Hallo again. Firstly I want to thank all of you who helped me with my pure blood problems. I said I would shout out to all of you smarties so here you are; Never Odd or eveN, LilPKLoser, Alteng, Winona Corinne, Legolas-gurl8.

Disclaimer, Not mine, odds are they never will be. It's really tragic. It bums me out.

000

Harry wandered up to the great hall concealed and mostly unnoticed by the mass of students. By falling behind a group of Slytherin sixth years he was able to avoid speaking and he liked it that way. None of the Griffendors from class had lingered and he felt a tug of anxiety when he considered where he would sit for dinner.

Harry was halfway to the entrance hall when he ran into Dumbledore who was the picture of a mountain among many lesser hills in the stream of students. He stopped Harry by touching his shoulder "You do of course, remember the meeting we have arranged?"

" Yes sir." Harry gave him what he supposed to be a reassuring nod.

"Good. Now listen Harry, In understand that your situation is unusal but you must remember that enrollment nearly a month after term has started will be considered by many to be unusual.

" Thank you for doing this sir." Harry said, fighting down a surge of guilt.

"For you Harry, its nothing." Dumbledore beamed at him. "However I really must request profusely that you be on time and give no reason for Professor Dippit to believe his decision unwise."

Harry shook his head as vigorously as the laws of motion would allow without his head coming off in a frightening impression of Nearly Headless Nick. Harry said his thank you to his professor and left quickly, trying to retain his dignity.

The great hall was loud and full, students were quite cheerful to have reached the end of their classes and their was a general feeling of high spirits. Harry looked around, feeling hesitant. Stubborn reminders of being the last one standing in Dudley's gym class engulfed him. Slowly he made his way over to the Gryffindor table, sinking into a seat Harry solemnly slopped some potatoes and chicken onto his plate. Seldom had he felt so lonely at Hogwarts. Perhaps in his fourth year when he and Ron had been fighting, but at least he had Hermione. Hermione. He wondered if they would be able to notice he had left. Would time simply remain the same for them or would they go on living? Never knowing what had become of him, their friend? Then as though following a rope leading him down into darkness an even worse thought occurred to him. What if, if he never returned, it would be as if he had never been there at all?

Harry glanced up and down the table searching for a familiar face. His eye stopped on a familiar profile and he was seized with a strange desire to laugh. He would have to be blind to miss it. Rubeus Hagrid sat on the end of the table opposite him. He looked to be slightly downtrodden, his face held low. Harry couldn't help but gape. Hagrid towered over his fellow third years, so much so that Harry was sure if he stood he would be a clear six feet tall. Even funnier still, though he looked no older than twelve with his clean bald face there were gargantuan eye brows and the ruddy nose of the grounds keeper Harry would one day come to love. Harry watched him eat slowly and an unexplainably strong surge of pity overtook him.

Harry remembered a piece of information Hagrid had once told him. Hagrid's father had died in his second year. He could remember the words perfectly. "He died, see, in me second year-" Hagrid's second year. But at least his father wouldn't have to live with the shame of his expulsion when Myrtle was murdered. Harry wheeled his head around the great hall searching for the living moaning Myrtle, with the greatest difficulty for he didn't know her house. Harry cursed and returned to his potatoes. His goal, as it was rapidly forming, was now to spot moaning Myrtle. Myrtle, who was murdered by Tom. The chamber of Secrets. Tom was probably looking for it now.

Harry eyes found Toms face at the Slytherin table and from deep within him came a strong almost violent emotion. The chamber of secrets! Right now Harry knew more about it than lord Voldemort or Tom Riddle at least. Harry pictured the hole that opened up in the sink in the girls bathroom. He was just spooning himself more gravy when a vaguely disturbing thought came to him. How had Tom discovered the chamber in a girls bathroom? That was very odd indeed, why hadn't he thought of that before? Tom surely hadn't spent his school days creeping about in a girls bathroom?

To distract himself Harry sent a glance at the staff table and had to suck in his breath, it looked so very different. Missing from the staff, Harry noted immediately was Severus Snape. Of course, Harry reminded himself, That was because Severus Snape hadn't been born yet. Very slowly the realization came to him. Nobody was out to kill him. He was at Hogwarts. He had no friends, this was true, but for the first time in his young life he also had no enemies. The anonymity of that, the peace of it was a very strange feeling indeed and he figured that must be what people meant when they talked about having a clean slate. Harry finished his chicken, feeling though lost, that his situation was somewhat less shadowed. As deserts appeared, he began to wish he could get the sorting over with. He wanted to be official. To start his journey for whatever secret he had stupidly wished himself a part of. He sliced himself some pie and devoured the piece in one large inhalant breath. Could he leave now? He glanced at the staff table where neither Dumbledore or professor Dippit were present. Standing up Harry reached the second time that day for a book bag that didn't exist and feeling increasingly stupid he started off for the headmasters office.

On the way out of the hall, he felt the familiar presence of eyes watching him. Whispers met his ears, buzzing around him busily as he left the room. The corridors were silent in a stark contrast. As he trod the path to the headmasters office, every step he took seemed rife with malicious portent. What if they sorted him into Slytherin, or worse, the hat decided that he didn't exist in this time and sent him packing. Before Harry knew it however he had marched his way absently to the headmasters door and as though on cue his stomach began to growl. Sighing deeply Harry opened his mouth to say the password but was rudely interrupted by a banging noise in the hallway just around the corner. Harry paused teetering on the edge of "Twinkle toes." The loud scuffling noise was followed by a muffled scream. Harry was already turning around when the words that Dumbledore had urgently pressed on him earlier came floating back. "Don't give Professor Dippit any reason to regret his decision."

It wasn't as though he would be late just for having a look.

Harry edged a little closer to the corner and peered around the edge casually, expecting to see a pair of guilty looking fourth years with a dung bomb. Instead, Harry found the corridor deserted. This was more suspicious than he has suspected. He was positive that he had heard a scream. A stifled scream. Had someone been attacked? Harry's time in Hogwarts had always been at it's best very dangerous. The urge to continue down the hallway was alive in him, but something in his head squashed this idea back down. He returned to the statue against his better urges and muttered the password. He took one last weary look down the corridor and turned back to the Gargoyle which had sprung open. Harry stepped onto the familiar stairway and let it carry him up to the headmasters door. He took one last calming breath and knocked.

"Come in Harry" Dumbledore's voice carried well through the solid oak door.

Harry braced himself, ready to put his best foot forward, whichever it might be. The opened softly. Professor Dippit was sitting behind the desk that Harry had always known Dumbledore to watch him from. Dumbledore stood in the middle of the room which was comparatively bare in comparison to what he was used to. Gone were the silver trinkets, there was no sword of Gryffindor on the wall and there was no phoenix looking up at him from a perch near the window. The room was formal but less overwhelming and without such a sense of power and variety. Next to Dumbledore was a tall stool on which the sorting hat was perched. Tattered and crooked as usual.

"Welcome Harry" Dumbledore stood smiling and looking pleasantly at ease. Professor Dippit however had a rather more stiff lip and erect posture.

"Yes, welcome mister Potter." Professor Dippit watched Harry with a critical but benign glance. Harry saw him glance pointedly at Dumbledore, who in turn seemed oblivious to the headmasters distaste.

Dumbledore motioned toward the stool "This is our sorting hat." Harry took a moment to pretend to look at it in interest. "All you must do is place it on your head."

Dumbledore smiled at him and Harry attempted a half a grin, unsure as he was as to how much professor Dippit might now about this sudden enrollment. Harry glanced at Dumbledore and Professor Dippit cleared his throat. "Alright then Harry, take a seat if you please."

Harry hastened to sit and waited until Dumbledore put the hat on his head. The hat no longer covered his eyes, but came to his middle forehead. He almost wished that his eyes had the extra privacy they had been given in his first year. Professor Dippit's looked boldly on him.

"Well, well, well, Mr. Potter. Isn't this… peculiar."

"Hello then." he thought.

The sound of a faint chuckling filled his ears. "Aren't you an unusual case? Sixteen years old and unsorted. It is rare that I get someone so developed.

"Er, sorry. I'm new."

"Oh yes, well, Hmm? Indeed. I think not Mr. Potter. That is quite a half truth."

Harry flushed, surprised. He hadn't had time to think that the hat might know his mind. "Well I haven't been sorted here."

"It is true that I must sort all those who are presented to me. The first time and the second. You are quite complex you know, and you are very brave, some might say selfless, but I know better…"

"Oh."

"You also interrupt which is less becoming. Yes you are quite fit as a Gryffindor, you've a knack for heroics. You posses great will. But Gryffindor is not the only house that prizes determination."

Harry felt the distinct tug of annoyance. Yes he possessed great will but was the a good thing. His mind jumped back past the summer to the ministry, watching Sirius fall through the veil. His heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, dear. Quite a sadness. My apologies Mr. Potter for bringing it up. Yes well, you might make very fine young Gryffindor so loyal and eager to defend but then Slytherin was always loyal himself...To be torn between Slytherin and Gryffindor, houses of action they both are, is not as rare as you might think. How very Torn I am but then again, I've yet to be wrong."

"Very impressive."

"Yes I think so, but be careful in complimenting something that knows your mind as it often proves embarrassing. Perhaps Slytherin after all…"

The annoyance was sharpening to distaste. He wanted to get off the stool, away from Professor Dippits gaze.

"Patience Harry, it is a difficult process. Yes, you would be an impressive Slytherin and yet, what a Gryffindor you would make."

"You think I should be in Gryffindor right?" Harry asked knowingly.

"Should I? I do love a challenge, unfortunately I so rarely get them. I think I shall have to say…"

Nervousness was beginning to prickle his insides "You didn't have so much trouble before you know. Back then I told you I thought I should be in-"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Harry felt his hair being brushed aside as the hat was removed from his head. Bringing the hat back to his desk he watched as Professor Dippit cast Dumbledore a clipped look. "Very well then."

Harry sat motionless with both of his hands clasping the side of the chain. He just been sorted into Slytherin. He remembered when he had first tried on the sorting hat that he had almost been sorted into Slytherin, but he had asked to be put into Gryffindor and the hat had acquiesced. Why hadn't he said something sooner while the hat was dithering?

"Er professor?" Harry asked, regret bubbling up in his throat. "Do you think I could have another go?" he asked anxiously. He had been looking at professor Dumbledore but it was professor Dippit who responded.

"The sorting ritual is final Mr, Potter." Then he caught the look on Harry's horrified face, "I assure you, each house is as good as the others. Slytherin is a perfectly good house. There have been any number important and prominent Slytherins."

As much as he didn't like to think it, he would admit it was true that he had some Slytherin characteristics. After all hadn't Tom left him with some of his own traits at the tender age of one? But to be sorted into Slytherin house seemed the last straw and he could feel himself settling into despair.

The Slytherin's. His first thought was that he wouldn't know anyone but then of course, he wouldn't know a soul no matter where he went. The only people who might recognize him were,incredibly, Tom Riddle and Grodisious Malfoy.

.

"Well, I suppose that's the matter settled then." Dumbledore smiled graciously. "Harry here will go to the Slytherin common room after dinner has ended and join them in their classes tomorrow."

Professor Dippit waved his hand, "Yes, of course." Harry was reminded strongly of Fudge. "And he will be continuing on through NEWTs and graduation then Dumbledore?"

" We shall see I suppose" Dumbledore fixed his gaze again on Harry. "Each man is free to pursue his own destiny."

Professor Dippit looked for a moment as though he would have preferred a clearer answer but as Dumbledore seemed to have nothing further to offer he drummed his fingers on his desk. "Very well then. Perhaps Harry would find it useful to collect his book list tomorrow so that he might receive his mail order supplies as quickly as possible."

Harry nodded feeling that this had been chiefly addressed at him though in a rather round about manner. "Ok, I can do that first thing."

Dumbledore turned to look at him. His bear so much shorter than it was in Harrys time. How had he missed that?

"You have been sorted into Slytherin then Harry." He looked down at him now in that way that seemed to suggest he was reading Harry's thoughts. "The remainder of your days here will be spent largely amongst the members of your house, I do hope you find adequate company" Dumbledore had the strangest expression written into his face, something that looked almost like pity. Perhaps he sympathized with Harry. Harry had after all, told him he had been in Gryffindor.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, me too."

Harry then gave Dumbledore an account of the N.E.W.T classes he was taking, while Professor Dippit watched them, the lines of his face that had at first appeared to him to be stern looked more tired and weather worn up close.

Dumbledore assured him that teachers would be made aware of his presence by the time he started classes. Shortly after there was a knock on the office door. It opened to reveal a short man with a large rather bulbous nose. "Professor Dippit, you're need on the first floor."

Professor Dippit flinched a little as though shaking of the start of a lingering nap and stood to excuse himself. On his way out he clapped Harry on the shoulder and led him to the door.

"Congratulations." he intoned.

Dumbledore followed and as soon as Dippit had relinquished his grip nodded. "Good luck Harry, It is my hope you don't need much of it." With a quick smile on a troubled face he headed off after his colleague leaving Harry at the stone gargoyle.

Harry walked the back to the great hall as slowly as he could will his feet. In a matter of seconds he had changed his life so thoroughly it was nearly unrecognizable. It was bad enough to be lost in the memory of something whose brain he could not control. It was even worse to have been told he had to live through it dressed in Slytherin robes. Even as walked down the stone steps full of dread a thought had occurred to him. As loathsome as it was to be a Slytherin, it was after all, rather convenient. If his only hope of escaping this place was to discover a secret that mattered most to him, wasn't it better to be closer to the heart of it all. His thoughts had strayed to Tom. Without rationalizing or analyzing his knew that if he was going to discover something it would have to do with him. Because it all went back to the same place. It was where the prophecy, his mother and father's sacrifice lived It was Sirius lifeless and all the other members of the order that stood bravely ready to face the night. A new kind of determination came over him as he walked and he knew as he reached the entrance hall that that he had a task he would somehow, have to find a way to complete.

The tables were significantly less full than they had been when he had left. He walked in and trying to look nonchalant, slid into a seat at the Slytherin table. It suddenly occurred to him that he had never sat there before. Had Ron been with him it would have been funny indeed but as it was he couldn't summon up enough humor to be amused. This is your place at Hogwarts now, he thought hastily.

He looked around at the remaining Slytherin's. There were numb looking boys at the end of the table and a regal looking seventh year girl with a sheet of honey blonde hair a few seats away.

"So, are you the newest member of the family?"

Harry actually felt himself jump.

Tom Riddle was across from, faint amusement at having made him jump clear all over his cold and perfect face.

" Yeah I was just sorted into Slytherin." The sound of it in his voice was strange. It felt like a lie.

A book was propped against a napkin holder in front of him. Tom sipped from his goblet watching him. "Are you a pureblood?"

Harry wasn't sure what to say. He had a feeling that if he lied it would be turned out eventually. The fewer lies he was expected to remember the better. "Im a half blood."

" Really?" Tom asked. "Well that's fairly rare," He flipped his page, "How thankful you should be that you aren't a muggle born."

"Is that unusual?" Harry asked. "Being a half-blood?"

Tom looked at him. "Its not unheard of."

" Are you a pureblood?" Harry asked trying to read the words of his book upside down.

Tom looked at him for a moment as though studying him before grinning in a way only movie actors or French sophisticates should know how. "You'll find there is very little riff raff in Slytherin. The Muggle borns are sorted elsewhere." they exchanged a glance in which Harry took a stab at looking pleased. "Im a Half blood as well."

Harry already knew this, but he tried to look surprised. " I guess I should have known." Harry laughed trying to sound comfortable. "Some of the most powerful wizards are actually half bloods. We are less slightly less blinded by old ways. It makes us innovative."

Tom looked up at him, his expression truly unreadable. "I suppose you could make an argument for that. Perhaps its best to respect the ancient culture of the wizarding world," Tom caught his eye, "But I suppose its true that everything old can be made new again."

Harry smiled, wondering if he had sensed a threat in Toms words. "What are you reading? I guess you've noticed me staring at it."

Tom shut the book exposing its gilded cover which read Blood Rights; The Ways of The Lower Beings. The cover was blackened and stained with what Harry would have bet his whole fortune in Gringotts gold was blood. "An extra credit project." he explained, raising his own eyebrows at the hair raising sight.

Harry seriously doubted it. "This has got to be restricted"

Tom's face that Harry was watching so carefully for clues broke in a charming smile. "You caught me Potter." Tom might be soulless, but he put on an amazing show.

"They let you just walk around with this stuff here?" Harry opened the book and flipped through the pages stopping on an unlabeled picture. "That's literally a picture of a Basilisk!"

Then Harry saw it. The flicker. Tom looked at him intently. "You recognize it?" In an instant his face was as smooth and genial as ever.

Harry shrugged.

Tom has put his goblet down. "What else do you know of it?"

Harry swallowed. "Well, venomous teeth for a start." he looked at his arm where he had once been thoroughly skewered with a large tooth himself. "To look it in the eye of course is the last thing you'll do as the result is instant death. However," he paused putting the book down having picked it up to look more closely at the picture, "the reflection of the Basilisk's stare results paralysis. They can live for hundreds of years. Of course they are massive-" Harry paused and looked at Tom who was a steely mixture of deeply impressed and suspicious masked by what might have been a fake indifference.

Riddles smirk broke the tension. "You certainly know your magical creatures."

Harry paused and then shook his head. " No, I know my myths. Its rumored to be Slytherins monster."

He had done it. He had found the nerve. Tom looked at him in a far more naked way. A flicker of something like interest shadowed his eyes. " But of course you would have heard of the myth, an ancient chamber made by Salazar himself, inside it dwells a beast. But even I have to admit you'd be surprised how very few, even in his own house know the name of the monster."

Harry smiled. "You think it's a myth then?"

Toms eyes narrowed. "You believe in bed time tales Harry?"

" Maybe. Especially when there is evidence. I tend expect the unexpected these days."

"I knew I would like you."

00000

I toyed with the idea of making Tom nicer but let's face it. He just isn't.