Hierarchy of Need [t.r]

Chapter Twenty Five

She couldn't forgive him for what he did to Xan and Kat.

But she also knew she couldn't blame him for something that he hasn't even done yet. Which was beyond difficult to come to terms with. Tom Riddle wasn't responsible for the deaths of thousands.

Voldemort was. That thing was to blame. Not the person standing in front of her.

They both hadn't realized they had been staring at each other for about three minutes until someone else in the library dropped something, the sound of a book hitting the floor echoing off the walls.

Tom looked down at her, his head tilted, biting his cheek, but there was something else.

He never thought he would meet someone so complex and enriching and exciting. No ones ever excited him before. Not since Dumbledore walked into that blasted orphanage and told him he was a wizard.

But Tom didn't fail to recognize how self destructive Delilah was being. The moment she had found out what he'd done, she should've turned and ran the other way. Merlin knows how she would react if she knew the people he's killed, including his own father.

And in a way, he killed his mother too.

Finally Tom spoke, his tongue feeling like sandpaper in his mouth. "Delilah, I think you should be extremely careful who you give second chances to."

It wasn't a second chance, was it? But maybe subconsciously this is exactly what she wanted.

"I know who I'm giving it to."

"You really don't."

"Trust me, I really do."

"Even after everything I did?" He finally came out with it because he couldn't understand why. Tom didn't like it when he was left clueless. That led to too many bad things happening with no means of preparation.

Delilah screwed her eyes shut. If only he knew how much more complicated this actually was. "No, I... not that. Not ever that. You'll never be forgiven for that."

There was a pause. He felt something jab in his chest at the 'never' but he suppressed it, he knew it was deserved but that didn't mean he wanted to confront the feeling threatening to arise. "Fair enough."

"There's ways you can make amends, though." Maybe this could be the one good deed she could help him with. Just one good choice in his life. It wouldn't necessarily cancel out all the destruction to come, but the act would still be there. He still would've done something right.

Tom raised a brow.

"Look, I know apologizing isn't really your thing. I get that, I do. But do this for me, just this one thing. And maybe, I don't know."

"What?"

"If you do this for me," her hand raised to mess with her necklace, but she froze halfway and dropped her arm. He clearly didn't like when she did that, god knows why.

"Maybe everything will be alright. Everything would fix itself. Me and you, back to the way we were supposed to be. Before anything changed and went wrong... wouldn't that be nice?" Delilah let out a small laugh, but it pained her as she saw genuine relief fill his features. Tom thought she meant back before he ever used legilimency on her, before he marked Xan and Kat.

Delilah meant before she ever met him.

She was a mistake in this timeline, a fluke. She shouldn't be here. She needed to leave. And Tom would start down a path with no return, with no light to guide his way back.

And she'd be thrown right back into another war.

One that he himself started.

"That does sound rather fetching."