Beta: lil'hawkeye3 - thanks for all

'parseltongue'

The tenth month of the 1938 year had been rather politically promising to Tom Riddle. He had established himself as the cleverest student in the first year, and one of the brightest in the school – of course, he was the smartest of all of them, but Hogwarts wasn't aware of that fact yet. He wasn't as influential as Malfoy, Lestrange, or Black- who had all inherited this influence – but people were starting to open up to him, confiding some minor secrets and asking for advice.

However, out of all the Octobers in his life, this had been the worst, personally speaking. Tom had fought with his closest supporter – well, maybe not supporter, more like a partner-in-crime – and at the end of the month, she was in the Hospital Wing recuperating from an assassination attempt by a crazy, filthy bitch that would be dead in days.

He promised that. Killing Kneeler would be enjoyable, he knew that. The fact that the girl was also responsible for making him spend the last night of October in an uncomfortable armchair by the side of his partner's bed - after throwing a tantrum to persuade the matron – wasn't exactly redeeming either.

With a frown he cracked his neck, hoping that Anya would be still asleep so he would be able to slip away and check the reactions of the student body to the whole event – it was early in the morning and Ms. Pomfrey had drugged her with so many sleeping potions that he was almost sure his eyes would meet a sleeping beauty.

No such luck.

Emerald eyes were staring at his form, up and running in an alert mind. She groaned, touching the area that had been perforated by the shards. Simple healing charms had managed to heal it – apparently, those wounds, while lethal if not treated, were pretty easy to be healed – so one who already had that knowledge would find no reason for her to groan. However, Tom knew it wasn't a pained groan, simply infuriated.

"Two asphyxiation attempts in two weeks. My lungs aren't quite happy."

The Hospital Wing was a wide, light chamber with several beds. In one of those was Anya. She was wide awake, her expression unreadable, her hair a mess. In her hands, she held a tome of what he recognized as her opinion of a light-reading – Titus Andronicus.

'A lot of mindless killing, I suppose, but it's still Shakespeare.' It was her usual opinion of that particular tragedy. The fact that she was reading it meant that she was probably thinking about him and his usual actions.

"I will leave after lunch. Apparently, while my injuries were quite deadly, they are easy to cure." She said, not looking up. "But you didn't come here to find this out did you? I should thank you for saving my life. Well, thanks. Farewell."

The iciness in her voice was obvious, but it seemed to steal all of his words from him. Finally, he managed to utter the beginnings of an apology: / First of all, I'm sorry for calling you a slut. I don't know from where it came. / Said the dark figure, with rumpled hair and dark profound circles under its eyes. Anya smirked at that – it was very obvious that Tom hadn't had the best night of sleep in the Hospital Wing.

'It wouldn't be the first time you called me it, you know. Just because I don't act like a lady to you doesn't mean that I'm a whore.'

'Yes, I said I'm sorry, didn't I? I was just being obtuse, you know me.'

'I know you that are sounding like a jerk who doesn't really mean it. Do you mean it, Riddle?' She asked, trying to hide her amusement.

'If you didn't know I meant it, you wouldn't be joking, would you?' He responded.

'At least you are still clever.' She admitted, checking out her nails in a purposely bored-action.

'Cleverer than you…' He started out, making her look in disbelief at him. 'Alright, forget it.'

She smirked. 'It will be my pleasure. Now, what do you want?'

'I'm sorry for choking you, also…I thought you were going to die yesterday. I was so terrified.'

'You will live well without me, Arawn. The others around you won't, but you will and you know it, so…'

'I need you. Actually, I cannot deal with you flirting around to catch my attention because you are too good at it. So, if you insist on flirting with people, I want it to be to my benefit.'

Her laughter filled his ears and he knew his chances were better. 'Honesty, who knew you had it in you. Did you drink some veritaserum before coming here? It's the only way I can think you would manage to tell the truth.'

'I wouldn't drink one drop of the truth potions even to save my life.' She gave him an unimpressed look that told him that she doubted of the veracity of that statement. 'Fine, I drugged myself before going to sleep – enough for five minutes of plain truth while awake. '

'Which seem to have already ended by now.' She commented, sighing. 'No need to piss your pants, everything is fine. Forget it already.'

'I'm eager to forget. Now, how did you persuade Poppy? And why did you let me stay?'

'Oh, I figured out it was my responsibility to tell you to don't kill the bitch.'

'Oh, how so? Because I cannot point out why should I keep such scum alive when she dares to touch what is mine.' He snapped, his eyes meeting hers – the latter full of disbelief. "Ah, I'm apologizing, aren't I?"

"Indeed. The process doesn't claims declarations of possession."

'But you won't play Quidditch.'

'I signed up to Ancient Studies and the Orchestra, figured out that we didn't have money to pay for a broomstick.' She explained. 'But if I hear of 'being unladylike' one more time, I will hex your brains out.'

'We don't have money for an instrument, either. Sorry for the 'unladylike' comments.'

'You better be sorry, however I know you aren't. Hogwarts has all of them; they give instruments to the students that are part of the orchestra. Although we can bring it to London, and if we want something else, we have to buy. I was thinking of stealing something.'

"And what do you want play?" He inquired, returning to English as he grabbed her hand and caressed it.

"Cello, of course. But I could also use the harp. Why don't you join me and play the violin? You are good at it."

It was possible to say that both of them had some experience in playing instruments – if one were to consider the three years in which they had used a stolen cello and violin to perform in the street. Of course, just before Tom's eleventh birthday, a police offer had decided that there was no way two street-musician children could afford instruments like theirs and had taken those away.

"Perhaps. I also thought that Ancient Studies was interesting – though it's very similar to a mandatory class. It should be actually mandatory in my opinion – Egyptian spells, Greek spells, Hattians spells aren't something important?"

"Apparently, nobody attends it except three students because of the difficulty, so it's more like self-study with a teacher for guidance." She snorted. "At least we will know more than the others."

"Oh, really?" Tom drawled sarcastically.

Anya slapped him in mockery – with a surprising force for someone who had almost died the day before. Sometimes she had to wonder why she allowed his behaviour, but in a way, Tom was entertaining – like a megalomaniac pet. Oh, if he read her thoughts he would throw tantrum, but she also knew he thought of her more like a possession than anything else, so she supposed she could think of him as a pet. A cat probably, the devil-may-care kitten who suffered from obsessive jealously.

'But that scum must pay.' He said.

'Dolohov was already your plaything of the month.' She argued, pointing to the sleeping body of their housemate on a bed at the opposite side of the chamber, a boy who had been a guest at the Hospital Wing since the week before.

'Today is November 1st, October is already gone.'

'Indeed?'

Tom grinned. Sometimes, he could only love Anya.

[][][][]

"How is she?" It was the first question that Tom was asked as soon as he walked into the Snake's Nest, uttered by a concerned Dorea Black, her hair in a tight braid – which was very similar to the braid the others, including most of the boys was wearing. "She is well, Dora. There is no need to do my hair, my lady."

The girl's hands stopped shaking its fists and she giggled a bit, forcing a pout. "Oh, you would have looked good!"

"I prefer them in you. Now, if you excuse me, I wish find a particular book." He declared, already climbing the stairs to his bedroom.

Their room was the largest in the Slytherin dungeons, probably because the rooms had extension charms to accommodate the number of students that was sorted into the house every year. No other year had seven he-snakes. His bed was towards the ending, which was actually a good, reserved, place to be when you shared a room. And the bed was far better than the one he shared with Anya in the orphanage – not that he had expected less.

Tom opened his five-locks trunk with the lock that opened the library assortment. He knew where it was – a small tome he had bought at the beginning of the year in a forgotten corner at Obscurus Books on Horizont Alley.

'From Oneroi to Sandman: A Guide to Dreamers of Psionic.'

'Dream Manipulation is one of the most delicate fields of magic in the world – if not the most. Although extremely imprecise and volatile, it is also undetectable and effective if performed correctly. The amount of power and experience in casting meaningless to this field of magic, however, the mastery of this art can only be achieved by those with great control over their minds and magic. (…)

The implantation process was once used by those who wished to control their victims actions – if only slightly – before the creation of the imperious curse. It consists in implanting an idea several times in the victim's dream in order to guide their action to a certain action. There is no real incantation to such process as it consists of basically projecting one's mind to other's.

As concluded by its practitioners, the implantation process is highly unstable and it achieves different levels of success – or failure. Even though, it works efficiently in bringing distraught – or suspicion – to someone's mind. The most known victim of such process is Uric the Oddball, a a wizard whose dreams were affected by a rival magizoologist. (…)'

Tom smirked. That was perfect, and perfectly explainable. The innocent Elizabeth Kneeler fell into madness for almost killing her fellow year mate. She was declared mentally unstable and soon moved to the Janus Thickey Ward in St. Mungos. Nobody could say that there was no way the girl felt responsible for that as she had planned attacking Anya – which was true – as they were all insisting that no eleven-years old girl would try to maim another.

A load of bullshit in his opinion. However, he didn't have parents that would fight for their children's safety.

But one day, Elizabeth Kneeler would be far away from Hogwarts, and then, he would exact his vengence. Who had allowed that filthy cunt to touch Anya? He wanted to cackle madly, but he was pretty sure that wouldn't be very good for his image within the school. Besides, cackling madly was overdramatic. He preferred silence.

Abraxas entered into their room with his fingers entangled in his fishtail braid in a failed attempt to undo it. Tom snickered as the blond grabbed his brush, checking his image on the mother-of-pearl looking glass on his hand. "I advise you to shorten the length of your hair if you wish to avoid Dora's future attempts to braid hair."

"Don't doubt her ability to braid every inch of hair, my lord."

"You realise that if you start calling me 'my lord' I will expect you to continue to do so, don't you Abraxas?" Tom questioned, locking his trunk again while the Malfoy scion snorted.

"Tommy-boy, then." Tom hit his blond hair with the book. "As you wish, my lord."

"I'd suggest you to lighten your attempts of being annoying or else you will end up dead – however, I fail to see why should I stop your death. Besides, I know you wouldn't be able."

"Certainly, as what you call annoying it's what usually brings the ladies to me." Tom waved him off. "Speaking of it, how is Nastya? And where are you going?"

"She is alright, I believe she will be around in time for lunch. And I have some studying to do."

"Our History period will start in half hour."

"It's history. I would be able to sneak in the middle of the class and Binns would never notice. And do not worry, Carpe still has to hear of my name." He said, closing the door not quickly enough to not hear the words: "You realise we are still in November, don't you?"

Yes, he did.

[][][][]

"What happened to the Raven's hourglass? And to ours?" Anya inquired as soon as she arrived to lunch. "How were Dumbledore and Binns?"

"You happened, Nastya." Dorea answered at the same time Orion muttered something like 'dreadful'. "-and Tom. The ravens have only sixty-seven points now after Kneeler, and Tom earned two hundred points for his first-aid actions."

"Which means that we will probably win the house cup if you and Tom don't get caught by Carpe while sneaking around." Ragnar said. "I'm not sure if I should bet against or with you in this one."

"Don't bet then. How do you know we sneak around?" She said, serving herself a slice of chocolate cake and ignoring the remaining of the lunch – she had just been freed from the Hospital Wing, she had the right to avoid healthy eating habits.

"We sleep in the same room, my lady, and we attend the same classes. Although we don't know where you are, we know when you aren't at our side." Abraxas said. "Don't underestimate us, my father says it's not wise."

Anya nodded, easy-going, smiling to the two Hufflepuffs who had approached their table. "Nastya, are you alright? Professor Dippet said your wounds had already been healed by the yesterday's dinner but Professor Beery said they were quite bad, and everyone else agreed." Deodor asked, with a worried look. Sean was staring at the pale green scarf around her neck with a similar expression. "I'm fine, thanks. I'm only wearing the scarf because Poppy insisted that I was not supposed to feel a light breeze on my neck."

At their doubtful glances, Anya took the scarf away and showed her healed, perfect – if not a bit reddish – skin to their relief. Noticing the sudden unease of the badgers around so many snakes –or of the snakes around the two badgers, she smiled. "You want a slice of cake? It's marvellous."

"No, thanks. There is some at our table. We will see you at midnight for Astronomy?" Sean asked, a bit unsure, now that it was very obvious that Anya was once again hanging out with Tom. "I see no reason why not." She answered, making they smile and bid farewell to her and the girls.

"And now, we are fraternizing with badgers." Abraxas sighed loudly. "What have you done to the world, my lady? My father-"

"Don't be a daddy's boy, Abraxas, and don't be harsh with them. Deodor is an incredible cooker, and Sean is a great masseur." Dora intervened. "Together, they are better ladies' men than you."

"You don't think that, do you cousin?" Abraxas asked Brianna, who was apparently, his second cousin. The girl blushed. "No. But I fear I must agree with Dora if I want to be alive tomorrow."

"Who is going to kill who? I volunteer to kill Kneeler." Laws announced as she dragged Maeve with her. "Everyone else I object, of course. Are you okay, Nastya?"

"Fine, breathing and alive, no worries. Dora is going to kill Brianna, but you will need to compete with Tom if you want to kill Kneeler." Anya told her. "You won't want to join in, will you Maeve?"

"I'd prefer to watch." She said, shyly but not without temperance, making Ragnar laugh. "Brave girl, despite all silence nature. Are you a lion in a cloth?"

"Maeve? She is a raven in everything but the wings." Brianna spoke, making the ginger Ravenclaw shy away into a book. "Cadogan on other hand was certainly sorted incorrectly." She said in a meaning manner, with a wink to Abraxas.

"An unladylike tomboy, in Malfoy's words. Does the fact you are all sitting together means that you have made up with Riddle? Because I preferred when you hadn't." Laws said harshly.

"Tom is my best friend, Laws, despite everything."

"Yes, he is, isn't he?" The brunette Ravenclaw seemed to wake up from her rage second later. "Sorry, I will going to the class ahead; come Maeve." And with that, they walked out the Great Hall, leaving the Slytherins to return to their food.

"Eoessa Cadogan has gone early to class." Dorea whistled, taking a sip of gillywater. "Has that ever happened in history?"

"Will the Gryffindors come here too?" Orion inquired as he watched Harfang Longbottom getting up from his seat. But the Longbottom heir didn't cross the room to talk with her. He simply put his hands around his neck, showing his tongue with panicked expression. Freeing his neck, his left hand put its thumb up while the right put its down, in a very meaningful question.

Anya raised her thumb up, laughing at the lion's antics as he put both of them up with a grin and swayed his hips in a little dance. "Longbottom is very unique, isn't he?" Ragnar asked.

"Manly, I would say, after all I call him Fang." Anya made a face. "But I suppose unique fits. He is sweet."

"Well, I know that you must be the most popular Slytherin among the other houses, Nastya. Kneeler has no idea what she did." Orion commented, finally finishing stuffing himself with food. "We have Astronomy today, do you know what does it mean?"

"That today is the day you are going to win some points to us?" Ragnar snickered.

Anya unconsciously laughed with the others, not really paying attention to the rest of the talk. Orion was right, she was very popular with the others first-years, while Tom was more popular with their upperclassmen in Slytherin. And he was also right about Kneeler, even with the nobody saying it had been an intentional attack. Her house was already ignoring her for losing so many points to them, and her other classmates seemed to take as offensive that she had harmed the 'only decent Slytherin' in the school.

Anya smirked, Kneeler would have no idea what hit her. The fact that Tom had just entered in the Great Hall carrying a plain black book – untitled – that she knew to be a bit dark in its nature, only confirmed her suspicious.

[][][][]

Tom Marvolo Riddle was pretty sure that he was the only Slytherin in history to sneak into the female dormitories of Ravenclaw house in the middle of night with nothing more than his…magical flying abilities. Then again, he was also pretty sure he was the only flying student Hogwarts had ever had, aside from Anya.

Apparently, while the widows of the dorms had broomstick-repelling charms, they didn't have flying-repelling wards – something about the owls, he presumed. It was a pretty clever thing to do – if you didn't have a blood-thirsty student who was actually able to fly without a broom, or a flying carpet, or a winged horse, or whatever. He wondered if they had security against animagi, but that would be too much, wouldn't it? How many aroused students would actually become an animagus to sneak into the dorms? No, there were broom closets for those who wanted to snog or shag.

Or male dorms. Those weren't warded.

If one of the girls woke up, it would be pretty weird. Thinking of that, he had slipped sleeping potions into their drinks at the dinner. Don't ask him how. In short, it had involved accompanying Anya to the Ravenclaw table and Cadogan almost declaring war against him.

The dream implantation had ended up being an very easy process in which he had to sleep – yes, sleep in the middle of the girl's dorm at ravenclaw, because of that, the sleeping potions – and fall into a lucid dream. After that, was only a question of projecting his dream into her and focusing in a thought – the one he wished to implant. Quite simple.

Although, it wasn't really simple – and losing control over the lucid dream, which was difficult to produce, usually ended up with several nightmares. Nightmares while projecting his dream would put his in coma as his mind would most probably be lost. Janus Thickey Ward for him.

However, he had successfully influenced the dreams of his roommates for weeks now, so he was quite confident.

Tom grinned. In this case, he needed a snake, and lots of snow

Now, I'll blackmail you, be prepared. Reviews or no updates.