evelynn | t.riddle

9 | THE SNAKE SPEAKER

The night couldn't possibly come slower, Tom's convinced, the minutes seeming to stretch into hours just to mock him. Evelynn refuses to even hint at what she's been saving for him, only that she thinks he'll like it a lot.

He takes her out to the forest after she insists on waiting until night to show him her gift, inwardly smirking as the other kids quickly move out of their way - they're all terrified of him, of what he might do. He's done enough to ensure they leave him alone, and they're getting the message to do the same with Evelynn from his hand on her back. Something he's just given up on trying to understand, for now - he doesn't usually touch anyone, most certainly doesn't let anyone touch him. Still, he's backburnered the mystery of why he's doing so with Evelynn in favour of what gift she got him.

A soft chuckle from her catches his attention, making him look at her...to see her look at him in amusement. "What?"

She quietly says, "Nothing much, Tom. But you can catch many more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes. Sometimes you can be feared or hated. I know that well enough. But other times, true loyalty works much better than ruling everyone by fear in the long run." These Muggles will never be loyal to him. Still, if she can turn him off the path of scaring everyone into total submission and torturing everyone for the slightest offence, she won't pass up the chance to give him even a slightly new direction. 

Tom raises an eyebrow at her as they get to the treeline of the woods, asking, "How so?"

They head into the trees, away from the other orphans, and Evelynn says, "It's all well and good to bare your fangs, so to speak, to show them you won't be pushed around. Make them fear what you'll do in retaliation and all that. But fear only goes so far. All-encompassing fear would have even the biggest coward strike back, even if only in small ways. Not telling you a vital bit of information, hesitating when it came down to it, or not fighting hard as usual, for instance." Like Peter Pettigrew, who was killed by the silver hand Voldemort gave him when he hesitated in killing her after she reminded him he owed her. "Loyalty, though, would see them fight for you until the last. Letting them know you are no pushover is fine; continuing it in the long run... could be your undoing."

Off the top of her head, Narcissa Malfoy lied about her still-beating heart back in the forest because she was terrified and done with living as such. Because she wanted the war to end and her 'master' to be on the losing end of it. Because Evelynn told her Draco was alive and at Hogwarts. Because her loyalty to her family was stronger than her fear of Voldemort. Plus, who knows just what kind of torture she went through, between Lucius being captured and thrown into Azkaban and Draco getting sent off on a suicide mission. She doesn't know for sure, but she can take a decent guess that Narcissa Malfoy took several Crucios for her husband's failure.

Tom crosses his arms, leaning against a tree and watching Evelynn intently - he won't admit it, but that last bit sends a spike of fear through him. Instead, he asks, "The long run?"

Evelynn glances at him in surprise, then says, "You know, after Hogwarts? Even near its end, we have five more years, after all. And then the rest of our lives after we graduate. And when the world stops being divided into Houses and Point systems?" Honestly, she'd thought Tom would have thought about that long before now - hell, she thought he had some grand life plan in place by the time he started collecting a following. Apparently not; who knew?

Tom hums thoughtfully, moving to another tree to keep Evelynn in sight, but then gets distracted by a familiar and welcoming voice. "Snake speaker, your back at last!"

As he picks the snake up, Evelynn asks, "A grass snake? They're usually found in water. Is there a stream or canal nearby?" And this one's a beauty, mostly green, with a dark collar and markings going down its body even as it curls around Tom's arm.