Gracielie- Yeah, it'll be explicitly stated why Susanna wanted to go to Azkaban, though I'd say that by this point it's already been hinted at a bit. And about Tom… he promised that he wouldn't hurt any innocents, but that doesn't mean he can't get others to do it. I'm not saying that he would, but there are always loopholes lol.

A/N- Sorry for the delay, I was busy getting prepared for finals week. But that's all behind me now, woo

Tom leapt up and looked at Henry like the boy had just grown a couple of extra heads. He might've even punched the Ravenclaw, but Sirius suddenly moved forward to gently grab Tom's arm, and tug him back over to his chair. Once they were all seated, Tom forced himself to take several deep breaths, and then he looked at Henry. "Please tell me that I just had some kind of weird hallucination, and you did not just say what I think you just said."

Henry narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms over his chest, then shook his head. "I wish that I could tell you that. But it's the truth. Susanna broke out."

"But why would she do that?" Tom muttered, mostly to himself. "She's the one who begged to be locked away in the first place. She's the one who wanted me to lie on the stand so that she could be put away. She's the one who acted like some kind of maniac during the trial so that everyone would believe that she was guilty. Why would she go through all of that trouble just to break out and be on the run from the law?"

While he muttered to himself, ignoring the fact that it made him sound slightly crazy, Sirius cleared his throat. "How did she get out, anyways? Did Dumbledore say? Because Azkaban is supposed to be a pretty escape-proof place."

That was something Tom hadn't even thought about. Susanna was smart and resourceful, and in his mind that was enough of an explanation for her escape. Though he supposed that it would be interesting to at least hear about how it was done. Henry frowned, though. "Dumbledore wouldn't tell me. He said that the ministry doesn't want it getting out because then other people who end up in Azkaban in the future would know how to escape. Which means that whatever Susanna did isn't something that can be fixed by beefing up security around there. It does make me pretty curious about her methods."

Tom nodded agreement. "Yes, it is rather curious, and I want to know. Come on." He reached out to grab one of Henry's arms to yank him up out of his seat, but didn't bother grabbing Sirius because he knew that his best friend would follow him without being dragged along.

Henry seemed surprised to find himself pulled out into the hallway. "Wait- what? Where are we going?"
"To Dumbledork. I want to-"

Tom paused for a moment to give Sirius a high five as his friend grinned. "Nice one,"

"Thanks. Now, as I was saying, I want to go to that oaf of a headmaster and find out for myself exactly how it was that Susanna escaped. We're all well aware that she's one of the most clever individuals in this school, but that prison is supposed to be foolproof. That's what the dementors are for, right?"

Henry still seemed to be confused by the sudden turn of events. "But why does it even matter? It's not like any of us are planning on breaking the law and winding up in a jail like Azkaban…" he trailed off as his eyes flitted over the two Slytherins. "Or maybe some of us are. Who knows. But shouldn't we have other priorities right now? Like finding my sister? The headmaster told me that the aurors who are trying to track her down now are not afraid to use force against her. I'm really scared, Tom," that last admission came out very quietly, like he hadn't been planning on saying it.

Tom didn't want to confess to it out loud, but the truth was that he was terrified for Susanna at the moment. He was proud of her for actually finding a way to do what had been previously thought of as impossible, though he was still confused about why she broke out after going through so much trouble to get in. But the most important thing at the moment was that he was out of his mind with fear that the aurors would decide she was dangerous, and that they would end up killing her rather than capturing her. Susanna was a good person, and she didn't deserve any of the things that had happened to her. Tom desperately wanted her to be okay, and he was equally desperate for a chance to talk to her alone, even if it was only for a few minutes.

Instead of saying anything comforting to Henry, mostly because he couldn't actually think of anything comforting to say, he continued dragging the boy around until they reached the entrance to the headmaster's office. He impatiently knocked against the solid stone wall, angry that he didn't already know whatever ridiculous password Dumbledore had come up with.

But apparently just knocking was actually enough, because the wall slid away to reveal stairs a moment later. The three boys traipsed hesitantly up the stairs, not sure of why they were being allowed in so easily. When they entered the headmaster's office, they could see Dumbledore sitting on top of his desk, slowly swinging his legs back and forth while he read from some ancient looking book.

He looked up, peering over the rims of his glasses, and then offered a polite smile to his guests. "This is an unusual combination. How can I help you boys today?" Even as he spoke, his normal cheerful tone was tinged with wariness.

Henry glanced at Tom, then took a deep breath before stepping out in front of the Slytherins. "I want to talk more about what you told me earlier. I know you said that that was the end of the discussion, but I- all of us- feel that we deserve to know more."

Dumbledore tilted his head. "Oh? And why is that, exactly?"

Tom cleared his throat. "Since none of us are going to end up in Azkaban anyways, what difference does it make if we know how Susanna escaped? We have the right to know. Henry's her brother, I'm her close friend, and Sirius is also her close friend." He didn't have to be entirely honest with the headmaster, and his relationship with Susanna had still been so new when everything else had gone down, so he didn't want to go around putting labels on it. And Sirius seemed to approve of Susanna, so that was enough for now. "She's someone important to all of us, and we want to know what happened. How else could we even begin to figure out whether or not she's injured, or-"

Dumbledore hopped down to the floor in a move that really looked too childish for a man with such a long beard, and put the book he was reading down on top of his desk. Then he turned back to Tom with an almost amused look on his face. "I understand your concerns, Mr. Riddle. But I am concerned that there is more to it than what you're letting on. The students of Hogwarts are not allowed to leave whenever they please, and certainly not to go wandering around in search of an escaped convict. A crack team of aurors and dementors are already on the case, and I am certain that they will find them."

Tom opened his mouth to offer up another argument about why they deserved to know Susanna's fate before the law could find her, but then his mouth snapped shut as Dumbledore's words sank in. The old man looked rather unconcerned himself, and Tom got the feeling that it had been an intentional slip of the tongue. A quick glance at his companions didn't reveal anything in particular, other than the fact that they didn't seem to have picked up on the slip. But why would Dumbledore say that? 'Them' implied that Susanna wasn't the only one who had escaped. That would look even worse for the ministry, if a whole group of people were able to break out of Azkaban. But it still didn't explain why the headmaster would tell that to Tom of all people.

He took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Now wasn't the time to be shouting and getting angry at everyone. "You're right, we should just leave the aurors to do their jobs. I'm sure that they know what they're doing. They'll catch the escaped prisoners soon enough." When Dumbledore didn't try to correct Tom's use of the plural for prisoners, Tom knew that he was right. Susanna wasn't the only one who had escaped, and even though that would probably be in all the papers tomorrow, for right now, Tom was one of the few people who knew it.

Henry gave him a strange look before turning back to the headmaster. "Please, sir, we just want to know how to find my sister. You know that if the aurors find her, they aren't going to be there just to throw her back in jail. They're going to call her a dangerous criminal, and-" his voice cracked from all of the emotion, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

Surprisingly enough, Sirius reached over to clap a gentle hand over Henry's shoulder for a moment. Then he looked at Dumbledore. "You know what? We're really sorry to have borrowed your time like this, sir. We should probably just get back to our homework or something."

Then he grabbed one of Henry's hands and one of Tom's hands so that he could pull them out of the office. Tom didn't need to be pulled along; he already realized that they had gotten all of the information out of Dumbledore that they were going to be able to get just from talking to him. Henry seemed resistant to the idea of just leaving, but after a particularly insistent tug, he gave in and let himself be dragged away.

When they all reached the doorway to leave the office, Dumbledore spoke softly. "Just be careful. You never know what's going to happen when you throw water onto a fire. If there's already oil there, you're only going to make the flames grow so much larger."

Tom furrowed his eyebrows, but decided that he'd work on figuring out the cryptic bullshit later. For now, he was glad to leave the office. He had never been fond of Dumbledore. From the moment they'd first met, when the older wizard had come to take Tom away from the orphanage, he'd given Tom a bad feeling.

When they were back in the dungeons, standing around in an empty classroom, the three boys all looked at each other, each waiting to hear what the other had to say first. Tom leaned forward, and interlocked his fingers so that he could crack his knuckles. "This situation is about a lot more than any of understand right now, but we're going to figure it all out. And we're going to save Susanna, no matter what." The other two boys nodded, and then they put their heads together to begin brainstorming.

,,,

Susanna stretched her arms up over her head and yawned softly before she even opened her eyes. She felt better than she had in ages. Even a short amount of time in Azkaban was enough to make someone feel like everything in the world was entirely hopeless, and she had no idea how Ardin had managed to stay sane for so long.

She followed her nose to the kitchen, and found the amusing sight of Ardin cooking something elaborate looking while dancing around the kitchen to the music coming from a radio that was resting on one end of the countertop. "What are you doing?"

Ardin actually jumped up in the air, and then whipped around. His shoulders slumped down as he saw that it was just Susanna standing there. "Merlin, you scared me." He sighed. "I thought I'd try my hand at cooking. I used to be really good at it, but it has been ages."

Susanna looked at the various pots and pans and cutting boards that were scattered around, and she immediately decided that she wanted no part of any of it, other than the end results. She was sure that there was some kind of method to the madness- or at least she hoped there was. Instead of offering her assistance, she sat down at the table that was in the middle of the kitchen. "I've been meaning to ask you something. Well, a few somethings anyways. How did you know about this place? Why were you in Azkaban to begin with? How did you know how to trick the dementors?"

Ardin laughed at the onslaught of questions. "I can understand your curiosity, but I'm not great at multitasking. I'll just try to take them one at a time. I knew about this place because my father brought me here when I was a child. He was a squib, but he fully embraced the magical world, and ended up getting involved with some gang. The gang needed safe places all over the world, and they're all pretty similar to this. This place is completely protected. No one will be able to find us here unless they already know exactly what they're looking for. Unfortunately, my father got too far involved with some serious business, and he ended up getting himself killed. It's not like he ever really stood a chance against people wielding magic. But I did have a chance, so I avenged him."

Susanna blinked once, then narrowed her eyes. "You killed someone?"

Ardin grinned, and it was a surprisingly friendly look for someone who'd just confessed to being a murderer. "Not just someone. Eleven someones. Few things in life will ever make you feel as powerful as the moment you take all of those lives, and you know that none of them ever stood a chance against them."
Susanna shivered, and wrapped her arms around herself. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to come here with a complete stranger. She'd been wondering how he was still sane, but back in prison he'd admitted that he'd stayed sane by letting himself go a little crazy. And what if he was already crazy before that? Sane people didn't murder eleven people.

After a moment, she realized that Ardin was staring at her with one eyebrow raised. "Fair's fair. Why were you in lockup? And why is it something that you're so desperate to forget?"

Susanna sighed as Ardin slid a plate full of food in front of her, and then he sat down across from her with an identical plate. "I killed someone too," she said softly. "It was just one person, but I'll never regret anything more in my entire life. For years, I've let myself push all these thoughts into the back of my mind, but then my best friend was murdered, and I was arrested for it, and all of my bad memories suddenly came flooding back." She paused to play around with her food for a moment, but she found that she didn't have much of an appetite. "I only killed one person, but it's a lot worse than what you did. You killed bad people, and even though revenge isn't right, in the end you were doing what you thought they deserved. The person I killed was someone I should've never been able to hurt. My little sister. I loved her more than anything. More than my parents or my brother or myself. And then I went away to Hogwarts and-" she cut herself off to take in a shuddering breath. "I wrote her a letter. I told her that I wanted her to be there with me. She got too excited and decided to try and come with me. She was-" she frowned, and looked down at her lap. "She was killed. She was just a little kid, and she only went because I asked her to."

There was a moment of silence, and then Ardin reached across the table to take one of Susanna's hands. "Take it from an actual murderer- you aren't at fault for what happened. No one could have known. You didn't tell her to go and get herself killed, and you never even thought for a moment that that would happen."

Susanna pulled her hand away, and she still couldn't raise her head up enough to meet Ardin's eyes. "That's not everything," she whispered. "I was devastated. I didn't think anyone else knew about the letter that I wrote. All I knew was that I'd written it, and then my little sister had died. I couldn't stand the thought of that being the end of her. She was the best thing in my life. Not that I didn't love my brother or parents, but my sister and I had a connection. And the thought of her being dead because of me was completely unacceptable." She finally looked up at Ardin, though she kept her gaze just a few inches away from his eyes. She couldn't bear to see the judgement that would be there. She'd only ever told one person about this before, and that was her grandfather. "My brother and I were excused from Hogwarts due to extenuating circumstances. We were given two weeks to go home, attend the funeral, and mourn as a family. I felt so lost. I was only a first year and it was so close to the beginning of the year that I hadn't even really had the chance to make friends. My sister had always been my closest friend. So I…" trying to find the right words to explain her crime was difficult, but it was only fair since Ardin had explained his sins to her. "After the funeral, I went back to the cemetery. I hadn't been planning anything, I just wanted to visit her. But then the opportunities fell into place, and I didn't think about what I was doing."

Ardin's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion, and he clearly had no idea where Susanna was trying to lead into with that wild start. "I don't understand."

"Someone else had just been buried. A pretty young woman who'd been stabbed to death by her boyfriend. I- I know a way to hide the trace on a minor's wand. I hadn't even known about the trace at the time. I was just a stupid kid. But I'd cloned my wand back at Hogwarts, since I assumed that my sister would be a witch too, and I wanted her to at least be buried with a wand. Turns out the wand was fully functional, and not technically registered to me. I just-" How could she keep talking? She'd done the unthinkable.

Ardin still seemed confused, but he hadn't jumped up and told her to shut her mouth. He actually encouraged her to keep talking. "You'll feel better to just get it out," he told her softly.

Susanna nodded, and reached up to wipe away at the tears she could feel building up. "I'm in Ravenclaw for a reason. I'm not being vain when I say that I know I'm smart. But it helped that I had this artifact. It had been passed down in my family for a while. A little crown, almost. My sister loved when I wore it because she said that it made me look like a princess. So I wore it that day at the cemetery. And I just knew what to do. It was complicated, but I wanted more than anything for it to work. For me to be able to bring my little sister back to life." Ardin's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything, so Susanna forced herself to continue. "Her body was too broken, so I took the pretty young woman who had been killed. She only had a few stab wounds, so I thought that it wouldn't be important, and then I did a whole string of dark spells that I shouldn't have even known. The next thing I knew, the woman was up and alive, and spoke like my sister. But there was something wrong. She didn't seem like a real person. She was cruel to me, but I couldn't kill her. I reburied my sister's body, and then told her that she could never tell anyone who she was if she didn't want to be taken apart and experimented on forever. She left, and I thought I'd never see her again. Not until-"

"She's the one who visited you in Azkaban?"
Susanna gulped, then nodded. "Yes. She just wanted me to tell her what I did. Apparently she can use at least some degree of magic, and I think she wanted to know the whole ritual so that she could fix herself." Susanna sniffled, and then stood up. "I am the reason she died, and then I forced her to come back and live some cheap imitation of a life. There's nothing in the world that I could ever imagine hating myself more for." Then she hurried away, unable to see the disgust that was obviously going to be in Ardin's face. It was the same disgust she saw whenever she deigned to look into a mirror.

Going back to Hogwarts and playing at being happy had just been a joke. She'd done the unforgivable. Broken so many taboos that she couldn't even count. And then she'd run away and left Emilia to figure out everything on her own. Susanna reached down to trace her scars that she could feel if she pressed down enough on her clothes. She didn't deserve just for being who she was born as, but she deserved far worse than that for what she'd done. Breaking out of Azkaban had been a mistake. Susanna should've just stayed there to rot for eternity. It was no less than she deserved for everything she'd done.

A/N- And there it is- Susanna's reason for wanting to go to jail, and the identity of her mystery visitor, and her biggest, darkest secret, all wrapped up in one chapter