"You look like you hardly got any sleep," Valeria observed. Charlotte avoided eye contact. "Come to think of it, Riddle looks like he didn't get much sleep either…"

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Charlotte said.

"You didn't—!" Valeria exclaimed, and not referring to what her friend supposedly had not noticed; evidently, she was not fooled by the deflection. Now Charlotte could no longer avoid eye contact, and the look on her face made things plain to Valeria. "You did!" She gasped. "I was joking! Well I'm shocked!"

"Keep it down," Charlotte hushed. Looking past her, Valeria's eyes widened and she quickly turned away; Tom had just stopped by them.

"I'm sure Valeria was just congratulating you on your excellent test scores," he said.

Without turning around, she answered, "I won't tell anyone; it's not my business."

"She noticed we both look sleep deprived, apparently," Charlotte explained.

"You don't," Tom said, in flattery taking the form of surprise. "You look very pretty; no one will notice." A tiny, high-pitched sound came from Valeria. "And anyway," he continued, "no one would think anything of it; we have OWLs this year and everyone's doing extra studying whenever they can."

Valeria snorted. "You can say you were practicing your Charms," she said slyly, looking over her shoulder at them. Then she added sarcastically, "Because everyone will believe that both of you stayed up late studying. On Valentine's Day."

"Thank you, Val," Charlotte said, rolling her eyes, but not without a laugh. "Although we've also all just been woken up early, and that can make people look tired."

"Alright, I'll give you that one," Valeria replied. Sure enough, looking around the room, one found a number of bleary eyed, yawning students.

Their conversation was interrupted by the loud entrance of a grim looking Professor Slughorn, which was an abnormal thing to see—both his presence in the common room, and his severe demeanor. Following him was Professor Dippet, who looked equally stern. Whatever happened was not good. "Students of Slytherin House," Dippet called out. "Last night something very serious happened to one of your peers, Miss Perdita Pepper. By magic unknown, she has been petrified, a frozen, comatose-like state, curable by the Mandrake Restorative Draught, but very serious." He emphasized the last two words. "In order to keep everyone safe, we ask that anyone who may have information about this incident speak up. It is gravely important." He looked around the room at them all. "Today you will have a revised schedule, which will be posted over there," he nodded to a nearby wall. "Breakfast will be served in each common room shortly. You will not leave the Slytherin Dungeon until your first class. Additionally, any suspicious activity should be reported to me or your head of house." He gestured towards Professor Slughorn. "That is all." With that he left them to their anxious chatter of what possibly could have caused such a thing to happen. Meanwhile Slughorn went over to the wall to attach a parchment with their adjusted schedule on it, then headed for an unoccupied armchair and sat there, hands fiddling with an empty potion bottle he pulled out of his pocket. Evidently he was to stay with his students until further notice also.

By now, whispers had filled the room.

"Who'd want to harm Perdita?"

Seeing Slughorn still in the room, and seated at a distance from the clusters of speculating students, Tom had headed over to him. Charlotte followed, leaving Valeria on the bench, lost in thought.

"What about someone outside the school?"

"You mean like…"

"Grindlewald? The war? This could be connected."

"Why would Grindlewald attack Hogwarts?"

"Maybe he's finally decided to bring the war over here. Don't know why now, though..."

"He could be trying to send a message to someone, like someone in power. He targets the higher-ups in other countries Ministries of Magic, doesn't he?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Perdita's a muggle-born though. It can't be her parents he's threatening."

Charlotte felt a sense of fear grip her, and that sensation of one's stomach dropping, as she realized that, if something like what they were imagining were to happen, she was a very likely target. And it wouldn't be the first time someone in her family had been deemed an enemy of Grindelwald. She pushed the thought away. The attack on Perdita didn't fit his pattern, as the group of students was concluding, so Charlotte tried not to think about it anymore, to not to let it worry her. Tried.

"Tom. Charlotte." Slughorn acknowledged both of them.

"Sir," Tom began, addressing Professor Slughorn, who tried to look somewhat cheerful, which was more easily accomplished faced by his favorite student, even in this situation. "I wondered if you could tell me anything more about what's going on."

"Not much, I'm afraid," he answered. "That is, there's not much we know. Miss Pepper was found on the sixth floor by Professor Merrythought, near her office, early this morning. We don't know at what time the petrification occurred, nor who, or what, was responsible. Or why, for that matter." Slughorn frowned.

"Any idea what she was doing there? Before she was attacked, that is," Charlotte asked. "She was very far from the Dungeon when she wasn't supposed to be out."

"Indeed, she was," Slughorn nodded. "She was dressed up, had a mirror in her hand;"—a look of understanding quickly passed over Riddle's face—"I suspect she was meeting someone, a Ravenclaw or Gryffindor boy, who we now must hope can give us some explanation."

"But they probably hadn't met yet, since she was using a mirror, so he should have been the one to find her," Charlotte reasoned curiously.

"Maybe he stood her up," Tom said. "Or maybe he's the culprit."

"I'd hate to think it was a student," Slughorn said. "A rather dark piece of magic, petrification—and difficult to pull off. Of course, I'd also hate to think we have a gorgon loose in the castle."

Just then breakfast arrived, magically appearing as it did in the Great Hall, in this case accompanied by a large table. The groups dotted around the room broke up and converged on the meal.

"Well, enough of that. The important thing is Miss Pepper will be alright, and we should be able to catch whoever did this soon. Now go have your breakfast. I think I'll have one of those blueberry muffins; they look very good," Slughorn said, hungrily regarding the food-filled table.

A blueberry muffin rose up from the table and whizzed towards them, coming to a halt in front of the professor. Tom was smiling. "Riddle, you never fail to impress!" Slughorn exclaimed proudly, reaching out and taking the muffin. "I'll see you both in potions later," he said.

The Professor Runewood who welcomed them to Charms class that afternoon was on edge. "I'm sorry," she said somewhat shrilly. "Opening the classroom door today resulted in an explosion of firecrackers set off, obscene words being scribbled on the blackboards, Professor Dumbledore's tenpins ball rolling across the benches—" Snickering and some outright laughter broke out across the class. Tom knew better than to catch Charlotte's eye, and she was smart enough to do the same. "It's not funny!" Professor Runewood exclaimed, more shrilly than before. "The girl could have died!" The room immediately grew hushed. A look of mild shock came over the professor's face. She collected herself. "What I mean to say is—petrification is not very far off from death. And the kinds of things that can carry out a petrification are not very friendly, so death is, I think, within their means."

Tom concentrated greatly on maintaining a passive expression, but this comment showed she, and perhaps the rest of the staff, suspected a basilisk. He had not expected that. Although, that morning, Professor Slughorn had told them nothing of such suspicions, and he could be trusted to tell the truth, to Tom at least. So maybe Professor Runewood was simply superstitious and, having heard the legends, feared the worst.

Professor Runewood had been carrying on in exasperation, "On today of all days, in the midst of catastrophe, Peeves decides to set up a Rube Goldberg apparatus in here…"

"A what?" someone asked curiously.

"Rube Goldberg apparatus," Runewood answered, enunciating the name. "One object affects another in a chain reaction of—mayhem." She was obviously still flustered.

"I've never heard of that. Is it a muggle thing?"

"Yes, it is," she replied hesitantly. Then, wringing her hands, she said, "And now we'll be starting our lesson. No more about that."

This was odd. Her reaction to admitting knowledge of a muggle contraption suggested she was muggle-born, and frightened to let them know that. This suggested she knew even more about the task of the Heir of Slytherin at Hogwarts. Tom didn't like it one bit. Still, Runewood was not a very muggle sounding surname. But, regardless, she suspected too much, even if it was likely just superstition, and that was a problem. He decided he would contemplate his decision further before he acted, because attacking a teacher was bound to cause more trouble than attacking a student.

Author's Note: I wondered whether attacking a teacher would be "bound to cause more trouble than attacking a student", and thought about changing the wording. Because, on the one hand, a teacher would have to be replaced, yes, but a student's family might cause trouble—a very likely reaction of a parent whose child has been harmed. But I realized, Riddle wouldn't think of this, this familial retaliation driven by love; further, I think he would see the teacher's superiority as being in a position of authority, and focus on that to determine their importance, because he seems like one to think in terms of rank. So I left it, as it fits quite well. And that's the end of my little analysis of that.