Means To An End || Tom Riddle Story

Six

Daughter,

        I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to inform you that you brother Henry's initiation ceremony will take place on the second of October. Your presence is required. I look forward to seeing you.

    Respectfully,

    Laurent Travers

     Cosette held the parchment loosely in her hands as she read and re-read the words her father had written. She wanted nothing more than to thrust the letter into the fireplace, but her feet remained glued to the spot she stood. 

     Henry's initiation ceremony. Her eyes fixated upon her eldest brother's name. Her heart hung heavy in her chest and she felt her legs give out from beneath her. She felt like crying, but was unable to muster any tears. She knew what this meant.

     Her brother Henry would be expected to take their father's place once he passed on. Cosette had hoped and prayed that Henry would have been able to escape just as she had. She was hit with the awful realization that he was trapped, and there was no way out unless he chose to take the same path as Theo. 

     Her lip quivered and she placed the letter in her desk drawer. She sat down at the edge of her bed and stared out her window, not particularly looking at anything. Her mind was a whirlwind of racing thoughts.

     The second of October was next Thursday. She flirted with the idea of disappearing. The easy option would have been to just run away. The absolute last thing she wanted to do was face her family. But, she thought of Gabriel. He would be there, and she did want to see him. She had to make sure that he was okay. With Cosette's disappearance, she knew that Gabriel was getting the brunt of her father's rage. Her stomach lurched just thinking about him.

     No, she had to return home. She needed to face her father once more. She needed to at least maintain appearances. The last thing she wanted was the be disowned by the Travers family. The name was the only thing that was keeping her alive, and she knew it. 

     She thought about Tom's friends. Lestrange, Avery and Malfoy. Their lineage was the same as hers. Pure-blood supremacists. She wondered if their families would be in attendance. She was almost one hundred percent sure that her family would have invited them. 

     She would go. She would face her father, but she would not allow him to touch her. The second he attempted to try and control her, or lay his hands on her, she would leave and he would never see her ever again. She vaguely wondered if she would have the strength to kill her father, if it had ever come to that.

     She exhaled, not realizing she had been holding her breath, grabbed her bag and headed to the White Wyvern.

***

Cosette avoided Borgin and Burkes for the coming days. She was not yet ready to face Tom Riddle again after their – moment – they shared outside of the Leaky Cauldron. Tom had noticed, and to his surprise, it irked him.

     He would watch, every day around five o'clock, Cosette would traipse past the store window and make her way to the White Wyvern without so much as a glance in his direction. He watched her carefully, reading her microexpressions, trying to figure out what was going on inside her mind. Damn her, for being so skilled in Occlumency.

     He yearned to know more information about her family. Theo Travers intrigued him. He could not fathom as to why a wizard regarded in such high caliber, as Theo Travers, would feel the need to end his own life. Why had he accepted his mortal fate so easily? What in Merlin's name would have been so horrible to keep living? Was his father's wrath so evil that he felt that was the only way out? How pathetic.