Year Six: Chapter Nine

The first meeting of Tom's group (which, now that he'd considered it more, really did need a name, and Zabini's suggestion was useless as it lacked any hint of intent) began just after breakfast. In addition to those he considered his, there were a number of newcomers, including most of the first year students. Tom took a deep breath, gave a practiced smile, and welcomed the group in with a volley of curses only half of them managed to dodge. (He wasn't completely heartless though - he only hit each first year once or twice, and never with anything too painful.)

Twenty minutes later, as Padma and Ginny went around healing the more serious injuries, Tom gave them a proper welcome. "Welcome to the first meeting of the year of my study group. If you weren't aware or had forgotten, I will devote at least a quarter of an hour to dueling. For the time being, the rules are that you are welcome to target me at any time with any spell you wish. If you target any other member with my express permission, you will be removed from the room immediately, and you will not be welcomed back. If you attempt to hit me but end up attacking someone else, you will be subject to the spell you cast and made to sit out for the remainder of the session.

"The rest of the time will be spent covering topics adjacent, but not identical, to the subjects Professor Snape will be teaching. To facilitate this, we will be splitting the group by year. A schedule will be passed out sometime this week. Additional, supplementary sessions will be held every Sunday at eight in the morning and two in the afternoon. Everyone is welcome, but the topics covered in these sessions will be more eclectic. I intend to teach the Patronus Charm and the Animagus transformation, for instance.

"Are there any questions?"

One boy – tall, with the kind of mussed, just-out-of-bed hair Tom knew required far more effort than actual just-out-of-bed hair – raised his hand and, without waiting to be called on, said, "If you take on nine sessions each week, you won't have time to do anything else. I'm more than happy to assist you though. I can teach the fifth and sixth years."

Tom didn't recognize the boy off-hand, though he was, presumably, a seventh year and, by the color of his tie, a Gryffindor. He smiled. "Thank you for the kind offer, Mister…?"

"McLaggen. Cormac McLaggen."

Tom nodded. "McLaggen. However, I am quite able to teach the sixth and seventh years, and I have already chosen the teachers for all the younger years."

McLaggen's eyes narrowed, but he otherwise looked perfectly friendly as he nodded in acceptance. Tom made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

Another boy, this one a younger Hufflepuff, asked, "What's this group called?"

Hermione jumped in. "We haven't yet come up with an official name." She turned to Tom, beaming, "I thought we could ask everyone to think about it and submit any ideas, then we could pick our favorites and let everyone vote on them."

Tom stared at her for a moment, then pressed his eyes closed and took a breath. He wished she'd stop springing these ideas of hers on him in public like this. "I take it you already came up with a name?" he asked.

"Of course. I think 'Witches and Wizards Working Toward a Greatly Improved Future' has a nice ring to it."

Greengrass – Daphne, that is – snorted. "Do you do this on purpose? First Spew and now this?"

Hermione glared at her. "It's SPEW, not Spew. It stands for –"

"Yeah, no one cares what it stands for. It looks like Spew, we're calling it Spew," Daphne cut her off with an impatient wave of her hand. She turned to Tom. "We've been calling us The Grey in Slytherin, since you're not advocating for or against any specific type of magic."

Susan Bones smiled awkwardly, hand raising as she said, "We've just been calling it Harry's Thing in Hufflepuff, and I know the Ravenclaws have their own name for it as well."

Tom turned expectantly to Padma, since Luna didn't seem to be paying any attention, and the girl shrugged. "If we have to call it something, we call it The Study Group. That's what it is, after all."

Tom sighed and looked to Ron, who shook his head. "If the other Gryffindors are calling it something, I haven't heard about it."

It was Dean Thomas who confirmed, "We've been pretty vague about it. Actually, that's basically all we've been calling it. Just 'it.' A couple people last year wanted to do something like Potter's Army or something stupid like that, but the twins talked them out of it, and nothing else ever came up."

Tom sighed. "We're not calling it whatever that absurdly long name Hermione used was, 'It' is too vague, and I'm not referring to any group as 'My Thing,' so it's either The Study Group or The Grey. Vote?"

The Hufflepuffs, looking understanding, and the Gryffindors, looking very much like they didn't really care (except for a mutinous Hermione), traded looks, and whispers broke out. Tom took the opportunity to face Hermione, inviting her to say what she was thinking.

"What's wrong with mine?" she demanded.

"It's too long, and it doesn't even turn into any kind of pronounceable acronym. WWWTGIF? No one's going to take the time to say all that." Tom took in her hurt expression and sighed. "A good name for a group should fill at least three out of four conditions. It should give some idea of the group's purpose, it should be short or at least have a short acronym, it should be easy to remember, and it should sound interesting. Yours only does one of those, and even then it's not the purpose of the group as a whole, just a subsection of it. Meanwhile, The Study Group isn't particularly interesting, but it's short, simple, and to the point. The Grey doesn't necessarily say much about the group's purpose, but it does fulfill the other three conditions."

Hermione deflated, shoulders sagging and head lowering. "I thought mine sounded inspirational at least," she said quietly.

Tom grimaced. "There's a fine line between inspirational and pretentious," he told her. Voldemort crossed that line often in Potter's memories. It was mildly painful to think about. With a sigh at Hermione's dejected expression, he turned back to the other students. Ron looked annoyed, but said, "We went with the Slytherins' idea. If anyone joins another study group, the Ravenclaws' name could get confusing."

"Fair enough," Tom said with a nod. "That's it for today then. If you intend to continue coming, please sign the contract Hermione drew up. It states that you may not speak about this group to anyone with the intent of disrupting our ability to continue meeting. Should you break the contract, you will find yourself feeling quite uncomfortable until Hermione decides to forgive you."

He bit his lip to keep from laughing at the eye rolls some of the students gave at that. He hoped one of them did try to break the contract. It would be amusing to watch them grovel at Hermione's feet.

Speaking of Hermione, Tom frowned. The boy from earlier – McLaggen – was approaching her. Tom smiled and waved and made small talk with the students still milling around, all the while meandering closer to where Hermione stood, her expression bored.

"-about Potter." Tom only caught the end of the sentence, but it involved him, so he felt justified in continuing to listen in.

"What?" Hermione asked, brows furrowed.

McLaggen stepped closer to her. "I mean, it's pretty clear he's shagging Weasley, and probably Loony too. It must be hard to see him ignore what's right in front of him in favor of two girls who aren't even in the same year as him."

Hermione huffed, looking nothing but annoyed. "Harry is not 'shagging' them, and even if he was, it wouldn't be any of your business."

"Don't be like that. I'm just saying that, after everything you've been through together, he shoulda picked you. I would have." He reached out and tried to touch a strand of Hermione's hair, but she stepped to the side quickly. McLaggen continued, undeterred. "What do you say? I'm willing to let you come to Hogsmeade with me. We can show Potter what he missed out on."

Tom's first instinct was to kill the boy for touching what belonged to him. For now, he crossed the remaining space with quick, purposeful strides. "Hermione!" he called.

The girl looked up, relief washing over her face only to be replaced with surprise as Tom took her arm and pulled her away from the older Gryffindor. "T – Harry?" she squawked.

Tom slid between them, ignoring the indignant shout. "What were you two talking about?" he asked cheerfully, still considering if murder was the better part of valor. "Did you have another question, McLaggen?"

The other boy sneered. "Just letting her know she has other, better options available."

Tom stepped closer, enough that only McLaggen could hear his hissed reply. "Hermione is mine. Try to touch her again, and you'll wish I'd killed you." He'd slipped into Parseltongue for a moment, but he thought he'd made his point adequately enough, as McLaggen paled and stumbled away.

"Tom," Hermione murmured as they watched the boy leave, "Your magic."

Tom blinked and sighed as he realized his magic was flaring up again. He didn't think he'd had this problem originally. Was Potter's magic just exceptionally volatile?

"What did you say to him?" Hermione asked after a moment.

Tom considered briefly whether he should tell the truth. In the end, he said, "That I'd kill him if he tried to touch you again." He gave her a fake smile. "Unless you appreciated his advances. Let me know if that's the case, and I'll give him the all clear."

It looked like Hermione wasn't sure how to respond to that. She felt annoyed and exasperated and pleased and worried all at once. Tom wondered again how other people managed to feel so much without going mad from it.

She was saved from deciding by Luna's arrival. The normally dreamy girl's voice was quiet and subdued. "When will you cast it?" she asked without preamble.

"Tonight, if you like," Tom told her, switching tracks seamlessly. "I've almost finished completing it."

Luna nodded slowly. "Please. And - and I'd like to be with you when you use it." Her gaze remained fixed to the ground the entire time.

"Luna," Ginny said quietly, touching the girl's arm, "Are you sure you want to go through with this? I don't care for their sakes, but I don't want you to do something you'll regret."

Finally, Luna looked up, and Tom felt a surge of hatred through their bond. She swallowed and nodded sharply. Her voice trembled as she spoke. "I've never, never done anything to them. I never said a word about anything they did to me. I never complained even once. I never retaliated." Her fists clenched. "But that just taught them to be worse. To become crueler and more horrible every year. If they'd continued to only hurt me, that'd be one thing. But now they've hurt Daddy too and - and I don't even know how to tell him."

Ginny sighed, lips curving into a small, resigned smile. "I understand. Do you know what the curse is supposed to do?"

"Mm, I know what it's supposed to do, but whether it does that or not…" Luna shrugged. "I suppose we'll see." She looked to Tom. "Do I have your permission?"

He nodded. "Meet me back here at curfew." He glanced at Hermione and Ginny. "It's a complex spell with a high power requirement. That makes it dangerous even after my corrections. Stay in the dorms tonight."

Despite Hermione's mutinous expression, Ginny agreed for the both of them without any further discussion. It wasn't that easy, of course. Hermione spent the entire rest of the day alternating between ignoring him, glaring at him, and visibly restraining herself from asking about the curse. When at last, dinner came to a close, it was more than a relief to separate from the rest of the Gryffindors and head to the Room of Requirement.

Luna was already there, standing outside and looking at the still-blank stone wall motionlessly. As he approached, she let out a slow breath and turned to face him. "Thank you, Tom Riddle," she said. "Are you certain you want to cast this? It might draw attention to you."

Tom shrugged. "I've taken that into account. Don't worry about it."

"Alright then." Luna offered him a small smile and followed him into the room.

AN: Incidentally, TGIF was, in fact, a thing at this point in time, although I don't think it'd made its way across the ocean from America. And seriously, Hermione has to have been trying to make SPEW terrible. It's freaking hard to think of awkwardly long but totally logical titles that will spell out something.

And I'm even worse than Hermione at coming up with names for organizations (although not worse than Voldemort because, really, Death Eaters? who even wants to join that?), so my husband was watching The Gray next to me while I wrote, and I was just like…. Yup. That'll do. After searching for about an hour for something witty and clever and full of meaning through mythology and history…

Fast Frank: My apologies. It never occurred to me that Harry's return (or lack of return) was actually in question. I promise not to give away anything further.

This chapter isn't very long and probably has mistakes, but if I sit on it any longer it'll get stuck to my butt and never get posted, so...