Twisted Souls (A Bellamort Story)

Chapter 5: Tom

Tom wasn't sure I was he was feeling when he saw Bella a week later. He pushed it down as he approached her. Beside Bella was Rodolphus, with a defiant frown on his face. He huffed indignantly at the disgusted look he threw at him.

"What's got you wand in a knot?" he growled.

"Where were you last week?" he demanded, ignoring Tom's remark. "You owe us an answer."

Tom opened his mouth, but before he could answer Bellatrix answered sharply.

"Rethinking whether you were any worthwhile teaching."

"I'm asking Riddle," he stated coldly.

"Do you want to see what I've got to show you?" Tom interrupted snappishly. After a moment of tense silence,

"Yes, I do," Rodolphus huffed.

"Good. Then follow me." He pushed through the doors of the toilets. "Not a word," he said before Rodolphus could get the words out of his open mouth. He found the sink he was looking for and hissed. At once, just as Tom remembered, the sink began to move. The sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into. He heard audible gasps from both Rodolphus and Bella. He turned to face them.

"Come on, it's just a little further." With that, he leaped up and thread his legs into the hole and propelled himself forward. The tunnel dipped down steeply and Tom heard the other two behind him, finally, as he was falling vertically down, the sides of the tunnel disappeared and he landed on his feet at one end of a long corridor. Behind he heard Bella land with a small thud. She was breathing heavily when Tom turned to look at her. She glanced up and then leapt to the side as Rodolphus landed in a sprawl where she'd just been. He wobblily got to his feet.

"Where are we?" he panted.

"We're here," he replied. He raised his arms at the long corridor behind him.

"What is this?" Bella breathed as she pointed at an enormous door at the other end of the corridor. A dozen engraved snakes were intertwined into a delicate artwork that Tom didn't know the name of.

"I don't know what's behind that door," he lied. Bellatrix, shrugged and turned to face Rodolphus, who was also admiring the space.

"This is nice. I wonder who built it." Tom felt a spark of pride go off inside him as he smiled.

"Shall we start with some offensive spells?" he offered. He pointed his wand at two large boulders at the corner of the room.

"Wingardium Leviosa" Two boulders rose into the air and Tom gracefully directed each of them to sit in front of Bella and Rodolphus. "Now, I want you to say, in the count of three, Expluso."

"Expluso?" Rodolphus yelped. "Isn't that Dark Magic?" Bella was also hesitating, her wand wavering in her hand. Tom though out his words carefully

"What is something that you want to change, to improve, if you could?" he asked quietly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" frowned Bella.

"Just answer," he instructed. Blinking, Bella thought.

"I want to rid this world of mudbloods and filth like them," she finally answered. Tom stopped in his tracks and stared at Bellatrix. His eyebrows raised and a small smiled lit his face. "Ugh, you shouldn't do that, you look less human."

"It nothing... nothing at all," he said with awe. Bellatrix gave him a weird look.

"Well, that's my aim too," Rodolphus said hastily. Tom turned to face him.