Save the girl ... Save Tom Riddle

Chapter 26

Devil's on your shoulder
Stranger in your head
As if you don't remember
As if you can forget
It's only been a moment
It's only been a lifetime
But tonight you're a stranger
Some silhouette

"When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love."

_______

It was hard to move on from a failed mission. It was harder to accept and move on when it's been responsible for that complete failure.
Albus Potter had to deal with many other problems, but he couldn't get rid of that guilt, of thinking that he unwillingly became a murder and helped the creation of the monster that devastated the wizarding world for decades. Just because he killed the girl that Tom Riddle loved.
Albus was on a hill all alone, far from anyone else. Loneliness could become his best friend. At least he can't harm the loneliness.
He was lost into his gloomy thoughts, when someone reached him on the meadow where he was sitting.
He jumped up scanning the witch who was walking right to him and shock hit him almost making him pass out.
Perhaps his obsessive thoughts turned him fully insane in the end. But anything made sense.
His mind couldn't imagine the woman dressed in black who was eyeing him with a mischievous grin stopping some metres from him.
"Susan? Susan Black?" He mumbled aghast. She was decades older than he remembered her, but she should have been much more older for his present.
She smirked "Hello Albus".
"How's that..?" He gaped unable to talk properly.
"I've come to return the favor. I just ask you one easy thing. Stop trying to save me. Here are things that cannot and must not being changed".
"But you? You're alive! And you're..adult?" He scanned her mature face, she looked like she was in her fifties. And everything about her said she was a dark witch. A lethal one.
But she just stared at him with annoyance "You're making a mess with your timeline and you created alternative timelines, and I come from one of them. Time is not something to play with, kid. You should have learned now that the role of hero doesn't suit you".
"But you're alive!" He repeated hysterically "What happened into your reality?".
"Nothing much. I'm Voldemort's right hand, his shadow. You believed I meant so much, but you were just so badly wrong. That was his destiny. There's no way to change that".
Albus didn't know what to tell. He wasn't able to think of parallel universes and stuff like that. It was beyond his comprehension. He felt like a baby in front of something so big and infinite "But..it was my fault. I saw he cared..".
"But he cared much of power" she said softly "We are victims of others' choices. But some choices are completely ours. He always chose power because he wasn't able to persuade himself that he could have an ordinary life like anyone else. Not even my devotion and love would have ever been enough to him. He will always choose power".
Albus lowered his head surrendering, then glanced her in confusion "How did you come here?".
She raised her hands to touch her neck and took out a small device from under her collar "This. It took me years to find some wizards who still dared to experiment on time travels. But since I'm a dark witch and an outlaw too, I got to meet very useful people. And here I am. Saving time and history from a reckless kid like you".
He felt ashamed under her mocking tone "I meant to help, to save people, not to damage anything".
"You played with a magic so much bigger than you and uncontrollable. And you saw the consequences. The more you tried to hit your target, the more things worsened, till you yourself made happen right what you were fighting to avoid. You wanted to save me and you became the cause of my death. And same things for prophecies, that he likes to play with so much now.." She sighed tiredly "But never mind. Time-Turners are not toys, do not play with time".
"I did it just to stop Riddle from becoming Voldemort. I thought you were the cause of his creation" he insisted.
Susan snickered "No, it was him. Tom Riddle hadn't been able to accept himself. So he created the monster. Tom Riddle died when deliberately and selfishly decided to split his soul and rejected any other possibilities and reasons to live except power".
Albus caught sadness in her way of talking about Voldemort. Helplessly he felt pity for her "Then why are you still following him?".
"I'm bound to him in a way you can't understand. But I'm not his toy. He doesn't even know I'm here now. He wouldn't agree. He would claim he needs to know the future. But future is something we create" she frowned in a funny way "Does it make sense? I just get headaches whenever I think about time travel's paradoxes".
He wished he could laugh, but he felt too down to even smile "So you don't belong to this reality? Or universe?".
"No, kid, here I'm dead" she said knowing it was so awkward "While looking for you, I learned most of the story and I don't even know what he consequences will be. But I didn't spend years for nothing. And we pushed the magic beyond any boundary so I had to try this too. I had to make big efforts to get this and get into this reality" her fingers played with the time turner "But here I am. Such devices should be destroyed. You already made a big mess, kid".
"But you'll go back to your reality now?".
"Sure, kid. I can't take a holiday here even if I'd really need it" she made a sad face "I just want to be sure you won't dare to play with time anymore".
"Okay" he said heartfelt "I didn't mean to cause so many damages. But you're alive, it should be already something".
She laughed "Who are we to judge what's good and what's wrong? Perhaps the fact that you created a parallel world in which I'm alive will just annihilate that world" she pondered the idea then shook her head and stared at him with a penetrating look "But remember this. Time always recovers itself. It can wash away families and nations, but it will recover itself. No magic can outsmart time. Specially not a kid like you".
Albus straitened his back and said solemnly "Alright. I swear I'll stop. I just hoped a little change could save many people".
She smiled sadly "I know what you mean. We dreamt of changing the world for a greater good too. And you know how it ended. You can't change anything nor anyone. We all own our respective lives. We have our own wills. It's up to us to change. And the Dark Lord won't change. He might have made all the wrong choices. But no one, not even me, can force him to change".
She moved like she was leaving. Albus stared at her torn between many emotions "So you are not going to kill me now?".
She raised an eyebrow to him then laughed "Stop torturing yourself with remorse. It wasn't your fault. You didn't kill me. I'm a legilimens, I'm seeing how much you are recalling that episode" she looked doubtful then said carefully "In my reality Tom promptly saved me and you disappeared once and for all. But I guess history didn't change much after that. We got married, we travelled, he became too addicted to murders and power. And I'm still at his side".
"Why?".
She gazed at the horizons for a while, then replied softly "We cannot choose to love nor who to fall in love with. It just happens. If you'll deal with love someday, you'll understand better".
"So.. he never loved you?" Albus focused on what he saw in that cave, the desperation that carved Tom's face when he held her dead body and tried to bring her back, the sorrow and the rage that Albus witnessed. And he hoped she could read that into his mind.
But she kept looking away, like distracted by her own thoughts. She glanced at him "I think he tried, a lot. But he grew up without love. He was trapped into a muggle orphanage where people didn't accept his abilities and he didn't know love right when he needed the most. So, let's say, I love for him too. And if you wished to change anything, I guess you should have saved him then. When you arrived it was too late. But past is past. Let it be and learn from it".
It sounded as a dismissal so Albus said "Thank you, mrs..".
He gaped feeling awfully embarrassed.
She laughed kindly "Susan, I'm always just Susan. And you're welcome, Albus. Thank you too, if you really stop being such a worldwide menace".
"I swear, I won't interfere in your story anymore. Nor in the whole history".
She nodded satisfied "Very good. Then I guess this is a farewell".
"Take care" he didn't know what else to tell.
"You too. And enjoy this world. I saw that years of blackest darkness brought some good things. It's positive" she sighed getting again that sadness into her tired eyes, then she recomposed herself "Well, goodbye, Albus".
"Goodbye, Susan" he said mechanically, staring at her without blinking, still incredulous.
She turned and walked away, but after some metres she stopped.
"One last thing" she said turning with curiosity "How did you know about me? You come from a far future in which I'm clearly forgotten like Tom Riddle's name. Then how do you know about me and Tom Riddle?".
Albus cleared his throat explaining "An old man told me that you're the only person Voldemort ever loved. And I imagined that your death created the monster. I never imagined..".
"Who is the old man?" She interrupted him coldly.
He shrugged feeling helpless "I don't know. I don't know anything about him".
"You know he's old. What else?" She insisted.
"White hair. Ordinary face and height. Blue eyes" he listed "That's all".
Susan stared at him expressionless, then whispered blankly "It doesn't tell me anything".
She shrugged becoming lively again "Anyway, goodbye".

Susan felt totally out of place and out of time in that odd future in which she would have been more than ninety years old.
Such a different world. At least she didn't become a ghost. Meeting herself as a ghost would have been unbearably awkward.
But what troubled her was Tom's story since her death. He traveled as they planned, just he did it alone.
Ten years. He needed ten years to come back and when he did it he wasn't human anymore.

There was a place Susan wanted to visit, even if it was paradoxal and dangerous.
She took a muggle train remembering when many years before another muggle train led her to witness Tom's first murders. If only she had been able to dissuade him from splitting his soul. Nothing of what he did for her after that crime was enough to earn her forgiveness, not even giving her the whole world. And still she was so addicted to him, the darkest wizard of all times.
"Do you mind if I sit here, madame?".
She looked up to see an old man who looked quite extravagant, also amongst the new muggle fashions she randomly saw in her long trip. He didn't wait for her reoly and sat in front of her, even if there were many other empty seats on the train.
She turned back to watcg the landscapes out of the windows, but she couldn't think anymore, feeling that that man was staring at her.
In her world she would have already cursed him, but she had to be patient.
She glanced at him with a questioning look.
"I'm sorry" he said trying to appear friendly "It's just that you remind me of a dear person I lost many many years ago".
She frowned with diffidence "Are you from this place?".
"No. I belong to the world" he grinned "I travelled so much but I never found a place to call home".
"That's sad".
"Why sad?".
She shrugged "I don't know. Just saying".
"How's your home?".
Susan took time to find a proper reolyy "Home can be not just a place. For me home is staying with the person I care the most".
He smiled in a way that made her feel uncomfortable "That person is very lucky".
He knew nothing, she thought. If he knew, he wouldn't have dared to talk to her, not even to look at her. But in that world things were so different.
"Perhaps. But it's hard to understand the real value of something or someone unless you lose it".
"So true. So true" his smile faded replaced by a nostalgic expression "Maybe it's better never to know that value".
"Right. But we all die in the end" she sentenced, not caring if it could offend an old man like him "That's our common destiny. We'll learn the value of life at least".
He stared at her mesmerized "You're so wise you make me feel a child. It's good".
Good was a word that didn't fit a dark witch like her.
"I'm going down at the next stop" she said blankly moving near the door.
"I'm almost tempted to follow you, my lady, but I guess you want to go alone".
She stiffened at how he called her. In her reality everyone was forced to call her that way, but it sounded awkward from the mouth of an old man on a muggle train in an alternative timeline.
"Yes. I have a long trip ahead".
"I wish you all the best" he said kindly.
She didn't reply and was about to walk down, but a question teasedher and she had to stop and turn.
"What happened to that person? The person that I remind you?".
His old blue eyes crossed her. They were filled with sorrow "She got destroyed by darkness and other bad things".
She slightly winced, mumbling "I'm sorry".
She froze. In that short journey in that world she already had said words that she wasn't used to tell anymore. Thank you and I'm sorry.
But she was still human after all. And she was proud of it.
"I'm the one who must be sorry. I failed to save her. But I couldn't save her" he bowed his head and she felt bad for asking and recalling hurtful memories.
"Sometimes we think we can change the world, but we're just human and we have to move on when there's no other choice".
He agreed "I guess I can't as your lovely name".
She smirked "Exactly, you can't, sir".
The old man smiled with a weird emotion shining into his eyes "We are just two roaming souls".
Susan swallowed and nodded, then jumped down from the train, inhaling deeply to heal her hurting heart and she headed to the forest, her legs leading her to her peace.

She walked up to that hill, grateful for the physical effort that cleared her mind, the wind shaking her black cloak, thinking of how many time he could have walked on that same path alone.

She roamed for a while, till she found the old gravestone. Musk and some flowers were covering it.
She approached carefully, stopping when she was able to read her own name.

~~~

Author's note

The circle is closing and time will restore itself.
Okay, I think I'm getting crazy too xD
The next one will be the last chapter and I want to thank you now for reading and supporting this.
It had been a big work that took me months, but I enjoyed it, even if I feel it's not my best writing xD At least I feel my English is a bit better ✌
Please comment your thoughts about it, I really appreciate any word I'll hear from you. I care for the opinions of each of you all.
Thank you!! xx

Ps: I recommend you to listen to the song at the end of the next last chapter, since it's the one that inspired me the final scenes and some others, particularly the "off session" version. The chapter wouldn't have its real meaning without that music, I guess ;)