Tom Riddle and the Pureblood Prince

Continuation of….


Chapter Twenty-Three: A Nasty Incident


It was not until nearly midnight, several hours after the feast that Riddle and his gang returned to the statue of the one-eyed witch. Voldemort had had a good night, for it had given him immense pleasure knowing the fear he created and the fact that his victims were suffering while he was having a ball. Or at least safe and fairly content with himself.

Now, not a single student was out and most of the staff had either retired from the exhausting process of securing the school, or were, as Riddle had recently learned, interrogating four of his followers.

But his other followers were present including Eileen. So in small groups, Rookwood, Mulciber, Macnair, the two Lestrange brothers, and finally, Dolohov with Eileen and Riddle at the end managed to safely sneak into the apparatus and slide down the tiny ramp and get back into the cavern.

The children were all there, sleeping like babies. It was like not a thing was wrong with them, but this just made the situation more horrid. Some of the followers went to turn on the candle fixtures on the walls.

Rookwood watched his master expectantly, as Voldemort knelt down to take a look at the First years well being or lack thereof. Clearly, they were alive, as Voldemort rapidly checked each of their pulses.

Smiling Riddle patted Michael Adder’s arm with the queerest gesture, but certainly not true affection. “Thank-you. You’ve done well,” he said to the unconscious boy, but it was as if he was only speaking to an object.

Riddle continued to have a small smile playing on his lips. It appeared his thoughts were elsewhere, as they must definitely were. Imagining corpses and his future army of Inferi.

Rookwood broke the silence, saying with a hopeful air, “My Lord – are we going to leave them in here longer? I do think we could study our subjects more.”

Riddle at once came out of the reverie and shook his head, “No,” he breathed in a carefree way.

He stood up and addressed them all, “Tonight was a magnificent night, my friends. We have succeeded in an operation of a magnitude, a presence of mind and a talent I thought could never be given from some of you…Over the coming months of the near future, we shall be planning another attack…however this one will be at another Wizarding institution. Not here at Hogwarts!….”

Tom paused. All eight of his followers standing around the four unconscious children drew in their breath with anticipation. Nobody knew exactly what these plans were and they yearned for the knowledge. “Once again, your master commends you for your efforts. It appears my experiment was a success… A shining achievement of my own!”

The followers began to clap slowly, until it grew louder and louder. Riddle seemed willing to allow this, and all the while Eileen was staring around in fascination at Riddle and the power he held with people, his people and....her people!

The clapping grew to a crescendo and the cheering grew wilder so that it was something like Riddle was the hero of a Quidditch Match. Voldemort did not know what to do with himself for a moment, feeling more like a hero than a villain. Until he realized what he knew would be perfectly convenient to depict. He was venturing subtly over to Eileen. She did not see him.

But suddenly Tom had picked her up by the waist, her heels a few inches from the floor, and he twirled her as he held her narrow shoulders. Voldemort kissed with a passion, a powerful sensual zest that was unusual for him to do with anyone at all. He slowed down, stopping the twirling of her frame and kissed some more. All the followers were watching as Riddle put his hands gently to Eileen’s face as if he loved her, and looked in her brown eyes with sparks of light and he kissed the girl again. This was just as he wanted it. If all the followers thought, even if only for a little while that Eileen Prince was his girlfriend, it helped create for him a normal image. Yet an illusion he did not want to see anywhere further than inside the Dark Order.

Finally he finished kissing her, and Eileen stared down at the bodies of the victims, as she clung to Tom's shirt lapel with her fists. She was suffused with admiration more than compassion for the First years. Something horrible inside her made her say, “Congratulations, My Lord. I am so glad I offered my services to this!” And in a way she meant it, she felt like a partner in his crimes and she was enjoying the honor of it. She embraced him lightly, and he held her, cold hands grazing her back, and sending a shiver down Eileen's spine, feeling a powerful something for Riddle. A hint of something more that she wanted from him.

Riddle smiled and laughed high and cold, filling the baneful atmosphere with the sound of his presence. She took it as true warmth and she smiled too, filled with a blind admiration for him once more. Yet she really was as blind as a bat this Halloween night. Years later, many years later, she would remember his kisses and then she would realize what they really meant. Tom may be a superb snogger, but his kisses were truly like the kiss of death. And now in the current time, her connections with Riddle were finally starting to become truly hazardous. She had no idea what was in store for her in the future, but years later she would ruminate and mourn her actions of this night.

Finally Riddle had his wand out as the followers cheers' subsided and the room morphed back into it's perpetual gloom. He knelt on the earthen floor. Ennervating the children after observing that the effects of the Draught of the Living Dead had staved off.

“Master – do you wish me to help you?” asked Rodolphus.

“No. I shall work alone at this. We must be sure this is done right before we release them.”

So nobody spoke as Riddle next lifted off the Imperius Curses one by one. But before each child could react to awakening from a slumber like being in an early grave, their freedom was at once snatched away. Riddle modified each one’s memories and then confunded them as he ordered with the aid of the charm, concentrating hard, “You will not remember this place. You will not remember the place you leave tonight and you will not recall who is present now.”

After a moment each child was awake. They wobbled on shaky legs, some of them pale and sickly in complexion, eyelashes fluttering with drowsiness. Clearly, all was not well with them. Riddle not seem to care too much.

Riddle prodded them gently with his wand and marched them to the chute. He bent down and said in a low tone, but it carried clearly, “Off you go to the hospital wing then.” For Riddle wanted it to be discovered, the full horror of what was done to them to finally be revealed.

Riddle and Macnair with Eileen helped some of the children climb the ladder and then the precautions to make sure nobody was waiting outside the statue. Finally the hump opened from the inside. Down below the rest of the followers chortled as the children left, “Happy Halloween!”

The children heard it but they could not register what it meant. They did not even remember today’s date right now.


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