Deal with the Devil

Chapter 24

Tom hadn't been lying when he'd said he enjoyed the body heat she provided. Since creating the second Horcrux, he'd become colder both in mind and body. He could feel his kinship to serpents even more as he'd come to realize he enjoyed basking in heat. Thus, once the girl had drifted off, he shifted closer, hand falling to her waist. She was a little thing, breakable, soft.

One other change was the need for less— less sleep, less food, less. He was sure that as he split his soul more, other tethers to mortality and humanity would fall away. For now, he still became hungry and still enjoyed the press of a body against his.

Creaking floorboards interrupted his musings, and he listened as quiet, slow footsteps ambled ever closer. The man must have his wits about him to be so stealthy, no doubt not wanting to wake the girl before he entered the room.

Tom's wand had been in the pocket on his trousers, and he gently removed himself from the sleeping girl to slip it into his hand, rolling out of the bed, stepping lightly toward the door. He stood in stillness, hardly breathing, heartbeat a lazy thudding in his chest, until the steps stopped and a shadow blocked light from the hall. There came a quiet, "Alohamora." The knob jiggled, and he raised his wand, incantation readied.

When the door swung open, Tom directed a silent body-binding spell at the man, who fell to the ground. "Accio Aurek Vablatsky's wand." The slim wooden stick flew into his free hand, and he placed it in his now-empty pocket. He glanced over his shoulder to see that the girl was still asleep somehow, though she'd stirred onto her back. He then murmured, "Levicorpus," and guided the stiff body of the man down the hall, carefully shutting the door behind him. He knew his guest room was empty, so that was the location he went toward. The party was still going, so he avoided the central stairs.

A spell to ensure no one could hear anything from outside the room, and Tom dropped the levitation spell. Aurek fell to the floor, only able to grunt in response. He toyed with the idea of just letting the man loose, so he would see how impossible it was to fight against the will of the Dark Lord, twirling his yew wand idly. Since the start of break, he'd had no opportunities to vent his frustrations. True, he didn't need to indulge in violence. However, he enjoyed it.

Tom cancelled the body-binding. In seconds, the other man had bounded to his feet, and barreled toward him.

"Crucio."

The red light hit his chest, and Aurek fell again, this time moving in all sorts of ways. The cords of his neck bulged in stark relief as his screams perfumed the air. They were higher than he'd have thought, given the size of the man contorting himself into odd shapes on the floor. It was like hearing a cat yowling where one expected a lion's roar.

He lifted the spell, and the man panted for a moment before shakily rising to his feet once more.

"Riddle, you can't—"

"I can," he said evenly. "And I just did. This isn't even my favorite Unforgiveable. Would you like to experience that one next?" The man's eyes widened. They were bloodshot, the blue emphasized by the red. Tom did so like seeing people with bright eyes tortured; the apparent change in color was an interesting effect. "No? Perhaps you prefer this one, then."

"Riddle, listen—"

"Crucio."

This time, he crumbled rather than fell, knees failing him first, torso melting onto the floor, head hitting with a heavy "thwack!" His screams soon gained a hoarseness from their continuance. Tom let it go on a minute, maybe a tad longer, then cancelled it once more.

Aurek stayed on the floor longer this time, tears at the corners of his eyes, sweat beading on his body.

"Are you ready to listen?" Tom said.

The man dragged himself into a sitting position, staring with eyes that screamed hatred much as his throat had screamed in pain.

"Oh, good." He smiled mockingly. "You see, last year I learned just how special Elena is. I found out all about your wife's, ah, indiscretion, and what came of it." He tapped his wand against his thigh as the other's jaw clenched. "I learned Elena wasn't your daughter at all—"

"A man's wife's children are his by rights if he wants them," Aurek growled.

"Are they? In what way?"

"She's my step-daughter."

He tapped his wand again, Aurek's eyes drawn to the movement, watching closely lest Tom decide to use another curse. "That implies a familial bond," he said.

"Ja, she is family—"

Tom shook his head, his smooth curls falling over his forehead. "Oh, Aurek. Aurek, Aurek. A father doesn't lust after his daughter, his family."

The big man opened his mouth, but Tom silenced him with a lift his wand, a threat.

"Do not lie to me. I abhor liars, and I can already see that's what you want to spout."

"What do you know?" he said after a pause, lines heavy on his face.

Tom sneered down at the man. "I saw her memories. Back to your first meeting. I saw your little lessons, and heard what you said to her before she came to Hogwarts after the summer."

He shook his golden head in denial. "I have treated the girl as I would my own—"

Tom flicked his wand and Aurek slammed into the wall behind him, sinking down to the floor. "If that's the case, you're more despicable than I thought. Well, I suppose I should see for myself." He crossed the room and knelt to study his victim. "What was your plan when you entered her room tonight?" He stroked his wand over the man's temple. Aurek's breath was trembling. "Legilimens."

What Tom saw was enough that he immediately set the Cruciatus on the man again as he pulled from the other's mind. This man, this disgusting excuse for a wizard, had sought to pluck something that wasn't his to take. It seemed that, when he saw Tom that evening, he'd decided to dispense with the lessons altogether and do what he'd been inevitably preparing the girl for.

Tom was furious. In his anger, he kept the curse up longer than he had before, until Aurek's voice broke and fled, and longer. When he finally cancelled it, he circled around the shivering mass, watching as Aurek came back to himself in fits and starts. When his eyes finally filled with knowledge of where he was, Tom stepped on the outstretched fingers of one of the man's hands, taking satisfaction in the crunch beneath his foot.

"Listen closely, Aurek. I do not like to repeat myself," Tom seethed. "Elena is mine, and I do not share my possession. Least of all with perverse creatures like you." The man took in a shuddering breath that rattled in and out of his chest. Perhaps he'd broken a rib or two; the thought brought the cruel smile back to Tom's lips.

"What will you do?" The sound was raw, quiet, hoarse in the stillness of the room.

"I will expose you as a pedophile," Tom said. "I will bottle Elena's memories and send them to your family, to all your old friends in Poland and Germany, those here in England. I'll send them to Elena's father as well."

The man's face paled beneath the sheen of sweat. "You would condemn him to death?"

Tom laughed, that cold, high laugh that sent gooseflesh down the skin of grown men. "You ask that of me? Really?"

Aurek wheezed, thought, opened his mouth, hesitated. Finally, he said, "I could tell them what you've done. The Cruciatus—"

"No one would believe you." His smile was especially cruel when he said the next. "And if you did that, I'd wait for your scandal to die down and introduce you to my favorite Unforgiveable. No one would morn the death of a pedophile who made his victim call him daddy."

Aurek held eye contact for a second longer, saw his death written in Tom Riddle's eyes, and slumped back in on himself, nodding.

"I'm glad we have an understanding." Tom walked back to the door, pulled out the other wizard's wand, and turned. "Before I go, I will warn you: you will never get the upper hand on me. Never. Don't try." He tossed the wand across the room, and the older man groaned as he crawled toward it. Tom walked back to Elena's room with a smile on his face.