Death's Daughter || Tom Riddle

Shutting down | 16

"When are you going to tell me what you meant back there?"

She groaned in frustration. Ever since Caelum had found his voice again, he had been questioning about the encounter in the lavatory.

Tell him, or no?

She wanted to take her true heritage to her grave but apparently, Riddle made that impossible.

Riddle definitely knew but who else? Had he told his little gang about it? She didn't want to think about it. But could telling Caelum hurt? After all, they had trusted each other with the other's secrets for almost six years. Just because of her father wouldn't ruin their close friendship. Hopefully.

"I saw Death." She began slowly, making sure her voice was low enough for only the two of them to hear.

He gave her a puzzled look. "You saw Death? Well, wasn't there a dead student by your feet?"

She made a 'shushing' sign because he wasn't quite getting the hint to be quiet when she lowered her voice.

"You know what, let's discuss this in your bedroom. Where no one can overhear us."

She had entered her friend's bedroom multiple times. Mostly just to escape her roommate's arguments which would happen quite often back then. But now, since Flora Evergreen wasn't around much, the banter decreased to almost disappeared.

Caelum shared a room with two other boys. Avery and Nott. Although she had visited the room often, she rarely saw either of them. Caelum explained that Nott was a bookworm and was likely to be in the library, whilst Avery liked to spend his time with Lestrange.

And like always, the room was empty. She locked the door and cast Silencio on the room. Caelum sat on his bed, eagerly waiting for her to explain. She took another unoccupied bed and started speaking again.

"This may be a bit too straight to the point but I don't know how to say it in another way. I'm Death's heir."

"Hypothetically?"

"No, literally."

At first, he seemed to think she was joking and messing with him but upon seeing her serious look, his smile started to fade. She hated seeing his happy smile falter. And because of her. "I guess it explains why you can see a black cat and I cannot. Black cats are a symbol of death." He said, matter of factly. "You won't see me any different, right?" She asked, her tone laced with hopefulness.

"Of course, I won't see you any different. Why would you think that?"

"Because I'm Death's daughter- he takes away life-"

"You're not him. You're you. You can't define a person for who their father is."

She had no idea what urged her to run forward and hug Caelum tight, but she thanked that urge because the next moment, he hugged her back just as tightly and it brought comfort to her.

He didn't judge me.

They stayed in that position for quite some time before he croaked out, "My body is starting to go stiff." She laughed at his remark and let go.

"I saw Death and ran up to embrace him but he turned away. So that was why I called out 'Wait!'"

His eyes held so much affection she never knew a human could have. He took her hands in his and started rubbing circles.

"Are you okay now?"

"As long as you're around, I'll always be alright."

It was a long moment before he started to stir and suggested she go get some rest. Instead, of walking out of the door and back to her dorm, she laid down on his bed and dozed off.

He stood up and left the now-sleeping girl alone.

He walked down the steps and found himself in a loud and noisy common room. Mostly filled with people in worried tones chattering to one another. He spotted Zayn a few ways ahead, sitting on a window seat.

The glass window that separated the common room and the Black Lake was huge. The Black Lake's water cast a gloomy atmosphere to the room, making it seem like they were underwater, like in the water.

He walked towards his younger friend and plopped down opposite of him. Zayn was zoned out and looking into the water before he came to sit in front of him so when he felt the other boy's presence, he blinked twice and turned his attention towards the youngest Black. "What's with all the worried faces?" Asked Caelum, gesturing towards all the students. Zayn shook his head, "It's nothing good. They're thinking of closing the school."

"Closing the school?" He asked, not truly believing his words.

"Yes. Students are terrified, parents are concerned, the ministry is in denial and the school says if they can't find the culprit, they'd have to shut down the school."

Caelum had a horrified look on his face after hearing his friend. "They can't do that! Hogwarts is my home!" He had always hated his family. Hated their beliefs, their lies, and their stupid expectations. Leaving his home to come to Hogwarts was one of the things he looked forward to every year. "And it's not just my home, it's everyone's home. Like you, you hate it back at your place-" Zayn interrupted him mid-sentence, "Dude, you say it like it was my choice to close down the school. I'm not the one who decided, Dippet did, so you can get your ass there and continue your rant." Caelum sighed in defeat and looked out of the glass window to see the silhouette of the Giant Squid afar, lost in thought.