"I was looking for a breath of life
A little touch of heavenly light
But all the choirs in my head sang no
To get a dream of life again
A little of vision of the start and the end
But all the choirs in my head sang no
But I only needed one more touch
Another taste of heavenly rush
And I believe, I believe it so
And I only needed one more touch
Another taste of devouring rush
And I believe, I believe it so
Whose side am I on, whose side am I?
And the fever began to spread
From my heart down to my legs
But the room was so quiet
And although I wasn't losing my mind
It was a chorus so sublime
But the room is too quiet
It's a harder way
And it's come to claim her
And I always say
We should be together
I can see below
'Cause there's something in here
And if you are gone
I will not belong here
And I started to hear it again
But this time it wasn't the end
And the room was so quiet, oh
And my heart is a hollow plain
For the devil to dance again
And the room was too quiet"
Breath of life, Florence and the Machine
~~~~~~~
Tom could hear the sound of his heartbeats as he proceeded silently along another dark corridor.
He stopped when he heard something moving the air and turned aiming his wand in front of him, just to see another flash of light down the corridor.
"Sir!" he exclaimed as also Dumbledore lowered his wand.
"Found nothing?" the professor asked speeding to reach him.
"Nothing, sir. What about you? I guess it's useless to keep roaming around".
"I only found you" Dumbledore murmured as they kept walking down the corridor "I admit that this inspection isn't enjoyable as I expected it to be".
Tom agreed, then he felt his body stiffening.
"What's this...tension in the air?" he asked trying to give a name to the unpleasant feeling that was paralyzing him.
Also the teacher stopped and waved his wand around them. Quickly he grabbed the boy's wrist "Stay close to me. This is the smell of dark magic".
Tom looked at him frightened, but his instinct already warned him of the danger that the teacher just confirmed "We need to find Evelyn. Now!".
They casted more spells to illuminate the corridors.
Dumbledore used more advanced spells to detect people and used the signals as a compass.
Tom followed him until he stopped abruptly, turning back from where they came.
"I think I heard some noises from there. Like a scream" he murmured staring at the teacher.
"It could be just a suggestion. The spell warns us to go that way" Dumbledore encouraged him to hurry.
Finally they spotted a shadow, but when they reached bumped into its owner they realized their mistake.
It wasn't Evelyn.
It was the vampire, Dimitri.
"What are you doing here?" Dumbledore asked trying to sound polite but he was panting from the run.
Tom didn't lower his wand and stared at the creature with anger.
"I smell something weird. Fresh blood" the vampire said uneasily "Otherwise I wouldn't come down here. But I can't control my instinct".
"What have you done?" Tom shouted, but Dumbledore grabbed his shoulder to stop him from attacking the vampire.
"Nothing! I did nothing. I swear!" Dimitri raised his arms to cover his face and crouched on the floor.
"Can you find the source of the smell you sense?" Dumbledore asked kindly.
The vampire glanced at him and nodded. He straightened up carefully and led the way.
The trio stopped in front of a wall with red signs painted on it.
"Here" the vampire said with a cry of fear.
The darkest hour is coming
Dumbledore walked closer to it and touched the dark red liquid.
Disgusted, Tom thought that he was mad, that liquid could be cursed.
"It's fresh blood" the teacher sentenced "Just it's unknown who does it belong to. A human for sure".
He eyed the vampire, who confirmed.
"Sir..." Tom called to gain back his attention.
"Grindelwald" Dumbledore just said.
"What? He's here? We must find Evelyn!".
"Slow down. Don't leave my side" he ordered and turned to the vampire "Give the alarm and ask for help!".
"I think you are going to the wrong side" the vampire said, making them stop "I can smell the same source of this blood. Down there".
He pointed to a narrow circular staircase that opened into the wall and that Tom didn't notice before.
"Thank you for your help. Now warn the school" Dumbledore said while Tom was already climbing down the stairs recklessly.
The wizard-made walls disappeared to leave the natural elements clear.
Tom gasped as he saw a large cave opening below the floor.
"Keep your wand up" Dumbledore warned "And be ready to defend yourself at any time".
The boy nodded and proceeded on the stairs carved into the stony wall of the cave.
There was a light by the cave floor and Tom spotted some white shadows, recognizing them as bones.
The clearer was the sight, the worse the landscape was, until Tom spotted a large flat stone that looked like an altar.
"Evelyn!" he cried, getting no answer, only the echo of his voice.
The sight killed him.
He stammered as he tried to persuade himself that it wasn't as he feared.
He forced his legs to move more quickly as he raised his wand to use some magic to free the body from whatever was chaining it at the altar and erase that bad show.
But nothing happened.
Also Dumbledore used his magic, with no effects.
Trying not to retch at the sight of her blood and her open wound, Tom grabbed the girl's arm but an invisible force kept her arm still.
He tried to stop the blood spilling from her wrist, but also that attempt was a failure.
"What's going on? What do we do?" Tom asked the older wizard.
"The curse must have some weak point. We have to take her away from here. We are not safe as well" Dumbledore pulled the boy away and raised his wand, making a blinding light explode.
Tom blinked and reacted in time to catch Evelyn's body before it could fall from the altar.
"She's still alive" Tom said hugging the body "But she lost too much blood. Can you stop the bleeding?".
Dumbledore waved his wand, but the wound didn't heal.
"Magic isn't enough. Healers can do the right job. The damages are too deep".
"There are no healers" Tom complained "We have to do something now. She can't die. Not this way".
"Then we have to hurry away from here".
"We can try some blood magic".
In front of that suggestion Dumbledore looked taken aback "That's dark magic, Tom. Did you already forget that she'd rather die than seeing you using the dark arts?".
Tom tried to stop shivering as he said coldly "I won't let her die. We need to save her. And if I need dark magic to do it, then I'll do it".
"You do it. But then how will she react when she will wake up and realize what you did? That her sacrifice was wasted?".
"I don't care" Tom said trying not to surrender to desperation more than he already was "She can hate me. Better having her hating me than having her dead and gone forever".
"You don't care. But she does. That's probably the reason she is in this status. We need help" Dumbledore raised his wand to levitate her body.
Tom resisted to the temptation to hold her body close to him and watched her floating away from his grip. He ducked to pick her wand from the floor and the two wizards hurried to run after it climbing up the stony stairs and leaving the cave behind.
"Who did this to her? Grindelwald? Where is he now?" Tom asked when he couldn't stay speechless anymore.
"No idea. We can just hope he is gone now" Dumbledore murmured.
"Gone?" Tom repeated confused.
"Do we have time for a battle now?" the professor spoke quickly "If we want to save her, we need no obstacles. So pray that whoever did this to her is gone after leaving that bloody message on the wall. But I don't think it was Grindelwald himself. It's not his style. He would conquer the whole palace, not torture an innocent girl".
"So who else could that be? How can we trust that vampire?".
Dumbledore shot him a warning glance "I understand that you've been taught that vampires are evil beings, living dead who feed with human blood. But do you think our Russian fellows are so reckless to keep a dangerous creature amongst their most valuable wizards? When the first duty of professors towards their students is to keep the save, just like our duties as adults is to protect and set an example to younger generations?".
Tom felt irritated by being reproached that way, but he couldn't deny that the professor was right.
"All I think now is that we need to hurry to save and protect her" the Head Boy mumbled and grabbed the floating body back into his arms.
Fatigue seemed the only remedy to his sense of guilt that was haunting him, just like in the past he had to run too to save her.
Finally they set foot on a higher floor where a group of wizards were marching towards them.
"What a lovely scene. Beauty sleeping in your arms" Vlad said dreamily, mistaking the scene that he saw.
"Shs is not sleeping, she's dying" Tom said angrily "She needs a healer now!".
The blonde Russian boy lost his amused face and turned stern "Then just follow me. Alex is the best healer in our palace".
Dumbledore patted his hand on Tom's shoulder "Do as he says. I go to warn the headmaster about what happened".
Tom watched his professor hurrying away again, then turned to see that Vladimir was already far ahead, so he gathered his strength and rushed to follow him.
The blonde boy opened a large door and someone inside reproached him in Russian.
Tom glanced around the new large room that was darker and less elegant than the other rooms that he visited earlier.
It was a Potion classroom, with cauldrons and fumes everywhere.
Tom recognized the other boy who was working on a potion and who reproached Vladimir.
One year earlier Alex was the introvert Russian champion for the Potion championship.
"What happened?" Alex said, his mood abruptly changed when he saw the guests.
"She was attacked in a cave in the dungeons. She was wounded and left to die" Tom summarized.
"We need to hurry. It's matter of time. Lay her down there" Alex took his wand and with a wave of it cleaned a large wooden table.
Tom placed very carefully Evelyn's body on it, his muscles aching for the fatigue but quickly recovering.
"Who could leave her bleeding to death?" Alex asked analyzing the wound on her wrist and summoning some ointment that he used to cover the cut.
"Some dark wizard or creature hiding into your undergrounds".
Alex eyed him with worry "So truly there is something or someone dark hiding into this palace".
Alex groaned in frustration as he noticed that the ointment didn't stop the bleeding. He shoved Vladimir away, giving him some instruction in their language.
Soon Alex came back with a dark red potion, that Tom recognized as the Blood-Replenishing Potion.
He poured it on the lips of the senseless girl.
"We tried some spells to stop the bleeding but they didn't work" Tom said.
"Dark magic and some poison at the same time" Alex glaced at him haughtily, summoning some white bandages to wrap and tie around the wound "Some snakes have that kind of poison that mixed with a little dose of dark magic can make this effect, like a curse".
Tom frowned at his allusive glances. He liked that Russian boy even less.
"So as I expected the ointment and this potion aren't enough. The effects vanish in a couple of hours and there's not enough potion to keep her alive. We need to make a lot of it. I hope you are good at Potions?".
Tom felt offended but didn't complain.
"But if this potion isn't enough, how can we make her heal then?".
"We need to find an antidote. Are you familiar with poisons?".
Tom felt teased again. He pretended to shrug with indifference "Just because of what I've been taught at school".
"Then you know that for a dark poison to be very efficient, the antidote must be very rare".
"Some bezoar isn't enough?".
"The bezoar doesn't work against the curse that is helping the poison to do its work. And why would someone torture her this way? This is so wicked".
"What do you expect from dark wizards?" Tom mumbled.
"I need Dimitri. He can help us to check the blood level in her body".
"The vampire?" Tom exclaimed shocked "You must be joking. What if he did this to her?".
"I trust him with my life" Alex stated coldly "We need him if we want to be sure that we can save her".
Tom stared icily at him, but their quarrel was interrupted by a bunch of people storming into the room.
Tom was glad to see Dumbledore, but he was less happy to see that he was accompanied by the vampire. He ignored the other adult wizards and witches who walked straight to talk to Alex to help him.
"How is it going? Will she survive?" Dumbledore asked too calmly for the circumstances.
"If we keep working hard, she will recover. I will do anything to save her, or die trying" Alex said fiercely.
Tom scowled at him, but held himself from acting rudely. He heard Dumbledore's hand resting on his shoulder.
"Let's go. She's in good hands".
Tom stared at the professor in disbelief and nodded at the vampire "I don't leave her with that thing".
Dumbledore's hand felt heavier on his shoulder, until Tom could feel his nails.
The boy surrendered and allowed the teacher to accompany him out of the room, but as soon as they were alone, Tom confronted the wizard.
"How can we be sure that that bloodsucker isn't involved?".
"You are accusing him just because he's a vampire. Evelyn wouldn't judge people just because they are not pure human".
Tom scoffed, remembering an old discussion when she defended the half giant and the half goblin that had joined the school as students.
"If it wasn't for Dimitri, we would have found her too late. Or wouldn't found her at all".
Putting aside his pride, Tom understood that the professor was right. Again.
He waited for his anger to flow away.
After some thinking, for Evelyn's sake, he vowed himself to apologize with the vampire, although the idea still disgusted him.
"I pulled you out of that room because we are both shocked and hungry" Dumbledore said after the long silence "Some food and drink can help our tired bodies and our messy minds".
"I'm not hungry" Tom said stubbornly, but followed the teacher anyway.
They sat at an empty table in the Great Hall and magically all sort of dishes and drinks appeared for them.
Tom realized that he was very thirsty so he emptied some cups.
"Sir, there's something I need to share because this doubt is killing me" the young wizard said feeling the need to share his worries.
"Fire away" Dumbledore said calmly.
"Last Halloween the weird one, Delilah Leroy, had acted very strangely while I was just talking to Evelyn in private. She placed a red rose on a windowsill and blood started to drip from the petals. In the same way I've seen Evelyn's blood falling from her wound. What if that was a sign and I could have prevented all of this?".
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at him "I never imagined you can be superstitious, Tom".
"But Evelyn believed that!" Tom exclaimed "I remember how she was deeply upset by that. Leroy has always been weird, almost scary. But what if truly she is a seer and warned us?".
"Everyone of us has unique skills" Dumbledore said calmly after thinking about it "Miss Leroy has a vivid imagination but I always considered her an innocuous girl. I don't consider the future as something already planned and fixed, so anyone who could see the future can know whatever is going to happen and change the world and the future. I believe that we shape our future. And maybe some people have the gift of warning us from taking the wrong path because they are better than us at predicting what particular choices can lead us to. So back to that curious coincidence, I think that as most of the so called prophecies, you were so taken by what you witnessed that unconsciously you just waited for something to happen that could be somehow linked to that".
Tom scoffed at that speech "No, I disagree. Evelyn knew that something bad was going to happen. She had asked who was going to die. And it was her".
"She's not dead, Tom" Dumbledore pointed out "She's not dying now".
"Yeah, but I should have prevented it. I'm sick of being always one step from losing her".
Dumbledore sighed then spoke frankly to him "Tom, have you thought that maybe we saved her from something worse? I asked you two to come with me here because we all agreed that something weird was happening in our castle. And we suspected the accidents could be linked to Evelyn somehow. So what if that darkness has followed her here? Proving us right?".
Tom stiffened, praying that it was just hypothetical. It couldn't be true.
"I don't understand, sir. So it's Grindelwald who wants her? Why her?".
Sorrow carved Dumbledore's face "I don't know. We can just hope that when she will wake up she can answers us all our questions".
Tom nodded, then after some silence he asked shyly "What will be of me? When the Ministry will hear about this?".
"Who forces us to reveal this accident to the Ministry? This Russian school relies on this country's institutions. We can simply persuade the headmaster to avoid adding her name to the report" Dumbledore winked at him with the shadow of a grin.
Tom nodded again.
"Stop tormenting yourself, Tom" the professor encouraged "There's only one thing she needs now to recover. And it's your love".
Comforted by those words, Tom also used them as an excuse to run back to her.
The Potion classroom wasn't crowded as he had left it.
Tom looked around, feeling intimidated by how dark it looked. It seemed like an alchemist cave more than a normal classroom.
Alex was still there, talking softly to the vampire who was facing him from the other side of the table transfigured into a high bed where Evelyn was lying.
Dimitri looked unwilling to stay in the same room with Tom, so he silently left.
"How is she doing? She didn't wake up?" Tom asked replacing the vampire on the side of the bed.
"No, she's still lingering between the two options" Alex said tiredly "The curse is strong but eventually we will break it and it will be easier to heal her. I'm already making the antidote. It takes some hours to be ready. Then we can just hope it will work. Otherwise I'll try again".
"Then you can take some rest. I'll stay here to watch over her" Tom offered.
"I agree that she shouldn't ever be left alone now, since we can't know if the dark wizard who did this could be still around, ready to strike again. But I'm not sleepy".
Tom felt irritated. In fact he wished to stay alone with Evelyn. Not to be pestered by vampire-lovers "But how could you sleep for all this time when you were hiding a dark wizard in your dungeons? How many other students were attacked or disappeared?".
"None" Alex said simply, not affected by the teasing "Since nobody dared to go down there. Every school has its secrets. I felt there was some darkness at Hogwarts too".
Tom stiffened, feeling directly involved.
"And you know it, don't you?" Alex teased back "Just like she knew it. But she didn't deserve this. She was stronger than I imagined, to choose death over surrendering to the dark arts".
Tom narrowed his eyes at the blonde boy "How can you say she had a choice?".
"You told me how you found her. With dark magic she could have freed herself. She just needed one thing" Alex eyed Tom with a fierce look "Intention".
Although Tom pretended that it didn't make sense, his mind was seeing clearer about what could have truly happened to her.
On the following day, the two boys worked together to make the Blood Potion and to finish the antidote.
Several people came to visit, but for Tom they were just like shadows.
All he cared for was to see Evelyn waking up and saving him from his worst fears.
In the evening, Tom woke from his nap, shaken by Alex, who showed him that the antidote was ready.
Alex removed the bandages from her wrist, revealing the cut that turned black but that was still letting fresh blood out.
Tom felt retching at that terrible sight.
Keeping his fingers crossed, Tom watched the liquid of the antidote falling on her wound. Then Alex waited.
The silence was so pure that they could hear their own nervous breaths and heartbeats.
Some fume raised from the wound and it smelt of burned flesh.
Tom waved the smoke away from him and his heart leapt with joy seeing that her wrist was getting a normal pink shade.
Alex exulted in his language and used his magic to heal the wound and make the cut disappear forever.
The two boys shared a high five.
Tom grabbed her hand, happy not to see blood falling from it anymore, and kissed it.
"I hope this is the last time I have to pour her this potion" Alex grabbed a cup with the Blood-Replenishing Potion.
Tom waved at hand at him "Leave it to me".
Alex didn't complain and handed him the cup and watched as Tom poured carefully the potion on her lips.
"Now she should wake up at any time".
They waited for a while, noticing how her skin was getting a healthier color and her breaths were stronger.
"Evelyn?" the boys repeated many times, trying to wake her up.
Eventually the girl reacted weakly, like she was enjoying her sleep and didn't want to wake up.
Then her lips moved and whispered something.
Tom leaned closer to her, calling her softly.
"Tom" she murmured as reply.
Hearing his name as the first word she said was the greatest gift he could hope for.
Feeling tears filling his eyes, he kneeled next to her and squeezed her hand saying softly "I'm here, Evelyn. I'm not letting you go".
Her eyes struggled to open but when they finally were able to focus they lingered on Tom's.
"You lost a lot of blood. But don't worry, you are safe now. You will recover soon".
She gave a weak nod and fell to sleep again.
Tom raised his head and crossed Alex's stare. The Russian boy gave an encouraging nod then dismissed himself.
Tom stayed on his knees and rested his head on their hands. He was so tired that he wanted to sleep too, but his joy didn't allow him.
Hours later, he felt her hand slipping away and woke from his nap.
Evelyn was struggling to turn on her side on the bed, so Tom helped her.
"I feel like I slept forever" she complained softly with her weak voice "I'm tired of sleeping".
"I'm tired of seeing you sleeping too" he joked "But you are recovering. We are going back home soon".
Evelyn looked down and checked her wrist with a frown "What have you done?".
Tom felt uneasy, like she was accusing him of something wrong.
"We had to break the curse and find the antidote to the poison. Do you remember Alex, the Russian champion? He helped you healing".
Evelyn sighed with relief "Really you didn't use dark magic to heal me?".
"No dark magic at all, I swear. Although I was tempted at first".
She eyed him with sadness "That was the price. If I wanted to save myself I had to surrender to the Dark Arts. But after fighting the darkness for all these years, I just couldn't. If you too truly didn't surrender to the dark arts to save me, then it's truly worthy to be back".
Her words made him deeply upset, but he forced her worries away to focus on his joy "You can trust me and you can also ask Dumbledore and Alex if you don't believe me. And I'm so sorry. I should be the one who should face the worst sometimes, not always you".
She scoffed "No, better me than you. I couldn't survive if I see you in my place".
"Do you think it's easier for me to see you torn between life and death?".
"No, but you are stronger and braver than me, Tom".
Tom smiled clumsily and lowered his head to press a long kiss on her hand.
Later the door opened and Dumbledore walked in with a wide smile "I love happy endings. Welcome back, Evy".
He grabbed her hand to shake it.
"Thank you, sir. I'm glad that you two didn't bump into that dark wizard too".
"Can you tell us all you remember about that encounter?" Dumbledore asked carefully.
"I think I remember all very clearly. Suddenly I found myself in total darkness and the only light came from that cave. I remember the human bones on the cave floor. And the torch burning by a stony altar. Then the dark wizard appeared and tried to persuade me to join the dark arts. I refused. So I was trapped on that altar and he cut my wrist with a cursed blade. He said that dark magic could free me from that torture. But I know that one taste of dark magic can be enough, so there's no way back from it. I preferred to bleed to death".
Tom was frozen by that story. He mentally cursed and blamed himself for suggesting to separate in the dungeons. He felt guilty.
"You've been very brave, Evy" Dumbledore said warmly "More brave than most of the experienced wizards I know. Do you know who that wizard was?".
"No, but I'm quite sure he is Grindelwald's follower. And it means that Grindelwald is gathering his army".
Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully "Most likely. Grindelwald was spotted in Ireland some weeks ago. Thank you, Evelyn. I'll warn the headmaster about our common danger, then if you feel better enough, we hurry back to Hogwarts".
Dumbledore left quickly like a breath of wind.
"You were wrong" Tom murmured.
Evelyn shot him a questioning look.
"You are far more stronger and braver than me" he said as a matter of facts "How could you let yourself bleed to death and not using the only mean that could free you?".
"Because I love you. There's no room for the dark arts in my heart".
Incredulous and shocked by how easier it was for her to say those words that meant so much for him, Tom felt overwhelmed by his emotions, but also by a cloud of darkness that seemed chasing them everywhere.
Grindelwald's menace had become more real and closer than ever. And Tom feared, for the future and for the doubt of not being able to protect her enough.
He hugged her tightly and they lingered into that hug, waiting for a new storm to explode around them.
A/N
Some good news, while in their world the war is reaching its peak and the darkest hour is coming, mainly for Dumbledore, and that's not a spoiler if you know the story of Grindelwald 😊 And we are close to 1945.
I'm very looking forward to next chapter.
If you are still confused now, the next one will give you the solution to this big riddle 😉