Persuasive

eighteen

My eyes shifted to the side and became glazed with a glassy layer of tears.
As I blinked, they dropped down from my eyelids and slid down my cheeks.
I bit my lip tightly in attempt to hide any sound that wanted to escape my mouth.

My chest tightened as I traced my fingers over the words.
'Merry Christmas Avalon.'

My lower lip quivered as words slowly made their way out of my mouth.
"He didn't forget about me.." I began, yet what followed was engulfed in the tremors.

"Who?" Fred and George questioned gently.

"Tom Riddle." I trembled.
My heart sank to the ground, as I felt a heavy feeling in my stomach saying his name out loud.
My hands became numb and were shaking as I held the letter in my hands.

I pulled the letter tight against my chest, as tears streamed down my cheeks landing on the letter.

Quickly, wiping my tears away,
I stood myself up and rushed out of the door.
I had to find Dumbledore and ask him who sent in the owl.

I trotted through the halls, grasping the letter tightly in my hand as I searched for Dumbledore.
Draco soon caught my attention, as he stood in the middle of the corridors talking to Blaise.

I ignored them and stormed right past them, until Draco grabbed my arm.
"Avy where are you going?"

He soon noticed my tears and his voice softened.
"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I blurted sharply, yanking my arm away from him.

Blaise refused to make eye contact with me, knowing what happened back in the Gryffindor common room.

"Oh and Blaise? Stay the fuck away from me." I hissed, and hurried off to Dumbledore's office.

I hurriedly twisted the doorknob to his office and rushed inside, scanning the room in sight of him.
Dumbledore was talking to a first year about something, and signaled to me that now was not the time to talk to him.
But I didn't care.

"Professor, I need to know who sent me this." I gulped as I revealed the letter.

"Not now Avalon i'm busy-"

"No. I need to know." I interrupted.

He sighed and told the first year to come back later. He slowly trudged over to me and examined the letter.

"Is this some sort of prank from someone? Perhaps from my brother?" I yelped as I slammed the letter down to the ground.

"Avalon, it's not a prank."

I stiffened my posture and a sudden coldness took over my body.
"So Tom Riddle really sent me it?" I quavered, lowering my voice.

Dumbledore nodded and picked up the letter from the ground.
"But don't be fooled, Avalon. He's not a normal wizard, he's ill. You shouldn't owl him back, it's not safe-"

"Where the hell is he?" I bellowed as my skin began to feel tingly. "Where did you send him off to?"

Dumbledore turned around and started walking towards his desk, his back facing towards me.
"It's better if you don't know." he mumbled.