"Merlin's beard, Tom!" yelped Slughorn. "Seven! Isn't it bad enough to think of killing one person? And in any case... bad enough to divide the soul... but to rip it into seven pieces..."
HP6
~~~~~~~
The train was flying through the English fields.
Evelyn observed her boyfriend, trying to spot every little difference from the boy he was used to be before being a murderer.
He just looked innocent and gentle. And damned gorgeous.
Only she knew that a murderer was going straight to Hogwarts. The Knights already greeted them with flattering speeches, but Tom wanted to stay in a compartment only with her.
Evelyn glanced at his gold and black ring. He made her wear it only one, then he possessively wore it as a part of him. The ring and the notebook.
Evelyn turned her head to look out the window, letting him scribble on his diary.
After their rough reunion in the Leaky Cauldron, she took all his letters and opened them, drowning in those poetic, sweet words, no matter if they were only lies.
In those latest weeks he acted like a normal boy. He visited her in the shop every day, taking her to dinner, then they went shopping together for the school equipment. Sometimes she agreed to spend the night together.
That routine made her slowly forget about his crimes, or at least she didn't give them anymore the importance she was used to do when he first told her.
It was past and she wanted to live a new chapter. She just promised herself to keep an eye on him so he wouldn't kill anyone again.
She looked back at Tom. He was growing more handsome. That was the only difference she could notice. But it was also his will to take care of his look for her, so she would lose her mind every time she laid her eyes on him.
Tom raised his eyes catching her shooking her head, but before they could argue about it, they were called to a reunion for the prefects.
Evelyn scanned the new prefects, sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing with the choices.
Everything went smoothly. They reached Hogwarts, the prefects led the students to the castle, they dined. It was all ordinary.
No matter if few months earlier a student died, the half giant was expelled and later Tom secretly murdered his muggle family.
Life was moving on. And Evelyn agreed that she had to move on too.
She glanced at Tom, who was eating normally like any other student. Sensing her staring, he smiled at her. And Evelyn complimented herself for making the right choice. She couldn't have survived if she definitely broke with him and allowed him to get another girlfriend.
They planned again to get the same courses, they constantly had patrolling shifts together and had their secret hours together in the Room of Requirements.
Tom never spoke again about marriage and having children. He didn't even mention making his horcrux, although she had made him swear that he would tell her when he was going to do that.
She understood that he didn't want to break the balance they gained for their relationship. And she was doing the same.
"You're lucky your relationship is lasting so long" Adele commented after updating about her recent unsuccessful affairs "Since you two started to date, I had a dozen of stories and none of them worked out for more than a couple of weeks".
"We had bad times too. To be honest, I don't even know how we can still be together" Evelyn confessed staring at the ceiling of their room.
"Because you are the perfect match" Adele smiled genuinely "I wonder if I'll ever find someone who can be the right match for me".
"I'm sure you will" Evelyn smiled back at her "You deserves the best man".
Adele scoffed, then turned to her with a serious face "Just to warn you, keep an eye on Tom. There's someone who has a bad crush on him and wants to take him away from you".
"Who?" Evelyn asked feeling not much troubled.
"The younger Slytherin prefect".
Evelyn has in mind the Black girl who happened to become the new Slytherin prefect girl and that pushed her to openly fall head over heels for the most handsome prefect in the school.
Adele's warning turned into a clear danger day by day.
Walburga Black was growing obstinate and insolent. She found every excuse to stick around Tom.
On the other hand Tom was focusing on his studies, but his mood started to swing out of his control.
And Evelyn was slowly losing her head.
After a tedious patrolling shift with a boring Gryffindor prefect, Evelyn saw a Slytherin boy approaching her. But it wasn't the one she was waiting to meet.
"How are you, Evy?" Lestrange gave her his typical insolent smirk "He sent me to tell you that he'll be late. And that he's sorry".
"Late?" She snapped "Two hours ago he said it would take only some minutes to help that girl with her homeworks, and now he says he'll be even more late?".
Lestrange lowered his head and sat next to her on the stairs "That girl is pretty annoying, I agree with that. But I'm sure the one who is the most annoyed is him".
"I don't think so or he would have already found a way to get rid of her" Evelyn mumbled "Have you seen how much make up she started to put on?".
The boy laughed "She looks like a peacock, seriously. But you are more beautiful, you know that right?".
"I'm not sure that's enough" she admitted "But I am sure that she won't stop until he will be hers".
"Let's pray it will never happen. I'm sick of her".
"At least you have Emma" Evelyn forced a weak smile.
"Yeah" Lestrange smiled to himself "But you know, wealso had our hard times. We broke up, we stayed away for long weeks, until we found out that it was the best for us to be back together. That's what matters. That the person you love comes back".
Evelyn hugged her knees, fearing that her boyfriend would never come back. Tom Riddle left her the previous summer. And the one who came back to her was more a stranger than an echo of him.
Later Evelyn heard the door of the common room opening and she was forced to deal with him.
"How can you always open this passage? They should change the door and put a password" she complained.
"No way. I like riddles" Tom smirked.
"You're fucking late" she snapped keeping distance from him.
"I know. Thank you for your patience".
She scowled at him "Well, you came so far to tell me goodnight and I presume that now you'll go back in your common room and she's still there waiting for you".
Tom narrowed his eyes "Are you jealous? Seriously?".
"It's not my fault. I don't understand why you can't shove her away. You know what she wants".
"Yes, but it doesn't mean I'll be easy for her. She is a prefect too, she can manipulate teachers so they force me to help her. It's not that simple".
"It's you who don't want to simply get rid of her!".
"You're so silly if you even just think I can be interested in such a dumb girl, no matter how much she tries to look nice. You can ask me to cruciate her in front of you as your next Valentine's gift" he teased her.
"Don't try to turn me into someone like you" she spat "I am just surprised that you enjoy sticking around her, while if I do such thing with another boy you would just kill him".
"So is this the trade you want? To break with me so you leave me with that chick and you can give yourself to someone else? As if there is someone who can replace me. We both know you can't leave me".
"Just to point this out, Riddle. I'm not with you because you're handsome or brilliant or whatever. And I don't even mind if you're so arrogant, violent, dangerous and sometimes so blinded by the darkness in your heart. Actually I don't even know why I'm still with you. Maybe I'm just infinitely stupid. But don't try my patience. I can still leave you".
"And I like this challenge. It wouldn't be hard to give you some drops of amortentia or cast some bonding spell. Where would the fun be then? But you must agree that what started as a game ended up with the result that we helplessly need each other".
She bitterly stared at him, his word were hurting her, but she couldn't find a reply.
"I'll create the horcrux" he announced suddenly to break the silence "Tonight".
"Don't kidding me" she hissed.
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" He said coldly "I am not sleepy. I won't go back into my dorm because of your suspects. I won't sleep with you because you just showed me how much you dispise me. So I think I have to tell you my plans, otherwise you would use it too against me".
"Don't use your crimes against me. That's a cruel way to punish me for speaking my mind".
"It's just something that I have to do" he said firmly "I already delayed too much, for not worrying you. But since you found other things to blame me, now I can finally finish my work. Would you like to join me and witness the magic or should I invite someone else?".
"Look at yourself, Riddle. You are so broken" she said with sorrow and anger "Alright. I come. But it doesn't mean that I agree with whatever you are doing".
They entered the Room of Requirement that was just a dark empty room. Tom only needed his ring and his wand to create his horcrux.
The anger turned into fear for Evelyn. She didn't know how to stop him nor how to deal with eventual side effects.
Tom focused hard on his task. He found the dark spell for moving a piece of his soul into an object, but the hardest part was surviving to that spell.
At first Tom tried to bear the agony he was feeling, then he could only scream, while a smoke of pure light left his body and moved into the ring.
Evelyn crawled on the floor covering her ears with her palms while an inhuman shriek silenced Tom's screams.
It was worst that the Cruciatus Curse.
Evelyn just wanted it to end because it was hurting her too.
And suddenly silence fell in the room.
The ring stopped glowing while Tom fainted.
Evelyn feared that he killed himself, but she checked he was still breathing. His head was burning with fever.
She didn't know what to do, so she just crawled next to him on the floor, somehow falling asleep.
She woke up feeling a hand caressing her. It was lovely sensation. She opened her eyes and saw Tom smiling at her.
It looked like a dream. Then memories slapped her hard.
She raised on her elbows. She slept on the floor. She had cried all her tears before falling asleep.
Tom looked fine. He was paler, still fevering, but he looked happy.
"I wish I have enough strength to slap you hard" she said, ignoring all the lovely words he said to comfort her.
He was wearing his ring. His broken soul was close to him.
"You can slap me later" he helped her stand up.
"How do you feel? I hated witnessing that thing".
"I feel happy. I have what I need now. And forget that, it's just a memory".
"You are burning with fever".
"Then I'll get some potion. Nobody will notice any difference, trust me. See? Now the evil thing is over. You can calm down. My father did what parents should do. He allowed me to have a life and a little extra to survive".
Evelyn disagreed but was too tired to keep arguing.
"So now you are immortal" she murmured, unaffected by his grin of triumph.
Tom promised that everything was the same as before, but Evelyn soon noticed that his evil action had some side effects, specially on his mood.
"Malfoy, you can surely do better. Even a little mudblood can do better than you" Tom snapped while watching his knights practicing in some old classroom in the dungeons. The Room of Requirement was exclusively for Tom and Evelyn.
Malfoy was doing the best to impress his lord, but he got the opposite result.
Avery started a duel to mock him, with the other knights cheering him.
Evelyn glanced worried at Tom, who was grinning with nonchalance. She ignored her pleading to stop it. So she took her wand to stop the mess. Malfoy raised his wand shielding his face with an arm and casted a spell that almost caught the only girl in the group.
The spell hit a crystal bowl, smashing it into pieces that flew all around the room.
Evelyn cried feeling her skin being scratched.
Tom shouted some curses and with a wave of his hand he sent Malfoy against a wall, making him fall heavily on the hard floor.
The other knights stood silently still.
Evelyn winced in pain adn her eyes widened when she saw her own blood coming from the many small cuts.
Tom approached her swearing and casted some healing spells that gave her immediate relief.
Then he attacked Malfoy "You hurt her! I'm the only one allowed to hurt her!".
"I didn't mean... I'm sorry!" Malfoy cried crawling on the floor.
"You didn't mean, but you did!" Tom's unusual irascibility turned into fury as he started to punish his knigh in his own way.
"Tom! Enough! It wasn't intentional!" Evelyn tried to stand between them, unable to witness more atrocities.
"If it was, he'd be dead by now" Tom hissed trying to shove her away.
"If you don't stop, someone is going to find us here and we will be all in big troubles" she stated firmly, finally catching Tom's eyes, who had to agree with her.
He dismissed everyone, but Evelyn knew it wasn't over. The Tom she was used to know would have found a way to turn his victim into troubles and let the school's rules do their job. Instead now he was impulsive, driven by his emotions.
Evelyn kept an eye on him, until one night, as she feared, he sneaked out of the castle after dinner, followed by an hallucinated Malfoy.
They stopped only in the Forbidden Forest.
"You shouldn't get out of the castle at this late hour, Evelyn" Tom suddenly said coldly without even glancing at her. He raised his wand and casted some silencing spells.
She came out from behind the trees "Same for you. We will all get into troubles for this. And for what? Because of him?".
"I am doing this for you" Tom said with a slightly mocking tone "He knew he can't harm you in any way. He broke the rules, he must be punished".
He glanced at her disagreeing face, then pointed his wand against Malfoy "Crucio!".
Evelyn startled covering her ears with her hand, then took her wand, but Tom waved his and disarmed her.
She cursed when she saw her wand in his free hand. He smirked and moved back to torture his knight, who screamed in agony.
Evelyn recalled when she was the one who tortured her cousin, driving her to madness. She couldn't let it happen again. She couldn't bear it.
"Tom, stop. Now!" She screamed assaulting Tom to lower his arm.
"You should join me, not protecting this dumb idiot!" He pushed her away, but she struggled to get her wand back.
Finally he surrendered it to her, but didn't stop to enjoy the torture.
"Tom, please, enough!" She begged with tears in her eyes.
"Just a little more..." He insisted adoring the magic he was performing.
"I'll scream!" She menaced desperately.
"Do it!" He challenged her.
Evelyn stared at him broken, then waved her wand to break his silencing spells and screamed at the top of her voice.
It made him stop. Malfoy collapsed to the ground, but the torture was over for him.
Tom stared at her shocked and menacing, but before he could harm her, teachers started to arrive.
Evelyn watched him with her heart broken. He was speechless, his skin turned paler.
"What happened?" Dumbledore asked glancing between the two of them.
Evelyn felt Tom's hot stare. If look could kill he surely would have already killed her.
"I don't know..." She said breathing heavily, staring into the teacher's penetrating eyes "I noticed he walked out of the castle".
She swallowed hard "And I followed him to understand what was into his mind. Then something attacked him. And I screamed".
Dumbledore looked around and rested his eyes on the fainted Slytherin boy "There's a reason if it's forbidden going out of the castle after sunset. Riddle, take her back into the castle. Maybe a jump into the infirmary will help".
Evelyn stared in horror as the boy slowly approached her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pushing her towards the castle.
His hand moved and rested on the back of her neck. She knew she enraged him enough to make him willing to break her neck.
"You made me think you betrayed me" he said in a whisper when they stepped into the castle "You're the only one who dared to challenge me so dangerously".
"I had to stop you" she defended herself.
"Yeah, you managed to do that".
"What will you do to me now?" She asked glancing at him with worry.
Tom eyed her with an unreadable gaze, then smirked at his own way of torturing her "I'll take you to the infimary as suggested. Are you afraid of what my punishment will be? Well, I won't punish you since you didn't betray me. You made the right choice when you manipulated the truth to save me. I'm grateful, not angry".
Evelyn felt better in the infirmary. She didn't want to stay alone with the crazy version of Tom. But when Malfoy was carried there, her heart tightening.
Somehow he recovered better and faster than she could ever imagine.
He didn't betray his master and invented a story to justify why he was in the forbidden forest and didn't know what attacked him.
Tom was satisfied and soon forgot about it. Malfoy was welcomed back amongst the knights and he turned more loyal and handworking.
Evelyn couldn't move on so easily. Tom started to keep her out of his misdeeds, but she couldn't just let him do whatever he wanted while she didn't have the same freedom.
One evening she skipped her patrolling shift. She heard that Tom invited some of his mates to some meeting with Slughorn after dinner. And she was curious to understand why Tom wanted to spend more time with Slughorn when he always complained about joining his Slug Parties.
She hid behind the door, hearing some boring chatting. The professor praised his favourite student as usual.
Then she had to move away before the boys exited Slughorn's office. Only Tom stayed in the room, alone with the teacher.
When she approached the door again, the soft conversation shocked her.
They were speaking of horcruxes.
She couldn't believe that Tom decided to speak about that with a teacher. He already knew and made his horcrux. It was nonsense.
Evelyn recognized his acting, he wanted something, he was manipulating the teacher to get that.
She hated hearing about that dark stuff again. She believed it was over, instead Tom decided to share it with a professor.
The conversation turned worse when Tom carefully asked if a soul could be only split once. Evelyn gasped. Also the teacher didn't hide his shock.
Tom was planning to make at least seven horcruxes. Which meant he wanted to kill again.
Evelyn moved away from the door in time. Tom opened it and walked away.
She was sweating cold, pinned against a dark wall. She glanced at the door of the teacher's office and for a moment wanted badly to go in there and reveal everything to Slughorn. She wanted people to open their eyes, to see the monster that Tom Riddle was becoming.
But again knowing that her word couldn't win against Tom's made her surrender.
She tried to not care, but the nightmare was haunting her.
"What's wrong with you? Did you hear a word of what I said?" Tom snapped waking her up from her thoughts.
They were studying together in an empty library while everyone else was watching a Quidditch match.
"I'm afraid I didn't" she confessed.
He sighed with annoyance "Then tell me at least what's keeping your mind so busy".
Evelyn laid her eyes on him, she wished to have someone to whom share her worries, but she could only talk straight to him about their secrets.
"Not what, who. You" she hissed.
Tom raised an eyebrow, resting his back against the chair "So what did I do wrong this time?".
She swallowed under his gaze, then started to attack "When I told you about Merrythought leaving Defence Against Dark Arts, I believed it was clear it had to be a secret".
He pondered her words, then said kindly "It would have leaked somehow anyway. Is that really what troubles you?".
She tightened her lips then asked in a forced whisper "Why are you still interested in horcruxes? One isn't enough for you?".
Tom gaped, then bit his bottom lip. His eyes lit with malice "Eavesdropping isn't polite, Evelyn".
"Why did you ask him?" She insisted.
He leaned towards her and whispered excited "Nobody ever tried to split a soul more than once, you remembered we talked about that".
She didn't want to recall those conversation, when everything was just speculation "Isn't one crime enough? Who will be the next victim? Me?".
"Don't be silly, Evy. Maybe it will be that chick you dispise so much, although she is ready to do anything to please me".
Evelyn jumped up with anger "I can't stand it, Tom. I agreed to let you make your horcrux. I can't forgive you again if you create other five of them by killing again".
"Let me? I'm not asking for your permission. Is it a crime if I am breathing without asking you first? Is it a crime if I'm so skilled it would be a shame if I die?" He argued.
"There's no life without death. Instead of making yourself immortal, you are killing yourself. You changed, Tom. You don't want to notice it but that's true" she snapped, her feelings so hurt that she needed to walk away.
That was too much. Tom started to cover his hands with blood and he was getting addicted to it.
Evelyn couldn't even bear the idea of taking away the life from a person. And he needed new victims just for a number, just to reach a childish goal. Seven murders for seven pieces. Her instinct told her she was going to be one of those victims.
"Evelyn, you can't avoid me forever" Tom's chanting voice chased her everywhere. Evelyn regretted choosing his same courses. She didn't want to see him but they were constantly forced to be close, except for when they stayed in their common rooms.
"Let's talk" he insisted following her in the corridors after their last lesson together.
She rolled her eyes and suddenly turned to face him "Right. Let's talk".
She motioned to the closest empty room.
When she heard the door closing behind them, she said with her voice broken "We are just arguing over everything. We can't go on like that. It's over. I can't say if it's yours or my fault, but it's over".
Tom stared at her in shock "You don't really mean...".
"I do, Tom" she insisted "I am breaking up with you. It's over. You were right, you are free whatever you want with your life. It's just that there's no place for me in it anymore. I can't stay with you knowing that you are planning to kill again".
He didn't even blink. He was waiting for her to take her words back, but she stubbornly held his gaze.
"You can't truly break with me" he hissed.
"That's right what I am doing" she crossed her arms "You don't need to blackmail me, nor to manipulate my memory. I will keep your secrets, because I won't get any good by revealing them. I'm tired of fighting you, Tom. I just want some peace, while you are so obstinate in messing up with your life and your soul. So peace?".
"Don't tell me that you now are going to ask me to stay friends?".
"I'm asking peace, not to stay friends" she said coldly.
He pondered his options, biting nervously his lip "Don't you need time to think about it?".
"I already took my time" she was pleased to see that he wasn't indifferent, meaning that somehow he still cared for her, that he was hurt just as she felt broken hearted. But she had to do that.
"Alright, then" he finally said with a weak whisper.
"Goodbye, Tom" she said moving to reach the door behind him, wishing that he would stop her and force her to follow his will. She sensed the energy coming from him, he was thinking the same think, his arms were slightly shaking, but he didn't stop her.
She opened the door and inhaled deeply.
"I'm sorry" he said loudly.
She turned to cross his stare, his beautiful eyes showed sorrow, but she knew it wasn't enough. His ring was shining to prove her right.
"You're not" she whispered with one last glance to him, then she slammed the door.
She should have felt free, but she just felt broken as she'd never been before.
All the determination that led her to that drastic action vanished when she did it.
She lied to herself when she thought it could be easy to break up with him. It would have been easy with any other boy, except Tom Riddle. She had been so lost in him that she sacrificed everything for him, her dignity, herself. She knew the darkest side of him. And that darkness blinded her too. She never dared to call love what she felt for him. It was a forbidden word for him, so she never used it out of respect for him. But walking away from him, she knew for sure that if she ever loved someone in her life, that someone was Tom Riddle, no matter how many times he had hurt her and broke her heart. He planned to break his soul into seven pieces, but he shattered her heart seven hundred times.