All the Wrong Choices

I took my wand out from the nightstand drawer and used it to track Tom down, come to find that he was at a residence in Wiltshire. The worst of ideas ran through my mind as I quickly pulled my shoes and a jacket on and trudged out of our shared house. I’d had news to tell him, but not until I knew the truth.

I arrived before a handsome manor house with extensive grounds. Determined to find whatever it was I was going to find I hopped the gate and made my way up the driveway carefully. Once in front of the manor I peered in through a few different windows until I found one room in particular. A man and woman were on their knees, kneeling before a group of people in black robes – specifically a single robed person with a wand pointed between the two of them. Merlin, this had to be some sort of cult or something. I merely assumed that I’d had the wrong place and moved to turn around.

Before I had the chance to I felt a cloth tighten over my head and I was dragged away from the window. Completely blinded, I was dragged painfully up some steps and into what I assumed was the manor house. I heard a lot of shouting and, since it was becoming more and more amplified, knew I was being dragged towards it. A door opened and I was yanked through the threshold.

“My Lord,” one of them spoke, “I found one outside.”

“Drop her.” The two men shoved me onto the marble flooring and I gasped out in pain. “Hold her while I take care of these two.” I felt a tight grip pinning me down to the floor. I held in a whimper.

“Avada kedavra!” A man shouted. Two piercing screams followed, then silence.

“Now, what do we do with this one? Seems we’ve got a bit of a spy on our hands.” I heard footsteps circling around me. “What is your name, girl? Who are you with and what business do you have here?”

“I – please, I just–” A heavy boot kicked me in the ribs, knocking the wind out of me.

“I asked who you are. Tell me now and we can make this quick.” I said nothing in response – I don’t think I could have even if I wanted to. I gasped for breath in between tears, nearly choking when my head was violently ripped up, my body following to a sitting position.

“Please,” I cried.

“She’s begging for her life. That will get her far.” A woman cooed.

Suddenly the pouch was torn off of my head and I could see again. Everything slowly came into focus and I saw at least twelve robed people surrounding me, all pointing their wands at me. I looked up at the man gripping my hair. My heart sunk when I met my husband’s eyes.

“Tom…” His grip on me loosened completely and I collapsed to the ground. He looked as if he were a deer in headlights. I backed away from him quickly, right into the back of someone’s wand. I let out a whimper and dodged the wand. Not wanting to move forward back towards the one person I thought would always keep me safe, I curled up into a ball.

“Pathetic,” a woman muttered. Tom’s head snapped to the woman in black robes and he pointed his wand at her. Without even a second glance he shouted the Killing Curse for the second time since I’d been there. I let out a scream when the woman’s lifeless body collapsed to the ground.

“Do you know this woman, my Lord?” Another robed figure asked Tom. He knelt down in front of me and put his hand under my chin. I shook away violently from his touch and backed away further. I couldn’t help but to vomit from being so worked up.

“She’s his wife,” a familiar voice spoke. I looked up and met eyes with Avery, whose hood was now down. Standing next to him were Lestrange and Mulciber. The three of them watched me in shock – perhaps with even a bit of humiliation.

“Everyone out.” Tom demanded lowly.

“My Lord–”

“Out!” Tom shouted. Everyone scurried out of the room, leaving the two of us alone. They took the dead bodies with them, handling them as if they were stuffed animals. “Nora,” Tom spoke my name slowly, “Nora? Look at me.”

“Don’t hurt me.” I cried, feeling myself slowly slip into a state of shock. I looked up at Tom who was staring back down at me with an unreadable expression on his face. I shook my head and looked back down at the floor.

“I wouldn’t hurt you.” Tom put a finger under my chin and lifted my head so I was face to face with him. I quickly pushed myself away from him, batting his hand away. His voice was rehearsed and I didn’t believe him.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Nora…” Tom inched towards me slowly. “I’m not going to hurt you. Look.” Tom slid his wand across the floor to the other side of the room. “I won’t hurt you, Nora. It’s me.”

“No, no,” I shook my head, “You’re a monster.”

“Let me explain this to you. Once I do, it will all make sense.” When he was within reach I kicked him in his chest and sent him flying backwards. I stood up as quickly as my sore body would allow me to and ran for the door. I felt arms wrap around my stomach and I shrieked, elbowing Tom as many times as I could in the face. His grip didn’t loosen.

He carried me over to a chair and sat me down. I tried to stand back up and make a run for it but he pinned me down. “Relax. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“Leave me alone!” I shouted.

“You’re in shock. Everything just needs to seep in.”

“I don’t know who you are!” I yelled. “You’re sick and twisted and – and demented. You – you manipulated me. How could you keep something like that from someone so close to you? Who are those people, Tom? Why are they referring to you as their lord? Is this – is this some sort of cult?” I rambled on like a crazy person. “Did you actually love me or did you just need a good cover up for whatever is going on here? Did you need some shred of normalcy?”

“I have always loved you, Nora. When I told you on our wedding day that you are the light in my darkness I meant it. You are the only light in all of this darkness.” Tom looked around at the room, motioning at all of it. A laugh fell from his lips as his eyes met mine once more. One look into his eyes and I knew that he was gone.

“You’re not the man I fell in love with.”

Tom sighed, retrieving his wand from the other side of the room. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, Nora. I’ve always been this way. Since the first day we met. I have always been like this.” Tom said simply – not sadly, not regrettably: simply, as if he were stating a common fact or knowledge. He pointed the tip of his wand back at his chest as he watched me. “This is what you fell in love with.”

“You kill people for your own enjoyment! You’re a monster!” I shouted.

“Wrong again, Nora,” Tom shook his head. “Truly, love, I thought you were smarter than that. I don’t kill people for enjoyment. I kill them because I have to. Because they stand in my way. In our way.”

“Stand in your way of what?” I asked.

Tom tongued his cheek for a moment before stating, “Power.”

“Power?” I asked. “You want to take over the world?”

“Sounds like a magnificent idea, doesn’t it?”

“What happened to you, Tom?”

“I’ve reinvented myself over the last few years,” he said, running a hand through his hair. I noticed in that moment how his hair, which was once full and dark, had begun to recede and grow a few shades lighter. How his skin had become tighter, paler; almost leathery. Subtle changes that I couldn’t have been bothered to notice before. “You are to no longer refer to me as Tom for that is not my name. Tom is a thing of the past.”

I watched as his lips slowly curled into a smirk.

“What–” I stopped to breathe, “What will you have me call you?”

“I am Lord Voldemort and you will address me as such.” Tom said, looking down at me with a fire in his eyes. “You’re afraid now, Nora. I understand. This transformation hasn’t been easy but I think you’ll come to like it better. I’ve begun my ascent. Don’t you see? We’re going to be something great – you and I. Just like I knew we would. I’ve known this since I first met you. I knew that I would need you by my side for this.”

“Okay,” I nodded, unable to form a coherent sentence, “Okay.”

“You understand now?”

“I understand,” I said, standing up, “I want to be great with you.”

A smile spread across his face. “I knew you would come around.” I watched as he walked by me, gazing out the window out to the manicured lawns. I inhaled a breath and fidgeted with my hands.

“Tom–”

“Ah, ah,” he put his finger up to me.

“Voldemort,” I corrected myself, “I’m with child.”

He was silent for a few moments and didn’t turn to face me.

“Aren’t you happy?”

“Deal with it.”

My mouth fell agape as I watched the back of his head.

And then I nodded. “Yes. Alright. I will.”


“I packed my things that night and I left,” I said to the two students before me, trying my damnedest not to shed a tear. I focused my attention on the floor and offered a small smile. “I burnt the house down. I don’t know why. Maybe I thought he would assume I’d died in a house fire, but he was smarter than that. Maybe I did it out of spite. Maybe it made me feel better. Maybe I burnt it down because I was afraid that if I didn’t I might come back.”

Hermione frowned at Harry before crossing the table and pulling me into a hug. I allowed myself to hug her back for a mere moment before wiping furiously at my tight cheeks and turning back to the trio.

“I don’t want pity. He’s right in what he said. I knew what he was and I fell in love with him anyway. I don’t deserve pity and I don’t deserve people feeling bad for me. I knew what I was getting myself to and yet I went head on right into it. I mean, he had opened the Chamber of Secrets at sixteen years old and killed multiple students. Who falls in love with someone like that? Maybe I’m just as messed up as he was. I…” I shook my head, willing all thoughts out of my head. “No time for silly emotions. We’ve got work to do, right?”