Soo, this will be my first HP story, though it will be totally original, and will mostly have nothing in common with the main Harry Potter plotline! It will probably take some time until I get to the core of the story, at least few chapters so I really hope you'll like it! Tom Riddle & OC pairing, though there will be other possible twists. For now, it remains T rated, but with Tom Riddle involved, I really have no idea how or will it stay that way xD

Characters are mostly OC although some of them may or may not have last names like characters from the books!

1. Dirt and Tears

27. August 2013. - Egypt

The walls of the large tomb were beautifully decorated with hieroglyphs. Cassandra looked around happily, her eyes large in excitement. It has been years since the last time she felt this happy about something. Turning away from the room and towards the hallway, her lamp still in her hand, she looked left and right, searching.

"Victoria," she yelled in the semi-darkness "You should come and see this!"

Then, she was again facing the room. By the looks of it, it seemed that the room held the riches of the pharaoh. Scattered in the dust, Cassandra could get glimpses of golden artifacts, beautifully crafted with gems. She barely held herself from picking something up and cleaning it from the dirt. Something such as this should never be locked away in the darkness and smudged with dirt.

"Cass, seems like we hit the jackpot this time," her mother said from the door.

Victoria Cassidy proudly beamed up to her daughter. A large smile was playing on her lips, as she entered the room. But, despite her happiness, Cassandra could easily see dark shadows beneath her eyes, how her face was tired. Right now, Cass deducted, only adrenaline kept her up.

"Who do you think all this belonged to?" Cassandra traced her fingers over the carved walls, trying not to damage the remaining color.

"Well, initially I wasn't sure, but after further examining the cartouche…" her mother smirked "I think what we have here is the tomb of Queen Nefertiti."

"What?" her loud voice made Victoria frown.

"Shush… This is still a theory. I don't want to be laughed at if it proves wrong," her mother told her as she let her glance pass over everything in the room "Besides, we still haven't found any clues about the actual sarcophagus."

Cassandra still felt her heart banging on her chest but she nodded sternly. The scientific community was a skeptic bunch, and after her mother's last fiasco… Another wrong move might get Victoria out of the important circles. But, Cassandra still wanted to believe that this was the tomb of the Queen Nefertiti, even if it proved wrong.

"Come on, sweetie," Victoria interrupted her thoughts "It's getting late, and honestly after this, I am very tired."

Cassandra nodded towards her mother and left the room. But, instead of sleeping in her tent, she spent that night writing in her journal. She already tried deciphering the texts on the wall, since her adrenaline and excitement were keeping her up. The more she translated, the more she felt disappointed. Certainly, the texts were mainly telling stories about Queen Nefertiti and her life, but nothing firmly told anything about this being the place where she was buried.

Sighing, Cass left her journal on the side. Egyptians surely were people with a vivid imagination. Such stories about magic, gods and goddesses were usual for that period. Yet, Cassandra wanted something real… Evidence she could actually use, not magical stories full of impossible things. With a yawn she slipped comfortably beneath her blanket. She fell asleep not long afterwards, thankful for the calm darkness surrounding her.

Cassandra… The Amulet.

The Sun was already shinning intensively when Cass woke up. It was still chilly, but she knew that soon the hard heat will be upon her again. Her mother was still sleeping in her tent, as were the rest of the researchers that came along, old and grumpy Mr. Wolfe and the ever-excited Malcolm what's-his-last-name. It seemed that, as per usual, she was the first to wake up.

She picked up her lamp and entered the tomb. Cass knew that she shouldn't do that, at least not until some of the adults was awake, but somehow she felt a strange urge to visit the room from yesterday. It felt as if she couldn't resist it. Walking though the long hallways, she was more aware of the many gazes on her, as if the pictures on the wall were observing her. Cass shook her head. Now was not the time to get her imagination working. With a hurried step, she entered the well-known room.

It was as glorious as she remembered it. With her lamp she illuminated the objects on the ground. Carefully stepping through the piles of jewelry, weapons and figurines she went further through the long room. There was a strange electricity in the air that made her heart beat faster and the hair on the back of her neck raise up.

An altar stood before her. Too an amateur it would just look like a big piece of stone, but her knowledge of pictures and hieroglyphs made her realize it was much more. She made a full circle around it, trying to determine it's use. Nothing was pulling her anymore, as if the strange force disappeared into thin air. Or, perhaps she reached the place she was looking for?

Walking around, her fingers tracing the cold stone and it's markings, she felt a strange scratchy sound beneath her feet. Like something metallic was brushing the stone beneath her. Cass bent down and slowly brushed away the dirt only to see something shining brightly under it. The necklace had a fine, golden chain, unusually heavy. A beautiful stone was hanging from the chain. Dark blue and beautiful.

Lapis lazuli.

She was now excited and couldn't wait for her mother to wake up, only so she could show it to her. But then a realization hit her. If she showed the necklace to her mother, it will certainly be taken away from her to a museum. Frowning, she deducted that she didn't want that. She pulled the beautiful necklace into her pocket. Everything screamed that it wasn't right for her to do that, but she couldn't bear to lose that simple piece of jewelry. Why? She had no idea.

And that was what scared her the most.

"Cass," Victoria asked "Bring me my journal, it's right there, on the ground."

Cassandra was sitting in the corner of one of the long hallways, while her mother was translating the texts on the walls. She wasn't really paying attention to anything, her eyes empty and not really focused on anything around her. Her both hands were in her pockets, her left was playing with the amulet.

"Cass!" this made her jump a bit from the floor "Journal. Now."

Cassandra nodded as she stood up from the dirt.

"What is going on with you?" Victoria asked as she looked her daughter critically "You are usually much more excited. Is something wrong?"

"Erm… Not really," Cass sighed slowly.

"Sweetie, I know you better than that," Victoria slightly frowned, worried "You don't have to tell me what's bothering you, but at least try and get a grip while we're working. If you can't, perhaps it would be better if you went back to your tent."

Cassandra recognized the irritation in her mother's voice, but wasn't shaken in the least. She knew that Victoria wanted to know everything that was going on in her head, all the time. But, in Cassandra's opinion that was just ridiculous. She was now almost seventeen, and she had the right to keep some things away from her mother.

"Fine. I'll leave," Cass finally answered with a scowl obvious on her face. Before Victoria could even try to stop her, she already was halfway through the tomb. On the way she passed the other two researchers who were already well acquainted with the face expression she was wearing. Good. The last thing she needed now was someone trying to make thing better between her and Victoria.

Victoria. Not mum or mother… It will always be Victoria. She couldn't wait to go back to France, to her father and go to school with friends, go out with Mike… As much as she loved going all over the world with Victoria and discovering all the amazing places, she was never able to have a normal conversation with her. The two of them always talked like two scientists, colleagues but never like mother and daughter.

Upon entering her tent, Cass wiped the few tears that were clouding her eyes. Throwing her journal down, near her feet she sat down in obvious anger. That was something she was exceptionally good with. Turning her sadness and tears into anger.

Cassandra took a few deep breaths in order to calm herself. She was better than this, and Victoria surely didn't deserve her tears. Actually, she didn't think anyone deserved her tears, because anyone who could make her cry surely didn't deserve her or her emotions. Except her father, Cass remembered. For him, she would walk through hell and back.

Cassandra pushed one of her hands in her pocket. The beautiful amulet in her hands made her feel the same pinch of guilt like when she snatched it into her pocket from the ground. She raised the beautiful blue stone a bit nearer. It seemed as if the darker and lighter patterns danced on it, like they swirled. She pursed her lips as she thought about it.

Perhaps just this one time. Something in her begged her to try the damn necklace, to put it around her neck. No harm if it's just once, right? Cass just wanted to feel how the stone would seem against her pale skin and how will the gold contrast with her dark red hair. It will be her small guilty secret she'll never reveal to anyone.

Cassandra attached the cold chain on the back of her neck. It was cold, soothing and it felt wonderful against her skin. For the first time today, she smiled widely, her chest full of pleasant butterflies. In a better mood already, Cassie took her journal back in her hands happily and roamed through it's pages. After a while, she felt sleep gripping her. With open arms she accepted the darkness as it guided her though.

"So, she just fell asleep in the middle of the corridor?"

"Well, it seems so…"

"Hush, you two… You will wake her up!"

"Well, it's about time she wakes up, don't you think?"

"She's waking up!"

Cassandra opened her eyes, as the voices disappeared. Five unknown faces were looking at her, as she frowned and took a deep tired breath. Shaking her head, she looked around, unable to recognize her surroundings.

"Wha- Who are you?" she asked these unknown people around her "This is a private digging site."

"Well, this place is old.. But I doubt it's as old to become a digging site," one of the unknown guys chuckled and rolled his eyes.

Upon closer inspecting the five people around her, Cassandra decided that they were not much older than herself, which was a positive thing. Yet, the corridor she was in wasn't recognizable to her, which was not such a good thing. As she rose from the floor, she realized just how much of a headache she was dealing with. She needed to get away from this place wherever 'this place' was or else Victoria will be pissed at her.

"Umm… Where is the exit? I really need to go back to where I came from," Cass slowly said to the confused people in front of her.

"Go? But the school year just started, you can't go," a boy told her, his eyebrow raised.

"Yes, and the ceremony in the Great Hall is just beginning in a few minutes," a petite blonde on the side told her, as she looked over her "Where is you uniform? Why aren't you wearing it? Which house are you in?"

Cassandra slightly paled at their words and the questions the pretty blonde was asking her. Uniform? House? What were they talking about?

"Look, I really know nothing about uniforms or Great Halls," Cass shook her head "I need to go back to the excavation site in Egypt, and I actually have no idea how I got here."

The small group observed her for a few moments as if they were deciding whether to trust her or not.

"Can I just talk to someone who's in charge of this place?" she asked them with exasperation in her voice.

"Fine… We can take you to the Head of our House," the blonde finally nodded "Somehow I get the feeling you really have no idea about this."

The small blonde threw a worried glance to her four friends and then looked over to Cass, who was still clutching to her journal. The blonde beckoned towards the hallway as she walked.

"So, you really have no idea how you got here?" she asked after a while.

"No," Cass answered shortly as she looked around the large hallways "I remember falling asleep in my tent, and then… I just woke up here."

"Strange," the blonde agreed with Cassandra's thoughts "Oh, and my name is Allegra Tornwake, seventh year, House Gryffindor."

"Pleased to meet you, my name is Cassandra Mason," she answered using her father's last name. She was confused by the name she used to describe her House. Both terms 'Gryffindor' and 'House' were fairly unknown to her, so she decided not to say anything about that. She was as suspicious as it was, no need to seem like that even more.

Suddenly, Allegra stopped in front of a door and knocked, before she opened them and let Cass and herself inside. The room was a strange mixture of a crazy scientist laboratory and her father's room. Papers, books and artifacts were all scattered around. Cass slightly smiled, this kind of organized mess was very familiar to her.

"Ah, Ms Thornwake, you brought a guest?"

Cass tensed slightly before she found the person who spoke the words. She slightly gaped at his strange appearance, but then remembered herself and closed her mouth.

"Yes, professor," Allegra nodded "Me and a few others found her sleeping in the corridor."

"That must've been uncomfortable, has it Miss..?"

"Umm… Mason. My name is Cassandra Mason," she was still gripping her journal as if her life depended on it.

"Well, Ms Mason, my name is professor Dumbledore," the man smiled and then his calm gaze stopped on the necklace around her neck. Cass was still wearing it "Ms Thornwake, I trust you have an Entrance Ceremony to attend. I will see to it that our guest is taken care of."

"Of course, professor," she nodded sternly and left.

"Ms Mason," he switched his attention towards her "Shall I ask where or when did you come from?"

Cassandra felt her heart beating faster. She took one deep breath to calm herself, and then she started talking.

Hmmm… That's it for now, though I really felt a strong urge to continue writing this chapter… Gotta leave some good ideas for the next one, right? Oh, so for now I really don't want to reveal much about the amulet, Cass or how the hell did a muggle girl end up in Hogwarts, nor how did she end almost 70 years in the past. Yep, it's all connected but for now, I will keep my mouth shut ^^

Please rate and review, because I am really thrilled to hear anything from you! Do you like this so far or not so much? Does my English suck? (I am from Serbia, after all)… Anything is very much appreciated!

Thanks,

-khatariah