Pity the Living ♔ Tom Riddle

6 || Humiliation

August 1936.

London.

Tom

Tom was relieved at the sight of himself in the small mirror; the swelling of his eyes had gone down, and his cuts were beginning to heal. He was now able to bear the pain of his broken ribs - which was nothing compared to a harsh canning - and so pretended as though nothing was wrong. Unfortunately, the deep purple bruises remained, and he was constantly reminded of it by almost every child in the orphanage. Billy Stubbs looked so pleased with himself the day after the attack and loved to rub it in Tom's face. This only angered him more; he was special, and Billy was nothing.

"Looking a bit sore there Tom, wonder how that happened? Was the freak finally put in his place?" teased Billy, roaring with laughter when Tom didn't respond and continued to ignore him.

He was eating his morning dose of slop, which he had somehow managed to make it taste like cake and Billy's comment was ruining a pleasant breakfast. He quickly finished his food, clearing his wooden bowl from the table, when suddenly it was knocked out of his hand and hit the floor. Thankfully it hadn't broken, but the room fell silent all the same.

"Listen to me when I'm talking to you," spat Billy grabbing the back of Tom's shirt.

"I do listen; you just don't have anything particularly interesting to say," smirked Tom, slipping out of his grip and making a run for it.

He shot up the stairs, ignoring the pounding ache from his injuries, and sprinted down to his room, slamming the door behind him and locking it with a doorstop that he had discovered. It was only seconds later he heard pounding on the door, nasty insults shot at him from the boy on the other side. Surprisingly, Dennis had not joined Billy in his antics. Eventually, he gave up on trying to get into Tom's room and left with a grumble of defeat.

Tom had one month to take his revenge on Billy before the brat left for America, and he could feel the time ticking by. He had not planned to have a week spent in bed after his brutal attack, to recover from his injuries; although having time alone with nothing but your thoughts helps for brainstorming ways to torture your fellow inmate. It was precisely why he thought of such brilliant revenge.

Humiliation.

It was Billy's main aspiration when it came to bullying; to humiliate his victim. Little did Billy know, it was also Gisela's go-to source of revenge, and Tom would undoubtedly be taking a leaf out of her book in his plan. Humiliating Billy to the point of destroying his ego in front of the entire orphanage was going to be a prime moment in the switch of power in the orphanage hierarchy.

He was swimming in his mind so deep he jumped in fright and the sound of an owl tapping on the window, dangling an envelope from its foot. He jumped up to open the window, practically ripping the letter off the owl's foot, leading to him narrowly avoiding a painful bite. He eagerly sat down on his bed and tore open the envelope, to reveal a small piece of delicate parchment with expensive ink written in perfect cursive. Clearly, his dear friend's handwriting had been dramatically improved over the past few weeks, or it was the work of magic. When he began to read, however, he groaned in frustration as he realised it was written in German, and so it took him much longer to understand having to translate the foreign words.

Dearest Tommy...

The library is unbelievable... I have my own room... The Wizarding World is very expensive...

Speaking of the Professor, he is my uncle.

Tom's eyes widened in disbelief at the information, confused to how she could have possibly discovered this with her lack of a surname. How on earth had she discovered this?