Chapter #51 – Summer of Darkness
With all the students gone, Tom felt like he owned the castle. He could go anywhere he liked, and he thought about sneaking into the other houses to see what they were like but he thought better of it. He was sure that they still had their passwords set up so he would not be able to get into them even if he had tried. But he had other things that he wanted to do that were far more important.
Dumbledore left the castle a few days after the holiday started. This was great for Tom for not having him there meant he would not be as worried about the auburn haired annoyance trying to watch his every move. But, when he saw the professor leaving, he knew that he was doing it very reluctantly. Apparently there was some family thing that he had to attend to. Tom would have a Dumbledore-free castle for a week and a half. He smiled and literally skipped back to his common room, though he made sure that no one saw him do so.
That night, Tom sneaked off into the forest again to practice the Killing Curse. He really wished he could Apparate on the grounds so he could practice doing that more but he had already tried it on the first day of the holiday, and it had not been a very pleasant experience at all. When he had tried it, instead of getting the sense of lightheadedness that usually accompanied it, he had gotten an extremely horrible headache that did not go away. He had to put a halt to all his plans for that day and went, for his first time ever, to the Hospital Wing. Though he had had no intention of telling the truth of what had caused the headache, Madam Valen, the school nurse, did not ask about it. But even she could not figure out how to get rid of it. All the things she tried just made it go away for a few hours at most (and in one case, made it worse). It took a week for it to finally go away completely, but he had still been able to continue practicing on the following day, though it took a lot of concentration to do it. The school nurse had warned him, though, that if it had been that bad, he might get them again. He did not like the thought of that, especially with his seventh year coming up.
Even though he could not Apparate on the school's grounds, he could still use the Killing Curse…and he did use it. Since he had been practicing it for about two months now, he had gotten more "magical stamina" and did not get worn out as easily. That spell did take a lot of magic and he was not used to expending that much energy at once. But he knew that the curse was becoming more powerful and that made him very pleased, for that meant he was getting more powerful. Soon he would be able to kill instantly with the curse…
Finally, a few days after Dumbledore had returned, Tom succeeded in killing a jarvey that had insulted him very badly. He had stunned many of those annoying ferret-like creatures before with the curse for their incessant talking and profanities. Just because they could speak did not mean that they had to be so rude about it. After so many previous failed attempts at killing them, he had finally been successful. He walked up to the dead creature, not sure of the result at first. After a few minutes of watching for the rise and fall of the chest and not seeing it, he touched the jarvey and found it was already cold. He celebrated in the darkening forest, wanting to go hunt down another creature, but he did not.
Knowing it was going to be dark very soon, he hurried back towards the castle. Though he had gone rather deep into the forest, he had put a spell on the Invisibility Cloak that would lead him back to where he had left it near the edge of the tree line. He reached it after a short hike and tossed on the Cloak. He did not need the professors to know that he had been out in the forest. He could get in trouble for that.
As he entered the castle and headed to the stairs that went to the dungeon, he swore he felt Dumbledore's eyes on him. He looked up and there, standing at the edge of the stairs, was the Transfiguration professor, looking down towards the dungeons, though not really at Tom. Still, it unnerved him greatly and he hurried as quietly as he could away from where Dumbledore was. Even though he was under the Cloak, he felt that Dumbledore had seen him somehow, or known he was there. He felt a chill go up his spine when he thought about it. He had to find out what it was about Dumbledore, but how could he do it?
***
In the middle of July, when Tom got back from the library after helping Madam Beech with dusting all the books, he entered his common room to find it overrun with house elves. He stood shocked over the number of them. They were scrubbing down the fireplace and the stone floors. The carpeting was gone, as were many of the smaller pieces of furniture. When they all looked up at him, they all stopped and bowed deeply, apologizing to him for the condition of his common room. He just waved them off and went to his room, which was free of house elves for the moment.
Tom had never really seen house elves before, especially at the school, though he had heard about them for a while from his roommates. He thought they were rather interesting creatures, but he was wholly indifferent to them. They were servants…or, more appropriately, slaves, for they were not paid. But, they were less than a wizard, less even than a Muggle. He felt no sorrow for all the hard work they were made to do. They were useful, and he liked things that were useful.
Later that afternoon was when they got to his room. They gathered all the bed curtains and sheets and mattresses, except for those on his bed, and literally disappeared with them. Tom just sat there in shock that they had seemed to Apparate out of the room, which was supposedly not allowed anywhere on the grounds. He forgot about it though and went back to his book. He did not think that it was that important to worry about.
That evening, his head of house came into the now clean room, though Tom's things still needed to be cleaned and the house elves had said they would return to get his hangings and mattress in the morning to clean them. Tom did not know why Professor Sidus was there, but he was sure that it was something of importance. His head of house rarely made trips into his house unless it was important.
"We teachers have just gotten out of our meeting…"
Tom looked at him rather puzzled. A meeting? About what?
Professor Sidus held out a badge that read "Head Boy" across it. "Congratulations."
The prefect's eyes could not have gotten wider, nor could his jaw have drop further. He just stared at the badge for a while, completely in disbelief. "Why…"
"The professors all think that you are very responsible and a great example. You're a model student, Riddle, and I personally think that all the students here should be like you."
Though most of it was based on his "masked" self, Tom was not going to dash his head of house's thoughts of his near perfection. The Astronomy professor walked to Tom and pinned the badge to his school robes, which Tom was still wearing, somewhat out of habit but mainly because he hardly had any other clothes. The two of them smiled at each other for a while.
"Who's the Head Girl?"
"A Hufflepuff named Mavie Oakley."
"A Hufflepuff," he asked, clearly upset and somewhat appalled that it was not Lena…and his professor knew this.
"Lena was mentioned when they were naming prefects for the position. Professor de Nuit said many good things in her favor, but Miss Oakley has been a very big help to the professors and the rest of the staff ever since she arrived at school. She's a very good leader among her fellow Hufflepuffs and, well, she got the position because of it all. She's just as good of a student as you. I'm sure you know that, she's in some of your classes. It was nothing against Miss Westbrook, though, so please…"
"I know, I was just hoping that if I got…"
"I understand, Tom. Most Head Boys and Girls often hope their beloved will be by them in the position, but it is not always the case." He handed the young man a letter. "And here is your book list for next school year. Thought it would be better to go ahead and give it to you instead of having an owl bring it to you since you are still here."
Tom opened the letter and looked over the list of books and supplies he would need for the next year. He needed a lot more things for his Potions class. He sighed. This would not be cheap. "Is there any way I could get to Diagon Alley?"
"I'm going there tomorrow for a few things I need. You are welcome to come with me. You could help me carry some of my things. I'll need the help."
A huge smile crept across his face, thinking of how interesting it would be to go to Diagon Alley with his head of house. "I'd love to come with you!"
"Then I'll get you in the morning after breakfast and we can Floo from the Three Broomsticks."
***
Tom returned from his trip to Diagon Alley after a very interesting day. Going there with his head of house had certainly been an experience. Of course, the fact that Sidus had just as casually gone down Knockturn Alley as Lena had done pointed out to Tom that his head of house was at least somewhat of a Dark wizard. The professor only chuckled when Tom asked him about it, though he did not deny it. Tom had pretty much guessed that he had to be a Dark wizard after those secret meetings he had gone off to a few times with Lena and Darcy. They spent nearly three hours looking at the things in the shops on Knockturn Alley and Tom bought a very nice book from Borgin and Burkes called Artifacts and Devices of Dark Magic, along with a few devices that were actually mentioned in the book from another shop. When they returned to the school, Tom helped the professor set up the new telescope he had bought then spent the evening looking at the stars and learning more about astronomy. Tom suddenly wished he had taken another astronomy class, for he found it absolutely fascinating.
The days passed by quickly after that and soon it was August. It was drawing nearer to the time when he had planned to go to Little Hangleton. He went back into the Forbidden Forest and practiced the Killing Curse more to make sure that he had the hang of it and it would kill each time it struck. After that he went to Hogsmeade, supposedly for an herb that he had forgotten to get when he went to Diagon, but he really wanted to Apparate to Little Hangleton again, for he had successfully done it earlier that summer, going to the graveyard he had spent so much of his time in the previous summer.
He was ready. Now all he needed to do was wait for his birthday, which was now only a few days away. And this was going to be one birthday present that no one was ever going to be able to top.
***
To my reviewers –
lord archimonde – more Icelandic, eh? You know, I tried to translate it myself, but, well, didn't work…^_^; And of course he's practicing the Killing Curse! He has to make sure he can do it before he goes to kill his dad…it'd be bad if he went to kill his father and it didn't work…and it'd be embarrassing too…
Liv – loved the part where he wandered off before the troll died? ^_^ Yes, that was rather amusing…and you need to get over your jealousy…:-P
CheshireCat283 – you're silly…you're cute…and what was this about *one* chapter before Sunday? I got three…^_~
demon horse 900 – how is Tom selfish? And, yes, WWII is drawing to a close…but it won't end until right before they graduate…and Tom's supposed to be scary…how else is he to become Voldemort? Lay off the sugar and put away the Finding Nemo DVD and back away from both slowly…
Lady Snake – wow…you have a lot of 13's in your life…and, yes, good things will come of her death…just wait and see…and if you crucio me then you won't get chapters for a long, long time…
