Catharsis [Tom Riddle]

Chapter Sixty-Two

 "You..." muttered Avalon, her widened stare locked with his green gaze.

Tom immediately moved to stand beside her, pushing her behind him protectively as they both came face to face with someone they had thought they'd never see again.

"I always knew I'd see you two again," Xavier grinned, walking as close to the shield as he possibly could.

He looked more mature than the last time she had seen him, though he didn't appear to be any older than thirty. It was as though time had somehow halted, keeping him looking nearly the same as when they had left.

His hair was longer than before, the dark waves pushed back to stay out of his forbidding eyes. He wore all black, though his ghostly skin reflected the moonlight just enough to draw attention to the Dark Mark inked into his arm.

Avalon had always thought that Xavier's eyes had looked empty ever since the day that Tom had tortured him... but, looking at him now, she couldn't believe how soulless he truly looked. There was no emotion in his stare, only diabolical mania. A deranged, unstable shell of a human with a hollow hole where his heart should be.

"Didn't think you'd seen the last of me, did you?" asked Xavier, a mischievous smirk etched onto his lips. "Neither one of you looks very pleased to see me." He turned his attention to Tom, letting out a dramatic sigh. "Though I must say, I have missed this face," he winked, laughing when he saw Tom's confusion. "I'll admit, you're easier on the eyes than the Dark Lord is."

"What have you done?!" snarled Tom, wishing that the shield between them would disappear so he could wipe the bloody smile off Lestrange's lips once and for all.

Xavier kept his eyes on Tom, refusing to break their stare. "I have waited over fifty years for this moment when I could finally see the look on your face as I tell you that you were outsmarted, Riddle," he said, satisfaction dripping off his tongue. He watched Tom furrow his brows before letting out a harrowing laugh. "Don't tell me you forgot about our little Vow?" He shook his head, an all-knowing grin on his lips. "You know, you really should keep a closer eye on your valuables... it'd be a shame if someone took one, no?"

"Tom..." said Avalon quietly, looking at him with a flash of worry. "What is he talking about?"

Tom felt his heart sink deeper and deeper into his chest, a sudden wave of dread washing over him. "No," he breathed out. "I destroyed that..."

"Hate to be the one to break it to you... but you can't just choose to give up on destiny," said Xavier, his eyes crazed as he watched Tom shake his head. Years of forced patience were boiling down to that moment as Xavier reveled in the glory of knowing he had won. The mixture of anger, realization, and frustration in Tom's eyes was addictive to him and he wanted to bask in the victory for as long as he could. Though, he knew that he had other matters to attend to. So, with a plastic smile still on his lips, he said, "As much as I've loved catching up, I reckon it's time I go." Before either Tom or Avalon could speak, he turned his back to them and began disappearing back into the sea of Death Eaters. "I will see you both on the battlefield!" he called out joyously over his shoulder, winking before his body was drowned in thick, black smoke and he disappeared into thin air.

Avalon looked up at Tom, her eyes frantic as she said, "Tom, what was he-"

"The diary," Tom blurted out, tugging at his hair furiously. "I don't know how he did it, but he used to diary to bring me-- bring him-- back."

"I watched you destroy that," she said under her breath, shaking her head in denial. "No... that makes no sense."

Tom thought back to the moment he had destroyed the diary in the Chamber of Secrets. The pain he had felt when he dug the fang into the diary had been the most awful thing he had ever felt... until the moment he destroyed the ring. The excruciating agony of demolishing the ring wasn't comparable to what he had felt with the diary... "I... he had to have switched it with a fake," he said, the anger of being tricked by Lestrange taking over his entire body. "Fuck!" he screamed, a flash of red bursting out of his wand as he threw an impassioned spell at the shield. The people behind it flinched backward before the blow dissolved into the thin, silver defense.