Chapter Eight: Albus

Albus scanned the Hall of the group of Slytherins.

"Watcha lookin' for?" Lupin asked in a southern American accent.

"Tom. Why are you speaking like that?" Albus answered back.

"I have no idea." Lupin shrugged.

Albus spotted Tom entering the Hall, leading a group of Hufflepuffs. Though, Albus didn't think he was leading them though. Tom made his way to the Slytherin table and sat down between Malfoy and a girl with light brown hair. They all started to talk together, huddled. Albus could see Tom nodding and Malfoy patting him, while the girl would talk like there was an emergency.

"Do you know who that girl is? That one, speaking to Malfoy and Tom?" Albus asked. A new voice interrupted.

"Taken a shine to her?" James asked, grinning.

"What? No!" Albus said, turning red. "Whenever there's a girl involved, you always think I'm taking a shine to her! I'm just curious."

"That's Jenna LeFay."James stated.

"Wait, LeFay as in Marcus LeFay. The Quidditch player?" Lupin quizzed.

"How many other LeFay's have you heard about?" James exaggerated.

Suddenly, the empty platters turned into full platters of food. James was scarfing down some chicken, Lupin was ripping a chunk of bread and eating it. Albus looked to the Ravenclaw table and saw Rose eating some steak, Lucy was drinking some pumpkin juice and the twins were playing a game with their wands. Rose kept looking at Tom and Jenna over her shoulder though. Albus thought this was a bit weird.

Tom was staring at his platter of food. Jenna was looking at him, biting her lip. She was patting him on his back and was trying to comfort him. Tom looked at her and said something and started to eat his food, Jenna started to talk to him again.

"...so the Slytherins have tried out, the Hufflepuffs have tried out, just the Ravenclaws. Then I don't know when the matches begin." James explained to Lupin who was obviously intrigued. James turned to Albus.

"You don't happen to know the Slytherin seeker and Hufflepuff seeker is, do you?" James asked. Albus shook his head. He turned back to his plate and grabbed a piece of toast from the toast rack. James was deciding weather Lupin should try out as a Beater, Keeper or Chaser when he's older. Albus took a sip of water and nibbled on his toast while joining in on the conversation. From time to time Albus checked the Ravenclaw table and saw Rose, Lucy and the twins talking in a bunched group. It seemed as if they were discussing something. It was as if Rose couldn't decide on something, which Ravenclaws must've been good at. Since they were smart. He looked over to Hufflepuff table and saw the normal cheery faces his father said to expect from Hufflepuffs. Albus then looked over at the Slytherin table and was relived that he didn't end up there. He saw Malfoy scooting over to Jenna who was nudging her food with her fork, Malfoy leaned over to her and whispered something to her, Jenna seemed alarmed and looked at Malfoy like he was mad (which he was) and pushed him away. Albus chuckled as he saw Malfoy's reaction. His mouth was wide open and his eyes seemed to pop out of his head. Jenna continued to pick her food. Albus took out a piece of paper from his pocket. It was his timetable. They had charms next.

I hope it's a good charms lesson. Albus thought.

"What do you think we're going to do in charms?" Albus questioned.

"Charms? Nah, no idea at all. Sorry. Maybe we'll do something else other than boring old spells." Albus wanted to do something fun. He had been dying to use his wand. Albus picked up a bread roll and took his knife to butter it.

"You know what? I think I'll go early today, we haven't really been to all our classes today, plus, it's our first day. You coming?" Albus said. Lupin looked up at him.

"Sorry Albus, I've gotta refuel." Lupin said, shaking his head. Albus nodded and grabbed his bag from the floor. He walked past the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables and exited the Hall. He sighed and rested against a wall. After a while, Albus started to walk again. He tried to find his way around the Castle when he heard footsteps coming his way.

"Who's there?" Albus called. The footsteps stopped and a familiar voice called out.

"Tom Riddle. Is that you Albus?"

"Yeah." Albus started to walk again towards Tom's voice. When he turned a corner, he saw Tom standing there. His hand quickly reached down to his other hand as if he was touching his head.

"What's wrong? I saw Jenna and you..."

"Oh, that. I-I have to tell you something, that you might not like. You might hate me forever Maybe not. I don't know. But, after Defense Against The Dark Arts, on our way to History Of Magic, Jenna and I found a bit of parchment. It belonged to Ingio Doreen. He's in Slytherin, apparently he's unstable. I know that now. Ingio, he started talking about Lord Voldemort. I don't know if your father told you anything when he was at school, but Ingio started talking about in your father's fourth year, the graveyard." Tom explained.

"Yeah, dad told me that he saw Voldemort rising." Albus said nervously. He was worried, what had Tom meant that Albus might hate him forever?

"Well, Ingio said a boy also rose on that day, his father saw it. This was after your father escaped Voldemort. Ingio said that the boy looked like me. Voldemort said that the boy would help bring him back if he died. He would use him when the time was right. And I've been wondering. The time when I saw you at Gryffindor Common Room, I was trying to find it. I was suddenly filled with tons of information about Hogwarts inside my head. Then, Scorpius talked about a boy called Cedric Diggory. I felt really guilty when I heard about him. When Ingio was talking about the boy, well, I thought. Maybe, Voldemort is my...father." Tom said.

"Your-your father?" Albus stuttered.

"Yeah, I mean, I look just like him when he was a child! Scorpius said so. Plus what Ingio said about the boy, Voldemort took care of him, poured all of his knowledge of everything I needed to know! Please, I don't know If it's true or not. I know your father hated Voldemort."

"Are you sure?"

"Look, when I was coming back from Ingio, I thought hard about what he said. I stopped, suddenly my head started hurting like it's never done before, it felt like I was getting stabbed repeatedly. I know what it feels like, maybe Voldemort felt it. But didn't your father experience some pain like that with his scar? Voldemort gave him some of his own powers. Maybe Voldemort did it to me. Jenna and I were talking about Voldemort giving me a Horcrux when he made me." Tom said.

"So, your saying, you've got a Horcrux, Voldemort's your father, he gave you all the knowledge you need to know. Your-your father killed my fathers parents! Plus many other people! Who knows what you'll turn into!" Albus raged.

"Albus, I just found out! Please!" Tom yelled as Albus stormed away. He was going to Charms, he would never talk to Tom again. He found the classroom and was aware of Tom chasing after him.

Albus pushed open the door and was ready to excuse them for being late but then stopped himself. There was only three people in the room. Lupin, Jenna and Rose.

"Ah! Boys, come sit down!" Professor Flitwick said. Albus nodded.

"In your houses. So, Albus, would you like to sit with Lupin?"

"And then Mr. Riddle, sit next to Jenna please."

"So. Found out who Slytherin seeker was yet?" Lupin inquired. Albus slapped his face.

"Argh! I forgot!" He said in frustration.

"Really! Your friends with a Slytherin! Come on!" Lupin groaned. "What if it's Malfoy? That could be bad!"

"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry, look the match is coming up soon, Slytherin versus Gryffindor, we'll find out then." Albus said, trying to calm him down, and ignoring Lupin calling Tom his 'friend'.

"Okay, but I will kill you. And I mean kill you that if it's Malfoy, your going to pay."

Albus nodded, he didn't like how much Lupin emphasized the word 'kill' so he hoped that the Seeker wasn't Malfoy. BANG! The door slammed open and in came a boy with blond hair in Slytherin robes, it looked like he was in his third year.

Rodmin Malfoy.

"What is he doing here?" Lupin whispered. "Isn't that the boy that attacked Tom?"

"Yeah, Rodmin Malfoy. Malfoy's cousin. He's supposed to be influenced by his parents. The Ministry thinks there Death Eaters but, they can't prove it. I know way more. My dad told me." Albus explained. Lupin looked at him in astonishment.

"All right, save it for free period." Lupin said, obviously intrigued. Lupin was mostly interested in Quidditch, pranks and jokes. Albus studied Rodmin and saw that he was holding a green and silver uniform. But not just any old uniform. A Quidditch uniform! Whoever got the seeker in Slytherin was in this room. That meant that it was either Tom or Jenna. That must've been why Rodmin looked so agitated. His face was red and he was standing straight up like a wild dog that was disturbed by a noise.

"Professor Flitwick, could I talk to Jenna and Tom for a second outside?"

"Oh yes you may!" Rodmin nodded and looked at Tom and Jenna. They scurried out of their seats and stumbled towards Rodmin out of the classroom.

Next, the door opened and a mass of students flooded in (all first years). Malfoy and his gang included. Plus the twins and Lucy. Tom and Jenna came back in after the first years. Tom seated himself next to Jenna, and she unfortunately had the torture of sitting next to Malfoy.

"All right! All right! Settle down! Today, we will be dueling! But not just regular dueling. You will be teamed up with another person fro your house! But I will chose a boy and a girl. Then you will all duel, the house that wins will receive 20 points each for their house!"