Chapter 4

"Evelyn?"

Barely conscious, I faintly heard someone call out my name before I heard footsteps echoing towards me. I was lying on something soft, that much I could tell. The footsteps abruptly stopped before me.

"Evelyn! What happened?" This time, I could tell that it was my father who had been calling out to me. I felt my body being jostled, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not open my eyes.

"Evelyn, I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm going to take you to your mother. Where is your wand?!" My father frantically questioned as he carried me from the soft, plush bed I had been lying upon. 

What is he talking about? I should have two wands with me-my own and Tom's! With that last questioning thought, darkness consumed me.

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I bolted upright, that was the worst dream I've had in the past week.

"Well, hello to you too," A voice echoed out of the dark, shocking me.

I slowly backed into my headboard only to realize terrifyingly that this was not my room, and this was most definitely not somewhere I had been before. Turning my head, I scanned the room, trying to find the owner of the voice. I had definitely heard that voice somewhere, but where? It was pitch black in the room, so I could only see about five feet in front of me before I was entirely blind.

"Boo." 

I screamed as the voice whispered into my ear from behind me. 

I spun around so fast that I was surprised I didn't have whiplash. "You!" I shouted at the man in front of me.

"Me," he replied not even batting an eye at my trampled, terrified expression.

It was Tom Riddle sitting next to me on the bed I just been lying on. 

"I'm ever so glad you have returned to the land of the living. I doubt there is any reason to scream in my presence though?" Tom threatened, his eyes gleaming red in an excited manner as if he truly was overjoyed by my fear of him. He almost looked like a predator looking at his prey.

Suddenly, I realized... I was the prey.

"N-no, of course not. Where am I?" I whispered still terrified from waking up to his voice.

"Excellent. You are in my room in Knockturn Alley where I reside in this apartment."

"But what about my parents, my family? How long have I been here exactly?!" I yelled at Tom, I was getting extremely frustrated, and he was not doing anything to calm my thoughts. 

"Your parents know you are here. On the other hand, your family and friends think you are visiting your Aunt Druella. You have been here for about five days, and you will leave in a week. Why I have brought you here is none of your concern, if you wish to remain living." Tom spoke with an air of finality.

"I understand, but I still have one last question. What in bloody Merlin's beard am I going to do here for the next week?" I questioned Tom cautiously. 

"I am going to help you to control that pesky magic of yours before you go to Hogwarts. I will be taking you with me to the train station on September first, we will not part ways until half way through the trip to Hogwarts. Is that understood?" He asked me darkly.

"Y-yes, but can I see my parents one last time before I leave?"

"Briefly at the train station."

"Thank you," I whispered, looking down at the bedspread which was a dark green infusion with black.

"I heard it was your birthday a few days ago, so I bought you something," I barely heard Tom say as he handed me a small box delicately wrapped with a gold bow.

"Happy birthday. Even if it's a late present, it counts for something."

I took the box, and slowly took off the bow. Inside there was a beautiful, intricate necklace.

"Do not ever take this necklace off, I will know if you do," Tom spoke, his kindness quickly disappearing before my eyes.

"Ok." I whispered, glancing down.

****************

"If we do not leave now, we will never make it on time to get on the train!" Tom yelled at me from his living room. I was currently putting the last of my books into my trunk in his room, my temporary residence.

"I'm almost done! Could you get my cloak for me? It's in the kitchen!" I shouted back.

Click. Finally, my trunk was entirely packed. I could have done it with magic, but Tom had spent the last week working with me on magic, leaving me mentally drained. I had always picked up in things rather quickly, usually quicker than most people around me, and this especially came in handy when dealing with an impatient Tom. Now, I can do wandless, nonverbal magic with ease as long as I was properly rested.

Even though my magic was improving, Tom's magic was growing so rapidly that I did not win our duels anymore. At first, I won half of the time, but now, I was lucky if I won against him. With his magic, his forceful nature grew, and he often left the apartment to go to meetings with some kind of followers of his. I had only been to one of the meetings, and it beyond torture. They harmed innocent people there. When I spoke out about my beliefs against this, Tom somehow took control over my body, and forced me to harm an innocent woman. It did not last long because I fought him, but it  still showed me how truly malevolent Tom was.

I walked to the door with my trunk, and saw Tom holding out my cloak. 

"Thank you," I told him as I put on the cloak, no matter how evil Tom was, he still gave, and expected proper manners.

"Before we go, remember, you will not leave my side until at least halfway through our journey. Grab my hand, and your trunk." As soon as my hand was firmly in his, he apparated us, leaving me no time to reply. King's Cross was especially busy today.

Tom had apparated us directly next to the Hogwarts Express, giving us time to spare to look for my parents. We had exactly fifteen minutes before the train left.

"Evelyn, in fifteen minutes, you will come to my compartment, and sit with me. For now, you can go say goodbye to your family, and I will take our baggage onto the train. If you are not in my compartment within the first ten minutes of the train ride, I will come find you, and it will not be pretty. Do you understand?" Tom questioned me rhetorically as he stepped on the train, leaving me to my thoughts.

I ran around the platform, hoping to find my family before the train left. As I ran, I bumped into something. A hard chest it seemed. When I looked up, I noticed it to be Lucius. 

"Well hello Evelyn," Lucius spoke with a smirk, pausing to look over my appearance before he continued, "I do hope you had a lovely stay, I will see you on the train in a few minutes." Clearly, he had noticed the bruises I had tried to hide with my worn out magic. I had gained quite a few over the past week from Tom's dueling, and from the meeting I had gone to with Tom. Lucius had been present at that meeting. It was strange, everyone there referred to Tom as The Dark Lord, but when one of them asked why I called him Tom, not The Dark Lord, Tom lashed out in anger and killed him before my eyes.

"I enjoyed it as much as I possibly could, Lucius. I will see you soon, but before you go, did you happen to see where my parents are?" I asked him, trying to remain polite for the people surrounding us.

With no hesitation, Lucius pointed over to my left, and then stepped on the train, not saying a word to me before he left. 

I ran towards the left, I had exactly eight minutes left before the train left without me. Gasping, I saw my family standing by a pillar saying goodbye to Sirius.

"Mother, Father," I spoke giving them both hugs as I said my goodbye to them.

"Lexi!" Audrey cried in unison with Ana as they hugged me.

"Take care of ourselves and Reg, alright? I love you guys, I will try to write to you as much as possible!" I told them before turning to Regulus and making sure that he would take care of them while Sirius and I were gone.

"Sirius, Evelyn, go get on the train, it leaves in three minutes!" My mother shouted before I could say a word to Sirius.

We ran on the train together, just barely making it through before the doors closed behind us. 

"Siri?" I softly asked him as I looked up at him vulnerably. I had missed my twin terribly while I was with Tom, it was not the same without him.

"Lex, I'm here," Sirius whispered in my ear as he gave me a tight hug. Then, as if I was on fire, he jumped away from me quickly and asked, "Where the bloody hell have you been?! Mother told us that you were staying at Aunt Druella's, but you never leave without saying goodbye! Are you alright? What happened?"

"She stayed at Narcissa's house, and I can assure you, no harm was brought to her," Lucius replied for me as I opened my mouth to speak. Brilliant, now Sirius will think that I did stay there because Lucius hates us, and would do almost anything to get us into trouble. Although, I do not think he hates me as much as he originally did.

"Let's find a compartment, " Sirius told me, glaring at Lucius, and walking in a different direction, before continuing to speak, "While you were gone, I made a friend in Diagon Alley! His name is James Potter, and I think you are going to like him!" 

Suddenly, without warning, Sirius jumped and hugged a bloke from behind, effectively scaring him into screaming. 

"Sirius, mate! You scared me! How have you been?" The unknown bloke spoke, embracing him fully. 

"I've been good! Now let me introduce you to someone you are going to like a lot! Evelyn, this is James. James, this is Evelyn, my twin sister." Sirius introduced us.

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I'm going to upload the rest of the story later, but for now, this is it! I hope you enjoyed reading this far! I would also appreciate it a lot if you guys would check out this same story on Wattpad, but everyone has their preferences!

Xoxox,

      Lexi