𝕲𝖔𝖊𝖙𝖎𝖈[𝕬 𝕿𝖔𝖒 𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖑𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞]

Smile again.

Hopefully, Tom did find some crucial information about the enchantress in question. She was indeed related to forest lakes. Her name was lost in the pages of history. Only a few told stories about her. But her magic made her dangerous.

No matter how many stories Tom read about the enchantress, all version came to the same ending. An ending that Leo won't be too happy to hear about. Tom was still contemplating whether he should be telling her the entire story because sometimes, people are safe when they are kept in the dark.

He watched as Leo traced the outlines of her mother's sketch. Her face was still a blank canvas.

"What does this make me?" Her voice was hoarse from not speaking for a long time. Her eyelids fluttered a couple of times before she laid her eyes on Tom.

Tom had to bite the inside of his cheeks so that he won't look taken aback. Her eyes looked dull, like she had lost the light in her. It was as if she had accepted her true identity way too quickly. That was not how he wanted it to happen.

"Nothing. This does not change anything," Tom was firm with his words. It was not a statement but an order.

"Oh, but it does. My father died saving me. But was that really the reason? He sent me away to protect the world, to protect me from myself," she tossed the journal with a suppressed anger. Tom watched it land with a thud against the wooden table.

"I look just like her, don't I? Am I any different from what she was? It is quite ironic how you call yourself a monster when I was the true monster all along," Leo said as a bitter smile pulled at the corner of her lips.

She brought her hands in the line of her vision and they immediately erupted with a purple ball of smoke. The light illuminates her face making her look like an enchanted creature. Tom could only watch as Leo slowly drowned herself in her own darkness.

"This magic, I never wanted it. It hurts people, it kills people. A time would come when I'll hurt you too," Leo cut herself off with a dry laugh, "I already did, multiple times."

"But I don't want to leave, Tom. I'm scared," she whispered as her hand dropped to her sides. The tears that she had been holding finally came down like a heavy downpour. She cried like a child. Her body shook with sobs as she continuously wiped those salty drops away from her cheeks.

Tom eyed all the books that he had read through, all the stories that ended the same way. With a flick of his hands, all those evidences were completely wiped out. The books returned to their respected shelves. It was like the entire thing never even happened.

He turned back towards the girl who was breaking down in front of him. His eyes softened at the sight of her. Tom had been through everything that she was currently going through. Tom had also drowned himself in the darkness of his past.

The heir of Slytherin, being immortal and destroying all the half-bloods were the only things that he could think of. He had no hope, no dreams. He lived with only one purpose and that was to destroy, to become the strongest Wizard of all time.

Oh how those thoughts changed!

When his younger self could only see nightmares, he became scared to dream. Now, those nightmares are only bad memories. He had started dreaming. When his younger self had no hope of tomorrow, he had lost the will to live and only survived. Now, he found new hope in everything. Before, he had only one purpose and now he had responsibility.