps his most loyal follower hated Dumbledore more than he admitted, but why would Abraxas always keep him from going berserk at his teacher? Or was it the girl he lusted?

"A professor? That's impossible!", she exclaimed and wanted to reach out to touch her forehead, when Tom took a step back and looked at the older woman with an unreadable expression.

"Do I look like I would lie to you, Zabrina? You, out of every person on earth, who treated me like your own son?"

A flicker of rage, anger and hate washed over his face, and something else: hurt.

"Of course not, Tom, I was just-", she said and pulled him close to her, embracing him. No one dared to embrace the Dark Lord, but he didn't fight it as it was crucial for him to survive. He hated Dumbledore with every fiber in his body, but Tom was not stupid to reject a mother's love. Even if he didn't place any value into loving someone himself and thought it was rather foolish, he did enjoy benefiting from it. It was like something his body needed but couldn't produce itself. And if someone would hand it to him like that on a silver platter, he wouldn't decline.

"Trinity!"

A small elf appeared and bowed down.

"Get Doctor Zabini and ask for immediate presence at Malfoy Major. I stress, complete discretion."

"Yes Milady Malfoy", she bowed and disappeared with a faint popping sound.

"Tom, come with me this way. And Abraxas, your father wishes to speak to you in the crystal reading room."

Abraxas raised a brow. "Why not in the wooden one?"

Zabrina shot her son a stern look.

"Yes mother, fine!" He threw his hands into the air in defeat. "Father is such a dramatic-"

"I dare you to finish this sentence, young boy."

Zabrina Malfoy pointed her finger at her son. Abraxas swallowed his words and pressed his lips into a thin line. There was a reason why he wasn't a Gryffindor but a Slytherin. He loved his head too much to risk it.

"Where to?", Tom asked and began to climb the stairs. He hated to follow anyone around but rather let them describe his way to his destination. It was petty, yes, but he found it oddly amusing that his charm was enough to wrap everyone around his little finger that they didn't mind him taking the lead. It was like the old pureblood community was just aching for someone to tell them where to go. And Tom was determined to be the one who told them what exactly to pursue. If you are not following your own dreams, you will help someone else archive his vision.

"The sapphire guest room, second floor left", Mrs Malfoy said and followed Tom up the stairs.

The single door swung open magically upon sensing that it will be used and revealed a room with a small four poster bed covered in blue sheets. Actually, the whole room was draped in various blue, white and bronze colors. Tom had been to the ocean once and remembered the smell of the salty water, and when he recalled what he had done in the cave with his childhood bullies, he couldn't refrain from feeling a soft sting at the bottom of his stomach. The sapphire room radiated the energy and aesthetics of the calm and endless ocean on a hot summer day that made him wonder if Mrs Malfoy had been a Ravenclaw or just an ocean enthusiast. But that was a secret he didn't want to uncover as it didn't serve a purpose.