The Serenade of Persephone [tom riddle]

Chapter twenty-one

Perhaps a simple act of gratitude was enough to make the atmosphere less tense. However, the echoing silence brought only uneasiness and Althea could not be more than certain that Tom was overreacting over what had happened. After all, she saved his putrid life, he owned her, even when all he ever did was threaten her life and accuse her of things she never actually did.

She was more than magnanimous to him.

And he would avoid her as if she had the plague. Normally, she should have been the one that should change her path every time their steps synchronized in the same area and not him.

Tom Riddle was a murderer, the heir of Slytherin, as he had claimed. A psychopath who played with others' lives like a cat with threads. He would slash, ravage, and tear apart the remains of his rivalries if he was not satisfied with the final state he had shaped for them. Tainting and dismantling everything in his path like a mere hurricane.

If fate had such great power to control someone's life, then his influence was so potent that it could change the entire world.

Despite her fear and reluctance to approach him, she found herself the next morning visiting him at the Hospital Wing just to make sure he was alright. Although he was cold as thick ice to her, Althea did not let her sympathy stuck with his demeanor. In vain, however, Tom did not let anyone visit him while he was recovering.

As if he knew that the witch would make an effort to appear to bring dismay to the faint sanity he had left inside his skull.

How much more foolish can she be?

Althea did not let either her curiosity stuck. She searched for this Chamber and learned that there was a legend in which there was a rumor that Salazar Slytherin, the former founder of the Slytherin house, built a hidden room in the castle, hiding a huge monster there, the Basilisk.

She had heard of the Basilisk, the king of all serpents. After all, an Greek ancient dark wizard was the first to rush to his creation. To muggles, these monsters were a mere fable, a tale to scare children. But the reality was more gruesome and bloodthirsty than the legends portrayed.

It was a huge hybrid that haunted the nightmares of people who knew about its existence. It had the body and head of a rooster, the wings of a dragon, and the tail of a snake; it came from an egg laid by a rooster and kicked by a frog.

Althea's eyes stared in horror at the thick book she held in her hands. She could not make much of the picture. The book was old and the pages were melted by the passage of years. She knew, however.

The ink smeared around the edges and in some places was faint as if it had never been pressed. But the Greek witch could tell that whatever was going around Hogwarts was bloodcurdling, and Riddle in particular was a fiend who allowed all of this. And why would he be the one allowing it? Because quite simply only the Slytherin heir could control the Basilisk and open the Chamber of Secrets.

Here, however, was the paradox. If he was the heir of Slytherin, then why was he accusing her of opening the Chamber? The girl had nothing to do with this piece of information and did not even know about the existence of that Chamber until Tom mentioned it. Besides, Tom Riddle was the heir and not her— he had complete control of all this.

What the hell was he thinking?

"He must be the richest of them all to behave like that," Althea exclaimed one day to Lucretia.

It had been nearly a month and a half since Halloween day. The night, as Althea wanted to remember it.

For a month and a half, Tom Riddle had not wasted any second of his attention in Althea Lynch's presence. Althea was non-existent for Tom. He would not look at her, he would not speak to her and certainly, his arm would no longer be wrap around her neck. She had not felt that burn spread across her skin in a long time.