Author's Note: This would have been up a lot earlier today, but the site went down. Luckily I had already posted another chapter, so it wasn't as big a deal for me as it was for other authors. You could still view stories, but you couldn't review or favourite/follow them, and I am sorry to have lost several hours where people may have done that. Anyway, enjoy!

The Experiments of Tom Marvolo Riddle – Chapter 16

Written By YT12J

"Ok, try out the curse now. Hopefully the fact that your partner will be injured if their shield charm fails will motivate them to try harder."

Some of the members of the W.H.M looked slightly afraid when 'Dom', their current teacher said this, but they did as he said and began using the curse on their partners who were using the special shield charm that he had also taught them. Harry was paired up with Daphne, mainly because no one wanted to pair up with the only Slytherin, and also because since they had gone to Hogsmeade together they had been quite closer. Not enough that they would call each other best friends, but enough that they were pairing up with each other in all their classes.

Harry at first assumed that Ron and Hermione would get angry at him for not hanging out with them as much as he used to, but they accepted it surprisingly well, although Hermione was still slightly suspicious of Daphne and would ask her slightly intrusive questions whenever she would sit with them and study. Daphne didn't seem to mind and in fact answered these questions calmly, making Hermione feel a lot more comfortable around her.

Ron simply congratulated Harry on 'getting a girl' as he put it, even though Harry repeatedly denied that they were anything more than friends. This was a difficult thing to claim however because of the fact that they went to Hogsmeade together, even if they only went a couple of times. The first time Harry had been focusing on Remus Lupin more than he had been focusing on her, but the second time was fun, and he promised it would happen again.

Daphne was putting up the shield while Harry was firing the curse at her. The curse wasn't an especially nasty one, especially compared to the dark curses that 'Dom' could have taught them. It simply got into the victim's head and made them think that half their bones were broken, when in fact they weren't. According to Tom it was a good alternative to actually breaking the bones because that required more power and you had to do it several times, to break more than one bone, whereas this curse did all of them at once. It was also apparently a lot more difficult to heal than broken bones because you would have to go into the persons mind using several spells and reverse it. The only reason that Harry had allowed Tom to teach them the curse was because he had personally promised to heal anyone whose shield charm failed, and he could apparently do it 'in less than ten seconds'.

However this was unlikely to be required as Daphne's shield easily held, and Harry's spells faded away as soon as they got near her. She was wearing a smug smile on her face, but it dropped when Harry changed his tactics by firing a bone-breaker curse. She used Protego to block this, however Protego was not enough to stop Harry's curse that he fired straight after, the same one that he was supposed to be firing in the first place. She dropped to the ground screaming in pain, and Harry winced. It couldn't be pleasant for your mind to be convinced that half your bones were broken.

He heard movement behind him and instinctively fired the same curse as soon as he turned, only to see Tom effortlessly block it before walking over to Daphne and waving his wand at her carefully. Sure enough, she stopped screaming after around five seconds of Tom doing this, and after a few more seconds he stopped and helped her up. She groaned loudly, and then proceeded to glare at Harry, more annoyed at herself for falling for his trick. Tom walked away as soon as he heard another person screaming, and Harry went over to Daphne, afraid that she was going to kill him.

"Sorry," He muttered, and she blinked, surprised at this apology.

"What are you sorry for?" She replied, confused as to why he was apologising. "You did exactly what you were supposed to do; if anything I should be apologising to Skiddle for letting my guard down. I know you didn't mean to hurt me," She interrupted as he tried to speak, "but it doesn't matter."

He nodded, mostly happy that she wasn't angry at him. A few minutes later the meeting ended, and Harry carefully sent off groups of people while consulting the Marauder's Map. Ron and Hermione were the last to leave, leaving Harry and Daphne alone. Harry could have sworn he saw Ron wink at him before he left.

"So... What's new?" He asked Daphne, not being able to think of anything else to talk about. She raised her eyebrows, and before he could say anything else she had pressed her lips to his, and they were kissing heavily. Harry's eyes widened in surprise, but after a couple of seconds he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.

They broke apart gasping for breath after around twenty seconds, and then Harry decided to finally ask her "Do you want to be my girlfriend Daphne?"

She smiled as if she had been expecting this, and then responded to his question. "I would love to Harry." They looked into each other's eyes for several seconds, and then walked to the door. Harry slipped his hand into Daphne's and they walked out of the Room of Requirement. He fully intended to escort her to the dungeons.

When they got to the entrance of the Slytherin Common Room, Daphne said to Harry "Do you want to come in and hang out for a bit? It would certainly be very efficient at annoying almost all of my housemates." Harry smiled at this, and was about to say no, but then he decided that it wouldn't do any harm to stay there for a few minutes.

"Ok then, I don't see why not. Bear in mind I probably shouldn't stay for long, I need to get back to Gryffindor Tower soon, and it would also not be a good idea to antagonize your house too much."

She nodded and then said the password (Salazar is Superior). The wall melted away, and she led him into her Common Room. Harry smiled again. This would be a lot of fun.

Break

"You went into the Slytherin Common Room with her? Are you insane Harry?" Ron burst out as Harry sat there calmly. Hermione mostly looked amused, but when he first told them about it she was just as shocked as Ron.

They were currently sitting in the Common Room. It had in fact been two weeks since Harry had kissed Daphne and they had become boyfriend and girlfriend, but he had not told Ron and Hermione because they chose to keep it secret temporarily. This plan failed however when Hermione found them making out in an empty classroom, and then Harry had to tell them the whole story.

"It's fine Ron, nothing happened to me. All they did was glare; they didn't even speak to me after I cursed the guy who attacked me." Ron actually smiled at this, but Hermione's eyes widened. Before she could reprimand Harry for this however he noticed something through the window.

"Guy, isn't that Hagrid?" Ron turned his head in surprise, and nodded when he spotted the same figure through the window.

"It is! Let's go see him." Hermione huffed at this, and they all ran up to the dormitories to put on extra clothes to keep warm. It was nearing the end of February, however for some reason it was still quite cold. When Harry walked into the dormitory he caught Tom in the act of carving some strange shapes into the ground. He frowned, but didn't comment, and went to get his scarf and gloves.

While he was putting them on Tom finished whatever he was doing, looked up and asked "What's got you so energetic?" Harry waited a few seconds before replying as he was still putting his gloves on, and then responded.

"Hagrid, he's back, I don't know if you know him but he's the –"

He then stopped talking, a sinking sensation in his gut as he looked at Tom. Of course he knew who Hagrid was; he was the one that got him expelled in the first place by framing him for something that he actually did.

"I know Hagrid, and I believe you know this." Harry nodded.

"Yeah, I – I do know. I remember all too well." Tom seemed to understand why Harry was slightly angry, but he kept quiet, lest he provoke even more anger just by saying something. Bored, and with nothing else to do Tom said "I think I'll come with you; it's been a while since I saw Hagrid, and I could also do with some fresh air."

Harry looked at him for a minute and then sighed. "Fine, but make sure that the charms that hide you are working properly, and hurry up; the three of us are about to leave."

"Four of us." Tom corrected, and then followed Harry down the stairs into the Common Room where Ron and Hermione were waiting.

"Come on Harry, let's go quickly." Hermione said, and they walked out of the Common Room, Tom carefully walking a short distance behind so that he would not bump into anyone. When they eventually got outside they headed straight towards Hagrid's hut. It was starting to get dark, and they probably should have been inside, but they had the invisibility cloak if they needed it, not that Tom even did.

When they got to his hut Hermione knocked on the door and waited until Hagrid opened it. When he did all three of them gasped, however Tom smiled and tried not to laugh. Hagrid's face was full of cuts and bruises, and he was supporting a big piece of meat in one hand.

"What are all of yeh doin' – ah never mind, come in, the three of yeh." They nodded, and walked in when he opened the door wide. Tom slipped in just before he closed it and walked straight to the opposite end of the room. Hagrid sighed and sat down on a chair, and gestured for the three of them to do the same. Before anyone said anything Tom said out loud, clearly to Harry, "Harry, as far as I can tell these injuries have been caused by giants. Try asking him about that otherwise he'll probably refuse to tell you anything."

Harry nodded, a small jerk of his head so that no one would notice but Tom, and opened his mouth to speak before anyone else did. "So Hagrid, what exactly have you been doing around giants?"

Ron and Hermione looked at him in surprise; Ron hadn't thought of giants and Hermione was surprised that Harry did as well, as she was also about to ask. Hagrid was clearly shocked however, as he dropped the piece of poisonous looking meat to the ground with a loud thud, and stared at Harry.

"How did yeh know I've been aroun' giants?" He asked incredulously. Harry shrugged his shoulders and replied calmly.

"Just the way you have all of those injuries, it looks like you've been beaten up by giants."

Hagrid certainly looked impressed, and with a great sigh he picked the piece of meat back up and spoke. "No surprise tha' yeh guessed Harry, yeh've always been too clever for yer own good. Yep, yer right, I've been 'round a lot of giants. Here's what happened."

Hagrid then proceeded to tell them about how he went with Madame Maxime to try and get the giants on their side, how it was all going well until the Death Eaters showed up, how they just managed to escape with their lives, and how most of the time they were being trailed by the Ministry.

They all listened patiently throughout this, although Tom looked quite bored, and when Hagrid finished Harry had a question to ask. "Why is it that it took you so long to get back Hagrid?"

Hagrid hesitated at this question. "Actually I should've been back before Christmas, even though we were delayed, but then somethin' else happened that took us ages to sort out."

They asked him exactly what had happened, and why they were delayed in the first place, but Hagrid refused to tell them. Apparently he'd 'said too much', but they were doubtful considering he had told them the rest of the story. Whatever he was hiding had to be something different, and something more personal.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Harry got out the invisibility cloak and put it over the three of them, and Hagrid walked over to the door and opened it. Standing outside was Professor Muff, with his usual indifferent look on his face. As soon as he saw him Hagrid said loudly "You!" Muff simply nodded in return, and walked into the hut without asking for an invitation. He sat himself down, and waited for Hagrid to close the door and do the same.

As soon as Hagrid was seated on his chair, Muff began speaking. "Hello Hagrid. You certainly don't look any different these days than you do when I was at school."

Hagrid ignored that and asked "What are yeh doin' here Muff, I thought you worked for –"

"I know whom I worked for in the past," Muff interrupted, "However now I work as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Is that understood Hagrid?"

Hagrid nodded. Harry and Ron both looked confused, but Hermione was unperturbed, as if she had heard it all before. Muff continued. "Anyway, as you are the Care of Magical Creatures teacher I must inform you that I am also the Hogwarts High Inquisitor, appointed by the Minister himself. This means that I will inspect the lessons of all of the other teachers, and if there is anything I find unsatisfactory I have the immediate power of putting them on probation or even having them sacked. Is that understood?"

Hagrid nodded again, choosing to stay silent. "Good," Muff said. "Expect me in one of your lessons soon, and I can tell you now, it had better be good for me to approve of you."

Without any further words Muff got out of his seat and headed to the door, opening it and leaving the hut without even closing it. Hagrid got up and closed it, and then said "It's alright, yeh can come out now."

Harry took the invisibility cloak off them and urgently said to Hagrid "Hagrid, you need to have some good lessons planned out, Muff is serious. He's basically the Minister's puppet, and isn't going to do you any favours."

"Don' worry," Chuckled Hagrid, "I have some really good lessons planned out for yeh. He'll have no reason teh fire me."

They reiterated what Harry said several times and then headed back to the castle with Tom next to them. Harry was extremely worried that Hagrid wouldn't take them seriously, but he trusted that if anything happened Dumbledore would protect him.

Break

"Harry, I need to talk to you about something." Tom said slowly.

It had been a few weeks since Hagrid had returned, and so far Muff had been satisfied with his lessons. He had however fired Trelawney, and Dumbledore kept her in the castle while introducing Firenze, the centaur that saved Harry's life in his first year, as the new divination teacher.

"What is it about?" Harry asked in response. They were sitting in the Common Room and it was the middle of the night. The only reason as to why they were there was the fact that Harry had some homework to do, and Tom had decided to help him. He had just finished it however, so listened to Tom intently.

"A few weeks ago, I started to prepare for something that I think you should know about."

Harry frowned. That was unexpected. "What did you begin preparing for?" He asked slowly, wondering what it was and if he would like it.

"I made a circle of runes for when I shall be returning to the past at the end of the year."

Harry didn't speak, but just stared at Tom. For some reason it hadn't occurred to him that Tom would be leaving at some point, and he subconsciously believed that Tom would always be there as he had got used to it.

Tom continued when he saw that Harry wasn't going to speak. "I could have made a special portkey, but that one requires a lot more effort as far as I know, which is why I also used this method when I came here in the first place. I did it in Hogwarts because it has a lot of power, and will hopefully make the whole process a lot smoother."

Harry nodded, still not speaking. "Try not to touch the runes, as even some drops of water can spoil them. I have put up some basic protection charms over that area of the dormitory anyway, but just be careful in case something happens, ok?"

Harry nodded again, and what Tom had just said got his interest. As soon as Tom walked out of the Common Room, he ran up to the dormitory without even picking up his homework. Once, there, he found the circle of runes in a corner of the room.

"Reducto!" He said forcefully, shattering the protection charms that were around it. He then did exactly as Tom said by saying "Aguamenti" and spoiling the runes. When he was finished, he walked over to his bed and sat down, breathing heavily. He knew that he couldn't let Tom go, not after all the time he had been here. Harry had truly grown attached to Tom, and knew that he would do everything he could to stop Tom from leaving that time and going back to the past. He of course couldn't force Tom to do anything; Tom was a lot more powerful than he was, however if he destroyed Tom's ways of going home silently then perhaps he would give up.

Or perhaps he wouldn't. Tom had to become Voldemort, Harry knew that. If he kept Tom in that time then it would be a paradox, and he couldn't possibly do that; it would all be for nothing, unless…

He got a blank piece of parchment and a quill off his desk, and began to write his plan for keeping Tom in his time while at the same time making it so that he did not need to become Voldemort.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know I said before it would have Muff in it, but I changed my mind and pushed that scene up to the next chapter, although I may just do that again. Tom is serious about going back, and under no circumstances will he consider not going back. Harry is going to have to come up with a good enough idea to convince him. Please try to review and vote on my poll if you can. Bye!