"Lead me to the entrance." Toby whispered to his dagger as he approached the exterior walls. He had spent years exploring the labyrinths Jareth created that he believed he would have the advantage here. His dagger already proving right. The point led quickly to the entrance that his eyes just didn't see.

Lupin was an adept wizard with year of experience, and one of Harry's mentors. Albus, and many others in there order had put great amounts of faith in him. Toby would not underestimate the skills he brought to this competition.

Several paths later, his first obstacle appeared. A little girl was kneeling in the middle of his path, crying by the sounds of it. She had long black hair that surrounded her like a curtain, her features completely masked by the strands. She was turned away, and the hair swept the ground as she rocked from her cries.

"Oh boy…" Toby let out a deep breath and slowly approached. She could be a help or a lure for the actually trap, and now with a greater knowledge of magical creatures his mind made up hundred of different scenarios for what could happen.

"Are you okay little girl?" Toby said trying to sound soothing as he approached. His dagger held tightly in his main hand, wand in his off hand. The girl just sniffled and continued to cry. Toby quietly said sorry, and cast Petrificus Totalis on her from behind.

The spell splattered against her form, and she turned erupting into a shriek. Toby barely caught a look at her face before bolting past her. He could hear her foot step following him at a mad pace as he booked it for all he was worth.

Toby spared a glance behind as he took a corner and regretted seeing the strange two image face split down the center that seemed to run down her body. The left following a pale almost mask like look, and the right a dark visage of rage. Then Toby ran into something springy, and immediately started to struggle against it as he wasn't moving away from it.

The entire corridor ahead of him was covered with walls of spider webs. He could have wiped them away easily enough but he missed his chance with this demonic girl chasing him. Turning back to see if she was getting closer he saw a spider as large as a car drop from above her and stab her in the back with a poisonous spine at the tip of his thorax.

She didn't notice as she kept coming forward. Toby was using his dagger to start sawing through strands as setting them on fire while he was still attached seemed dangerous.

She got right in his face and he could see her eyes open wide staring into his. Each eye was like a reflection of the other side. Her pale mask side eye was black, with a white iris that seemed to shake as if unable to stop moving. The rage sides eye had what looked like a normal eye, but the iris was pitch back, and looked down upon him with disapproval. Toby felt heady for a moment, before the giant tarantula caught her with its legs and dragged her away, wrapping the demonic little girl in web cocoon.

Toby was now standing there freed from the web after whatever she had done, but felt unsteady on his feet. His body was moving easier as if lighter. A quick check over himself showed his armor was all gone. He only had his potions on the inside of his jacket left.

'Was she removing all my protection? Was that her point?' Toby thought to himself. Toby was even more surprised when he heard a response that wasn't his own. 'No, her magic was to divide your soul. I believe she was a lesser demon from the orient. My magic protected us from it.'

Quickly spinning around as he felt the sound come from behind he saw a shadow of smoke, holding a human shape nearly a foot taller them himself. The shadow was supporting his armor as if it was solid, and after a few moments the armor started to mold itself. Gauze wrapped the shadows giving them better definition, until it looked like a mummy wearing ornamental armor. A wand in his right and dagger in his left the shadow turned the wand towards the spider and called out.

"Sectumseptra!" Toby turned to see what happened to the spider as he had never tried Snape signature spell before.

The spider didn't seem to notice any difference.

"Um… I don't think it worked." Toby said after a moment.

"It seems this isn't a true body. I still cannot use a wand." The Shadow spoke looking to the wand and then to Toby. Toby reached out for the wand, while keeping a close watch on the figure. The voice sounded like his from the mirror, but he was starting to get leery of his mirror self after his trip to see Urdrog. As the Shadow handed over his wand he noticed the Diadem was sitting on its brow.

"We should move before the Acromantula notices us again." Once again armed with a wand he banished the webbing in his way and moves out of the corridor of the spider. The Shadow kept pace just behind him with the dagger at the ready. Toby tried to keep his mind carefully blank as he did during practice with Snape, he wasn't sure how powerful of connection he shared with his shadow ally right now.

"Interesting dilemma this causes us. Will you return to the mirror side if I put that armor back on then?" Toby asked quietly as he was searching for different passages.

"I imagine, but both of us working together right now would seem more beneficial as two then just one." He said with the reasonable sound to his voice. It was hard to argue with, but paranoia seemed to help a lot.

"Two sets of eyes keeping a look out seem better then one I agree. Can you do the search-" Toby was interrupted as the ground next to him exploded. A large almost scorpion like grey monstrosity broke free of where it had been hiding. A stinger held over the top and what looked like a jet engine near the rear side let out a decent flame as it blast forward nearly running over Toby.

After dodging to the side Toby rolled back to his feet and let loose a beautiful string of curses and jinxes against what he believed was a Blast-Ended Skrewt, a creature the half-giant Hagrid had bred a few years earlier. Each spell deflected off the carapace, and once again Toby cursed the wands for there uselessness.

Shadow ducked towards the creature after it had blasted forward and tried stabbing it, but the armored hide was to perfect for the dagger to slip underneath the chinks. It turned sending him flying as the tail end slammed into his armored form.

"Got any idea's? This things hide is as bad as goblin steel." Toby called out as he levitated his cloak as he jumped to stay clear of sting attack from the creature. Landing on the far side, as it was difficult to levitate oneself, readied himself for the next assault.

"I have an idea, but I'm going to need your wand. Let me try to remerge us, and I believe I can take this thing." Shadow said as he parried off attacks from the front claws with his own gloves. When the stinger came down he ducked underneath and tried to stab the soft underbelly but it blast forward before he could get the dagger into place.

"Do it quickly! If the spider catches up right now I don't want to be dodging around both!" Toby ran toward Shadow, the armor split off and the gauze retracted into the armor taking on the leather like appearance that Toby used while wearing it. The armor never actually touched him, as it kept the size when Shadow wore it. The smoke entered Toby through his eyes and mouth and immediately he felt as if he was shoved aside in his own body.

Toby could almost imagine a room in his mind that controlled what was going on, and now he was on his arse in a corner, while a large serpent held the drivers seat. He could still watch and feel what his body was doing, but it was almost like it was a recording, foggy image that didn't quite match up.

He could not hear the spellwork Shadow was using but as the Blast-Ended Skrewt charged them again the wand moved like a blur. Shackles wrapped the two front legs, and then stone pillars shot up underneath those legs forcing the underside to be pointing towards them. Before the creature could break the shackles his dagger floated up and at the wands direction flew straight into the underbelly.

A high pitched screech echoed from the creature as Shadow pulled the dagger out and continued directing it to other places along the body, now propelled by magic it was able to pierce. Also the blade seemed to heat up on each impact burning through the carapace, and leaving infection on each spot as the basilisk poison started to eat away its body from each stab wound.

The whole event took only a few seconds, but the venom took a few moments to eat through, rendering the beast barely a husk.

"That was beyond expectations. How did I learn such magic?" Toby asked aloud, his voice sounding doubled as the Shadows voice came out at the same time. Toby had pushed the serpent in his mind aside as they watched the creature die. The serpent seemed to have finally noticed and Toby felt the murderous intent as he rear as if to strike him in there mind. The Serpent seemed to catch itself and settle into a corner.

"The spellwork was from Ravenclaw, I the mirror self learns from each user, and can help augment your skill. I thought you understood this." His voice said smoothly.

"I was under the impression after we first met that you were a duplicate of my own mind. Another version of myself."

"You seem to have misunderstood there Toby. I would understand if those lesson before we were together are kind of hazy, the clarity you have achieved with me causes our old life to be lost in a daze." The eeriness of the double voice made him stop trying to talk and just start moving again. The shadow was playing him was sure of it, but he couldn't do anything about it until he could get back to Jareth.

The dagger in hard led him past a few more of the basic obstacles before rounding the corner into one of his favorite creatures from the entire book.

A Sphinx.

His path had lead him to the Sphinx, who like in the text book was patiently waiting for her question to be answered.

Toby approached, the armor still hanging around him instead of on him as he bowed and asked for her riddle. She nodded in return and recited;

"What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller then the trees

Up, up it goes, And yet never grows?"

'I know a few spells that could put her in her place, and be past here without wasting anymore time. Shall I use them?' Shadow asked immediately.

'For being Ravenclaw Diadem, you should be more proficient with the riddles then with the wand work. Remember Wit without measure is mans greatest treasure.' He stood back and started to ponder the riddle. He knew he had heard it before, sometime a few years back, most likely in one of the book Sarah had read to him.

"What has roots that nobody see, but its taller then the trees."

'We are wasting time, Lupin may have passed her already.'

'Quiet! Help me think, what was the book I heard it from?'

"You are still free to leave, but if you answer wrong I will attack." She said after a moment. Toby nodded and started to pace back and forth. The answer was in a muggle book, he knew it already, so wasn't wasting time to trying and figure out the clues. The book was a long one, and many parts had made him laugh as it was plainly written by someone that didn't really know about those creatures… it was the creature in the mountain that had the contest though. The main character had done a riddle contest. Eggs, fish, time… and the Mountain itself had been answers!

'And yet it never grows…!' Toby turned to the sphinx, "a Mountain." She nodded and stepped aside.

'I thought you would be better at that.'

'Right now the more proficient answer would have been to remove the target, we don't have time for pleasantries.'

'If I could put the diadem back on, we would have more. I could use its magic.'

'For now we stay like this, you need my spellwork for anymore challenges.' Toby tuned him out as he raced forward and saw a floating crystal orb like the one Jareth used as his focus. As he neared it a doorway swung up to his left and he saw Lupin coming though running for the orb as well.

At this distance Lupin wouldn't have a chance, but Toby felt the snake in his mind finally act, it coil and knocked him out of control as if he had been hit by a car. While he tried to clear his mind enough to see what was going on he found the armor had attached itself to him again and the wand was out front, a sectumseptra already had been set flying, Lupin was able to deflect it in time.

"Traitor in our midst! Greyback will be punished for letting Order filth like you among his pack!" Shadows voice rang out, but it didn't have the same double tone as before, this time it was deeper, and held a sound almost like a serpent had been given a real voice.

"Voldemort…?" Lupin said in disbelief coming to a stop. Toby heard the serpent whisper the spell in the control room as his body begun to forge the pattern and cast.

'Avada Ke-" Toby tackled the Serpent in his mind out of control and his body fell over at the same time. Quickly pulling the Diadem off, he could still feel the Serpent in his mind reel as he rolled back to his feet.

"Sorry Remus! I'll fix this before we meet again!" Toby cried out as he took the last few step to the Orb and vanished from the Labyrinth.

_...-~-…_

Toby didn't wait for Jareth as he took off back to Hogwarts and to his only place of solace. The Room of Requirement. With his armor nearly complete, and Voldemort possessing his wand he wasn't sure if Jareth could stand against the wizard.

He wanted to go to Snape, but the same problem appeared, his armor would protect him from nearly all the magic Snape could perform. This would have to be his own battle.

Once inside the room he tossed the diadem on his work table, the mirrors around the room though showed a much changed reflection. A handsome twenty-some old wizard stood across from him, as his reflection.

"You lied to me."

"I am your path to glory, already with my help the magic you have mastered put you on par with many adult wizards."

"You are the wizard I'm training to defeat."

"No, I'm the part of you that wishes to be greater then that wizard, together as one being we will overmatch what the withered Voldemort has become. Together we will stand as a Goblin King, lording over these petty wizards who thought they were above our goblin friends." Toby tore his eyes away from the reflection and tried to push the idea out of his mind. It was something he wanted, the goblin felt more like family then his wizard one did at times. It was his destiny to become a Goblin King, and with the spellwork of someone as powerful as Voldemort as his own it would make him nearly unstoppable.

"This wasn't the path I wished to take."

"Nobody can foresee the path ahead of them, but together we will carve out a new one the like the Wizarding world has never seen before."

"What if I said no?" Toby said in a near whisper before looking back to the reflection. The reflection didn't move with him, and the surprised on his face was only there for a moment before carefully hidden away like all good Slytherin learn to do.

"Toby, I thought you had come to realized already that this wasn't a choice. We are already partners, and if you force me I can make it less then that. While we are merged once again I have the wand, and you will not be able to stop me like you did with Lupin. We have been joined for to long." He said holding up the wand, Toby notice his own arm holding it up in the real world. His off hand holding the diadem that he swore he had set aside a few moments ago.

"Snape or Jareth will know the truth."

"Not so far, I have masqueraded as you for months while you slept. And you haven't let on to either I exist, just like me always secretive, trusting no one into his inter confidence so they may betray him."

"I will not back-" He started to shout at the mirror but the door to his room opened as three students fell in. Toby was stunned at the turn of events and looked at them speechless. The largest of the three was a slightly pudgy wizard that looked nearly eighteen. He was fastest on the ball as he got to his feet in a hurry.

"Ginny, there a Slytherin in here!"

"Get rid of him before they find us!" the girl with long red hair said as she untangled herself from the other boy. Turning back to other boy that Toby started to think was Neville a burst of red light flashed into his face as he registered him saying Expelliarmus.

Toby flew back letting go of the Daidem, and wand both. He instantly reacted as he practiced with Snape to pull his wand back to him and prepare his defense as he rolled to his feet. He focused on the armored parts of him going to more of a chainmail variety as the spell had landed on one of his few unarmored parts. Rolling back to his feet, Toby stood brandishing his wand as he reached in his bag for his cloak.

The second boy he didn't recognize, but the girl Ginny started unleashing a series of hexes though she still verbalized. Toby caught each sending them aside unlike anything he had ever been able to do against Snape. Neville joined her a moment later, forcing Toby to deflect his spells as he still countered each of Ginny's. The second boy seeing the young Slytherin still standing against the torrent of spells added his own.

Toby had to give ground under the assault, he turned to deflecting Ginny's spells with his armor, using shield spells against the second boy and directly countering Nevilles. The second boy spells were more sloppy and he actually took breaks from muttering his spells to ask the others, "Who... the hell… is this kid?"

"Doesn't matter, the Carrows are coming, we need him out of here before then!" Ginny took a break to move to a better position. Toby took advantage, and put the second boy down, and moved closer to the door. He still felt an overwhelming drive to get to the Diadem, but with them there he didn't think he would have a chance, especially if the Carrow's were on there way. Just being a Slytherin didn't put him in good graces with those animals.

Ginny seeing him move towards the door pulled Neville back. Toby finished pulling his cloak out and wrapped it about himself as he fled the room. Toby had never felt so foolish, of course other people still remembered the room, and he had never asked the room to remain closed to others while he was inside. He barely made it past the Carrow's as they searched for the Gryffindor students he had just left.