Broken Wings / tom riddle

Chapter 41 - Call for Me

"You knew! All this time you knew and you did nothing to help her!" Tom screamed.

"Tom, it is her responsibility to do this. I helped by bringing her to Hogwarts. If she wanted any further help all she needed to do was ask," Dumbledore said, trying to calm down a very angry Tom Riddle.

"Ask?" He scoffed. "You allowed her to put herself in so much danger, you knew of it all but you required her to come to you first?"

"Calm down Tom."

"I will not calm down because she has been taken! Taken by his men! God knows if we'll ever see her again."

"Trust me Mr Riddle, we will do our best to locate her."

"Your best is never good enough! It never has been!" He felt the urge to punch something, punch Dumbledore more specifically.

"I warned her to stay away from you. Perhaps if she had never been involved with you and your little gang, she might have trusted me more, felt comfortable to confide in me."

"Please." Tom leaned over the teacher's desk. "You stopped giving a single fuck the moment she was sorted into Slytherin." His face was deadly close to Albus'.

"Get out," Dumbledore said, flinging the door open with his wand.

"With the next chosen one who comes along, try not to leave them in an orphanage for 10 years."

"Watch your tone, Riddle. Oh and don't think the disappearance of Miss Black has been forgotten. You may have Dippet wrapped around your finger Tom, but trust me, I do not believe she just simply, disappeared."

"That's a rather large accusation Dumbledore. Why don't you prove it?" Tom cocked his chin up. Albus said nothing. "Exactly, you can't."

Tom was just about to leave the man's office. "Tom," Dumbledore called out to him. "I didn't know who she was until the orphanage called me. I didn't even know an Emeralds heir had survived."

"Maybe you didn't know, but you could of found out. Whatever you need to tell yourself to feel better. One day, and hear my words Albus. One day, you will pay for everything and everyone you have ruined in your lifetime." He slammed the door behind him.

Tom spoke words of parsletongue, the entrance to the chamber opened. He took Salazar Slytherin's locket and place it on the floor. He had many ideas for his horcruxes, the Gaunt family ring, his diary, the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. But the locket has been gifted to him by Briar, he wanted to make that his first one.

Screams filled the chamber, agonising screams. He laid on the floor, damp and sweaty. The pain was unbearable, like a never ending cruciatus curse. He felt barely alive, but he knew he was now the most alive he had ever been.

He tried to pull himself up, to rest in the common room or even the infirmary, but it was no use. He didn't have enough strength to even support his upper body into a seating position for long. His back crashed against the damp floor of the chamber.

With heavy eyes, he fell into a deep sleep. Tom was unaware if he'd ever awake from it.

____

Briar shivered. The stone she was lying on was cold and damp. The only light source came from a singular lit candle. Her wrists were red and bleeding from where the shackles gripped onto her wrists. She didn't know how long she'd been in this place, a few hours maybe. It was surely daytime outside.

She hoisted herself up and cradled her knees to her chest. With her eyes shut, she tried to imagine she was sitting in the common room. Casper playing the piano, she could hear the enchanting tune. Tom beside her, playing with her hair as he likes to do. It was nice for a moment, but then her mind wandered back to everything. Henry's words entered her train of thought, Perhaps the power to finding it has been with you all along, if you're only brave enough to seek it.