Preventing A Prophecy | Tom Riddle

Chapter XIII: Betrayal of the Worst Kind

29/11/2016

Rights to some of the characters and plot line go to J. K. Rowling and L. J. Smith. However, most of the characters and plot are mine.

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Katherina's PoV:

Dippet and The Minister didn't really come up with a decision about Hogwarts. The headmaster was given a month to find whatever beast it was before Hogwarts would be forcibly closed and Aurors would storm the place. Honestly? None of us think Dippet wants to keep Hogwarts open, the man had made absolutely no move to attempt to find our Bernie. He didn't even hire any Aurors over Christmas holidays, like Dumbledore suggested. My father, who owns a company of private Aurors for hire, even offered to do the job for free, but Dippet rejected. Roberto said around 40% of students have been pulled from Hogwarts, half of those enrolled at another wizarding school and the others waiting for the beast to be found... Something which it doesn't seem will ever happen.

In other news, I didn't hear from Tom once during Christmas. I even sent him a gift, a diary with his name engraved into it, but I didn't get so much as a thank you letter back. Although, no student was allowed to stay at Hogwarts during the holidays and I wasn't sure where it is exactly Tom lives, so I was just trusting that Noir would find him. I wrote him once in the first week but didn't persist when I heard nothing back.

I'm sure there is some reasonable explanation, I mean we had become almost inseparable in the last week leading up to Christmas, he even joined our table during meal times, he basically became a silent part of our group. He even started being calmer and nicer! No insulting muggleborns or bullying first years, he was perfectly civil.

Okay, well, you know how girls work. This just means we're going to have to ignore him until he approaches us and apologises. That diary was customised and definitely not cheap! And I didn't even get a thank you! Boys *sigh*.

"Rina, time to get off." It was only at Rose's words that I realised the train had come to a stop and everyone was exiting the compartment. I followed after, once everyone had left, still ignoring Adrian after nearly a month of begging and pleading on the whole groups part.

They all assured me that Adrian was sorry for everything he did, making a move and then spreading those rumors. But they didn't know how angry those rumors made Tom, they don't know that it was technically those rumors that led to Myrtle getting killed, something Cathy still hadn't recovered from. I could only partially blame Tom if it was something he couldn't control, leaving the rest of the blame on Adrian. Myrtle was Cathy's only friend, she still cried herself to sleep at night just thinking about having to face people on her own. And I know she partly blames herself, thinking how it could have been different if she offered her spare room to Myrtle that night.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who you blame or how many contingencies you come up with; some things just can't be changed, some things you just have to get over before they get over you.

"Snooze you lose." I climbed up the steps to the carriage only to see every seat taken, bar Lisa sitting on Christians lap. Not particularly wanting to be around Adrian anyway, who spoke, I stepped back to the ground.

"I'll get the next one." I watched as the carriage disappeared slowly, choosing instead to go for one of the ones that was waiting to be filled up with more students before they could leave. I hopped up into a smaller, older one with boarded up windows, hoping a murder wasn't waiting inside for me.

Instead I was met with a tall, broad silhouette sitting across from me. The carriage took off as soon as it clicked who it was, meaning I couldn't escape unless I wanted to get crushed or killed on impact. Instead, I chose to just ignore the boy, looking at the boarded-up window as if I could still see the landscape.