A/N I tried to fix all the mistakes I could find. I was super tired when I published this chapter last night, but I really wanted to get it out then, rather than just now. So hopefully it reads easier this time.

Tom pushed Susanna aside, and it was only by luck that she didn't topple over backwards, even though she was already unbalanced. She sniffled, and blinked a few times. She turned to look in the direction that he was staring so intently towards, but she didn't see anything. She turned back to him. "Tom…?"

He ignored the girl, and began to walk as quickly as he could, in the same direction as whatever Slytherin had caught him hugging a mudblood. There would be no way for him to bull shit his way out of that one.

But rather than taking one of the secret passageways that he knew so well, in order to catch the person before they could get back to Slytherin house and report his behavior to Sirius, Tom hurried to the library. He peered in, and saw that there unsurprisingly wasn't anyone around other than the librarian. No one wanted to be stuck inside on such a nice day.

Tom contemplated, just for a moment, simply asking the man to corroborate his story, and tell anyone who might be interested that he had been in the library since the end of class. But there was always the possibility that the man would refuse, and then Tom would be at the disadvantage of not having surprise on his side.

Instead, he waited a few minutes, until the older man turned a page in the book that his eyes were practically glued to. Tom would have to figure out the title and borrow it sometime, since it was clearly riveting, but he had other things on his mind at the moment. He leaped forward, his wand extended, and silently laid three of his favorite curses on the professor simultaneously.

Normally the teachers at Hogwarts were trained and fully prepared to defend themselves against attackers, but Tom had caught the man off guard, and besides, Tom was obviously one of the most powerful wizards in the school, including the teachers. It wasn't his fault that they were so weak.

The teacher's head slumped forward a little bit as the spells took effect, but a few minutes later, he sat back up, and his eyes returned to the book he was enamored with. Tom chuckled to himself. He went and grabbed a random book off of a shelf, and sat down at one of the tables. He opened the book to a page that was a few chapters in, to make it look like he had been reading it.

A few minutes later, somebody entered the library, and Tom had to force himself not to look up in anticipation of who was coming. If he did, that would be as good as just admitting his guilt, which was something that his pride would never allow, even if he didn't mind hanging out with…

Son of a gun, she was walking over to him, her hands balled into fists at her sides, and a determined look on her face. Susanna easily spotted Tom, since he was the only student currently residing in the library, and he gulped at the hard look on her face. She stopped next to his table and took a deep breath, presumably to calm her nerves.

She sighed. "Alright, this time I did knowingly search you out. But that's only because you're being a complete jackass about everything, and I think I know why. Your friend, when he walked in on us before, he didn't just look annoyed or mad. He looked disgusted. Disgusted that you would ever hang out with a filthy mudblood like me, right?" Tom opened his mouth to defend himself, but Susanna barreled on like he wasn't even there. She yanked up the bottom of her shirt to reveal the scar, which would definitely be a permanent mark on her body, thanks to Tom's healing spell. "You know, your friend has a very distinctive voice. Nothing that I could prove for sure, but I've spent all day wondering why it sent shivers down my back when I first heard it in the dining hall. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I know better than most people why you should never assume that someone is guilty by association. But I can't do this anymore. Whatever it is that's between us, if there even was anything, I officially declare it over. And I know that in the end, you probably don't even care, but it's what needs to be said. I have no idea what sick games you and your friends are into, but I do know for sure that I want absolutely no part in any of it. Do you understand?"

Susanna turned to storm away, and Tom didn't bother trying to stop her. There wasn't much he could say in the way of a defense, and besides, she deserved to not be in the company of someone who had done nothing but lie to her, and whose friends had attacked her. But as he watched, he noticed the obvious hesitation as she grabbed one of the door handles. Tom realized that she was waiting for him to hurry over and defend himself.

He was tempted, but at the same time, he knew that his Slytherin groupies would be approaching any minute, and he didn't want to be caught trying to play nice with a mudblood. It would be for the best for her to stay away from him. She was completely ruining Tom for someone that had only known him for a few days.

Susanna huffed in irritation, and hurried out of the library. Tom relaxed back into his chair, and skimmed the boring pages of the book that he had grabbed blindly. It was only too easy to slip back into the facade of being the perfect student and role model, and the one that the other boys looked up to as they planned on completely ridding the world of those nasty pests, otherwise known as mudbloods.

Almost an entire hour passed before Sirius made his way into the library. He looked around with his nose in the air, like he thought he would catch some kind of incurable disease from stepping anywhere near the books. For a brief moment, Tom considered casually diving under the table and hiding, from his own best friend.

But Tom was not a coward, no matter what anyone else said, and no matter what else he was. That was one trait that he found to be intolerable. Sirius spotted Tom quickly, though there were a couple more students now than before, and he hurried over. He dropped down into the seat across from Tom, and crossed his arms over his chest, a grim smile on his face.

His voice came out soft and even, much more controlled than Tom would have expected from his friend. "Listen, Tom, we need to have a talk." He lowered his voice and leaned forward, closer to Tom. "Whatever's going on between you and that mudblood is getting out of hand. And don't even try to deny it. I knew as soon as I saw you two together that, for some reason, you find yourself attracted to someone who is so utterly beneath you. And for the life of me, I just can't fathom that. But that's just me. To be honest, I found the whole idea to be rather amusing. But now it's not just me who sees what you have with that… girl. Do you want to know who saw you hugging her in the middle of the hallway like you didn't care who would see?"

Tom shrugged, carefully keeping a playful grin on his face, even though he felt rather miserable inside. "Please, do share with the rest of the class."

Sirius frowned. "It was Avery. And you know that the kid can't keep his mouth shut, even if you offered to pay him a hundred galleons. He was in a very excited state when he burst into the common room, blabbing on and on about your dirty little secret."

Tom raised one eyebrow. "Hey, you did the same thing, didn't you? You tried to tell everyone that I have a thing going on with Su-... with a mudblood. And you know that that would never happen."

Sirius sighed and leaned back, rubbing his face tiredly. "Tom, don't you understand that you have an obligation to lead us? You are the one who stepped up and claimed to have found a way to get rid of the inferior race for good, but instead you're out fraternizing with someone who is worth less than shit."

Tom suddenly stood up, and dropped the book he had been pretending to read. It dropped with a thud onto the table, and Tom glowered at his friend. His voice came out as a soft hiss, scarier than Nagini's voice. "Now you listen here. The mudblood that you're referring to does in fact have a name, and it's Susanna. I would appreciate it greatly if you start referring to her as such. She's proven her courage more times than I can count in just the short time that I've known her, and it was definitely more often than you. She is good and honest and brave and doesn't deserve such crap from you. That girl is twice the person that you'll ever be. Do you understand?"

Sirius looked unfazed by the soft outburst. Being Tom's friend had never been easy, it had been a job filled with many ups and downs. Sirius stood up abruptly, and Tom felt a quick jolt of satisfaction that he was able to tower over his friend by at least a few inches. Sirius frowned. "I don't know what's wrong with you. I mean, I understand the appeal from a strictly aesthetic point of view, but beyond that, she's just filth, but I don't think that I've ever realized before how much a boner can affect your decisions. Maybe we just need to get you someone to occupy your time with. A nice distraction, perhaps?"

Tom didn't even consider it for a second. He already knew that he would never want to take off his clothes for any random old pureblood that happened to wander into his life, or get forced there by his overzealous friend.

"Sirius, I suggest that you leave now. Head back to the Slytherin common room, or the dorms, or somewhere else that you feel nice and comfortable in." His voice lowered to a growl. "Because if you keep talking that way, I'll want to know that you at least got a nice last look at the view. And then I'll kill you."

Sirius's eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't quite realized before the extent of Tom's aggressiveness, at least not when it came to some mudblood girl. There was a part of Sirius that knew Tom was just exaggerating, because Tom would never hurt his own friend. But there was another part of him that was scared. Afraid to keep talking for fear of the consequences.

Tom decided that rather than force Sirius to leave, after all of the effort that it must have taken for the older boy to enter the room that he considered taboo, it would be left up to him to be responsible for who was going to stay and who was supposed to go. He was all set to go, but Sirius called out to stop him, despite his misgivings.

"Tom, wait!"

Tom turned around, his hands on his hips, and one eyebrow raised. "Is there something that you needed? Or are you just planning on yelling at me for a little while, and then going after Susanna like she deserves whatever punishment you feel fit to give her, simply because of the way that she was born?"

Sirius shrugged awkwardly. "I don't know. I mean, I want you to be happy, but I also know that you can't be happy with her in the long run. Not when she's just a mudblood."

Tom frowned. "Oh, did I forget to mention it? Silly me. Well, anyways, there's something that you should probably get a chance to know about my 'new girlfriend' sooner rather than later. Like the fact that I'm almost one hundred percent certain that she is the one and only heir of Ravenclaw?"

Sirius scoffed, but he had a serious look on his face. He couldn't just ignore something like that, as much as he desperately wanted to. He gulped. "So if your ability to talk to snakes, and eventually open Slytherin's chamber, comes from you being Slytherin's heir, then what gifts does Susanna get for being Ravenclaw's heir?"

Tom shrugged. "Well, for one thing, she has the lost diadem in her possession. You know, the one that nobody has seen since Helena Ravenclaw's daughter ran off with it in hopes of gaining knowledge and power from it. Clearly it was a wasted attempt on her, since no one would ever be dumb enough to steal from someone so powerful just for a small trinket. Well, that just happens to belong to one Susanna, a mudblood. Apparently it's been passed down through the generations, and none of her muggle ancestors ever figured out what they held in their sticky grips."

Sirius didn't look any happier about the situation. "You said that you're almost certain. I just don't think that you can make any of the decisions regarding us and our mission without knowing for sure. You should wait for the results before doing anything. Otherwise she could just turn out to be an imposter, or someone who really likes picking up random lost crowns that they find."

Tom didn't seem interested in giving his friend a response, so instead he turned and left. There would be time to talk to his other friends, and force them to see reason. But for now, this conversation was over.