Author's Note: I am really sorry about not updating. I know I said that I would hopefully get back to updating regularly, but unfortunately I had a lot of schoolwork and I did not get a chance until now. This chapter is not as long as the last one, but still has some important things. Enjoy!

The Experiments of Tom Marvolo Riddle – Chapter 13

Written By YT12J

Harry and Tom were sitting in their dormitory. Tom was staring at a vial that he was holding in his hand, thinking very hard about something, and Harry was sitting on his bed, staring at Tom. He had gone over and asked Tom what the vial was, but when he had walked over Tom hid the vial from his sight, and when he had asked Tom didn't even respond. Needless to say Harry was extremely curious, however he had his own problems to think about.

Two hours ago he had freed himself of the curse that Tom had put him under so that Harry would not reveal his presence to anyone or attack him, however he was not planning on telling anyone about Tom. Tom had been around for so long that Harry had got used to it, even if hanging around with Tom usually involved torture. In his mind it was something that no one else could really understand, however he knew that he wanted Tom to stay hidden. He was still contemplating whether to free Ron and Hermione however, as he knew that as soon as they were released of the curse they would go straight to Dumbledore.

Then he straightened up, a great idea having occurred to him. There was a way to free them both from the curse, and still keep Tom a secret. Intending to carry out this plan, he got up and walked out of the dormitory, without Tom even looking up from the vial.

It was quite late, and when he walked down to the Common Room he found that everyone but Ron and Hermione had gone to bed because they were doing homework. This would just make it easier to carry out his plan without any trouble. Harry walked over and sat down next to Hermione. She tensed, but when she saw who had sat next to her out of the corner of her eye she relaxed, and looked over. Ron also looked up, and opened his mouth to say something, but Harry beat him to it.

"Guys, I've found a way of freeing you from the curse that Tom put you under." He went straight to the point, surprising them both before Ron replied excitedly "Seriously? That's great, what do we have to do? Is there a counter-curse?"

Harry nodded, got up, and gestured for them to follow him. He led them to the nearest mirror, which was next to the stairs leading up to the girl's dormitory. "Ok, all you both have to do is point your wands at your reflections' foreheads and say 'Revelabunt'. You can do it at the same time; the mirror is big enough. Do you understand?"

They both nodded, and, not wanting to waste any more time they did exactly as he told them to do. Harry watched as the jets of yellow light flew out of their wands, hit their reflections and bouncing off, hit their foreheads. They both bent over in pain, clutching their heads, and after the ten seconds of pain that Harry had experienced as well passed, they let go, opened their eyes, and hugged each other in joy.

Harry looked on, knowing he had no choice if he wanted to keep Tom a secret, as much as he had hated the teenager at first. Before he looked up the counter-curse for Tom's curse he had looked up memory charms, in the hope of protecting himself from any memory charms that Tom may have used. He found some protective charms to cast on his mind, and also learnt at the same time how to cast a memory charm himself and delete certain memories.

His two best friends were so intent on hugging each other that they did not see him take out his wand, point it at them, and mutter twice "Stupefy", stunning them, and letting them fall to the ground in each other's arms. He went to Hermione first, and pointing his wand at her forehead, began the incantation. "Obliviate!"

He focused on all of her memories of Tom Riddle from that year, and erased them completely, hoping that he left no trace. He then turned to Ron, said that incantation, and did the exact same. Hopefully after that night they would have no recollection of Tom Riddle being in the school at all, although he still had to figure out a way in which he could make sure that Tom wouldn't still think that they knew about him. Forgetting about that, he levitated them and left them on the sofa, wrapped in each other's arms, to wake up in the morning. He then walked back up to the dormitory, intending to go to bed.

As soon as he left, Albus Dumbledore cancelled the Disillusionment Charm that he had on himself, and walked over to the sofa on which Harry had left Ron and Hermione. He had not been there long enough to hear anything said; he only just walked in when they were shooting a spell at a mirror, although he did not recognise it. Pointing his wand at Ron first, he examined the boy's mind, attempting to find the memory that Harry had erased in the hope that he had not done it well enough and it still remained.

His hopes were crushed however when he discovered that Harry had used the memory charm well enough for the memory to not be recovered without several months of treatment, and that was definitely not an option. Sighing, he moved his wand to Hermione, but the results were the same; he could not recover the memory. Looking up at the staircase leading to the boy's dormitories he wondered what Harry was keeping from him, and why he had gone so far as to Obliviate his closest friends. Putting his wand away, he walked out of the common room, thinking of a way in which he could find out more about the situation.

Meanwhile in the dormitory, Harry had told Tom exactly why he shouldn't show himself to Ron and Hermione anymore, or speak to them at all.

"Let me get the straight," He said slowly, fiddling with the vial still while looking at Harry. "Are you telling me that your idiotic friends are actually denying my existence to the extent that if I show myself to them they will act like they did not know I was there?"

Harry nodded, suddenly realising how stupid this sounded, but having no other choice he didn't deny it. "Yep, they've been acting pretty badly since they found out about you, and because of that their minds do not want to ever see you again, and just want to live in peace."

Tom glared at him, his eyes narrowing. He clearly did not believe Harry, but to Harry's luck he was so preoccupied with the memories he had stolen from Professor Muff that he did not question it, but instead nodded and continued staring at the vial. Harry picked his pyjamas up off his bed, and went to the bathroom to get ready to go to sleep. Tom had already forgotten what Harry had told him, and was back to thinking about Professor Muff.

Break

"My lord, do you require anything else from me?" Asked the figure in the hood that was currently kneeling at Lord Voldemort's feet. A shadow covered his entire face, making him impossible to identify should the other Death Eaters want to find his identity. Voldemort glance at the man who was his spy in the Order of the Phoenix, thinking.

"Yes, I need you to do one more thing for me, however it will not be an easy task, and I am only telling you about it now because I will not see you for several months. I don't care how you do it, as long as it happens sometime during his exams, but I want Harry Potter to be tricked into going to the Department of Mysteries, ideally without anybody from the Order of the Phoenix accompanying him. As soon as you do this inform me, and I will meet you there with the Death Eaters. Is this understood?"

"Perfectly, my lord, I shall do it as soon as I possibly can. May I just ask, why around the time of his exams?"

Voldemort replied "Because at that time he will be the most stressed and it will be easiest to fool him and to defeat him, and also because this will give me enough time to prepare the Death Eaters." His spy nodded, and with his permission got up and apparated away. Voldemort was left deep in thought. 'This will take care of Potter, but I still have to get rid of Muff somehow,'

Two Months Later

February had just begun, and there was nothing else unusual happening. Harry's situation of having a Dark Lord reside in his dormitory had not changed at all, and Ron had come back from the holidays slightly late to urgently tell Harry and Hermione that his father had been almost killed by a snake while doing something for the Order. He was apparently still in St. Mungo's Hospital, and wasn't improving too much, although he was still alive.

Ron also told them that he had overheard a conversation between his mother and his eldest brother, Bill, in which she told him that Dumbledore still did not know who the spy in the Order was, and that he was preoccupied with some other situation that he refused to tell anyone else about. The three of them pondered on what this situation could possibly be, but none of them could think of anything. It briefly crossed Harry's mind that the situation may have something to do with Tom, mainly because Dumbledore seemed to be suspicious of it when he spoke to Harry outside the Gryffindor Common Room, however he dismissed this thought; Dumbledore had no especially big reason to suspect it and for it to be called a 'situation'.

Harry's hadn't even noticed that he had a scar in the last few months; the connection had dulled to the extent that it was not noticeable at all, however Tom seemed to have lost interest in this already and was keeping to the dormitory most days. Their relationship had got much closer in the last two months. Not to the extent that they would call each other friends, but to the extent that they could have a friendly conversation, and defend each other in danger.

Professor Muff was still an unpopular teacher, and the W.H.M was still going well. Harry had to convince Tom that Ron and Hermione did not acknowledge that 'Dom Skiddle' was the same person as Tom Riddle, in order to keep secret the fact that he had freed them of the curse and wiped their memories of him. He was also still regularly talking to Daphne Greengrass in lessons, and sometimes outside of them. This made Malfoy seem quite annoyed for whatever reason, but Harry took no notice.

One day, when Harry was walking out of the Great Hall after breakfast, Dumbledore suddenly came out behind him and called out his name. Harry turned around, and immediately noticed the grim look that was on the Headmaster's face, like he was doing a terrible deed. "Yes sir?" He replied slowly, curious as to what he wanted.

Dumbledore hesitated, and then said "Come with me Harry, I need to speak to you privately in my office about something of great importance." Harry nodded, starting to feel worried, and followed Dumbledore.

When they arrived at his office, Dumbledore murmured the password to the gargoyle, and Harry followed him up to the Headmaster's office. Once inside, Dumbledore gestured for Harry to sit, and then waited several moments before speaking.

"Harry, before I say anything I must ask, is there anything that you feel you may need to tell me?" Dumbledore surveyed him through his glasses as he said this, and Harry almost felt like he was being judged. After a few seconds of thinking, even though he had already decided that he would not tell anyone about Tom, he quietly said in response "No sir, I can't think of anything of importance that I need to tell you."

"As you wish Harry" Dumbledore replied, and this response made Harry think that he had not been asking for Harry to tell him any concerns, and was instead asking for some form of confession for something. Suddenly fearing what would happen next, Harry watched as Dumbledore got up, walked over to a collection of vials that contained memories, and picked one up. He then opened it and poured it into his pensieve.

"Please come and watch this memory, Harry. I think you shall find it most interesting, and after you have seen it I will need to talk to you about it." Harry was extremely worried now; had Dumbledore somehow caught him and Tom when Tom didn't have any charms keeping him invisible? Or had he witnessed a meeting of the W.H.M and was angry that a rebel group had been made?

Harry dipped his head into the pensieve, and watched, from Dumbledore's point of view, as Ron and Hermione cast the counter-curse, doubled-over in pain, and then hugged. He then watched himself wipe both of their memories and levitate them onto the sofa, before walking up to his dormitory.

When he disappeared, he saw Dumbledore appear, walk over, and wave his wand over both Ron and Hermione. His face looked slightly disturbed, and after several minutes he looked up, and then walked away.

When Harry left the memory, he found Dumbledore staring at him, an unreadable look on his face, before he spoke softly. "I think you have some explaining to do to me Harry."

Author's Note: First of all, I have a feeling that some people may not like the fact that there was a two month skip, but I did that because nothing happened in those two months. Dumbledore waited that long to reveal that he witnessed the incident because he was denying it a little, and because he was hoping that he would see something else, but he didn't, so he decided to show Harry and ask for an explanation. Tom and Harry are growing much closer, and Harry definitely does not want to tell anyone about him, although the situation he was in at the end of this chapter could force him to. We will have to wait and see! The spy will not be revealed until Harry goes to the Ministry, which I am still planning out. Remus will not be as prominent as I originally thought, and he probably won't even appear in the next chapter.

That being said, when I will update next is unknown to me. I still have a lot of work to do, so it could take a while, but hopefully not more than a few weeks. I probably don't deserve it after my crappy updates, but please try to review and vote on my poll. Until the next time. Bye!