Extreme Ways ( A Tom Riddle fanfiction )

Chapter 20

"In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one"
HP2

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It started as a bad joke. A seventh year student petrified in the bathroom.
But when no counterspell nor potion healed him, the teachers and the staff turned nervous.
They didn't want to spread the news that they couldn't fix it. The student was clearly petrified and not dead, but what petrified him? The teachers asked for some days to value any possibility. And forgot to notice that the victim was a muggle born.
Rules turned very strict and the prefect had to report any student who broke the curfew after the dinnertime. And the first one to get into troubles was the half giant Gryffindor Hagrid, who admitted he had a couple of werewolves cubs under his bed and needed to find food for them. He was suspended for a week. Since he had nowhere to go, he stayed in the castle in a dark room in the dungeons and each day he had some new punishment to bear.

Tom was satisfied. Everything went smoothly as he planned. No witnesses, no hints about the beast. It happened in a bathroom with a wet floor and some taps were opened, but nobody realized that the menace came from the water.
Some weeks passed and the Herbology teacher solved that a Mandrake Draught would be a good remedy. Just sadly all her Mandrake plants had died for the winter frost because one night the greenhouse's glass had been broken by some falling rock from the castle. And it took weeks to get some new plants and make the potion.
Other weird accidents occurred, mostly caused by the Quidditch games, until another student got petrified.
A third year girl who was reading in the courtyard was found sitting by the fountain, her face staring in shock at the windows of the castle. To the teachers it was obvious that the attack came from inside the castle, not that a beast emerged from the fountain at her back and she saw its reflexion on a window.

Evelyn was growing stressed. Things went well just by chance. She feared that next time someone would die and the situation would have crushed on them all.
Tom had made an accurate list of the muggle borns and studied it before burning the piece of paper.
He was satisfied and proud of his work. Soon someone would have realized who were the victims and he was confident that then the muggle borns would have run away from the castle.

The teachers didn't have a clue on who was behind the attacks. And they didn't want panic to spread but they tried to make the culprit come out, miserably failing.

"Miss Burke? Can I talk to you for a moment in my office?".
Evelyn was lost in her thoughts when professor Dumbledore called her. He was the teacher Tom disliked the most because he didn't appreaciate him as the other professors. Tom blamed it on the fact that Dumbledore met him for the first time in the Muggle orphanage.
Evelyn followed him inside, wondering what he wanted.
'Your grades are excellent as usual. I was just wondering if you wanted to keep all the courses you took also for the second term".
She sat trying to look comfortable in front of him "Yeah, I'd like to. Although my schedule is very busy".
"Nobody is forcing you to keep it that busy, right?" His penetrating stare challenged her. She knew only another person with that kind of dangerous stare. And it was her boyfriend.
"No. It's a challenge with myself" she stated firmly.
He smiled approving "You're ambitious, Evelyn. Just like your uncle. But I hope you can recognize that we all have to face our limits and that you can accept failures as part of our life. Unless there is someone who is putting pressure on you to do that".
"There's none but myself. My aunt and uncle don't care muh of my grades. But I want them to be proud of me and of spending their time and resources to raise me".
"And they raised you well. They are surely already proud of you. Gratitude is a good quality, Evelyn. I'm sure also mr Riddle is grateful that you two grew closer, instead of seeing you as a rival".
So that was where he wanted to go, she realized. He was probably suspecting of her and Tom.
She tried to stay positive "It was an academic rivalry".
"That's right what he would say" he said with a satisfied smile "All I want to say is that it's good to see him with you. I almost feared he was unable to bond with people who didn't live far from the magic world for all his childhood as he did. But now he seems really fond of you".
"I think it works both ways. I believed I was an outcast because of my past. And he just accepted me as I am".
"It's really lovely. It's something very precious. And I am relieved. Sometimes I feared he didn't lost his old bad habits".