O r p h a n ● Tom Riddle [Harry Potter Fanfiction]

⑭ Quatorze - Who is Who?

Chapter 14:

At a round stone table beneath the earth sat Death and a lone woman. The room was lit with a thousand candles, illuminating the stone walls surrounding them. Death, cloaked in his shadows sat silently while the woman muttered curses under her breath. "Is she dead? How is she not dead?" The woman spoke across the table.

Death remained silent as the woman dug her nails into the table, challenging the shadow. "I told you not to interfere. Did you?"

Again, the shadow was silent. "You're all chatter and whispers upstairs but once we're alone you say nothing, of course! That's just like you!" The woman screamed.

"You're infuriating!"

A cloaked figure emerged from the wall behind her and hurried to her side, clutching onto her arm tightly. "Please, Mistress, be patient. You mustn't anger him."

The woman hissed at the man beside her, daring him to keep his hold. He flinched and let go of her, retreating cowardly back into the wall behind him. "He's right, you know." Spoke Death, finally.

The woman was furious, she threw a fit, grabbing the nearest candle she flung it at Death, screaming her head off. Death disappeared into thin air before the candle hit contact, leaving the woman alone once more.

--

Her eyes fluttered open, squinting at the bright light invading her darkness. She groaned.

"Uhh" she managed to rasp out as her eyes finally adjusted to the change.

"uhhhH" she rasped again, trying to form a proper sentence.

The girl groaned again, just wanting some water down her throat.

She rasped, she coughed, and then finally, she sneezed.

The door flew open and in rushed a uniformed man. The girl couldn't bring herself to fully sit up and peered over the bed sheets as the man paused, smiling at her before moving further into the room. "Hello, I'm Officer Daley."

The girl furrowed her brows, Why was an officer here? She knew why they would be here, there were deaths – murders, but she wasn't sure what he was doing here in her room. "What... what are you doing here? Are you supposed to be here?" her voice came our hoarse and raspy.

The officer cringed before looking over at the glass of water sitting on her bedside table. The girl followed his line of sight and quickly reached for the glass of water, and then quenching her thirst, she felt much better.

"Yes, yes I am." He paused, pulling out a stool from the corner and moving it beside her bed. "Do you remember the events of yesterday?"

As he sat down, she stared at him questionably. The girl wish she didn't, but she couldn't possibly hide what had happened. "Yes, yes I do. Is that why you're here?"

"Well, I've been looking after you," he responded shyly, removing his officer's cap and setting it aside, "and the orphanage, while Mrs. Wool is still on holiday."

Wool's Orphanage, that's what this place was called... the girl thought. She'd seen the writing on the gates, but when she met Mrs. Pam, she'd assumed the original Wool to Wool's Orphanage was dead – or something along those lines. "Mrs. Pam is dead." She knew it was a fact, but for a moment her words sounded more like a question.

"Sadly, yes."

"Her husband-"

"Also, dead."

What? Had he been dead all along? The poor woman, as if she didn't have enough misfortune- "Was it the security guard?"