(A/N A review, for those who missed the cliff. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha! Ok seriously... I won't do it again sheepish grin it's just so fun! Thanks to all the reviews... You guys rock! Please, if you find anything is not adding up... tell me... I think I got lost in my own plot line.)

Disclaimer: Owning Harry Potter would be fun... he would be a brunette... but sadly, all I own is the OC and the plot... T.T

Review...

"Tonight..." Remus said, he wasn't looking well, Ally noted.

"Remus..."

"Later, later." he said, meeting her gaze.

"Right..." she said, "Meet you after dinner," she said.

Sirius looked at the exchange between the two.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.

"You have no appreciation for the cryptic arts..." Ally responded, earning a smile from Remus. The hall fell silent. Ally looked over at Dumbledore, slightly confused because it was very unusual for dinner to be interrupted for anything.

"Student, students..." Dumbledore said. The headmaster stood at the head table.

"I have an announcement to make!"

Chapter 13 Detention and Riddles

The great hall waited patiently for Dumbledore to continue. He lowered his hands and addressed them seriously, the twinkle in his eyes dying down to a dangerous glint.

"I trust you all have heard about the events of the past week." he said.

Many heads and eyes turned to look at Ally and her friends in the center of Gryffindor table. Lily blushed, and Ally sunk down in her chair, wishing to disappear. James and Sirius grinned madly and waved at everyone.

"The ministry wishes for me to assure that the past events at Bonham hall were merely an accident. A cruel joke by teenagers... taken too far." His eyes narrowed, "However, the ministry, unfortunately, does not have a final say on how this school is run. I, as headmaster, think that is in your best interest to be informed of exactly who was behind these attacks."
He paused for a moment. Sure... add to the tension... Hi, I'm Dumbledore! I like cliffhangers!

(A/N I'm sure many of my reviewers like to think that of me... In fact... all of them do!)

Students craned their necks to get a better view of Dumbledore. Some of the Slytherins were also trying to get a better look at Dumbledore, the other half of Slytherin house was sitting calmly, expecting the next proclamation. Ally scowled at them and turned back to Dumbledore.

"A new group of dark wizards have risen outside the Ministry of Magic. This new group consists of one leader and a group of followers named Death Eaters." The hall was deadly silent, not one breath could be heard and Ally gripped the table tightly, "It saddens me deeply to have to inform you that have very harsh beliefs. They discriminate against all muggles, muggleborns, half bloods, and blood traitors, anything less than, as they would say, pureblood."

Dumbledore looked at the Gryffindor table when he said this, pointedly at Sirius behind her. Ally glanced back at the Slytherin table, her hand turned to a fist as she saw a few of the older students smirking.

"It is my duty to warn you, my students, of associating with Death Eaters. Please, if you have any contact with them, it could be dangerous to your loved ones, friends, and your life. If you do come into contact with them, or their lord, please inform the ministry, teaching staff, or me immediately. Most importantly..."

He folded his hand, any light in his eyes faded to darkness and Ally swore he was addressing the Slytherin table, even though he did not look or incline his head toward them, "If you ever, and I mean ever, in any form come across the symbol of a serpent coiled around a skull, you are to report it to me as soon as possible. Do not approach any person or thing that bares this mark, especially a person. The mark is a sure sign of their allegiance to their master... Lord Voldemort."

A shudder went throughout the hall, like the entire student body was afraid Voldemort was going to show up with a bouquet of flowers and knock on the door any moment now. Lily went deathly pale, and not even the Marauders dared to crack a joke at that moment. Dumbledore's eyes began to revive that old twinkle again.

"Although..." he smiled softly at the crowd in front of him, "All one needs to do, to survive such hard times, is to band together. All the houses," he scanned all the tables, "must put aside our old grudges, and unite under one banner." he nodded toward the Hogwarts seal above them.

I can just see a Gryffindor and Slytherin playing Yahtzee.

"On a lighter note," Dumbledore said, "As of today, two new students have joined our numbers." He held out his arm toward the Ravenclaw table, "Samantha and Toby Howell, will you please stand up."

Ally recognized the dirty blonde and her younger brother from outside Dumbledore's office. They stood up for a moment, then quickly sat down, embarrassed. Ally got a good look at her; she now wore Ravenclaw robes, along with her brother.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled happily.

"Samantha will be joining us for her sixth year, while her younger brother will be going into his second. They have both been sorted into Ravenclaw."

The Ravenclaw table cheered, and the rest of the hall clapped politely.

"And now, I am afraid I have kept you far too long. Dinner is over." he concluded and sat down. Shouts of approval came from behind her and Ally turned and she saw half of the school file sleepily of the hall. Lily sat across her, absorbed in a book, making no move to get up, and Ally doubted she was paying attention to anything else but the page in front of her.

It must be late... but Dumbledore had a lot of important things to say, especially to the Slytherins. Ally thought to herself. She checked to make sure Remus wasn't with the other students, who were crowding the entrance way. Then looked around, he was speaking with McGonagall. Maybe I should wait, he said after dinner...

She sat back down and watched Remus speaking to McGonagall. She looked tense, then patted him on the shoulder and nodded. He relaxed a bit and they continued talking. Ally felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She spun around.

"Sam!" she said, "Sorted into Ravenclaw? That's a respectable house." Ally said.

"Yeah," she sat down, "They're a bit obsessed with homework, but then again, so am I." she smiled and looked at Lily.

"Read much?" she said.

"Meh..."

"Translated, she's ecstatic to meet you. What did the hat say?"

"The hat?" Sam asked, then realization dawned on her face, "Oh yeah! Why couldn't you guys tell us about the hat, I thought we would have to do something dangerous, like an obstacle course."

"It's a general rule by older students; never tell the new students how they're being sorted. Sorry."

"It's okay. I understand." Sam said and then looked away, "Someone's heading this way..." she pointed behind Ally.

Sam was right; Remus had finished speaking with McGonagall and had walked back to the table, he sat down next to Lily.

Remus looked nervously from Lily to Ally, then at Sam and back to Ally.

"Oh!" Ally exclaimed, "Sam," she introduced, "This is Remus Lupin, Remus, this is Sam Howell."

"Hi!" Sam said cheerfully and extended his hand.

"H-hello." Remus said as he took her hand and blushed.

Ooooo this is interesting... Ally grinned mischievously at them both.

"Sorry Sam," Ally said, fighting back a grin, "But Remus and I need to speak privately for a moment."

"Oh," she looked disappointed, "Okay,"

"Don't be insulted!" Ally said hurriedly, "It's a Gryffindor thing... no other houses involved! Besides... you should be getting to bed soon, you have your first classes tomorrow!"

"That's right!" she said, a bit more cheered up, "I should be getting to bed. Good night!" she said to them and waved as she walked away.

"Bye!"

"Meh."

"N-night."

"Right," Ally said, once Sam was out of earshot, "What is it? Is it..." she trailed off, leaving the question unfinished.

"Er—well," he leaned closer and whispered, "Tonight is the full moon." he said quickly and the leaned back.

"So... what did McGonagall say...?" Ally asked.

"She said it was alright for me to serve my detention another," he paused, "More appropriate time."

"That's it? So you get out of detention for now?"

"Well..." he said, "She also said that I could ask you to join me... She wouldn't let me ask James, Peter, or Sirius because we're too much like a bunch of troublemakers together."

"I'LL GO!" Ally jumped up and hugged Remus, "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, and THANK YOU!"

Ally pulled Lily out of the hall.

"Meh?" she said, still reading as they were walking.

Once they had gotten to the common room, Ally pulled the book out of Lily's hands and sat her down on the couch.

"Huh?" Lily said, confused.

"I don't have detention tonight!" Ally shouted, attracting the attention of several fifth years. She jumped up and down on her armchair.

"What!" Lily said, "Did I miss something?"

"Yeah," Ally stopped jumping and sat down, "The entire conversation Remus and I had! I don't have detention tonight!"

"Do you really think it's a good idea to put it off? I mean, you said yourself you were dreading detention." Lily said

"You have no respect for the procrastinating arts..." Ally said., "Besides, I was the only one Remus would be able to serve detention with, McGonagall wouldn't let him go with any of the other marauders, they're untrustworthy together! If I said no, then Remus would be serving detention alone, and all because of—"

"AL!" Lily said and looked warily around the common room, the fifth years were engrossed in a dumb conversation about some new band, and a few older students were up studying. No one noticed the two.

"Er—" she said, "Because of You-Know-What."

"Great," Lily said, "More stupid nicknames..."

"Yeah," Ally said sullenly, remembering Dumbledore's announcement, "So what do you think about... You-Know-Who... or whatever they're calling him these days."

Lily opened her mouth to respond, when the Marauders rushed down the staircase.

"Al!" Sirius shouted, "McGonagall wants us!"

"Sorry!" Ally said, "I happen to have gotten a reprieve!"

"What!" Sirius and Peter shouted.

"That's not fair! Why?" James said.

"For her own reasons Potter." Lily butted in before Ally responded. Lily pointedly shot her a look as if to say, we don't know if they know about Remus, even if they are his friends...

Ally closed her mouth and nodded.

"No reason to be so cold. Darling." James winked at Lily. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, go on." Ally said, "You're going to be late. Did McGonagall tell you what you were going to do?"

"Oh..." James said, "We were going to serve in the Forbidden forest..."

"The Forbidden forest?" Lily replied, skeptically, and raised her eyebrows at him.

James shuffled his feet under her scrutinizing gaze, and then he straightened up.

"Yeah," he nodded, "That's right, Hagrid needs some help, a Thestral got lose."

"Those things that pull the carriages?" Ally said quickly, wanting to disrupt the tension in between Lily and James, "Aren't they invisible? How're you supposed to find them?

"Hagrid's probably got some method..." Peter muttered.

"Yeah," Sirius said, "What Wormtail said."

"Why do you insist on calling each other those stupid names?" Lily said.

"Forget it." Ally said quickly, hoping to prevent a shouting match, "You guys should get going..."

"We got to wait for Moony." James said, emphasizing his friend's nickname.

"Oh," Ally said, "He's not feeling well, that's why I got a break. We're going to serve detention together later... when he's feeling better."

James, Sirius, and Peter all shot each other a look and then said their goodbyes. They rushed out of the common room, running late for their detention.

Lily sighed.

"Getting back to what we were talking about... It seems as if the situation with You-Know-Who keeps getting worse. The ministry, as always, is trying to cover it all up, passing it all off as teenagers, playing games. Or they're saying some of the things that have been having, were just sad accidents."

"That's sick! How do they think they're going to fight them if they can't even admit they exist?"

"I know! And the worse part is, the Death Eaters are involving muggles! They attack them in broad daylight. Mum has mailed me, she's noticed that there have been a lot of weird gas explosions and car crashes that no one can figure out. If my mum has caught on, then other people must have too. What happens if the muggles find out about our world?'"

"I don't know... Maybe you should mail your mum. Tell what's happening, and then maybe she can convince your neighbors nothing is happening."

"Maybe..." they sat there in silence for a long while. Eventually they stood and went to bed, still thinking over all that had transpired.

Over the next tow weeks, Remus was in the Hospital wing. Ally was the first there, hading him barrels of candy. Remus thought it was humorous. She had asked him where the rest of the Marauders were. He said they were probably tired from detention. He had had other visitors too; Lily had come up and helped him with his History of Magic homework, while Ally reenacted the Goblin Wars, using her wand as a sword, while she read.

The rest of the student body was in an uproar about You-Know-Who. Most of the students kept by their parent's ideals, claiming that the Ministry was right, that it was just a bunch of hooligans who got out of control. Ally just got madder and madder as she read what the daily prophet was typing. Lily agreed with her, the Prophet would side with the Ministry on everything.

Classes continued as usual. A couple students were sent to the Hospital wing though, since a Fanged Geranium somehow got out of its pot during Herbology and was hopping around biting Professor Sprout's third period class. Only one other accident occurred during classes, a hover charm went awry and the entire class ended up on the ceiling, not having a clue what to do.

Ally was growing anxious again, her detention slowly coming closer and closer, as Remus got out of the Hospital wing, their detention was scheduled for Friday. Ally was careful not to show how nervous she was, she didn't want Lily saying that she told her so. Even though she was little jumpy, Ally still found it funny how often Remus would glance at a certain Ravenclaw when in the Library. What was even more hilarious was when Sam would look back at him, just as he turned away. Once, Ally had to be thrown out by Madam Prince, for raucous laughing.

Eventually Friday came. Ally had finished her homework and said goodbye to her friends. She exited the common room and met up with Remus in the hall.

"Hey!" she said, turning the corner, and running into her friend.

"Hey," he replied, Ally noted that he looked in much better health. He looked, all in all, better taken care of, and he looked much more alert. There was also more color in his cheeks.

"Do you remember where McGonagall said to meet?" Ally asked as they continued down the hall.

"You forgot already!" Remus said.

"Hey!" Ally said, "I remember things! The only stuff I have trouble remembering is people, places, objects and events! Oh, and assignments." she said.

"Well," Remus laughed, "We're supposed to meet in the trophy room."

"The trophy room! I knew it!" Ally exclaimed, snapping her hands.

"Knew what?" Remus said they passed a large line of suits of armor.

"She obviously wants us to battle the secret trophy army! Dumbledore created it to battle You-Know-Who and the Ministry found out! That's why she wants us to destroy it! Any other students would die at the hands of the evil trophy army! But not us, we are the superior one's of our age, in magic. We must defeat the king trophy so Dumbledore won't be overthrown by the Minister!"

"I'm sure you would love to think that..." McGonagall interrupted as they turned the corner and were face to face with the doors to the trophy room.

"Unfortunately, you will not be doing any magic at all. Hand over your wands."

Remus handed over his Ash wand and Ally handed over hers.

(A/N Ash... because a part of JK Rowling's site has a wand assignment table based on the Celtic year. it's pretty cool! Ally's will be part of my imagination.)

Ally handed over her hazel wand; she was a bit saddened to part with it. It had a beautiful white handle and had an imp and Vily hair. Vily was a kind of fairy, the wand maker had told her when she bought it.

"Good," she said, placing them in her robe pockets, "For detention you will be polishing the trophies, without magic." she gestured over to where a bucket and two brushes lay. "Filch will be around to check on you, at nine o' clock I will come to get you. If it seems to me you have not sufficiently polished the trophies an additional detention will be tacked to your records. Though, I doubt I will have that problem with you two." she gave them a flicker of a smile and then marched away.

"Well," Ally picked up her brush and Remus took the other and the bucket, "Better get started. Personally, I don't want another detention, one is nerve racking enough."

"Yeah," Remus agreed and he pushed open the trophy room door. In the room were several large crystal displays. The shelves were stacked with plaques, statues, awards, shields, and other assorted trophies.

Ally groaned.

"This will take forever! Surely McGonagall doesn't expect us to do all of this." She gestured to the lines of awards.

"Well... she expects us to at least make an effort." Remus said quietly.

"I hate making an effort!" Ally whined and sat down next to a rather large trophy, dunking her brush in the bucket, she began to wash away the dirt and dust that had accumulated over the years.

And hour passed and Ally and Remus were making significant progress. They busied themselves by talking about things, mainly classes. Sometimes the conversation would turn down a dark road, toward Voldemort, and Ally wisely steered it back toward how dumb Hufflepuffs can be at times.

Halfway through their punishment Ally threw down her brush and sat cross legged on the floor center.

"Let's take a break. I might go insane if I don't get one."

"I agree. It's getting a bit annoying to keep reading about how accomplished these people are."
"Yeah, especially that prick... Tom Riddle."

"You got him too?" Remus asked.

"Yeah! He has like fifteen million trophies! Or at least half of the trophies in this room."

She waved her hand toward the cases and the name TOM RIDDLE glittered back at them.

"He was probably a huge suck up. A Ravenclaw, he seems like one of them."

"No," Remus said and pointed toward a plaque. "He was a Slytherin."

"He was a what?" Ally said and looked at the plaque he was pointing to.

TOM RIDDLE

SLYTHERIN

FOR OUTSTANDING

ACHIEVEMENTS ON ALL O.W.L.S

"Wow," Ally said, "Looks like Slytherins aren't all thick."

"It is the house of the ambitious. I wonder what he's doing now." Remus furrowed his brow in thought

"Yeah, he probably worked for the ministry... now he's rich and retired, lucky bloke."

"Probably, I've never heard of him though, and how do figure he's retired now?"

Ally pointed over to the awards she had been polishing.

"All of the one's I had to shine had dates on them. He was alive around the nineteen forty's, when Grindelwald was defeated. He'd be nearing fifty now."

"Guess so, It's weird though... that we've never heard of this guy, and he has all of these awards. Do you think he died?" Remus looked at the large trophy awarded to Tom Riddle for special services to the school.

"Well..." Ally looked around, "He won awards all through his years at Hogwarts, from his first year, to his seventh. I think he graduated. Maybe he moved."

"Someone who did all of this work for Hogwarts? To just up and leave?" Remus said, "That sounds a bit off, he obviously cared a lot about the school. If I was him, I would want to become a teacher."

"Would he want to become a teacher... or would you want to become a teacher." Ally smiled at him and he blushed.

"Maybe that's just me..." he muttered, "You agree though? About how suspicious it is."

"I agree, it is suspicious," she said. "I don't think he died though, look at the DADA awards he's gotten. I don't think anything could get to our Tommy-boy." she joked.

"Yeah," he mused, "Probably some dark arts genius..."

Ally and Remus shared a glance. After all that had happened lately, mentioning the dark arts was not something you did lightly.

"You don't think...maybe... he turned dark?"

"No!" Remus shook his head, "Guy like him? I think he retired... like you said."

"Oh..." Ally said, "Because I was going to say, if this guy turned dark... we'd be in a lot of trouble."

"You're already in a lot of trouble..." came a slimy voice from the entry way.

There stood Filch in the doorway, holding up his lantern. Pointless, honestly the room is already lit up. Mrs. Norris was behind him, Ally winked at the cat and then turned her attention back to Filch.

"—McGonagall said. Now get back to work! These trophies are to be spic and span by the time the professor comes."

Ally and Remus turned back to their work. The rest of the night they continued to talk, oftentimes about this mysterious character "Riddle". Eventually nine o'clock chimed and Ally put her brush away. Remus followed her lead and they waited for McGonagall to dismiss them.

Later they were back in the common room. Ally was talking to Lily about the detention and Remus was watching a game of chess between James and Sirius.

"So, how'd it go?" Lily said, putting down her book.

"Not bad... All we had to do was clean the trophy room; it wasn't that horrible, since we both had company, we talked during most of it."

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Nah... just a bunch of stuff about some guy named Tom Riddle."

"Who?"

Ally told Lily about the conversation Remus and she had had. She emphasized the part about his disappearance from wizarding society.

"That does sound fishy... But what are you going to do about it? The guy probably retired... like you said."

"I know... I just wanted to find out what happened to him! Do you think Dumbledore knows?"

"I don't think you should ask him, Al." she cautioned, "He has a lot to worry about now, not some Riddle guy who won a bunch of awards."

(A/N Pun! Okay... not really...XD)

"I guess, but Dumbledore used to be a transfiguration professor, didn't he? That's what I heard. He must have been teaching here at the time Riddle was in school."

"When was he here again?"

"Nineteen forty's! I already told you!" Ally cried, exasperated.

"Okay, okay..." Lily pursed her lips in thought, "Dumbledore was teaching then, and he probably did know him. But I don't think he remembers every, single student who came to school. Isn't there anyone else you could ask?" Lily rolled her eyes, "Why don't you just go to the Library? I'm sure they would have something there."

"Is that your solution to everything? Look it up in the Library?"

"Yeah," Lily nodded, "Basically..."

Ally threw up her hands and collapsed onto the couch.

"I guess we're going to the Library..."

The Next Week...

"Nothing..." Ally slammed her fist on their center table of the library, "There is not one bloody piece of information on Tom Riddle! Nothing!"

"Why do you need to know anyways? Remus seems to have gotten over it." Lily pointed to Remus sitting across from them; he had his head in his hand and was drooling over Sam a few tables away, completely disregarding his charms essay due the next day.

"That's because he's infatuated with a girl!" Ally cried.

Madam Pince shouted a few words about throwing her out of the library and shook her feather duster at her. Ally quieted down to a whisper and sunk into her seat.

"What am I supposed to do? I have to find out what happened to this guy! It's driving me insane!"

"Are you sure you checked every book? Did you look through the index cards over their?" she put down her essay and quill and pointed to the left wall, where the index was.

"Yes! I'm not thick I looked it over a thousand times! What am I supposed to do Lil?"

"I don't know..." Lily said and turned back to her books.

"Come on, Lil!" Ally took her books away from her, Lily fought to get them back, but Ally had already stashed them in her book bag, "I need some help."

"Mental help!" Lily said and reached for her books.

"Hey! That's not nice," Ally pouted and pushed the bag farther away from Lily's grasp.

"Come on... If you help me I'll... I'll... try to be smarter!"

"I thought you hated making an effort."

"But I would do it for you." Ally said pointedly.

"Oh forget it!" Lily said, "I'll help you either way, you don't have to do anything..."

"Well..." Ally gave the book bag to Lily and she grabbed the books possessively, "Now what did you have in mind..."

"Well, if you're sure you've looked through everything... then—"

"Then, what?" Ally said impatiently.

"Then... the only place you haven't looked is in the restricted section."

"Are you serious?" Ally said, "How will we ever get permission to look for Tom Riddle, we don't even know what we're looking for."

"Well... we don't exactly have to get permission..."

"What do you mean? Like sneak in?"

"Shhhh!" Lily shushed her and looked around, Remus was still drooling and the rest of the Library was absorbed in their work.

"Well, you really want to get information on this Riddle guy, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Then it's the only way! You've checked the rest of the library, the only place that could have anything on him would be the restricted section."

"Right, but how... and when?"

"Listen... Christmas break is coming soon right?"

"In a month or so..." Ally said skeptically.

"Then the best time to do it is then... That way, there are only a few people around. Are you staying over the holidays?"

"Yeah, my mum said it was cool, they were thinking about going on vacation anyways."

"Alright, I'm staying over too. McGonagall asked me to patrol the halls and do other prefect duties, for extra credit. My parents were alright with it. Besides..." she wrinkled her nose, "I don't feel up to facing Petunia yet... She's such a...a..."

"Muggle?"

"Well... yeah." Lily sighed. "She can be so self absorbed sometimes... all she cares about is her boyfriend... Vincent or Vance or Vic... I think he's a bad influence."

"One of those guys who think women should cook and clean."

"Yeah... One of them."

"Sounds awkward."

"He disdains me, just like Petunia does. When he first met me he refused to even shake my hand, like I was dirt. And Petunia absolutely adores him. You should hear her go on and on about him..."

"I'm sensing a disturbance in the force!"

"Right." Lily said.

"It's from... never mind."

"I know where it's from."

"Alrighty then!" Ally said, "We'll work out the details over break. Until then... What do we do?"

"Homework."

"I hate making an effort...