Author's Note: I'm sorry it took me forever. I think this chapter is sort of useless. Well, most of it anyway. I just added it in to show more details and possibilities and to enhance the amount of events and such. I also attempted to show another side of Tom, not necessarily the calm and reflective one, or the angry and short tempered one, but more like the calm, mysterious, angry, sly, and unpredictable type. Ok, what the hell am I talking about?!

He once fancied her

They once shared a kiss

He said it was something

She said it was meaningless

She told him to forget her

And he truly did

And now she can't stand the fact

That he forgets her and hides her in his shadows

His words still resonated in her head as she made her way back to her dorm room and went to bed.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I don't think I can ever bother you again. I will NEVER bother you again."

She sighed. Would she ever be able to forget him? Would she forget about him, not about the kiss, but about him as a friend? As a person? In reference to what he felt for her and to what he told her? She sighed once again. She was sure that he would learn to forget her, to ignore her, to completely hide her in his shadows. She could not help but cry. So that night, she cried herself to sleep.

For the next month, James refused to say a single word to Lily. Tom, who still had no idea of what went on between them, was surprised to see James ignore her. James would look at her quite oddly once in a while but would result in not talking to her at all.

Two months into school time, nothing interesting has happened. James has completely ignored Lily, which hurt her more than she thought it would. Her relationship with Tom seemed to be a bit more unsettling than before the summer began. She was less passionate than she was before, and much quieter. When he spoke to her, she would go deep into thought about other things, which he noticed. He surely did not want to end his relationship with her. There was no reason to. He still loved her nonetheless, and hopefully, she loved him as well.

It was Halloween. The moon outside was full and beautiful. It shone very brightly and cast dancing moonlight through the wisps of clouds. It was also almost midnight. Tom led Lily outside to the tree where they first kissed, where he had recited poems to her, and such. It was also cold outdoors. The couple had been shivering on their way to the tree.

"Oh Tom, the moon is so beautiful," Lily commented, who was really dazzled by the moon and the night sky.

"I know," he replied with a smile. "It's almost as beautiful as you are."

Every time he showered her with compliments, she just felt like breaking into pieces. Gusts of guilt and regret arrived.

And then he began reciting poetry, one about the stars and the planets and the dark skies. In fact, he wrote it himself. He's been prepared since the end of the summer. His poetry reciting just melted her heart. He leaned her against a tree and started kissing her...until they heard a loud rustle in a bush nearby.

"What was that?" she gasped.

"It could be anything," he said quite solemnly, his eyes focused on the bush in such a dark and serious manner. "There are many crazy things out on Halloween nights. I'll

keep you safe."

He slowly approached the bush with her behind him. Nothing came out. They both looked behind the bush and Lily gasped, clutched her chest, and fell back. Out in front of them was a fresh dead body, one of a student from Hogwarts. Tom had little reaction. He stood still, his eyes planted on the corpse.

"Oh my god!" Lily screamed.

Tom was stiff and silent.

"Tom, we must do something! Anything to help him!"

"No," he managed to choke up. "It's too late now."

"No, Tom, maybe it's not-"

Tom bent down and felt for the victim's pulse...but there was none.

"No. It's too late."

"What are we going to do? Do we tell Professor Dippet?"

"No. Then Professor Dumbledore will hear about it."

"What's wrong with that?" Lily inquired.

"Professor Dumbledore always knows too much."

"Then maybe he can help."

"Help? How?"

"Find out who killed this poor man."

Tom looked into the victim's eyes. He recognized him as Harold Berrington from Hufflepuff, in the same year as his. Tom stood up and stepped back.

"No, Lily. We tell noone."

Lily did not answer back. Her eyes were heavily protruded with both sorrow and grief.

"Lily? Did you hear me? We tell noone, ok?"

Lily nodded faintly. She could no longer speak. Tom looked down at the victim. There was a deep bleeding gash in his neck, a couple of bruises on his face and his arms, and some dirt on his body.

'Disgusting', Tom thought.

It was the first time he has ever really taken a good look at his victim, his own victim.

The next day was a Saturday. Lily was very eerily quiet the whole day. She stayed locked up in her dorm room, refusing to even go meet her own boyfriend. She was too traumatized to do or to think of anything else. She stayed in bed until noon time. One of her best friends brought food up for her, which Lily ate very little of. Her best friend was confused at the reason of Lily's state but she dared not ask. She was too afraid of the answer, and Lily was too afraid to say the words out loud. Tom was not aware of how bad her condition was.

That Saturday night, when it was past curfew, Tom managed to sneak out of Hogwarts unnoticed. He was standing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest as he waited.

He heard a noise, and one by one, twelve hooded people in dark cloaks stepped out, circling him.

"Stop it and let down your hoods," he spat.

The dark cloaked people immediately stopped and obeyed. They were twelve Slytherin students, all but one, all but poor Peter Pettigrew. Amongst them were mainly guys apart from two girls.

"That Harold Berrington boy, that was your doing, wasn't it?" Tom demanded.

"More like your doing, my Lord," a boy with bleached blonde hair and dark blue eyes said.

"Don't tell me what is my doing and what is yours!" Tom snapped venomously, which caused his followers to step back in fear.

"I'm...I'm sorry, my Lord," the boy stuttered.

Tom calmed himself. "Disgusting. Couldn't you have thrown his body in a river or

something? Anything to hide it away?"

"We didn't know, Sir," another boy murmured.

"Whatever. I've already vanished it with some spell you useless fools don't know. Now, are there any other people that you've killed yesterday night?"

"We killed that Ravenclaw couple. Henrietta and Marcus," a purple haired girl declared proudly.

"In our grade? And what have you done to their bodies?"

"Left them to rot!" a third boy sniggered.

"You fools!" Tom thundered, anger shimmering in his eyes. "Bring me their bodies, now."

"But...they're deep in the woods. We've hid them there!" the third boy protested.

"Then bring me their bodies at tomorrow's meeting. Now, are those the only people that you've killed last night?"

"Yes Sir," Peter Pettigrew replied.

What was Peter doing there, you might ask? He had been a friend of James' since the first year at Hogwarts but he was so vulnerable that he was scared into joining Voldemort's group. Tom figured that it would be the best way to get any kind of secret information from James and his friends.

"Do you know why I've asked you to kill all these innocent people?" Tom asked surprisingly calmly.

"I remember!" the boy with the bleached hair cried out. "You didn't want anyone to bother your romantic night with your girlfriend."

"That's correct. But somehow it still got disrupted, all thanks to you worthless morons! You killed Harold Berrington right near where my girlfriend and I were standing. We found his body while I was spending time with her! And it's all because you fools couldn't kill Berrington somewhere else. I am very disappointed in you."

"We're sorry," the second girl of the group apologized. "We didn't mean to."

"Why are you with that silly redheaded girl anyway?" the first girl, with the purple hair, dangerously complained.

Tom swiftly turned around and menacingly approached her. His eyes were filled with venom and fury. The other followers dared not speak.

"Have you just called my love a silly redheaded girl?"

"Yes. She doesn't deserve you, you know that?! You deserve to be with someone so much better."

"Someone like you, perhaps?" Tom asked in a calm and playful manner.

"We deserve each other, Tom," the girl said in an evil but seductive smirk.

She brought her hand to his cheek and stroked it gently. The others feared for her life but have decided to remain silent anyway. Tom put his hand under her chin and lifted it quickly, squeezing it as he angrily spoke to her.

"I'm sorry but you will never be with me. You are too much of a fool, too vulnerable. Too gullible. But you are, I must admit, stronger than all the others."

With his other hand, he gently waved to the other followers, who were mildly insulted.

"You had the courage to speak up to me like that. Usually, I like that but not this time,

Violet. The bitter words you have spoken were against the love of my life, and nobody, not even you, can insult her."

He gently wrapped his cold hand around her neck, much to her pleasure.

"I'm sorry, Violet, but you're not my type. You're too weak. And if you ever speak against my love again..." He breathed soothingly into her ear. "I'll have to rip you apart and make sure you leave an awful, bloody corpse."

Then, he stepped back and roughly pushed her, which caused her to fall. The others stepped back in shock.

"What?" he laughed mockingly. "Are you afraid of me?"

His followers vigorously shook their heads as to show no fear whatsoever.

"Next time," he continued, "I expect you to do the job well."

And not so far away, James, as always, was surreptitiously watching and listening behind a bush.

Author's Note: Yes, I know. James is always either eavesdropping or spying or whatever. I'm sure it's annoying but I just can't help it. It's somewhat necessary.