Tom Riddle X Reader | ✓

Part 80 Despair

Chugging down the emerald potion sent immediate shuddering thoughts through your brain. Appalling images created unspeakably painful hallucinations. You shrieked and coughed out some of the liquid but Riddle would not stop forcing it down your throat, insisting the basin must turn empty. Your shaky legs collapsed down to the floor, unable to maintain any more balance, you begged him to stop.

"This must be done" - he would convince you.

Your voice began to tremble, color drifting away from the lips as the voice turned ghastly weak and the spit turned sour inside the mouth. Grim remembrances evolved around your senses, overwhelming and overpowering your own sanity. You suddenly began to feel as if you bled.

"Please... - you weeped "No more..."

Riddle halted, clenching onto the goblet as he kneeled down next to you. Some sort of grief overshadowed his face when he watched you snivel. His grip grew tighter and his face began to wrinkle from the sudden inner spiteful conflict he was having. What thoughts were running down his head.

His red tinted eyes reflected the white, frightful, faint light shining over your closed eyes and doubt absorbed his intentions.

Tom steadily lowered the goblet after seeing your half dead half alive state and murmured to himself "I cannot believe this" - he watched you suddenly gasp for air "I cannot proceed. I thought I'd be able test your will. Your so claimed love for me. But I have failed myself. I cannot bear to watch you in torment. I find no pleasure in it anymore." - he straightened his back "Forget about the protection. I shall find Kreacher after." - he took you in his arms but as you laid in them you slowly fell unconscious. He led you to the boat then as he crossed the lake, outside the cave, he could finally apparate away.

What a twisted way to test someone's love.

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Outside the Weasley house...

The weather trembled the trees as most folk got back safe from the ambush of the wedding.

"I'm sorry, Lily but it must have been..." - James stated, reaching out to Lilys' trembling hands

"No!" - she yelled back, pushing James away "Simply because she wasn't there..."

"Well of course" - Lupin added, intervening himself between the Potters "Lily is right, simply because she was not there it does not mean she betrayed us."

"Think about it!" - James yelled "She hung around him all the time in Hogwarts, follows him around now, protects him and all of sudden after we put her in Azkaban, we get attacked at our own wedding she doesn't even bother to attend?!"

"You're unbelievable. There must be a reason. There was a letter --" - Lily stuttered, barely being able to grab a hold of her senses "Maybe for something else.. It was hard to think then but now I can think clearly, she would not do such a thing!"

"What?" - James spat "Because she is such a good friend? Wake up, she has you wrapped around her fingertips!" - he hissed, glancing at Sirius who was standing behind him "You agree with me, Sirius, right?" - but Sirius did not reply. Seeing he was all alone in the fight, James added "Thanks to her... we could have been killed"

Lily shook her head "It wasn't her."

Spotting everyone back from the attack, Molly ran out "Hey..." - she looked around the faces with a big smile on her face. However, as if searching for something, it slowly disappeared once she couldn't spot a few she desired "Where are Gideon and Fabian?"

Everyones' hearts silently shattered at the sound of those words. Sirius slowly shook his head in powerless guilt over not being able to protect his friends.

Understanding what it meant, Molly lifted her palms up to her face as she shrieked out loud. Her legs quivered down to the grass and Arthur rushed to comfort her, wrapping his arms tightly around her. Mollys' screams felt violently inhuman and were really hard to listen to, they represented her strong grief over her lost, loved brothers. Her yelps burnt her throat yet she'd ignore the pain and bawl her misery out. Her outbursts and the invoking emptiness were so powerful that everyone's eyes around her were suddenly wet with fresh tears. They all could feel her pain which shot straight through her and not even the warmth of her loved one could stop it. Mollys' eyes puffed from the thick tears endlessly flowing down her face, she felt as if, even though she wasn't, suddenly alone.

"It's okay, I'm here" - Arthur stroked the back of her head "Calm down, for me... for the baby..."

She tried to stop but she couldn't, it only left her gasping for air as she grabbed onto Arthur's clothes.

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Back somewhere, you woke up to see familiar surroundings - you've been here before - the Riddle Manor. All though, a lot more abandoned now.

A spinning headache crossed your head, you grabbed a hold of it before all the senses came rushing back as to what happened - the drink of despair left your whole body throbbing even after. Surprisingly, there was no desire for thirst.

Riddle, who had been standing a few feet away from the bed you woke up in, was adjusting his sleeves "You are awake. Good."

But seeing him was oddly excruciating. It cut you to the core to even glance into his eyes after how he used you like a test "Why is it good?" - you asked as you sat up on the edge of the bed.

He approached you and stood directly in front before kneeling down in front of you and grabbing your hands in his "I am delighted you are feeling better."

Pulling your hands out of his gentle grasp, with a throbbing, sore heartache you bitterly breathed in before glaring into his eyes "Are you? Isn't that surprising after how you've been toying with me"

His face grew dark, shadowed with a sudden sharp glimpse "It was my intention to test you. You shan't speak to me that way. Is it any way to treat your savior?"

"Savior??" - you repeated in dismay "What did you save me from? The despair you caused yourself?"

Hearing this was like a sudden shard in Toms' guts that wouldn't leave, realizing how much you began to hate him. He felt you slipping out of his grasp and he did not know how to deal with it as no magic nor jinxes would be able to keep your true self around him.

"My apologies..." - Riddle murmured, lowering his gaze to the floor "I do not recognize consequences of my actions."

"I certainly noticed" - sour senses devoured your thoughts, escaping through your mouth "But I suppose that is the way you have grown to be."

Tom was about to say something but instead, he kept quiet. He knew you were right and would not even attempt to fight it.

Watching upon his remorseful face, you added "What a messed up way to see if someone is in love with you, Tom." 

"Will you forgive me" - contrition penetrated his mind, he felt aching senses he has never dreamed of before.

Your face dropped at the sound of those words. It wasn't like him to be so regretful of his actions. Foolishly, you jumped into his arms and sunk into the warmth of his toxic grasp, love for him blinding your perception like a false drug