Previously:

Pollux was still feeling dizzy when he heard Dumbledore's voice "And so my boy, you can tell your mother I did my best for Sirius, but sadly, it was not enough. Oh, and rumours that I am deliberately holding back Sirius's trial because of the guardianship of Harry Potter is patently false. Good day, my boy."

As Pollux stepped outside, he wondered why Dumbledore's obliviation hadn't took hold. Was it that the unknown magic protecting his mind from revealing anything to Dumbledore was also protecting his mind in other ways? Certainly not his occlumency. Oh, he'd built perfect mindscapes and walls, but his mental shielding just didn't have the magical power behind it.

Dumbledore had just showed how justified he had always been in fearing him. People thought that it was courage that was the most dangerous quality of Gryffindors, but that was not exactly true. Everyone was capable of courage under the right circumstances. Even Slytherins. Especially Slytherins. But if you knew what they feared and what they wanted it was easy to control them. You had to put what they wanted in the front and what they feared behind them and watch them run.

Ravenclaws were motivated by knowledge and they feared being stupid. Ravenclaws were easy to control.

Hufflepuffs are motivated by loyalty and fear, well, just about anything. Hufflepuffs were easy to control.

Slytherins are motivated by self-interest or family and fear death and torture. Slytherins were easy to control.

But Gryffindors - well they have their motivations and fears - but you never know when they will overcome their fears, let go of what they want, and act completley opposite to their self interest purely out of some misguided noble motives.

What made Gryffindors really dangerous were their complete unpredictability and the nearly complete impossibility of control. They used to drive him bloody crazy.

Oh what a fool he'd been! Of course Dumbledore was not going to kill him - even Albus Dumbledore could not get away with publicly calling afirst year student and killing him!

If he'd only kept his cool he'd have realized Dumbledore was just keeping him off balance so he would talk freely; and talk freely he did! If it were not for that unknown magic Dumbledore would have had the entire biography of Voldemort by now.

And of course Dumbledore would obliviate him at the end of the interview. Can't have children going around claiming the headmaster threatened to kill them. For a moment he, Pollux, was tempted to do exactly that, but decided he'd done enough mistakes for today. He was going to plan carefully whatever he did next.

Pollux was worried. He had never panicked like this before; that is he had never known such panic when he was Tom Riddle.

Oh, he had fears. Fear of death, fear of failure. Even a fear of Dumbledore.

But it had always been a sort of constant gnawing fear, a sort of crushing feeling at the pit of his stomach. Not like this, the raw fear, the heart pumping like it would leap of of his chest, the hands going cold, the prickling on his skin and the sweat on his forehead.

Was his body defective?

As he walked towards the dorm, Pollux was coming down from the feeling of thrill he ws feeling, but his mind was racing a mile a minute.

He found it amusing that Dumbledore knew more illegal and immoral means of immortality and power than he himself. Not for the first time he wondered if he should have played nicer with the old man the first time around.

What he was worried about, was that Horcruxes had been Dumbledore's second guess - and that too Horcruxes, in plural! Had Dumbledore seen one of his Horcruxes already?

Wait. Think this through. Even if Dumbledore destroyed all of his Horcruxes, it wouldn't kill him - Pollux Black, that is - it would kill the other Voldemort that was roaming around Albania right now. In fact, it was probably better for him all around, if the other Voldemort was destroyed. For what sort of mercy would a Dark Lord give a weaker and remorsefull version of himself?

Dumbledore's first guess was more intriguing, though. The Amulet of Ra! Seriously, where does Dumbledore pull these things out of! Although for an artefact always referred to as "The" there were in fact about five of them, all of them were thought to be lost. Did Dumbledore seriously think Voldemort had nothing better to do than to traipse around in Egyptian pyramids looking for lost artefacts?

And the fact that its means of immortality was nigh impractical - he had read about it in a tome in the Chamber of Secrets - which was why he'd decided on Horcruxes in the first place. First you have to find a woman who was not only pregnant, but pregnant with twins, and... oh.

Wait, this was silly. He was Voldemort, and he'd never used that method. He could remember it clearly enough.

But what if... could he even trust his memory? How would he know whether he really was the Dark Lord once, or just the possessor of his memories now? Was all the pain, all the remorse he'd felt false? Was it just a hallucination? Illusions?

Was he just the backup plan for a Dark Lord's immortality?

Maybe there was a way to find out...

The Room of Hidden Things was exactly as he remembered it. Piles and piles of what were junk to most people, but were probably treasures to a few long past dead. There was little organization apart from hundreds of years of lost students deciding "this looks like a good place to toss my crap".

He knew he was pushing it because Castor was probably expecting him back at the dorms by now, but he just had to know.

If he could just find what he was looking for, he could be out of here and make up a story about having lost his way coming back. That was quite believable, since that happened to just about every first year.

But the object he was looking for eluded him. It was inevitable - he didn't where it would be, or even if it was there at all. He had no right to expect this to be quick.

Suddenly, he thought he heard something and turned behind with his wand drawn.

Was that footsteps?

Was someone else in here? He couldn't see anyone.

Maybe he was getting nervous again. Concentrate.

He finished scanning what could loosely be termed a "row" and started another.

This time he heard something for sure.

But before he could turn he heard the voice of Castor from behind, "Looking for this, Tom Riddle?"

He turned slowly to see Castor Black pointing his wand at Pollux. His other hand held the Diadem of Ravenclaw.

Pollux's wand was in his hand, but Castor's wand was pointed straight at him. Pollux had no doubt Castor knew more spells and curses than your average Hogwarts student on his first night in the castle - in fact, he would have been willing to bet Castor knew more than most fourth years. Pollux held his wand but made no move to bring it up to point at Castor.

"You didn't put that on, did you?" He asked Castor, indicating the diadem.

Castor seem surprised at the question "Of course not! What sort of idiot do you take me to be!"

Pollux let out a breath he had not realized he was holding. "Then how do you know the name of Tom Riddle?"

Castor smirked. "Pretty much the same way YOU know that name."

Pollux closed his eyes "So it is true what I thought." he opened his eyes.

Castor started circling for a better shot "You have always been a genius."

Pollux was alert to every movement Castor made, and his eyes never wavered. "True. And hubris has always been one of my failings."

Castor chuckled but looked at him oddly "Yes, I suppose it has."

"Yes it has" Pollux repeated. "That is why I don't think of obvious things. For example, how do you plan on killing me in the middle of a school?"

"I don't want to kill you. Well, not yet anyway." replied Castor "I was just curious what you were up to."

"Ah yes." Pollux replied "Curiosity has also been one of our failings, hasn't it Tom."

"Sure, well... wait, did you just call me-"

"STUPEFY!"

Castor never got the answer to his question because Pollux had taken advantage of his surprise, and immediately followed the stunner with a shield and ducked under cover. And even as Pollux cast, Castor was already moving behind a pile of old furniture.

Pollux peeked from behind the bales of old bedsheets he had used as cover (rather apt use, in a way) and saw the Castor was not visible, but the diadem had been dropped on the floor. Castor was undoubtedly moving in cover to get a better shot at Pollux, which is what Pollux should be doing if he wanted to get at Castor.

The game was on.

Pollux ran out from behind the pile of books, dived and rolled over like he'd been taught in the muggle fighting class, and pointed his wand at where Castor was.. or rathr should have been if he'd stayed in the same place.

Pollux turned quickly and ran towards the movement he saw from across another pile of mixed refuse.

He ran around the other side of the pile hoping to cut Castor off, only to stop and turn back when Castor didn't turn up in time to match his apparent speed.

Pollux turned and put his back to the pile and swung his wand around covering both sides. Will Castor come from the left or will he come from the right?

Castor came from on top of the pile.

Decades of dueling experience in another life was the only reason why Pollux almost felt the bone breaker even before Castor cast it and shielded himself. He cast a Sectumsempra in return but Castor simply dodged and continued to advance. When he was a mere ten feet away from Pollux Castor did something Pollux was definitely not expecting.

He threw his wand right at Pollux's face.

Caught unprepared, Pollux couldn't help flinching as the wand bounced off his face, and in the split second his eyes were closed Castor had already come within the range of his wand and his arm. Before Pollux could bring his hand in closer to curse Castor, Castor punched him.

He immediately followed it with a vicious job on the side of Pollux's head with the elbow. Pollux turned his head with the hit to minimize impact and brought his and around to curse, when Castor intercepted his hand and locked it under his own.

Castor punched again but this time Pollux grabbed his arm. Castor tried to free his hand but Pollux held it, staggering slightly forward. Castor came closer and jabbed Pollux's chest with a swift kick with his knee.

Pollux felt the air being knocked out of his lungs and he was quite dazed from the pain.

Before the pain would even subside Castor ruthlessly pressed his advantage and threw Pollux on the ground. With one of his nands still holding Pollux's wand hand, he wrapped a leg around Pollux's neck and wrapped his other leg around the first. And then he squeezed.

Pollux tried to free himself but found his only free hand lazily swatted aside by Castor's free hand.

As he started to black out due to the blood flow to his brain getting squeezed, Pollux's last thought was that Castor certainly didn't learn that move at the Taekwondo class...

Author's note: This is one of the first sequences that I envisioned when I planned this story, and that's why this chapter came about a bit quickly. I had wanted the fight to be a bit more awesome, but turns out I suck as a fight choreographer. Well, Hollywood won't be hiring me any time soon, but the end effect has a bit of rawness that I personally feel makes the fight better.

As always, please read and review, do tell me if you thought it was good, if it could be better or if it was entirely horrible.