Disclaimer: I own none of the characters (save for one at the end) or the world created by JK Rowling.
I Knew Him As A Boy-
I never told anyone about that day…no one knew except for the boy who had been at my side who watched paralysed as he raised his arms and looked dead into our eyes… my eyes. Except now, I am telling you…
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“Tom Riddle, who are you?” I asked, fear rattling my voice.
“Me? I am you worst nightmare now. But you have no one to blame but yourself and him” he said softly, motioning to the boy at my side.
“I’m sorry Tom, I’m so sorry, please don’t hurt us…” I begged, but was cut off
“Don’t hurt you?!” he yelled, “Why, I ask you?”
I looked at the cave floor, the spray from the ocean was against me; surely Mrs Cole would notice that we were missing.
“She won’t be here anytime soon Amy” Tom said quietly as though he had heard what I was thinking.
He scared me when he was like this… actually he scared me all the time, but especially when he talked in whispers like this, when he knew what I was thinking.
“You know what you have done Amy, and now I must punish you for it” he said as he raised his arms high in the air.
It looked almost comical, and I would have laughed were it not for the look of death that masked his face as he stared at me. Slowly he began to move his lips and it was not until he became louder that I heard the spitting and hissing noise coming from his mouth. He never took his eyes off me as he went on sounding very much like he was having a seizure, but being in total control of his body.
I had never seen him like this, I was too scared to even make a sound. Yet I could not tear my eyes away from him as he stood there filling me with fear. It was like he had cursed me with some terrible magic that he knew of. I could vaguely here Dennis beside me whimpering. With all the effort I cold muster I forced my eyes away from Tom and looked at Dennis.
He had wet himself, the dark stain that made its way further down his trousers did not go unnoticed by Tom, however he seemed uninterested, disappointed even, as though he wished it were not urine but rather blood that made its way down Dennis’ body.
Surely I was imagining it, what boy would wish that, would even think that?
Tom suddenly turned his back on us to look into the icy depths of the ocean that was spraying us with every slap against the outside cave wall. The water did not seem to bother Tom who did not flinch or raise a hand to wipe the salty water out of his face. Instead he kept on with his hissing and spitting.
Soon enough I saw what he was looking for. At first I thought that I was imagining it, but then I saw again and I knew it was real. Sea serpents were slowly but surely making there way up from the ocean into the cave and towards Dennis and me.
I felt Dennis shaking next to me and I tried to reach out for his arm to comfort him, but he pulled away from me. I was much too preoccupied with the snakes to pay any mind to this minor insult.
Tom turned back to face us, his eyes boring into mine. A small smile appeared on his lips, a smirk if anything else and it scared me more than the rapidly approaching serpents of the sea.
They circled us and Dennis’ shakes became uncontrollable. As Tom knew snakes were a great fear of Dennis. Tom’s smirk only grew as he hissed again and the snakes left me alone and circled Dennis alone. Dennis burst into tears not knowing what was going to happen to him.
I still had not cried but I wondered what he was going to do to me.
He walked over to me and circled me like the snakes were circling Dennis.
He stopped in front of me, looking into my face, hate filling his every word.
“I want you to feel pain, Amy Benson” he said not moving but still looking me in the eyes.
What was he going to do? Hit me, strangle me, torture me? But we were so young, how could he think such thoughts? True I was only a little older then him, but he should not know about such things, should not feel so much hate.
He smiled evilly and began to circle me again slowly. Painfully for me as I did not know when to expect this pain he wanted to inflict on me. He walked slowly back to where he had stood before in front of us. Time and space seemed to be frozen.
I looked over at Dennis who still had tears running down his face.
“Dennis, its ok, we’ll be ok” I said soothingly to him, trying to control my own quivering voice.
“No it won’t Amy!” he yelled back, “You stupid girl you got us into this!”
“You see Amy, what did I tell you? I told you to stay away from him, I told you he was a bad boy, but you didn’t listen” he said almost whispering.
“Tom please this is going too far!” I practically yelled.
I knew why he was doing this, I had known since he had brought us down here, and still I had come willingly , for what reason I do still do not know.
He had, as he said, asked me to stay away from Dennis, he had told me that Dennis would be bad for me, that he would treat me bad. But I could not see why he would say such things. Tom and I had not been close; in fact, Tom had not been close to anyone the whole time he had been at the orphanage. But yet he had felt the need to give me this warning. It confused me but I told him I would do as he said, in truth only because he scared me.
But I knew when I walked away from Tom, that the fear he caused in me would evaporate and I would meet with Dennis in his room like he had asked me to and there I would have my first kiss. The whole orphanage was talking about it and so there was no way that I could keep it from Tom.
I was brought back to the present when I saw the look that Tom was giving me, he looked livid, like he was going to kill me any minute now and suddenly the fear that I had only been slightly aware of before, flooded over and I was crying and down on my knees begging him to let us go with our lives.
Why was I kneeling before a ten year old boy, why could he make us feel such fear, when we were bigger and stronger then he was. I didn’t understand it.
Without another word from Tom, I felt pain like I had never felt it before. My bones ached, no they burnt. My whole body was on fire and it was not one that I knew how to put out.
Stupidly I dropped and rolled hoping this might help but it only caused more pain where I landed on my arm.
After what felt like an age the pain stopped and I felt my throat burning; I had not even heard myself screaming.
Again without saying a word before hand, Tom started hissing and spitting and I looked up just in time to see the snakes leaving Dennis and going back into the ocean.
Tom looked down at me, daring me to say something, wanting an excuse to cause me more pain. But I kept quiet, I would never speak to him again, I would tell no one of this and neither would Dennis. No one would ever know what happened and we would die knowing what he could do, but not understanding.
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I sit in my lounge chair watching the news about the ever frequent deaths. As I sit here I think about Tom, how it is most likely someone like him that is doing this. For some reason I do not buy the notion that these people died of some terrible accident or that they died of natural causes. I know there is something more to it but I would never voiced these opinions to my husband. He had no such mind for nonsense like that.
I’m not exactly sure what is going on, nor do I condone the idea that there is such a thing as magic, even after that day when Tom had certainly done something that was outside the realm of normal. Was it magic though, I find myself thinking? Was there really such a thing? I have asked myself this time and again since that day and have still come to no answer. I am an older women now, not so old that I’m counting the days until my body fails me, but old enough. Even so I have the feeling that there is not much longer for me. .
It is 1998 and I feel as though I am waiting for something as I sit here watching the news. Looking up I see my husband fast asleep on the armchair next to me. He looks so peaceful, and I feel like I could watch him for an eternity. But I know that I do not have an eternity, in fact I do not have more than an hour. Don’t bother asking how I know this, I just do. And so I bid you farewell, in the hopes that you never meet him…
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He sat outside watching as she wrote, as she turned her face up to watch the television, and hears about all the deaths and injuries carried out in his name. Finally she lay down her pen and paper and settled back in waiting.
A thin smile formed around his lips, she knew. She knew he would come back one day, that these happenings were not normal. Still she could not explain it.
His eyes flickered to the man sitting next to her, and something churned in his stomach as he realised that it was not Dennis. Of course he knew this but still…
He knew there was no point waiting any longer and so he began the slow walk up to her front door. Should he knock? He raised his hand and then he caught himself just in time.
I am Lord Voldemort, I am the most feared man in all of Wizarding Britain and I am knocking politely on a muggle woman’s door so I can enter and kill her? No.
He blasted the door open without another thought and walked into the living room. She had not moved, her husband on the other hand had awoken, but was still dazed from his sleep.
“Hello Tom, I thought you would be dropping by soon” she said, not turning to face him.
“Dear, dear Amy, quiet the perceptive one aren’t we?” he said leaning over her armchair and whispering in her ear.
“Amy, who is this…” he did not want to say man but there no other word that he could think of, “man?”
“We were in the orphanage together, Samuel, and no we were not friends” she responded still not moving her head or body.
He felt the rage build inside him, not friends? No they weren’t, so why was this making him so angry? He walked around the armchair looking at her but not receiving her eyes in return.
“Look at me” he said, but she continued to look at straight ahead rather then up at him.
“Look at me!” he screamed, becoming angry and frustrated that this woman thought she could disobey the Dark Lord.
Finally Amy raised her head and looked into his eyes. She gasped, they were nothing more then red slits. She examined the rest of his face only to find that he looked nothing like the boy she had once known.
“Oh Tom what have you done to yourself?” she asked horrified at what she was seeing.
“My name is not Tom, I am Lord Voldemort and you will bow to me or suffer the consequences”
She stared up at him, with something like pity in her eyes. He looked down at her holding her gaze.
Her eyes widened, like she had suddenly realised something and Voldemort unconsciously took a step backwards.
“You loved me Tom… That’s why you told me to stay away from him”
He looked ready to kill her, but quickly regained his composure, sneering down at her.
“You fool, love is for the weak, and I have never loved you”
“Tom I am no fool, and love is only for those who can handle it, only the strong and I kno..”
He released a scream of agony and in a slash of his wand and burst of green light Amy lay there, dead, only her husband screamed for her running over to her and holding her in his arms. Soon he joined her lying there looking almost like they had fallen asleep, relishing in each other company and filled with undoubtable love.
Voldemort left the house without a backwards glance at Amy and her husband, denying to himself, but truly knowing, that he was jealous of what they had had, jealous because he would now never know that feeling, jealous because his pride would not allow him to ever feel that way again. And so he pushed to the side once more, and vowed that love was not powerful enough to break him. Love was not the answer, love was for the weak, and he Lord Voldemort was not weak.