Chapter 15
He ended up falling on her shoulder and waking up on it. He straightened himself up and looked around, it seemed to still be before dawn. He looked at her, she didn't move the whole night, he knew it was to accommodate him.
"Why did you not wake me up? You didn't sleep"
"It's alright Tom, are you ok?" He nodded at her before looking at the shoulder he slept on. He put a hand on it and started to squeeze it lightly, this got her attention and she quickly grabbed his hand and got it away from her shoulder. He looked at her in the eyes while pursing his lips, she avoided his gaze and pretended to not understand what he tried to do. Or rather gloss over it as a mere platonic gesture. This was a first in Tom's life, usually it would be the opposite. He will wait until after his birthday, his 17 to try something more obvious.
"Tom, you had a long day, it's time for you to rest."
Over the following weeks, she kept a close attention to him treating him as if he would break on the next part, any chance she got where she heard of something he wanted or wished to have, she would get it for him. Absurdly, she always looked at him worriedly as if she didn't, he would be bullied or mistreated out of her sight. Tom didn't know if her filter for him is just that thick or she was really so blind, didn't she already know of what he did? He must say he was almost embarrassed by her treatment, it was already absurd but now people started asking him if she was secretly his guardian. He didn't have time to seethe some more about what he learned of his heritage, it seemed it was her goal as she tried hard to make him forget. He pursed his lips, if there was anything bad about this, it was that her stance as a guardian was being reinforced and she was getting further away from what he wished....whatever that maybe. It seemed that despite his similarity to that person, not a shred of a romantic feeling was shown towards him, Tom didn't know if it was a good or bad thing, would he have hated for her to be treating him as a romantic substitute even more or the fact that she thought that person to be more worthy of being her romantic interest? Despite his young age, Tom knew that in the attraction department, nobody would be able to beat him. Now that he found the chamber, made horcruxes, found his heritage and even created his small study group, essentially finishing all the goals he had previously set for himself at the beginning of the year, he would have to focus his energy on the next biggest mystery, Bellatrix Lestrange. In his opinion, he has been ignoring the strangeness of the situation for far too long already.
His birthday came soon, it was him reaching adulthood. He received a lot of gifts from his classmates and even from some of his teachers. Peculiarly, all he received from Bellatrix was a note telling him to come to her office at night, he must say he was curious as to what she prepared for him, he almost oculdn't wait for night to come....
Night came , and he was a little bit embarrassed to admit that he spent a bit more in face of the mirror. When he reached her office and opened the door, he noticed it was pitch black, only in the middle was a row of candles surrounding a birthday cake. When he entered the room, rows of candles lightened his path increasing the lighting in the room the more he walked. Then he saw her sitting at the end of the table. She got up from her seat and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Happy birthdy, Tom" He smiled at her
"Thank you, Bellatrix" She cut a big piece for him and indulged him through it all, they ate and drank together. When it came to an end, she got something out of her desk, it was a small exquisite box and a letter that seemed to belong to Gringotts. He straightened himself, it seemed serious. She pursed her lips before handing him the box and said
"Well, they are not as great as before so I cannot help you as strongly, but I hope it can be of help to you" Tom didn't know what she was talking about, what was not as great as before? He took the box from her hands and opened it, it was a Gringotts key. Tom couldn't believe it, to make sure he decided to open the letter and read it. He was right in his guess. This was a duplicate gringotts key allowing him to retire unlimited amount of funds from her vault, however he couldn't access the vault physically unless she was incapacitated or dead in which case he would be the sole inheritor of all her possessions. Tom found himself most distrurbed, when reading the word dead and incapacitated stung him. This was basically proof that she was planning to die. His mind however went fast to the artifact, she was allowing him to retire unlimited funds therefore the only reason she put the limitation on physical visit was because of something other than money , which can only be the artifact. However, those thoughts went fast on the background as he understood how bizarre the situation was, it didn't make sense for a teacher no matter how close to a student to make them their sole inheritor. Not even a descendant sometimes received this privilege and he wasn't even related to her in anyways legally, she was not even his guardian. Not only that, she did seem sorry that she couldn't provide for him better.
"Why? Why are you helping me so much? Who are you?"
"Does it matter, Tom? I think you will be someone great and it makes me happy to help you" Tom wouldn't let himself get fooled with her talk about how great he was. Even Grindelwald's closest followers are not going to let him get free access to their vaults like that or make him sole inheritor. Besides, he had yet to prove himself and even if he did eventually become someone great, she wouldn't be alive to witness it or get any benefit from it as he would be merely graduating in the midst on her remaining lifespan and he couldn't become Grindelwald in two years.
"It does matter, I am not your child" This sentence seemed to creep her out as her features twisted into a strange twist with a shade of green as if he said something disturbingly outrageous. Good, at least she didn't seem to think herself to be his mother.
"Of course not, Tom! I don't think you are my...child, that's so disturbing" She seemed to cringe very hard at even having to say it.
He raised an eyebrow at that, amusement crepped on his face as he made himself close to her. He was quite pleased that she didn't want to mother him, maybe due to him reminding her of that person. That thought suddenly robbed him of his previous amusement, he took her by the arms as he was standing taller than her and he leaned over close to her mouth ready to kiss her, she wouldn't be able to gloss over this as a platonic gesture, would she?She finally pushed him away
"Tom, stop it. I do not think of you as either of those ways. Why can't you just accept my care?"
"Either ways? What either ways? A child or a lover?" This seemed to make her cringe even further as he said what she avoided to say. She took the letter and key, shoved them in his hands before shoving him out of her office.
"Happy Birthday, Tom. I think you are sleepy so you are unaware of what you are saying, you should go get a good rest, we will talk later" Tom felt absolutely frustrated over her avoiding the subject so much.
The following week, she did her best to avoid him. Tom almost found it funny how she alternates between trying hard to avoid him when he asks something she doesn't like and the moment something happens to him, she starts fussing over him not leaving him a single inch. Tom decided to let her have her time to calm down so as not to rattle her too much. If he wanted to make her talk to him again by herself, it would be very easy. He just had to go near Dumbledore and she would come running to him as if he was facing mortal danger.
He did go through the assets the key allows him to access him to, it was quite a consequent amount for one person, already beyond some average pureblood family vaults. Tom didn't know what she meant by these funds being low, this gave him a further clue as to what she was used to previously. Just with these funds in her vault, ther was no need for a person to work for their lifetime. And crazily enough, she gave him the authority to withdraw as much as he wished, he could essentially empty the vault of all the money overnight with zero legal consequences, not even legitimate descendants had such rights, he was sure not even Abraxas could despite him already taking on some of the functions over from his father. This made him think if she didn't need to work and seemed to absolutely despise teaching, why was she here? And why did she attack Merrythought? Yes, at this point Tom was already certain it was her doing. Was it for him? To be close to him? But he didn't know her, she had no relationship with the Gaunts and seemed quite ignorant of his family life not taking any of his deeds at little Hangleton seriously, he even got a well done from her.
Thinking it was enough time given to her already, he visited her office at night.