"The Mark is growing darker, someone must be dabbing with the magic."

"They wouldn't do something during the Tournament would they?"

"It's dangerous, but also the best moment to avoid suspicion. The moment the Tasks begin Dumbledore can no longer protect them."

-

"That fool thinks he's so much because he has 'connections'. Ha who does he think he is? He has no power of his own, ordering me around, saying the books in the Restricted Section are dangerous. Of course they are! That's the whole point of them being there."

Tom was muttering in himself while walking past the first row of shelves till he stood in front of the Restricted Section. Being the teacher's pet he was always allowed to enter, despite other students needing a permission note. 

The benefits of being charismatic and handsome. 

He slipped under the rope and inspected the shelves looking for a book that suited his ever changing interests.

A book caught his eye and he took it from the shelve while reading it's title, Secrets of the Darkest Art, before getting comfortable sitting at one of the more secluded tables where no one would bother him.

A door opened behind him, despite the fact that he had been leaning against the solid outer wall of the castle. 

Blue flames spat out a young man in Hufflepuff colors from the doorframe. He stumbles and more out of instinct than concern does Tom's hands shoot out to steady the boy.

He also immediately releases him when he realizes what he did, making the boy fall on the ground after all.

An old golden snitch falls from the boys hands and slowly rolls over the ground till it collides with Tom's boot. Their gazes met and Tom saw a shiver travel through the boys body, good, he should be scared. 

"Who are you?"

The boy scrambles upright, and for one fleeting moment seems to want to flee back to were he came from, but the wall is once more solid.

"I don't know who you are, let alone who I am."

That does not sound logical at all, it makes Tom even more suspicious of the boy that fell through a solid wall. 

"Do you realy believe-"

"Sir, I was looking for you. Slughorn is going to make a round, it's better if everyone is underground to avoid unnecessary."

Malfoy storms towards them, interrupting the conversation.

"Abraxas, don't you interrupt me. Take this, boy, to our rooms, he might prove to be useful." Tom pulls Malfoy closer by his tie and hissed in his ear. "Make sure no one sees him."

They're out of his sight within seconds, Malfoy knows better than to waste his time, that's what he likes about him. Though trust is a different story.

Tom picked the faded black leather tome back up, and searched for his bookmark at page 394. He would join the other Slytherin's at a later time, no need to run because old Horace has a problem.

-

Exactly twenty minutes later ten seconds before curfew starts does Tom enter the Slytherin Common Room, on time following the rules to the letter as always. 

The younger years scattered away to make room for wherever Tom wants to go, luckily for them he has some business to attend to in the dormitories and they are ignored. He opened the door to see the boy sitting on the half-giants bed with Malfoy watching him from his own bed. Tom walked to his own bed to clear his hands by laying the tome on his nightstand. 

"Did he told you anything?"

He pulled Malfoy closer so they could converse without the boy hearing them, though that was almost impossible in such small quarters. 

"His name is Cedric, he thinks something went wrong during an Apparation, but that seems highly unlikely considering the fact he ended up at Hogwarts. He's seventeen so should be still attending school and shouldn't own an Apparation licence. He didn't answer any questions about possible muggle relatives, so I know nothing about that."

Interesting, maybe in a few days the boy would say more and prove himself useful. Otherwise a trip to the Forbiden Forest would make people forget him, before Dumbledore found out about his existence. 

"Play nice, see if he tells you anything new."

If the boy's colors were anything to go by he was a Hufflepuff, those were receptive to a friendly mind.

"How nice?"

Nice enough for the boy to believe it.

"Friends."

Slytherins don't do friends, but Malfoy would find a way to make it believable. That big Giant would have come in handy now, but on the other hand he wouldn't have agreed to the possible end of their acquaintance.

 "Is there maybe something for me to read?"

Tom froze where he stood and slowly turned his head towards the boy sitting against the headboard. No one, no one, interrupted his conversations anymore. Even the teachers, though they didn't do it out of fire for his ire. Who was this boy that he so brazenly commanded the room? 

"Of course, take any of the books on my nightstand. I can assume you know how to treat them with respect?"

Play nice, play nice. Don't show him how you feel, smile for the world to see.

-

"It's always dangerous when wixen mess with time and place. We should hope that all three students come back alive without extreme injuries."

Hope was all Severus could muster, and he saw it disappear when Lucius stood up and marched out of the Great Hall. Miss Granger trying to follow him while staying invisible, something she spectacularly failed at.

He didn't know or understand what Dumbledore had done when the doors took the champions, but it had something to do with time and space.

The dark mark was changing color, something it hadn't done since that night in Godric's Hollow, it scared Severus. And now Lucius felt a pull to be somewhere, a pull so strong he stood up and left within any form of goodbye.

Severus couldn't think of a time Lucius had done something like that before, the man would  never let go, and any of their departures were by Severus' insistence. And now the man left, of his own violation without any prompting apart from a voice in his mind.

There was no way, this magic was anything else than pitch black.

-

Tom was conversing with Malfoy about a specific attack spell that the latter didn't understood when the last roommate burst through the door.

"Lestrange! Keep quiet, we're studying."

He should know better than be this loud with him present.

"Sorry, Voldemort. Won't happen again, I'll go straight to sleep."

Tom didn't think anything of his self-proclaimed nickname being used, he preferred his chosen name far above his given one, and continued his explanation of the arrow shooting spell.

In the commotion of Lestrange changing and putting his stuff away, did no one hear the yelp of surprise from the fourth, now occupied bed.

-

Severus was restless. Charlie had long since fallen asleep on his shoulder, blissfully unaware of the world around him. Fleur on the other hand was getting just as restless as Severus was feeling.

It was taking them too long.

"I need some fresh air, will you stay here or come with me?"

Severus carefully lifted Charlie's head, from where it had lain on his shoulder, to rest on the table.

"Here, I need to be here when they return

Fleur looked with quiet determination at the place the Champions had disappeared, while at the same time keeping a protective arm around her sister and Charlie. She would keep them safe while Severus would try to clear his mind.

The long walk around through the hallways towards the library looking for something he couldn't seem to put his finger. Then to the Slytherin Common room, gently caressing the couch and table he had spent many a night and day during his own time as student. Till he was in the hallway of his own rooms.

His door slammed open while he was walking down the hallway towards it, and three people hurried away from it. One he would recognize no matter what would happen, one he could recognize with touch alone on a pitch black night.

-

The book was gone. 

The book Tom had been reading, he hadn't gotten that far and he knew there were secrets in it he could use to rise to power.

And it was gone.

Malfoy hadn't seen it, Lestrange hadn't seen it, no one had.

He was getting desperate enough to get it back that he stormed towards the Giant's bed and ripping the curtains apart to question the boy.

The boy was gone. 

The scream that ripped itself from Tom's throat shook the room and made the younger years shiver in their beds. They knew who it belonged to and what his ire could cause. 

Soft footsteps hurried up and down stairs, running, trying, hiding to find a place to rest. Away from the boy he now knew as the Dark Lord.

-

"Lucius what are you doing here, and why is Miss Granger still following you?"

Lucius turned around to stare in astonishment at Severus. What were they doing in his rooms, and was that Krum who ran down the hall?

"Uhm, it's complicated we met Krum in Knockturn Alley and than brought him back to Hogwarts. We used your Floo for that, that's why we were in our, your, rooms. And for miss Granger, well she followed me to London, couldn't leave her behind there now, could I?"

Severus leveled miss Granger with one of his sneers, stopping her from trying to sneak away, before he raked his eyes up and down Lucius to check for any wounds. When he found none, he gave miss Granger she same treatment. No student of his would get physically hurt, if he could prevent it.

"And I presume you were bringing miss Granger her back to her Common Room, for the Prefects to deal with, after she broke the rules by leaving the grounds."

Rising an eyebrow was enough to make both people in front of Severus shiver in their robes, and he decided to relieve them from their misery.

"It seems everything turned out alright, let's escort miss Granger to the library and I will leave a note for professor McGonagall to speak to you."

The walk to the library was in complete silence as neither Severus nor miss Granger felt the need to fill the silence with mindless banter, and Lucius was too focused on the fact Severus was slightly cross with him to try and annoy him by talking too much.

Severus leads his little group inside the library towards the study tables where they can safely leave miss Granger to her own devices, when the walls shudder and a door opens inside the outer wall. 

It appears in blue flames, and a boy in Hufflepuff yellow steps through it, falling straight in Severus' arms.

"Burn it! You have to destroy it, now!"

Cedric pushes a black tome in Severus' hands who accepts it without thinking, before actually reading the title and feeling his stomach recoil. 

"Lucius."

Fortunately, no one asks questions as they watch how the book curls in on itself before it bursts apart in a cloud of dust.

"I think the four of us should go back to the Great Hall, you to show you've completed the Second Task. Miss Granger to show some remorse to McGonagall and Lucius and I need to have a conversation with Dumbledore considering his school policy concerning the library."

Cedric is out of the room and sprinting towards the Great Hall before Severus can finish his sentence. 

-

January 26, 2023