Tom took knocked hard on the office door hoping the Professor was still there and not yet asleep. It took a few minutes but Snape did open the door. When he first opened the door he looked rather pissed. His dark eyes looked tired and grumpy and his mouth was already turned into an all-out sneer as the man went to see who was delaying his bed time. His expression changed once it registered who was outside of his office door.
"Come in," he said immediately no emotion registering in his voice. Once the door was closed behind them Snape turned to talk to Tom, "You shouldn't be here this late. If you get caught Crouch will have you in Azkaban." The man's jaw was clenched and he looked thoroughly annoyed at Tom.
"Quirrell is up to things again," Tom said completely ignoring the professor's annoyance. He can be annoyed with Tom later when there isn't a maniac out to kill Potter.
"Congratulations you have really enlightened me here. I had no idea that my collegue is doing something around the school. No idea what so ever," Snape said out his voice dripping with sarcasm. He obviously didn't want Tom in his room this late at night.
Tom ignored him again and just kept talking, "Today during class he was looking at the clock like he was going to be late. I stayed after to test my theory and so I had a friend ask some him some really stupid questions."
"You involved Mr. McNight?" Snape asked unhappily.
Again Tom just continued talking," He kind of threatened me. Nothing out loud that you could sack him for but it was a threat. I threatened him back telling him that I was going to come and talk to you. He got annoyed and left the room. He was going to go to whatever he was late for and I followed him. He went into the pretty deep into the forbidden forest."
"You went into the forest? When you get stuck in Azkaban because you insist on being a hero and stopping Quirrell please do not come whining to me," Snape replied his lips curling a bit as he emphasized the word whining.
"Wasn't caught doesn't matter," Tom replied thinking it best that he not completely ignore everything the professor said, "The man gave him something large and round. He handled it really carefully so I think it might be delicate but I'm not sure. There was only two men there but there was a third voice. The third voice sounded in charge although I don't know. They said the package would let them get past the dog and get the stone. Does that mean anything to you?"
Snape didn't speak now he looked like he had swallowed something really nasty, "It does. Was that all they said?" Tom nodded, "Your sure they didn't mention anything else about this stone or dog?"
Tom shook his head not knowing what else Snape wanted him to say," What else can you tell me about this package."
Tom didn't really know what else to say," I've told you everything I know. It was round and large. They had some kind of hard white casing around it I think because it didn't look like it was going to do anything the way it was."
Snape relaxed with that information, "It was a dragon egg. Hagrid knows how to get past the dog. Quirrell must think he can bribe the oaf into telling him about it. No one could be stupid enough to fall for that though. I will talk to him about it later though."
Tom shifted his weight to his other foot. He still didn't know what dog he was talking about but it looked like Quirrell's efforts weren't going anywhere," Um the third voice, there was no body to it."
Snape's eye's darkened," I bet you felt something on your mark when that voice spoke."
Tom nodded," It was more than that. It was like- I wanted to- um"
"Bow down and worship the voice? Comply to its every wish? Please it?" Snape said bitterness bathing his every word. Tom nodded and said nothing," That voice belongs to your father, your real father. You will feel that feeling every time that man speaks because you bear the dark mark. I would get used to ignoring those urges. He won't hesitate to kill you because he birthed you." Snape's lips curled again but this time it wasn't to sneer at Tom. This time it was more of a universal sneer of hate that showed when he talked about the dark lord.
Tom nodded uncomfortably, "The dog and the stone. What are they?" he asked trying to change the subject.
"Yes I'm going to tell you exactly what the dog and stone are. I am going to go right ahead and tell you classified information even though if you are caught with that knowledge, or caught investigating it you will be sent to Azkaban. I am going to confide in you and break a promise that I made just to satisfy your little curious student mind. That is exactly what I feel like doing right now," Snape said giving Tom the fakest smile he had ever seen.
"I got the point," Tom said getting up to leave. He opened the door and headed through the castle in the dark. He didn't use any illuminating spells to help him see better. He couldn't risk getting caught. Thus he made his way back to the Gryffindor tower in the pitch black trying not to break anything overly important.
When Tom got back the clock was approaching midnight. Tom got into his bed and muttered the muffiliato spell. He hadn't had that many night mares over the past few weeks but it wasn't worth the risk. He lied there for what must have been hours before accepting the fact that he wasn't going to get any sleep that night.
He sighed and went to change the bandages that he had on his arms. The dark mark had faded a lot and was only a reddish looking scar last time he had checked. When he saw the mark this time he found that it had gotten darker. He grit his teeth Snape must have been right, that voice was Voldemort.
Tom wondered back towards his bed and reached into his night stand. The daily profit was still there. It was the issue from the first day of school, the one that displayed his father clearly on the front. The man was wearing a black and white stripped prison outfit and was screaming into the camera. This was the only picture that Tom had of his father and it strongly supported everyone's theory that he was mad. Tom sighed and skimmed the front page again, looking over the letters of the article that he had already memorized.
That is when something new caught his eye. On the right there was a column that listed some of the other important articles in this issue of the paper. The one that caught his eye was about Gringotts being broken into. Tom flipped to the later page in the paper. The article said that on July 31st someone had tried to break into vault 713. The vault only had one item in it and that would be the sorcerer's stone. The stone could give anyone immortality and it was created by a man named Nicolas Flammel. It also said the man was friends with Dumbledore. The vault had been emptied the very same day that it had been broken into though and nothing was successfully stolen.
Tom's mind was reeling now. He was ninety nine percent sure that this was the stone that Quirrell was speaking of earlier that day. This stone could probably bring Voldemort back. Tom shivered, if that man returned he would end up living the rest of his life like he had for his first thirteen years. That couldn't happen. Tom put the article back on his desk. He would talk to Scott in the morning.
Tom managed to get three hours total of sleep that night. He woke to find that his night mare had changed again. This time he got to see who his brother's killer was.
The man holding the wand was tall and in his fifties. His hair was jet black and well kept. His eyes were just as dark, the same color as the son who was standing across from him. Tom had never seen this man in person but he knew that his was Voldemort. When he was little and being raised by his mother he used to dream about what the man would look like. This is what his small two year old brain had come up with.
"Avada Kedavra," Voldemort shouted as he killed one of his two twin sons.
Tom woke up with a start breathing heavily as usual with the cold clammy sweat covering his body. It was six in the morning and he was the first awake. He calmed himself down. Voldemort didn't kill Jonathan he was gone, crippled, when Jonathan died. Someone else killed him. Someday he would figure out whom that someone was. Someday he would give this stranger what he deserved.