HP Cronos

"Is she your friend?" Elaine asked.She watched Riddle's expression.

"Friend?" Tom looked troubled. "Oh, I don't think so. I think she's been following me, which makes me kind of..."

"I understand." Elaine said understandingly, "but it's dangerous for a girl to be alone in this forest. Maybe we can invite her to pass, and there will be room for two people in the carriage."

The enchanted carriage is as spacious and comfortable as a mobile apartment.

"Don't, Elaine," Riddle said, smiling wryly. "I've had enough for now. And she should have left."

But Elaine was still a little worried about the girl.Although—she had to admit it—she was somewhat thankful that Riddle and she weren't lovers.She is not ashamed of this, because she does have a growing affection for Riddle.

Several times that night, Riddle's mind wandered, and Elaine sensed that he wanted to say something.

Finally, after much hesitation, Riddle said, "I have something I want you to see."

He invited her to his room and rummaged carefully in his suitcase.

What he showed her was a small gold cup with an H engraved on it.

Elaine couldn't help crying out in surprise: "This is—"

"Yes, this should be Hufflepuff's relic." Riddle said, "I bought it from a merchant for a lot of money. Now, it's time for it to return to its original owner."

Elaine held up the cup and looked it over in the light. She said, "I don't know how to thank you, Tom. My great-grandfather has been longing to see it again one day. How much do you pay for it?" Where did you get it? After Paris..."

"Are you kidding?" said Riddle. "Money? No, Elaine, I wouldn't take your money. Consider it my friendship."

Elaine shook her head resolutely: "I must not accept it for nothing. Please tell me, Tom, what can I do for you."

Riddle frowned, and then he said, "Did I tell you that I'm a descendant of Slytherin?"

Elaine was very surprised: "My God, what a coincidence."

"Yes, I think it's not just a coincidence, but some kind of hidden force that made me meet you here." Riddle said, "Come here, I have one more thing to show you."

It was a very beautiful locket.Similarly, there is a letter S on it.

"It was something my mother left me," said Tom Riddle, "and when I retrieved it, I realized it was more than just a relic." He opened the empty locket and hissed Hissing voice, as if talking to Slytherin from thousands of years ago in a mysterious language.

Something emerged, like light reflected on water.Through the silver-green light, Elaine saw something emerge, it was a small snake.It flashed in the air for a moment, and disappeared after a while.

"What's that?" Elaine asked.

"I don't know." Riddle said, "but I think it must represent something. The same secret should be hidden in the other relics. Only by finding all four relics can we fully understand their meaning." He looked To her, sincere words: "I have decided to pursue the mysteries of magic as a lifelong pursuit. If you really want to repay me, please help me find out its secrets together."

Elaine looked at the golden cup in her hand.It must be because of the Hufflepuff blood flowing in her veins, she felt its mystery, its kindness, and its strange attraction.

He met the girl under the plane tree.

The boy watched indifferently as the children in the orphanage gathered to play games in twos and threes.

Kids don't like boys.The head of the orphanage didn't like him either.He is withdrawn and gloomy.He is different.He never plays with other children.He was nothing like a boy his age.

They bullied him and robbed him of food.The monster screamed that he was a monster.Frame him for stealing.They are not afraid to use all the means, between children, on him.

But later, no child dared to bother him again.

All who provoked him ended badly, they said.Bill's rabbit was hanged, and Jones and White trembled at the sight of him when they returned from the sea.There are countless more examples.

They said he must be the human incarnation of Satan.

They say, and swear, that he often talks to snakes.If anyone dares to provoke him, he will send poisonous snakes to punish him.

That was all later.Now, the boy is not yet proficient in his powers.He silently endured, lurking like a snake, keeping all his hatred and disgust in his heart.

He will get it back, ten times, a hundred times.

Mrs. Cole frowned when she saw him.She didn't like the look in that boy's eyes. He was only eight years old, but he seemed to hate everything around him deeply.

He didn't cry.thought Mrs Cole.Perhaps because of this, she was always unable to have sympathy and pity for this boy.Even as a baby, he already showed his apathetic traits.

Boys don't care.

He knows he's different from them.He knew he had powers they didn't have.

The little snake wrapped around his arm.He loved this snake very much, because he felt that it had power that other snakes did not have.Yes, it should be distinguished from a normal snake.

"Nagini." He gave her a name and claimed ownership. "Your name is Nagini. You are mine."

Nagini happily accepted the name, lying docile in her master's pocket.

"Hey! Are you talking to it?"

He looked up and saw a girl sitting on a branch, her legs dangling.

"This is my place," said the boy.

"I came first," said the girl, who was not a child in the orphanage, and was not afraid of him or hated him at all, but stood up on the branch. "My name is Nora Gray. What is your name?"

By then her hair was disheveled, and she had a missing tooth in a silly grin.

The boy didn't answer her.A gust of wind blew up suddenly, blowing the girl so that she couldn't stand still. She stepped on the ground... The movement of landing was not as loud as expected, and she almost landed on the ground smoothly.

The girl cried out in surprise: "Did you see what happened? Did I fly?"

Indeed, she paused for a moment before landing, as if some invisible force supported her.

The boy looked her in the eye for the first time.

"My name is Nora Gray," she introduced herself again, holding out her hand to him and grinning silly. "And you?"

The boy looked at the hand.Then, with great reluctance, he slowly stretched out his hand and took hers: "Tom Riddle."

Riddle woke up.

He didn't meet a girl named Nora Gray in the orphanage, he never had a friend.

What if, if he had actually met her, what would have happened?

Nothing will change.

The owl knocked on the window, Riddle let it in, and removed the letter from its leg.

Not long after, he raised his head and looked at the dark night, the letter was reduced to ashes in his hands.

Nora built a bonfire.Roasting an unknown species of bird that he managed to catch, he felt desperate for his culinary magic.

She reluctantly swallowed the charred bird meat, cast a warming spell on herself, wrapped herself in her clothes and fell asleep on the root of a tree.

She slept very restlessly that night, she had to beware of the sounds of all kinds of beasts in the forest, and she would be woken up by freezing at any time because the warming spell failed.

Then, as expected, she caught a cold, coughing and sneezing.

She misses the Hogwarts Infirmary terribly now, although there is a drink, there is hot cocoa and a warm and comfortable bed.Judging from the current progress, it is simply impossible to steal a certain Horcrux from Riddle and destroy it.

Nora thought indignantly of Riddle, who must now be sitting comfortably in the carriage, accompanied by a beautiful and gentle girl.And she herself was riding a broom in the woods, struggling to avoid the branches coming from all directions, with a runny nose and scratched wounds all over her body.

It began to rain lightly in the evening.Soon, the light rain turned into heavy rain.After nightfall, the heavy rain turned into a torrential rain, mixed with lightning and thunder.

The raindrops hit the carriage, and the sound was isolated from the carriage.

"What are you thinking, Tom?" Elaine asked Riddle who had been looking out the window.

"Nothing." He replied, looking away.

Nora was shivering in the rain.She leaned against the tree trunk to shelter from the rain. In the face of such heavy rain, the warmth and waterproof spells were useless.

The wet clothes stuck to her body made her sneeze non-stop, the stuffy nose caused her shortness of breath, and her mind became dizzy.

Suddenly, green ghost fires lit up all around.She stood up alertly.

It's not some will-o'-the-wisp, it's the eyes.

Werewolf eyes.

She looked around, and there were staring eyes in all directions.

"A girl..."

"I want her thighs..."

"The brains...the brains are all mine..."

Those hungry husky voices sent shivers down Nora's spine.

What to do with werewolves?She was thinking desperately about her Defense Against the Dark Arts class.Werewolves... Learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts class in the fourth grade... eight characteristics to identify werewolves... But how to deal with them?

There was nothing in her mind.Wand in hand, sad to discover that the most powerful spells she knew were less effective in this stormy weather.

She is going to die.she thought desperately.Instead of being killed by Voldemort's Avada Kedavra, he died among a pack of wolves.I just hope Kronos will forgive her.

A hand rested on her back, and the cloak blocked the pouring rain.

Nora Gray's vision was obscured by the cloak.She vaguely saw several red and green lights flashing, and heart-piercing wailing resounded from the crowd of wolves.

"Go away," he said.While speaking, several rays of light flashed again.

The werewolves finally realized that they were in front of a powerful enough wizard, and they retreated one by one, disappearing into the dark forest.

"I knew you would come to save me," Nora said in a voice hoarse from illness. "You have saved me so many times."

On some impulse, she turned and hugged him.

Maybe it was because of the rain, she couldn't feel her own temperature, and she couldn't feel Tom's temperature, just like hugging a cold stone.

This is her last memory of that night.