The Tale of Azure - Book I: Shades of Green and Blue

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Oncoming Storm

Disclaimer: I do not own "Harry Potter". Only my OCs.

A/n: I am using the movie's depiction of the Chamber of Secrets' entrance because it is a lot scarier than the one from the book.

This meant only one thing: he needed a scapegoat. And he had the perfect person, no, Half-Breed, who filled the criteria.

"But after that...the Horcruxes," Tom decided, imagining himself obtaining the most secret and dangerous magic in all of the fields of the Dark Arts. "Herpo was a grown adult when he created one. I will not wait that long."

The yew wand twirled in long fingers, its owner's voice replaced by hisses. "The fools, the whole lot of them."

Not all of them, his inner voice corrected him. Remember the three.

Yes, there were three exceptions; Ashlane, the old coot and that dangerous Tranquilflow witch; when he had used Legilimency on her during Divination class, he was met with an image of a river, its water tranquilly flowing like her last name's namesake before being swiftly pushed out of her mind, which made him fall – it was his only blunder and he would glower at and Crucio the idiot who commented about it – off his chair. But one day, she would pay for this humiliation ten-fold.

One day, the world would bow to him, Lord Voldemort.

As for Ashlane...she has yet to break completely, he added inwardly, dark brown eyes alight with malignant glee at his sleeping enemy. Her mind was tough to break but, the torture session had weakened her greatly.

This will be too easy, he chuckled and pointed the wand at her head, casting a forbidden spell he had recently come across when he was reading one of the House of Black's grimoires; the caster would be able to implant a nightmare of his creation on the victim. "Incubo Terribilis."

A black haze began involving the girl's body, making him smirk. "Sweet dreams, cousin."

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Dark. Cold. Fear. These were the words/sensations that best described this dream as she found herself in her seven years body, standing in front of a giant round door of stone in which were engraved eight serpents, seven of them slithering in many directions, one final stone serpent near the what could be considered as the gate's "hinge", as if it was waiting for someone to make it circulating the stone door, completing a perfect circle like Azure had seen in one an old alchemy book: the Ouroboros, which depicted the snake that eats its tail. A symbol of the infinite.

Then, she heard a low hiss behind her and turned her head, her eyes looking at a familiar young man wearing the Hogwarts uniform, the silver brooch identifying him as a Perfect. One of his hands was holding a black notebook, the other at his side.

Dream-Riddle extended his free hand to her, her mind screaming as her hand was slowly approaching the smiling taller boy's. His eyes were cold and deep like two pits of darkness except for a strange red glimmer that showed his intentions to commit the most unforgivable magical act.

"Soon...soon and you will discover the path that was designed for us, Heiress."

This was Parseltongue. And she could understand it. Why? And what was she doing here? Why was Riddle here?

She tried to move, but her entire body was frozen except for her hand who was about to touch his, her mind screaming at her to run...

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"Wake up."

A sharp contralto voice and a sudden slap made her wake up with a jolt. Quickly scanning her surroundings, she realized she was back in her dormitory. Hellebore Monfay was looking down at her, wand facing the ceiling. The Lumos Charm's white light was sprouting from it.

"We are trying to sleep!" A frustrated voice from someone who was in the opposite corner shouted.

She yawned before looking at Monfay. "What time is it now?"

"Devil's hour. Three and a quarter in the morning, Ashlane," the brunette replied evenly. "You were having a nightmare, squirming and screaming about murder and snakes."

"Snakes! A Slytherin that fears snakes?" A couple of Slytherin girls started giggling and laughing as Azure tried to remember how the bloody hell she had gotten back here when the last thing she remembered was Avery harassing her and...what was he saying then?

Something about "My Lord", which meant the insufferable "Perfect Prefect" and "he made sure you couldn't remember". But remember what?

"Isn't she a failure for Slytherin?"

"But I heard all Ashlanes went to Hufflepuff..."

"The Sorting Hat must have malfunctioned or something!"

"Blood-traitor!" Travers' high-pitched voice spat.

"Ashlane, how much would an apology cost you?" Monfay asked impatiently.

"I am truly sorry for waking all of us up," the "failure" droned, waving a hand in a dismissing gesture as she turned to the other way. Unknowing to her, Monfay focused her wand on the chatting girls, a wicked grin stretching on her face.

Silence befell on their entire dormitory.

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"The Chamber of Secrets, huh," she snorted, one hand holding the supposed chamber entrance's drawing and the other a mug of cinnamon tea with a bit of chocolate powder Tingly had prepared for her. "A place that only the Heir can open. The Heir...it could be anyone but...he would be the most obvious choice."

The Perfect's face flashed in her head. When the subject was Old Slytherin's past, Riddle would have this strange reddish glint in his eyes.

A direct descendant of the Gaunts, a Speaker and an ambition that is as great as his killing intent...not to mention the Dark Aura he exudes...

Shaking her head at this frightening theory, she placed the drawing in her pouch and closed her eyes, the sound of the crackling flames of the fireplace lulling her to sleep.

It was already morning when she finally woke up, mismatched eyes meeting a scornful gaze. "10 points from Slytherin for sleeping outside the dormitory," Walburga Black drawled, haughtily tossing her hair before opening the door of the common room. She twisted her nose as if she was smelling a strong odour. "And 10 more because I simply hate your existence, Blood traitor."

"Fine, fine. Just go already, Miss Black," Azure said evenly once the Prefect was out of earshot. "Better being a blood traitor than coming from a family with a propensity to madness."

Returning to her dormitory, she summoned one of the kitchen elves and asked him in Elves language to prepare what she usually ate for breakfast.

The elf popped out of existence and returned with her request: a glass of warm milk, toast, scrambled eggs, an apple and two chocolate biscuits. He was just a bit taller than the twins and his eyes were light blue, which was a rare colour among his kind.

"Eat one, Jumpy," Azure offered. The young elf shyly took a biscuit and bit into it. "No cook should work on an empty stomach."

Jumpy's ears flapped in contentment. "Jumpy likes serving Missus Azure very much. Never change, Missus Azure!"

The young witch smiled at the elf's honesty and watched him disappear with a soundless "pop". Sipping happily her milk, she imagined herself as Headmaster, like her great-great-grandfather...

Things would have to change. For starters, pumpkin juice as a snack or as something to drink during lunch, but never during breakfast.

Milk was much more healthier.

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