As always I would like to thank my alpha MissRissa81 for reading over this for me and constantly encouraging me and working out plot with me, you are a godsend and I don't know where this story would be without you. Thank you again xx

This is the longest chapter so far for this fic as there was so much I had to fit into the end of year one so enjoy! I've already got a plan for the next chapter and have started writing it so it shouldn't be too far off! I am hoping to get at least three chapters posted this month!

March 19, 1939

Theodore, Tom, Aldrich and Hermione sat and planned how they could draw Alders out enough to corner him without Dumbledore noticing his little lackey was missing. Hermione and Tom would sit in the library until they noticed he came in and then they would slam their books into their bags and walk up to the sixth floor where Aldrich and Theo were lying in wait for him.

It was all set for after classes ended, and Hermione was getting anxious as the day went by, especially when she was sitting in Transfiguration with Professor Dumbledore staring them down every time they made a move.

"Calm down, Hermione. He will know we are up to something if you don't. We have to keep our cool." Aldrich commented from her left, Tom and Theo sitting on her right had been trying to ignore her anxiousness, so it wouldn't draw attention to her and that wouldn't go down well.

Nodding, she took a couple of deep breaths and refused to lock eyes with the Professor, this had to work. They had to know why Alders was so hell-bent on following them.

Their day went by slowly, the time dragging as if it knew they were waiting and anticipating. The last bell rang and the four Slytherins moved out of the classroom quickly before Professor Dumbledore got the chance to stop any of them. All four were required for the plan to work. Tom and Hermione headed to the library and Aldrich and Theo to the sixth floor.

Sitting down and waiting was a quick and painless experience as Alders walked in behind them, keeping to the shadows he watched them pull their books out and read for a moment, talking to each other as they made notes, but he couldn't hear a word. Attempting to move closer he noticed Nott slam her quill down, scowling at Riddle and both placing their books back in their bags.

It looked to be that they were fighting, interesting, he could tell the Professor there was dissension in the ranks and that he could probably use that, not wanting to miss a word just in case they said something important.

So, intent on Tom and Hermione as they walked into an abandoned classroom he didn't notice as Theo and Aldrich stepped out of the shadows and as the door slammed he realized he had stuffed up.

Why had he walked in there? He was meant to hide his task of following them. Why had he let himself get so distracted?

The four Slytherins crowded him and scowled menacingly. "Why are you following Hermione and Tom?" Aldrich asked.

"I want to see what they are up to. I don't trust them, and I never have. You Slytherins are up to something and I'm going to figure it out." He spat at them.

"Are you sure you want to stay with that explanation? There's no other reason? You weren't told to follow us?" Tom asked.

"Nope. Did it on my own. Knew you needed to be put in your place so followed you so I could be the one to bring you down." He responded, thinking all he had to do was keep the lie up for a bit and then he was home free, and he could get back to Professor Dumbledore and let him in on the fact they knew he was following them.

"Well stop. Because if we find out you are following any Slytherin, if we find you slinking in the shadows again, this little chat will be tame." Tom threatened, moving closer.

"What are a bunch of first years going to do?" He said disbelievingly.

"Our parents have taught us a lot, we've been surrounded by massive libraries with books that would give you nightmares," Theo said.

Michael gulped, realizing from the looks on the Slytherins faces they weren't lying. Nodding he backed away, not once turning his back on them he opened the door of the classroom and rushed around the corner, stopping to lean up against a wall to calm himself and then headed to Professor Dumbledore to try and get out of this.

He shouldn't have said yes in the beginning.

xXx

Michael stood before the Professor, wincing every time he spoke. He was angry that Michael had let himself get caught by them, he was meant to be secretive about his following of the Slytherins.

Michael took the silent moment that fell as his opportunity, "I don't want to do this anymore, they threatened me."

"Michael, you know they are planning something big for their parents, their parents are forcing them to do this. You are helping them." The Professor said in a soft, compelling voice.

"They don't seem like they are being forced to do anything?" he said, not realising he had ended his speech with a question mark.

Dumbledore moved over to rest his hand on his shoulder, "Because their parents have brainwashed them so much that they believe that this is by their own volition."

"I..." Michael paused in thought, what if they were really being forced by their parents to look at whatever they are researching? What if they really do need his help to stop their parents? "I just don't know if I should be doing this. What if they go to Headmaster Dippet?"

"I will deal with the headmaster if that happens, my dear boy. I'm only trying to help them. You see that don't you?" Dumbledore prompted, an evil glint in his eye that if you weren't paying attention you wouldn't notice, he had Michael questioning himself and that's what he needed for the boy to keep going along with what he wanted. He would have his perfect puppet if Michael agreed.

"I feel like I'm out of my depth," Michael said looking up to the Professor with a scared look on his face.

"I believe in you Michael, if I didn't I wouldn't have asked you to do this monumental task. You are the only one I feel like I can trust. I can trust you right, Michael?" he questioned.

"Yes. You can Professor." Michael said sitting up straighter, a weight lifting off his shoulders he felt like he was doing something worthwhile by helping the Professor get the Slytherins away from their parent's influence. If he didn't stop following them and passing information onto the Professor maybe they would be grateful one day.

Michael stood smiling. He was doing the right thing, and no one could tell him otherwise.

"Thank you, Michael. You don't know how much your help means to me. It helps to have an extra set of eyes around the school." Dumbledore said, smirking the kid had fallen right into his hands. A small nudge to the boy's ego and he had crumbled. This was going to work out perfectly.

"Thank you, sir. You helped me see that backing away now wasn't the right thing to do. They've been brainwashed their whole lives. They need my help." Michael said once again sounding confident.

"Okay now we have that settled, why don't you tell me exactly where they took you and what they said?"

"Hermione Nott and Tom Riddle led me up to an abandoned classroom on the sixth floor where Theodore Nott and Aldrich Avery were lying in wait, I didn't notice them until it was too late." Michael paused and waited for the Professor to direct him to go on and then continued, "They then asked me why I was following them, and I said I didn't trust them. I didn't mention you I swear."

Dumbledore nodded, "I know, Michael. Continue please."

"That's when they threatened me if I didn't stay away and stop following them they would deal with me," Michael said flicking his eyes around the room as if they were going to jump out at them.

"You did the right thing by coming to me. I can now see the damage is worse than I thought, and we need to up our game." Dumbledore nodded solemnly. Adding to his image of being the concerned professor.

"What do we do?" Michael asked.

"We keep them in our sights at all times possible. Okay, Michael, I have some things to do so go back to following them, and I will call on you when I need you for more." Michael nodded and stood to leave the room, going back to the sixth floor he waited in the shadows watching the four Slytherins sit in their room reading thick tomes.

April 9, 1939

School was drama-free for the rest of the term and Tom, Theodore, Aldrich and Hermione relaxed a little once they hadn't seen Alders following them. Their families in addition to Tom had decided they would spend the Easter Holidays together and make it a holiday to remember.

They were all sleeping in the guest room of the Avery's mansion on camping beds, so they could spend more hours together and Hermione's, Theo's and Aldrich's siblings didn't try and monopolize their time away from school. The four first years decided they would read more of Ravenclaw's history now that they had more source material from the room they had found.

"Kids, time for Easter Lunch and presents, you can come back up here once you've finished eating and spent some time with the family." Mrs Nott demanded of them.

Sighing as one, they stood and followed her down to the formal dining room where everyone was gathered, and House Elves were bustling around putting dishes on the table. Tom stood watching them for a moment and wondered how the small creatures had ever become the slaves of witches and wizards and how you came to own a house elf.

Hermione gestured to her left side where there was an empty seat, situating her in the middle of Tom and Aldrich. Tom didn't mind their friend, but he hated Hermione giving him as much attention as she gave Tom as he had been starved of attention for so long and he didn't share well. Even if it was a person that he was sharing.

He didn't even like sharing her attention with her brother and that was saying something about him. What kind of person was he to only want her attention to be on him?

Lunch was passed around and conversation stilted as they all were engrossed in their food. When it came time for the presents to be given and some were set before Tom he sat confused for a moment, why was he getting presents? He wasn't actually family. He was grateful for them thinking of him but confused, would they want something from him in return later? Or was he that close to the children that he was considered family? He took a moment to digest that. He had never had anything close to family and these two families had accepted him so quickly. What would he do now he knew what it felt to be included if they suddenly cast him out of their circle?

"Are you okay?" Mrs Nott asked before he left the room with the others.

"I'm fine ma'am." He answered, looking between Mrs Nott and Avery who were sharing worried looks.

"Oh, you seemed withdrawn during lunch and we wanted to check nothing had upset you." Mrs Avery said with a small comforting smile spread across her face.

"No, well yes. But it wasn't anything serious, I was just thinking how welcomed I felt with your families." He explained.

"We adore you, our children adore you, Tom. So, you are welcome anytime, son." Mrs Nott said.

"Thank you." He said shyly. Not knowing what to do with that statement.

"You're definitely welcome, dear. Now head up to the others and we will call you at dinner." Mrs Avery said dismissing him gently.

Tom walked up the stairs, making excuses of having to go to the bathroom on why he had taken so long to come up to the room and sat down pulling the book he had been reading before and his notes to him, a small smile lingering on his face. Happiness was an emotion he hardly felt but he could feel it bubbling up inside him and felt like he would burst if there was no release.

April 22, 1939

Tom, Hermione and the others returned to school after the holidays, but he couldn't focus on much, the school year was coming to a close. In just two months they will have finished their first year at Hogwarts and he'd have to return to the orphanage. He wasn't looking forward to that after being around the Nott's and Avery's who had treated him so well and like he had always been a part of their families.

He didn't want to leave Hermione for a whole three months, she had become his comfort and he loathed to admit it but being so far away from her he felt like he would do something stupid like curse someone from the orphanage and get expelled from Hogwarts and the Wizarding world and never see her or her family again. It wasn't a pleasant thought and so Tom slipped into himself brooding over the fact that soon he would have to pretend this world didn't exist for a few months.

Hermione noticed something was wrong. All of the Slytherins did. But he wouldn't tell them, and they wouldn't pry. They gave him his space.

Hermione had said when he was ready to talk she would be there, but he couldn't say what he wanted to because then she and the others would look at him as if he was weak.

And that was one thing he couldn't let them think. He was the outcast that lived in a Muggle orphanage, he couldn't let himself seem weak he would be more of an outcast.

He had improved with his self-conscious moods, but they still popped up occasionally.

Tom knew if he didn't pull himself together soon, Hermione, Theodore and Aldrich would force what was bothering him out and wouldn't leave well enough alone until they had fixed the situation.

Blocking out everyone around the common room he took deep breaths in and out, four seconds in and two seconds out like Madame Pomfrey had taught him and cleared his mind of all negative thoughts. Feeling slightly better about himself, he stood and found the others, making sure to keep a mask of indifference in place while he continued to breathe in and out, in the company of some of the nosiest, amazing people he had met.

May 10, 1939

Tom, Hermione and Aldrich had been pouring over books for hours, Theodore was in detention again for being late to class. He was always sleeping in without a house elf to wake him up and would fight anyone else who tried to wake him. The other three knew the school year coming to an end meant the supply of books from the room up on the seventh floor would end until they could come back to school.

So, not wanting to waste any of their time they spent every free moment they had in the room researching.

"Guys, here's something I've seen in two books; It is said that each founder had a secret room, wherein they kept the knowledge they wanted only those worthy to have. Rowena Ravenclaw could often be found on the fourth-floor corridor appearing out of nowhere. Many wondered if this was where her secrets were held." Hermione read from the book, only looking up at the boys when she had finished.

"That was mentioned in these three as well, I was going to say something when we finished," Aldrich said, pointing at a pile of books to the left of him.

"I have that in some of mine too, do you think there's something here? Do you think there's actually secret rooms?" Tom asked suddenly looking wide awake and interested.

"There have been rumours of rooms like that for centuries, maybe we should focus on finding Ravenclaw's and seeing what's in there to be able to say we found a perfectly preserved room of her knowledge?" Hermione questioned them.

"I think it would be worth something to look for it, even if we keep the knowledge between us," Tom said and Aldrich nodded in agreement.

"Okay, so this weekend we go to the fourth floor and explore. We can't do something as big as this without Theodore." Hermione said.

"Yeah, he deserves to be apart of this." Aldrich agreed.

The three students gathered the books with mentions of the room and placed them in their book bags to show Theo when he finished detention and walked down to dinner.

May 25, 1939

Hermione could feel the eyes burning into the back of her neck, as of late there hadn't been a moment that she didn't feel like she was being watched. Alders had seemed to disappear after they had warned him off so it couldn't be him. Discreetly looking around the classroom she noticed one of the Gryffindor girls watching her.

Not even hiding the fact that she was she remained locking eyes with Hermione and raising an eyebrow at her as if in challenge. Hermione scowled and went back to watching the professor never losing the feeling that the girl was watching her. Keeping her head forward until after class had ended she told the boys she'd meet them down at lunch claiming she had to go to the toilet.

Tom and Theo tried to insist on staying with her but a simple deflection of girl stuff had them nodding and backing away from her leaving her to her own vices.

Walking away from the classroom; she could hear the footsteps of the girl following and smirked at how easy it was to lure a Gryffindor to go where you wanted them.

Once she had gotten far enough away from everyone, she turned a corner and waited for the girl to follow her around. Pushing the other girl up against the wall, she pulled her wand out and held it at her chest.

"Why are you following me?" Hermione asked.

"I wanted to see what you were up to." She said squirming to get out of underneath Hermione's hold.

"Why?" Hermione questioned, pushing her wand harder into the chest. Leaving a slight burn mark in the girls' shirt.

"No reason, you just seem like you are suspicious." She said, scowling at Hermione.

"Did Professor Dumbledore recruit you too?" She asked.

"No. Why would he recruit someone to spy on a measly little first year Slytherin? You're nothing." The girl spat.

Wiping the slight drops of spittle off her face she scowled at the Gryffindor, she had to be working with orders from Dumbledore, there was no way someone like this would be interested in Hermione. There was no explanation for her interest.

So instead of letting things go she pushed the wand up to her face and said, "Warn. I want answers now, why are you following me? What is so important that you are following me for him?"

"I told you once and I'll tell you again. I. Am. Not. Following. You. For. Professor. Dumbledore. Did me saying it slow help it sink in Nott?" Warn said bobbing her head with each word.

"I'm not slow, idiot. I just want to have answers." Hermione emphasised by stepping closer.

"Well we will be here all day then because I just found your behaviour suspicious, I am not following orders of anyone. Now let me go before I am forced to hurt you." She threatened.

"Like you could hurt me. I'm stronger and smarter. I know more spells than you could hope to learn in your lifetime, mudblood." Hermione smirked as the words caused the girl to flinch backwards. "Now. Stop following me or next time I won't be so nice.

Hermione let the girl go and walked down to the Great Hall, sitting next to her brother the boys asked her where she had been.

"Some little Gryffindor has been recruited by Dumbledore to follow me so I had a few words with her," Hermione whispered so no one else could hear her.

"You okay?" Aldrich asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Hermione said smiling at him reassuringly.

They sat around, flicking their eyes between the Gryffindor table watching Paton come in and then to Dumbledore to see if he was watching her or them.

Lunch went quickly and the four Slytherins slowed until all of the Gryffindors had left the Hall before going to Herbology.

June 7, 1939

Nearly a month of searching the fourth-floor corridor and they had finally found the entrance to the secret corridor, it was between two knights; one with a sword and one with a shield. They didn't know how anyone else hadn't discovered the corridor as it was fairly big and surely someone must of realised the castle size didn't match up to the plans.

Hermione, Theodore, Tom and Aldrich didn't mind though this gave them a massive discovery, a place that they could go and no one else would know where they were and they could explore to find the room that Ravenclaw had left everything that she wanted only the worthy to find. Not one person would be able to say they had found as much preserved history of one of the great founders of the school.

It had taken them a month to find it because they had to make sure no one got suspicious of why they were always here so they took it in shifts two or three of them would be in the library or somewhere in view of everyone while the other one or two would be in the corridor searching inconspicuously.

It had been Hermione leaning between the knights and pretending to talk to Aldrich that had found the corridor. She had slowly sunk through the wall and Aldrich had come through straight after to make sure she was okay before getting the other two. That was when they'd started checking behind each door in the corridor.

Most of the rooms were other classrooms and broom closets but one room was closed off with a padlock and a lock.

"Alohomora." Hermione tried first, the others tried too. They even tried casting all at once. No matter how much they tried the lock wouldn't budge. So they searched each of the other rooms again coming across a riddle.

I am hidden from all alive.

Come find me if you are worthy.

If you have to ask, you will never know.

If you know, you need only ask.

Trying to figure out the riddle and what it meant would take longer than they had planned, they sat in the corridor and the hidden classrooms trying to find some sort of clue.

Eventually, Hermione and Tom headed to the library and Theodore and Aldrich headed to the hidden room up on the seventh floor to see if any of the books they had previously read and hadn't read yet held any clues or knowledge.

But nothing.

Deciding they'd start researching Helga Hufflepuff and anything to do with her, they would continue to search the school for the key but they weren't going to waste too much time away from researching, they'd find each of the founder's secrets and then worry about how to get into their rooms.

June 20, 1939

Aldrich watched as Tom got moodier and moodier as the term to came to a close, he understood. What Tom went through at the orphanage, the loneliness and isolation from the magic world would make it even harder but the way he was taking his anger out on his friends wasn't good.

They had all gone through so much together in their first year at Hogwarts; all the hours of research only to come up empty-handed when they actually got to the corridor to find it locked, the detentions for fighting the Gryffindors, having to deal with the prejudice that came with being Slytherin. Then the constant paranoia that Professor Dumbledore and his cronies were following them.

It had been a lot to take and the summer would be a nice reprieve, yes they were taking a lot of the books with them so they could continue trying to find the key to the lock and start researching Helga Hufflepuff but they wouldn't have to contend with the detentions and being followed.

Tom was the only one that wouldn't really benefit from Summer Holidays. They had all tried to convince him that they would write and before school they would meet up in Diagon Alley but he wasn't listening to any of them anymore.

At the end of the year feast he sat off by himself, Hermione, Theodore and Aldrich had tried to sit by him but he would move further away each time.

The train ride was no different, yeah he sat in the same carriage as them because there were no others but he sat in the corner pretending to be asleep the whole ride into London and when he did wake up it was to get changed, eat a chocolate frog and immediately go back to sleep.

His three friends got sadder and sadder the closer they got to London as they didn't want to leave their friend in his situation but had no choice. There was no other option for him. He had no blood relatives and the headmaster had said he had to go back to the orphanage by law.

Hopping off the train Hermione stood in front of him and wouldn't let him go until he promised to keep in touch with them and then gave him a hug, trying to place as much comfort into that one hug to last him the summer.

The Nott's and Avery's stood off to the side frowning at the boy's depressed look and wished there was something they could do. Going home and leaving him in the orphanage was hard but they took comfort that he would be writing to them and keeping them informed of anything that happened.

Hermione's and Theodore's parents promised that if anything looked strange about his letters they would find a way to get to him. This gave some relief to the children but not much.

Their first year at Hogwarts was over and now they couldn't wait to get back to school and to Tom.

Hope you enjoyed, until next time xxx