To Revive a Soul || Tom Riddle

31. Those Too Weak to Seek It

My apologies for the sudden lack of updates, everyone! My mental health got the best of me last year (it's almost been a year since I've updated TRaS), and I lost motivation to write. But I'm in a better place now, and I've gotten so many kind messages about this book over the past couple of months that it's really fueled my need to complete it. So I've hopped back on. Let's finish this.

I hope you enjoy.

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Hogwarts seemed colder than it should have been in October. Eleanor didn't know whether it was the dread that filled her or Gellert just a few feet away from her that sucked all of the warmth from her body.

He had aged since she had last seen him. His hair, which had once been a silvery-white, looked as if it hadn't been washed in years and was a scraggly, ratted texture. His two-toned eyes were set with deep bags, wrinkles beginning to dot his once youthful-looking face. He was almost unrecognizable in this state, especially when the familiarity he had once looked at Eleanor with had vanished, replaced with pure, stone-cold hatred. "Evening, sugarplum," he greeted, flashing his decayed teeth.

Eleanor's fists stood proudly at her sides, her mind refusing to move an inch until Gellert was clear about what he wanted. "Don't call me sugarplum, Gellert."

"That's no way to greet your uncle Grindelwald, is it, Ellie?" he asked, walking up to her and looming over her figure. "I've been looking for your Horcrux. Thought you'd died along with it until I heard that Albus had gotten his hands on it. Such a shame that he gave it to you, isn't it?"

"I'm not sure why you need it," Eleanor bit. "You've already broken your pact by invading Hogwarts. Leave now, Gellert, before I make you."

He laughed quietly, flitting around her and looking over her shoulder. "You know I can sense your fear, sugarplum. You could have been miles and miles better than I ever was at magic because of that disgusting power of yours, but you refused to toughen up. Ran away to Ilvermorny because you're scared of a little Cruciatus Curse, didn't you?"

"You've been cursing me for as long as I can remember. If that was the reason, I'd have run away sooner." She was stalling. They both knew it, but Grindelwald was willing to entertain her while she did what she needed to do. It would only prolong her own death, anyway, in his eyes. "I suppose you'll be happy to know that Vinda is dead."

Gellert stopped in his tracks with an eyebrow quirked upwards in surprise. "Finally managed to kill the bitch off?" She nodded curtly. "Good, Ellie. Rosier was gullible and weak. I'd almost like to tell you that I'm proud."

"Every bit of my ability, I learned from you," she said, taking a brave step towards him. "Unfortunately for you, Gellert, that means that I know your weaknesses. Because they're the same as mine."

He snickered. "You say that as if I've taught you everything I know. You'll never be me."

"True," she replied, relaxing her body and narrowing her eyes at the top of the clock tower, focusing intently on the feeling of weightlessness that she had just felt minutes earlier. "I'll be better." And then she took off, letting her bones fade into dust as she flew up to the top of the courtyard. Rematerializing at the top, she stared down at a stunned Grindelwald. "I've had more than one mentor, Gellert. You aren't special anymore."

He cackled from the floor, pulling his wand from his coat. "You should know better than to show off your new skills before the battle's even started!" And then the tower shook, the reinforcements of the castle slowly beginning to weaken as Grindelwald sent a shockwave into the ground of the courtyard. "Run back to your dead mother, Eleanor!"