An Exquisite Pain

Diagon Alley

Tom wasn't looking at her, but at the saddlebag she had dropped. "I would not pick that up unless I wanted to suffer from a particularly painful snake bite," he said coldly, dropping her hand at once.

Danielle was frozen in place, staring up in shock at him. "You—you came back," she stuttered. "Why?"

"It would be extremely foolish, not to mention dangerous, leaving you here," Tom said, turning his attention now to his horse. "A fifteen-year-old girl alone, even in a town of this size, is never safe."

Are you trying to say you cared enough about me to come back? "I'm almost sixteen," Danielle grumbled, but inside she was screaming with joy. Her eyes roved over his face, noticing tiny changes: purple shadows seemed almost to be carved permanently into the lines under his eyes and there was something missing from his expression. His jaw was set in a stubborn, almost determined way.

"Where were you planning to go?" Tom asked suddenly. He turned his face to her for the first time, but Danielle noticed he was careful not to look into her eyes.

"I was going to go back to the orphanage," she admitted. It was getting harder and harder to lie to him. At the beginning it had been so easy…

His eyebrows rose slightly. "What about your aunt?"

Danielle had completely forgotten that she supposedly had a family member still alive. "She's—er—still in Holland."

Tom's eyebrows rose even higher. Danielle quickly looked away from him, towards Ginger. She nickered softly and swished her tail, evidently eager to be going.

"Interesting," Tom whispered after several seconds. Danielle had the uncomfortable sense that he knew she was lying. To ease the tension, she grabbed the saddlebag and shut it before Anguis could stick his head out. "Are we going?" she asked.

He watched her for another moment before curtly nodding. Wordlessly, he led his horse (Danielle was suddenly struck with the name Ebony) out of the stable. She followed closely behind him, feeling suddenly off-kilter.

Like the previous day (had it only been yesterday?) the two of them rode silently through fields and farms, stopping occasionally to give the horses a rest. Tom and Danielle barely spoke, only to comment on the conditions of the horses and how much longer it would be until they reached London.

Her watch said it was past midnight when they finally stopped for the evening. Tom was able to create in five seconds the same tent that had taken the combined strengths of Danielle, Alyssa, Dylan and Alphard nearly ten minutes to do. Personally, she would have preferred to stop in another town, but they were even deeper in the countryside than the Muggle farm had been.

There was a partition separating Danielle's side of the tent from Tom's side. With little more than a "Good night", he disappeared, leaving her alone.

Even though he was less than ten meters from her, Danielle still felt as if he had left again. Judging by his actions, he didn't want to face what had happened the night before. Strong emotions can trigger the curse, the book had said. But merely kissing him wouldn't do that—unless—

That was impossible, though. Voldemort was unable to love. He was a heartless shell of a man—if he could even be counted as human.

But was Tom Riddle?

After a breakfast consisting of the stolen fruits and vegetables, they set off on their way once more. They were three-quarters of the way to London now, and Danielle felt a stirring of hope. There had to be a fireplace somewhere where they could Floo to Albania. Otherwise, they would have to leave the horses behind and sneak on a boat to France, ultimately having to cross most of Europe.