Gracielie- At this point, Susanna's mostly just desperate to tell someone, though it seems likely that she at least told her grandfather. It's not like a dark lord could judge someone for using dark magic. As for the dark turn, tbh it's not like it's something that I've been planning since the beginning, but I think it keeps a nice balance to the relationship if Tom and Susanna both have a little dark and light in them and neither are perfect. I'm glad that you're still enjoying this; I know you've been around and reading this story for a while, and it really makes me happy to know that someone likes it that much :)

Susanna was woken up from the nap she'd cried herself into by the sound of knocking on the door to the room that she'd claimed for herself. Since she knew that it had to be Ardin, she decided to just bite the bullet and let him in. She'd have to face him sooner or later anyways. If she was lucky, he'd be a bit less judgemental than most people because he was also a murderer.

She got up and went over to unlock the door. Ardin had an unreadable look on his face, but before Susanna could say anything, he grabbed her hand, and yanked her out to the den. "Come on, I want to talk to you." He gestured for her to sit down on the couch, and then motioned to the steaming cup of tea that he'd put down on the little coffee table. "Drink that, it'll help you feel better." He sat down in the seat that was right next to the couch, and turned to face Susanna, doing his best to meet her eyes. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about what you told me earlier. And I've come to a few conclusions. The first is that no matter how many times people tell you that you're not responsible for your sister's death, you're never going to believe it. The second thing is more of a question I had. You said that your sister visited you in prison to ask what you did to make her so that she could figure out a way to reverse that. Why didn't you just tell her?"

Susanna frowned. She hadn't been expecting Ardin to ever want to talk to her again, and now he was trying to sound like he actually knew Susanna. Well, technically he did know something about her that only two other people in the world knew about. But that was just one thing. He didn't know about all of the other facts and details that made up Susanna Matheus. But if he was willing to help, which he'd already promised back in Azkaban, then she supposed that she could answer a few questions, even if they weren't easy.

She cleared her throat before speaking. "I was afraid. My grandfather told me that she is an abomination, and she has an untraceable wand and an unknown quantity of magic. What if I told her how she was created, and then she went and used that method to create and entire army of abominations for herself?"

"Why would she do that? What purpose would it serve her to command an army of weird zombie people?" He narrowed his eyes. "And why do I get the feeling that you're not telling me the truth? I mean, I fully understand if you don't feel entirely confiding in me about personal things because we barely know each other, but I don't want you to lie to yourself about what's really going on."

Susanna clenched her jaw, and slumped down in her seat. She'd spent so long doing everything possible to just not think about her past. So even when she'd been forced to confront it in jail, she'd still done her best to avoid it. She hadn't really given much thought to why she shouldn't explain everything to Emilia beyond that her grandfather had warned her not to do that. But she wasn't stupid. In the past few years that her sister had been reanimated, she'd never done anything to prove herself a threat. Or maybe she had, but not on any scale big enough to be news anywhere. And she already had access to magic, so that wasn't the issue. Maybe her sister just wasn't interested in world domination.

But then why was Susanna so afraid to talk about what she'd done to create the abomination in the first place? It's not that she couldn't remember the process; even if it had been the diadem that helped her along, she'd been in full control of her body and mind, and was well aware of everything that she'd said and done to complete the ritual. So then what was it?

Apparently Ardin felt like he was entitled to be the one to answer that. "I think I might have an idea of your reasoning. Think about it- you were so desperate to not lose your sister that you brought her back to life, which already sounds like something that should be totally impossible even with magic. If you were that desperate to not let go of her the first time around, doesn't it make sense that you still don't want to let go?"

Susanna blinked a few times, then arched one eyebrow. "You think I won't tell her because she'll use it to just completely undo herself? If she wanted to get out of the world that badly, there's a million other ways that she could go about it than trying to figure out some complicated ritual. I think it's like I told you before, and she just wants to find out how to make herself more human again."

"But that's a good thing. So why are you still so afraid to just-" Ardin was cut off mid sentence by the sound of someone knocking on the door. "This is just fucking great," he muttered under his breath. If that's one of the old gang, who were friends with several of my victims, then you and I are totally screwed. We don't have wands, and no offense, but I don't think that you're strong enough to know how to handle wandless magic."

Susanna narrowed her eyes. "I thought that you brought me here because it would be safe. And anyways, if we can't use magic, how did you plan on helping me forget about all my troubles?"

Ardin shrugged. "I do plan on getting my hands on a wand eventually, and when I do, it'll be easy enough to obliviate you, so don't even worry about it. What you should be worried about is the here and now, where we are very likely to wind up dead."

The knocking on the door didn't let up, and it was making Susanna feel very uncomfortable. "So are we seriously just going to die out here in the middle of nowhere so that no one can ever find our bodies? That doesn't seem very pleasant to me. Surely you know something we can do to get out of this. You did so well at springing us out of jail in the first place, so you have to have more tricks up your sleeve, right? I really need you to say that you do."

He shrugged again. "I guess we could always go for a good old fashioned sneaking out the back door strategy."

"If there is a back door to sneak out of, then why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

"Because I thought it would be so fun to just mess with you," Ardin snarked. "Or maybe because I am freaking out a little bit right now. If it's anyone who recognizes me, they will torture me for a very long time before they finish me off. At least you'll have the mercy of a quick death."

Susanna shook her head. "Neither of us are going to die." She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "We're both already wanted for murder, so adding another body to the pile won't really make a difference, will it? There's two of us, and if we can surprise attack the other guy and get his wand, then we'll be a lot better off for it."

Ardin tilted his head curiously. "Are you actually suggesting that we team up to kill somebody? I mean, if it's someone for the gang responsible for my dad's death, then I don't have a problem with trying to take them down, but you've never killed anyone and gotten their blood on your hands."

"And you have?"

He nodded. "Yup. It was for an important cause; I wasn't going to just let those guys get away with a quick and easy death. My dad deserved better than that. And I felt so much better working without magic after the initial incapacitation."

Susanna gulped, but she had already decided that this was their best bet. "Would it be selfish of me to ask that you're the one to actually um, you know…?"

Ardin rolled his eyes, but he pulled Susanna into the kitchen. He grabbed a big knife to hand to her "just in case" and then took another knife for himself. He walked over to the door, and motioned for Susanna to stand on the other side. "You open it, I'll stab, and if we're lucky it'll be an instant hit."

Susanna felt like she was going to be sick, but she couldn't think of any other solution. She didn't want to die out here in the middle of nowhere. And she'd already caused one person's death, so what difference did it make to have more on her conscience? She took a deep breath in, trying to will herself not to vomit, and then she reached out, grabbed the doorknob, and yanked the door open.

,,,

"She had help," Tom reminded them. "I'm not sure what exactly prisoners are like, but I'm assuming that they don't bond and become best friends who just want to all help each other out. Whoever she worked with, they were probably working together out of necessity. Whatever they did to bust out wasn't just some one man job."

Sirius blinked. "So? Who cares how many people were working together to break out? And honestly, I don't think that it'll give us more information about where to find them. If they're even still together now. They might have gotten out and then split up so that they'd be less likely to be caught. Knowing that she had help doesn't help us."

Henry just shrugged, and apparently didn't have anything else to add to the conversation. Since they'd snuck him into the Slytherin house a few hours ago after leaving the headmaster's office, he'd just been moody and sulky. Tom couldn't really blame the guy, since this was a really complicated situation. Too complicated to even be the plot of a badly written book. And Henry had to be worried out of his mind about his sister. Tom had no siblings, but he was also insanely worried about Susanna. He couldn't imagine himself ever getting this freaked out on anyone else's behalf. Susanna was special, though.

When the three boys just stared at each other in silence for a few minutes, Tom realized that they weren't going to be able to figure out anything else today. "Why don't we meet up to talk more tomorrow?"

"Does it have to be in secret again?" Henry grumbled. "We could be doing a lot of good for a lot of people out there if we just show them that it's possible for Slytherins to be friends with the kids from other houses. They should all see that being Slytherin doesn't automatically make someone evil."

Tom couldn't stop himself from snorting loudly at that. "Seriously? Not all Slytherins are evil, but you felt that it was necessary for me to make an unbreakable vow promising that I would not harm innocent people?"

Henry shrugged. "It's true that being in Slytherin doesn't automatically make you evil. But you weren't exactly a good person before that night when you saved Susanna. And I've seen you hanging out with Avery recently. You know, the definitely evil guy who murdered at least two people and then framed my sister for it?"

"I need to keep up appearances," Tom reminded for what felt like the millionth time. "The only way I can ever possibly figure out anything with that guy is if I get close to him. If I shove him and the others away, then they'll only target me next, and then none of us will be winners here. Just trust me on this, okay?"
Henry rolled his eyes. "Right, just trust the weasley Slytherin to be telling the truth. That's real rich."

Tom purposely misinterpreted that. "Hey, don't mistake me for one of the Weasleys!"

Sirius leaned over to nudge Tom in the shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that they're at least richer than you, right?"

"Alright, this has been a really fun chat for all of us, but it's time for you guys to get out. I need time to think. And sleep. And do homework. Lots of things to do. So beat it!"

Henry and Sirius both exchanged what seemed to be an amused look before they got up and headed out of the room they'd been hiding in. Tom stayed in there for a while longer, not wanting anyone to think that he'd actually been hiding in a closet with a couple of dudes, one of whom was a Ravenclaw.

When he finally emerged, there was no one else around anyways, which made Tom nod once in satisfaction. He decided to grab his bag and head down to the library to work on some of his assignments. He could probably figure out the mysteries of Susanna on his own, but he preferred to have some help with it, and he knew that he couldn't let himself fall behind in his classes, no matter how eager he was to conduct a rescue mission. For now he'd just have to keep up appearances, and hope that Susanna doesn't do anything else stupid before Tom can save her.

A/N- Sorry for the shorter than usual chapter; my brain feels like mush right now and this is probably the best that I'm going to be able to do.