This chapter was supposed to have Hermione, but Tom and Nina decided to hog it so you'll have to wait for the next chapter for Hermione's reaction to Nina's bomb.

Chapter Seventeen

September 8th, 1944.

Hermione Granger, Mia Gardner, whomever she was choosing to be had gone several minutes ago. The sun was sinking below the tree line, the lightly chilled wind of a fading summer tussled the leaves violently and Nina sat cross legged on the boulder once more. Her back and neck were still killing her, a sign of the stress she'd been under in the last few days.

Tom had really set her on edge when he ordered everyone to dig up information on Healer Gardner. Nina's original plan was to wait a month before talking to the older woman and revealing her secrets. She thought Mia could use some time to adjust to being back at Hogwarts and dealing with the stress of all her previous life's events before Nina dropped her knowledge on the older woman. But with such a short deadline Nina realized Mia needed warning and time to process the influx of new information.

They didn't have time to waste. If Tom identified Mia as a threat then there was no telling exactly what he'd do. Nina didn't know what Mia would come up with but she hoped the older woman would take her advice to heart. The best way to get Tom to treat you like a real person was to impress him.

Nina released a heavy sigh as the pressure in her chest began to build, different from the weight of the unbreakable vow she'd made. This was a pressure she knew well. At first she felt the fear. Just a subtle, annoying buzzing in the back of her brain.

Then her thoughts began to spin erratically. What if Mia chooses to let the world burn? Nina wouldn't blame the older woman, after surviving all she had it was a miracle that Mia even still fought for people. Most wouldn't. Nina might not have.

But Nina couldn't do this on her own. She'd done all she could over the years just to get Tom to accept her as his friend. She'd truly grown to love Tom as a part of her family. To watch him become a monster, or even worse yet watch everyone she loves die to Grindelwald or the resultant Muggle invasion?

The panic climbed and suddenly Nina couldn't focus on anything else. The fear rose and her heart beat a rapid drum in her chest. She was gasping now, her entire body shaking so hard she was sure she'd fall off the boulder. Then, the fear turned into a red-hot feeling, it burned, and it spread down from the pain in her neck, around her neck, and deep into her chest. It held her, squeezed her like it was trying to crush her.

It was harder to breathe now. Her hands began clawing at her opposite arms while she rocked against the torrent of anguish. She was so much more afraid than she had been a few moments ago. She couldn't catch her breath. Sweat began to bead over her brow and in her palms where they clutched her trembling arms. Her vision was getting blurry.

Am I gonna pass out? Oh, gods, I've lost control. I'm going to die right here. What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.

"Nina!"

Orion's voice broke through the haze. Nina looked ahead to see him sprinting down her trail, dark curls bouncing and a look of concern stretching across his face. He closed the distance between them in record time and leaped onto the boulder right beside her with one jump.

His eyes were blown wide, his hand ghosting her face as though he was afraid to touch her while she shook. "What's wrong, what can I do?"

The memories of her visions; Orion's face bloodied and broken, crushed under the boot of a Grindelwald supporter while the man laughed in triumph clawed at her brain like an unrelenting monster that would not be ignored and Nina began to sob.

She threw her arms around Orion's torso and yanked him to her body until he was forced to find a way to sit, dragging her into his lap. In one arm he clutched her back to keep her supported. He held the back of her head in his other hand as she buried her face in his shoulder and gently rocked them both, like his mother had for him the first time his father took the switch to his back.

Nina's tears soaked his shoulder in seconds. In the absence of knowing what he could do, Orion began gently gliding the hand he was using to support Nina up and down her spine.

"Can you breathe with me?" Orion asked, leaning the side of his face against Nina's head. He didn't know what was happening to her but the way she was going she'd pass out from lack of oxygen if she didn't get her breathing under control. "Feel me breathe, try to breathe with me."

It took several minutes for Nina's breathing to slow while she tried to match Orion's. He whispered words of encouragement to her and it helped her to focus on her breathing and not on the feelings of impending doom or the rush of memories; visions of her loved ones dead from things that had yet to happen.

Holding Orion, feeling him breathe steadily, helped ground her in reality.

Orion wasn't dead, nobody was. She would prevent it. Hermione - Mia would help, she was sure of it. Everything was going to be alright.

Her panicked response to her thoughts began to settle and Nina felt tired and worn out, as she usually did when a panic attack subsided. She sagged against Orion, feeling comfortable in his hold, his hand still grazing her spine.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Orion asked; his voice a soft rumble vibrating her cheek where it pressed against his chest.

"Panic attack," she muttered horsley against him, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I'm glad I came looking for you." Sadness gripped him and he squeezed her a bit tighter. To think what would've happened to Nina if he'd listened to Lestrange and went to the common room after dinner. She could've been passed out in the forest for any creature to snack on and none of them would've known. "Do you know what triggered it?"

"Yeah," she nodded, pulling her head away to look in his eyes. Her face was puffy and red and Orion's chest tightened. It wasn't a good look on her and he never wanted to see her looking so distraught again. "I don't want to talk about it though."

"Fair enough," Orion conceded, pulling back as Nina slid out of his lap and he masked how bereft he felt when her warmth left him, "just… you can come to me with anything. You know that."

Nina reached out and clutched his hand as she nodded, looking down at the rock instead of at him. She couldn't tell him the truth, at least not yet. Orion was such a passionate and strong-willed person, one would assume that he could've been sorted into Gryffindor. She trusted him not to knowingly run around and spread her secrets but she was concerned he'd somehow inadvertently give them all away in one moment of impassioned recklessness.

She might have considered bringing Orion in on the secret instead of Zephyrus had he not immediately run off to hurt Lucas as soon as he found out the truth about the summer between her fifth and sixth year.

Nina nearly froze when Orion reached his unoccupied hand and gripped her jaw softly, applying just enough pressure to make her lift her head. His intoxicating steel gray eyes bore into hers with such earnest concern it made her heart skip.

"You're always projecting this incredibly happy persona but you're really not, are you? Happy, that is." Before they were even fully out of his mouth the words had sliced her to her core and she took a shuddering breath as his gaze sharpened; sharpened like he could see every bare boned bit of her soul in a way that no one ever had before and it was frightening to feel so vulnerable.

Nina opened her mouth to answer, not quite sure what she would even say, but a rumble sounded from overhead and she was saved from responding.

"Come on, it's starting to get dark." Orion said, sliding off the rock and holding one of his arms up to help her down. "I came down in the first place because you hadn't come to dinner and a storm was rolling in from the north."

She took his hand and tried to jump off the rock. The fatigue of her attack made her slip and she crashed into Orion's solid form. He studied her and snaked one arm around her back then leaned down. In a move that seemed so swift it should've been illegal Orion leaned down and swept his other arm under her knees and held her up against his chest.

Nina released a surprised squeak when he swept her up, throwing her arms around his neck for extra support. She'd forgotten Orion was a beater. Evidently having to smack bludgers around had gained him some upper body strength.

"Put me down, I'm too heavy!" She demanded, wide-eyed.

He huffed a laugh and wiggled his arms. The movement made her hold onto him tighter and he flashed her a smug smile. "You couldn't be more than fifty kilograms soaking wet, Fawley. I'm not letting you walk when you're exhausted. It's not far from here to your dorm."

"And if a teacher says something?" She challenged him as he started walking out of the forest.

"If a teacher asks I'll tell them I'm carrying my overly-exhausted wife-to-be to her dorm because she's overtaxed herself running extra laps around the lake whilst having skipped dinner and ate like an infant bird at lunch." He gave her a pointed look. "If you want dessert just have a bloody dessert, Fawley. You don't have to burn it off before you've even had it."

"When did you see me at lunch?" Nina asked, filing away the realization that Zephyrus had indeed used the excuse they'd come up with.

Orion sat with his back to the rest of the Great Hall, and she'd eaten with the Hufflepuff's at lunch. He was right, she hadn't eaten much. She'd left after some of her peers called her a queer under their breath. She asked them to pass her the fruit bowl that was closer to them, and they called her a fruit and tossed a strawberry at her head. It had bounced off her hair and she'd caught it, then ate it, dropping the remaining leaves on her plate.

It was easier to walk away than to punch them in the face, the last thing sheneeded was Tom and Orion going after every seventh year Hufflepuff to prove a point.

Doesn't mean she wouldn't eventually do something about it herself, though.

Orion's jaw clenched slightly, and then he pointedly ignored the question as they walked through the courtyard and entered the castle proper. He spoke after they'd passed a more high traffic area without being seen.

"I've come to the realization that you've made friends with us Slytherin for a singular purpose." Nina's stomach dropped a moment, worried. "You need us for your survival because you don't take care of yourself at all."

Nina stifled a laugh and slapped his back lightly in mock indignation. She was relieved he was joking with her.

"You've caught me, without you I'd have already died. Cause of death; starvation due to lack of Slytherin friends reminding me to eat."

As they rounded the bend to her dorm, he looked down at her, faces so close their noses brushed and his eyes softened. "I suppose I'll have to remind you. It would be easier on me if you'd give up the pretense of sitting elsewhere at meals and just sit with your real friends."

"I could do that." Nina nodded, she didn't want to sit with her house anymore anyways, the gossip was getting to the point where she had considered taking all her meals in her dorm to avoid whatever conflict she could.

Nina opened the portrait and Orion walked them inside where Tom was sitting in his patent leather chair and concentrating on a ball of fiendfyre he held in his open palm.

Tom's face was carefully blank as he looked over the engaged couple as they stepped through the portrait. Noting Nina's slightly swollen face and the red around her eyes that indicated she'd cried at some point he wondered if it was Mulciber or Black that had caused it. Tom felt his anger begin to rise.

"What happened?" Tom questioned. The leather of his chair creaking as he stood, the fiendfyre canceled. He took four long strides and was standing right in front of Nina as Orion eased her out of his embrace.

"Got into a psychological battle with myself in the forest mid third lap. I could've walked back but Orion insisted." Nina leaned in and gave Tom a quick hug which he accepted, in that he didn't immediately force her off his person, and she released him. One brief hug was enough of a reminder that Tom was still there; still the Tom she knew.

She turned to give Orion a hug as well, kissing him on the cheek as she withdrew. "Thanks for helping me," she blushed a bit. "I'm going to change."

"Call an elf and get yourself something to eat, Fawley." Orion called after her as she retreated into her room.

She closed her door and leaned her back against it, every ounce of self control she had kept her from slamming her head back as hard as she could. Tom was going to want to know why she'd had a meltdown. She'd have to come up with something believable enough that he'd drop it.

Then again, this could work out in her favor, if she could do it convincingly enough. She might end up having to throw her housemates into the fiendfyre, so to speak.

As soon as Nina's door was shut, Tom turned his questions to Orion. "Explain." Tom demanded, his ire rising.

"She said it was a panic attack." Orion bowed his head slightly to Tom in difference. "I found her on top of that rock of hers, breathing erratically and clawing at her arms. She looked ready to pass out."

To Tom's knowledge, Nina didn't often have panic attacks. The first and last one he'd known of was over the past summer. Someone as soft hearted as Nina Fawley could be, he hadn't been surprised by it at the time.

The stress of one's first murder, he supposed, would cause most to panic. Thoughts of that day flashed into his memory as he considered what to say when Nina emerged.

Nina had stopped him from creating a horcrux out of that paltry little mudblood Myrtle Warren. In recompense he'd dragged her along as he searched out his father; this time intent on ensuring his immortality. She'd come along with no fuss and had stolen his maternal grandfather's ring off the mantle of the Gaunt shack for him as he distracted and gained answers from his pathetic maternal uncle, Morfin Gaunt. The conversation had afforded him the identity of his paternal ancestry.

They hadn't knocked upon the door of the large, luxurious manor house that belonged to the Riddle's. It burned him to know that man had lived on in splendor whilst he suffered in the squalor of that dingy muggle orphanage most of his life. They'd entered with a quick Alohomora and stunned the maid that was polishing the shining wooden floorboards at the threshold.

"Who are you? Get out!" Called the shaking, unmistakable voice of an elder male from the drawing room.

"Round up everyone in the house and bring them to me." Tom directed Nina. With a sharp nod, she stalked off deeper into the house and he was alone with an elderly couple, the man shielding the woman with his body as though that would thwart Tom from killing them both.

"Please, sit." Tom flicked his wand and forced the man to take his seat. Another flick and both muggles were unable to move, though the gentleman valiantly attempted to struggle.

Tom strode towards the window and viewed the grounds. A deep fog had overtaken the vast lands that belonged to the Riddle family and the ominous atmosphere suitied, he decided.

Turning back to who he assumed was his grandparents, he plastered a pleasant smile over his face. "You don't know me?"

"Thomas, the boy looks like our Tom. When he was young." His grandmother said with wide eyes, voice trembling.

Thomas Riddle, face now taking on a shocking shade of red, bellowed. "The bastard son of that distasteful peasant Merope Gaunt, are you?"

"Crucio." Tom cast the torture curse with a bored tone, wand held loosely in his grip. Such powerless muggles they were, he needn't be on his guard.

Thomas Riddle twisted in his invisible bindings, the contortion of his face and his pained screeching served to elicit a thrilling shiver from Tom's shoulders all the way to his toes as sweat began to bead on the elder's forehead and he clutched his chest. Tom ceased the crucio to watch as his grandfather fell into a heart attack, coughing and failing to gather enough breath to survive it.

While Thomas struggled to survive, his wife screaming for help and unable to move, Nina had finally reentered the room, a trail of four people splayed before her at wand point.

She gestured to the people she'd rounded. "This is everyone. If you'll take them I'll silence the downstairs in case some passerby from the village manages to get too near." She glanced at Tom's dying grandfather with a very slight, but present frown on her face.

As she turned to walk off Tom stunned the help, letting them drop where they stood and leaving only one standing. The one that looked quite like an older version of himself.

He'd help Nina wake the muggles and obliviate them later.

The middle aged man Tom had left standing spotted the elder Riddle struggling and raced through the drawing room and fell to his knees at the elder's side. "Father! What have they done to you?"

Without a word, Tom had bound his father just like he had his grandparents. Unable to move, Tom Riddle Sr. began to bellow at the top of his lungs, calling for help from exactly no one as Nina wandered the lower part of the home, silencing all rooms.

"Monster," Tom Sr. hissed from where he was caught, kneeling beside his dying father. "You're a monster like your mother."

With a sigh, Tom removed the bindings on his grandfather and tossed his shuddering body against the far wall. The elder male slammed against it, his weak bones making several sickening cracks as he hit the ground, silent. Tom supposed that may have been the final straw for his body and the old man had died.

He tried to contain the jolt of glee that shot through him.

Tears had sprung from Mary Riddle's eyes as she cried out helplessly for Thomas. Tom Sr. looked away from his father's unmoving body, like a coward.

"I? A monster?" Tom laughed, the sound was cruel and dry, and much of the laugh he preferred to the open and mirthful one he used in the presence of his knights and the Fawley's. This one caused fear in those who heard it. He twirled his wand absentmindedly in his hand, staring at it with an air of nonchalance. "I suppose to you I would be. Though to me, you suit that role. To abandon your pregnant wife. Never to go looking for your child; your legitimate heir as it were. Your father just called me a bastard, and for that offense he is now dead at my feet."

Nina had returned, wand out and ready for whatever direction Tom would give her. He glanced over at her and gave her a commanding look. "No arguments this time, Nina. There is no Dumbledore here."

She nodded sharply at him. "No, no arguments."

"Draw the circle for me, will you?" He asked, but it was more of a demand.

With a swift nod, Nina withdrew the athame he'd layered with magic for this purpose and stepped toward Thomas Riddle's body, cutting his throat with no ceremony.

Tom supposed it was all the animal sacrifice she'd done over the years that gave her the steady hand needed to so easily slice through human flesh.

He turned away and focused on his Tom Sr. and Mary, letting Nina draw the casting circle out of Thomas' blood without his scrutiny. They'd practiced it together for a year; she wouldn't ruin it.

Tom turned his attention back to his father. "Soon, you'll die for your transgressions against me as well."

Tom Sr. visibly swallowed, sweat had begun to bead across his forehead, a dark curl falling free of its styling and into his face. The man threw his head back to get the curl away from his eyes before he spoke. "I'm not the monster here, boy. Your repulsive mother used something on me, some kind of spell. I hardly remember the time I married her, let alone conceiving you. In a moment of rare lucidity she told me what she had done, some sort of concoction she'd been slipping into my spirits for months as I drank them. I left as quickly as I could, lest she poison me again."

Tom's jaw jumped as he ground his teeth together at the information. So, his father hadn't abandoned his mother because she was a witch, but rather because she'd used a love potion to draw him in the first place. His stomach dropped at the idea. What Merope had done… it was rape.

If it were true, he was in fact a legitimate child... but conceived through rape.

No, he couldn't accept that.

"You lie," he hissed in parseltongue, and this time he poured his rage borne of years of his anger and hurt into the torture curse. "Crucio!"

Mary shrieked and flailed against her binding as Tom Sr. thrashed, the words 'leave him alone' and 'take me instead' ringing across the room intermittently. Tom let up a moment, his nostrils flaring with his ire. "You dare insinuate…" he began, but Tom Sr. cut him off with a breathless, sardonic laugh.

"I tried to find you, all the neighboring towns from the small villages to the larger cities. I even stepped into that hovel and asked that mad man Gaunt, when I'd heard he'd returned, what had become of you but he'd no idea Merope had been pregnant." Tom Sr. a look of pleading had twisted his features and Tom Jr. wasn't sure what to make of the way his chest constricted and his throat began to swell. "Where did she stow you?"

Tom, now gripping his wand tightly as the stress of these revelations mounted, decided to tell Tom Sr. "London. Wool's orphanage. She died there, as she gave birth to me."

Tom Sr. gave his son a look. It wasn't quite soft but it was clearly apologetic, his voice quiet. "I'm not sorry the hag died. I am, however much good it will do now, sorry I was never able to find you." The man's face hardened again and his tone became accusatory. "Though it seems you were bound to turn out quite like her, with the… magic, she called it. The witchcraft and the tendency to disregard other's lives as dispensable for whatever your will be."

He leveled another crucio at the man with his own face and listened to his tortured screams and Mary's whimpers as Nina completed the runic drawing and the circle. He could feel the stuttering of dark magical energy beginning to thrum through the room as Nina stood and dusted her knees off. He turned to look at her work, especially critical of Greek lettering; they'd both studied it extensively to ensure he maintained the strongest connection possible with the part of his soul he would store.

Nina had insisted Tom find a way to make the horcrux ritual stronger after she'd interrupted him with Myrtle Warren. After months of research and with the help of Mulciber and Nina's familiarity with the gods and their ways, Tom had called out for aid to the cosmos. One answered back.

Fitting, he thought, that it would be the owl faced, ever powerful; hard bargaining goddess of war and wisdom herself.

They'd made a deal for a few drops of her blood, and now Tom reached into his robes to produce the small vial of Athena's blood. He unstoppered it and watched as he upturned the vial, the crimson droplets falling into the center of the runic circle and stepped inside.

"Dispensable, you say?" Tom spoke. "It's true I find most people around me expendable in my quest," he shrugged, "few have proved themselves worth more than their temporary usefulness. Including yourself."

Tom readied himself for the ritual and leveled his wand at Tom Sr. The man sat frozen on the ornate wingback sofa, his mother sobbing uncontrollably beside him. The killing curse would do for the horcrux he'd been trying to make through Myrtle Warren last year, but with Nina's insistence he'd found a better way.

A stronger way.

He said the words unerringly, not a quake or a shudder as the power flowed over him and a magical wind blew isolated in the room.

"διαίρει καὶ βασίλευε," the old greek adage; divide and rule.

The words were simple; but powerful and, keeping his wand still, he watched as Tom Sr.'s life drained out of his body in tandem with a part of Tom's own protruding soul. Each twisting around each other in a dark dance of vapor, Tom's draining his father's energy to make his stronger, stronger, stronger, Sr.'s life force getting weaker and weaker until it flickered out of existence. Tom Sr.'s empty body slumping forward and then falling to the floor.

Tom directed his vastly more powerful ebbing soul into the ring laid at the top of the casting circle and all became pain as he ripped a section of the malevolent energy from the physical manifestation of himself. It went, the smokey texture of it formed a replica of his own face screaming and whirling around inside of it, disappearing inside the ring.

In the haze of the ritual, Tom hadn't noticed he'd dropped the binds on Mary Riddle.

He sagged heavily, taking a few steps out of the circle, dangerous dark power flowing through his veins making him feel more alive than he ever had. His eyes, as he looked above the couch to see the ornate accent mirror, had gone blood red and seemed to glow and he took a step closer to get a better look.

"He should've killed that woman when he learned the truth," Mary Riddle spat as Tom approached the couch. "He should have stabbed a knife in her gut and severed your head from your body as it formed for what you would become. A vile, disturbed boy turned into an obscene, iniquitous man. May God banish your soul to eternal damnation in the deepest pits for what you've done tonight."

Quicker than an elderly woman should be able to, Mary Riddle pulled a long knitting needle from behind her, where yarn was splayed and he hadn't noticed, and lunged forward, arm up to stab Tom through. Tom, too close to react properly, tried to hurl himself backwards to avoid the sharp object.

"Immobulus!" Nina cried out from behind him and Mary stilled where she stood, poised to jab Tom, the point positioned so it would strike him in the throat.

"Kill her," Tom demanded, whirling around to stare Nina down. She started when she looked him in the eyes, her lips pressed into a thin line. "Step into the circle and do the ritual. There's still some of Athena's blood."

"But Tom-" Nina began to argue.

Tom silenced her with a look and called an object from an accent table in the foyer, a small sculpture of the Muggle deity, Jesus Christ, hanging upon a cross and placed it at the top most point of the circle to replace Marvolo's ring, smirking slightly at the irony. "Do it."

Nina was far less steady than he had been with the ritual, but she'd managed to complete it. Mary's body fell to the floor, against the wall by the sofa with empty eyes.

Nina and Tom both breathed heavily staring at each other, the dark, intoxicating magical energy ebbed around them like a physical presence. Without warning, Nina trembled and clutched at her chest, slumping to the floor. Her breathing began to come in heavy rasps and she shook violently. He ordered her to calm down but all that did was cause her to sob and try harder to breathe. Eventually, she passed out and he'd had to clean up the mess they'd made in Little Hangleton, frame his Uncle on his own, and apparate them both back home.

He hadn't dealt with that first panic attack well, he'd decided later. Since that day he hadn't known her to have one so he wondered what had triggered it. Nina wasn't exactly prone to over reaction.

Orion sighed from beside him. "I don't think she's going to call an elf. She didn't eat much at lunch and she skipped dinner."

"Kolly." Tom called.

A snap and a house elf was in front of him with a bright smile. "Kolly's here!"

"Good evening, Kolly. Could we trouble you to bring a plate of dinner for Miss Fawley? Mostly vegetables, no sauces, no potatoes, and the pork from dinner, not the shepherd's pie."

"I's getting that for you right away, Mr. Riddle!" Kolly was gone with a snap.

"She might've wanted dessert, like Mulciber said." Orion mumbled.

Tom glanced over at Orion, lip twitching once. "Are you attempting to scold me, Black?"

He bowed his head immediately. "Of course not, my lord."

Irritated, Tom glared at the younger man. "Leave." Orion scrambled to get out of the portrait and Tom watched him go. Be grateful you're so loyal, else I'd have drawn your blood for scolding me, he thought.

A quick snap of magic and a plate appeared at the bar of the kitchenette and Tom strode over to Nina's room, rapping his knuckles on the door.

"I had the elves bring you dinner, come eat it."

He heard some shuffling from behind the door and a few moments later Nina pulled it open, her hair tied sloppily in a bun at the back of her neck and wearing one of her grandfather's old shirts and a pair of silk pajama bottoms. Her face was much paler than usual; quite a feat for someone as white as paper year round. He followed her to the table and sat beside her as she picked up her utensils.

He didn't need to ask, she started talking on her own.

"My brain turned on me halfway through my second lap. I thought a third lap would help to shake it and it didn't. I guess I'm not as over the summer before last as I thought. All it took was a few scathing comments to make me spiral." She took a careful bite of asparagus and looked over at him as she swallowed. "I'll figure it out so it doesn't happen again. I didn't mean to be out so long, if I'd known I would have a panic attack I would have come back to the castle when Zeph asked me to."

"Why didn't you?" Tom asked, reaching over and stealing a green bean from her plate. She played like she was going to stab him with her fork and he chuckled.

She shrugged and went back to her food. "I wanted to ask the elves if they had any black forest gateau so I could have it while I worked on some Arithmancy equations tonight. I thought another lap would cancel it out since I'm not running tomorrow morning because we've got that prefect's meeting early."

Deciding that was fair enough, but unable to shake that he knew Mulciber had been lying about something at the table at dinner, Tom pressed on. "You could still exercise after the meeting."

"Mhm," Nina hummed around a mouthful of pork. She swallowed and began cutting through it again, "this is so good," she said offhandedly. "I could have but Zeph had a few new questions about that relic and I figured it would be a good day to peruse the restricted section with permission for the first time. I also thought I'd ask you to come along if you weren't busy, maybe help me make copies of some of the Norse texts with that spell I perfected and smuggle some home to Oma? Before Irma somehow finds a way to bind them to Hogwarts indefinitely; the swot."

"I see." He said, accepting it for now but deciding to keep an eye on Mulciber. "So what were they?"

"Pardon?" Nina asked, looking at him and taking another bite of her pork.

"Those 'few scathing comments' that made you spiral you mentioned."

"Oh," she swallowed.

Tom grabbed her wrist and stopped her from taking another bite. No need for her to prolong this when they both knew she would tell him what he wanted to know. "Nina."

She took a breath and bit the insides of her cheek as she pulled her wrist out of his grasp. "The seventh year Hufflepuffs, they seem to have decided calling me names in public was the next best thing to embarrassing me in the dormitory, now that I'm out of it. That's all."

"What did they say?"

"The usual, called me a queer. I asked for them to pass the fruit bowl and they threw a strawberry at me and called me a fruit," she shrugged. "It's not worth the consequence, fighting them publicly, so I just left.

"That's why you didn't eat much at lunch?" Tom asked, his mind already supplying many wonderful ways to hurt the Hufflepuff seventh years, be it in the castle or after graduation.

A few words with Malfoy and Nina's housemates would never find employment opportunities higher paid than entry-level. A couple of them could have unfortunate accidents over the next few years. It wouldn't be difficult.

"Got it in one."

"Stop sitting there," he commanded, his sharp tone causing her to look at him, "if you can't eat because they're bullying you then I don't want you sitting with them. Come to us during meals from now on."

She laughed a little and shook her head with a fond smile and patted the top of his head, almost dropping asparagus from her fork into his dark waves. "I wish you'd been my twin, rather than Lucas, you know? I don't think I ever told you but I truly think of you as an older brother."

Tom found himself smiling legitimately as snagged another green bean off her plate and wordlessly agreed with her.

Note: I'd wager a bet that the cannon conversation between Tom Jr. and Tom Sr. didn't last long in before Tom killed the man, impatient to make his horcrux and revenge himself. So I figured; let's change that a bit, yeah? Have Tom Sr. spew some shit that might make Tom Jr. dwell a bit?

Little Hangelton doesn't seem to be a real place, so I took the fanfic liberty of using Hangleton as the Riddle's home town and so from London to Hangleton is about an hour and a half drive. So really I don't expect that in the mid-1920s Tom Sr. would've been able to find his son. The Riddle's canonically died during the summer of 1943 but in consideration of The Trace being on him at the time I've written it happening a year later when Tom and Nina are both of age.

As far as the horcrux ritual goes, I've made up quite a bit because JKR didn't go into detail about it. The cannon horcrux-ritual-thing is Greek, that much we know so I expanded on that knowledge to help it better suit Struck. I made it so that Nina, with her knowledge of the future, convinced Tom to wait on Myrtle's murder and then got him to research the ritual more extensively. Basically, she didn't want him making a horcrux that would be as vulnerable as the ones the Trio destroyed.

That being said; I imagine Tom's ring is now a veritable horcrux on steroids, padded with ancient binding/protective/soul magic drawn from the blood of the goddess Athena. Who, should Tom one day consent to it, will likely step into a role of Tom's matron deity. He intrigued her with his request, after all. And the Tom we all know and love really is after as much power as he can get, a deity could give him quite the boost, ya know?

We've reached the end of what was previously published. Updates will slow down now but I appreciate every last one of you hanging in there while I got it all back up again.