not me basing this on amortiantia lmaoo. in this au tom riddle’s still hot none of that no nose bullshit lmao + written with the prompt SNAKES from THIS post!
He’s not sure how the stone came to be in his grasp, but here it is, again, the long lost relic returned to him. The wheel had gone full circle. The ring, and the stone that adores it’s golden surface, is once again on his finger. Alone in the forest he is but for a moment; alone, in all that morning fog and hush, hidden between tall looming trees that hold the scent of earth and smoke. A shiver rakes up his spine and he knows if he were to turn around he would find someone there, someone he had not seen in so many years, someone he had selfishly used to make the very ring that bears a part of his soul in it.
Not anymore, though. The boy who lived succeeded in many things, one of them was destroying the horcrux. He had destroyed many, too many, and Tom hears death knocking on his door, yet refuses to open it still. Bleak light filters through the tree tops. He always thought you were prettier in moonlight.
A snakelike hiss falls from his lips - it’s not hurt he feels, not exactly. But it’s not nothing, either. He once felt true happiness, the root cause of it being you. Shall he feel true pain now, again by your hand? Unfair, but fitting. He is always in control yet now he feels at loss. He knows the deceptive nature of the Resurrection Stone, that it portrays only a flicker, an image of someone that had been dear and loved. Had he loved you? Perhaps, in the only way he knew how. Cruel and bloody and ravishing.
Your picture stands still between the trees, as young and as lovely as he remembers you being that fateful night when the crimson curtain twirled by the open window; still as luminous and as cherubic as you were back in the Riddle Manor.
He always liked the way you said his name, with those tender inflections he could never understand. Years later, that knowledge escapes him still. But he never wished for anyone to speak to him as you spoke, never allowed anyone to even come close. He was faithful, and he hoped that you appreciate that. It was but a small kindness, the only thing he knew could come close to matching your loyalty.
Speech fails him; he has no words left to say. He dares not enjoy your presence - he knows it will bring him no comfort, rather lure him into what he had been trying to escape for years. He had been reborn with you, would it not be fair to die with you, too? It frightens him, that prospect. How alluring it sounds. No, he must fight till the end.
But he does not take off the ring.
He remembers the years he spent with you at Hogwarts, remembers first seeing you on the train, remembers how his obsession grew into something horrible. Those memories visit him often, in dreams most of all. They are precious to him, as precious as anything can be to someone so cold hearted.
“Ma mort.” He finally greets you. They were your words, your last words spoken to him in breathless notes.
You smile, “Ma vie.” Tilting your head gently to the side, you offer him your hand - he knows there is no use in taking it, yet wants to, still, “Come now, they are all waiting for you in the courtyard. The time has come.”
“Will you watch?” He asks, already knowing the answer.
“I have always watched over you. I’m glad you now finally have a chance to see me, too.”
If he were to go back in time, back on the first train of Hogwarts, your first encounter, already knowing how all of this would end, would he have changed anything? These thoughts linger in his mind as he makes his way out of the maze of the Forbidden Forest. No, he decides, he would not changed a single instance, a single act. You would have loved him and died in his arms and he would have loved you and let you.
And now...well, the wheel has gone full circle. He knows what awaits him. You had this quality about you, of endless possibilities. Perhaps his fate will shift yet. Perhaps he’ll win. Or perhaps he’ll lose. He should care more, but he does not. He looks at you and thinks that really, it’s only fitting for it all to end this way.
