𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 | 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲 BOOK ONE

twentysix.

The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets haunted me to this day.

My own reflection in the sink mirror reminded me of the girl who walked into it so blindly last year. The ceramic cool to the touch, and the faucet dripping water in a steady, slow rhythm. The engraved snake melted into the side taunted me to open it's gates again.

I tried...but when I saw the entrance had been closed off with stone, a whirlwind of emotions filled me.

"URGH!" My fist slammed against the mirror. Pain instantly shot up my hand, and I cried out a curse. "Mother—!" I bit down on my lip hard.

The blood on the broken glass was my own. It covered my knuckles, too, reminding me that I was still weak.

When I looked up at the broken mirror again, my eyes connected to his in the reflection. Tom Riddle in all his glory, standing behind me with that pitying look of his. He knew how to wear it well enough that it hurt me even more.

An exasperated sigh left me while I coddled my bleeding hand to my chest. "Please, go away," I begged him.

I didn't want to see anymore visions or dreams, like the past school years. I didn't want to look like the crazy girl who the school kept isolated into her room for months like last year.

My visions of him felt too vivid—like there was a part of him within me that I couldn't shake. Well, of course there was.

We shared the same blood.

"I warned you once before that their fear is mute against yours." Tom placed his hands behind himself, chin lifting. "It is not their fear that bothers you, it is yours."

"If I admit that your psychological evaluation of me is right, will that make you go away?" I countered.

"I am here because you wish to see me. I can only come to you when you will it so. If you want me to leave, then simply think it, and I shall go," Tom explained.

We stared at each other through the broken glass for a long while. My frustration grew more and more as he didn't go away. He was just there.

I turned around slowly, hoping that not seeing him through a reflection would make his presence disappear. But even worse, I found him towering over me like he used to.

I stepped back until my back hit the sink. My eyes closing and lips trembling, guilt filling me. No, I thought to myself, I don't want you to leave and I hate myself for it.

"All summer," Tom sighed softly, "You spent the time trying to forget about what you now knew to be the truth. The truth that you are my daughter. You packed it all in, and instead focused on taking care of Lupin and worrying about what Harry would think of you. But never once did anyone ask you how you felt, not even yourself. Then I realized, you don't want to face the truth of what you feel for me."