Paradox | T. Riddle ✔

~•1.5•~

We are all monsters, Eleanor. Some more than the others but monsters nevertheless.

His words were echoing in her head again and again, not letting her rest for even a minute. And it stung so bad because he was right.

She couldn't help but think that even she wasn't as innocent as she claimed herself to be, even she could be deemed as a monster because in truth there was little to no difference between monsters and humans.

As she held the knife that she had sneaked out from the kitchen over her wrist, the sharp blade hovering centimeters above her translucent skin, her life played on repeat for her.

She was the youngest child to Henry and Diana Troy, the eldest being her sister Esmeralda. She had seen a life of privilege due to her family ranking in one of the most powerful pureblood families of America. Esmeralda had been schooled in Ilvermorny but before Eleanor had to start schooling, they had to move to Britain hence she had been enrolled into Hogwarts instead.

She was sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts and for good reason too for she had always been ambitious, always been the one to look for any ways possible to achieve her target.

And while she gave the impression that she had a strong moral compass, she wouldn't hesitate to blur her lines when needed. Not even once had she been in a detention at school but that wasn't because she never got into mischief, she did. In fact she got into mischief almost as much as her boyfriend's prankster brother did.

The only difference was that unlike him, she never got caught.

And then there was Regulus, the first person she had befriended at school and gotten closer with over the years. Closer to the extent that from best friends they had very quickly evolved into more and even their families approved of their union for they had decided to get the two married soon after their school years.

But as she recalled all the time she had spent with Reg, she couldn't help but think she had been unbelievably selfish with him. He loved her selflessly and she had always taken it for granted. It wasn't that she didn't love him back, she loved him just as much but unlike him, she was the demanding one.

Once she set her mind on something, she hardly ever listened to anyone, not even to Reg. He was always the one who would have to give in at the end.

However, after school years ended, the first wizarding war was already at peak and they were supposed to choose their sides. Regulus chose to be a Death Eater because that was expected from him.

Eleanor and her family preferred to stay neutral. Later on their choice of not to join the Dark Lord had resulted in their massacre by the Death Eaters after which only Eleanor had survived due to the fact that she had been with Regulus at that moment.

He couldn't see her in so much pain after losing her family and it hurt him to be a part of the people who had killed her family and caused pain to her. Such that she became the reason he chose to change sides and worked on taking Voldemort down and that in turn had become the cause to his death.

In a way she had been equally responsible for his tragic death too.

And she couldn't bear the thought of it.

Then after Reg's death, she had been inconsolable, blaming the war and Lord Voldemort for everything. After Reg, she had turned so bitter that she didn't even think twice before deciding to go back in time and kill the monster who started it.

But was she really killing Tom Riddle because she wanted the wizarding world to be safe from his terror or was she just killing him so that her own life would go back to normal?