Tom Riddle X Reader | ✓

Part 63 Fright Night

Seeing your friends treat you like an enemy was hard. If Sirius had been in love with you for so long why would he ever stick his neck to exile you from the ministry?

These thoughts did not matter anymore though. You could not take shelter among the death eaters or else it will prove everything they say you are. Especially when you felt you were being tracked. Either way, you were not one of them, and hence forth you could not live around the snakes. 

And you couldn't go home to your parents either. You didn't want to involve them into this mess.

With a black cloak thats' hoodie covered your face from the dripping rain, you walked down the thin street of Diagon Alley in search for a place to stay.

When you stumbled upon an odd yet discreet looking pub beyond the corner of the way. It had a massive grey-ish sign with a scribble of "Ginger pumpkin Ales and Bed" behind its dusty window. It appeared to be open yet it lacked any amount of visitors a regular pub would have.

When you approached the counter and asked for a bed just for the night, it seemed like the old lady working inside of it sneered at you before unwillingly handing over the keys as you were glancing around the pub.
When you paid, she stared you down as you walked up to your bedroom.

Only to reveal a chamber as good as it gets in this dusty, ol' pub. The window was rusty, sharply stiffened in between the walls. The wallpaper was coming off from one corner to another and the bed's sheets looked like they haven't been cleaned for weeks. Worst of all there was this weird stench in the room, a mix of gas and rotten flesh hit your nose.

"Welp." - you whispered to yourself "A shelter is shelter." - disgusted, you carefully sat down on the edge of the bed, but as you did, the fourth, wooden leg broke down and that side of the bed fell down to the floor.

------

That night you slept uncomfortably, but not on the broken bed but rather on the floor which was oddly even cleaner than the sheets. Using your wand, you turned your cloak into a blanket as you turned a feather you found in the room into a fresh, new pillow.

The constant rustling of the wind outside was not settling at all. But as tired as you were, it barely mattered. When you eventually managed to close your eyes and fall asleep, you were awoken by a loud bang coming from the corner of the room.

You sat up, trying to gaze at the darkness but it was hard to see anything, or more anyone. Since noone really was there.
You looked around the room and nothing. So you laid back down, this time more alarmed. But as you yet closed your eyes, there was a loud bang on the wall coming from behind you. Startled, in slight fright, you sat up. In your t-shirt and trousers, you grabbed your wand "lumos". As its' light guided you out your chamber, you were left in a thin, barely lit hall with barely any windows.

You approached the neighborly room next to yours and knocked on the door. Silence.

When you reached for the handle, it swung on its' squeaky hinges and slowly opened, revealing nothing but a room filled with darkness.
You could see not a thing, not even with the lumos spell barely lighting the front of the room, yet you could hear something. A woman. Silently crying, somewhere deep within the darkness. Her cries sounded like mourning. But after a quite some time of just looking at it, trying to see what it was, it stopped. You sent out a spell that lit up the whole room for a second and you saw nothing but the old and dusty furniture. When the spell dissolved, the door of the chamber closed right in front of your face.

You rushed down to the reception, finding the old woman of a worker who sneered every time she saw you. As she noticed you rush down in your shirt and trousers she smirked as if you were an object of mockery.

"Excuse me." -you yelled out to her "Can I ask you?" - you stepped closer to the woman, who seemed to ignore your presence "The room next door. Is it haunted?"

The lady said nothing.

"Excuse me, I'm talking to you----" - as you placed your arm on her, to your surprise, your hand went straight through her shoulder, giving you a shuddering shiver through your spine.

You glanced around the pub again. Of course. There was not even a single sign of life in here. You haven't even seen a single ale being served, nor a dish.
You remembered you didn't actually see the woman hand you the keys but they were put down on the counter as you looked back, assuming she did. Also, it would explain the abandoned furniture.

Maybe next time you'll see dusty windows as warnings.

And so, in the middle of the night, with barely any sleep, you ended up strolling down the streets of London, giving up the sleep, even refusing to visit an actual, trustworthy hotel.

Whilst the night felt extreme on itself, this wasn't the end of it. When you walked through the darker part of London, more silent than ever, you felt as if someone was following you from behind.

You stopped and glanced back. It was a cloaked shadow whose face you could hardly see. 

When you turned around, you were swiftly thrown at a wall by a sudden force of some sort of magic, and as if your body was covered in glue, you were stuck, unable to move your hands or legs.

This was the same enemy whose been trying to kill you since Hogwarts years. This was Mortier - the infamous follower of Grindelwald himself.