A/N: My internet's been down for a while, so I've got a few chapters ready. I'll post my review responses in the last one I update with. And I have an idea of what could happen in this fic. Take note of this chapter. I'm sure you'll recognise some parts from a certain HP book, though they aren't exactly the same.
Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you? I do not own Harry Potter! Only the Haycon Seer Ability and a few places and OUCs (Original Unimportant Characters)!
Chapter 3
Tom listened as Ben padded away down the hall. That had been an interesting conversation.
Sighing, he leaned back slightly on the desk he was sitting on. That rhyme that Ben had heard in his sleep could mean anything. But it also suggested that he might have some sort of seer's ability, though not the most common type where the seer enters a trance and cannot remember anything afterwards. No, he had heard of this sort of thing before. It was rare, and it was called the Haycon Seer ability (A/N: I totally made this up, by the way), named after the first person to have it, Alexander Haycon.
Over the past few weeks since the incident of Grindelwald's return in Hogsmeade a great deal had happened. He had found out that the truth about many things, and was forgiven by most for them fully. And by most, he meant that a few people hadn't.
One such person was Sirius Black, though Tom couldn't blame him. He had, even though he had no control over his actions, killed his best friend, and forced another to betray them to him after becoming a Death Eater, though Peter Pettigrew had never been found after that night, by neither the Death Eaters nor the Order of the Phoenix.
Everyone had spent months trying to find him, the Order to arrest him, the Death Eaters to be sure he wouldn't sell them out, but no trace of him had ever been found. Now it was commonly believed by all that he had been trying to revive Grindelwald to power, as his grandparents had been in Grindelwald's inner circle, though this was a fact very few knew.
Though most people forgave him, he knew he had to win back their trust. They wouldn't fully forgive him until then, and it was their forgiveness that he needed.
Strangely, one of the people he had wronged most had forgiven him. He was, of course, thinking about Rubeus Hagrid, who had been three years below him when they were at Hogwarts, and had always been sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls.
During his sixth year at Hogwarts, and Hagrid's third, Tom had been forced to open the chamber of secrets, as he was their heir of Slytherin. He had then, been forced to blame Hagrid. It was one of the few things he could remember from his earlier time when he was possessed, and even that was hazy. He couldn't remember of the details, or even where the chamber was, though he could remember that a muggle-born girl had been killed in a Girls Bathroom.
Of course in the time since the Hogsmeade incident, he had been trying his hardest to remember what he could about when he was possessed by the spirit. Of all the 50 years since he had last been in total control of his own actions, he could still only remember snippets of the past.
He knew that these times that he could remember had been times when he, as Tom Riddle, had been truly happy. Most of these times were after he had adopted Ben.
These memories all included spending time with Ben. He could remember the majority of things that had happened with him, which was probably vital in their fight against the spirit.
Now, he had been asked to take the Defence job, which he had accepted, it would possibly prove to people that he could be trusted, and it could also be the spirit's undoing, though only time would tell.
Getting up, he walked out of the classroom that he would he be teaching in later that year to find Dumbledore to tell him about Ben's new found ability, which could cause him to have to start Divination a year early, though it was a badly kept secret that most students, and several professors too, thought that Professor Trelawney couldn't predict her way out of a paper bag (A/N: and who wouldn't agree with that statement?).
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Before anyone knew it, what with the preparations for the new school year, dealing with the trouble the Slytherin Three, as Ben, Blaise and Draco were affectionately known (A/N: Okay, I confess! I was sick of writing out Ben, Blaise and Draco from My Father Murdered my Parents! And you better not have forgotten that Blaise and Draco were staying over the summer too!) amongst other things, it was soon the night before the start of term.
As Ben entered the room for the summer for really the last time that year, he stared in shock at the house elf the on the bed.
He had large bat-like ears, like all house-elves, a long thin nose, and bulging green eyes a bit bigger than a golden snitch. It wore an old, filthy pillowcase, which caused Ben to recognise it as the Malfoy's elf, Dibby, Dabby, Debby, Dobby, something like that (A/N: Those of you that read MFMMP (which there may be a few people who still haven't, despite my warnings to) will probably realise how bad Ben can be with names).
After a couple of seconds staring at each other, the elf slipped off of the bed where he had been waiting and bowed so deeply that the tip of his nose touched the floor.
"Master Ben sir! Or maybe Dobby should call you Master Harry Potter now sir!" squeaked Dobby in his high voice.
"It's Ben," he said back menacingly, having never really been able to stand this house elf, though he had always realised that it was treated unfairly.
"Of course master Ben, sir!" it squeaked, taking a step backwards gulping.
"What do you want?" asked Ben. "Is there any particular reason why you're here?"
"Yes sir! Of course sir!" said Dobby in earnest. "Dobby has come to tell you, sir ... it is difficult, sir ... Dobby wonders where to begin..."
"The beginning?" suggested Ben obviously, with a bite of impatience in his voice.
"Of - of course Master Ben!" it squeaked, it's fear renewing. "You must be careful at Hogwarts this year, sir! It is of imperilous importance that you stay away from danger and out of harms way, sir!"
"Why?" asked Ben suspiciously?
"There is a plot, Master Ben. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year, sir. Dobby has known about it for months, sir!"
"What terrible things?" asked Ben at once. "Who's plotting them?"
"Dobby cannot say, sir! As much as Dobby wishes he could, he cannot!" said Dobby, disappearing with a sudden crack afterwards.
Ben frowned. He was glad that Dobby had gone. That elf had always bugged him, but what he said annoyed him.
He shook his head, putting it down to Grindelwald trying to get to his father in some strange way, and started packing for the next day.
A/N: Wow! At the minute this is quite a long chapter for me. Maybe my internet should go down more often. But, then again, maybe not (damn you NTL!).
