Steven ducked back behind the corner, breathing hard. That snake was as thick around the middle as he was, and it had to be at least fifteen feet long. Even just a glimpse of it had made him want to freeze with fear. The room behind Tom was enormous, the walls lined with statues of snakes. On the far wall was a massive carving of a man's head. Tom's high hissing voice and the low hissing of the snake echoed through the chamber. Steven's hands shook. He should get out of here right now. He would talk to Tom tomorrow. Steven started to edge along the wall, but his foot slipped on the damp floor, and he fell, his hands smacking on the floor just as he caught himself. The voices stopped. Tom's high voice hissed urgently, and Steven heard something slithering away.

Tom would be furious if he found him here again.

Steven scrambled to stand up, but Tom came around the corner just as he got to his feet.

"Egbert?"

Steven turned just in time to see Tom's face go from confused to betrayed to enraged.

Steven held up his hands. "Tom. I can explain. I-I was just-"

"You should never have come back. Didn't I say to forget that you had ever seen me here? DIDN'T I?!"

"Y-yes, of course you did, I just-"

"Then why are you here?! You could have been-" Tom cut himself off. "This place is enormously dangerous. You can't even begin to fathom-"

"That's why I came!" Steven yelled. "Tom, you're the one that shouldn't be here. Have you seen what this place has done to you? You hardly act like yourself anymore. You need help-"

"HELP?" Tom laughed a cold, shrill laugh that gave Steven the chills. "You're worried about exams and your friends and your precious little family. I have much weightier matters to attend to. Your help is insignificant. I don't need your or anyone else's pity. And besides," a small piece of the ice melted from Tom's eyes, "this isn't the place for this. If you had stumbled in at the wrong moment-" Tom looked at the ground and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

Steven's eyes were wide. Tom was acting stranger than Steven had ever seen him. Tom was flipping between absolutely terrifying and a scared eleven year old. Steven would have to be careful about how he handled this.

"Tom," he said slowly, "I came to tell you that I talked to Helena earlier today."

Tom perked up, suddenly interested. "Really? You talked to the Gray Lady again? What did she say?"

"She told me the story… of how she died. Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes, yes of course, tell me everything." Tom's eyes looked hungry.

Steven paused. Maybe he shouldn't tell Tom anything. But if it distracted him from this scary side of himself...

"Well, it seems like Helena and her mum didn't have a great relationship. After Hogwarts she ran away from home and took something of her mother's because she was mad…"

"And what was it she took?"

"Um… a diadem. A tiara of her mother's. Helena felt really bad because she never talked to her mum or returned it before she was killed by the Bloody Baron."

Tom nodded, not looking the least bit surprised. "I see. And where did she hide it?"

Steven wrinkled his brow in confusion. "Hide what?"

"The diadem. The diadem she stole from Rowena Ravenclaw." Tom said impatiently.

"I… I don't know. All I know is she took it to a different country with her when she left."

"Yes, but where did she go?" Tom's eyes started growing angry as well as hungry.

"Um…" Where did she go? Steven knew Helena had mentioned it. Armenia? Algeria? "I think it was… Albania?"

Tom's mouth twitched. "Albania. That's a bit obscure."

"Well, she wanted to run far away." said Steven defensively.

"Hm. I suppose. I'll have to do some research to verify… but I'm sure… I have plenty of time..." Tom muttered to himself.

"What did you want to learn about Helena?"

Tom glared at Steven. "Is that really any of your concern?" The ice had returned to Tom's voice. "I told you I was curious. You've told me, and my curiosity has been sated. Now you can leave." He turned to walk away from Steven.

Steven didn't want to make Tom any angrier than he already was, but he couldn't just let him go. He had come here to help his friend, and that's what he would do. He took a deep breath.

"Tom, come with me. I came here to talk to you about Helena, but I also came because you're my friend. I'm worried about you, Tom. I miss spending time with you and Slyvia. Remember the first time we all went exploring together? We had so much fun. Can't we just stop overthinking things and be that way again?"

Tom paused and looked at the ground. "Do you remember what else happened that night, Egbert?"

Tom's voice was tight, his back tense.

"It was the night we found this place. The night I found this place." He turned to face Steven. His eyes were still on the floor. "The sounds you heard… It wasn't the pipes. It was Angie."

Steven paused. "Um… Angie?"

Tom sighed. "The snake you saw? Her real name is Anguis. I… I just call her Angie in my head." Tom blushed.

Steven had never seen Tom blush before. He didn't know he could blush.

"She was lonely." Tom continued. "She told me that she had sensed me and that she hadn't talked to anyone in hundreds of years. She said she needed me. And then… she lead me here." Tom lowered his voice. "She told me secrets. Secrets that she had been holding onto for centuries. She told me about Slytherin's great vision for the future of the magical world. We became close. Her dreams became my dreams…" Tom trailed off for a moment, then his attention snapped back to Steven. "She's dangerous to people like you though. That's why you have to leave."

Steven planted his feet firmly on the cold, smooth stone. "I'm not leaving here without you. Maybe we can talk to someone about this. Professor Scamander maybe, or Professor Slughorn-"

Tom's voice snapped back into cruel coldness. "Slughorn?! That fool can't tell a marsh from a mud puddle. And Scamander is just as pathetic as you are, Egbert. I'm not talking to anyone about any of this. People are idiots who take one look at anything special and try to destroy it. What I have is special, and I won't let you or anyone else mess it up."

Tom raised his hand and snapped his fingers, the sound cracking the through silence of the chamber behind him and echoing off the walls. Steven heard a slithering sound inside the walls around him, and the bottom of his stomach dropped.

"I don't want you to get hurt, Egbert," Tom said in a sickly sweet voice, "but if you don't leave now, it won't be me that kills you. All you need to do is turn around and walk out of here. This was all just a bad dream."

Steven gulped. He nodded, turned, and walked carefully up the hallway. He couldn't even make himself look back.