Crimson || Tom Riddle [1]

𝖋𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

Arabella leaned back in her chair with a playful glint in her eye. "Professor Slughorn, you're absolutely right. Life is about savouring every moment, because when death comes, no one would want to have lived a boring life, stuck focusing on building an impossible future."

How dare she? Tom thought to himself. He still didn't know where her beliefs sat. She was talking about how his plan's for immortality were impossible, yet she had escaped death already. And it could not have been an accident. She did it on purpose. How had she dismissed a future of immortality "impossible" when she herself had already been brought back to life?

Tom wasn't going to back down from his plans. Instead, he was going to go through with them quicker than he had planned. Tonight, after dinner, he was going to linger behind and speak to Slughorn about the risk of creating multiple horcruxes. Tom had never heard of creating more than one, and he had to get another opinion, another source, to deem it say enough to go through with. This was his soul he was dealing with.

"Chambers, life's meaning is not found in the momentary joys. It lies in greatness, and not creating an ordinary life like any other person. Building a future may seem 'impossible' to those who lack vision, but for those with true ambition, impossibility is just a challenge to be overcome."

His eyes met Arabella's, a silent answer to her beliefs. He was not going to stop. He was going to succeed immortality. The day she died again, and permanently, was going to be the day he celebrated how wrong she was.

Slughorn, who decided the conversation was taking an unexpected turn, raised his glass with a shaky smile. "Indeed! You are both correct! Now let us continue with our celebration!"

As the atmosphere shifted back to the celebration, Arabella words, like an irritating echo, lingered in Tom's mind. Her resistance instead pushed him to prove her wrong. He had never felt the need to prove anyone wrong before, because he knew he was always right, but for some reason, Arabella made Tom act differently. Maybe it was the fact that she had done the very thing he was hoping to do, or maybe it was because she was so powerful. He wasn't sure.

Tom took another bite of his dinner. It was tasty, like all the food at Slughorn's dinners were. He never liked eating in the Great Hall surrounded by everyone else, which is why no-one ever saw him there. Instead, he preferred to eat before or after the main meal times, in an attempt to avoid the crowds. If he was going to become immortal, he was not going to sacrifice his nutrients. Staying healthy meant he was stronger than everyone. And that was his goal.

Arabella, though, didn't care, as if the world could end tomorrow and all she would be worried about is what she ate before she died. She was eating, at all times. He eyed her as she ate spoonful after spoonful. And then some. When dessert arrived, a grin lit up her face. Nothing was stopping her. Not even Tom's judgemental looks.

•••

Arabella had noticed the ring the moment she had walked in late, some sort of mental magnet pulling her to it. The band was gold and intricately adorned with twisting filigree patterns. And right in the centre of the ring was a large black stone with a triangular symbol engraved onto it.

She hadn't seen the ring in years, not since it was created and eventually passed into the Gaunt family and Arabella had foolishly stolen it for herself. She had never actually used it to see her mother and brother, but had almost done so. She knew they did not belong in the mortal world, she knew the effects of the stone, she knew she could not do that to her family. So, she eventually returned it to the Gaunts before it turned her mad with the need to see Mama and Finn.

Now, that need did not swirl within her as it once did. Arabella had gone through too much to put her trust into some cursed stone.

Every time she eyed Tom spinning it around his finger, Arabella wondered why on Earth he was even wearing it, until she finally realised that Tom probably didn't know the true power of the stone. Tom Riddle was oblivious. He had no clue what the Deathly Hallows were. To him, the ring was a mere trophy he collected after killing his muggle family.