We accept the love we think we deserve.
― Stephen Chbosky

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I leave Ariana in Albus's care. "Bye, mommy!!" She squeals and I stare at her in amusement. "I'll see you later, yeah?" I ask, and she nods her head frantically.

I had grown fond of the little child, and although having her call me mom was still strange, she was adorable all the same.

Albus gives a look, making me raise a brow at him. "You aren't going to comment on what I told you at that time?" I ask, and he sighs, shaking his head.

"We all say things when we're angry Valentine. I don't blame you for letting your emotions get the best of you." He answers, making me purse my lips.

I'd meant every word then.

I still did.

Albus was nothing more than an elderly man who wielded too much power. He was a manipulator. A god damn good one. He rivalled with Tom's abilities, actually.

I swallow my pride, wanting to get back on his good side. No matter how hard I tried, something didn't sit right with me about this whole thing.

"I'm sorry," I state in a loud voice, making him tilt his gaze up only to smile at me.

"All is forgiven and forgotten, cousin." He teases, making me smile at him. I whirl around to walk away, but his voice stops me in my tracks.

"Give Tom my regards."

My brow furrows in confusion, but I walk out of the office.

Strolling to the courtyard, I see Tom waiting for me. I fling my jacket on, wiping my hands on my jeans.

"You're late." Tom sneers. I curl my lip in distaste.

"By one minute!?" I demand. He doesn't even look at me, his tone icy cold.

"Late is late, Dumbledore."

He starts to walk away from the Hogwarts grounds, and I scowl, rushing to follow him. "I want to learn how to apparate," I tell him, and he glances at me with a sharp look.

"You?" He scoffs. "There's no way. I am perfection itself. You can't attempt to mimic perfection." His voice was like silver, a knife cutting through everyone and everything it saw.

"Try me."

He stares me up and down, making me give him a stink eye. "You really are tremendously hideous." He curls his lip in loathing. I could feel the moisture forming at the back of my eyes. His words cut deep, but I smile at him.

"Teach me to apparate. We kill two birds with one stone."

"I'd just curse them." He retorts, eyes dismissing me.

"It's a metaphor!"

"I am going to enjoy seeing you splinched." He taunts, making me raise a brow.

"That'll happen because you made such an awful teacher." I taut back. He whips around to send me a murderous look, his face like porcelain.

"Dumbledore, I'm going to say this once... you mess this up, it'll be because of your utter mediocrity which will be highly amusing on my behalf."

I continue looking at him, so he continues, "The most important part is to remember the Three D's: Destination, Determination and Deliberation."

"So, I just picture myself going to the destination I want?" I ask him, eyes furrowing in concentration. He nods, grabbing my elbows, causing me to grip his forearms.

"Precisely. Project your magic outwards and then imagine yourself in Diagon Alley. I don't want you apparating to a place you've never seen before on your first time. You'll get us both killed."

"You're accompanying me?!" I almost screech, and he sneers at me. "Yes, so if you splintch me, I will burn your organs from the inside out." He says in that same calm voice.

"I teach you to apparate, and you show me how to heal broken bones in the same way you did during our fight with Grindelwald." He announces, making me nod.

"Don't mess up." He orders again.

"Thanks," I say, being sarcastic. "Those words of confidence are going to help me so much." I snap at him.

"Keep concentrating continually upon your destination," He orders me, and I close my eyes to concentrate harder.

"Move, without haste or second thought, but with deliberation." I hear his cool voice ring in my ears.

"Abaddon?" I think making my demon come forward.

"Nothing dreadful will happen when I'm with you, young one." He tells me, making my racing heart slow. "You and the Riddle boy are safe as long as I'm here."

I grip Tom's arms tighter, my relief plausible.

"Any day now." Tom drawls in a bored tone.

It hits us both without any warning. My magic slams into us, and we apparate. It felt like all the other times, I'd apparated.... like I was being squeezed into a tube too small.

My concentration never falters once and then all too quickly, we slam to the ground.

Diagon Alley.

We'd made it.

I open my eyes in a millisecond. I looked Tom up and down, checking for any missing limbs or body parts, then do the same to me.

"I did it?" I breathe, backing away from Tom in amazement. "Oh my god!! I DID it!!" I screech and jump up and down like an excited child.

I decided to check my abilities on my own and apparate a couple feet away. "WOW!!" I scream, twirling in delight. I rush up and engulf a startled Tom in a hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! I did it!!!" I squeal, jumping off him and doing a mini dance.

"Of course you did. I'm a marvellous teacher." He sniffs, but he was eyeing me in amusement. His face was cold like stone. I realized that to anyone watching, they'd think Tom was an emotionless asshole.

Which he was.

Wholeheartedly agreed with that.

But he did have his humane moments. The moments when his eyes revealed what his expressions didn't.

I'd started to get really good at distinguishing his emotions.

"That you are! But I am a stupendous student, as well. I am amazing!" I boast, flicking my ponytail back in pride.

"Perhaps, but it most definitely is because of me. You did nothing." He scoffs, making me give him a cross look.

"Wait?!" I state, pointing at him. "You said you can apparate to places that you don't even know the appearance of," I indicate, and he shrugs.

"Yes. What of it?" He muses, strolling to grip the notebook I had in my arms. He flipped through it, ignoring my gaping gaze.

"That's impossible," I state, and he scoffs, a sneer forming on that perfect face.

"What would you know of the impossible? Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who have no power whatsoever. They prefer to live in the disgusting world they already live in than to explore the power they have to change it."

I'm silent for a second and then move to flip the notebook to the page he was looking for. "The address." I raise my brows at him. He disregarded me entirely, reading the address with a focused look on his face.

"Alright. Hold on." He orders, offering me his hand to grab. I grip his arm tightly, and then he apparates us away from the corner in Diagon Alley, I'd apparated us to in the first place.

We appear outside a house. I realize that apparating didn't make me nauseous anymore. I guess they were right. The more you did it, the more used to it you became.

I notice Tom peering at me expectantly. I give him a confused look. He scowls, motioning to my hand, still gripping his own. I let him go instantly, and he brushes off his hand like I was grime.

"Any plan, Dumbledore?" He sneers at me, and I look around the dark street and pull out my wand.

"Of course, Riddle." I sneer back.

I wave my wand in the air and shove my back magic forward with my arm.

My revealing spell showed me no traps, but my black magic did. "She dabbles in the dark arts." I muse, amused at this.

Tom stares at me. "How do you know this?" He demands, and I shrug. "You have your secrets... I have mine." I answer vaguely.

"You know all my secrets!!" He sneers, making me give him a teasing look. "Do I?" I grin.

"You know quite a lot of Dark Magic." He concludes, making me roll my eyes. "Really? Did the black mist I conjured during our duel give it away?" I mock him.

There was only one trap on the door. We walk towards said door, and I look at Tom. "Can't you apparate us inside?" I ask him, and he shakes his head.

"I can't. There's an Anti-Disapparition Jinx cast on it. I don't want to risk it." He answers, making me purse my lips. Tom waves his wand, and I look up at him, expectantly. He shakes his head when nothing happens, indicating that his own revealing spell told his nothing was wrong.

My black magic comes back, and I intercept it, sucking it back into me like air. "There's poison on the doorknob," I state and scoff.

Tom looked like he couldn't control the impressed gleam that appeared in his eye. "Ouuu, the great Tom Riddle impressed." I tease him with a grin.

He instantly glares at me.

"Any jinxes?" He asks, curious, and I nod. "One on the back door and multiple on the windows." I retort. "I think Hepzibah Smith thought the poison would be enough to ward off intruders," I answer. I lean down to stare at the doorknob.

"Don't smell it." Tom, hauls me back by my ponytail, making me wince.

"Ow!" I snap, smacking him lightly.

"It obviously affects by touch." He tells me, and I give him a deadpanned look. He sighs and points to it. "Most poisons that effect through touch can also be dangerous if inhaled. We don't know what it is, so stay away." He demands.

"How do we get in?" I murmur to myself, and my eyes light up, in thought. I grab Tom's hand and allow my black magic to engulf the pair of us. He tries to get away, but I whisper the spell under my breath over and over again. Before stepping through the door, I haul Tom with me into the house.

"What in the world was that?!" His eyes were wide and I smile at him, releasing my hold on him.

"A spell for walking through inanimate objects," I whisper, putting a finger to my lips. "Hush," I order the guy who eyes me in intrigue.

"Should we use the invisibility spell?" I hiss at Tom, and he purses his lips before he shakes his head.

"I don't think it's necessary. The woman is obviously asleep." He drawls in a hushed voice.

"Come on," I whisper back, but before I could take a step, he grabs my shoulder, stopping me. He waves his wand once, casting a silencing charm around us.

Smart.

I'll give him that.

I wave my hand again, checking for any more booby traps, but we were in the clear. "We'd make amazing criminals," Tom notes voice cool, making me scoff. Oh, if only he knew how right he was. He'd be an impeccable villain in the future.

We walk into her house, and we pause. There were relics everywhere. This woman had a severe problem.

"Oh. Wow." I gasp.

"Well, at least we know we have the right house," Tom grumbles and moves to the side, something catching his eye. I look around, and my eyes instantly see my goblet. My eyes widen in excitement, and I rush forward to look at my cup.

A wave of nostalgia hits me. I feel myself remembering the first time I held this cup in my hands.

"This... This is yours." Grandma Helga says, eyes kind as she hands me the goblet. I stare at the cup in my hands, looking at her in confusion.

"Grandma, what's this?" I ask, and she gives me an amused laugh.

"That is a magical cup. It's a cup that I made when I was still founding Hogwarts with Salazar, Rowena and Godric." She explains.

"So, why are you giving it to me?" I ask her, staring at the precious item in front of me. "This is too much responsibility. What if I lose it?" I cringe at her. She grins at me as if my words were all the confirmation she needed to hand it over to me entirely.

"You are one of my descendants. An Evans that was once a Hufflepuff." She proclaims.

"This is as rightfully yours as it had been when I gave it to the Smiths." She explains to me.

"This is filled with dark magic grandmama," I whisper, sensing the power thrive in my palms, and her eyes crinkle in sadness.

"Yes, it's infused with the darkest of dark magic."

"Its powers won't function anymore." She continues. "Had it been cleansed, it would've granted the holder immense powers if she or he was worthy for them." She continues, staring at her creation in sadness.

"What happened to it?" I ask her, and she sneers her next words,

"Voldemort, my child. Voldemort happened to it."

It was precisely the same way I remembered it. A small golden cup with two finely wrought handles. A badger stood in the center, a proud look in its' eyes. The badger was my house's symbol. There were a few jewels that protruded from the sides. Gemstones that hadn't been there before when grandma Helga had first given it to me.

I reach for the cup and then Abaddon's voice stops me. "CHILD!" He booms and I jump back as a huge ass cage appears out of nowhere and cages the goblet inside it. The cage had spikes adorning it. Another second and my hands would've been chopped off.

Sirens.

I whip around to see Tom holding a necklace. "Tom!!!" I shriek over the sirens, and he looks at me with an annoyed sneer.

"This-" He holds up Salazar Slytherin's locket in his hands. "-belongs to me." He snarls. How'd I know that was Salazar's locket? The huge freaking sign that stood under it said so. I take out my wand, and I blast away the dark magic protecting my goblet before I blast away the cage.

"Reducto!" I demand, and it flies away in debris.

Lunging forward, I grab the goblet and stumble back. A vision slams into my brain the second I touch it.

I was grinning in glee as I ran up to a mysterious person only to engulf him or her in a hug. I heard someone laughing. It was a husky laugh that rang tingles down my spine.

My vision disappears in an instant, and I'm being pulled by my ponytail again by Tom.

I realize he'd saved my head from being blast off.

In a millisecond, I wave my hand, concealing our faces with dark magic.

"You disgraceful thieves." Hepzibah Smith stood, wand drawn. "Give me back my relics." She snarls.

Tom and I share a look before our wands were drawn as well.

The most dangerous heart disease:
strong memory
― Nizar Qabbani