"The sun stopped shining for me is all. The whole story is: I am sad. I am sad all the time and the sadness is so heavy that I can't get away from it. Not ever."
― Nina LaCour
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I put one of my red velvet robes, over my pale jeans and t-shirt, as I haul my suitcase after me. I'd crammed so many damn things in that single suitcase it was so hard to move. I just had to be lazy, didn't I?
I was shoving the thing so hard, my head was whipping back and forth, my hair flinging like a lasso.
"Are you having a seizure?"
Tom's voice pierces through my ears, and I turn to glare at him.
"No. I'm not, but thanks for showing me you care." I tease him.
"Care? I wouldn't look twice at you even if you died the next second. I was curious why you were flailing around like an insane person."
"My suitcase weighs like three thousand pounds! That's why!!" I whine, trying to ignore the pinch in my heart at his harsh words.
"You didn't want to bring two suitcases, didn't you?" He muses, giving me an unimpressed look. I give him one of my own in response.
"Well, when you say it like that, I sound like an idiot!" I snap.
"Move." Someone says, pushing me to the side. The surprise makes my handle on my luggage go astray and the luggage slams into me, knocking me off my feet. I go tumbling down the stairs like an egg roll. The world rushes by in a blur, and the pain is coming with every thump my body makes. It goes by fast, yet slow with impacts coming and going. I feel my bones move in a way they shouldn't...jangled.
My movements are stopped, and I'm in Tom's arms. He'd apparated from the top of the stairs to catch me near the bottom.
My mouth is open in pain and surprise. He is crouched down, one of his arms under my legs and the other holding my head. I could tell my head was bleeding because his hand was covered in blood.
We both look up, staring at Jasper Carrow, who was gaping at us.
"Are you utterly insane!" Tom seethes at him.
Jasper goes pale, and the look of fright on his face was almost humorful. I would've laughed had I not been in so much pain.
He picks me up, adjusting me in his arms, and stopping the tumbling suitcase with his foot. The sound his kick makes was like a loud bomb.
The Inn had grown utterly silent.
"You fool! Do you always walk around like a DAMN BUFFOON!!" He hisses, eyes blazing in his anger. "You've inconvenienced me to no degree!"
I swallow hard, the blood loss making my eyes flutter. "Tom...." I mumble, reaching up with my hand to touch his neck, trying to get his attention. "Tom...." I try again
He looks down at me, still looking as frightening as always.
When you piss Tom off, you know you're in deep trouble. He was freaking terrifying when he was angry. It was silent anger, one that told you he was seconds away from torturing you in every worse way possible. His rage was most prevalent in his eyes.
I don't react. I wasn't afraid of him. I think that's why he kept me around and why he put up with my banter. I was the only one not intimidated by him.
What we had was real.
It wasn't based on fear.
Jasper looked seconds from pissing himself. Tom glances up, and without muttering a single spell, Jasper goes flying so hard into the adjacent wall, the wall cracks. The whole architecture groans with the force of his telekinetic power.
Tom hauls me away and places me on a chair, eyes going up and down the length of my body to see where else I was injured.
He leans back the next second, arms crossed and decides to glare at me
My hand goes to touch my head, and I bring it back to my line of sight to see gushes of blood. Without looking, I know there is blood seeping from the skin that seconds ago was smooth. I take in a shuddering breath only to glance up at Aberforth, who had rushed in only to see the blood covering the entirety of Tom's shirt and my hands.
He blanches in shock.
"Tom, my boy!! Are you alright!" He grabs him by both shoulders, scanning him up and down for injuries very similarly to how he did to me seconds before.
The amount of concern in Aberforth's eyes for Tom makes Tom's gaze soften. "I'm fine, Aberforth. Valentine is the one hurt. Not me." Aberforth glances at him unbelievingly.
My eyes droop, and I almost fall out of the chair. "Heal her and rid us of her disastrous self." Tom snaps quickly, impatient. He was getting annoyed that he couldn't heal me himself due to the number of wizards and witches watching us. Underage magic was still illegal even if we didn't abide by that stupid rule.
Aberforth looks at me in concern. He glances at my head and raises his wand, mending the broken skin on my head.
"Ow," I grumbled, feeling a slight pinch of pain before all my agony disappears, and I'm fully healed.
"What happened?" My cousin asks. I look up, still wincing.
"I fell down the stairs," I admit, and Tom scoffs.
"More like your suitcase obliterated you." He sneers, and I look up at him with a wry look.
"Ha. Ha. Funny."
"I know. I'm hilarious." He says with such a straight look, it makes me actually laugh.
"Thought you didn't care if I died?" I ask him, and Tom glares at me.
"I don't."
"Your actions don't match up with your words."
"They don't have too. You are an utter abomination to society."
"Face it, Riddle. You'd miss me if I died." I grin at him.
He leans on the counter, arms crossed. "Die then." He quips.
"You two are like kindergarteners. I swear. I call being the first one invited to the wedding." Aberforth quips, walking away from all the drama and leaving Tom and me gaping.
"NO, I'M INVITED TO THE WEDDING FIRST!!" Ariana freaking screams in the middle of the Inn, causing everyone to jump.
"There's NO WEDDING!" I shout, turning a deep red. Tom snorts, putting his hands in his pockets.
"You're blushing, Dumpling." He smirks at me.
"Shut the hell up, Thomas."
I've never seen a smirk disappear so quickly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We were all packed and ready to go. Aberforth was staring at us with loving eyes. Like he couldn't bear to part with his children.
His eyes were moistening up too.
"Awhhh Abi." I smile at him teasingly. Surprisingly he doesn't even scold me. He just opens his arms and engulfs the pair of us in a huge hug.
"My babies are leaving the nest." He sniffles. I think he was actually crying.
"It's only a month, Aberforth," Tom says dryly.
"A MONTH TOO LONG!" He wails, hugging us tighter.
Tom was at a loss for words. I don't think he ever expected to have someone care for him this much as a parental figure.
He's known Aberforth for around a solid year now. Tom definitely saw him as someone who wasn't an utter annoyance anymore. Aberforth's opinion mattered to him. As much as I knew he'd deny it. I saw it in the way he listened to him, in the way he always held himself around my cousin.
If you thought Aberforth's reaction to us leaving was bad..... Ariana was a billion times worse.
She was screaming. Her sobs were so loud, I think people in Australia heard her loud and clear. You'd think we'd died or something.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!" She screeches. She was sitting on both mine and Tom's feet. Hugging them close to herself.
I've never witnessed anything more dramatic in my life..... and I spent most of my time with Tom freaking Riddle and Abigail Diggory.
"We aren't going to be gone, long guys," I say gently, giving Tom a look.
"Why do I have to be so lovable and amazing? Look at them. They adore me." Tom's voice rings in my mind, making me glare at him.
"Hey. They are going to miss me too!"
"Not as much as me."
I give him another annoyed look.
"Come on, Aberforth. They are expecting us." I grin up at my cousin, who sniffles slightly. He gives us one more big hug before he's looking down at Ariana with a sad look.
"She really does consider you two, her parents." He gives us a look.
The guilt on my face is clearly evident. Tom's own face is emotionless. "We'll try our best." I manage to say, giving him a sad smile. Tom rolls his eyes looking away, but doesn't argue.
"Ana. Ana sweetie. We'll write letters all the time. We'll visit as much as we can too. It won't be a solid month, I promise." I say in a soft voice, moving down to pick her up.
She wraps her arms around me and sniffles, pointing at Tom.
"Will dad come too?" She cries, wiping her tears.
Tom whips around to stare at us, well me, in disbelief. My glaring eyes make him shut his eyes, sighing.
"Yes." He grits out and just like that, Ariana was a happy camper.
This girl was bipolar, I swear.
She freaking leaps onto him like a monkey, wrapping her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "Yay! Yay! YAY!!" She squeals.
Tom was growing redder with every passing second. I knew he was seconds away from flinging the poor child off him like a mosquito.
I relieve him of his misery, gathering her in my arms again.
"Let's go, Ana. Tom and Val need to get going now. Go upstairs and work on your studies." Aberforth tells her. She hugs us one more time, both of us at the same time.
"I love you!" She beams up at us.
"We love you too," I answer for us both. Tom doesn't even act sarcastic. He stands there stiff as a log, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else but here.
Ariana runs upstairs with a final tearful wave, and then Aberforth sticks out his arms for us to grab.
"Shall we?" He asks.
Each of us grabs an arm in response, and then we are apparating away.
"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
― Buddha