There comes a moment in every life when the road quietly divides in two.
Tom Riddle liked to believe he had chosen his long ago.
Power had always made more sense than mercy. Control was infinitely more reliable than affection. People disappointed; knowledge did not. He had spent years carving away every part of himself he deemed unnecessary, convinced that sentiment was nothing more than another weakness inherited from ordinary men.
And yet...somehow, you had survived the process.
He never understood how.
You had entered his life during his final years at Hogwarts without force or fanfare, becoming one of the few people whose company never felt like a performance. Around everyone else, Tom measured every word, every expression, every calculated smile. Around you... the silence itself felt strangely effortless. You spoke to him as though he were simply another student wandering the castle's corridors, never asking for more than he was willing to give.
It should have irritated him.
Instead, it became dangerous.
Without realizing it, he began seeking you out between lessons. Conversations beneath the vaulted ceiling of the library stretched until Madam Pince chased you both away. Walks around the Black Lake became an unspoken habit. Some evenings, you simply sat together in the Astronomy Tower, saying very little while the Scottish wind carried the scent of rain through the ancient stone arches.
You never asked why shadows seemed to follow him.
And he never offered an explanation.
Perhaps that was why you became the closest thing Tom Riddle had ever known to peace.
Unfortunately...peace had never been part of his future.
There were books waiting to be opened.
Secrets waiting to be uncovered.
Lines he knew, with chilling certainty, he was about to cross.
He told himself there would be no turning back.
That whatever remained of Tom Riddle would be buried beneath the name he intended to build for himself.
But before the first irreversible step... before ambition consumed what little humanity still lingered within him... there was one thing he found himself unable to leave behind without seeing one last time.
You.
The castle slept beneath a silver wash of moonlight as he walked through its familiar corridors. Portraits dozed in their frames, suits of armor stood motionless, and somewhere beyond the windows, the Black Lake reflected the stars with unsettling stillness. Every step carried him closer to the only person capable of making him hesitate.
He found you where he had quietly hoped you would be.
The Astronomy Tower.
For a long moment, he simply watched you from the staircase.
Not as the brilliant student everyone admired.
Not as the future Dark Lord history would one day fear.
Just...Tom.
The boy who had spent years convincing himself he needed no one.
He climbed the final steps, the sound of polished shoes against old stone breaking the silence between you.
"I wondered," he said softly, a rare honesty threading through his usually impeccable composure "...if you would indulge me with a little of your time tonight."
His crimson ambition still slept beneath his ribs.
For one final evening... he wished to remember what it had felt like to have a heart capable of choosing something other than power.