Chapter Thirty Five: Sixth Year Begins
Raiden and Draco entered the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast on September First feeling hungry and a bit annoyed. They had read through their books and trained over the holidays but they were still partially locked in holiday mode and resented the chattering of all the younger years.
"Merlin, I hope the din dies down soon" Draco muttered. Raiden could only sigh in agreement, before looking down in slight embarrassment as his stomach gurgled. Blaise, who was seated opposite them chuckled, and then looked mortified as his stomach chose to answer Raiden's.
"Sounds like you two are ready to eat" Daphne said cheerfully as she sat down beside Raiden, giving him a brief hug. Raiden returned it and smiled at his girlfriend. Daphne had grown up into a beautiful and powerful witch and there were several other boys that Raiden had had to fight off already as they had had designs on getting her for themselves. This set him to wondering about the feasibility of publicly declaring his love for her and "taking her off the market" as it were. This preoccupation lasted all through the Sorting, except when Raiden roused himself to clap for the new Slytherin first years.
"Oy, Raiden, pay attention" Blaise hissed as Dumbledore stood up to speak. Raiden reluctantly paid attention to the speech and learnt something interesting. Snape was going to be their DADA teacher this year while Horace Slughorn was taking over the Potions position. Apart from that there weren't any other staff changes and Raiden dug into the food as soon as it appeared.
After dinner the Slytherins went down to their common room and spread out, just relaxing. The welcome-to-Slytherin speech was the usual normal speech, and Raiden sank into boredom. His fingers found the locket, hidden under his shirt and kept hidden from everyone with a Parseltongue spell. To anyone watching, it seemed that Raiden was merely loosening his collar. Raiden stretched and rose when the welcome back speech was over; he wanted nothing more than to sink into his bed and sleep. Unbidden, his thoughts drifted back to when he'd received the locket he now wore.
Raiden was finished packing for Hogwarts when he felt a slight burn in his scar. This was Voldemort's way of calling him, and Raiden headed for the Apparition point at Malfoy Manor, telling Lucius where he was going. His guardian had merely wished him luck and continued reading the Daily Prophet.
Landing at the designated Apparition zone in Riddle Manor, Raiden headed for Voldemort's study where he found his master looking into the fire and playing with a heavy, gold locket that hung on a fine chain.
"Ah Raiden come in" Voldemort greeted him. Raiden took a seat and watched the Dark Lord expectantly.
"You know what this is?" Voldemort asked. Cocking his head to the side Raiden frowned before enlightenment struck.
"One of your Horcruxes" he replied.
His master nodded. "Yes it is. I called you here today because I want to give you this. I intended for it to be one of your sixteenth birthday presents but Nagini went and hid it. She likes shiny stuff, worse than a Niffler she is" Voldemort growled slightly, looking at the large snake that was curled in front of the fire. Nagini hissed at him and went back to sleep.
"So what do you want me to do with it?" Raiden asked, confused. Voldemort smiled and held the locket out to him.
"I want you to be the guardian of this locket. Look at it this way, if you have it, you'll always carry a piece of me wherever you go" he smirked.
Raiden groaned and shook his head. "Bad pun Master, very bad pun" he said, before taking the locket and examining it. Up close he could clearly feel his master's magical signature radiating off the locket. He slipped the chain over his head and adjusted the length so that the locket sat over his heart. Looking up at his master he smiled and bowed his head briefly.
"Thank you Master, I will guard it with my life" he said solemnly.
Voldemort smiled at him and replied, "I'm sure you will, now you'd better go back to Malfoy Manor, I believe it's almost dinner time and Narcissa will throw a fit if you're not there."
Master and Apprentice shared one last smile before Raiden Apparated back to Malfoy Manor.
Shaking off the memory, Raiden headed for his dormitory and sank into his bed, more than grateful for the soft pillows and sheets that were so sleep inducing. Within moments he was asleep and dreaming of the year to come.
The next morning saw the group of Avengers seated at the Slytherin table, joined once more by Hermione, who had found some friends in Ravenclaw the previous year but still preferred the company of the Slytherins. Ravenclaws, she said, preferred books to anything else, and Hermione wasn't quite as much of a bookworm as the other students thought.
"Wonderful, this term we have Potions with Gryffindors again" Blaise groaned. Raiden smirked. "Don't look at it as a negative thing Diablo. Think how many points Professor Snape will take from Gryffindor if we annoy them into making mistakes."
There was an appreciative chuckle from the rest of the Avengers until Hermione reminded them that their favorite professor was teaching Defence that year and Professor Slughorn was teaching Potions.
"Even better" Draco snorted. "We can cause the Gryffs to mess up their spellwork. Can you imagine the innuendos that Professor Snape will come with regarding the way that they hold their wands?"
The boys of the group snickered while the girls looked disgusted. Raiden put an arm round Daphne's shoulders and hugged her while finishing his breakfast. She leaned into his embrace for a moment before pulling away.
"Get ready, we have to be at Transfiguration in ten minutes" she said, while finishing her own meal. Rolling his eyes, Raiden complied. He was looking forward to learning Transfiguration this year, they started the theory of the Animagus transformation and while all the Avengers could transform, and had spent many a night running, or in Hermione's case, flying, with Moony on the full moons, it was still good to brush up on the theory. Also, Raiden was looking at twisting the spells to various Dark purposes.
His Dark Arts training that summer had gone well. He'd taken to the Dark Arts like a fish to water, and his personality had undergone a change as he got deeper into them. He could still love, but that emotion was extended only to his family and close friends. So far, none of his friends except Draco had spotted it. At school Raiden still wore the mask of Harry Potter, the Chosen One. It was essential that this mask not break before the time was right otherwise all the carefully laid plans that Voldemort and Raiden had come up with would be ruined.
The Avengers spent an enjoyable morning, learning Transfiguration and then Arithmancy after that. Raiden had finished his work for Arithmancy, and had started on his homework for that lesson. The result was that when the class was over he handed in his worksheet plus his homework. The rest of the class glared at him, Raiden had a gift for Arithmancy that meant he was consistently top of the class each year. Even Hermione couldn't keep up with him at times which irked her greatly.
"Merlin Veneficus you could at least pretend to not be a genius at that subject" Daphne grumbled good naturedly to her boyfriend as Raiden looked at the ceiling, looking the picture of innocence.
"Oh calm down Krusa, you always beat me at Ancient Runes anyway. What's the problem?"
Daphne gave him an odd look. "You've changed Harry, has it got anything to do with your training over the summer?"
Raiden winced. "Yes. I discovered a certain liking for the subject material, to the detriment of one of my tutors when she pushed me too far. It's changed my personality somewhat, but I still love you."
Daphne smirked. "I knew that you prat, I just want to know what happened."
Raiden looked at their group, before looking at his watch. It was two hours before lunch; they only had two classes that morning and one in the afternoon. "Let's go outside, I'll explain there."
The Avengers moved outside and found their favorite spot, a secluded corner of the outer courtyard, overhung by a large tree. Sprawling on the grass the Avengers fixed Raiden with a collective stare that the young Dark Lord in training found amusing.
"In order to use the Dark Arts you have to really want the effects of the spell you're using to happen. Like with a disembowelment curse, you have to want your victim to spill their guts, literally. And if you have aversions to hurting people you can't use those spells. So I had to get rid of my aversion to hurting people."
"Does that mean you'll go around killing indiscriminately, or torture people for fun?" Hermione questioned.
Raiden shook his head. "No, but if someone hurts me or my friends, then I won't hesitate to hurt them back, ten times worse. Yes that does include torture and death but only as a last resort. My mentor taught me some lovely little spells, which aren't really dark in nature but which can be used to torture someone to great effect."
"Example?" Blaise asked.
Raiden thought briefly before smirking. "You know Weasley's afraid of spiders?" he asked. Receiving nods he continued, "Well, think of this. You catch Weasley alone, make it so he can't move, then use that conjuring spell Flitwick taught us last year to conjure large spiders, make them last for several hours, and then let them crawl all over him. Or alternatively use an illusion spell from third year to make him believe that there are spiders all over him when there aren't."
"Brilliant. Does anyone have the Gryffindor password? We could make it a prank, and because no one else is supposed to have the password it will be assumed that another Gryffindor did it" Draco chuckled.
"We don't need one. One of the passages from the Chamber of Secrets leads to the back of a painting in the Gryffindor common room. Apparently Slytherin wanted a way to keep an eye on the Gryffindors so he made a passageway up from the Chamber so he could spy on them. The painting requires Parseltongue to work so that's why no one knows about it."
"Cool. So when do we do this prank?" Draco enquired.
"Mhmm, not for a few days. Let him settle in, give him a chance to insult us, then we retaliate."
The rest of the Avengers all thought this was a great plan. Although Hermione didn't normally approve of hurting people, Ron Weasley had been very rude to her so she didn't mind getting a little revenge. Raiden secretly wanted this to continue, Hermione was taking her first steps towards the Dark and Raiden would do everything he could to keep her moving along that path.
The rest of the day went smoothly. Their afternoon class was Potions, and Slughorn gave Raiden the creeps. The man was always watching him, eager to get Raiden, or rather Harry Potter, into his circle of "friends." After the class was over Raiden shivered as he walked out.
"That man creeps me out. Why is he so interested in me?" he asked.
Draco punched his shoulder gently and replied, "Father told me that Slughorn, or Sluggy as he's known, surrounds himself with the powerful, the rich and famous, and the influential. He rides their coat tails, basking in the fact that he's able to say that so-and-so from such-and –such is his friend. He's got his eye on you to be the jewel in his crown Harry. Don't let him do that to you. You're far too good for him."
Raiden nodded, disgusted with what he now knew. "Don't worry, I will" he muttered. Along the way to the Slytherin common room, they bumped into Professor Snape.
"Mr Potter the Headmaster wishes to see you in his office after dinner this evening" he stated before turning and gliding away to his office. Confused looks were exchanged between the Avengers before they mutually decided to let things play out and see where they went.
Later that evening, after dinner, Professor Snape escorted Raiden up to Dumbledore's office. Raiden had been assured that he wasn't in trouble so he was curious as to what Dumbledore wanted with him. He didn't want to be alone with him though.
"Um, sir, would you mind staying with me. I don't feel like being alone with him" Raiden said.
Snape looked startled but replied neutrally, "Of course Mr Potter, but I don't know what he wants."
Raiden shrugged but was saved from replying when the office door opened and they walked in. The Headmaster looked surprised when Raiden requested that Snape be allowed to stay but he allowed it anyway.
"So what do you want Headmaster?" Raiden asked. Dumbledore smiled at him and replied, "In order to vanquish one's enemy Harry, one must understand them. Therefore, I have acquired memories from people who knew the young Tom Riddle, before he became Voldemort, and after. Hopefully, this trip down memory lane will help us."
Raiden and Snape exchanged a glance but followed Dumbledore into the memories. An hour and a half later, the two Slytherins left the office, both worried. Dumbledore was searching for Voldemort's Horcruxes and had discovered and destroyed one.
The diary was safe and was in point of fact no longer a Horcrux at all. The locket was safely round Raiden's neck but he touched it anyway, to reassure himself that it was there. The others weren't known to Dumbledore yet but Raiden opened his diary anyway and tapped it, establishing the connection to his master's.
Master, we have a problem he wrote. There was a brief pause and then Voldemort's reply shimmered into view.
What is it?
You know how you said that Dumbledore was searching for your Horcruxes?
Yes. What's the problem? He won't find them.
Um, Master, he's found the ring and destroyed it, and he's well on the way to finding another two.
Voldemort's next comment summed up the situation perfectly.
Oh fuck.