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It was pouring by the time Andrew dropped him off at Privet Drive and all his plans to walk straight off to Riddle Manor without going into the house vanished into dust. Sullenly, he stepped into the house scrunched his nose up when the smell of something burning reached his nostrils. This was getting irritating. He headed straight up to his room, dropped his bag on the bed and slumped down beside it.

He was bothered by the contract, Greyback had proposed. Somehow, it made everything all the more difficult because now he knew that Greyback had no intentions of letting him leave. Of course, the strategy he had devised was going smoothly. It wasn't difficult to see that Greyback was infatuated with him. All he had to do now was to make sure he maintained that infatuation and kept Greyback wrapped around his finger. Maybe that way, he could convince Greyback to neglect the contract all together. It was difficult but not impossible.

He closed his eyes and ran his fingers over the rough sheets as he went through everything he'd learned today by Greyback's reactions. He pulled out his notebook and frowned at the limited pages but writing this down was important so he sat up straight, grabbed a pen and began writing down all of Greyback's reactions in the tiniest scrawl he could manage.

He smirked when he was finished and read through the list of traits he'd come up with for turning himself into Greyback's ideal lover. It wouldn't take him a lot of effort, all he needed to do was to turn up the charm and Greyback would be eating out of the palm of his hand.

That was the ideal case. If that didn't happen and Greyback still insisted that he sign a contract, then he would have to come up with some solid terms that would ensure his freedom. Running from Greyback after getting his inheritance wasn't an option because he couldn't make the mistake of underestimating Greyback's power again. The man would probably hunt him down and he had no intentions of spending his new life constantly looking over his back and worrying about when Greyback would catch up with him. No, right now, he needed all his bases covered. He was too close to getting his due right and he could not afford to mess up. If only Greyback hadn't shown up, things would have been so much simpler. He hated his uncle for that and it was a pity he couldn't do anything about that presently.

He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath to calm himself. The sound of the rain pouring down was getting on his nerves and he felt like throwing a temper tantrum and breaking something. Tom could he hurt or worse and he was sitting here idly. He grabbed his bag and was out of his room before he knew it. He almost ran into his uncle at the base of the stairs who smirked when he saw the bag on his shoulder,

"Finally running off then?"

He shook his head and headed to the coat stand. Without a word, he grabbed his massive rain coat and pulled it over himself. It was big enough to envelop him and his bag. His uncle shouted something but he didn't stick around to hear it. He was already pulling the hood over his head and jogging out and into the storm.

It took him a little more time than unusual to reach Riddle Manor but just the sight of the building made it all worthwhile and sent his heart into a frenzy. He hurried inside and stripped off the soaked rain coat and hung it over the banister of the staircase. His sneakers were waterlogged along with his socks. His feet felt numb and frozen. He toed off his wet sneakers and socks and made his way down to the cellar barefoot. Every step he took towards the crypt door made his heart beat faster. When he rested his hand on it, he prayed that he didn't encounter any resistance and it opened without a hitch.

Of course, life had never been simple for him so why would it start now. The door didn't budge, and he cursed verbally and shouted,

"OPEN UP TOM!"

He banged on the door and he would have kicked it if his feet hadn't felt like they'd been frozen. He set his bag down, pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. He sprayed the lock with the lubricant he'd gotten before pulling out his lock pick set and attempting to get the lock open while he spoke loudly,

"I know I haven't been around for a while, but I swear I wasn't avoiding you on purpose. I was just busy trying to find way to break your bloody curse…"

He worked on the lock for the next thirty minutes and talked to Tom but to no effect. He closed his lock pick set and slumped against the door,

"This is no way to treat your prince charming."

He ran his hands over his face as he thought about what he should do now. He needed to get this door opened and know what had happened to Tom. He pulled out the books he'd gotten from Trelawney and began going through him. There had to be a spell, something he could use to unlock this door.

He tried performing a basic spell but to no avail. He followed every step down to a T but nothing happened. Maybe the twins had been right…maybe he really didn't have the aptitude for it. But he wasn't one to give up. He kept at it for hours but by the end of the night, he didn't have anything, and it frustrated him to no end. His own incompetence just bothered him. He wasn't used to not being able to do something and he burned to correct that. He pushed his books back into his bag and banged his head against the door. He wouldn't leave without opening it...he couldn't leave.

He wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered involuntarily due to the cold. He hadn't felt it before because he'd been too distracted but now…it was really settling into his bones. He was freezing cold and that wasn't good. He got up and stared down at his bare feet…thinking hard about what to do. There had to be a way. There just had to be a way. He leaned back against the door and spoke,

"Help me out, Tom."

He moved away from the door and something came in contact with his toe, followed by a loud clink as he accidentally kicked it away. He ran the beam of his phone's flash light over the stone flooring and stopped when something reflected the light.