Chapter 28
This seemed to interrupt the line of questioning as Dippet urged for them to go rest. Tom wasn't unaware that his hasty intervention didn't help with Dumbledore's suspicions, but he couldn't afford to worry about that at this point.
The walk until the quarters was done in a tacit silence. It was only once they got inside and Tom made sure the wards were intact that he turned to talk to her. Bellatrix was looking at him with worried eyes, she gripped his shoulder quite forcefully, her black fingernails digging a bit in his shoulders.
"Tom, how were you doing when I wasn't here, did Grindelwald or any of his rats try to get to you?"
"No, Bella. Do you have any idea why Grindelwald would try to get me?" Tom asked keeping his voice eerily calm as his gaze lingered on her forearm. Feeling it, she suddenly retracted it as if hit by a spell. She then started spinning in the room irritatingly for some long minutes. Tom leaned on the door , arms crossed as he watched her fret around the room. She suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked at him hesitatingly , looking at something in his face , before saying
"Grindelwald is a seer, Tom"
"And what do you reckon he would see that would make him target me so, Bellatrix?"
"Hopefully, nothing much. Otherwise, he likely wouldn't have stopped at his previous attempt. However, this is already too much if a risk, we don't know where his visions would start and what he would see in them. The situation is dire"
Tom would have to admit to be thinking the same. Specially with time travel magic involved, one didn't know when a seer of Grindelwald's caliber might catch on. Tom himself
couldn't claim not to be concerned. However, they still had an immense advantage and Tom didn't believe that he couldn't make big use of it to turn everything in his favor. If he had to choose, he would prefer the same situation, risking a confrontation with Grindelwald if it meant knowing what the future held in store for him. Once again, his irritation rose at Bellatrix hiding things from him. He furthered his questioning.
"Why? What else is he supposed to see?" A little bit of venom slipped in.
"What else could it be,Tom? Of course your horcruxes" She turned to look at him with her hooded eyes hiding secrets beneath them and attempting hard to maintain their sanity.
"Why don't you tell me more about your killing of staff at St Mungo, Bella? Don't you see that you are being careless. Dumbledore is already suspecting you. What do you think will happen if he decided to investigate in depth?" Tom got up and walked up to her, his red eyes gleaning with annoyance. This was a real problem, Bellatrix's inability to be discreet and her tendency of killing around without any tact was turning out quite problematic. Specially during the current circumstances while they needed to lay low. While he was quite glad it was her who came to this time-line, it was clear that his status of a wanton terrorist was an established fact, so much so that his closest supporters seemed to be people who were merely waiting to be unleashed on society and had quite severe criminal tendencies. Must explain why she maintained loyalty to whatever that thing was that he became in the future A certain amount of killing and fear was necessary to maintain his position, but only a fool wouldn't be able to see how his future self was set up for betrayal and doomed to fail and face resistance sooner than later. And Tom didn't have the luxury to be backing a loose terrorist's actions and wanton criminality the way Voldemort did.
"Don't worry about that Tom, I know what I am doing." She dismissed him while putting a comforting hand on his forearm. Tom's eyes flashed red, her separating him from Voldemort also had its downsides after all.
She didn't bother to cover up the fact that she was behind those murders.
"It doesn't seem like you do. Bellatrix, I order you to not go around killing anyone anymore unless you tell me"
"Tom...."
"It's an order, didn't you say that you would do anything for me. Anything I told you?" She pursed her lips....
"It's for your own good Tom, you are still a young boy, you wouldn't understand...." Tom felt his irritation rising once again. He certainly had more brains than a 14 year Azkaban escapee and a wretched wraith combined but he held his tongue.
"I said you tell me first, promise me?" She sighed
"I promise you, alright" She said comfortingly, as if she was soothing a child who was throwing a tantrum. This whole conversation was bizarre to anyone who would have stumbled on it but neither of them seemed to mind.
"Let's go back to the pressing matter at hand, we must find a way to deal with Grindelwald. Staying at Hogwarts for now seems quite safe, with Dumbledore here. However, it's not a long term solution if he were to see....You must not quit the vicinity or wander outside the school Tom, it's your turn to promise me" She said , looking quite serious.
Tom raised an eyebrow, he too thought so. Of course, he wasn't going to sit around and let Bella solve this issue on her own, Merlin knows what she might come up with. For now, he would agree with her
"Of course Bella, I promise" Calling her by this nickname seemed to soften her even more, her eyes almost watering again. He was starting to think this was hilarious.
"Well, I will leave you to your quarters, rest well. Don't bother with your papers, you will find them ready for your afternoon class"
"You are such a helpful boy, Tom." He smiled soflty as he closed the door behind him. His walk was a little bit lighter, a load was off his shoulders and he was now ready to come up with a way to deal with the upcoming events.