Pick Your Poison | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Seventeen: The Dark Comes to Light

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"I have never known a more vulgar expression of betrayal and deceit."
-Lucien Bouchard

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Noon came around with the sun hidden behind the thick clouds that still shelled out blankets of snow that became heavier with every street they walked down.

All the children had gone away by now leaving just Eleanor and Tom walking in the middle of the street where less snow was matted on to the ground. They were both as silent as the air itself and every time she looked at him or merely spoke, it was as if she were talking a wall.

Eleanor was curious of what his mind was going through right now. She had no idea what he expected to find here and she knew that it was devastating him on the inside. The family he knew was not at all in sync with what he believed in. It went from mentally insane wizards to a muggle paternal side in a matter of moments. It was everything he hated all within him now.

Aunt Vera's home was off a road just a quarter of a mile away from the main roads in the town and many of the residents of Little Hangleton lived around here. By the time she walked along the green bushes dusted with white, her teeth were chattering and her entire face had gone numb from the cold.

Eleanor pushed through the wooden gate in between the gaps of the wall of bushes, coming on a short path that lead to Vera's house. The roof was white from snow and underneath was a red painted home about three stories high with many windows and a chimney blowing dark smoke into the white sky. The vegetation along the walls were sometimes ugly in the summer months but when the snow settled on it, the home seemed like something out of a children's Christmas book.
Eleanor lead Tom only to the single white door, intricately carved and sticking out from the house. She came to a stop and looked at him, standing tall and brooding with his jaw clenched from the cold and blue eyes set forward.

"As a fair warning, my Aunt doesn't have a filter on her mouth." Eleanor said, reaching out to the brass knocker as she continued to look at him.

"Well I'm sure you've had to have gotten it from somewhere." Tom said quietly under his breath, his eyes flicking to meet hers.

Just as they made eye contact, the knocker was pulled from her hand and Eleanor looked at the now open door to see Aunt Vera standing there looking elegant as always.

Vera always aspired to be a model and quite frankly, she could be if she still wanted to. The forty year old woman was tall and slim with a heart shaped face. She always wore red lipstick on her plump lips and had the sweetest smile yet bluest and daunting eyes that could kill.

She wore a auburn colored dress that hugged her upper body and a silk band around her waist showed her curves while the remainder of the skirt drifted down to her knees.

"Darling! How are you? You brought a friend I see." Aunt Vera said, her eyes draining of joy as they focused on Tom.

But she wasn't displeased to see another person and rather curious instead.

It was her natural scrutinizing look whenever she met someone knew. Eleanor knew that by the way her eyes skimmed him quickly and the smile on her lips came without force, she was in the clear.

"You can call me Vera. Eleanor didn't mention she was bringing a friend." Vera said, extending her hand to Tom with a strong emphasis on the word friend.

"Oh, we're not--" Eleanor said, glancing at Tom.

It scared her to see the polite smile on his face that came so easily to him and she was distracted by the unnaturalness to it too.