She Saved Me | Tom Riddle

Dumbledore

I guess you could say Tommy aged pretty well though, right? 😆

3| Dumbledore

The room was tense with heavy silence. Nobody dared to speak or make any sort of sound. The room's inhabitants almost felt like they shouldn't move either. It felt hard to breathe with how thick the tension had gotten.
Almost immediately after McGonagall said her last sentence, Tom froze and was speechless. He seemed to be in a sort of trance, staring straight through her.

After a few more seconds, Ava made eye contact with Harry and McGonagall before turning to Tom. She decided she should try to talk to him and break the silence that was starting to become uncomfortable. She just looked at him for a minute to see if he would even move or blink at least. Still nothing though. Perhaps it was better that the headmistress told him the truth bluntly, but it caught him off guard. He was probably trying to figure out how it was even possible, telling her they need to continue explaining the rest. Who knows how he'll handle everything else.

Ava sighed and then spoke. "Tom," but she got no response from him. Not even the slightest movement to acknowledge she said anything at all. "Tom," she said this and gently placed her hand on his arm, which did startle him.

"Hm?" Tom finally broke his stare and turned his head towards Ava. He looked down at her hand and she realized she still held his arm. Ava quickly retracted her hand, prompting Tom to look back at her.

"Sorry.. I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine," he said shortly.

"Do you want to hear the rest? We'll possibly be able to explain more then too if you'd like."

"Yes. I want to know everything, now."

Ava looked at McGonagall, letting her know she should continue. However, she looked a little hesitant about how to go about explaining and how much she should really tell him. Tom turned his attention to her and waited for her to start. With one last look at Dumbledore hoping he'd wake up, McGonagall quickly figured out where she should begin.

"Well to start Mister Riddle, the year is 1998. Just earlier today we faced an attack against the school from dark wizards. They were lead by Lord Voldemort, you know that name do you not?"

"Yes..I do."

"And how do you know it?"

Tom hesitated before admitting, "I made it."

"Yes and when did you come up with that name?"

"In my fifth year, in 1943."

"Not many knew though, yet that is."

"No. Only my fol..er friends knew it." Tom involuntarily cringed at how bad that sounded.

"You had them call you by that name then? When you were in private."

"Yes."

"As Harry mentioned to me briefly, you don't remember anything after your seventh year at Hogwarts, more than fifty years ago."

"No, nothing at all."

Harry suddenly interjected, "he has to be lying!"

"Thank you Mister Potter, that will do." McGonagall was quick to silence anymore protest from Harry regarding that point. "We'll see if he is telling the truth or not soon."

"Professor.."

"Your input is not needed at this very moment so please refrain from interrupting." The stern look she gave him was enough to tell Harry to stop. She was going somewhere with her questioning so he could wait..maybe. "Now where were we? Ah yes. You do not know how you are young again Mister Riddle?"