Hello again. Thank you to all who reviewed! I like you guys I do I do. This is chapter four. Enjoy.
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Harry walked steadily down the corridor, half his mind formulating a plan. He skirted around the head masters office quickly, not wanting to be spotted missing from lunch. He doubted anyone was keeping tabs, but still he considered it wiser not to draw attention. He had had a half a thought in the hallway. It wasn't much to go on but it was something. He came to a halt just a few steps past the office, in precisely the same hallway he had heard that muffled yell the night before. He was stuck here in this time looking for a secret was he? It seemed a fitting place to start.
He paused and rotated on the spot. The night before he had been looking for students. What if it had been easier than that? Harry's imagination strayed to Hagrid and Aragog, the memory he had once seen of Hagrid crouching in a cupboard crooning to his giant spider.
Harry bent down to examine the floor but there was nothing obviously out of the ordinary about the particular stretch of corridor now in the daylight. Harry stood up and scanned the wall, not entirely sure what he was expecting to find.
"Ah, returning to the scene of the crime, I see."
Harry whirled around so fast he made himself dizzy. Professor Dippit, with his short trimmed gray beard and dusty colored robes was smiling idly. Harry couldn't tell if his tone was accusing or jovial.
Harry fought for something acceptable to say that wouldn't give away how startled he had been to see him. He was spared the effort however, as professor Dippit continued, "Harry my boy, the great hall is the other way!" He was smiling broadly.
"Er yeah, thanks."
The awkward silence that followed did no more than tempt Harry to turn on his heel and bolt. Professor Dippit was still smiling. What was wrong with him? Professor Dippit chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "I've been hearing nothing but good reports about you from the teachers."
Harry blinked. "Thanks."
Professor Dippit smiled earnestly, "And it appears you have made friends with our young Tom Riddle. Very smart of you."
So he thought it was a good sign Harry had befriend his favorite student.
"Yeah, he's been really helpful."
"I have just spoken with young Tom, he speaks highly of you Harry."
The thought of the future Voldemort complimenting him was something that he had no experience with so Harry filed it away to be dealt with later.
"Thanks sit, Ill ah, Ill just be getting to lunch then-"
Professor Dippit nodded genially. "Right you are, hurry along then."
All the way back to the great hall Harry's head swam. Had professor Dippit been intentionally sending him away from that corridor or had merely been on his way back to his office. Why would Tom be complimenting him? Harry slid into a seat at the Slytherin table even though instinct still led him down the hall toward the Gryffindor table.
He filled a glass with pumpkin juice distractedly. Across from him Tom was flicking through a book looking absorbed.
"Don't you ever eat?" Harry asked.
"I eat when I'm hungry," Tom said calmly without looking up.
Harry smirked. "Reassuring." There were mountains of sandwiches piled onto a plate before him and he took two, his stomach grumbling. "What's with all the reading?"
Tom smirked. "Just staying literate."
Harry looked at the front of Tom's book. It was old and looked like a journal. The edges were tattered and worn and several words in a foreign language from which the only one he could decipher was Inferi were printed across the cover in fading gold.
Harry shrugged and attended to his sandwiches doubting anything he was perusing could be considered fine literature. "Thank you, by the way," Harry began to ladle himself soup, "for giving professor Dippit such a nice review of me."
Tom looked up. "It seemed like you could use the help."
"I did, I don't think he liked me."
Malfoy had dropped into the seat beside Tom, his gaze level with Harry's eyes. "Harry,"
The use of his first name by a Malfoy was certainly a change.
"Yes?" Harry asked, fighting down that instinct of dislike he nearly always had to push away in the presence of any member of that particular family.
"Slughorn wants you in his office for dinner tomorrow," He looked down at his nails rather vainly then glanced at Tom, who smiled cold bloodedly. "And you too of course Tom."
Tom's smirk was ghosted somewhat predatorily. He followed Malfoy's restless movements silently. Malfoy fidgeted and shifted in his seat, not just away from Tom but from Harry by association.
As Malfoy walked off he seemed to regain some of his regal stride only after he was out of earshot.
"What does Slughorn want with me?" Harry asked, perplexed.
"Slughorn is a bit of a collector. I'm sure he is interested to meet the sixth year who can conjure a patronus."
"That seems to be common around here." Harry was sipping his pumpkin juice now thinking.
Tom smirked, "Everyone has their favorites, Harry," He glanced at Harry and Harry noticed his gaze was much more pleasant than it had been with Malfoy. "I am afraid Slughorn is guiltier than most."
History of Magic turned out to be far more amusing then he had expected. Professor Binns, who still carried on in that same chalky voice and who still dressed himself in that same tweed suit had surprised him for the first time in memory when he had walked rather then floated into his classroom. Of course the class was no less boring than the he was used to. Even in life, professor Binns had a fighting way in which he could drone on about violent deaths and still make them come out sounding like a lullaby. Harry left his class in much the same way he always had, dazed and bleary eyed, he blundered his way to charms class.
Charms he soon learned was taught by a tall thin man named Professor Tweady who seemed completely at odds with professor Flitwick. He gave them all an overview of rainy day charms- a simple charm meant to give inspiration to people who were feeling down. Harry was much relived when the bell rang for dinner. Harry gathered up the books he had collected throughout the day before heading to the great hall for a hasty dinner.
He had stopped walking halfway past the Slytherin table en route for the Gryffindor one and while when the Slytherins were addressed he still didn't turn his head, he was improving. He was rather proud.
After dinner Harry made a beeline for the library where he was more certain he wouldn't be forced to speak with anyone.
He made his way down the halls slowly- he needed to think. The castle was dark with the coming fall and mostly silent. Was he mad or did many of his professors seem to be acting rather strange themselves? Not just strange to him but strange in general. There was something of a sense of unease everywhere. It was frustrating for Harry had no doubt that this time period especially was likely to have any number of dark secrets but which of them would be his key to returning to the present?
The library was comforting, little seemed to have changed in its general appearance. Harry scanned the shelves searching for a copy of his Transfiguration text but several minutes revealed no lead and he was hesitant to seek out the library, whomever they might be. Madame Pince was enough to commit him to a life time of hesitance when it came to librarians. Instead Harry got a table and decided that while he was there he might as well tackle the Defense against the Dark Arts reading on patronuses. Harry had just started the first sentence when a voice interrupted him. A sly small voice.
"And who are you hiding from?" Harry startled and looked around but the library appeared empty. "Ashhamed of that mark on your faccce?"
His scar? Harry looked about but there wasn't even a shadow. "Where are you?"
"Three rows down, six rowsss up."
Harry scanned the shelves around him eagerly. Still seeing nothing, he growled, becoming more annoyed, "I can't see you."
"No…you don't." The voice teased ruthlessly. That was when Harry saw it, a book on the sixth row moving of its own accord. In one leap he was up and had seized it.
"Aha, more clever then you look- unsurprising with that face not even a mother could love."
Harry began to shake the book violently. "You...Can't," the books pages flapped limply, "Choke...Me...I don't..breathe.." Harry had slammed the book shut and it hissed at him. Behind him Harry heard a snort.
Tom was leaning against the book shelf smirking. Harry stopped throttling the book and it hung innocently in his hands.
"How long have you been standing there?" Harry asked, feeling idiotic for the lapse of patience.
"Long enough to know that apparently even your mother doesn't love your face."
Harry thrust the book back on the shelf and returned to his seat.
"Id be doing this school a service if I left that book out in the next rainstorm."
The book on the shelf quivered.
Tom smirked in a sharp toothed sort of way. "I don't doubt that."
He walked past Harry toward the shelf that Harry now recognized as the restricted section. That probably accounted for why his section of the library had been so deserted.
Tom scanned the section as Harry watched and deftly swapped the book in his hand for another.
Harry glanced down at his textbook picture of a silver patronus. "What brings you here?"
Tom smiled softly. "Research."
Harry believed this entirely. "I've been flipping through the Defense against the Dark Arts book."
Tom sat down opposite of him, eyeing him strangely, his expression calm but unreadable.
"Surely you don't need to. After your last lesson with professor Marvel I would have thought you'd have mastered the spells in that book."
Harry flipped though and read the index surprised to find that Tom had a bit of a point.
He truly had. Between The DA and his classes and his multiple experiences actually fighting the Dark Arts he had indeed learned almost every spell in the book. "Well, yeah actually"
Tom scoffed in shared sardonic understanding.
"Though I suppose its not a very challenging book," He paused for a moment and gave Harry a very strange look, almost as though weighing an idea. "I'll give you something better when we get back to the common room."
By better, Harry knew that he probably meant more dangerous and less school sanctioned but he didn't decline. Instead he just nodded. He wanted to ask Tom about the Chamber of Secrets, to ask Tom what it was that consumed his thoughts during the day when he completed his schoolwork with such ease it border lined boredom.
"So did you come here to research anyway?" Harry asked, shutting his book.
"School work really," Tom smiled convincingly, "extra curricular."
"Fun."
Tom sat down looking preoccupied but smiling that way that suggested the forbidden. For a second he seemed about to say something when a tall dark haired boy with a pointed nose, small beady eyes and flyaway eyebrows who looked about fifteen came crashing loudly into their section of the library, he came up short before their table.
"Hello!"
Harry and Tom turned to look at the boy.
"Hello?" Tom answered in return, looking genial but somehow far less interested.
"Hi. I've been sent to find Harry Potter."
Tom smirked. Harry leaned around him, "I'm Harry."
"Professor Dumbledore sent me to you with this," The boy stepped forward with a book.
Harry took it from him surprised. "Oh, yeah, tell him thanks."
The boy nodded and took off again quickly.
Tom gave him an amused look and glanced at the book, one eyebrow raised. If his expression had been unreadable before it was only more confusing now.
"Looks like Dumbledore has found himself a favorite."
Harry clucked his tongue. "I'm not his favorite, he barely even knows me."
"Yes but he gets other students to wait on you during dinner." Harry gave him a look and opened the book. It was brand new and still glossy.
Tom looked from him to the book. "Brand new too, how entirely expected,"
More to change the subject then satisfy a curiosity Harry pointed after the boy who had just left. "Who was he?"
"Terrence Flint," he answered, disinterested.
Several moments of flipping through his new textbook later they were informed by the library, a tall and freakishly strong looking woman with a thin grey wig, that it was closing time.
Harry was thankful he had Tom to lead the way through the darkening dungeons.
Once through the portrait hole however Tom made his way over to a nervous looking seventh year who had beckoned to him immediately upon entering the room. Harry walked to the dormitories.
He didn't bother changing into the pajamas that the house elves had left him. He fell asleep easily on top of the blankets and covers. A few hours later he awoke again, and after a few moments of lying their listening to the snores of the strangers in his common room, he decided to get up.
Cursing silently at the new sleep disorder his stress seemed to be giving him, he got up and plodded toward the common room, feeling each step of the stairs as he went down to keep from falling. The couches and assorted chairs were all deserted and Harry went closer to the blazing embers left from the fire earlier in the day. He sunk into a dark green armchair and gazed, transfixed, hypnotized into the fiery coals. Here where he could feel the heat against his skin he was tempted to doze off again. A noise behind him alerted him to the presence of another Slytherin.
Harry looked over the back of his armchair, his eyes half shut with tiredness. Tom had just entered the room, and let the portrait hole fall shut a bit harder behind him than he had intended. He winced and then he caught sight of Harry. When his gaze met Harry's, Harry thought he could see a tinge remorse for having startled him. Harry had yet to see this; he supposed it was the surprise of his sudden presence. He hadn't had time to prepare for this.
"Hello," Harry mumbled sleepily, turning back towards the fire. He was almost amazed at how little the thought of Tom being out prowling at night disturbed him. He missed the normalcy of being in Gryffindor.
Tom had regained his old composition.
"What are you doing up so late Harry?"
"I woke up." Harry returned simply. "Where have you been?"
"Prefects rounds."
Harry smiled, perhaps more confidently than he might have If he had been more alert. "At four in the morning?"
Tom raised a surprised eyebrow, amused by the challenge. "Where else
do you propose I was?"
"I'm thinking somewhere the staff would be amazed to know existed."
Tom smirked, sinking into the seat next to him. "Wouldn't that be interesting."
Harry leaned his head back against his armchair. "A secret passage way, the room of requirement? We talked about the chamber of secrets when I first met you for all I know you were there."
Tom wasn't smiling now, in fact there was something craven and bitter about his speech. "If I did know where it was I'm sure that would have made for a more interesting evening."
"You really don't know?" Harry asked.
"Of course not. Great wizards have been searching for it for centuries. What makes you think I would know so much about it?" There was a definite not of steely curiosity about his tone.
Harry was careful to keeps his eyes on the fire and far from Toms face. "It was created by Slytherin himself wasn't it. I'd think you of all people would go looking for it. You're certainly clever."
Tom was silent for a moment. "Why so curious about the chamber Harry, what do you know of it?"
"More than you of course," Harry teased, hoping to defuse the tension the conversation was beginning to build. Of course he, Harry, did know where the chamber was. Exactly where it was and how to get into it. The question was, had Tom yet discovered it. Tom gave him a disbelieving look, the glint in his eyes shining maliciously. It usually did when it came to the subject of the Chamber of Secrets. "Enlighten me Harry."
Harry restrained himself. If he ever wanted to go home he had to witness a secret. The more he helped tom along, perhaps the faster he might come to it. He had his limits however. He wasn't like Tom. He was good, and kind. Then again, if this world he was in was little more than a memory and nothing he did would be retained by history he was in a powerful position to manipulate.
Harry laughed off the comment and then thinking the better of it paused wondering how exactly he was to do this.
"Snakes," Harry started.
Tom calm eyes were suddenly fixed on Harry. He could see it out of the corner of his eye.
"What of them?"
"Slytherin could speak to them." Tom had a kind of half thought transforming on his face.
"Some wizards can too, and Id imagine they would have been sorted into Slytherin's
house. Can you speak to snakes?"
Tom was watching him now as he had never done. "If I could?" he asked and it was clear he was inferring that the answer was yes. It was perhaps the first piece of something Tom had revealed to him, however cloaked that was personal. There was almost a loyalty in it and the result was powerful.
Harry smiled. "It isn't a very common skill, is it?" Tom was still watching him. "It's one we share."
There was surprise and incomprehension in Toms eyes. He looked at Harry for a minute more before hissing, "Prove it."
Harry and Tom faced each other now and when Harry opened his mouth, doing his best to imagine that Tom was a large snake, which was easier to accomplish than Harry would have guessed it came out in a hiss. To anyone else it might have been a strange and disconcerting noise but to Tom it was a sentence.
His expression was un fathomable. "We have much, much more in common than it would seem Harry Potter."
Harry nodded, still horribly aware of himself, of giving too much away. "I was thinking, if you want to find something forgotten and hidden to wizards, why not ask the only race Salazar might have confided in."
Tom leaned forward and placed a book on the table next to him, the book he had promised to give him earlier in the library. Their eyes met for one brief moment. "We aren't done discussing this. You and I have business together Potter."
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Thank you to everybody who has reviewed, it really makes me happy and spurs updates! Don't worry about Harry's moral compass. He may flit in some gray areas throughout this story but I promise not to make him into the next Suromon! Next chapter I may add the first chamber scare! Thanks so much for reading and as always send me any questions and comments! Q's and C's are my favorites!
