Gracielie- Yup, big discoveries are usually the results of me writing when I'm very tired. Glad you liked it, and I also can't wait to see how Tom deals with everything, since I'm pretty much just winging it at this point

Tom finally spotted Henry in the library, and he quickly darted forward to grab the other boy by the back of his shirt before he could see Tom and slip away again. When Henry turned around, there was a big look of irritation on his face. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing? Can't I even study in peace?"

Tom tilted his head curiously. "What were you studying so intently?"

Henry scowled. "Wizarding law. And don't even think of offering your help. You were raised by muggles too so you wouldn't know any more about this crap than I do. Now go away and leave me alone."

Tom shook his head, getting back to the reason he was still holding Henry's shirt. "I have to tell you something very important. I know who your father is."

Henry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you talking about? I know who my father is, too. Why is this so important that you've been stalking me all across the school?"

Tom bit his lip. He didn't want to blurt out such private information right out here in the open, where anyone could be listening in. It wouldn't be very fair to Henry or Susanna. "Eh, that doesn't matter right now. I also know why Susanna confessed to the murders." Then again, that was also something that should be discussed in private if he didn't want to risk anyone getting word back to Avery or Sirius or any of the others. "Can we go somewhere more private to talk?"

Henry shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere with a demonic purist like you. I don't care about anything you have to say."

Tom gave Henry his best pleading look. "Even if it could mean saving Susanna from being imprisoned for her whole life?"

Tom had to give Henry some credit for being so stubborn. "I don't care about anything you have to say to me. As far as I'm concerned, every single word that comes out of your mouth is just another lie, and I'm not going to-"

Tom yanked Henry up to his feet, and dragged the other boy closer so they were standing practically nose to nose. He spoke in a soft, dangerous voice. The one that had gotten others to do what he asked of them for as long as he could remember. While he was maybe trying to become a better person, he was going to do whatever was necessary to save Susanna. "You listen to me, you little shite. Susanna's in trouble right now, and like it or not, we both lo- we both care about her. We both want her to be set free. And since we seem to be the only ones in the whole school who give a damn, we're best off working together." Then he let go of Henry's shirt, though he didn't move back at all. "If you're going to let your sister rot in a prison cell for the rest of her life, then I guess you can't really care all that much about her."

Henry frowned, an angry crease to his eyebrows. "You're a bastard."

Tom nodded calmly. "I know. Now are you going to let me help you or not?"

Henry glanced down at the table covered in books, all opened to various pages, covered in way more information than Henry could ever hope to process in just a couple of days. He finally sighed in defeat, and motioned for Tom to follow him as he walked towards the library exit.

They ended their short trip in one of the little classrooms that was never used anymore, and both boys cast various spells to make sure that they'd have absolute privacy. Henry looked over at Tom grudgingly. "So what was so important that you needed to talk about?"

Tom sighed. "Susanna took the blame for the murders because she was threatened."

Henry looked doubtful of that. "Do you even know my sister at all? She laughs at threats. She interprets them as challenges. She would never be scared off by some stupid threats."

Tom almost regretted dragging Henry into this. "Well, she's not the one that was threatened." He sighed. "She was told that if she didn't take the blame for the murders, then I'd be the next one framed for them. And no matter what else is going on, your sister is a good person. She wasn't going to let another innocent person take the blame."

Henry looked horrified. "Are you saying that she martyred herself for you? Is being a complete idiot because it's you that was involved? Whoever threatened her could've used me easily enough, but they chose to pick on you. Why? Because they knew she'd give in if it meant letting you stay free." Henry let out a soft puff of air. "I can hardly believe it. My sister fancies you. I can't say that I saw that one coming."

Tom gulped, and felt a strange swirling sensation in his stomach. "What makes you say that?"

Henry rolled his eyes. "Because a girl doesn't go and take the blame for a couple of murders she didn't commit for just anybody! That's the kind of thing that a girl saves for the bloke that she figures out she fancies." He narrowed his eyes. "You're not starting to get any bright ideas, are you? Because I don't want you to be under the impression that any sort of anything between the two of you could ever be possible."

It took a lot of self control for Tom to stop his face from immediately flushing a dark red. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."

Henry sighed, but didn't push any further on that subject. "So is that all you can tell me? That she took the blame for a little git like you? That's hardly useful in the long run, since I highly doubt that either of us are good enough to get the real killer to confess in front of everybody."

Tom tilted his head. "We don't have to catch the real killers to free Susanna, though, right? I mean, anyone who ends up taking the blame would be cause for them to just let her go."

Henry narrowed his eyes. "Are you seriously suggesting that we frame someone? The same way that Susanna was framed? Not only is that idea absolutely nuts, but there's no way that Susanna would ever agree to it!"

Tom shrugged. "Then I guess it's a good thing that she's not currently at the school, and has no say in anything that happens here. If she's going to go around being such a complete idiot all the time, then the least that we can do is return the favor by acting like complete idiots and saving her, no matter what it takes."

Henry gulped nervously. "I'm not so sure that I like the sound of that, though. There's no way you can claim that the ends justifies the means here. Thanks to Susanna, you know how much it'll ruin the life of whoever you happen to saddle the blame to."

Tom narrowed his eyes. "Do you really think that there's no one else in this entire school who is worse than Susanna?"

Henry took a step back, though it didn't look like he'd meant to do that. "It doesn't matter. The only person who deserves to be accused of murder is the person who actually murdered somebody. Two somebodies! Do you really think that they're going to go easy on someone who supposedly killed the headmaster? Because I don't think they will. Something like this has never happened before, but there's no reason the Ministry would think of it as just another murder. We can't just accuse someone innocent of something so horrible. How would we be any better than Avery if we did?"

Tom crossed his arms over his chest. "Has no one ever told you before that sometimes you've got to stoop to your enemy's level if you want to win?"

"Of course not, because that's ridiculous! Susanna would hate us both for the entire rest of our lives if we tried something that stupid! Is that what you want? Are you really going to try and tell me you'd want her back even if it meant you'd never get to see her again? Because maybe it's just me, but I'm too selfish for that. Which is why I'm going to try and find another way out of this. You said you wanted to help. So help me. Because we're doing this my way or not at all."

Tom clenched his hands into fists. "I know who your father is."

Henry frowned. "Yeah, you said that back in the library. What the bloody hell is it even supposed to mean?"

Tom closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, then let it out. "It's not the guy who's married to your mother. Your mom had an affair. You and Susanna don't have the same father as your little sister."

Henry's eyes widened, and then a pained expression crossed his face. He spoke in a stiff voice. "Susanna's told you about Emilia?"

Tom shook his head slowly. "No. I didn't even know you guys had a sister until I read her name in an old newspaper article."

Henry looked at Tom searchingly, and finally, he sighed in defeat, and his shoulders slumped down. Even he knew that Tom was his best chance of helping his sister, so he figured that there was no point in lying to him. He seemed to forget for a moment that Tom had just been trying to tell him that his father wasn't the man he thought he was. "Susanna and I don't have a little sister. We used to, but we haven't in for a while now."

Tom tilted his head curiously, and leaned back against the wall in a lazy manner. "What do you mean?"

Pain and sadness flashed through Henry's eyes. "Four years ago, Emilia was five. She was too little to really understand what it meant when Susanna and I left for months at a time, and it's not like we could show her our magic at home without getting into trouble. But she's always been a curious little thing. So when our parents dropped us off at King's Cross in September all those years ago, Emilia threw a big fuss. She didn't want us to leave again. When it had been just me it had been bearable for her because she still had Susanna, but now it would be just her." Henry's voice shook a little bit. "Susanna and I didn't find out until a couple of weeks later. Emilia had tried to run away, to get to the station and follow us to Hogwarts. She was… hit by a car before she even made it to the next block over." Henry lowered his gaze so that he was just staring at the floor. "And I only told you so you wouldn't be able to accuse me of keeping things from you," he mumbled.

Tom gulped, and spoke in a soft voice. "I'm so sorry, Henry. I had no idea."

Henry shrugged. "It was a while ago. Just don't bring her up around Susanna. My sister blames herself. She thinks that if she'd just turned down the invitation, and stayed at home, then Emilia would've never tried to run off." He reached up to rub his eyes a few times, then cleared his throat, and looked back up at Tom. "I guess we'll never know if our family was meant to have three muggle born wizards in it. Anyways, what was it that you were saying about my father?"

Tom didn't have it in him to tell Henry the truth. Not yet, anyways. Maybe not ever. If Henry and Susanna had been able to happily live their lives all these years never knowing who their real father was, then there was no reason that they wouldn't be able to continue to do so long after this business was all over.

Tom just shook his head. "Er, it was nothing. Really. I was just trying to be funny, that's all." He shook his head again, and a look of determination covered his features. "I'm not going to let you lose another sister. So if we're not going to be pinning the blame on someone else, then what can we do to get her set free, now that she's already gone and stupidly confessed to the crimes?"

Henry sighed. "I have no idea. I've been scouring through all kinds of books on wizarding law, but as far as I can tell, there's never been a situation like this before. The only potential good part of that is that the Ministry won't know what to do anymore than we do. At least for now. They'll figure something out eventually, though. I hope that our parents take a very long time to get to Susanna, so that we've got more time to work on figuring this all out. For now, we need to keep searching the books. There's got to be something there that would tell us what to do. I don't know if they can really throw a minor into Azkaban, or if the sentence would be death because a very important person was murdered, but I know that we've got to figure this out ourselves."

"And you're absolutely certain that framing someone is off of the table?"

Henry rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm certain. Susanna would probably find it within herself to commit a murder if she found out that that's how we set her free. And then it would be my gravestone being erected next."

Tom sighed. "Well, alright then. I guess it's true that it wouldn't make her entirely happy, either." He started towards the door of the empty classroom. "Come on. Let's go back to the library to see what we can find." He paused as he walked past Henry. "And just for the record? I'm a bit selfish too when it comes to Susanna."

They walked back to the library in companionable silence. When they got there, Tom could feel the heated glares of a few different students. There were a couple Slytherin purists, wondering what the hell he was doing with a muggleborn. Then there were a few Ravenclaws giving Henry strange looks, curious about what he was doing with Tom, who everyone secretly already thought of as a purist.

Tom thought it best to just ignore the looks being sent their way, and pretend that this was all perfectly normal stuff going on. Just as they were sitting down, Tom looked up when he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. It would be beyond rude to ignore someone directly trying to direct him.

When he did look up, the first thing he saw was boobs. So he quickly stood up, preferring to look her in the face. It was Vanessa Guard. Tom hadn't seen her around in a while. She put her hands on her hips. "Tom," she purred. "It's been so long since the last time we've talked. Have I done something to upset you? Because if I have, I'd love to give you a grand apology."

Tom shook his head. "Ah, sorry, Vanessa. I've just been really busy with a bunch of other stuff, so I haven't really had time to hang out with anyone lately."

Vanessa's eyes flicked towards Henry briefly, who was staring at an open book, pretending to not listen in on the conversation, just like everyone else in the library at the moment. "Yet it seems that you've got plenty of time to hang around with the murderess's brother."

Tom clenched his teeth. "I dare say that one is innocent until proven guilty. Besides, we're not having a social visit. We're just studying together."

Vanessa arched one eyebrow. "What do you need to study for? You've already got top marks in every subject. You're a perfect little prefect, remember? And as for the girl, I would agree with you, except for the fact that I hear she's confessed and been whisked away to get the Dementor's Kiss already."

Tom had to refrain from reaching out and grabbing Vanessa's shoulders. "Where the hell did you hear that?"

Vanessa shrugged. "Come with me to somewhere more private, and maybe I'll tell you."

Tom sighed, and shook his head. He responded in a flat voice. "Sorry, Vanessa, but I really am busy studying right now."

A look a disbelief crossed the pureblood girl's face. She darted forward to grab one of the books from the table, and slammed it shut to look at the cover. "'An Introduction to Wizarding Law by Dwight Greytail'? What the hell do you need to study that for?" She nodded in realization. "Oh, I get it. You're trying to figure out how to spring your girlfriend from jail, is that it?" Tom shrugged. "I see how it is then. You don't have time for me anymore because you're busy advocating for that she-devil. Well just don't come running back to me when you figure out that she's only using you."

Tom scowled. "For what?"

Vanessa giggled. "If you need me to spell it out for you, then you're a lot dumber than I've always thought." She grabbed Tom's tie to pull his face closer to hers. "And I'm not talking about sex." She leaned back, and sighed. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I'll go find someone else to bother while you pine over your unrequited love. You used to be a great man, Tom. Now you're just weak."

Tom quirked up one side of his mouth in a partial smile. "Wouldn't all of the weaklings working together make for a much stronger force than the singular strongman who has no friends?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "You don't need friends to get ahead in this world, Tom. Just the right connections, and the ability to inspire the right emotions in people."

Tom shrugged. "Then I guess you're right, I have gone soft," he tilted his head thoughtfully. "Then again, now that I think about it, I've always been completely soft around you."

Vanessa's face burned bright red, and she turned to stomp away. Tom snickered before sinking back down into the seat next to Henry, and flipping open the book in front of him to the first page. Henry peered up at Tom out of the corner of his eye, and gave the Slytherin a slight smile. Then they both turned to their books. They had a lot of reading ahead of them.