Chapter Eight: Letters From the Future
"There is no good or evil, only power and those too weak to seek it." -Voldemort
'What a lovely start to my task,' she thought dryly as she dropped herself onto her bed. She was sure that between her shaky explanation for why she had to so suddenly come to Hogwarts and trying to one-up him in class, that Riddle wouldn't want to open up to her very much.
A soft meow that came from beside her broke her train of thought. She yelped and tumbled off the bed, bringing the cat along with her. After scrambling to regain her composure, she took a good look at intruding kitten.
"Lumos?" She asked, confused. The kitten ignored her however, and walked over to the green blanket that laid in a heap on the floor in result of her tumble off the bed. With his nose, Lumos nudged the blanket upwards trying to get something from under it. After his many failed attempts, Azalea went over and picked the blanket up; curious to see what he was so keen to seek.
Under the blanket laid a sealed parchment with the semi-neat scrawl of her brother. "What in Merlin's name...," She mumbled under her breath. The dark-haired witch stooped down to scoop up both the letter and Lumos. Azalea sat back on the bed and opened the parchment that contained a letter. The letter read:
"Dear Azalea,
Dumbledore told us about your task about a day ago, and words can't express how furious and worried beyond belief I am. I know that you're indeed a brilliant witch, the best of the age, but this seems more like suicide than a task! I just wished that you discuss this with Ron and I before you accepted. But considering I can't do anything about it now, I just want to help you through it. Dumbledore let me, using the pensive, look back at his memories of Voldemort, and he was definitely right, Riddle's going to be extremely hard to trick. So I suggest that you don't go to him, but let him come to you, he might think it's curious if you're too eager to befriend him. Ron also says 'hi.'
Sincerely, with all the best regards,
Your brother, Harry."
Azalea's heart couldn't help but sink with guilt and regret knowing that she caused her brother this distress. After minutes of just staring at it blankly, she tucked it into her robe when she heard the groan of the door opening. She only recognized one of the two girls that entered the room and it was the girl to approach her at the Start-of-Term-banquet.
"Hi again," said the girl she remembered as Ocean.
"Hey," she replied back awkwardly.
The other girl that was with Ocean just walked passed without sparing a glance. The pleasantries subsided when Ocean sat with her friend on the bed, continuing their conversation from before they walked through the door and getting ready for bed.
Azalea tried hard to drown the sounds of them out, but it proved difficult when their talking were the only sounds in the room. Minutes passed of them gossiping and giggling about students from other houses, and the dark-haired witch's head was just about ready to implode with annoyance. That was until they divulged into quite an interesting topic: Tom Riddle.
By this point, their voices had softened to a mere whisper, and she couldn't decipher a word they were saying. If she was going to get anywhere with this task, she'd have to know a bit more about Riddle first.
"Pardon my intrusion, but who is Riddle?" She asked, feigning cluelessness. Both girls turned to look at her in sync, then back to each other and to her again with smiles starting on their faces.
"He's like the cutest bloke in the school-"
"He's not like the cutest bloke in the school, he is the cutest!" Ocean interrupted, squealing to her now not so amused best friend.
'If you think he's cute now, wait until you see what he turns into later,' she thought humorously, 'you'll be singing a way different tune.' Azalea snickered to herself.
The two girls stared at the dark haired witch with an over-exaggerated look of shock. "Have you not seen him," Ocean's friend asked.
"I've seen him, and he's okay looking." Lie.
"Okay looking?! Merlin's beard, I think we need to send her to St Mungo's Hospital!"
Azalea laughed at the comment, and it has probably been the only genuine laugh she had since she's gotten here. "I'm going to rest by the fireplace in the common room for a little while. Can you make sure I come back in an hour?" She asked the two girls. After the Ocean and her friend nodded, she swivelled on her feet and walked out the door to the common room.