Lost | Tom Riddle ✔

Chapter 92

"Tea?" 

Tom looked up from the cup in front of him to the man who had just offered it to him. His chocolate eyes squinted just a bit on Grindelwald. He couldn't believe the nerve of that older wizard. First, the man orders to have a one-to-one meeting with the boy and then he had the real gut to actually offer some refreshment. As if he was not going to fight as long as he could. 

"No, thank you." With no Alexa in his sight, Tom felt restless. Even a bit of reckless. As if realizing this, he added, "I am not thirsty right now."

Grindelwald's mismatched pair of eyes locked on his subject. He studied him, still, with naked curiosity and interest. Tom had intertwined his fingers as if to proscribe any restless motion. There was visible tension in his shoulders. There was firmness in his feet when he grounded them to the floor as if to stop them from shuddering. A slow, predatory, almost invisible-yet-there smirk decorated the elder man's lips. The fifteen-year-old looked stiff as wood, just like the wooden chair he was sitting in. And the elder man knew how to take advantage of cornered creatures very well.

"Tom Riddle," he continued as he folded his hands in front of his chest and crossed his legs to show how relaxed he was in the current scenario. "You have been a real riddle to me. And might I say a reflection of myself."

That got Tom's attention. What the actual heck was this man trying to say?

"Finally we meet in person. You must be wondering what are you doing here. Let me set the records straight. I have been intrigued by you since the moment Sition brought you in light." Gellert's eyes twinkled as he leaned lazily on the window behind him.

"Why would you be interested in meeting me?" Tom asked keeping his anxiety and curiosity in check.

"You can call me an antiquarian. I like to make contacts with people with potential," Gellert supplied. "I believe you know that vampires are supposed to get attracted to darkness."

Grindelwald waited for Tom to reply but when he didn't, the man continued, "that's not the complete truth. They get attracted to power. That night when you two met for the first time, it was your aura that attracted Sition to you. He sensed it that night. For years, he was trying to locate my grand-daughter and when they were finally in reach of each other, ironically, it was you who distracted him from his path."

"If I wasn't your target, why did he try to kill me then and why am I still here?" Alive, Tom added in his mind as took a deep breath. If the bat had indeed singled out Tom that night, then why did he attack him. The fifteen-year-old remembered how, if not for Alexa, he would have been dead that night. 

Grindelwald chuckled. "Sition is not my dog. He works for me, but he is not in my leash. We all work together."

"For the greater good?" Tom mocked. Clearly not a very bright idea on his part.

Grindelwald narrowed his eyes a bit just as a slow, mysterious smirk graced his lips. This boy was something.  "Tell me, boy, the Homorphous charm that you used to revert back my grand-daughter, who taught it to you? I am sure it wasn't your dear Transfiguration master."

Tom stiffened all over again. "I taught it myself."

"I had figured that much," Grindelwald spoke, "Durmstrang never taught me anything truly useful either, and to say, they considered my school to be liberal than yours. The moment Dumbledore joined your school, I knew Hogwarts was going to get even more bigoted. These schools were built to teach us so that we can feel free and powerful, yet what they do? They contain us. They pluck our feathers. Restrict us from utilizing our full potential." 

Finally! Never in his life, did Tom think that he would sympathize with this dark wizard on something. For years, he had been taught how certain magic was dark and certain was light. Finally, someone was talking some sense. Someone understood that the purpose of magic is to make us free and powerful. That's what he had desired since he was a child. That was what he craved since the moment he started facing the horrors of living in the ruddy muggle orphanage. He just wanted to shape his life the way he wished.

Unbeknownst to him, Grindelwald smiled inwardly. He knew how to appeal to people. And this young boy was just another open book. He had done his homework very acutely. To fuel already started fire, he clicked his tongue on his teeth as he continued. "And all this happens, why? Because of some low-life nonmagical fools. We are more powerful. More resourceful. Yet we have to stay hidden. Why should we restrict ourselves for their sake? Why can't we just spread our wings and soar in the sky so that these fools know that it's us who are superior? Tell me, Tom, wouldn't it feel good if you could leave your current accommodation and openly say no to whatever they force upon you? Wouldn't it feel nice to simply refuse the soldiers coming to your place every season to see if they can recruit some of you for their unreasonable war? Why should we fight and even die in their battles?"

With that, the man nailed it. This was truly a sensitive topic for Tom. It was true. In that period of time, the magical community was indeed very vulnerable to the senseless show of power that the muggle world had indulged itself into. However, the boy was more susceptible to this debacle than any of his magical friends. All because he lived in a muggle orphanage. He remembered, how he asked every year to stay back in the castle in the hopes of avoiding staying in the place where the soldiers could come any time and ask for adults to join their battle. Tom wasn't still eighteen and so he was safe for now. But for how long? He remembered how his heart thumped every time they used to look at him from head to toe. As if they couldn't wait for him to be the next scapegoat. Yeah, a scapegoat, since with wizards and witches having an oath to keep their magic hidden and no training beforehand, most of them die on their very first day. The Daily Prophet was not filled with tributes for no reason. 

Grindelwald was right. Why should they die for the cause which wasn't even theirs? 

Grindelwald was right. Why should they always suffer because of the non-magical freaks?

Salazar! He was right. Why should Tom live in fright all the time? He had a right to breathe freely. To express freely. To be himself freely. 

Tom had the right to be free and powerful.

In his contemplation, Tom imagined how different his life would have turned out if the world was everything that this older man suggested. His heart cried out for the things he had missed in his younger days. Even in all the chaos around him, the small boy in him craved a normal childhood. Where he had the right to be innocent. Where he had the family. Where there was someone to look after him.

Unbeknownst to him, the older man smiled in triumph. His efforts were finally fruitful. The key to his grand-daughter was now in his hands.

~*~*~

Happy early birthday Tom.

So... The king of manipulation gets manipulated himself. Ah! I am loving this irony. What do you think? Did Grindelwald completely brainwash you as well? What about Tom? Do you think Tom will join him now? What about Alexa? Whom do you think she will fight now? Can she fight the boy she loves?

Please vote, comment and share the story.

Thank you all!!!