Author's Note: Not especially long, but it's the thought that counts, right. Anyway, a couple of cliff-hangers, so have a good time reading it. Enjoy!
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The Experiments of Tom Marvolo Riddle – Chapter 10
Written By YT12J
Harry was sitting in the common room with Ron and Hermione. Tom was also there, but he was hidden by several charms, and was only there to supervise their meeting about the new Defence group that they were going to start.
"I think the first thing that we will need to think of is a group name," Hermione suggested. "It'll give us a great sense of unity, and we can stop saying 'The Defence group' if we come up with something."
"Yeah, but shouldn't we do it in the first meeting, you know, vote on it as a group?" Ron spoke up. Harry nodded. "Yeah, I don't want to come up with something now, and then have somebody else want a different team name anyway. In fact, why are we discussing any of this at all? Shouldn't we just discuss it all at our first meeting?"
Hermione glared at him. "Yes, but wed don't even know where we'll have our first meeting, and if there is even anybody who will come to it."
"I know somebody who might be willing to come." Harry mentioned. "Daphne Greengrass was interested in it when I mentioned the idea to her in Potions yesterday."
Both Ron and Hermione frowned at this suggestion. "I don't know Harry," Said Hermione, "We don't really know her too well, I'd rather just invite people who we know really well, and can be sure of their loyalty, otherwise it seems a little bit exposed."
Harry shook his head. "Don't worry, we can trust her. Besides, I've had a few weeks to get to know her, and I know her reasonably well, and even if we want to be as secretive as possible I still think that it would be fair to open up places for as many people as we possibly can."
"Fine," Muttered Hermione, scribbling down something on the parchment she had. "I'll add her to the list of people that I'm considering. Anyway, I need to go; I have a detention with Professor Muff."
Both Harry and Ron gaped at her, and she frowned slightly. "What?" She asked, confused as to why they were staring at her like that. Harry answered her question. "You have a detention?"
"Yes," She replied, "In fact, didn't I mention that I have frequent detentions with him at the moment, due to "cheating" on my homework?"
"I thought you were joking!" Ron burst out. "Blimey Hermione, why doesn't he just accept that you're good at homework?"
"I don't know." She said, suddenly getting up and walking away without even saying goodbye. Harry frowned. He had a feeling that she wasn't telling them the whole truth. In the corner of his eye, he saw Tom also get up and walk off, leaving he and Ron alone in the common room.
Break
Hermione knocked on Professor Muff's door, and opened it when she heard him say "Enter." She walked inside, and sat down in the same seat that she had occupied for the last few evenings, interested as to what would happen this evening.
"So Professor, have you thought about my suggestion from yesterday?" He turned around, having had his back facing her, and glared. "No. I regret informing you of what happened. I shall not tell Potter! He is not ready to hear it, and I refuse to be the reason that he shall get depressed."
"Why did you tell me anyway?" Hermione asked, confused. "This must be your deepest darkest secret, and you know that I am one of Harry's best friends. Why would you tell me, when it involves both Harry and Snape in such a horrible way, and when you don't want anyone to know?"
Muff sighed. "You don't know what it's like to harbour a secret that is this big. It has haunted me for many years, and I felt that I had to tell someone, and I simply jumped at the opportunity with you. I have done terrible things in life, Miss Granger. You already know that I used to be a Death Eater alongside Severus Snape, but while he did some horrifying things, I definitely did worse than he.
"During the war, I was one of Voldemort's most feared killers. Nobody knew my identity, but whenever Voldemort wanted somebody dead, somebody who had done something to him that he wanted them to suffer for, he would send me to do the dirty work for him. And the work I did was indeed dirty. I would leave my victims almost dead, but alive just long enough to feel the pain of the extreme torture that I would put them through. I only switched sides when it happened, but by then it was too late. I had already killed many people, and there was nothing I could do to truly make up for it.
"My only bit of luck was that Voldemort forced me to wear a disguise when I would do the jobs for him, mainly because I also worked at the Ministry, and could easily be recognized, meaning that when I left him, nobody save a few knew who I was. Voldemort never revealed my identity to anybody, mainly because he has in mind a worse fate for me."
"That's truly horrible, Professor. But there's one thing I want to ask. Why do you call him… by his proper name?"
"Good question." He said. "And a simple answer. To this day, I have never, and never will fear Lord Voldemort, and have no need to call him anything else."
Hermione nodded. "So, what do you want me to do tonight?"
Muff got up and walked over to a trunk, and pulled out some maps. "This is technically Order work, but Professor Dumbledore has allowed me to show it to you, as it is charmed so that you will forget any details from it the moment you walk out of this office." He gave her a map, a list of places where there were attacks, and some markers. "You need to mark every place in which there were attacks on this map, and make sure that you are very precise. We are trying to predict where the Death Eaters will next attack."
Hermione nodded, and got to work.
Break
"Educational Decree Number twenty three?" Harry asked. "What's that?"
They were sitting in the Great Hall, and Hermione was reading her copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Well according to the Daily Prophet, it creates the position of a High Inquisitor in Hogwarts, and appointed to that position is Professor Muff. It grants him the power to inspect the other teachers, and probably have them sacked as well. This is not good." Hermione said.
"That's a stupid idea." Ron muttered.
"Like any of the ideas that the Ministry have come up with are especially good." Harry replied. "Soon I bet some of the teachers will get sacked, and I doubt that Dumbledore will be able to do anything about it."
Break
Professor Muff was pacing back and forth in Dumbledore's office, while Dumbledore patiently watched him. Eventually, he stopped pacing and began to angrily speak.
"That idiot Fudge! He actually ordered me to make sure that one of the teachers gets fired soon. I can't just fire a teacher! None of them are bad. Well, except for Trelawney, but she doesn't deserve to get fired! What in Merlin's name am I going to do?"
"Calm down." Dumbledore said. "Perhaps you could suggest an alternative, like putting one on prob –"
"No! That's just it, I can't. I've already tried Dumbledore, but he refuses to listen. He genuinely wants one of the teachers fired, otherwise I'll be the one fired, and then who will he appoint? Merlin knows what hag will take over."
Dumbledore sighed. He had been afraid that the Minister would ask this of Professor Muff, and now he was stuck. "I'm afraid that the only solution is that you fire Sybill, Alexander. While I would not ask any teacher to be fired, I can keep her in the castle if she is, and I also have a possible replacement for her. However, I request that you attempt to stall her removal for as long as possible."
"Ok." Muff replied, having calmed down slightly. "As much as it pains me to fire one of the teachers, she'll probably get her job back when all of this madness ends. If it does, that is." He added quietly.
"Thank you, Alexander. Now, unless there is anything else that you wish to discuss –"
"There is, actually." Muff interrupted. "Miss Granger did the job that I asked of her in my office, and even better, she managed to spot a pattern."
Dumbledore sat up in his seat, having not received good news in a while. "Really? Which muggle village does she think Voldemort will attack next?"
"I'm afraid it's not a muggle village this time." Muff said slowly. "This time, it is Godric's Hollow."
Break
"Could everybody quiet down please?" Harry shouted over the noise in the Hog's Head. "Thanks. Now, as Hermione should have explained to you, we have decided to start a Defence group, mainly to learn the stuff that Muff doesn't teach us, and hopefully a lot more."
Some murmurs went around the room. Tom wasn't there, as he had a meeting with someone in Knockturn Alley, something which disturbed Harry greatly. "Who'll teach us?" Fred (or George?) asked.
"I and somebody else will, though I can't tell you who the other person is yet." As soon as he said this, Ron and Hermione glanced at him, visibly confused. Hermione opened her mouth to ask him a question, but he shook his head slightly, and she closed her mouth.
"Where and when will the first meeting be?" Asked Angelina Johnson. Harry frowned for a minute, and then answered. "I can't answer either of them yet, but if you do decide to join, then you'll be informed quite soon, so don't worry about that. In fact, I think Hermione has something to say about membership of this group." He then sat down, and nodded to Hermione. She got up, and nervously spoke.
"Well, if you want to join I have a piece of parchment that all of you have to put your signatures on, otherwise you can't join. So if you can all come here if you want to sign it, we're done for the day."
There were a few grumbles of complaint coming from some people, mainly because they didn't want to sign anything, but eventually the parchment had everyone's signature on it.
Break
Harry looked around the Room of Requirement, impressed with what it was like. When Dobby had told him about it, he didn't think it would be too amazing, but he realized that he was wrong.
The door opened, and people began to pour in, until eventually everyone was there. Harry cleared his throat, and then spoke.
"Okay then, welcome to our first meeting. Before we begin, we have to pick a name for this group. Originally Hermione, Ron and I were going to pick one, but then we decided that all of us should vote on it. So, any suggestions?"
Nobody spoke for a few moments, until Daphne Greengrass suggested "How about the We Hate Muff group, or the W.H.M for short?"
Harry nodded, liking the idea, and found that everybody else seemed to like it as well. "Ok then, the W.H.M it is." Hermione was frowning, as she obviously didn't like the name too much, but Harry wasn't too bothered. On the other hand, Ron seemed to find it funny.
"Okay, I think it's time that you met the person who shall be teaching you for the rest of the meetings. I'd like to introduce Dom Skiddle." As soon as he finished speaking, Tom walked out of the shadows. To Harry's relief nobody seemed to be too bothered by the mysterious teenager that walked out, on the contrary, they seemed to be eager to begin.
"Greetings, I'm Dom and I am here to teach you a bit on Defence against the Dark Arts."
Break
"That was a close one." Harry muttered to Tom as soon as they walked through the doors to the Boy's Dormitory. Tom frowned. "What was so close about it? Did you really doubt the power of my charms?"
"Well yeah." Harry said. "Since when do they ever work, Dom?"
Tom glared at him. "You do know that it wasn't necessary for you to come up with a name that rhymed with my actual name, don't you? In fact, if you're so desperate to keep my identity secret, then it's slightly idiotic that you decided to pick that name."
"Whatever." Harry said. "Oh by the way, here's me reminding you that you need to refresh the charms on the dormitory."
Tom glanced at him, suddenly looking surprised. "Wait a minute, I asked you to remind me this morning, the charms will have run out by –"
"Hey Harry, who's that?"
They both turned around to see Ron and Hermione standing in the doorway. And before Harry could do anything, Tom already had his wand out.
"Abscondes!"
Break
"Lucius, why did you not inform me of this before now? You are to report anything on this man to me immediately, and yet you managed to fail in that."
Lucius Malfoy was kneeling down at Voldemort's feet, not looking up. "I apologize deeply my lord; however I was unable to inform you of Alexander Muff's appointment as Defence against the Dark Arts teacher until now."
Voldemort got up, extremely angry. "It has been several weeks! How is it that you were unable to inform me? If you do not give me an answer that is to my satisfaction then you might find yourself stuck in my torture chamber. Permanently, Lucius."
Malfoy looked frightened all of a sudden, and quickly spoke. "My lord, I do not get regular updates on the happenings at Hogwarts, and I only just discovered this. Please, have mercy my lord."
Voldemort spoke rapidly. "Get yourself out of my sight! I shall deal with you later, but rest assured that when you do something this foolish, there is no mercy."
As soon as Malfoy ran off, Voldemort started to think deeply. It had been a long time since he had last spoken to or even seen Alexander Muff, and his Death Eaters had been unable to get anywhere near him, mainly because he left the Dark side as soon as the war ended, and because at the moment Voldemort could not risk any full scale attacks.
But that would soon change, when he attacked the next village that he had in mind. Potter would soon be a crying wreck…
Author's Note: Now that I have written this chapter, I doubt that I'll be able to write another one reasonably soon. But who knows, maybe I will. Hopefully within a week, though I can't be completely sure. Please try to review, and if you can, vote on my poll. Until the next time. Bye!