Masquerade¹ → Tom Riddle ✓

chapter twenty-nine

Evelyn was fuming: the memory of last night was still playing on repeat in her head. She couldn't cope, she could still feel the pain from last night coursing through her body.

The next morning, Evelyn awoke before the sun could creep up from the hills. She quickly snuck out of the common room and headed to where she assumed Tom would be. She wound through the corridors until she was outside, where she searched across the walls until she found the stern silhouette that belonged to Tom.

"What the hell!" She yelled, shoving Toms shoulder against the cobbled wall.

"Evelyn, how kind of you to visit me," He began calmly, releasing his shoulder from Evelyn's cold grip. "What brings you here?"

"You know exactly what!" She lowered her voice "Astrea Black used an unforgivable on me last night!"

"Well, that is rather unfortunate." He said, staring at her blankly, not a single trace of emotion crossing his face.

"What are you going to do about it?" She snapped. "You let that happen to me Tom, do you understand how horrible it was?"

"Oh Evelyn, can't you protect yourself? I have no issue with what Astrea did, you need disciplining before our trip."

"Is this some sort of joke? What trip? You're deluded if you think I am going anywhere with you after last night!" The anger had been brewing inside of her for far too long and she knew it wouldn't stay contained for much longer.

"We are going to Albania over the holidays and that is not a request. You are coming with me there will no fighting. If you so much as breathe a word of this to anyone," He pinned her arm against the wall, leaning in close to her ear, "If you do, it will be a different unforgivable next time."

Evelyn felt paralyzed. If Dumbledore had never spoken to her last year, none of this would have happened: Evelyn was a shell of the girl she once was. She hadn't made many mistakes in her time but the few that she had seemed to be colossal. She stormed away, unable to reply to Tom's outrageous request. She couldn't keep doing this, she had to tell Dumbledore that is was over. Evelyn was done.

Evelyn powered down the corridor, her feet colliding forcefully with the tiles with every step. She was fuming. She sped towards Dumbledore's office and without any regard for knocking, she threw open the door. She flung herself into the large seat and took a deep breath.

"Professor, I am done."

Dumbledore took a deep look at Evelyn, her reddened stare burning through him. "You are not done Miss Rivers. You cannot be for the sake of wizard-kind."

"I don't want to do it anymore, find someone else, please." She could feel the tears forming in her eyes as she begged to be free. "It is impossible to help someone who does not wish to be helped"

"Nothing is impossible, just difficult. And eventually, we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy." He unwrapped a liquorice lace and placed it into his mouth, allowing Evelyn to process her thoughts.

She knew that she couldn't give up now, she had to stop Tom but at what cost? Evelyn was unsure if the small possibility of stopping Tom from travelling down a more dangerous path would be worth unravelling her entire life for. "I have to do it don't it?" She finally concluded.

"I cannot answer that Evelyn, but you must do what you feel is right. You must go with the boy to Albania and you must do whatever he asks."

"How do you know about Albania?" Evelyn had only found out herself a few moments ago, it seemed impossible that Dumbledore would have been able to overhear,

"Evelyn, I am aware of far more than you know." He simply replied. "Now if that is all, you have some packing to do." He ushered her out of his office with a quaint smile and shut the door behind her, relaxing back into his seat as though she was never there.

Evelyn made her way to her lessons for the day, struggling to concentrate as the teachers gave lectures. She couldn't grasp simple concepts all because of Tom. When her lessons finally ended, she headed straight to the Ravenclaw Common room and entered her dormitory, immediately collapsing on her bed and closing her eyes, waiting for the abyss of sleep to envelop her.

Darkness surrounded her. Stepping into the forest robbed Evelyn of one sense and heightened the others. It was disorientating to be almost blinded but given the ears of a wolf. Even the soft susurration of the branches felt heavy in the ears. The sense of smell was sensitized; the loam in the earth and the decomposing leaves made the atmosphere close and thick. The blackness nurtured a sense of claustrophobia inside you even though the woodland stretched unbroken for miles. The narrow path, which was made uneven by the knotted roots that crossed it, branched at intervals. There was no map to follow, but even if there was the perpetual dark would prevent you from using it.

In the corner of her eye, Evelyn spotted a small sapphire glow emerging from high up in a tree. Although the rest of the forest was fully submerged in the dark abyss, the tiny light from up high illuminated a passage in the forest that could not before have been seen. Evelyn followed the passage of light until she was standing just below the tree, beaming up at it.

Her hand latched onto the first branch and she used her strength to pull her body up, grasping onto another branch and continuing the climb to the source of the light. As she got nearer the top of the large oak, she noticed a silvery peak peering out from the tree, a diadem. Just as Evelyn reached out her hand, her fingertips grasping at the diadem, she felt a sharp stab in her back and she fell. Her hands lost any grip they had on the diadem and her body was flung to the ground like a ragdoll.