Splitting One's Soul

Horcrux

Tom stepped closer, the hand in his wand pocket made your alarm bells ring. Cautiously you stepped back from the bag, casting one last glance towards Hufflepuff's cup.

"Why wouldn't I want to touch it?"

"You see, it's cursed," he replied. flashing a grin. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt, would I?"

"I don't know, Tom, would you?"

"Of course not."

He positioned himself between you and the cup, obscuring the view. You expected the alarm bells to stop once his hand left his pocket but he grabbed you by your upper arms and the alarm just got deafening, ringing through your mind.

"Where did you get that? And don't lie!"

You tried your best to not let your nervousness shine through your voice but you knew Tom knew, he somehow always did. He took a deep breath, his grip on your arms tightened and his gaze traveled down, making you awfully aware of your still nude state and you clumsily tried to cover yourself.

"Don't hide from me," Tom whispered. "Then I won't have anything to hide from you."

A shudder went through you as you let your hands drop to your side. Nothing he hadn't seen before, you kept telling yourself.

"Good girl. Now, please, you must believe me, I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd push me away but... when I was at Smith's house and I had just found her corpse I discovered the cup and just took it."

"You stole from a dead person like it was nothing?"

He looked at you with pleading eyes. "Yes but I am truly sorry about her death."

"What about the locket?"

Voluntarily or not, his eyes drifted to the second bag. It had become obvious very soon after you started working with him that he had a preference for rather special and rare objects, he never cared about some common cursed necklace or poisons but when it came to things like Hufflepuff's cup or especially Slytherin's locket his face lit up like a little boy's at Christmas but now you weren't so sure anymore if it was really heart-warming. But it was essential to comply at least until you had a wand again. However you could make that happen.

"Can I see it?," you asked.

"I'd rather not...," Tom started, searching your face and then sighed. "It's cursed too. I meant it when I said I don't want you to get hurt."

"Why? Because you need me to find the diadem?"

He looked legitimately hurt, to your surprise. As if you had deeply wounded him by suggesting you were only here for his gains but the more you thought about it, the more you added up everything that had happened the last months, it seemed equally likely that he did only use you for his gains but also that he genuinely liked you. Most of the time he dragged you around to wherever he wanted or had you do research for him, on top of that he left you in the dark with many things but at the same time he always looked out for you, was usually very sweet, the way his body felt against you was mind-blowing, and he was genuinely upset when you went out with Mason. Mason...

"Did you kill Mason?"

The pain in his eyes turned to anger. "Of course not, I can't believe you'd think that!"

"You didn't have a problem killing those aurors."

"Because they were after you, I told you that I did that for you."

There was no use in arguing, he was either telling the truth or he was an incredible liar and you really didn't want to take your chances because either you'd be angering a sociopath with a wand ready to be used or you'd accuse a seemingly wonderful man who liked you of such atrocities and you weren't sure the relationship could recover from that should you were wrong. For now, you were going to play along, as long as you didn't have your wand there was very little you could do about him or some aurors, should they find you again.