No time to love (A Tom Riddle gothic story)

12 - Blood

Chapter 12

I should've known
I'd leave alone
Just goes to show
That the blood you bleed
Is just the blood you owe

The flat they got in the Leaking Cauldron wasn't as cozy as she hoped.

Tom didn't mind to transfigurate it. He insisted on keeping it dark, curtains drawn, poor dark brown furniture.
He did very little with the plenty of money that Bran Lestrange had offered him to pay for the position that Tom granted him into the Ministry.
Morgana wondered if the muggle orphanage where he grew up looked that shabby, so Tom had no taste in decor. But he had proven her differently at Hogwarts.
He always made the Room of Requirement look like a royal room.
So she concluded that he wanted that flat to be just a temporary residence, waiting to get his rightful place in his real home. Hogwarts.

While she earned a position in the boring Department of Law Enforcement, Tom got the least expected job for the exceptional brilliant student he had been at school.
He insisted on becoming the assistant at Burke's, his favourite shop, located in the godforsaken Knockturn Alley.
It made him happy like a child living in a toy shop.
While Morgana was trapped in the jail called the Ministry of Magic, with its infinite rules, annoying bureaucracy and boring tasks. And the grey hypocrisy of most of its staff.

"They say it gets better after you get used to the life here".

Morgana looked up from her desk, where piles of paper tested her patience.
That job was driving her crazy.

The young witch standing on the other side of the desk looked healthier and more satisfied with her life.
Morgana couldn't blame her.
Yasmine Shafiq just passed all her exams to become an Auror.
She was the closest to what a friend should be.
Although Tom instructed her to keep an eye on her.
Yasmine would send them all to Azkaban if she ever learned of what Tom and his gang were up to.
But once Morgana would be named Minister, she would be the one to banish Aurors and erase the work of Eldritch Diggory to protect the world from dark wizards.

She heard Tom's words whispered to her ear, to her soul.
"You understand now that I have to get rid of my name before tempting any career. You already got more attention than me thanks to your pureblood name. I have to make Tom Riddle forgotten".
Once Tom Riddle was forgotten, Voldemort would rise as the pure essence of darkness.

"Office work is going to destroy you. Why didn't you join the training to become an Auror?".

Morgana scoffed "I'm too coward for that".
She bit her tongue on how bitter that truth sounded.

"That's not true. You can come to the US with me. I have friends there and surely you can become an Auror more easily than following the long training here".

Morgana rejected the idea that was offered her. Of freedom, of a new beginning on her own.
"I can't" she dismissed the thought.

"Because of Lestrange? I'm sure he can follow you anywhere".

Morgana dropped her jaw and frowned at the Auror "What? No. I have a boyfriend who works elsewhere".

Yasmine chuckled "You always say that, but I've never seen him once. He never came to meet you after you're finished. While Lestrange is always around, bringing you coffee, opening the curtains for you...".

"I know that you fancy him and you're free to ask him out" Morgana said sternly "He's single so he might say yes".
She hated saying it. She hated the topic.

Yasmine turned red and from her eyes, Morgana knew she didn't to hurt her with her teasing.
"I heard that your boyfriend is very gorgeous. Is that why you don't let him near the Ministry?".
Yasmine was just few years older than her, but she came from another school, so she never had the chance to know Tom Riddle at Hogwarts.
That was why he thought she would be a good ally, although she was the enemy.
Yasmine would freak out if she learned that Tom worked for Burke's, a shop known for its dark artefacts.