The Last Drop |Tom Riddle|

Chapter Four: Unbreakable Vow

The snow was a disguise to the dark smudge that was the Malfoy manor.

In the deep emerald green garden and the dark gravel path between it she could see the home was still quite the walk ahead and in the meantime, she turned to face the man who held her wrist. Still a little whipped from the sudden movement of apparating, Eleanor made no haste and threw her free hand balled into a fist towards Tom Riddle's face, just missing his twisted expression.

"When did you learn to do that?" Tom asked, stepping back having now released her.

Eleanor huffed. "What's the point of being one of the best Aurors if you're defenseless and can't use your hands once in a while?"

Tom leaned away from her, but stepped in so swiftly that she didn't even have time to react to the way he pulled an arm behind her back and tugging her towards him so he was now behind her. It was like containing a beast even if it were him that were the monster in her eyes.  She had been so ferocious and he wished she weren't for just a split second.

As she stiffened, holding her breath as his wand pointed at her neck, Eleanor was mortified at how strong and overbearing he was at this moment.

"Let's reevaluate our terms, shall we?" he said quietly in her ear. "Then maybe I will consider giving your wand back."

Eleanor grunted, her moment in another world plagued by memories or another life gone and she stomped her heel on his foot in order to be released.

But the second she was able to get away, his hand gripped her wrist and pulled her back towards him and Eleanor could feel her blood begin to boil as she was grabbed by him again. This time she didn't fight it though. She let her tension go as she stared at him in his cold eyes. All at once it broke her heart to see him this way and the more she stared the more she wished she found something human in his eyes.

"You still have an annoyingly relentless fire in you." Tom commented, his eyes flickering around her face.

Under the light of day, watching the murky white clouds dance in her eyes that raged with nothing but hate for him, Tom Riddle found it easier knowing she hated him. He found it easier knowing that she despised him. He couldn't let her down any further that way.

"And don't think for one second I would let you get away with assaulting me." he said under his breath in a threatening tone.

Eleanor tilted her chin up a little further. She's stood up to men and women worse than him and never once slithered back in fear, not even the slightest. With a smug grin, she looked him up and down.

"Assault? That is the least of your worries my old friend."

Perhaps loving him was the most damaging all those years ago.

Tom released her, a smirk dancing on his face as he watched her turn around. The same girl that crumbled before him many times in what seemed like another world seemed like she could watch him burn alive and not even bat an eye. He had to stare and watch her walk, still in awe at the realization of just how much Eleanor had grown.

As they silently walked down the pathway, she could feel the echo of  a shake rumbling through her bones. She was only human at times and felt this way after some interactions. But this was clearly more significant. She didn't even dare look over at him because she knew just by that moment of staring in his eyes that this man was far from the one she knew.

That had sickened her just a little bit below her awareness.

Or maybe she was just scared to see what Tom Riddle truly had become.

Now that they were together again, Eleanor realized that despite forgetting about him for so long, there was not a day that went by where she didn't think about the day they'd see each other in the back of her mind.