Burning Obsessions; Tom Riddle

51: Fall Into Place

[victoria's pov]

The graveyard was a horrible sight. Death eaters stood in a circle, surrounding the ritual that was going on as Peter Pettigrew, who turned out to be alive after all this time, kneeled before Voldemort.

Voldemort.

Not Tom.

The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter. The boy who did not understand the dangers Dumbledore had put him in. And where was Dumbledore now as the child shivered hopelessly against the stone before Voldemort's own eyes? He had a new ghostly, snake figure as he emerged from the ground, rising back to power.

Behind the masks of all the death eaters, I could smell their fear. All along, he was alive and they had doubted so. Except for Severus Snape, who was absent.

Amongst the crowd, I knew Theo was here. I scanned the graveyard, trying to look for him. He had run off from the Nott Manor after his tattoo began to hurt so I followed him, only to end up in hell on Earth.

"You..." Voldemort hissed, approaching me. "You're here. You've chosen a side after all."

I could feel my eyes burn from the ache in my chest. He was no longer the same man I had grown fond of. No longer the same man I held into. No longer my light.

"I have not chosen a side in this war of yours," I said bitterly. "I've come to see how much you've destroyed yourself."

"You mean what I did for you," he said quietly. "This power. This war was for us."

I nearly laugh. After all these years, he was still ignorant to the fact that all I ever needed was him.

Realising we weren't alone, he turned towards Harry and approached him, placing his finger on his forehead, on the scar that he himself placed fourteen years ago, as the young boy screamed in agony.

On the ground, I spot a familiar wand. My wand. I slowly approached it and picked it up, feeling a gust of wind on the back of my neck as my heart quickened with realisation.

It was Harry's wand now.

I watched him as he screamed in agony and all I could see was Ted in the place of Harry. Had he been there, he would not be as strong to resist the pain either. No child could. Then I saw Regulus, who I had failed.

After all these years, it was time to decide. There were already so many signs that drew me to the least painful path, even if it meant sacrifice. It was time.

To decide which side of the war I had to be on.

To make it all fall in place.

——————————

"It's so nice to see you both again," I said, embracing Alex and Ted in a tight grasp.

They had just come home from their fourth year at Hogwarts. Harry escaped Voldemort after I had disappeared from the graveyard. The horror had created an awakening in Theo, making him more strict than ever now.

Theo tosses the mail onto the table, to which the heading read, Sirius Black Still At Large.

Teaching had become unsafe for me so I left after Christina died. And up until they received their letters, I had been raising them like their mother would have. A world without corrupted darkness.

That meant I would reside in the Nott Manor with them. I hadn't even stepped foot into my own home since then. Since that day, Theo and I had unwillingly forced ourselves to be mutual. I could not just leave them without another word after "losing their mother to Voldemort."