Friday 2nd October 1942
Harry dropped his Potions book on the desk with a bang, collapsing heavily onto the nearest stall to watch the rest of his sixth year Potions' class amble into the dungeon. Slughorn stood at the front, beaming at all who entered as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. Despite Slughorn's blatant favouritism toward anyone rich, famous or talented, Harry would have to admit that he preferred this Potions professor to Snape (though that wasn't saying a lot, he would probably prefer a troll to Snape). Harry suddenly shuddered as a horrible thought struck him. Imagine if he'd been sent back to 1942 and Snape had been his head of house...
He probably would've ran away from Hogwarts the first chance he got.
"Mind if I sit here?" A polite (and irritatingly familiar) voice asked, waking Harry from his musings.
"Yes," Harry said blankly, staring up at the blackboard at the front of the dungeon. "Though I expect you'll sit there anyway, whatever I say."
Riddle laughed quietly as he did, indeed, take the stool next to Harry. "I don't know why you'd refuse," he said, laying his Potions equipment on their desk. "Anyone else in here would love to have me as their partner."
Harry continued staring straight ahead, leaning his chin on his hand and refusing to so much as glance at the Slytherin next to him. "Then why don't you go and make some poor girl's day?" He suggested, bitterly hoping Riddle would get up and move.
"Because that would be boring," Riddle said, raising an eyebrow.
Luckily for Riddle, Slughorn chose that moment to begin the lesson, halting Harry in his plans to shove the git off his stool. It was just after Slughorn said, "today you'll be attempting to brew Amortentia with the person sitting next to you," that Harry truly realised that the world was out to get him.
Creating a love potion with Riddle? This had to be a new 1942 low.
"Can you go and fetch the ingredients?" Riddle asked absently, flicking his book to the correct page after Slughorn had told them to begin.
"Yes, sir," Harry muttered under his breath, although he was secretly glad for an excuse to get away from the future dark lord, even if it was only for two minutes. "Help me," Harry whispered to Ralph Timby, his usual Potions partner, as he grabbed a handful of Ashwinder eggs from the student supply cupboard.
"Why?" Ralph replied, glancing over at Riddle in amusement. "Riddle's brilliant at Potions, Slughorn'll probably give you full marks. It's me who needs help, I'm stuck with Olivia." He nodded his head back at a Ravenclaw girl already fervently stirring their cauldron. "She believes she's some kind of mad scientist or something, I'll be lucky if I manage to get to lunch in one piece."
And he left Harry to walk back to Riddle in annoyance, half wishing he could get blown up if it meant he'd get to skip class.
"Thank you," Riddle said as Harry dumped the mixture of ingredients unceremoniously on the desk.
Harry didn't reply, sitting back down on his stool to watch as Riddle began chopping up their rose thorns, seemingly content to do everything by himself.
"You shouldn't sit down," Riddle said a moment later, tipping the chopped thorns into the cauldron and stirring anticlockwise. "If the potion was to go wrong and overflow you wouldn't be able to jump out of the way in time."
Harry stayed seated, shrugging. "You're the one who's always going on about how great you are, I'm sure you won't make a fatal mistake."
Riddle leaned forward to read the next instruction. "You never know, Ashwinder eggs react particularly fiercely with water," he said, smirking at him. "And we wouldn't want anything to happen to you now, would we?"
"Course not," Harry said, frowning down at the desk before an idea caught hold in his mind. "Though, you know what, Riddle? You're right." Harry stood, tucking his stool under the desk. "Just because you won't make a mistake, doesn't mean no one else will. Besides, I shouldn't leave you to do all of the work by yourself, we are meant to be partners, after all."
Picking up the silver knife, Harry grabbed the second half of the rose thorns and begun roughly chopping them up into all different shapes and sizes. "Harold, stop," Riddle said a moment later, his tone coloured with annoyance. "If you add those you're going to ruin our potion."
Harry smiled innocently, continuing his mutilating. "You were the one who wanted to partner with me," he said, satisfied that he'd finally discovered something that irked Riddle. Clearly the child prodigy had never failed a class before.
"Harold," Riddle half growled, attempting to wrestle the knife from him. "Stop it."
Harry let Riddle take the knife, instead pointing his wand at their cauldron from under the desk, prepared to do some quality damage, but before he had a chance, he felt the tip of Riddle's wand press into the small of his back, causing him to freeze. "Harold," Riddle hissed, making sure that none of the other students could hear them from their position right at the back of the class. "I've never failed a potions class before and I don't intend to start now, so stop or I swear to Merlin I'll- Hello professor."
In an instant, the unusable rose thorns on their table silently vanished and Riddle took a step away from Harry, smiling like any other normal student.
"Hello boys," Slughorn said, beaming happily. "What a pleasure it is to see my two favourite students working together!"
Favourite student? When had that happened? Oh, the duelling club. Harry had almost managed to forget that particular incident when he'd blasted a hole in the great hall... "It was bound to happen at some point," Harry said, meaning every single word.
"Well I'm expecting something astounding," Slughorn said, peering into their cauldron and smiling as he saw the perfect start to the potion Harry had so far been unable to ruin. "Harold, I can tell you're a natural, Mr Turdy's marks have practically doubled since you started partnering with him!"
Harry frowned, perplexed, then his expression cleared. "Oh, you mean Timby?"
"Yes, him," Slughorn said absently, peering at their ingredients. "You seem to be missing half of your rose thorns," he pointed out. "You haven't put them in already, have you?"
"No, professor," Riddle said quickly. "Harold simply didn't get enough, in fact, he was just about to go and fetch some more." Riddle's azure eyes narrowed menacingly in Harry's direction, an action that was missed by an utterly oblivious Slughorn.
"Good, good," their professor said. "That reminds me, I hope to see you both at my little get together this evening. Just dinner with a couple of my best students."
Harry's stomach dropped. "Um, I'm not sure I'll be able to make it, professor," he immediately lied. "See, I have a load of work I need to do and-"
"Nonsense," Slughorn cut him off, waving a hand. "You're a bright young man, I'm sure you'll be able to take one night off."
Riddle smiled at him in what was clearly meant to be an encouraging way. "You should definitely come, Harold," he said. "Lycoris, Alphard, Marius and Abraxas will all be present too."
Yay, an Inner Circle field trip. Didn't that sound fun? "Oh, I don't-"
"My office at seven," Slughorn said, deaf to Harry's protests. "I'll see you both there."
Once Slughorn was a safe distance away, Harry groaned, glaring at Riddle. "Thanks a lot," he spat.
"It was nothing," Riddle smirked, running a hand through his dark hair and turning back to their potion. "Now please stop trying to fail us."
Of course, Harry would have continued with his plan - and probably would have succeeded - had the potion Ralph and the Ravenclaw girl were brewing not exploded, showering the whole class in sticky, orange gunk. The lesson finished early as the sixth year Potions students all traipsed up to the Hospital Wing lest the substance have any undesired effects. Although, on the plus side, that was the last time Riddle attempted to be Harry's potions partner for a long time.
It was at roughly six thirty that evening that Harry found himself alone in his dorm, searching frantically through his trunk for a nice set of dress robes to wear to the Slug Club. Originally, he'd been planning on simply rocking up in his uniform, but when he'd overheard Abraxas drawling on about the 30-something Gallon robes he'd be wearing, Harry had panicked. Unfortunately, the only thing he'd found so far was a brilliant magenta robe embedded with golden stars... thanks a lot Dumbledore's fashion sense, he'd rather go naked.
"Harold?" The call was accompanied by a soft knock on the mahogany door.
"Hi," Harry said, smiling at Silas Yaxley as the fifth year entered.
Yaxley glanced around their dorm, taking in everything from Alphard's 'organised' mess to Lycoris' stack of reading material on his bedside table to Tom's neatly arranged belongings. "Huh, this looks exactly like our dorm," he remarked.
Harry returned to rummaging through his trunk. "You thought it wouldn't?" He questioned.
"It's just," Yaxley said, glancing around again. "This is their dorm, isn't it? I always thought it would be more, um, impressive."
"Oh, right," Harry said, grinning as he spotted a promising plain black robe. "Reckon I could wear this," he asked, holding it up for Yaxley to see.
"What for?" Yaxley said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the stone wall, his critic of the famous Riddle dorm finished.
"Slughorn's dinner party thing," Harry shrugged.
Yaxley's mouth dropped open. "You've been invited," he gaped. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything but how the hell did you manage that?"
"No idea," Harry said, determined not to remind Yaxley (or indeed anyone) of the disastrous duelling club incident. "Are you going?"
Yaxley shook his head, an expression of awe plastered on his face. "Certainly not. Hardly anyone gets invited, maybe about twelve from the whole school."
Harry raised his eyebrows sceptically. "And five of them just so happen to be Tom and his gang?"
"Obviously," Yaxley said with a frown. "Tom practically started the Slug Club back in my first year, I mean, he first presented the idea to Slughorn. It managed to put him on a level playing field with the older, pureblood Slytherins. Getting invited was – is – a massive achievement, and since Tom, as well as the entirety of his 'gang' as you called them, were attending every single meeting, he started to build a reputation and things kind of went from there."
"Huh," Harry said. "That's actually really clever."
"You thought Tom was an idiot?" Yaxley said, though his smirk contained no humour.
"Evidently not," Harry replied, before holding up the robe once more. "So, what do you think?"
"It's fine," Yaxley said with a small shrug. "The more prestigious Purebloods such as Malfoy, Black and Greengrass will go on and on about expensive robes but in all honesty, apart from brand names, there's almost no difference, most Slytherins wear dress robes exactly like those."
"Thanks," Harry smiled, throwing the robe on top of his emerald bed covers and beginning to stuff his trunk with all of the borrowed belongings he'd strewn about as he was rummaging.
A second later the mahogany door swung open again though this time it was Abraxas and Alphard who entered, already donned in their expensive dress robes. "-which is exactly why Sleekeazy is a million times more productive than Sculpting gel-" Abraxas was saying, sending a brief nod in Harry's direction before he pulled up short, spotting Yaxley standing awkwardly by the door. "What are you doing in here?" He asked, his lip curling.
"He was just talking to me," Harry said, frowning slightly at Abraxas's attitude.
"It's fine," Yaxley said, pushing off from the wall. "I should go. Um, have fun tonight..."
Alphard waited until Yaxley had gone, then rounded on Harry. "Why are you suddenly spending so much time with Yaxley?" He questioned, folding his arms over his chest.
"I met him in the Library the other day and we started talking," Harry replied as nonchalantly as he could, sticking firmly to the story he, Yaxley and Rosier had agreed on. "I didn't realise it was a problem."
Alphard and Abraxas exchanged a look. "It's not," Abraxas said a beat later. "It's just, we don't make a habit of inviting others into our dormitory, Tom prefers privacy."
"Well that's great for Tom," Harry said, turning his back on the two inner circle members and slamming his trunk closed.
"Look, Harold," Abraxas said. "We're sorry if we're coming across in a rude manner. We're used to having a specific way of doing things, but since you've shown up, all of our systems have been thrown off. I'm positive it'll get back to normal soon enough."
"Whatever," Harry said, turning back around, aiming to leave the dorm, then he paused. Rosier and Yaxley wanted him to buddy up with Riddle's gang? He may as well start making an effort. "I'm going to go to the bathroom quickly but how about we all walk up to Slughorn's dinner party together? After all, this castle's pretty big and I still don't quite know my way around, I'd probably end up in the north tower or something if I tried to get there by myself."
Abraxas smiled, though Harry got the impression that it was a little unsure. "Of course, but don't worry, you'll start finding your way around in no time at all. Unless you're Alphard," Abraxas smirked at his friend. "He too would end up in the north tower while trying to get to a Potions office."
"Hey!" Alphard exclaimed, while Harry laughed, hoping it didn't sound too forced.
"Well, thanks," Harry said, grabbing the robe from his bed and leaving the dorm, heading for the bathroom on the end of the corridor. Since when had laughing become so painful?
Twenty minutes later he met the others in the Slytherin common room, already sick to his stomach and the evening had hardly started. What he hadn't realised (or perhaps he had but had chosen to banish it to the very back of his mind) was that walking with Abraxas and Alphard also meant he had to walk with Lycoris, Marius and, naturally, Riddle. Grudgingly, he did admit to himself that he actually didn't know where Slughorn's office was, so perhaps the guidance was, in this case, needed. Although, on the other hand, he wasn't likely to end up in the north tower either.
When Harry joined them, Riddle raised an eyebrow inquisitively which Harry returned with a sarcastic smile – then remembered he was meant to be trying to be friendly. Oops.
"Glad you took my advice and decided to come," Riddle said, slowing down to walk with Harry at the back of the small group, the common room entrance nosily sliding shut behind them.
"I'd hardly call it advice," Harry frowned. "More like instruction."
Riddle smirked. "When will you start believing that I do these things for your own interest, Harold?"
"As soon as you actually do," Harry smartly replied, causing Riddle to laugh. Clearly the future dark lord was in a good mood this evening. Now, why was that an ominous thought? Come on, Harry, he thought. Act friendlier. He nodded toward Abraxas and Alphard ambling along in front of them. "Are they always arguing about hair care products?" He asked.
"Usually," Riddle said. "It becomes exceedingly tedious."
"I can relate," Harry said, mind springing back to Ron and Hermione's constant bickering. "Although it wasn't about hair products, thank goodness."
Riddle gave him an odd look, though his following question wasn't of a rude nature. "You had friends before you came to Hogwarts?"
"Yes," Harry said defensively, then realised his mistake. The more intricate his fake back story was, the more likely it was that Riddle would find inconsistencies and errors and it would all tumble downhill from there. "Just because I was home tutored, doesn't mean I was a hermit. What about you? Do you have any, um, friends from wherever it is you go during the holidays?"
Riddle's lips pressed tightly together. Oh, oops. Orphanage. Riddle came from an orphanage. "One or two," Riddle replied with an amused smile that caused Harry to greatly pity the poor children who had been forced to spend their childhood growing up with a young, psychopathic wizard experiencing magic for the first time.
Lycoris, who had been in the lead, drew to a halt, politely knocking on a polished wooden door. "Come in," a muffled voice from inside called out, and Lycoris entered, Harry and the others following close behind.
Slughorn's office reminded Harry somewhat of the Slytherin common room. Being located in the dungeons, the wall were made of the same stone and the same emerald and silver velvet decorated a cluster of comfy chairs. Against the back wall there was a huge wooden trophy case lined with pictures of old students and various books as well as several shelves stacked with old, dusty potions.
"Take a seat, take a seat," Slughorn said from his position on a winged armchair at the head of the circle of seats.
As they were the first to arrive, Harry aimed for the chair hidden at the back of the circle, but Riddle's fingers curled around his wrist, half dragging him into the one second from Slughorn's right while Riddle took the one directly to Slughorn's right. There was a split second of confusion during which Abraxas stood in the middle, lost, before Riddle inclined his head towards the seat next to Marius. Abraxas sat, his expression displaying confusion.
Slughorn, of course, noticed nothing, too busy selecting a chocolate truffle from a purple box.
Harry sent Riddle a look that quite clearly said, "what did you do that for?" However Riddle only smiled innocently at him, relaxing into his chair.
The next person to enter the room was a tiny Ravenclaw first year who turned a scary shade of white as she took in the sight of the sixth Slytherin sixth-years. Slughorn smiled encouragingly at her. "Do sit down, Elise," he said and the girl fell into the seat Harry had been aiming for, right at the back of the office.
They were soon joined by five others: a Slytherin fourth year named Skye Greengrass; a seventh-year Hufflepuff with a head girl badge pinned on her chest who was closely followed by a Ravenclaw with a head boy badge; a fifth-year Gryffindor and, to Harry's great surprise, Charlus Potter.
"So, Skye," Slughorn said once they were all seated with a cup of butterbeer in one hand and a plate of the best food the Hogwarts house elves had to offer in the other. "How are your family these days? It's been such a long time since I last saw your parents."
"They're wonderful," Skye said in an elegant voice that only a noble, female pureblood could pull off. "Father recently received a promotion to Senior Undersecretary although he's doubtful it could go much further as Leonard is simply excellent at his job, especially during the current Grindelwald crisis."
Harry zoned out of their chatter as it became too politically involved – he'd never understood, nor cared for the workings of either the ministry nor the ancient pureblood community. Eventually, though, the conversation took a much more welcome turn.
"Charlus," Slughorn said, turning to face Harry's grandfather after interrogating the frantically blushing Ravenclaw first year about her favourite subjects. "Do you have any idea which team you'd like to play for after Hogwarts?"
Harry nearly chocked on his butterbeer as Charlus replied, saying that he'd always be a Puddlemere supporter. "You play Quidditch," Harry managed a moment later.
Charlus grinned. "Gryffindor Quidditch captain, at your service."
"No way," Harry said, putting down his butterbeer and leaning forward. He'd hardly heard the word Quidditch in one and a half weeks and had been beginning to suffer major withdrawal symptoms. "Which position?"
"Chaser," Charlus replied, catching on to Harry's enthusiasm. "How about you? I take it you play."
"Seeker," Harry said, causing Charlus to nod.
"I can see that," he said. "You completely have the build for it. What's your fastest catch time? Two years ago our Gryffindor seeker managed fifteen minutes, although he was a seventh year who since went on to play professionally and you don't really get much better than that at Hogwarts."
"I've done five minutes," Harry said, beginning to get so caught up in the excitement of Quidditch that he didn't really care how well that snippet of information was going to fit with his back story.
It was now Alphard's turn to choke on his butterbeer. "Wait, you're actually good?" He asked as Charlus simply sat there with his mouth hanging open.
"Don't sound so surprised," Harry frowned, though he was still smiling more than he had in a week and a half.
"Can you join our team?" Alphard said, his eyes widening. "We held trials a couple of days before you showed up but it's not as if our current seeker is going to win us the cup. Maybe we could hold a second round of trials and see who's best? I play Beater, by the way."
"Um," Harry said glancing around at the circle of chairs. Slughorn had been watching the conversation with a surprised expression, butterbeer hovering somewhere near his mouth. Riddle, on the other hand, was staring at a point on the floor, frowning to himself. "I don't have a broom-" Harry began.
"That's fine," Alphard said, waving a hand dismissively. "Hogwarts just ordered in a brand new bunch of practice brooms, you can use one of them."
From across the room, Charlus groaned. "Ah, Harold, please don't join the Snake team, currently we have such good chances for the cup, plus you'll throw off all of our tactics for the upcoming Slytherin/Gryffindor game."
Alphard, meanwhile, grinned at him. "Come on, come down to the pitch tomorrow morning, it'll be great."
"Okay," Harry said slowly with the reasoning that at least flying might help him take his mind off the horrible time travel mess.
Slughorn clapped his hands together, drawing their attention. "Well, there you go, we might have another Quidditch prodigy on our hands. Are there any other secret talents you're hiding, Harold?"
Luckily (or perhaps not so luckily) Riddle spared Harry from answering by asking a question of his own. "I though you were home tutored, Harold?" He said. "How did you manage to play Quidditch?"
Harry's heart stopped for a second as he came crashing back down to Earth, though he managed to compose himself – externally, at least. "Our town had a reasonably high magical population," he lied. Ha. Privet drive? High magical population? "Most of the kids were home tutored so we'd all, parents included, meet up for a game of Quidditch in a local field every now and then."
"Really?" Riddle asked, head tilted in attentive interest. "Which town was that?"
"Uh," he stammered,completely stuck. Whatever name he said, Riddle would research extensively, then probably begin to find all the errors in his back story and it would all crash down. Then an idea (whether it was a good idea or bad idea was debatable) struck him. "I'm afraid I can't say," he said, trying to look apologetic. "You see, no one knows exactly why Grindelwald's forces attacked my town, so Professor Dumbledore instructed that I remain quite about anything to do with it, just in case. He said you never knew quite who to trust."
Slughorn chuckled. "Wise old man, Albus," he said, then turned to Lycoris, questioning him on how he was enjoying NEWT level Potions thus far, dismissing the conversation. Riddle, however, remained looking at him for a second longer, azure eyes narrowed slightly. When they made eye contact, Riddle winked before glancing away, leaving Harry staring blankly ahead.
Riddle hadn't believed a single word he'd said. And just as he thought he'd been making progress...
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews so far:) you guys are awesomely awesome! Awesomely's a word... right? Spell check's saying yes xD Hopefully this update was a lot quicker than the last one and I'm aiming to keep it that way for as long as possible. Pretty please keep favouriting, following and reviewing xx