Days of darkness make me smile
No one's safe here for a while
Say you're happy, yeah for real
Come to my side
Got time to kill
________
Horcrux.
That was the word that Susan detected from Tom's mind and that alarmed her.
He had to close the Chamber of Secrets, so he had to fill his mind wih his old obsessions. There was no mention about the attacks and the dead at Hogwarts on the newspaper. Dippet was good at burying scandal.
They had been for days in London. Tom went back to the place he despised the most, the orphanage, for a last dry goodbye and so the muggles could tell he had been there.
Then they took a muggle train, leading to north.
She was excited to travel alone with him, far from the school's routine, far from magic. They could have spent a lot of tike just for themselves, but soon she noticed he had too much else into his mind.
Tom didn't decide yet how to create his horcrux, he was just sure that he would have taken the first good occasion.
Susan imagined he could choose randomly a muggle on that same train and strangle him just for that. It was an awful plan, but she knew he was so blinded by his ambitions he was able to do that.
"I saw the dementor's kiss once" she whispered shivering at the memory "I saw the soul leaving the body. I don't think I want to see it happening to you".
He frowned in disagreement "You prefer seeing me dead, once and forever?".
"Don't tell that" she begged tiredly.
It was something on which they weren't able to agree.
Tom craved limitlessness, Susan preferred being careful.
She felt she needed to fight before he did something irreparable. His mistake with Myrtle Warren was incomparable to the decision of willingly killing someone.
"I believed you could understand me, but now I'm no more sure" Tom walked nervously in the room they rented in Great Hangleton "Why can't you understand that avoiding death is my priority? You noticed too that it's even in my name. Nomen omen. Voldemort. Fly from death".
She sent him a sideways glance from the bed she was sitting on "A name that you created".
He shrugged "I shared my plans with you so you can make it too. You can create a horcrux with me".
"I won't willingly choose that. I know our age is cool, being young and beautiful. But I don't care".
"You should instead. Now we always need to be careful, but with an horcrux we'll be unstoppable" he sat next to her, staring with a wild emotion "There won't be nothing to care about except our targets. No one and nothing can't stop us anymore. We cannot die".
She stared back. She felt he could try to manipulate her too as easily as he was used to do with his followers. He was so good at achieving whatever he wanted. But he wanted to be immortal more than having someone on his same level.
His hand slid on her leg, but she took it away, blocking it on the bed "You won't persuade me nor by teasing my lust nor by torturing me".
He smirked "I can make a mix of them".
"I'm not joking!" She snapped "And I do understand you. It's you who can't understand".
Tom winced, bit she came closer saying softly "We were victims of other people's big mistakes. But now you own your life. You own your soul. The choice is entirely yours. And you can't go back from certain choices, that can change everything".
"I promise you I won't change. I will still be me, just a bit more powerful".
She tilted her head "You'll have your soul broken and you'll have murdered a person. How can that not change anything? If someone would know that, you'll be locked into Akzaban forever".
"But nobody will know, unless you betray me. It will be alright, I planned everything, I will be scrupulous. And I need your help".
She disagreed "I don't want you to ruin your soul. There can be other ways to escape death".
"You know there is not something more efficient than that. I'm sorry of I'm so stubborn, but I don't deserve death, do I?".
She rolled her eyes "You're just sixteen".
"But you're the only one who knows as well as me how much I've been close to death this year. Not to count the times you faced death".
"Still I don't want to kill to preserve myself. You know how big is this step you want to take. There's no way back to restor your soul. Except you feel the deepest remorse, that can even kill you. The price is so big. You'll sacrifice everything".
He looked down murmuring "It's a right price".
Susan stared at him grievous "So you're so sure that's what you want?".
"Yes" he replied with no hesitance "Just I'm not sure when I'll do that yet".
"Didn't we come here to look for your relatives?" She sighed trying to shift to a less hurting topic.
"True. We'll focus on that first. Tomorrow we'll look for the Gaunts' house in Little Hangleton".
"Are you excited?".
He frowned "Not much. Just because I might meet my relatives, it doesn't mean I have to care about them, when they didn't care about me for all my life".
"You don't need them".
He smirked "Exactly".
On the next morning they got ready for the trip.
A target said that there were six miles to Little Hangleton.
So they had a long walk, till they reached the valley where the village was.
They entered a muggle pub called The Hanged Man, where they managed to get the information they needed.
It was late in the evening when Tom decided to visit his relatives' house, that turned out to be a decadent shack.
She remembered the old article that led them there. The Gaunts' went to Azkaban for some crimes. They were criminals, but she wasn't afraid.
"You wait here" Tom whispered raising the lamp that he brought to light their way.
"What? Why?" She complained.
"It's not safe. I don't want it to end like into the Chamber. I'll deal with this alone. Then I'll share everything with you, but you have to wait here. Deal?".
Susan disagreed, but didn't dare to argue more, so she stopped on the main lane while Tom walked to the dark door of the building and loudly knocked, then he disappeared inside talking into his weird language.
Susan crossed her arms, hating that she couldn't witness a family reunion just because she wasn't a parselmouth. She hated feeling cut out from something that was related to Tom. She had to stay away from the Chamber, she now had to stay away from his family.
Some noises from the shack alarmed her, then they turned into shouts.
Without a second thought, she ran to the door taking out her wand.
When she opened the door, she saw Tom and he seemed unharmed.
He was standing in front of a dirty man lying on the messy floor, his hair and beard so long that she couldn't spot a human face under them.
"Tom! What are you doing? You used magic?" She asked jumping when the door closed behind her with a bang.
"I told you to stay outside".
The ice of the boy's voice made her stiffen.
"I heard yells and bangs" she whispered shyly "I was worried for you".
"Alright. I disarmed him now" his tone turned softer "You can come closer".
She noticed a knife on the floor, amongst all the messy. So she guessed he referred to more than just the man's wand that Tom was holding into his hand.
"Is he..?".
"He's my uncle. Marvolo is dead".
Tom rudely grabbed the man's face and forced him to look into his eyes. He was taking his memories.
Susan watched around her, feeling deeply unconfortable. Seeing that pureblood wizards were dwelling in such a filthy place disgusted her very much. It was even hard to believe that Tom was related to such an ugly and untameable beast that was squirming trying to get free from the boy's spell that immobilized him.
She concluded that Tom took from that family just the blood. It was right to cut every link with it.
After some minutes, Tom stupefied his uncle using his wand.
"Was it necessary?" She asked quietly, worried at the sight of the hard expression on the boy's face.
"I'm not done with him. There's something else I have to deal with now" Tom took the lamp and walked easily out from that cottage with the man's wand. They always agreed that taking a wizard's wand was humiliating, like stealing someone's dignity.
She followed him for not being left into the darkness "What are you talking about?".
Tom reached the main street like he was now familiar with that place.
"My father" he hissed staring at the dark in front of him.
"Your father?" She whispered confused "He's still alive?".
"Not for much longer".
She hardly repressed a shiver at the cold menace in his voice.
"And he's here?".
Tom nodded towards the opposite hill, where the silhouette of a big house was barely visible.
He was walking at a fast speed and it was a bad premonition.
Creating a horcrux from his father's murder was really the most wicked plan.
They moved from the High Street to a pathway into a wood, to reach the manor from its back.
Susan ran to grab the boy's arm to stop him "Wait. You're too upset. Maybe you should delay the visit".
He barely slowed down, dragging her with him "I can't delay. I don't have to leave traces. I'll be fast. Then we'll be gone far from here for tomorrow".
"Tom, please, listen to me" she insisted desperately "You made me come to help you, so now let me help you".
He stopped without turning "You don't have to come. You'll be more useful here. Wait here and don't interfere".
She felt deeply awful, she hated feeling used like an ordinary object.
Tom sensed he had been too rude, so he turned and squeezed her hand "It's already so hard for me. Please, don't make this harder".
"I can't let you do that".
"It's a right deal. I'll execute him for what he did to me, for abandoning a witch. I'll talk to him first. I need to know if he at least knew that I exist. Then.. I don't know. You don't have to worry about me".
"Why don't you want me to be with you?".
"I don't want you to deal with this..dirt. The previous visit had already been so disappointing. You're too precious to let you be concerned with a filthy muggle".
"I can handle it. I want to be at your side" she took his cold hand.
He ducked his head, then looked at the house to which they continued to walk to.
Some dim lights attracted them to the windows and they watched inside.
The big rooms were lit by many candles.
They moved till they noticed a person in what appeared like a library. He was tall and good looking. And he looked familiar, even though Susan never met him before.
"Is that your father?" She whispered breathless.
"No more than a filthy muggle".
She turned to the boy, whose handsome face was distorted by the disgust and hatred he was barely controlling.
Tom grew up knowing nothing more than misery. While that man owned a big house and had a wealthy life, never caring of his son.
When the muggle moved away, Tom seemed willing to follow him as a predator follow its prey into the shadows, but when Susan walked behind him, he turned like he forgot for a moment he wasn't alone.
Before she could question, he grabbed her wrist and took her far from the house.
He dragged her down the hill, but her hope that he could have changed his mind soon died.
"I'll be better if you stay here" he put the lamp into her hand "I'll be back. Just wait here".
"You don't have to do it. You can just forget him".
"I won't get a better occasion than this. I want this to be over. Will you do this for me? Will you wait? I told you that I'll share everything with you, it's a promise".
She gaped wishing not to let him go, but before she could say something, he came closer and kissed her desperately. So she had no choice but surrender and let him go.
"It'll be all fine" he whispered on her lips.
She watched him walking away, back to the manor on the hill, soon swallowed by the darkness.
She touched her cheek and looked at her wet fingertips. His tear. A tear from the boy who never cried.
It was like he said goodbye, a farewell.
She thought back to their previous passionate night and couldn't accept that it could have been their last.
The boy who would have come back from the manor could have not been her Tom Riddle anymore.
Time slowed down and tortured her with its silence.
She found a log that could be a good bench. She sat on it putting down the lamp and watching worried to the few dim lights from the manor.
She remembered what she felt from the mind reading into the pub. Into the mess of the muggles' minds, she heard of a snobbish unpopular squire that lived into a big house and owned most of the lands in the nearby. She couldn't guess it was right the Riddles' family.
Her stress exploded when she saw green lights from the house, then darkness fell.
She jumped up covering her open mouth with her hands. So Tom did it. He was a murdered. The death of Myrtle Warren happened unwillingly, this time it was different. He killed Tom Riddle and was just Lord Voldemort.
She thought to his uncle, who would have been blamed for the murder and sent to Azkaban again. Just like Rubeus Hagrid, he would have paid for a crime that Tom committed.
That was the price for having unwillingly crossed path with the boy and being considered insignificant and weak by him.
Susan couldn't help but feeling scared. Tom was now able to do anything. He could realize even his greatest and wicked ambitions.
And he would have allowed anyone to stop him, not even herself.
She felt that all those secrets she was sharing with him were starting to strangle her.
She was maybe the only one who could report him, the one who could prove that the real Tom Riddle wasn't the quiet and brilliant poor student that almost everyone believed he was. She could betray him, but in fact she couldn't.
And Tom knew it better or he would have eliminated her as easily as he did with his father.
He was too powerful, charismatic and manipulative. He was careless, so he would have gained whatever he wanted.
She felt like she belonged just to the play he was acting. He let her be close to him more than he ever did to any other person in the while world, but it was more to please himself and his desires than for any affection.
Susan remembered when they were just two new students of eleven who discovered that they could play together and cheat the world around them. She couldn't know when those games turned into something so real and serious, into their own lives.
They were drowning into the Dark Arts and she couldn't remember when they approached them for the first time. Maybe Tom was already falling when she first met him and she let him drag her down there.
He was broken by years of abandonment amonsgst the muggles, when he learned he had special powers and decided to use them just to get revenge for all the injustices he was a victim of.
Who she could report him to? The Ministry of Magic was here enemy too.
She had no choice but follow Tom and let him give a meaning to her life, no matter if good or bad, that were a point of view after all, like darkness and light.
"Susan?".
She jumped retreating from the silhouette who appeared from the shadow. She was so lost into her thoughts she didn't hear anything approaching her.
"It's me, Susan. It's over" Tom whispered staring at her with an unreadable expression. The lamp's weak light hit his face but it made her look more spectral.
He was like a ghost.
His hands were down to his sides, his uncle's wand pointing to the ground.
"You did it?" She mumbled hating that her voice sounded so trembling and silly.
"Yeah" he faintly whispered.
She inhaled, forcing herself to believe that she understood his reasons, that he did the right thing. She had to lie to herself as she was used to do. But her instinct made her step backward. She needed more time alone to assimilate it.
"Don't walk away. Don't leave me alone now" he said tiredly, almost imploring.
And she couldn't say no. A part of her wanted to walk to him and hug him, but the idea that he had the blood of his own father on his hands let her frozen on spot.
"Are you giving it back?" She asked with husky voice nodding to the wand.
He nodded "Let's go".
They walked fast without saying anything. She had many questions into her mind, but she wanted to delay.
Perhaps he would have killed his uncle too if he didn't need a scapegoat.
The last Gaunt was lying unconscious as they left him.
Tom kneeled to put the wand under the man's hand, then he took a black and gold ring away from the man's finger. He scanned it with a craving look.
Susan came carefully closer to see it "Is that.. Peverell's sign?".
"It's our now".
She repressed a shiver at the plural, but she blamed it on the disgust for the dirt and the cobwebs into that room.
Tom manipulated the man's memory and deleted any traces of their visit.
The wizard and the witch left the village, walking into the dark.
Susan kept a certain distance from the boy, who suddenly said softly "I killed them all".
"Them?" She repeated flatly, but her mind imagined that the muggle could have a family, a new wife, maybe some kids. She felt horrified.
"Him. And his parents" Tom murmured, his eyes glazed over "He knew about me. And didn't care. As he didn't care that my mother died because of him. But I scared him. They were all scared".
Susan caught the satisfaction that for a moment lit his face.
He had a father and grandparents, he wasn't an orphan, he wasn't alone. But he chose to be.
"I'm still myself, Susan. As I promised you" Tom crossed her eyes and she held her breath. He looked normal, but her senses were screaming that they couldn't recognize him.
"Let's sit down for a moment. And I'll show you. I'll show you everything" he pointed to a bench on a side of the road and she followed him, sitting far from him, but he moved closer grabbing her arm.
"If you're too tired, you can sleep. I can wait till tomorrow" he suggested. He was so close she felt his breath on her skin, but like his hand it seemed so cold to her.
She knew she was sleepless. But she wished she could pretend.
Instead she stiffened and looked at him, at his inquisitive dark eyes "No. Show me now".
Those messy memories narrated sad stories. She saw his mother, a frightened girl who wasn't pretty, believed to be a squib, abused from his own father, so much that she could have become an obscurial.
Same as his son, who chose to accept his powers instead of looking for the muggles to accept him.
Marvolo was an evil angry man who owned nothing but his two children and two old objects belonged to Salazar Slytherin.
They were all parselmouths, but into Tom's mind Susan could understand their language.
Two pureblood heirs of Salazar Slytherin went to Azkaban because of a muggle. The same muggle Merope Gaunt fell for. Tom's father.
She used magic to trick him and force him to follow her far away from there. But she made a mistake by thinking he could willingly love her back. And not even knowing that she was with child made him stay. The muggle went back home, but he was so ashamed that he didn't find the strength of moving on. He locked himself into his big house, forgetting to live, uninterested to look for another girl with whom making a family, as he planned with his teenage fiancées.
What a waste. He could have accepted her wife and forgave her for cheating on him, at least for the best for their son. But muggles were weak and snobbish.
He broke a witch's heart and probably that made her survive just to give birth to her son, then it killed her.
The halfblood Tom's hatred towards love and feelings wasn't a coincidence. Somehow it was in his nature.
He had no faults. He just happened to be born and be forsaken by everyone. The Ministry didn't care of helping Merope when she was left alone and when she let herself die. And it didn't care of her son, leaving him in the most crucial years of a human being into a muggle orphanage, where he could have become an obscurial, if he wasn't strong enough to control his power. As the Ministry abandoned her, Susan, to an old witch who hadn't the mental sanity to care of a little orphan girl.
If now a monster was rising, it wasn't Tom's fault, it was the Ministry of Magic's responsibility. Tom was just trying to make something great from the broken pieces of his life.
Susan hugged him, even knowing she wasn't powerful enough to change his dark past nor to comfort him after all the bad things he came to know in few hours.
His father destroyed the last descendants of Salazar Slytherin and his son Tom took what the muggle should have willingly offered to him since his conception, his own life. The boy couldn't ever feel regret for what he did.
There was no good nor bad, just desperate tentatives to get some justice. The cruel life took so much from the innocent young Tom Riddle, he had the right to ask for his big ambitions to come true.
When they got back to London the sun had already risen. It was a fine morning.
But Susan didn't enjoy it. It was like it was gonna be forever night in her life.
She wondered when someone would have found three people dead still in their dinner clothes into the drawing room. And the last Gaunt would have been committed with that crime.
But she forced herself to forget about that. The boy sitting next to her had nothing as inheritance except from a curious heirloom, the ring. The Gaunts' house wasn't valuable and no way a wizard could be interested into a muggle big house.
The ring was all that Tom earned from the journey, along with his broken soul.
He didn't look different. Even into his mind everything seemed ordinary. The chaotic emotions were justified from all the shocks he'd been through. But his act against nature didn't seem to affect him, not yet.
For really making a horcrux he had to wait to go back to Hogwarts, where he could fully use magic. And for the first time Susan wished the summer would never end.
"Are you alright?" Ophelia was hosting them for some days.
"Sure. Just tired" Susan crossed her eyes. Her friend couldn't imagine what she'd been through. And that was good for her.
Ophelia sat next to her smiling "You know you could stay here longer. I'm really glad if we can spend the whole holidays together".
Susan smiled back "Thank you. But Tom and I are planning to travel a bit, also to meet our other friends. And I have to go back home for some things I have to take".
Lying was an ability that was fundamental for someone like her and Tom. Their followers needed to be able to the lie to the rest of the world except to the two of them.
If legilimency appeared to be something fascinating and indispensable, once learned it Susan understood it was a double faced weapon. Nobody could keep secrets to her except the occlumens. But knowing wasn't always a nice thing.
Susan reached the next door, finding Tom behind it.
They had separate rooms, but as in Hogwarts they were used to spend some nights together.
The boy had been apparently quiet for days, not regretting what he did, but meditating.
She had felt into his mind that one thing that troubled him was that he despised his resemblance with his father as much as the name he took from him.
But his good look made it easier for him to be welcomed by people and manupulate them. It was a weapon he needed.
"Would you still look at me as you are doing now if I looked differently? Let's say, if I looked like my uncle?" He asked softly turning his head to cross her staring.
She retreated frowning "Of course I would. Do you think I'm so superficial? We shared so much, so many adventures, so many secrets. How can you think that I'm here with you just because you're so handsome?".
"Because I know how you worship my appearance. I see it each time you stare at me like I'm your living dream".
She tittered "Well, I have nothing to complain about your gorgeousness. Why does it bother you now? You know that it's so superficial. I asked you many times if I can shape-shift into some figure you like..".
"I like you as you really are" he cut her off "I don't want you to change for me".
"The same for me, my Lord" she concluded softly "You're perfect as you are to me".
Tom stared at her, then an angle of his lips curved up "Okay, I won't change for you. It's just..that sometimes I envy your ability. It's like for snakes, that they can change their skin".
She laughed letting herself falling to lie on the bed "You have nothing to envy. You are like a butterfly. You thought you were like an insignificant larva, stuck into a place where nobody could understand you, but you felt you were different and special. And then you found out that you had magic. Metamorphosis. You became a butterfly, so charming, so talented, so brilliant. And you learned to fly. And now you can fly so high".
He smiled like she never imagined he was still able to do.
"I like it. And I'm so lucky I met a butterfly like you" he leaned in to kiss her, who sighed relieved, having doubted he could understand her simile, since butterfly was a weak insect with a very short life. While he wanted to live forever.
As he promised, Tom accompanied her back home.
He managed to persuade her it was her turn, so they would have shared the same secret crimes.
They went in Wales where Susan's life changed forever. She didn't come back there since then. Nature had covered the signs of the tragedy, but the girl still had the scars deep inside her.
Then they reached her isolated house. Susan wanted him to be present even if she guessed the meeting would have been embarrassing and shameful.
The girl felt uncomfortable holding on his arm. At least she was going to own a house, her home. When Tom's only home was Hogwarts.
She was used to weak long sleeves into that property, but this time she kept her muggle clothes, a shirt with short sleeves and a skirt.
The old house-elf Gabbe gaped with surprise and shock when she opened the door to the young couple.
"Miss Susan" the elf squeaked "We were worried for you".
"Well, now I'm here" Susan sharply concluded.
The elf stood aside to let them walk in. She bowed to the stranger boy, mumbling "Good morning, sir".
But Tom was busy at lingering his eyes on what was around them. There was no way to compare it to his uncle's filthy shack. It was something between the charm of a castle and the opulence of his muggle father's house. Opulence that was fake because Griselda Peverell wasn't rich. She was abusing of a house she didn't belong and needed to show wealth in order to try to hide her ignominious blindness.
"Who's there?" The old witch's hateful voice echoes from the main staircase.
Gabbe scurried to reach her announcing "Miss Susan has arrived, madam".
Griselda slid carefully on few stairs, holding on the elaborated railing. Her motions were menacing, but Susan could just look at her with disgust.
"Well, well. The maiden cared to honor us with her presence" the old with spitted out with contempt "Where have you been? It's middle of July".
"You already wished I was dead, didn't you?" Susan tried to move towards the old woman who was walking down helped by the elf, but Tom stopped her, keeping her next to him in the middle of the entrance hall.
Griselda seemed realizing that the girl wasn't alone and moved her head like sensing his presence.
"Who's there with you?" She asked with curiosity hurrying to meet them.
Susan gave him a fast glance and replied blankly "He's my classmate".
"Crush, huh?" Griselda laughed maliciously "How I wish I can damn see him. Come here, boy".
She extended her hand gesturing him to come closer and he obeyed, acting polite even if the woman couldn't see.
"Surname?" She questioned, hungrily putting her hands on him and shamelessly touching his face and body.
"Riddle" he replied softly.
Griselda grimaced "Never heard. Mudblood?".
Susan rolled her eyes, pulling him away from within her grasp "Granny, he's related to the Gaunts. He's a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin".
If she could see, she would have turned white noticing the ring that the boy was wearing at his finger.
"Ha! Gaunts" instead the woman said loudly "I haven't heard good news about them. No need to wonder why they're out of society. But I didn't know there was a young Gaunt".
"You can't know everything" Susan scoffed.
Griselda was still pointing to the boy "So is it a serious thing? Boy, you are not thinking of having fun with my kid without engaging, are you? I loath modern fashions. Too many freedoms. I can't live knowing that my granddaughter is dishonoured by a halfblood".
Susan had to keep a laugh. If only the old witch could know what kind of unsayable potions her granddaughter had to smuggle in order to have all kind of fun with the boy without inconvenient consequences. Maybe that secret could have been enough to kill a woman obsessed with old traditions.
Tom looked amused too, but he replied sounding solemn "Don't worry, Mrs. My intentions are more than serious".
"Well well. You have a voice" the woman seemed pleased "And a lovely one. Hope that's not the only good thing of you".
"Of course not" Susan intervened giving him a knowing look "He's the best student Hogwarts ever had. He even won a special award this year".
"A prefect like you?".
"Of course".
Griselda pondered doubtful, then sentenced "Hmm, that's not enough. In order to deserve to become part of our family, you'll have to work hard, boy, very hard".
"He already deserves it. We don't need your approval" Susan said harshly.
Griselda turned to her "Cocky now, kid? You forgot the sound of whips?".
"Don't you dare menacing her" Tom hissed.
"Or what? You shouldn't even have magic. How dare you talk to me like that?".
"Enough!" Susan shouted. Her hand slithered to her wand, but that wasn't her plan.
Griselda attacked her again "Why did you come back, kid? You know you won't leave this house without all your bones broken, for your insolence. And you too, boy. You can't protect her. You'll be beaten till you'll forget about her".
"This house belongs to me" Susan stated wih the same dose of hatred "You abused too much of something that's not yours".
"Little ungrateful kid, I wanted to make you a great witch. I shouldn't have allowed you to go to that school. Obviously rules are not so stricted as many years ago. They should have taught you to have respect towards the old people".
The girl stared at her disgusted "You lost my respect many years ago".
"How dare you, you little tr...".
"Enough" Tom's cold tone managed to make the woman stiffen "I can just make you a promise, Mrs. Susan will be a great witch, better than you can ever imagine".
Griselda frowned, then said bittery "Surely not thanks to you, halfblood. You came to say goodbye, kid? You're not graduated yet, magic can't save you now. You two are in big troubles".
Susan sighed tiredly, asking softly "Why do you hate me so much, Griselda? You were good to me, before... well, you know better than me. Why you blamed me for everything? I lost my parents and you blamed me like I killed them. You blamed me for your blindness. In all these years you just made me regret I didn't die when that bridge crushed down".
Tears were all fallen years before, so the girl was just left with bitterness. Tom's arms held her still, while they were staring at the unreadable white eyes of the woman, who appeared angry and desperate at the same time.
After quite a long silence, she replied strongly "But you survived, Susan. Life isn't fair, life is fighting every single day against many menaces. I wanted you to be strong. I say the truth when I say that I love you".
Susan retreated like she didn't want to be affected by her words "I hate your love. You just made me wish to die. I was only a little girl and I felt so alone. And what did you do? You just tortured me and kept into a cage!".
"But look what you are now!" Griselda insisted like seeikg something that Susan couldn't see "You're almost independent. You're not like those spoilt kids that survive just thanks to their parents' shelter and protection. You wanted someone to replace your parents, but people die, my dear, you know it now. People die and you have to move on by yourself".
"I would have become independent anyway. I'm good at adapting at any situation. All I wanted was some kindness and humanity. But you treated me worse than a beast" Susan clenched her teeth.
"I'm only a human. And I'm not good at pretending".
Tom hugged the girl, whispering to her "Susan, let's go. She doesn't deserve more of our time".
The old witch looked like she forgot there was someone else and mocked "I'm scaring you, boy?".
"No" Tom confessed scarily calm "You don't scare me. You disgust me. I felt all the evilness of your rotten heart. You worth nothing".
Griselda smirked "Coldness of a Gaunt. Now I see. So that's the one you choose, Susan?".
"Yes" she replied proudly "I'm not alone anymore. I have him. I don't need your cruelty anymore".
The old woman looked confused "But you need this house? Or what did you come to steal from here?".
Susan lowered her eyes to the old house-elf who was supporting the nasty witch without complaining.
She stiffened a grin and replied blankly "I just wanted to meet you one last time, Griselda. To say goodbye".
Griselda Peverell probably felt the darkness coming for her in the end. After years of prepotence and spice there was just emptiness inside. And maybe a bit of fear for what her granddaughter was becoming. What was left of her beloved daughter, unfairly died too young, was standing in front of her, ready to get revenge for all those hellish years.
The domestic elf, Gabbe, kept giving her her usual sleeping draught, not knowing that every cup had some drops of poison.
And Griselda never complained, believing that the aching pain into her heart was dued to her many regrets and worries.
Few weeks later their visit, the last Peverell died.
Susan enjoyed being the heiress. But it was also easy to pretend she was sad for the loss. She just had to focus on Tom's future to appear really mournful.
The blind witch was old and used to refuse any visit from healers of st. Mungo's. So everybody believed it was a natural departure.
She wasn't very loved, but funerals were a good occasion to reunite the large family and acquaintance.
August ended fast and it was time to move to Diagon Alley for shopping for school.
The last visitors left Susan's house. Tom went to take a portkey with few of his Knights.
Lestrange remained to escort Susan, who stopped into the entrance hall calling her house-elf and handing her a packet "This is for you, Gabbe".
The elf shyly took it and opened it. Her eyes grew wider as she looked up to the girl, gaping confused.
"You deserved it, Gabbe. You can do whatever you want now".
The house-elf took the socks while her eyes watered "Miss is too kind... I've never expected... I would have served you faithfully as I've always done...".
"You don't need to serve anyone anymore" the girl said impatiently "The choices are all up to you from now on".
"This is so much" the elf squeaked, then jumped and hugged her "Thank you, Miss. You're too kind. Thank you. Thank you!".
Lestrange walked forward to intervene, but Susan stopped him with a wave of hand.
She patted the elf's shoulder twisting free from her arms "You can go now, Gabbe".
The elf bowed and scurried off to take her few ownings, then disapparating as easily as Susan hoped she was able to do soon.
"Was it necessary?" Lestrange complained. He couldn't understand why someone would free a servant.
"Don't discuss my choices" she scolded him dragging him out of the house.
"Why you didn't warn Tom?".
"He's not concerned with what he judges irrelevant. He takes no trouble to comprehend what he considers valueless, as an old house-elf" she was sure he already forgot the elf's existence.
She raised her wand and locked the door, casting some powerful protective spells around the whole property.
When she would have come back, she would have finally owned it.
For now Hogwarts was her only home.
~~~
Cast updates
Judi Dench as Griselda Peverell