Chapter 6: Victim

Hoorah! Glad I'm done with it.

Cameos from school age Augusta Longbottom (Neville's grandmother), Algie Longbottom (his great uncle), Enid Longbottom (his great aunt - I gave her a different last name, as it's assumed often that she was Algie Longbottom's wife), and Minerva McGonagall (no introduction needed XD), anyone? I love cameos :)

So, here is chapter six. Regular disclaimer, I own nothing except my original characters and ideas.

Here ya go!

After the Basilisk's first victim was taken to the Hospital Wing, it all started to seem a bit more real to me. It was on the same day Tom and I headed down to the Chamber of Secrets to release the monster from its underground prison, to allow it to roam freely through the pipes, through the walls of Hogwarts.

And the first victim wasn't even Muggleborn. Almost as though the monster itself was attempting to incriminate me further, the first victim was Algie Longbottom. He wasn't killed; he was lucky. Judging by the scene he was found in, he had seen the Basilisk in the mirror of the boys' bathrooms on the second floor. He was lying in front of one of the sinks, stiff as a board, looking quite frightened. He had only seen a reflection, so –

"The effects weren't as serious as they could have been," Tom was explaining.

When I heard about the attack myself, I had fled to my regular brooding grounds – the bed of the lake by the castle, standing against a tree and staring blankly out at the water, wondering vaguely when I'd be called into Dippet's office to be expelled. Tom was absolutely thrilled with the quick results the release of the Basilisk had. Already, a blood traitor had been gotten rid of. Unfortunately, everyone at the school knew quite well that that particular blood traitor and I were mortal enemies.

"If he had turned to look straight at the Basilisk without looking up at the mirror, he'd have been killed instantly," Tom continued, pacing restlessly in front of the lake. I didn't have to bother looking over to know. The sound of footsteps and his voice growing repeatedly louder and quieter alerted me to it. Pacing was generally something he did when speaking of something he found exceedingly interesting, whether it was domination over the Muggle world or the cleansing of Hogwarts by means of a Basilisk. "The suspicion that it was you might go up a bit now."

"A bit?" It had really been the first thing I had said with any enthusiasm since Tom had managed to locate me, and it caused him to stop his pacing. "A bit?" I repeated. I shook my head rapidly. "I'll be expelled the moment Dippet sees me. No doubt this turned Dumbledore away from my side, he knows Longbottom and I can't be left alone in a classroom together without one or both of us ending up in the Hospital Wing. It looks more than a bit suspicious. The only known heir to Slytherin at Hogwarts is me, Longbottom is the first to get it after the heir leaves his message, what do you reckon they'll think?"

"That you opened the Chamber, obviously, but they already thought that to begin with, didn't they?" said Tom. "I'd be more worried about Enid Quintin if I were you." I raised my eyebrows.

"Longbottom's girlfriend?"

"Fiancé. And she's out to kill you. She's in Dumbledore's office right now, I'm fairly sure he's trying to talk some sense into her. There's quite a high chance he might still be on your side."

"No," I said with a sigh, looking back out at the lake disinterestedly. "He just knows that someone's going to die either way eventually, and he'd rather postpone the inevitable to keep the student body under control. The Chamber has been opened, any idiot can understand that. And every time it's opened, at least one Mudblood will end up dying before it's closed."

"True enough," said Tom. "I'm hoping that won't occur until the end of our seventh year, however, as I'd prefer for Hogwarts to stay open for the remainder of the time that I'm going to be spending here."

I shut my eyes in annoyance. That was what was going to keep him going in all of this; the only thing that he was worried about was himself. His best friend is suspected to be the heir of Slytherin who opened the Chamber of Secrets? Oh, at least it's not him. As long as it's not him, everything is all swell and dandy, nothing could bloody go wrong. Tom knew that Dippet would go through expelling everyone in Slytherin before even thinking it could possibly be Tom. And when he got down to Tom, it would be likely for him to go through the rest of the houses first. Dumbledore may not have trusted Tom, and Dumbledore may have practically run the school in those days, but if it had to do with Tom misbehaving in any way, shape, or form, Dippet would hear nothing of it.

I slid down my tree and to a sitting position as I listened to Tom for a bit longer. "Not sure who it should be," he was saying. "We know already that the Basilisk can pick out both blood traitors and Mudbloods, probably halfbloods as well, which means that it could easily pick out someone. But for who it's going to actually kill, I think that one should be hand picked. Someone popular, probably Gryffindor. Mudblood rather than just a halfblood or blood traitor."

"Hmm," I half-agreed absently, still staring out at the lake, now laying my head sideways on my bent knees. "Sure."

I tuned out nearly everything else, nodding in agreement occasionally or coming back into reality to make sure he wasn't asking me a question. I doubted he would. I was more an outlet than anything when he started ranting, as he would have looked utterly foolish walking around and talking to himself about it.

What made me stir slightly after God only knows how long was the fact that I realized Tom had stopped talking and someone else had started. I stood up and looked around to see what he was focused on and while I didn't see what it was at that very moment, I heard it almost instantly.

"Augusta, listen, please –"

"No! My little brother is in the hospital wing because of that son of a bitch and I'm going to kill him! You're not dragging me off to Dumbledore or Dippet or any of the stupid old geezers running this place, I'll kill him!"

I blinked a few times, and then flinched. If it was the "Augusta" I was thinking it was, then I was halfway considering running into the forest upon first sight of her. Augusta Longbottom was the older sister of Algie, and if it was her, I was dead. She was probably twice my size – I'd been thin as a rail since I started school and tall to boot, but she was a few inches taller than me at least and could likely punch me hard enough to knock my brains out of my ears.

"You're being completely irrational! I don't want to have to take points away from my own house!" came the next voice. "Don't do this!"

"You can do whatever you want, Minnie, I don't give a damn! It's not your brother in the hospital wing looking like a statue, now is it?"

"There's not even any proof that –"

"The entire school knows who he is, don't play stupid! No wonder you weren't put in Ravenclaw, you haven't got the sense of a flobberworm."

And offended noise replied to this, and then the same voice began chiding away at Augusta Longbottom again. "Detention Monday night! And it'll be fifty points from Gryffindor if you keep on with this, Augusta, I swear it will!"

"You keep saying that, you haven't actually done it yet," said Augusta boredly. "I'm surprised at you. Head Girl and not willing to take points away from your own house, you weren't given that badge just as decoration, you know."

Tom looked over at me. "You realize you're going to get murdered if you don't do anything?" he said. "Run or something?"

"Maybe if I die and Mudbloods keep getting petrified, they'll realize they made a mistake and start examining people I consider my friends," I said nonchalantly. Where had that come from? Whatever it was, it worked; Tom's expression turned from slightly amused to one of surprise.

"That's actually true," he said slowly.

"So perhaps it's you that needs to be thinking of something to keep yourself from being thrown in Azkaban, eh?" I said, feeling like I was pushing my luck but lacking the self control to stop myself.

"Minerva, give me back my wand right now! I don't want to have to hurt you!"

My head whipped back around my shoulder. The two girls were now in view. There was Augusta Longbottom of course, rounding on a rather scared-looking Minerva McGonagall. She was standing her ground, however, pointing her wand at Augusta while hiding Augusta's behind her back, but the effect of this was somewhat voided by her backing towards a tree. "I-I have a wand and you haven't, I can stop you! Ten points from Gryffindor! Three detentions – no, four! Now come back to the castle, Professor Dumbledore said he wanted to see you!"

"Locomotor Mortus!"

I looked at Tom in only enough time to see him pocketing his wand and walking swiftly over to the two arguing, just as Augusta Longbottom was falling onto the ground with her legs locked together, stiff as a boards. I hurried after him and caught up with him before he reached either of them. "Thanks for that," I said with a sigh of relief. "I'll be heading back to the Slytherin common room before anyone else can attempt that."

"Probably a good idea."

I stopped at the scene with Tom for a moment, just long enough for Augusta to yell a few obscenities in my general direction while attempting to stand up so she could "rip my bloody head off of my shoulders."

"Riddle," McGonagall began sternly, pointing her wand again. "You –"

"I would very much appreciate it if you would lower your wand, McGonagall," he said patiently. "That was entirely necessary. At least one student has already been attacked by someone today, and we don't need another joining him in a body bag, do we?" I glared at Tom at this, then started back towards the castle before I could say anything that might get me a detention courtesy of McGonagall.

"I suppose not," I heard McGonagall reply behind me shortly. "Gaunt, come back here for a moment!" she added. I headed back a few feet.

"What?" I said impatiently – I completely lacked the gift of hiding my tone that Tom seemed to have mastered. "Going to give me a detention for suspicion of Heir of Slytherin?"

"No, and in case you failed to notice, I was attempting to stop you being murdered," she said in her regular curt tone. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Professor Dumbledore instructed me to give you this," she said, handing it over. "I imagine it has a time and date for you to head to either his or Headmaster Dippet's office. Until that time, I suggest you should keep to your common room. You'll likely be welcomed there as a hero."

I clenched my fist around the letter, thought better of my initial instinct, and said, "I don't much appreciate your tone. I've nothing to do with this, and anyone who has is bloody mad. My father might have done it when he was in school if he'd been intelligent enough, but I wouldn't even claim relation to that bastard if I could avoid it."

"Is that so?"

"Very much so," I said. "If family had to do with anything, I don't suppose you'd have been in Gryffindor."

I turned and headed in the direction of the castle, opening the now crumpled letter envelope as I went. I pulled out a piece of parchment and read the loopy, slanted scrawl upon it.

Timothy Gaunt,

Headmaster Dippet requested I alert you that your presence

is required in his office tonight at seven o'clock sharp. You are

to meet your head of house in the entrance hall and he will
escort you there. Failure to arrive on time or at all will only

result in further trouble, so I am hopeful that you will appear

there on time.

Until that time, I suggest only out of concern for your safety
that you remain in your common room for the remainder of

the day, unless accompanied by a large group. There are

many students who believe you to be responsible for the fate

of Algie Longbottom, as well as many members of staff. I

suggest you be careful around the castle.

Most sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

I scoffed under my breath. "'Most sincerely,' my arse…" I grumbled, crumpling the paper more and stuffing it into my pocket. I avoided crowds of angry students on the way into the castle, and not just Gryffindors. There weren't any Slytherins around. I wondered vaguely if they were all in the common room looking to confront me about it. I had every intention of lying. I haven't got anything to do with this, get the bloody hell away from me! Truthfully, I wasn't sure I wanted anything to do with it anymore. All right, I was sure I didn't want anything to do with it, to be entirely truthful. There's absolutely no point denying it. Tom roped me into it in the first place. It was my own curiosity that kept me going through that grimy system of pipes, or that made me take the leap into the one in the girls' bathrooms in the first place, but it was him that gave me that curiosity. He bloody provoked me.

I really knew in the back of my mind that I could blame no one but myself. Sure, Tom was the head in all of this, but I was following him out of my own fear. To this day, I don't know whether I was more afraid of losing a friend, being forced to have a good heart to heart, eye to eye with the Basilisk, or Tom killing me himself. I was almost sure it was the second of the three, but it could have very well been the third. I had the option of either living through all of this and just getting expelled – not too bad, right? My own father was expelled and he's getting by. – or giving up and being murdered. It wasn't a wonderful situation, it wasn't glorious, and I didn't see the point at all. Tom was obsessed, I was scared out of my bloody mind. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wasn't a stupidly bloody valiant and brave Gryffindor.

I passed my head off house on my way down into the dungeons and attempted to walk past him briskly and inconspicuously, but I tripped over my own feet in the process – inconspicuousness had never been a strong point of mine.

"Gaunt, there you are," said Malfoy, turning on his heel to look at me. I stopped in my tracks after a moment of self debate about just running. "I'm going to ask you this in as simple a way as I can. Did you have anything to do with what has happened with Algie Longbottom?" I opened my mouth to answer, but he continued. "Keep in mind, lying isn't going to do you any good."

"I had nothing to do with it, sir," I said. "You know my preferred methods with that duffer as well as I do, you've had to debate with Headmaster Dippet over whether or not to expel me over it at least a good seventy times since I started school. And if it was me," I added, "I'd have picked someone different for the first victim rather than someone the entire school knows I hate."

He examined me a moment, surely attempting to detect a flinch in my set expression, anything that could incriminate me in the slightest. "That's as good an answer as any," he said. "I honestly wondered whether or not you would stoop to hexing that sort of an idiot when you could just as easily put him in the hospital wing with – what was it, your 'methods'? I'm not saying I trust you any more than before, just that it seems to suspicious for it to be means to incriminate you by yet."

"If you say so, sir." I had to fight grinning at the look of annoyance developing on Abraxas Malfoy's face.

"Go on to your common room," he said. "Before you get lynched by an angry mob of Gryffindors."

"Exactly what I was doing when you stopped me. Good day, sir."

He didn't return the goodbye as he turned around and continued on his way. I hurried into the Gryffindor-free dungeon. I hadn't even thought that anyone might consider it too suspicious that Algie Longbottom was the heir's first victim. Maybe that would be a point for my side of the argument. Perhaps it would be something I could use when Dippet interrogated me. The man wasn't very intelligent, but Dumbledore could help him see reason. If Abraxas Malfoy was smart enough to notice how suspicious it was compared, then Dumbledore might have still been on my side of the fight. I definitely hoped so, as it seemed Dumbledore was my only hope at not getting expelled over this.

I reached the common room entrance and said the password to the patch of wall brightly. However, my brightness faded when I walked into the commonroom and found half of Slytherin – the half that supported Tom's ambitions, specifically – waiting for me. I had been slightly worried about confrontation, but the praise that was awaiting me turned out to be far, far worse. They were just as bad as the rest of the school, all thinking it had been me, but they were quite a bit more accepting of it, it seemed. I hurried through the crowd and to the staircase to the boys' dorms, where I turned on them all. My expression must have matched my outlook towards them, for everyone silenced and backed away from me a few steps.

"I'm going to say this one last time," I said slowly. "I'm not the heir – technically I am," I added thoughtfully, "– but I'm not the one doing this." More hubbub at this, and it sounded mostly disbelieving. I felt my fist clench. "It's not me!" I yelled over top of all of them. They silenced again.

"Well, who is it, then?" asked someone – a third year I only recognized by sight.

"I haven't got a bloody clue," I said, and turned to make my way up the stairs.

And the one thing that made me at least slightly happy, though the talking had started again, was that I didn't hear anyone following me.