I'm rarely one to beg for reviews, but 195 hits vs. 2 reviews is a bit unsettling. Please review guys! Feel free to let me know what you think. Thank you for those two people who did review for the early encouragement.

The Alliance

"Tom Riddle, may I have a word?"

Tom looked up from his desk as the rest of the class filed out of the room. Dumbledore smiled at him kindly and motioned for him to approach the desk.

"Certainly, Professor," he replied.

He walked to the front of the room and stood attentively opposite the transfiguration teacher. Dumbledore removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes slightly. Tom attributed it to the rather interesting class they had just had. Fifth year transfiguration was becoming a bit too advanced for a few of the less academically driven students and had resulted in sending two students and a rather perturbed goat to the hospital wing.

"Tom, I was wondering if you were planning on staying over holiday break this December?"

Tom laughed slightly. "I should hope that you were more confident in my loathing of that orphanage to be more than just wondering."

Dumbledore looked pleased. "Good. I had hoped that you might assist me in a small project. It will probably take up a good deal of time over your break, but I know that you enjoy any opportunity to learn something new."

Tom's mind flooded with thoughts. This would set him back a bit, but it couldn't hurt anything. Besides, it sounded rather intriguing.

"I would be happy to assist you with whatever you need, Professor. You are correct in thinking that I would enjoy such a task. What do you require of me?"

"You will be working alongside another student helping her with research on the Philosopher's Stone. Am I correct that you already know what that is?"

Tom bowed slightly. "The famed stone that alchemists refer to as the 'fountain of life' I would assume."

"Correct, Mr. Riddle. I have a friend interested in putting together a book about it and he and I are both too busy at the present time to be bothered with the little details. I suggested that I put a few of my more brilliant students to work on the project. You are sure that it would not be any inconvenience to you? I know no other student that would research as thoroughly."

"I would love to have something to occupy my time." Tom grinned and turned grabbed his books. "Do you need me for anything else, Professor?"

"No Tom. I'll be in touch to tell you when I need you to begin."

Tom walked towards the door and stopped. He had a slight suspicion as to whom his partner would be. "Who am I to be working with?"

Dumbledore smiled knowingly. "I think that you and Miss McGonagall will find that you work together very well."

Tom bent his head towards the professor in respect and walked out the door in triumph. It was only October, but he had the feeling the coming break would be the most interesting one he had ever had.

Minerva knocked on the door to Dumbledore's office with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It had been over a month since he had given her the task of tailing Riddle, and she knew that he was perceptive enough to know that she had done just the opposite. She hated letting him down, but she couldn't trust herself around Tom. He made her lose self-control, an action she was not keen on developing any further.

"Come in Miss McGonagall," a voice called from the other side of the door. Minerva braced herself and walked in. Dumbledore seemed to be in a good mood; however, she had never really seen him in a bad one and she wouldn't know what to expect anyway.

"You asked to see me, sir?"

"Yes, please sit down." Dumbledore put his hands together and drummed his fingers. "I'm not going to tell you that I'm not disappointed in your dismal failure regarding Tom Riddle," he said sternly.

Minerva's eyes opened widely.

Dumbledore threw off his angry glare and smiled. "Minerva, relax. I'm not angry. I know your past with Tom could not have made the task very simple, but I have an alternative if you are still up to the challenge. I take it the DADA paper did not go over as smoothly as I would have hoped?"

Minerva shook her head, relieved that she had not lost the respect of her favorite professor.

"We're both too stubborn."

"I thought as much. I've just finished talking to Tom. He has agreed to work with you over Christmas break on a project I came up with. Is that all right with you?"

Minerva groaned inwardly. She had been looking forward to a pleasant, relaxing break at home, but she nodded. "That will be fine, sir. What is the project?"

"You'll be researching the history of the Philosopher's Stone for Nicholas Flamel. If he ever chooses to destroy the stone, he'll be releasing a book about his discovery and those who tried before him. Tom will work predominately on the research aspect and you will be organizing everything into a readily accessible write-up form."

Minerva shook her head in understanding. She was surprised that Tom had not found the project mysteriously suspicious. Perhaps he was more trusting than she realized.

"You will have to pretend that you know nothing of Nicholas Flamel, unless Mr. Riddle shows some sign of knowledge of him. I don't particularly want the fact that the stone does indeed exist spread widely about the school, especially among the Slytherins. If he does know, you may tell him what I've told you."

"Yes sir. When should we begin?"

"Mid-November should give you enough time. I'll give you leave to proceed once I find out the final details from Nicholas. For now, you may go."

"I'll do my best not to let you down, Professor."

Dumbledore smiled with a twinkle in his eye. "I have complete faith in your abilities, Minerva."

She turned and headed for the door.

"Oh, and Minerva? Please try to keep his suspicions to a minimum. We both have to remember that his is a remarkably intelligent person. Also, please know that I really hope my thoughts aren't justified. I just want to make sure."

Minerva nodded once more and left the room.

So, she was going to be working with Tom after all. She shook her head. She had to get it out of her mind. She had a quidditch game in - she looked at her watch - less than twenty-four hours! She needed to get to practice.

"Easy McGonagall! Save some energy for tomorrow!" Rab yelled from his beaters position. Minerva ignored him and swooped past a bludger to pop the quaffle through the center goalpost. One of the other chasers, a second year with little skill and no brain, applauded loudly before almost falling off his broom. The other chaser was arguing loudly with his ex-girlfriend who happened to be the new seeker while the other beater watched causing him to be hit in the face with an oncoming bludger. Practice was not going as planned.

"Everyone take a break!" Rab finally yelled in frustration. They all turned to look at him in surprise. Minerva slowly descended to the ground and stalked off for her bottle of water. This was the worst display of quidditch she had ever seen in her life. The game was going to be positively embarrassing. She watched the seeker clumsily dismount and rolled her eyes. Hufflepuff was going to win in the first five minutes. Gryffindor was going to be utterly disgraced once again.

Catching her breath, she quickly hoped back on her broomstick and rocketed upward to work on evasive maneuvers.

"McGonagall! I told you to slow down! Take it easy for once!"

Rab rose up to meet her.

"Kilgore! What am I supposed to do? They look like they've never played quidditch in their lives!"

"Minerva, there's nothing we can do about that." He ran a hand through his wind blown hair. "Maybe they'll work well under pressure."

Minerva placed her hands on her hips. "That's ridiculous. This has happened at every practice. We need a miracle to win."

That miracle turned out to be a surprisingly alarming attack on London by the dark wizard Grindewald. Headmaster Dippet, Dumbledore, and a few other professors were pulled from the school to help handle the situation and the quidditch game was postponed until November. While everyone else on the team grumbled, Minerva and Rab were silently relieved. They had three more weeks to pull the team together.

"So I see you were all spared the embarrassment of losing to a bunch of duffers," Lestrange seethed into Minerva's ear the day after the game had been cancelled. Rab, who was sitting right next to her overheard it, and grabbed Lestrange quite forcefully by his necktie.

"Do you have something to say to me, Lestrange?" he growled.

Lestrange's eyes grew fearful as the strong quidditch player stood to look down on him.

"No," he mumbled, retreating to the Slytherin table.

"That's what I thought," Rab called after him.

Minerva glanced over her shoulder. Tom Riddle whispered something angrily at Lestrange who hung his head in defeat. Tom looked up and their eyes met. They still hadn't spoken after speaking with Dumbledore. Minerva turned back to her food. Rab was deep in a tirade about Lestrange.

"Stupid Slytherins! They always think that they're better than everyone else. I resent him calling Hufflepuff duffers!"

A few Hufflepuff students turned around and joined in complaint.

"I mean, why should we all continue to have to put up with it? They're idiots!"

A chorus of "yeahs" and "you're rights" followed.

"Can you believe the nerve of that guy? Talking that way to Minerva? A prefect? He doesn't even deserve to clean her wand let alone speak to her!"

Minerva quickly tired of their ranting and left the Great Hall. She was tired and she worried about the professors who had been so quickly dispatched to London. She hoped everyone was all right. Why care about Slytherins and quidditch when so much else was on the line?

Tom noticed when she stood to leave and quickly downed his pumpkin juice. He followed after her, being careful to make it seem like he had forgotten something in the library. "McGonagall, wait!" he said as she started up the stairs.

She stopped.

"Please don't, Tom. I'm really not in the mood. All this pettiness is truly driving me mad."

"I agree."

Minerva looked at him. He seemed sincere. What was going on?

"Are you and Lestrange in on this together? He gets me riled up and you listen to me rant so you can laugh about it later?"

Tom frowned. "No. I needed to talk to you about the - " he lowered his voice "philosopher's stone thing." He grabbed her arm by the elbow and steered her into a small chamber opposite the Great Hall.

He closed the heavy doors and turned to face Minerva.

"What's wrong, Tom?" she asked wrinkling her nose.

He took a step closer, causing her to step back, almost tripping over a chair. Tom ignored it.

"Don't you think it's a little suspicious that Dumbledore asked us to research this thing? I have the feeling that he's trying to lead us into discovering something else. It seems really out of character for him to pawn a project off on us."

Minerva froze. He was so perceptive some times!

"Maybe," she said slowly. "I suppose he has been acting rather strange lately. What do you think we should do?"

Tom shrugged. "I suppose we should just do what he tells us. We'll figure out pretty quickly if there's any underlying secret." He strolled over to the window biting his thumb. "I was just wondering since you are so close to him that you might have some insight."

Minerva felt her fingers tense. "You had better hope there was no hint of innuendo in that sentence or I'll -"

"Don't worry, McGonagall. I won't tease you. We are going to have to put aside our differences to work on this thing, so I suggest we begin now. I'll try to stop being the prick you think I am."
Minerva folded her arms. "I'll try to stop being the know-it-all you think I am."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Then we have a deal?" Tom held out his hand. "We'll work together on this to see if we can figure out what Dumbledore's up to? I'm practically bothered to distraction about the whole thing."

Minerva reached her hand out tentatively. Dumbledore's plan was working more effectively than she had hoped. "Deal." She shook his hand firmly and he put his left hand on top of hers.

"Thank you, Minerva. I'm hoping that it will be a pleasure working with you." He smiled at her and left the room. Upon reaching the entrance hall he grinned widely. Not only had he secured her cooperation with the project and subsequently caused her to trust him, he had undoubtedly made her incredibly confused. Knocking his hat jauntily to the side, he skipped up the steps towards his next class.