chapter 3
June 12th, 1997
Four days after Eris had returned to Riddle Manor, things were chaotic. Bellatrix was in a manic episode, casting curses left and right. She had nearly hit Eris with a cruciatus but Tom had seen it coming and pulled Eris out of the way, allowing the curse to rebound and hit Bellatrix, who laid on the floor screaming for several seconds before releasing the spell and running away. Tom had not been happy with Bella, but at Eris request, didn’t harm her. He did however assign her to a small raid that would happen on the twenty-second of the month. Eris would go as well, she wanted to see how the raids worked. Tom would be going to Albania that day to finalise a few things with the vampires.
Today, however, the couple was sat in the gardens under a tree, Tom was leant back against the tree, with a stack of papers by his side. Eris had her head resting on her husbands thigh while reading a book she had found on her shelf. The topic for todays reading was soul magic. Soul magic was a very dangerous branch of dark magic that dealt with many different things from soulmates to a stronger magical core.
Every yule when she was a child Eris’s parents would bring her and her sisters into the garden and they would sit in a circle with candles around them and reach to their soul. Every witch and wizard experienced something different when they did the yule ritual. When Eris had done it the first time she had seen a shadowy figure broken into pieces. The pieces seemed to call out for her, wanting her to help them but she couldn’t move, her feet were stuck in the void, she tried to get to the pieces but the harder she struggled the more she sank. The largest piece of the shadow, which looked like a man vertically cut down them middle reached his arm out to her, falling to the ground as it did so but it reached. Eris had tried to grab the hand but as soon as she touched it she was no longer in the dark void, but back in the garden with her family watching her.
The memory faded from Eris’s mind as she continued to read. Diagrams spread across pages and some of the darkest things she had ever seen were shown in this book. She flipped the page and read the title, Horcruxes. She had heard of them when she was young. Bella had been reading about them and their father had found out. That was the first and only time she had seen her father use the Cruciatus on Bellatrix. The words on the pages made the womans face pale drastically. Splitting the soul in order to gain immortality was something Eris couldn’t believe. She turned the page and continued reading, the people who created these became broken. Their souls so askew that their mind became ill, leading to the person becoming insane.
“What on earth are you reading?” Tom gasped, grabbing the book from Eriss hand.
“Believe me when i say i would never participate in those rituals, Tom. Look at them,” Eris defended, trying to take the book back from tom who held it out of her reach.
“Darling, i know you wouldn’t. I know what they are and i don’t even want you reading about them. They are dangerous. Rip the pages out and burn them, its to dangerous,” Tom demanded, handing the book back to his wife.
“How do you know what they are?” Eris questioned, closing the book and setting it on the ground beside her.
“I studied them when i was younger. Before i met you,” Tom explained, pausing for a moment before saying the word studied. That pause was all Eris need to realise what her husband meant.
“Dear Circe, please tell me you didn’t create one Tom,” Eris begged, grabbing his hands.
“I was young and scared of death. It seemed like a good option. I didn’t think of how it could effect me,” he explained, trying to calm his wife who felt panic steadily rising.
“How many did you make?” Eris asked, trying calm her breathing. She knew her husband never made just one of things, he always had to have a back up. And a back up for his back up.
“Four,” he said calmly, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
“You split your soul four times?” Eris whispered incredulously.
“They don’t exist anymore, my love. I reabsorbed them before we got married. I didn’t want you to marry someone who only had six percent of their soul,” Tom explained. Knowing he had reabsorbed them made Eris feel slightly better, but she was still upset with her husband for making them in the first place.
“You’re a bloody idiot, Tom Riddle,” she murmured kissing her husband, before turning grabbing her book and lying back down.
“Well, you fell in love with this idiot, Eris Riddle,” he replied snarkily. Eris laughed and hit her husbands leg, all thoughts of horcruxes leaving her as she opened the book to a different page, far past the section on the magic.
Later that evening before dinner, Eris sat at the desk in the drawing room with a piece of parchment and a quill, and wrote a letter to Mattheo. Today was his seventeenth birthday, so he was now of age to use magic outside of Hogwarts. She yearned to tell her son about the things that had happened the last few days, but she couldn’t do it over letter incase it was intercepted. Many of the letters going to Hogwarts were intercepted by the headmaster before being given to the student to which it was addressed. Keeping that in mind she reread the letter assuring herself she said nothing that could get her child into danger.
Dearest Sebastian,
Happy birthday, darling. I hope all is well for you at Hogwarts. Many things have happened that i can’t wait to tell you about. How are your friends? Are you doing well in classes? I miss you so much, fifteen more days until you can come home. Unless something happens expect me to pick you up at the platform this year. I love you so much and hope you have had the happiest birthday.
Love always, Mere
Eris’ letters to Mattheoo were always short. She couldn’t say what she wanted to in them. She had always hated that she couldn’t even put his true name on the letters. She hated it even more now that Tom was back. It felt like she was alienating the boy from his father. She loved Tom and Mattheo more than anything she had ever known and the thought of keeping them away from each other broke her. She hated that her son knew nothing of his family, it was for his own protection but it still hurt. She folded it and sealed it, also grabbing the package of sweets she had gotten for him, before going to the owlery and sending it off with one of the many barn owls.
As she walking back to the manor, the woman couldn’t help but imagine her husband and son meeting. Different scenarios filled her minds eye, obscuring her from the world around her. She had barely even noticed Tom standing by the door as she walked up the stairs, not looking up from the ground the entire way. She jumped and gave a small scream of surprise when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you alright, darling?” tom asked, giving Eris a concerned glance.
“Oh yes, im fine. You just startled me is all,” Eris breathed, putting a hand over her heart to feel the fast beating.
“And what was on your mind that made is so you didn’t even notice me standing only a foot away?” Tom implored, giving Eris a pointed glance he would often give his death eaters.
“I was thinking about Mattheo. You see him again in only two weeks. Hes not going to know what to think,” she blurted out, her mind still reeling with all the possible outcomes.
“Oh, Eris,” Tom muttered, shaking his head. “Come inside, its almost time for dinner.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and gently led her inside. His gentleness calmed Eris. She enjoyed the fact that he was only gentle with her. He was very strict with his death eaters and wasn’t afraid to give out punishments. He was a bit kinder with his in-laws, not wanting to upset his wife but he was still fairly strict. He had never once cast a cruciatus at his wife like he did his followers, nor did he verbally belittle her. He had even told Nagini that she was absolutely not food and under no circumstances should she ask to eat Eris. Eris had been very touched at that, knowing Tom would allow Nagini to eat any one of his death eaters if they made him upset enough.
“Today is his birthday,” Tom stated, opening the door to the sitting room and allowing Eris to enter.
“It is. Hes seventeen years old today,” Eris told him, taking a seat on the love seat and curling into her husbands side after he had sat.
“I’ve missed so much of his life,” Tom remembered sadly. “Does he remember me at all?”
“He told me once that he had a very fuzzy memory of you. He said you had been holding and whispering things to him, telling him it would all be ok,” Eris recalled.
“What does he know of his family?” Tom asked, knowing his wife wouldn’t have told their son much in fear for his own safety.
“He knows that you were a death eater, and that your name is Tom. He also knows that I changed my name and my family thought I was dead because Dumbledore is trying to hunt down those with dark magical cores. Other than that he knows nothing. I had planned on telling him after he graduated but i suppose i will have to tell him when he returns from Hogwarts,” she spoke. Tom didn’t respond but had an understanding look on his face.
Eris and Tom didn’t move from that spot until Mumbly had come to get them for dinner. Eris had been so happy to see her childhood elf at the manor and had wanted to give the elf a hug, but refrained and simply told the elf it was nice to see her again, making the elf cry. The couple ate quickly and returned to their wing quicker, Eris rushing because her sister was once again trying to curse her. Tom put a stop to that quickly though, after realising why she was rushing. Tom had been rushing because he needed to add an ingredient to a potion he had been brewing. That night the couple fell asleep on the sofa in each others arms, neither wanting to be anywhere else.