The sudden drop from the Portkey had now, after spending a full summer learning how to Apparate, become an easier occurrence to predict and prepare for, so Tom was able to land on his feet quite comfortably. Though based on the depth of the snow under his boots, falling here would have been less painful, though equally as embarrassing as ever. Looking momentarily at Lilith, who was putting away her Portkey keychain set, Tom imagined she would have apparated them here if the Solstice hadn't kept her out of commission for almost two days. Madam Prewett and her apprentice had even kept him out of the Hospital Wing for that time, during which he explored more of the Castle, trying to keep his mind occupied from the ill state of his partner, especially after how productive they had been in their search of Hogwarts Castle. Since the beginning of the Yuletide Recess, the two of them had explored several hidden passageways sealed by Parseltongue phrases, all with the same structural design that made them look more like natural formations, rather than deliberate shortcuts. A few walls had even caught Tom's interest, as these didn't have the conventional snake carvings and didn't respond to the open command like the others. Tom had been planning to test these walls soon, but Lilith's condition and her request for them to leave the Castle on the 24th had delayed his investigation.
Taking a moment to orient himself, Tom frowned as he looked around, seeing a sprawling landscape of hills and small clumps of short trees, all covered in varying layers of snow, though the signs of clear patches of stone made him feel that this region didn't suffer from consistent snowstorms. The sky itself seemed to be overcast with the once blue colors turned a pale gray, with a thicker and darker set of clouds looming over to what he believed was the south of their current location, based on the brief glimpse of the sun behind a thin layer of cloud cover. "Where are we?" Lilith, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck, smiled at him. "Can't say, as it would spoil the surprise. Make sure that you step firmly on the road. There is a good chance of some layers of ice hiding under the snow." Tom sighed, tightening his own scarf around his neck, before freezing in place as Lilith reached up to place a hat on his head. The warmth of it was certainly welcomed, though what had captivated his attention was seeing Lilith's face, her lips a bit redder than usual, though her eyes were just as bright green as ever, just inches away from his own. For the briefest of moments Tom felt the need to move his head a few inches forward, to maybe catch a taste of those lips. He wondered what they would taste like and if it would be as pleasant as all the other boys made it out to be. Lilith's eyes then caught on his own as she lowered her arms and she stilled too, before blushing as she stepped back. "Tut mir leid." Tom shook his head. "It's fine. Thank you for the hat." Her blush deepened. "Have you been learning German?"
Giving her a soft smile, Tom pulled the cap down more tightly against his head, covering the tips of his ears from the cold air. "Ein bisschen. I am still more focused on the Runic languages and Goblin Speech, but I have been trying to learn it." Lilith turned away from him a little, cursing under her breath, as she placed her own Cossak hat over her head, before making her way up the hill, with Tom following close behind, doing his best to hide his smile. It felt very satisfying to surprise his Austrian partner. As they crested over the hill, the area in front of them revealed a shallow valley, with a small town nestled close to the river, its waters still flowing, though with thin sheets of ice attached to the edges of the river banks and canal. Tom's eyes darted all over, trying his best guess as to their location and the reason for their visit, but not finding much to draw his interest in the area. As they moved further into town, the pair started passing a few townspeople, all politely wishing them Happy Christmas, before a car stopped beside them. The man inside gave the two a smile. "Ah, Miss Dominik. Good to see you again. Need a lift for you and your escort?" Lilith smiled at the man. "A lift would be much appreciated, Constable. How is the family?" The constable, wearing his winter uniform, stepped out of his car and opened the back door for them. "As well could be, Miss Dominik. The wife is doing better this year, now that our boy is five. Much more manageable, though no less than a handful as before. Still a bloody menace, especially in the summer."
After holding the car door open for Lilith, Tom sat down beside her, as the Constable drove through the town, going over a small stone bridge, before driving up a narrow, snow covered road. The gentleman looked at them both through the rear view mirror. "You two came at quite the time. Two years in a row we have had some of the heaviest winters for the region. Sorry to say that you haven't been getting a proper showing as to what a Devon Christmas is usually like, young lady." Lilith smiled at him. "Oh, I am sure the children are enjoying it more than the rain and sludge that you residents usually experience." The constable laughed. "That they are. I imagine that snow like this is just a typical day for you, up in the Alps. Here it has just gotten most of the people to stay indoors. The mayor had to request more lumber for the town. Our usual stocks were running dangerously low. Not that it will be a problem where you are going." Lilith nodded as Tom looked out through the window at the moving countryside, spotting an odd outcropping of structures just outside of a large gateway. The ground up ahead was far better shoveled as the car pulled into the front of the entrance to a three story manor. With both of them out of the car, Lilith turned to the gentleman as he return to the driver side door. "Thank you again, Constable. Happy Christmas to you and to your family. I hope that my gifts from last year are keeping you all comfortable in such a cold season." The man chuckled to himself. "Getting out of bed is certainly a lot harder now with those really warm sheets, but it's all well and good. Thank you for the gifts and have a Happy Christmas." As the vehicle sped back down the road, Lilith and Tom approached the door, the former striking the door with the knocker.
Lilith smiled softly as Madeline, the attendant, looked from her face to Tom's, her eyes widening in surprise. While the young woman had mellowed out since her first visit to the Manor, her surprise was a sight that Lilith had certainly been looking forward to. "Hi, Madeline. Is the Master of the House willing to see guests tonight?" The young woman snapped out of her shock and opened the door wider. "O-of course. He will be down in a moment. Please, step inside. Let me take your coats." Once the door was closed, Tom removed his coat, scarf and cap, handing them to a starring Madeline, revealing his more formal black vest jacket with a green tie. Lilith wore much the same, though she was without the tie. As Madeline left, Lilith's eyes remained on Tom as he took in his surroundings, her stomach filled with butterflies, watching him walk around with his hands in his pockets, a slight blush growing on her face as she admitted to herself that he certainly looked quite good out of the typical wizard robes and in more formal non-magical clothes. Eventually the telltale sound of footsteps reached the upper landing of the stairs, before they began their descent, slowing down only for a moment as the older gentleman's eyes locked onto Tom, before he regained his composure and continued down, reaching the bottom of the stairs. The man first walked up to Lilith, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. "A pleasure to have you here again, young lady. I have enjoyed our correspondence over the last few months since your last visit."
Beside her, Tom stood frozen in place, his emotions running wild, as the face of the man in front of him was familiar to him. Though his eyes were a lighter shade of blue, the cheeks and structure of his face, even the texture of his greying hair were all familiar to Tom, having seen them in the mirror for his whole life. The gentleman stood before Tom, giving him a sad smile. "It pains me that it has taken so long for us to be acquainted, young man. My name is Thomas Riddle. I believe I am your grandfather, though you are entitled to call me however you would like. I know that I have not earned such a name in the last fifteen or so years and that perhaps I may never earn it. However, I would be most delighted if you could join us for tea and perhaps dinner tonight? You and young Miss Dominik are both welcome to stay." While Tom's exterior hardly showed any emotion, inside he was a raging storm of confusion and delight. Gaining some control over himself, he took the offered hand and shook it. "I… would be delighted, sir. If it is not an imposition." Thomas smiled at him, placing another hand over Tom's and squeezing it warmly. "It is no imposition at all. Please, follow me." As Thomas headed down the hallway, Tom spared a glimpse at Lilith, who gave him a nervous smile. "Surprise?" Tom closed his eyes, getting his emotions under control, before smiling at Lilith, the two moving quickly to catch up with Thomas.
-✦-
"I have asked this young lady here to describe you to me many times over the last few months. All the little devil would say was that you were an exemplary student and a hard worker. Everything else was for me to discover on my own." Tom, sitting down across from Thomas, spared a look at his partner, who was far more occupied with stirring her tea than it was necessary, her eyes kept down. "Yes, she can be quite delivish. She had told me to wear formal clothes for today and to keep my evening plans clear, and nothing else. I had assumed she had some sort of dinner plans for the two of us, but I certainly had no idea that she had contacted you. I am afraid that I wasn't even aware that I had any grandparents left." Thomas smiled at him softly, which Tom found again oddly familiar. It was similar to the ones he had seen on his own face in the mirror, but far less forced and clearly more genuine. "Yes, well, I can understand her reservations at sharing the news with you. The two of us met a little over a year ago as she was looking at the property lines in the area and I had the more detailed maps of the region. My name and location had made her curious as to our relation and after she confirmed that you and I were related in the summer, she spent the last few months getting me properly informed of your birthright." Tom furrowed his brow in thought, before the meaning of the words clicked into place. "You know about magic?"
Thomas nodded. "I must admit, it was hard to believe at first. Then she showed me a bit of her and your people's talents, changing the color of my cane, dispelling a bit of fog one day. She even gave me a potion to repair the damage to my leg." Lilith smiled sheepishly. "It was the best I could do, with my own limitations. How is the leg doing? I know that since the injury was old, the potion didn't-" Thomas waved his hand, cutting off an apology he had already heard before. "It is fine, young lady. It is better than how it was a year ago and even if it will never be as good as new, your generosity was most appreciated, regardless of its limitations." Turning to look back at Tom, Thomas continued. "Her explanation of magic did help make sense of some odd happenings around here. The Moors, as you might know, are infamous for the tales of spectral hounds and other ghastly phenomena, especially out by Postbridge. I myself have seen the creatures several times in my life, thinking they were either my eyes playing tricks on me or just wild dogs out and about. Then, low and behold, as we sat one day in my garden, during a most beautiful sunset, one of these dark, shadow-like beasts came up and sat at Lily's feet, as if it was the most natural thing for it to be doing." Tom looked at Lilith and raised an eyebrow. "First the Barghest and now spectral hounds. What is it with you and Magical Dogs?" Lilith blushed slightly. "My Family's Magic was adapted slightly to make our presence agreeable to schattenwolves. It seems the alteration works well with other Dark Creature canids, even out here in the Moors. Though I still have no idea what the source for the Hairy Hands of Postbridge could be, though the Fae or a Poltergeist are possible explanations."
Tom drank from his tea, looking for what he could ask of his grandfather. "Since you are the person Lilith revealed my existence and abilities to, I assume that my father isn't interested in me?" Thomas sighed, lowering his cup down and looking through the nearby window. "My son doesn't know that you are here. Ever since he left your mother and you in London, he has refused to ever speak of you, and has only ever spoken your mother's name to curse her existence." Tom lowered his eyes. "Do you know… about the circumstances of how I was conceived?" Thomas looked at Lilith, who kept her eyes down, before looking at Tom once more. He sighed deeply. "I do. I will admit… they are quite a complicated set of circumstances. I knew Marvolo for almost all of his life. He was quite the hateful and uncompromising man. When he couldn't take his anger out on the townsfolk, something your Ministry did I believe, he turned his violence against his own family. Morfin's suffering under his father's wrath wavered as he too emulated him in his youth and later as an adult, spreading a great deal of grief out and about Little Hangleton, but Merope…" Thomas clenched his hand. "Believe me young man, if I could have done something to help her, I would have. She was a kind girl, always out of the shack when she could. Courteous to a fault." Taking a sip from his tea, Thomas continued. "I do not blame her for being so desperate to run away, though I cannot forgive her outright for what she did to my son."
Rubbing the wedding band on his ring, Thomas closed his eyes. "At the same time, I thought I had taught my son better. You, regardless of all that had occured, were innocent of any crimes that your mother inflicted upon him. Even if he couldn't bear the sight of you, your grandmother and I would have happily raised you ourselves after your birth. While we might have had difficulty accepting Merope, we would certainly not have denied her the right to see her own child grow up, though we would have been a bit more cautious as to what she was capable of towards us." Tom felt his heart shift slightly, a deeper warmth growing in his chest than what the tea could provide. "Perhaps it was for the best. Based on what we uncovered, Marvolo Gaunt seemed to have ended the pregnancies of many women carrying the bastard children of his son. Perhaps he did the same to women carrying his own bastards. Had he heard of you taking care of one, with or without my mother, it is possible he would have targeted you, perhaps killing you all in the process to get to me." Thomas' face hardened slightly. "I see. I had heard of many young women dying across Little Hangleton and the nearby lands over the years, many of them pregnant. To think that bastard could have been responsible. It would seem that the day he passed on was a good day indeed for our town, as was the day that Morfin died as well, if he was no better." Setting down his tea cup, Thomas clapped his hands and smiled at Tom. "But those days are behind us. You, no matter what, are a Riddle and my grandson by blood. Even if you can never call this place your home, I will be damned if I don't at least try to be a good host to you within these walls. When I go to see my beloved wife in Heaven, I do not want to get an earful from her about how poorly I treated you."
Smiling softly, Tom listened to Thomas telling him stories of his grandmother, Mary, who had died just a few years prior. The man described how the two fell in love riding horses together over the Moors, how he wooed her over many a picnic on the fields of grass and flowers that covered some areas in the spring. As they moved towards the dining room, Thomas showed Tom a portrait of her that sat in her favorite room of the house, the library, where the bookshelves were filled with many romance novels and texts on horse care and breeding, all bought during their marriage. As the three sat down for dinner, Thomas continued on. "My father had never been the type to bother with breeding horses. Sure, our family loved Horseback riding, but we were connected well enough with the others in the area whose whole life revolved around horse breeds, many winning prizes and races all across the country. But Mary was adamant. She wanted her favorite mare and one of our stallions to have children of their own. So I gave in and we eventually tried our hand at it. Soon enough, her mare gave birth to a few foals. My current mare, Daisy, is a grandchild of those early foals and a few stallions and mares that she bought before she passed on. Riding now is as much for the love of the act as it is in memory of my beloved. If you'd like I can introduce you to Daisy and the others, maybe teach you how to ride and keep the tradition alive." Tom smiled. "I think I would like that." After serving everyone dinner, Madeline sat down and joined them, as Thomas always insisted, before Lilith spoke up to her. "How is your family doing, Madeline?"
The brunette, who was serving herself, looked up. "They are well. My younger brother, Frank, has taken a job here as the former groundskeeper had sought to retire, working the grounds and caring for the horses. Rose, despite being offered a few times, still refuses to work here. "Too close to where he lived for her taste" she said. Even after his death, her memory of him still haunts her. Mother has all but given up on changing her mind and the two of them just take care of the house together." Lilith shook her head, as Tom turned to his Grandfather. The old gentleman looked pained. "Rose is Madeline's sister. She was working as a maid at one of the other manors nearby where she was attacked and raped by Morfin Gaunt on the property. The bastard was fired on the spot and was sentenced to punitive labour, but he was hard to keep imprisoned. Always kept breaking out and making his way home, where Constables would try and drag him back again. Eventually they just gave up and left him be. Rose… she had a hard time with it all. Never could feel safe anywhere in Devon. She went to live with an aunt of hers in Cardiff for a few years after the incident, but the bombing raids over the city forced her to come back here for safety. We had hoped that the news of Morfin's death last winter would have given her some relief, but none has come to her. Her nights, from what her mother has shared with me, are still troubled by nightmares concerning that monster."
Tom dropped the subject, though the way that Lilith seemed to still when that name, Morfin, came up had caused his mind to wander. She had stilled as well when Thomas mentioned his name in the tea room, which left Tom feeling anxious. As the dinner winded down, Lilith helped Madeline with taking the dishes to the kitchen as Tom and Thomas wandered the Manor's hallways, the older genrleman showinh him the rooms and explaining the portraits and the history each chamber had with the family, before the two finally made their way to the entrance as the sky had turned well and truly dark. Thomas, resting a bit of his weight on the cane, turned to Tom. "Thank you, young man, for spending the evening with us. While I am saddened that you two won't be spending the night, I can understand your reticence. If at any time you are in need of lodging, my doors will always be open to you. All you have to do is ask." Tom lowered his head and shook it. "I couldn-" Thomas' hand on Tom's shoulder stopped his words in his tracks. "This family owes you much for not being there for you when you were born, regardless of the circumstances. Food and shelter is a small price to pay in a home that has grown quite empty over the years, a price I would happily pay myself so that you may have some sense of home and family from us." After taking a deep breath, Tom nodded. "I will take your offer then, when the time is right. For now, Happy Christmas, Thomas." Thomas smiled at him. "And a Happy Yuletide to you, Tom." Finding both Madeline and Lilith chatting at the entrance, the latter dressed in her coat and hat, the two Riddle men parted ways.
Under the bright light of a waning full moon, Lilith and Tom made their way down the path leading back to Little Hangleton, before the sight of the cemetery made Tom pause. Lilith, not paying much attention as her thoughts were reflecting on the pleasant dinner, bumped into him. Clearing her mind, she looked at the back of her partner, who had been quiet since they left the Manor. "Is there something wrong, Tom?" Her question was met with silence, enough that it left Lilith feeling unnerved. As she reached out with her hand to touch Tom's shoulder, the young man broke his silence. "You killed Morfin Gaunt last winter, didn't you?" Lilith's hand froze as her body went unnaturally cold. Tom's cold and calculating eyes focused on her as he turned around. "Before we became partners, before I told you of my heritage, you killed the last living member of the Gaunt family. My family. Why?" Lilith bit her lip. She wanted to deny his claim. She wanted to tell him that he was wrong. But here and now, Lilith was certain that a lie would break any chance they had of working together. Her voice came out soft, barely above a whisper. "He left me no choice." Tom's eyes narrowed. "Were you planning on partnering yourself with me, before I offered? Did you know I was a Gaunt then? If so, then why? Why did you kill him?"
Lilith closed her eyes, taking deep breaths as she tried to control her feelings, especially the memory of Morfin's death. Looking Tom in the eye, Lilith answered him. "I did want you as a partner, before you asked. I knew your last name was Riddle, so when I heard about the Gaunts and how Merope and Tom had a tryst, I thought you might have been their child. I went to Morfin to see the sort of person he was. To know whether he was worth introducing you to, as I did with Thomas. What I found was a rapist, a murderer and man that hated the very thought of leaving his family's legacy to anyone who wasn't a Pureblood. I knew then that if word reached him… word that you were next in line to his family's name, he would have either disowned you or would have tried to kill you. I couldn't let that happen to you." Tom felt his skin warming up in rage, before he yelled at her. "He was my uncle! You didn't know me as well back then. You had no right to make that choice for me!" Lilith's eyes glowed green as tears ran down her face. "I knew what everyone else already knew! From your clothes, your decision to stay at Hogwarts during Yuletide and your indifference at Samhain. You had no family to call your own. No place to return to. All that you had left was your name, your life and whatever legacy lingered in your veins. He would have stripped it all from you without a second thought! You know me. I lost everything! Can you honestly say, knowing what you know about me, that I would have stood back and let the same thing happen to you?!"