The process of inventing a new identity took way too much time and effort for Blaise. He had to argue with Geddes on almost every point, and the man refused to listen to him almost as often. In the end, he became Blaise Marsden, a half blood who home schooled for his first six years, but had to enroll at Hogwarts for his seventh year due to his mother's death. Thankfully for Blaise's sanity, Geddes didn't require him to help with forming all the paperwork validating the existence of Blaise Marsden. If anyone felt the need to check birth records, death certificates, or past exam grades, they would find seemingly official records for Blaise Marsden and his equally fake family.

During the process, Geddes held Blaise captive in his house claiming he couldn't associate with the outside world until Geddes finished putting his identity together. Blaise looked forward to leaving the house and living on his own, but Geddes put a damper in that dream when he informed Blaise that he had to continue cohabitating with Geddes until he went to school. To say that Blaise was irritated when he found out would be an understatement. He made his arguments almost robotically, knowing by that point that Geddes had already made up his mind.

The good news was that Geddes was extremely busy as an unspeakable, and Blaise hardly ever had to encounter him. Another plus was that Geddes stopped addressing him by his full name since he acquired his new identity. Blaise didn't know why getting called Blaise Zabini every time annoyed him so much, but he didn't care to dwell on the matter. As long as it was over, that was all Blaise needed to know.

On Blaise's first day of 1944 Hogwarts, Geddes told him to go to the headmaster's office long before the rest of the school arrived. As Blaise sat in the chair in front of the past headmaster's desk, he surveyed the room. The furnishing wasn't near as eccentric as when Dumbledore was headmaster. Rather, it quite aligned with Blaise's preferences. At least Professor Dippet had good taste even if he was a blithering idiot as Blaise found out within his first couple of minutes in the headmaster's presence.

"Oh, but I'm sure you want to find out what house you're in," the headmaster finally said after wasting Blaise's time with babbling. "Let me go get the hat." Blaise watched silently as the grizzly old man fetched the hat and returned. He held out the hat to Blaise. "You're a quiet boy, aren't you?"

In lieu of answering, Blaise snatched the hat and jammed it onto his head wondering how the hat would take ending up on the head of a time traveler past his school years. "I've seen the like," the hat said in response to Blaise's thoughts. "I sorted a similar student around 600 years ago though he was actually the appropriate age to be in school."

Blaise would have pointed out that posing as a school child was not his choice, but he would not deign to explain himself to a ratty hat. "You explain yourself to me just by thinking," the hat told him with amusement.

Just sort me already, Blaise thought in annoyance. The sorting hadn't taken nearly as long the first time around.

"Well, last time around you were a bratty eleven year old without an interesting enough mind to delve into. Now, you're at least a bratty nineteen year old with a more than one-dimensional ambition."

Bratty? If there were one word that Blaise had never heard applied to himself, it was bratty. Bratty had to be one of the most undignified adjectives in existence, and he had never felt more offended, he was sure.

"It's your own fault. As a hat, I don't have a personality of my own. I only form a personality from the people whose heads I rest upon. My complete condescension is brought upon by your own."

That was actually a rather fascinating revelation. Blaise wished he could have access to the hat later on to run some tests and figure out how it works. Blaise wondered why the hat was given the ability to form a personality at all or why it even needed to speak to those it sorted? Surely, it could function just as well in silence.

"You would prefer that, I suppose," the hat said in response to Blaise's musings. "but my talking helps to evoke your most relevant traits. For example, you just brushed upon why I'm hesitant to sort you back into Slytherin. You still have that burning ambition, the cunning mind, and the preservation of self beyond all else, but you also have that deep yearning for knowledge. What is your ambition, but to seek knowledge? You want to know the unknown, a markedly Ravenclaw trait."

Blaise frowned contemplatively. Logically, he could benefit from joining Ravenclaw rather than Slytherin. People made judgments based on houses and he could easily get used to people not immediately turning suspicious of his motivations. Yes, he could build up a more innocent reputation in Ravenclaw.

"Then it's confirmed," the hat announced. "You couldn't possibly belong anywhere but SLYTHERIN!"

"A fine house indeed," Dippet congratulated as he took back the sorting hat and returned it to its original location. Blaise resisted the urge to glare at the now inanimate object. "One of my best students is a Slytherin, in fact, he is the current head boy. During the sorting feast, look for Tom Riddle. He is always willing to help out first years, and I'm sure he'll be the same with newly enrolled seventh years."

Blaise blanched. Why hadn't he considered the possibility? He hadn't known the exact years Voldemort had attended Hogwarts but he knew the basic time period. First carelessly taking a time turner and now this. Blaise would have to get his head checked for brain damage to explain his recent bumblings. "Tom Riddle?" he repeated.

"Yes." The headmaster nodded completely oblivious to Blaise's inner turmoil.

"I need to contact my uncle. Immediately," Blaise said. There was no way he was going to attend Hogwarts with a young Voldemort. Geddes would listen to him this time.

"A bit of first day nerves?" Dippet asked kindly. Blaise felt offended that Dippet would think him so weak, but he nodded regardless. In this situation and only this situation, he could stand to let his pride take a hit. "Don't worry, Blaise. I know you're used to an environment where you're the only student and the teacher is someone you know, but you'll come to find that friends are plentiful and the teachers are available for any help you might require."

Blaise nodded stiffly as he inwardly scoffed at the idea of making friends or requiring help. He would send a letter via owl as soon as possible. He was sure he could survive sharing a dorm with Voldemort for one night. After all, it wasn't like he went around killing other students during his tenure at Hogwarts. He never could have lasted as long if that was the case.

Dippet accompanied Blaise to the Great Hall much to Blaise's displeasure. He didn't care for the nattering of the old man. Blaise was glad to part ways and head to the empty Slytherin table as they waited for the rest of the students to arrive. The students started to pour in, and Blaise tried to radiate an overt standoffish demeanor so that nobody would try to interact with him. It worked for approximately ten seconds.

As Blaise stared determinedly at the wall straight ahead of him, a thin attractive girl sat directly in front of him. "I haven't seen you before," the girl stated bluntly. Blaise resigned himself to a forced conversation with the girl. It wouldn't do to brush her off and make an enemy of someone that could have connections.

"I've just started at Hogwarts. My mother taught me before."

The girl smirked. "How sweet." Blaise bristled. He didn't need some insignificant girl mocking him about his made up backstory.

"My name is Blaise Marsden," Blaise continued politely.

"Charmed," the girl said. "I'm Lucretia Black."

"A wonderful and well established wizarding family," Blaise said with a slight nod of acknowledgment.

"So I've heard," Lucretia said drily. "Tell me, Blaise Marsden, how pure is your blood?"

"I'm a pureblood, obviously," Blaise said. If Lucretia cared to check, she would find out his supposed parents consisted of a mudblood and a halfblood, but it was unlikely that Lucretia had any investment in finding out Blaise's heritage.

"Obviously," Lucretia repeated mockingly. "It's strange how every single person that ends up in Slytherin is a pureblood, don't you think? You'd think at least one halfblood or mudblood would fit the bill."

Blaise lifted up the corners of his mouth in a slight smile. It was well known that those Slytherins of lesser blood lied about their heritage though it was not usually known which Slytherins lied. "I can't say I know much about the matter. I come from a long line of Ravenclaws."

"Were your parents disappointed at your deviation?"

"They're dead," Blaise said without any cushioning. He didn't feel like pretending to be devastated over the death of parents he never had.

"Then I suppose it's rather hard to disappoint them," Lucretia said. Blaise chuckled lightly. If they were talking about his real mother he might have taken offense to Lucretia's insensitivity, but it didn't bother him for her to talk flippantly about his fake parents. Lucretia gave up on conversation once the festivities started for which Blaise was grateful. The girl certainly provided better company than the people he'd spent time around since his trip to the past, but he didn't have any interest in befriending her either. Besides, he had other matters to occupy his mind.

Blaise realized he would have to associate himself with Lucretia again once the ceremony ended. He wasn't supposed to know his way around the castle, and he desperately needed to get ahold of an owl. He couldn't risk someone observing him acting as if he was familiar with the layout. "Can you show me to the owlery?" Blaise whispered to Lucretia as he flanked her on the way out of the Great Hall.

"Certainly," Lucretia whispered back in jest. Louder, she said, "What do you need to go to the owlery for on the first day of school?"

Blaise brushed her off. "It's a personal matter."

"Fair enough."

The rest of the way, Blaise appropriately matched Lucretia's chatter wishing all the while that she would hurry up. Blaise successfully sent off a letter telling Geddes he urgently needed to speak with him but leaving out the details. He couldn't risk giving too much away in case the letter got intercepted. After sending the letter, Blaise had Lucretia lead him back to the dorm that he already knew the location of.

The next day at breakfast, Blaise received a terse reply from Geddes reading, "Next Hogsmeade trip." Crumpling the letter in his fist, Blaise stood up. He thought he'd made it clear how urgent the matter was. He had another letter to send.