Chapter 3
Salt stung her cheeks as she curled up by the pillar. She took comfort knowing noone would find her here, noone would even think to look. She was so cold, so numb. With shaking hands she lit a cigarette, unsteadily bringing it up to her lips and inhaling. It didn't work. She finished that one, and lit another. And another. It still wasn't working! It was completely and utterly -
"Fucking useless. What a waste. Honestly, what am I even doing? I think I'm going mad. All alone, astronomy tower, going mad. Oopsy daisy, looks like the family madness has decided we're one. Or am I two? It's not like I'm first choice for anything. And look, now I'm talking to myself. What a joke I am. I bet they won't even notice I'm missing till tomorrow. Or maybe even the day after that. My fault I suppose. But still-" she broke off, unable to speak out the words that threatened to drown her. She knew one day they would rip themselves self free, likely tearing off her vocal cords in the process, but right now she couldn't bring herself to face it. Her parents had died for her. They would want her to continue living past fourteen. Right? Right.
She was in the office again.
This time she turned around quicker, immediately conscious of her she looked compared to a month ago. The shadows underneath her eyes had shadows, her hands trembling, oversized hoodie covering her body, hair unbrushed and body cold, so cold.
"You look like hell."
She sighed. "Thanks, Tom." She said wearily.
"You know I wasn't sure this place was real" she continued "considering I can barely remember anything from whenever it was we last met. I'm pretty sure I was drugged out my mind and completely put of it, so please accept my apologies for whatever social faux paus I may have made."
**Apology accepted, my dear Callie** he crooned, and suddenly it was Danger, tun, run, RUN! Blaring in her mind, the urge to Get Out overwhelming everything. Then it was over. She let it go, maybe it was her body's way of finally realising what had almost happened earlier tonight. Speaking of which, she knew that she had fallen asleep in the same spot (fallen asleep, passed out from exhaustion, same thing in her mind) becusse she cold feel the wind in her very bones. Desperate for anything to take her mind off it, she blurted out,
"I know who you are!"
And Tom, the bastard, simply sat there looking smug.
"You know that's not very Slytherin of you, just saying whatever you have over your opponent straight away."
She scoffed. "Oh please. I got into Slytherin purely on ambition, nothing to do with cunningness or anything else. But anyway, it wasn't hard to find. Its not like there are many of us parselmouths running around on this island, and Theo does live with his grandfather. Knights of Walpurgis leaflets have your face plastered all over them. Add in that suddenly the Knights dissapperad, a new group formed consisting if the same member plus a few more, it's quite easy to figure it out. You ought to cover your tracks more carefully, tom."
And at that, his face slipped from the blankets of occulemency shields into incredulousness.
"Callie, my darling, I have covered my tracks extremely well. You are quite possibly the only person in all of wizarding Britain to figure it out purely on those facts. Congratulations, my dear."
Then he rose to his feet - and oh merlin he's tall. 'And towering over her.' She thought 'Yep, should probably focus on the fact my parents murder is standing over me, definitely need to do that.'
"But, the fact remains that you know who I am. So, Callidora Potter, whatever are you going to do now?"
"Nothing."
He gaped.
"Wha - nothing? Nothing at all?!??" He demanded.
"Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Need me to say it in Chinese? Ni hao. Wait no nevermind that's hello. Hello! Also you should probably shut your mouth, incase any dream flies are buzzing around."
His jaw snapped shut with an audible click.
"I killed your parents." He said conversationally, as if that remark had no more significance than the weather.
"Mhm. Fascinating stuff." Callie drawled back in reply.
"I've killed hundreds, torturing hundreds more and am probably some of your classmates worst nightmares!"
"Yeah, no shit. That boggarts lesson was a real mess, lemme tell you I'm glad I didn't have to go. Who's bullshit idea was it to put the two houses that hate each other the most and show each other what your worst fears are? That's just asking for bullying, honestly." She sighed out.
"I'm not a good person!" He snapped out.
"Again, that's kind of obvious with the whole "dark lord thing". And it sounds to me like your projecting a bit, it's not like I care about what you do in your spare time."
"Projecting a bit? That's rich coming from you darling. Afterall, you've quite literally projected your dreamself into my mindscape."
"This is your mindscape? Huh, it's nothing like mine."
"You know occulemency?"
"Obviously" She imitated, a rather perfect mockery of her head of house if she had anything to say about it. And given the quirk of Tom's lips he agreed too.
"I decided not to go back to my "loving" relatives care this summer, instead took one of my properties and got it warded to the gills and spent my summer reading and smuggling in things for the year, putting my affairs in order, Yadda Yadda. Occulemency found it's way in between all that chaos."
"Fascinating stuff" he mocked.
"Anyway, great talk, Mr dark lord Sir, but I do need to head back to the Slytherin rooms before filch or someone finds me. I feel myself waking up, dunno when I'll see you again but I'll probably be high - I mean I usually am. So long, Tom!" She cried cheerily, before shimmering out of view.
And Tom riddle sat at his desk, mind whirring from the chaos that is Callie Potter. Suddenly a thought struck him. If she wasn't going to do anything about his existence, that means she was most likely neutral or dark. And if he could have the girl who lived on his side... Well. The war would be over before it even begun. And with that, he started planning. Perhaps a gift would warm her up to the idea?