Captured In The Night || Tom Riddle

08- Everything You Thought You Knew, Part 2

Little Hangleton, England
June 5th, 1925

Thomas Riddle glared at Merope Gaunt as she placed more of that revolting excuse for food on the ground. He could barely stomach the stuff. He only ate when he was starving. She sat with that stupid smile on her face watching him. As long as he didn't look directly at her he could be polite. Now he was at his breaking point.

"Will you please stop staring at me!" He snapped.

Merope looked down embarrassed. "I.. I'm sorry.

He stole a glance in her direction as she looked genuinely hurt. His mother had been religious but not his father.

Don't feel sorry for the witch. He thought.

How he missed his mother. Her lifeless form haunted his mind. She had been killed with magic. What would she say to all this if she were alive? Magic was evil in her mind. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. 

Thomas sighed in annoyance as Merope wiped a tear from her face.

He tried reasoning with her. "I've been in this stinking dark hole now for over six months. I can't keep living this way."

"I know, I'm sorry." She said.

Thomas had not wanted to know until now.  He had just wanted to escape. "Explain to me what is happening then?" He asked.

"A wizard named Grindelwald has taken over both the Magic and muggle world," Merope explained. She looked at his confused expression and tried to explain. "Um.. muggles being non-magic folk like your kind. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to them all. Newspapers are not reporting much."

"Are they torturing my kind?" Thomas asked.

Merope held up both hands. "No. No, that's not it. I'd have to leave to find out. I'd have to sneak away when my father isn't looking."

"So why don't you?" He asked.

Merope shook her head. "I've never disobeyed him. I've never done anything like that before."

Thomas sank against the wall. "I'm going to die down here."

Merope looked at him for a moment. "Not if I can help it."

Thomas had fallen asleep at some point. He had to ask the witch the time when she visited. There was no window, just a candle that stayed lit with magic. At some point, he had awoken to the sound of shouting from upstairs.

"You know where that filthy muggle Riddle is don't you?" A man's voice shouted.

Thomas rubbed his eyes and sat up. He had often heard him shouting, but it had never been this bad before.

"Answer me!" He shouted again.

The sound of crashing could be heard as she must have hit the far wall. Crashing sounds could be heard as the witch's father shouted at her. He could hear her screaming in pain.

If she had been an ordinary woman, Thomas would have been up there in a heartbeat.

She's just a witch. He told himself.

The witch had used magic to prevent her father Marvolo and brother Morfin from hearing them. He wished she had made it so he didn't hear them either. More crashing and hissing sounds echoed downstairs. Thomas screamed into his palms in frustration and covered his ears. After a while, it went silent. He wondered if she was alive. She didn't come down at her usual time. In fact, he didn't see her for a day and a half when she finally brought food.