Tom glances around Little Hangleton in a bit of curiosity - there's not much to do, barely a grocery store…but that just means it'll be easier to clear the muggles out, and he's more than willing to use some Compulsions to get them to look for jobs somewhere else. Or maybe he can help a muggle company expand or something? Much as he wants the Wizarding World separate from the Muggle one, he does acknowledge the detail that they can only keep the worlds so far apart - they're on the same planet, after all.

Still, Evelynn gave him some recommendations for investments, both muggle and magical, and he's more than willing to follow her lead on this one. If he can create jobs somewhere else in the British Isles, he can maybe Compel Little Hangleton's current residents to leave for them. It wouldn't look suspicious in the slightest, considering Little Hangleton is a backwater town with an emphasis on 'little' in its name. Great Hangleton has potential, being only six miles from the town.

There's an idea. Create some work in Great Hangleton, get the residents of Little Hangleton to go there for work…that should work out nicely. He'll ask Griphook to work out the details with whatever company he decides on.

"You do know that, whatever you do, the old traitor will try his hardest to paint you in a bad light."

Tom barely refrains from jumping out of his skin - a large part of which is helped by being very much in public - and thinks back I know. He's always hated me. The hypocrite.

"Indeed. A powerful one, though, and not just in magical strength. He's had an entire lifetime to learn all he knows, from magic to manipulation, you are a mere fourteen years into this world. And my Mistress, while older, had to…I believe the expression is 'start from scratch' as he made sure her education was as spotty and incomplete as possible. Even if she had taken Runes, for instance, only translations were taught instead of the practical applications. Arithmancy was described as another kind of Divination, just with numbers, instead of an integral part of spell-crafting." Ironically, Evelynn got more actual experience in Creatures class than she would've in the other two electives. Hagrid might've had some dangerous, even deadly teaching methods, and he definitely couldn't tell a safe one from a lethal creature, but they did learn things. All she would've learned in Runes would've been a spotty, swiss-cheese of a translation method, and Arithmancy would've been turned into as big a joke as Divination was.

Which means we're the underdogs.

"More or less. It gives you the advantage of surprise, however. He won't be expecting you to have any idea of what he'll be doing. And the public will adore you, if you do things right."

Death's right, and Tom knows he's right. Getting people to like you, though, is just much harder than going off on a murder-spree…especially when you really don't care what other people think of you that much. He doesn't care if people like him or not, he cares if they respect him. Still, he doesn't want any opponents - any that he can avoid, at least - so he'll have the public eating out of his hand.

The training dummies can be the outlet for his frustrations, one of Evelynn's suggestions.

After he gets back to the Manor, with Frank letting him in - his grandparents are out in Great Hangleton for a business meeting of some kind, leaving him alone for the day, something he doesn't particularly mind at all - he heads to his room and opens the journal up to write out some ideas, maybe Evelynn will have hers on hand to give some feedback with. Just as he's about to start writing, though, the book warms in his hand to signal Evelynn's opened hers.

'Little Hangleton looks promising. Doesn't look like there's much to do, honestly.'

'Sounds ideal. We can make the Muggles think the place was wiped out by a bombing. How's your day going?'

'Well enough. The Riddles are out of town, so I'm free to do whatever so long as I don't get in trouble. Spent today scoping out the town. You?'

'In Godric's Hollow, right now. Just finished talking with Bathilda Bagshot. Turns out Aberforth knew a lot, but not everything.'

Tom smirks at the book, and writes out 'Oh really? And what did brother dearest miss out on while he was in school?'

'Bathilda probably doesn't know everything either. But,' there's a pause for a moment, one Evelynn's likely doing on purpose just to make him wonder a bit 'they made a Blood Pact. Bagshot saw it happen from her window.'

Tom stares at the words in utter shock for a moment, completely floored. Dumbledore, all-dark-magic-is-bad Dumbledore, using Blood Magic to make a Blood Pact with Gellert Grindelwald. Its so ludicrous, especially considering his later stance against everything traditional, that it sends him into hysterical laughter.

Fifteen minutes of uncontrollable laughter later - and a bubbling feeling of rage at the old man's hypocrisy that only seems to fuel his hysteria further - Tom writes out 'No wonder he won't fight the man. Think its still in his office?'

'Don't know. Maybe one has it, maybe the other. Still doesn't excuse him from doing nothing. He can't fight Grindelwald face to face. It says nothing about telling the authorities at some point before the blonde rose to power and started the slaughter years later.'

'True. How do you want to play that?'

'Not sure just yet. Release the information to the press, do you think?'

'I think that sounds like a wonderfully humiliating first step.'

Tom smirks, he can write Abraxas for this - he's got a flair for Politics, and is going into them soon. If anyone would know a good next step to take Dumbledore down after releasing something as damning as Dumbledore's sordid past, it would be Abraxas.

And then Evelynn writes 'Maybe we'll make multiple copies, send them out to the Ministry and the ICW to. Can't hurt to be thorough.'

'Have I said lately I love how that mind of yours works?'

There's no answer, but Tom can practically see Evelynn's blush in his mind. Can see her just sitting there, staring at the words he wrote with her face glowing the color of a Stunner. Nagini just lets out a hissy laugh at his description of why she didn't write back, and Hedwig turns into a dragon and says "That sounds exactly like my Eve-chick. She's never known what to do with people genuinely liking her, after so long of being hated just for existing or people just wanting her for her fame."

Tom nods his head absentmindedly, focusing more on Evelynn's response as it finally comes. 'Talk later, going to keep talking to people here. Need to make sure people remember me if anyone investigates anything. Like how I found this stuff out in the first place.'

Tom snickers, just imagining the look on Dumbledore's face if he ever learns of today. Undisguised horror, and she has the perfect excuse of trying to learn more about her family. Its well-known, after all, that the Peverell Brothers are buried in Godric's Hollow. She can just say she looked up the story, tracked them down as they were the last known Peverells before her, and went from there. Truly, it's the perfect excuse - and one that's more than acceptable to the Purebloods that currently run Wizarding Britain.

Its one in the morning, again, and Tom still can't sleep. Ever since he got here, he hasn't been able to sleep. He doesn't want to wander the house in case one of his grandparents wakes up from the possible noise, and Hedwig is getting antsy to get back to Evelynn. He feels much the same, honestly. It's a strange - alarming, all the bells going off in his head - craving to have her near once more, and he's not sure what the cause is or what to do about it. The only thing that seems to soothe it, though, is when they write to each other - specifically, when Evelynn writes as her magic activates the Protean Charm when she does.

Deciding he's got literally nothing better to do - its either stare out the window trying to think of any curse he's ever heard of that would do something like this to him, stare at the walls, count the floorboards, or count sheep in his head in a fruitless attempt at sleep - he gets the journal open and starts writing. 'Evelynn, you there?'

After a minute, she answers 'Yeah, what's up? Is something wrong?'

'Yes, but I'm not sure what. I haven't been able to sleep this whole time here.' It's a long moment before Evelynn writes back, but its not advice in the slightest.

'Me neither, bar the day I recharged the Wards on Peverell Cottage. And I was more unconscious than actually sleeping then. Once I woke up from that, I was up whether my body wanted it or not. And it really didn't want it, felt like i was made of stone but my mind wouldn't shut off.'

Tom groans under his breath, that was…not what he was hoping for. 'Have you ever had anything like this happen before?'

'No. One time I tried to stay awake indefinitely around fifth year, but that was due to the Horcrux connection and the dreams I was getting. And sometimes I can't sleep, but that's insomnia and usually lasts a day or two. I've never not been able to fall asleep for this long. You think its some kind of curse?'

'I don't know, and that's what's worrying me the most.'

'Hang tight, I'll be there soon. We can figure out something then.'

Tom nods silently, letting out a breath as he does, and writes 'We could probably use the Gaunt Shack for that. Using any magic without tripping the Trace at all. It's got some shoddy spells on it, from what I can tell.'

'Good thinking. I'll be there in a day. Two, tops. We'll get this sorted out then.'

Tom nods, muttering "We've got to. School starts in a month, and even with whatever's going on with Dumbledore the man will pounce on anything he can to get to either of us." He's been going over everything during his late nights, any possible reason why Dumbledore would automatically blacklist him, and he thinks Evelynn's right.

Dumbledore wants the Hallows for himself, and he's perfectly willing to use him to get the Ring. Tom thinks he's also willing to keep a war going - if Dumbledore didn't start the conflict, something Evelynn honestly isn't sure about given Voldemort's mental state as long as she knew him in her original time, he was perfectly content dragging it out instead of actually fighting. Evelynn heard Sirius complain once about only being able to use things like Stunners and Inflammare, since the old man was all about his 'second chances' - and third, and fourth, etc. - when it suited him. Instead of taking out an enemy, either by disabling them or just ending them, he let them go time and again and let the war continue.

Well, Tom won't start a war this time…but if Dumbledore does he will end it. He won't hold back, he won't be the 'nice guy' and let someone get up after trying to attack him or his. Dumbledore tries anything against him, tries to take everything from him again…well, actually, there might not be anything left of him after Evelynn's through with the old coot.

And then Tom groans and goes to put on a freezing cold shower, seems even his imaginary Evelynn is far, far too good at pushing his buttons. He'd wonder just when Evelynn slipped her way into the category of 'his things' and how she managed it so easily, if he hadn't wondered about it a thousand times before now - and Evelynn doesn't have a clue, seeing as it was never her intention.

Far as either of them can tell - having spent a few nights writing about this exact conversation - it just…happened. She showed up, he got curious, they went to Wool's together, she gave him answers…and that's where it all falls apart, as Tom can't find any other specific event in his mind that would lead to them snogging in secret every chance they got, or getting a mix of magic and pleasure whenever they came into contact with one another.

And he has to wonder…is that all that'll happen to them? Or will there be more as…this, whatever it is, progresses? Something tells him, deep in his gut, that the answer is a yes, yes there will be more as whatever is happening to them continues.

He should probably worry about that, but he can't bring himself to care at the moment.

AN: Hey, everyone! Next chapter is up, hope you like it! I'm honestly debating about whether or not to simply tear down Little Hangleton's buildings and start from scratch, or change the buildings with Transfiguration when the place is cleared out. Also, how much forest around there would you think would be needed for a steady supply of different plants? Or to support some magical creatures - like Unicorns, for example? Heck, maybe I should just magically expand the land inside the Wards.

Anyway, enjoy! More updates coming soon!

PS. going back to some 12-hour shifts a week, so please be patient if updates are late!