The Serenade of Persephone [tom riddle]

Chapter sixteen

status: unedited

"where i go you may not make it through the night, only those who aren't afraid to lose it all are the ones who make it out alive"
haunted — shawn james

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Cursed be the muggles and everything they produce, Lucretia Tonks' grandmother used to say every time a fighter plane passed over the small and picturesque village of West Lothhart. Then panic would spread, and the wounds that had been left by previous attacks on the poor villagers would not be fully healed to withstand yet another incident.

Cursed be the darkness and the wizards who amplify it even further. The woman had no particular sympathy for any form of human existence. She was very old, with gray hair and squinted, small and round eyes, resembling a tea saucer. She had already reached the centenary of her life, and for such an elderly woman to have experienced two world wars and a war among wizards was excessive. After all, she had lost her faith in humanity, and it seemed that nothing could replace this melancholic feeling.

In old age, humans regress and behave like children again, and all the fears and habits that dominated their childhood return as unwelcome visitors. It is natural for wizards, even with their mentality, to tend to revert to behaviors they grew accustomed to since they were young children because that is how their minds know how to operate— with the familiar and not the unknown.