Keiran Black was a mystery for everyone. He was a silent Slytherin who showed the signs of immense power but he insisted on poor spellwork. He harbored a strong grudge for the Girl-Who-Lived. He was supposedly Draco's lost cousin. Keiran thought he had himself all figured out. But then he is more of a mystery than he himself knows. Dark! Harry.

Disclaimer-I doubt any of you would believe me if I said that I was Rowling so I won't say that. This isn't mine. Just how terrible is that?

Living a Lie

Keiran's first day at Hogwarts was uneventful so far. He had woken up before the sun even rose and after he had showered and dressed, he had begun exploring the castle. So far, he had met with two ghosts and one vanishing stair. He'd really have to remember where those trick steps were, it took a good three minutes before he managed to tug his foot out of the thing.

He held a calm disposition on the outside but in the inside, he was still pretty much boiling with rage. Or maybe it was just irritation. Either way, he was in a bad mood. And it was all because of the conversation he had with his father last night.

*Flashback*

"Wasn't it quite a surprise when Potter was placed in Slytherin?" Voldemort asked in a conversational tone.

"An unpleasant surprise." Keiran agreed.

"I have a task for you, son. But I'm afraid it won't be easy."

"What is it?" Keiran asked curiously, anything was welcome as he was quite sure that most of the things that were going to be taught in class were things that he had learnt ages ago.

"You need to befriend Potter." Voldemort stated, red eyes glinting in malice.

"What?!" Keiran blurted, of all the things, he certainly wasn't expecting that.

"You need to befriend her." His Father repeated, obviously amused by his reaction.

"B-but, why?" he spluttered indignantly.

"There's this muggle saying: 'keep your friends close, your enemies closer.'" Voldemort replied.

Keiran stayed silent for a few moments staring at the fire behind Quirrel's desk, and then he spoke: "I understand." He said, raising his blue eyes to gaze into his Father's crimson irises. "I need to know her, her weaknesses and her strengths. We can use it against her." Then his face twisted into a cruel smile, "How very cunning of you, Father."

"Be careful, Keiran. You must not harm her." Then when he saw Keiran's outraged look he chuckled and added, "For now."

"But, how can you be so calm about this?!" Keiran snarled, "She's the reason why we even have to do this! Why you're sticking out of some cowards head!"

"Silence!" Voldemort roared, and Keiran looked down at his feet in shame. "When the time for us to collect the stone has come, you shall lead her to me." He explained, he had far more patience with his children than he had with his Death Eaters. If Keiran wasn't his son, it was apparent that he would be writhing on the ground in pain by now.

"Yes, Father." Keiran said grudgingly.

"Besides, who would suspect the Girl-Who-Lived's best friend to be the Dark Lord's son?"

*End Flashback*

Keiran and his Father had talked about far trivial things after that and later Keiran had stumbled into bed with his mind swimming in emotions. Waking up hadn't been any better. It was hard for him to think of himself staying in the same room with Violet for a long time, let alone actually making friends with her.

He ran his hand through his hair again, a habit he picked up in his childhood. He was getting more and more agitated and right now he needed to calm down. By the look of the light coming in from the windows the sun had finally rose and Keiran was expected to be at the Great Hall soon. That was when he planned to offer his hand of friendship. But if he didn't manage to calm his feelings down before them, there would be no person to offer his friendship to at all.

When he realized that, he was getting nearer to the Great Hall he dug his bag out of his pocket, unshrunk it, and flung it over his shoulder. From what he knew, first years weren't supposed to know how to shrink stuff yet until they were in third year, or sometime around that year. Pathetic.

Keiran stood silently in front of the huge double doors, breathing deeply. Then he shook his head angrily, why was he trying so hard to not get the girl killed anyway? It wouldn't bloody matter to him anyway. He pushed the doors open and he stalked moodily towards the Slytherin table.

The staff table was already filled with people but only a few students were milling around the house tables. Prefect and Head boys and girls were a commodity and the more bookish types were awake too, shoveling food in their mouths while their noses were buried in their ultra-think books. Keiran was quite glad to say that he wasn't part of either group. Sure, he liked to read books but Keelan was the bookworm of the family.

He found a seat at the end of the table. None of his friends were there yet, not even the Potter girl, Ahem, Violet, was there yet. He piled bacon and scrambled eggs on his plate and began to eat slowly, this trying to control his emotions as he chew his food slowly, deliberately.

Then a handsome tawny owl landed in front of him, it was his sisters' owl, Lovely was its name. He shook his head at the thought of her sisters' eccentric naming, honestly, her girly side showed up at the worst possible moments. He almost felt sorry for the owl, almost.

Anyway, the owl dropped a scroll in front of him and flew away. Keiran grabbed the scroll, unrolled it and began to read.

Dear Keiran,

How's Hogwarts? Tell me everything! Have you been sorted into Slytherin? You better have been or I'm going to have to be the one to murder you myself, or Mother might just disown you. Actually, that's a great idea! Tell me that you got sorted into Gryffindor. That would be perfect for me! You'd be disowned and I would be the heir of the Slytherin and Black fortune! Just kidding.

Do me a favor and hit Draco on the head for me. He's been an arse these last few days telling me about how he was going to Hogwarts and I wasn't. And an advanced 'thank you' too!

Keelan wants me to tell you to say hi to Father. Make sure to incendio this afterwards ok? I know this is written In Parseltongue but I want to be sure that no one reads this. Mother might send her letter to you sometime this week. Make sure you say hi to Sev for us okay? If he gives you any grief, tell him to remember August 5th! That'll make him stop.

And make sure you don't stop working out. When you get home for Christmas, I'm going to test your progress. Don't disappoint me! You left your dragonhide gloves by the way, Mother went ballistic. She'll send it to you with Hades. I can't believe you left him too. He'll be pecking you for days.

Sarah is very worried about you, she's impatiently waiting for Father to come pick her up. But I don't think that's going to happen till Halloween, but that's what I told her anyway though the Father is coming this Saturday. She threatened to bite me after she found out from Mother that Father was coming this week. You really must train her more. You just leave her alone for a day and she's cranky enough to bite of all of our heads.

Just take care okay? And don't let the opportunity of being there go to your head. Don't go off like Draco, boasting about attending Hogwarts. Yech, I hate him. Can't Theo be your best friend instead?

Oh, I have to go now; Keelan is challenging me to another game of chess. I don't know why I even bother to go against him. We never win when it's in chess. Anyway, Good luck with your task!

Love, Kiara.

Keiran smiled despite himself, Typical Kiara, starting tough and ending with the soft heart she hid. He chuckled at the thought of his familiar, Sarah, threatening to bite Kiara. The two had never gotten along. Never the less the letter had proved to be a good thing. His bad mood had diminished.

"Hey." A female voice broke him from his thoughts. Daphne had seated herself beside him; she leaned over to the letter with a curious expression. "What do you have there?" When she saw the squiggles and curls that she had told him that she saw whenever he read Parseltongue, comprehension dawned on her features and she leaned away.

"Another one of those coded messages huh." She said before she began eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Keiran stuffed the letter in his pocket and turned to Daphne, a wicked grin on his face. "Hey, Daph, you finally done negotiating with Pansy?" he said.

"Negotiating? What do you mean?" Daphne asked, obviously puzzled.

"Come off it. We all know you wish it was you who was promised to Draco in marriage." Keiran teased, raising his eyebrow.

"Shut up! Draco's heading this way!" Daphne shrieked in his ear, and sure enough, the head of platinum blonde hair was heading their way, the two burly bodyguards by his side. Keiran had already forgotten their names. Had they even been introduced? Theo was trailing quietly behind them, his eyes trained on a black booklet.

"Where've you been?" Draco demanded, once he had sat himself directly across Keiran, his two cronies automatically taking the two spots beside him, while Theo went to sit on Daphne's other side. Draco seemed extremely pissed, his usually well-kept hair stood at odd places and he seemed paler than he usually was. Keiran nearly groaned when he saw what Draco looked like, sure Lucius had ordered is son to 'take care' of him when they were at school but that didn't mean that Draco always had to know where he was all the time.

"Around." Was all that Keiran said.

Draco opened his mouth to question Keiran more, his eyebrows coming together, but Daphne cut him off: "Why do you look like you've been through hell twice over?" she asked with an amused smirk.

"I do not!"

While the two continued to bicker like an old married couple Keiran noticed a red something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head so he could see what it was and to his horror, it was Violet Potter walking toward the Slytherin table. He let out a frustrated sigh, time to let the games begin. Violet stood at the side of the table, an uncertain look on her face. She doesn't know where to sit! A voice whispered to him in his head. He saw a great opportunity, and he, very reluctantly, took it.

"Hey, Potter, come sit with us!" Keiran called out. He smiled reassuringly at the redhead as she gave him a small smile and walked over to sit with them. Keiran purposefully chose to not notice Draco choking on his scrambled eggs as the bigger one of his cronies thumped him heavily on the back.

"Thanks." Violet said quietly as she took the seat beside Keiran. "I guess you already know my name, what's yours?"

Her eyes didn't quite meet his though, she was looking out the window, a hint of fear on her face, but it quickly disappeared and she looked back down at the table. She grabbed a toast and began nibbling on it, her eyebrows furrowing into an unmistakable frown as she did so.

"Is something bothering you?" Keiran asked, more out of curiosity then concern.

"No." Violet answered a little too quickly, and then she shook her head and said, "Actually, yes, I'm expecting a letter from my dad."

Keiran nodded, "he wouldn't be too pleased with you being placed in Slytherin."

"He isn't very understanding…" Violet trailed off. "But you didn't answer my question. What's your name?"

"I'm Keiran, Keiran Black." Keiran said, offering her his hand to shake, while he was seething inside. Violet gave him another one of her small smiles and shoo his hand. "It's nice to meet you." She said. Keiran didn't know what else to say so the pair just continued to eat in silence. Across from him, Draco was giving him questioning looks. Keiran looked sideways to make sure that Violet wasn't looking before he mouthed one word to Draco.

"Later."

As the meal progressed and the Great Hall was as crowded as it was the previous night, Professor Snape started handing out schedules. He gave them to the students without even sparing them a glance but once he reached Violet, he took one look at her flinched, thrust the schedule against her chest and turned to face Keiran with a tic on his eyebrow.

"Uncle Sev!" Draco greeted from across the table. Keiran just decided to flash him his best vampire grin. Snape scowled down at the two of them before giving both of them their scheduled.

"At least Daphne and Theodore are behaving well." He muttered under his breath. Keiran heard this and it caused him to smile even wider at his former mentor.

Snape chose to ignore this as he progressed down the table. Keiran chuckled to himself, Severus had always been rather creeped out by him, and Keiran reveled in that. It was quite similar to the fear that his father inspired. But not quite. For Keiran it was a simple taste of what was to come.

"You know him?" Violet asked him curiously.

"Yes, he was my tutor before I went here." Keiran answered. "Did you have one?"

Violet shook her head, "No, Dad didn't want me to spend a lot of time in the Magical World; He said it might make me big-headed." She said.

"So where did you stay?" Keiran asked curiously, he never knew about Violet Potter leaving the Magical world. It must've been a secret; otherwise, the press would've had a field day.

"During the weekends I stay with my parents and on Christmas too. But on all the other days, I stay with my aunt's family. They're muggles" Violet replied quietly.

Keiran had a strong suspicion that there was more to it than what she said but he didn't push the subject. It didn't really matter to him and it would just hurt his chances of gaining her friendship. While he was thinking of another topic they could probably discuss which could lighten the mood but before anything could come to mind Violet asked him a question that sent his emotions reeling.

"Keiran…are we friends?" Violet asked bluntly, as she continued to pick on her oatmeal, her eyes fixed upon her hands and a soft blush forming on her pale cheeks.

Keiran gulped and answered quickly, maybe a little too quickly but thankfully, Violet didn't notice: "Of course we're friends!"

Violet smiled shyly again as she moved the food around her bowl. "It's just…I never had friends before." She whispered.

But Keiran wasn't paying attention to whatever she was saying anymore. He was busy dealing with his emotional turmoil, which consisted of horror over what he had just told her, hate for her, anger for himself, irritation at his father's orders and somehow, there was a tiny twinge of guilt. He quickly excused himself from the table and headed over to one of the bathrooms he had discovered on his early wanderings.

Once he got there, he dropped his bag by the sink and splashed water on his face. Shaking his head, he looked into the rather dusty mirror in front of him, right into the troubled deep blue eyes of his reflection. What was the matter with him? He never had a problem with manipulating people before. Where did all this guilt come from? Breathing hard he pressed his hand against his chest and felt the reassuring ticking of the tiny metal heart which belonged to the locket of Slytherin which he always kept on his person. It was reassuring for him to know that he always had a part of his father with him.

*Flashback*

He and Kiara were sparring again, this time it was just plain physical combat. Kiara was better at this than Keiran was but Keiran wasn't a wimp either. Both of them were breathing hard and sweating as they alternated between attack and evade. They would have gone on like that for hours if their Father hadn't interrupted.

"Keiran, Kiara, come here, I've got something for you." He called from the doorway. Today he was in his own form again, having undergone another dark ritual that promised his body back, but for only one month. He motioned for them to follow him and walked towards the room just across the training room. Salazar's own personal study.

Reluctantly abandoning their exhilarating exercise, the pair followed their father, both with excited looks on their faces. Bellatrix was waiting for them at the study, two velvet boxes sitting on her lap. Both of the dark-haired children looked at the boxes greedily the moment they saw it. Keiran was the first one who schooled his features into an emotionless mask, albeit one with a tiny curl on his lips. Kiara had always been the one with the trouble to control her emotions. She was far too…fiery.

"Keiran," Voldemort began. "I've decided that you have reached a part of your training where you are ready to defend something aside from yourself."

He took the green velvet box from Bellatrix and placed it in Keiran's hands, enclosing Keiran's smaller hands around the container. "I place my trust in you."

Keiran eyed the green velvet box in wonder, he opened it slowly with trembling hands and his eyes widened when he saw what was inside. It was a locket, oval shaped with an ornate S in the center, looking like a snake.

"But, Father…are you sure? This, this is a horcrux isn't it?" Keiran asked shakily, as he reached his hand in the box and pulled the locket out, dangling it in the air as he continued to eye it in wonder.

Kiara looked on with jealousy and anticipation in her eyes as Voldemort nodded and said to the pair of them: "I have decided that you are trained enough, I place my Horcruxes with you knowing that you can protect it better than any other enchantment could possibly cast." He took the locket from Keiran's hands and put it around his son's neck. Keiran looked down at his father's gift in awe.

Bellatrix stood up with the black velvet box in her hands, smiling at Kiara as she did so. "This one is yours my dear. Prove that you are worthy, always keep it with you."

Kiara opened hers excitedly and Keiran craned his neck to see what was in her box. It was a ring. It had a circle encased within a triangle with one line going right through it. It was also a horcrux.

Kiara proudly placed in on her finger and admired its place there. "Thank you father! It's beautiful!" she gasped.

"You're welcome, Ara."

"Now both of you go back to your training, prove that you are worthy of your gifts." Bellatrix ordered. And the pair scurried out and began training, doing more taxing tasks than they had before, determination in their very cores.

*end flashback*

Unbeknownst to the siblings, the moment they left that room, Bellatrix had turned to Tom with a smile on her face and she had crooned: "That was Genius, Tom. Whatever Potter or Weasley left of them after the blood adoption would surely be overridden by the influence of your soul. Ingenious."

"I'm not a Slytherin for nothing you know." The Dark Lord drawled.

"Is it true?" a voice interrupted them. Blue eyes were looking at them from the still open door. The youngest of the threesome was standing there. His hair in its usually perfectly arranged disarray and his emotionless mask on.

Bellatrix peered nervously at Voldemort, but he was just smiling serenely down at the only true biological son they had.

"Yes." Voldemort stated. "You must keep this a secret. But it is true. You are the only natural born Riddle."

If they had expected the seven-year-old child to be horrified, or to be saddened by the new information they had been horribly surprised. But then, what else would you expect from a true blue child of the dark lord and his cruelest follower? The boy dropped his emotionless façade and let out a small cruel smirk.

"Perfect."

A/N: I'm sorry if I can't make it as British as I'd like, fact is I live in a place where barely anyone really knows how to speak fluent English. I'm open to critics and suggestions, but please no flames!

How many chapters do you think I should make for each year at Hogwarts? The real action starts at fifth year but I've planned for some big things to happen,

PLEASE REVIEW!!!