~`4`~

Harry Potter's 'Saving people thing' was well known throughout the Wizarding world in his life before. It was a fact: the sky is blue, the grass is green, the death eaters are idiots and Harry Potter has a hero complex.

A well known fact. Tom had, in the life before, attempted to use this against him but as the boy had been on the run he hadn't been privy to the traps set for him. Dumbledore's will reading had spooked them something fierce and Greyback's attack had only made it worse so they hadn't gotten around to learning all the ways that the Resistance was keeping people up to date.

He still remembered very well, feeling the surprise through their connection when Harry learnt of all the people who had rallied against his regime. Then again, the surprise was merited when all through the fifth year the Wizarding world had blamed Harry and then through the sixth expected him to save them. Seeing some form of competence in people who were more akin to sheep was always a bit of a shocker.

But yes, Tom was aware of Harry's saving people thing, he had just never expected to be one of the people Harry tried to save.

Even now as they were being led to the Slytherin dorms he could feel Harry doing his best to spread out and be as hulking as possible behind him, as if to shield him from all the glares. Tom sighed and slowed his steps down just enough so that he and Harry were walking next to one another.

"You're the bigger target." Tom said and Harry snorted next to him.

"I know how to deal with being targeted, do you?"

And Tom remembered those few flashes of running from a group of muggles when rummaging around Harry's head. Tom's own life in the orphanage had been far from ideal but he had terrified them before long and they kept a distance at least. It had also helped that Tom was convinced of his own superiority and that he was special.

"Move, mudblood!" Said Lucius' pitiful spawn and Tom narrowed his eyes at the boy. The dunces Crabbe and Goyle stood behind him and cracked their knuckles ominously. Tom drew himself to his fullest height but before he could say a word, Malfoy brightened considerably as hands clamped down on Tom and Harry's shoulder. They turned to see their house head looming over them.

Severus Snape's mouth twisted as he glared down at the two but he looked up to Lucius' spawn soon enough. "Draco, I did not realise you were so hard of hearing." He said silkily and Malfoy's beaming face fell.

"Sev, I-"

"Let me make myself perfectly clear," Severus all but growled, "I don't ever want to hear that word being said in my presence."

Malfoy blanched and swallowed hard, "Yes professor."

"Is that understood?" Severus repeated, this time looking to Crabbe and Goyle who took longer but did ultimately agree. "Good."

Severus walked off, his robes swishing dramatically behind him and next to him, Harry whistled. "That man is my new role model."

And suddenly Tom felt his soul convulse.

Slytherin hadn't changed much in the times since Tom was last a student in its halls. The prefect addressed them, a Gemma Farley who was a damned sight kinder than Charis Black had been, going so far as to tell them that a fair few of Slytherin students had muggle parents. Then she made way for the head of house who addressed them all with a speech filled with hidden agendas and directives. Admittedly, Snape wasn't nearly as subtle as Slughorn but Tom looked around, saw his fellow students and understood that Snape was working with a batch of students far more stupid than Slughorn was. He couldn't afford to be subtle.

Then he left.

There was the usual posturing, something the Malfoy spawn indulged in and tried to drag Harry into,"So, you're Potter, are you?" The boy said, blatantly snubbing Tom. Another life and Tom would have been incensed at this, his resolve to become great only strengthened by it.

This time around he was a lot more well adjusted. Partly because he knew very well how wrong he had gone in his quest but mostly because universities all over Britain had sent agents begging him, the infamous child genius, to join their faculties, and he didn't really need the ego boost or the validation of an eleven year old.

"Gee, what gave it away?" Harry asked completely deadpan but while Tom and a few others smothered laughter, Drake simply puffed up, the sarcasm going over his head.

"My father told me all about you, of course."

"And here I thought it was because our names were called out in a giant hall and the fact that when they said my name everyone went all quiet while I walked to a stool on a platform to put on a hat while in full public view. Or maybe the scar."

As someone in a nearby corner let out a high pitched noise, unable to control it anymore, following it up with a muttered 'Ruddy idiot' in an Irish accent, Drew finally realised he was being made fun of and the smirk dropped off his face.

"Think you're funny do you?" He sneered at Harry who smiled coolly.

"Not as funny as you," Drago seemed stalled, like he couldn't decide to preen or not. "You're a living breathing joke, how could I ever be as funny as you?"

This was not the same Harry Potter Tom had gone toe to toe with in his previous life. There was no explosion of anger, no wand whipped out, ready to hex his opponent.

Malfoy's spawn turned red and began ranting and raving about his father and what he would do once he found out. Harry took great joy in this, goading the boy to greater heights and after the ten minute mark Tom got tired of it all.

He needed to get some quiet, think about the fact that despite everything he had ended up in Slytherin again, that Harry Potter had gotten himself sorted into Slytherin for his sake and had declared Severus as his role model. That wasn't even accounting for the fact that he still had to write a letter to his Mum and Dad, telling them what was going on and figure out if 'Voldemort' still existed in this second life.

It sounded terribly exhausting. If he didn't love magic so much Tom would be writing out an acceptance letter to Oxford.

"Can we just be shown to our dorms?" He asked the male prefect sitting next to Gemma who was watching the Malfoy child and Harry fight with more than a little interest. "If we just sit around here waiting for Drogo to get a hint we'll die of old age."

The prefect snorted, "You mean Draco."

"That's what I said."

While the boy he was taking to was in no hurry to dissolve the fight, Gemma Farley clearly was. She clapped her hands together only once but with such a heavy, loud noise, all of Dirk's loud ranting came to a stop, as did Harry's smirking.

"That's enough of your nonsense. Prefect Higgs will escort the boys to their rooms while the girls will follow me. There will be two students to a room, you may change your roommate if you wish to do so later, provided you can justify it to Professor Snape. Once you lot are in your fifth year you will get a room of your own. Higgs," She called out, glaring at the boy Tom was talking to. Higgs stood up straight, his posture so stiff, the guards from Buckingham palace would have been jealous. "Take them to their rooms."

Higgs rounded them up and took them up to the passage outside the first year rooms.

When it was Tom's first time at Hogwarts he had been left to share a room with Clarence Pettigrew, a useless excuse of a wizard, th rest pairing up according to the alliances the pureblood families had with one another, Black with Malfoy, Avery with Lestrange and so on. It had lasted until the second week by which everyone wanted to share Tom's room.

He didn't see that happening this time around, the idea of impressing them enough to be stuck with Crabbe's spawn or Derek sent a shudder down his spine. No, he was more than happy to be 'stuck' with Harry.

Harry whose first actions upon entering their room was to go through his trunk and start pulling books out.

"What are you doing?" Tom couldn't help but ask and Harry shot him a brilliant grin.

"Getting a headstart on Potions, I really want to impress Professor Snape."

In another part of the castle, surrounded by his colleagues at their first staff meeting of the year, Severus Snape took a vial of Pepper-up potion from his robe pocket and downed it in one quick gulp. The sudden sneezing fit he had been thrown into had surprised him.

"Somebody must be remembering your." McGonagall teased and Snape glared at her as she smiled, amused.