No time to love (A Tom Riddle gothic story)

6 - A Dark Future

Chapter 6
A Dark Future

Her friends flooded her with questions about the Slug Party.
Morgana exhaled with annoyance as she repeated the same, boring story again during their noisy lunch.
The meals in the Great Hall were much better than the expensive delicacies offered by Slughorn.
She wished to just enjoy her food without being pestered with questions.

Her eyes often scanned the Slytherin table, but couldn't find the tall frame she was secretly looking for.
Her confusion and her worries deepened when she finally spotted him.

When hurrying to her last lesson of the day, she recognized Tom exiting a secondary door with Electra.
She wondered why they would step out of the castle when it was pouring with cold rain.

Her mind couldn't focus on the boring History lesson as she questioned herself about what troubles she was throwing herself into.
The more she thought about it, the more it seemed just a waste of time.

If Tom couldn't break up with his girlfriend, then it meant that Morgana meant nothing more than a distraction to him. And she didn't want to be a distraction, a second choice.
He looked like the perfect boy that evey girl could dream for herself. And the bad thing was that he knew it and learned to use it at his own advantage.
Morgana pondered many ideas on how to tell Tom to stop their clandestine affair.

When later she headed to the library, she expected to find him there, but he was again nowhere to be found.
Could he still be busy with his girlfriend?
Morgana groaned with frustration. She didn't want to deal with already taken boy ever again.

"Excuse me" Morgana decided to question the first Slytherin student she bumped into "Have you seen Tom? I mean, Riddle?".

She was lucky to bump into Cedrella Black. She was unusually kindhearted for being a Slytherin.
Cedrella shook her head "No, I haven't seen him since lunch".

Morgana thanked her politely and looked around herself, feeling totally frustrated.
She decided to have a walk out of the castle with some other brave students who didn't fear to get dirty with fresh mud.
Morgana loved the smell of the earth after being watered by the rain. That smell had also a name. Petrichore.
But in that case it wasn't enough to make her feel better.

Soon she realized that the students were attracted by something.
Teased by curiosity, Morgana approached the crowd gathered by the boathouse and recognized some of her fellow Prefects.

"This is awful" a Gryffindor Prefect commented shaking her low head.
Minerva McGonagall was one of her closest friends amongst the Prefects, so Morgana approached her.

"I don't understand. What happened?".

"A girl is found drowned by the boathouse".

Morgana blinked, not fully understanding the real meaning. But the sorrow carved in the faces around her made her blood freeze.
"What? And who is she?".

"A Slytherin girl. Electra Yaxley".

Morgana gasped for air but the shock overwhelmed her.

"Ana?" Minerva called but the Prefect girl couldn't hear anything else but her heart thudding.

The voices and the comments of the people gathered by the boathouse chased her like a storn of flies as she walked back to the castle.
She wandered, lost in her thoughts, torn between anguish and guilt. Because she had wanted Electra dead. And it seemed top creepy that it actually happened.

"Morgana" a voice called from the top of a staircase, making her stiffen.
Not now.
She wasn't ready anymore to face him. He was the last person she wanted to talk to in that moment.