Masquerade¹ → Tom Riddle [Rewritten] ✓

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Evelyn stepped into the Gaunt House with more confusion than when she had left the bed and breakfast. It was nothing at all how she had expected - it was more a shack than a house.

"Stay behind me," Tom muttered, drawing his wand.

Evelyn obediently fell into line behind Tom, keeping her wand clutched in her hand as she tiptoed over the mess that was the floor. She crept with as much stealth as she could, unaware of the dangers lay inside. If Tom had his wand out, she knew there was something big coming.

In silence, the two trailed the perimeter of the house and finally came to a halt in what Evelyn assumed was once a living area. There was one chair, riddled with cobwebs, sat in front of a small sofa, other than that the room was bare. There was nothing on the walls, no pictures or memories- the house was devoid of all signs of life.

"Wait here," Tom commanded, sauntering off down the halls in a flash.

Evelyn began pacing impatiently whilst she waited for Tom to return. With each step, the floorboards below her began to creak, building up the anxiety inside of her. Before another second passed, Tom came storming back in, his hand balled into a fist and grasping at the coat of a familiar-looking man. Tom pushed him onto the wooden chair and quickly muttered a spell before taking a seat opposite him. For a few moments, nobody spoke. Everybody simply acknowledged one another and Evelyn inspected the man. He had hair matted with so much dirt, it could've been any colour, and his tiny dark eyes wandered in every direction, filled with so much energy they almost burst. He was almost in a worse state than the house.

"Why are you here boy?" The man asked, grinning and revealing the several gaps between his teeth.

"I'm here for answers," Tom said simply, crossing his legs and twirling his wand about in his hand. "Where is Marvolo?"

"Dead- died years ago. Marvolo hasn't been in this house in years."

Riddle shot him an icy glare. "Care to explain who you are then?"

"I'm Morfin, Marvolos son. I thought you were that muggle. You look mighty like that muggle" Morfin whispered.

"What muggle?" Tom spat the word 'muggle' with disgust, clenching his jaw.

"That Muggle what my sister took a fancy to, that Muggle what lives in the Riddle House big house over the way, you look right like him. Riddle. But he's older now, in 'e? He's older'n you, now I think on it... he come back, see. "

"My father was not a muggle." Tom spat back at Morfin.

"Your father was as much a muggle as any other. He fell for that filthy slut. She disobeyed us all. Who are you to come back here and ask these questions? I want you out" Morfin's agitation grew by the minute.

Tom raised his wand and before Evelyn had a chance to stop him, sent a stupefy straight into Morfin. He leant over, grabbed hold of Morfin's wand and bolted out of the shack, leaving Evelyn breathlessly following behind.

"Tom!" Evelyn called from behind him. Her breath faltering as she spoke. She ran in front of him and blocked his way. "Wait!"

"Evelyn go back." He commanded, stepping to the side and continuing to speed down the lane.

"Tom, tell me right now what you are going to do. I'm not leaving." Tom halted in his track in front of a large manor.

As Tom raised his wand, Evelyn knew exactly what he was about to do. "No. Tom, it's not worth it." She shook her head vigorously; this would only make him a worse person. He was almost too far gone and this would push him over the edge.

"I want him dead. You heard what Morfin said – he abandoned my mother, he abandoned me!" Anger rose inside of him, coating his body like a second skin.

"Tom you can't do this."

"And you can't stop me. Go back, Evelyn. Go back." He said. And with that, he began walking down the winding path that led into the Riddle Manor. And with that, he fell further and further into the darkness.

Evelyn didn't bother waiting for Tom. She headed straight back to the Bed and Breakfast, collected her few belongings and was on her way. She didn't know where she was, or how on Earth she could get home. Evelyn was lost- but there was nothing she could do about it. She was lost in the midst of Little Hangleton; she was caught up in a web of lies that Tom had spun around her and she didn't see an escape.

Evelyn spent the last weeks of the summer holidays drifting between accommodation, sleeping a few nights in each place and then moving on. She could bring herself to go back to her Grandparents house. If she did- she was admitting defeat: she couldn't do that to herself. Evelyn wanted to prove to herself and everyone else that she could do it alone. She wanted to be independent, she wanted this to be all her. Evelyn wanted to be in control of her own future, and that she would be.

By the time September rolled around- Evelyn would be ready for anything. She would walk into her sixth year at Hogwarts with a sense of confidence, and as the year progressed, she would finally take down Tom Riddle.