The Last Drop |Tom Riddle|

Chapter Fifteen: Playing the Game

April 1, 1956

The only sound in the room was that of a quill spreading ink across a small square of parchment. The cloudy white sky outside the windows above the desk were the only source of light but it was surely enough, making the black ink almost darker against the pale paper. Once the parchment was complete, Eleanor put the quill away and smiled down at it.

"Together with friends and family, Eleanor Peverell and Tom Riddle invite you to witness their marriage on May 1, 1956"

It didn't feel real.

As she wrote the guest list, she felt a small tang of guilt with every name. The excitement of her closest friends and relatives would surely outmatch her own which was what felt most wrong about all of this. But when her name came to Colin's, Eleanor had to sit back in her seat to take a breath.

Colin had crossed the line the other day. He personally attacked Abraxas and she had no desire to feel sympathy for his mudblood story anymore especially after his reaction to the wand report on Jude, the girl who escaped them from the boats. It couldn't be more obvious that he was working with the group now.

That night at the New Year's party was her next brainstorming source.

The people at the Prophet surely knew something about Colin if he was as close with them as he led her to believe. The Prophet had the largest hand at how issues were perceived because they put the words on the paper that everyone reads. It would be a breeze to cover this all up. Looking back at it, perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that Tom Riddle ended up there that night at the bar. But as the gears in her head turned, the ink had dripped onto one of the invitations and she jumped back slightly.

"Shit..." she whispered under her breath, placing the quill away and tossing the one blank card.

Once her desk was neatly organized once again, Eleanor could feel herself uncoil as she leaned back and took a deep breath. It was then that her eyes drifted to the picture of her and her mother framed in the corner. It was taken around Christmas time when the both of them had smiles that didn't know what was coming.

As awful as it sounded, after ten years Eleanor could hardly feel the pain anymore.

There was only a dull ache of missing out on what could have been. Despite the figures she had to look up to, her mind often trailed back to her mother, more now than ever knowing that she was about to marry someone for sheer political reasons and a thrill that awoken something deep down for the first time in years. It sickened her but excited her all at once. It made her feel like a traitor but more powerful than ever.

What would her mother do?

With the Ministry being as corrupt as it was, was Eleanor no better than the rest of them?

Even as she stared blankly at the picture thinking some powerful answer would pop up in her head, Eleanor knew that she was worse than the rest of them by a long shot. But this was all apart of the game she had grown accustomed to and she should have known that it was in this game that only one person came out on top. Right now, however, each side seemed to be a stalemate.

As she looked down at her invitations, the last name on the list was Colin.

This invitation would sever their ties for good. The last tether they had in whatever bond was left would be gone and she couldn't help but have a pit in her stomach over it. Every good and bad memory they shared would not matter once she united with Tom. To her, Colin was only a liar and traitor to the ministry if everything was all true. He was no different than Tom and the Death Eaters as they were merely two sides to the same coin. But she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault, that they could have been happy and had a family by now.