the seven virtues [tom riddle]

chapter eight

"Some of us love you
Achilles, it's not much but there's proof
You crazy assed cosmonaut
Remember your virtue
Redemption lies plainly in truth"

achilles come down - gang of youths

CHAPTER EIGHT

Abraxas let the maggots gnaw away at the fault that nested in his putrified soul.

It made him feel numb, at least. Senseless as he regarded her beam on the other side of the table with another man, not even sparing him a glance as he downed another glassful of wine. His eyes fell on the engraving on the bottle that was set on the table, and he grimaced—Château Beauchamp Bordeaux. Bloody fucking irony.

Malfoy did not know what disturbed him more—the absolute disgust that slithered through his body like larvae, or the way her smile sent goosebumps all over his body. He thought it to be nothing more than a paradox, a penalty for everything he had done to her during their years at Hogwarts.

Filthy mudblood—it is easier to hate them when you do not know them.

When she did not stalk the halls of the Manor every morning, footsteps dull as to not rouse any of the purebloods up, because they might chew at her with brutality and viciousness. And then she strolled to the main balcony, pushed the glass doors open, and just sat by the railing, watching the sunrise that reminded her of home.

Or how she glimpsed at the stars a little too long sometimes, because her father painted her ceiling when she was younger, and now his life depended on hers. She gawked at them with crime and disgrace in her eyes, because she felt faulty for everything she had done. But it was they who had taken away her innocence, tainted her with blood and depravity.

And now Della only ever spoke with hatred of the stars and the moon, those symbols that had once represented home were now metaphors for Tom Riddle's court of brutes.

Her thoughts used to be so loud at Hogwarts. Abraxas would have trouble pushing them away when he first learned Legilimency, and they were on a frequency similar to his own. He had complained to Tom a few times—the mudblood thinks too loud, I swear to God I should just end her. Riddle had scoffed at his impatience then, mocked him for being so weak that he could not block a puny witch out.