Harry was starting to feel claustrophobic as he crouched under the invisibility cloak, reading the chipped text of a book he was examining in the light of his wand. The bookshelves that created corridors all along the Restricted Section of the library were dusty and crammed with many ancient volumes that Harry still hadn't worked out the subjects of yet. He was trying to be perfectly quiet, so as to be sure that the librarian wouldn't suspect an intruder, and was also being cautious that the light from his wand wouldn't seep under the invisibility cloak and out to the dark passageway, meaning that he had to stay in a rather uncomfortable position as he held his wand, the book and the creases of the cloak in place.

He was reading about Occlumency and Legilimency, and because these subjects were supposed to be against Wizarding law when read about lightly, he had to break into the library just to get to them. He had been doing this for two solid weeks, yet he wasn't sure whether or not he was actually learning anything from it at all. They were extremely complex, and he didn't understand half of what he read. He would have assumed that the subject would be easy to understand, having nothing to do with anything besides reading and shielding the mind, yet they seemed to root themselves so deeply into understanding the minds itself, and details on human nature, and many other fields of expertise that Harry had barely even thought about, never mind heard of before.

But he tried not to feel the pressure of the subject as he read. He pushed away the thought of nothing registering in his mind as he trudged on with determination. He had given up so many different books before the one he currently had, but quitting the books didn't seem to help, so he was going to try and read this one all the way to the end, even if that was about two thousands pages worth of reading. This wasn't just another assignment where he could do the best of his abilities and walk away, glad that it was over. This was something that he had to study until he knew it back to front. If he made any mistakes in trying to convince people such as Riddle and his followers that he was who he says he is, there would be no chance of him being able to do all that he wanted to do, to try and find his moral sense again.

Harry had been spending almost all of his free time reading. He no longer had time to walk and think about the past, he could only find somewhere to be alone, reading the books he stole from this part of the library. Yet now that he thought about it, perhaps being distracted with learning such an important thing for so many hours a day was better than regretting what had happened before. There was nothing he could do about the past, but everything he could do for the future. On top of homework, this was very time consuming, but he wasn't sure whether he cared. Before he could befriend Riddle under false terms to watch him as he prepares for what comes after school, he needed the ability to use Legilimency. He was very glad that Occlumency was covered, but also exasperated that that meant he had so much work to do on Legilimency.

Deep down, he was glad that he finally had a purpose for being here. His gladness didn't take him very far at all, but it gave him the will to not be tempted by the idea of simply walking away from this war again. This was the only reason he could now find for being here, in this castle, at this time. It was the only rationality, the only thing that made sense to him when he thought about how all of this had happened. He thought of it as fate, again pushed into his hands, for him to control. It was all that he was living for.

Harry decided to get up after checking his watch. It was almost seven O'clock, and he had to get back to the Common Room. He knew that he would probably come back here within a few hours, but he had to appear in the presence of his fellow house mates for the sake of them saying that he was there some time in the day. He took the book he had started reading and placed it in his schoolbag with a bit of effort, extinguishing his wand soon after to head towards the exit of the Restricted Section.

When he arrived at the Slytherin Common Room a short while after, he began to make his way towards the dormitories, having no wish to read in this crowded room, even if its couches and tables and general groups were spaced so very far apart. He had only made his way about three quarters of the way to his dormitory, however, when he heard someone call his name. He still wasn't used to being called 'Jonathan Smith', and wondered why he had picked such a plain name after all.

As he looked around to see who was calling him. His eyes met the Death Eaters and Tom Riddle sitting together, and he suddenly wished that he hadn't looked around. He saw and heard Avery call him again, and he had no choice but to walk over to where they all sat to see what it was they wanted.

"Yeah?" He asked, hovering reluctantly to listen to them.

"We need another player," Avery said, indicating the table between them all that was strewn with cards. "Wanna play?"

"Oh…" Harry hesitated, wondering how he could explain that he had no desire what so ever to join them. "Sorry but I'd only ruin the game. I don't know how to play."

"We can teach you," said Riddle, to Harry's surprise. "It's not particularly difficult."

"I dunno, I'm really not very –"

"Come on, it'll be fun," Nott insisted.

"I have homework to do," Harry lied.

"That can wait," Avery said, indicating a free seat next to him.

Harry looked at the fifteen or more faces that gazed towards him expectantly. "Well…"

"You can watch how it works if you wish not to play so soon," Riddle suggested, again unexpectedly to Harry.

"Sure," Harry said, giving in. He felt that it was easier to do this other than to find a worthy excuse. "I suppose I'll watch for a while…"

The Death Eaters seemed to smile at this, and Harry found himself suddenly sitting next to some of them as they made a ring around the table. He didn't want to become acquainted with the Death Eaters so soon, but he wasn't sure whether he had much of a choice. He watched them prepare their gambling game, wondering how on earth he could get out of this.

"I shall have no choice but to play a solo team," Riddle said quietly. "Yet I'm not sure that will effect my chances."

The other Death Eaters smiled and made pointless comments to this, as Lestrange tapped a new deck of cards with his wand. Everyone watched as the cards were dealt out to teams of two.

"I'll explain how it works, yeah?" Nott suggested.

"No, I can just work it out on my own," Harry assured him, wanting to hear the conversations that might go on other than to be taught how to play. "Thanks."

"Suite yourself," Nott said, giving an approving hiss and a smile as he saw what cards he had.

"Counter clockwise from Lestrange then," Riddle instructed, referring to who would make a move when.

"Why always counter clockwise?" Mulciber asked.

"Going clockwise is for Muggles and filth," Dolohov said, as if this were an obvious fact. "Because they've got all them Muggle clocks and rules that think going clockwise is a better option."

Nott laughed. "We shouldn't let them claim directions."

"They ain't claiming them," Avery said. "We made the choice on that one."

"Is it like the difference between diagonally and nocturnally?" Nott asked.

"Something like that," Avery said, distracted by his cards.

Harry didn't know nor care why certain directions would really matter, he merely continued to watch as cards were thrown down and picked up. As he looked over at Riddle, Harry noted that he seemed to be examining the expressions of his followers, probably trying to work out who had good or bad hands. He tried to pay attention to the game again, just in case he had to end up joining in.

"Alright, what have you got?" asked Avery, having been given some signal for the end of the game that Harry hadn't seen. "We've got seven ghouls, and that's about the best of it."

"We have a hunchback, three centaurs and nothing else good," Dolohov said, for his and Mulciber's team.

"Only six elves and three goblins here," Lestrange responded, putting his cards down in defeat.

"We have four trolls, a giant and eight gnomes. That has to count for something," Nott said, in a tone that suggested he felt he had won.

The other Death Eaters announced their scores, ending in Riddle. "I have eight giants, four trolls and an army of ghouls."

He seemed to have won, for the other players sighed and threw their cards down, some of them saying it was a good game but others complaining about their constant bad luck. "I knew I shouldn't have thrown so many ghouls away…" Avery murmured, tapping the pile of cards with his wand so he could deal this time.

Another two games passed, all ending in Riddle winning by what Harry was guessing was a good score. He wondered for a moment whether the Death Eaters were going easy on him.

"Do you want to play yet?" Lestrange asked Harry before the fourth round.

"No thanks," He replied. "Maybe after a few more games."

Lestrange didn't seem surprised, but still continued talking to Harry after glancing at his cards. "So, how come you don't know this game? I thought almost every Wizard knew of it."

Harry could tell that most of the table was listening as Lestrange started this conversation. He saw Nott cheat and look at Lestrange's cards as he thought of that to say. He wondered if Lestrange was trying to hint towards the idea that Harry, as a Wizard, should know how to play. He wondered for a second whether this was a game particularly taught to Pureblood families, and gave the first response that came to his head. "I've heard of it before, but I've never been particularly interested in learning how to play. It didn't seem like a important thing to know."

Lestrange seemed satisfied with this answer, for he tore his eyes away from Harry so he could look at the cards he had once more. He paused for a moment and threw down a hand Harry didn't care to pay attention to. He knew more questions were coming.

"What did you spend your time doing then?" Lestrange asked.

"Er – reading, mostly."

Harry watched as Riddle looked at the expression of the next player before more cards were out down. He seemed to be taking in every detail of their behaviour, but Harry didn't have time to dwell on why. Lestrange was talking again.

"What do you read about?"

"Generally subjects that I can't already learn about from the teachers." He then realised that all the Death Eaters looked up at his words as though it was some sort of signal for them to do so, which he didn't understand.

"What kind of subjects, exactly?" Lestrange pressed.

"It depends," Harry said shortly.

Lestrange seemed to want to narrow his questions down more, but the game had suddenly ended, and he was distracted. Riddle had won again. Harry thought about the Legilimency he had been studying, and an idea had just come to him. Could Riddle possibly be winning constantly due to Legilimency? He remembered how persistent Riddle had been to try and get Harry to play, and he was glad suddenly that he had refused to. Without being able to see the hands his housemates had, Harry wouldn't have been able to win as easily as Riddle, which would be suspicious.

"Tell me, Smith, what do you think of Dark Magic?" Riddle asked quietly. Harry looked over to him, noting that he probably wanted to lead the conversation now that it was at an interesting point. "You seem to be rather good at Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Harry heard a few of the Death Eaters hiss, which reminded him that he shouldn't give his real opinions on the matter. He decided that now was probably a good time to introduce the idea that he could be interested in the Dark Arts. He felt sick at the idea, but ignored that fact. This was the best chance he'd get to become one of them, even if it felt far too soon for him.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts is quite an interesting subject for school," Harry forced himself to say, "but it's not as interesting as the Dark Arts themselves."

Harry saw the Death Eaters smile, and knew that it pleased them that he wasn't against the arts that they doubtlessly studied. He didn't elaborate on the subject, just in case he pushed it too far.

"Tell me, why do you take such an interest in Defence Against the Dark Arts then?"

"DADA is an easy subject to take if you already know about the Dark Arts themselves." Harry felt as though another voice was speaking though him, he could hear his own voice very strongly, and it was throwing off his concentration. "Not to mention it convinces the teachers of your innocence."

Even Riddle smiled as this remark, and asked, "How would you describe the difference you feel between the Dark Arts and learning to be defended from them?"

Harry paused for a second, trying to look like he was thinking this question through as he panicked inside. How on earth should he know what the difference between them felt like? He had never actually practiced Dark Arts willingly. Sure, the Order of the Phoenix had encouraged that he fight more viciously against the Death Eaters since he had left school, but he had never had the chance since then to try and experiment with using Dark Magic.

The Dark Arts had never interested him, even when the purest people he knew, his guardians, had suggested using them. But Lupin for one had been scared by the war, so Harry hadn't really taken the option of the Dark Arts into consideration – not so simply. But he wished suddenly that he had taken that advice.

He tried to remember an answer to the same sort of question he might know, and thought back to the first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of his sixth year. That's all he had to work on.

"I think that the main difference between the Dark Arts and defence against them – when not stating the most obvious parts – would have to be related to how they can be used. If someone uses the Dark Arts, and is good at it, they can easily conquer a lot of other fields of magic, whereas when you're fighting against it, it's like trying to defeat a monster that when killed once will sprout a new head, a more fierce and difficult one to defeat… The more you try and overpower the Dark Arts, the more impossible it will seem. But I also think that maintaining powerful skills in Dark Magic is endless…"

He felt like a bad rip-off of Hermione, reciting things he had heard quite incorrectly, and morphing what he could remember to fill the unknown spaces. He knew that he wouldn't have to use other people's words and stories in his lies once he worked out what kinds of questions he'd need to answer, but for now this would have to do. It seemed to convince Riddle and the Death Eaters for the time being, which was a relief to Harry. They didn't ask any more questions, for the gamed has just ended, with the leader of the Death Eaters still winning.

"I think that's about enough cards for today," Riddle said. Harry hoped this meant that he could leave them now and read alone in his dormitory.

"Does this mean we're gunna – er…" Avery didn't seem to want to finish his sentence as he glanced at Harry. The latter wondered whether this was a sign that they too wanted him to leave.

Riddle ignored Avery's comment and turned to face Harry. "Do you wish to accompany us? We are to be meeting with a few more of my friends in a moment to carry on what we normally do outside the Common Room."

Harry looked at Riddle for a second, knowing that he was referring to the Death Eaters and himself practicing the Dark Arts. He was about to ask what Riddle meant, for he thought that perhaps he wasn't supposed to know already, but as he examined Riddle's expression he could tell that the other boy supposed that Harry already knew what they practiced.

Harry wondered if anything that he had learned about Legilimency was sinking in yet, but he doubted it, on second thought. He decided that there was probably no intention beyond wanting to see how Harry reacted to the Dark Arts in Riddle's offer, so he didn't hesitate on thinking over finer details.

"Sure, I'll join you," Harry said. "Where do you normally hang out?"

"In the dungeons," Riddle replied, walking onwards and smiling faintly at the fact that Harry had accepted his offer. The Death Eaters followed without hesitation. Harry wasn't at all surprised that they met in the lowest part of the castle, he merely wondered whether they would just talk about theory, or if they had any rivals within the school or something of the sort. He was so caught up in wondering how the Death Eaters currently were when not watched by the teachers, that he forgot to worry about what might become of him in these meetings.

As Harry walked alongside Riddle in the lower dungeons of the school, he could hear the Death Eaters talking behind them, discussing the arts that they practiced with such calmness. They almost made it sound moral to Harry's ears, but being a fighter of the Dark Arts at heart, he knew he would always be sickened by the idea of practicing them when he really saw it.

He had suffered from them too much to pretend to himself that they were acceptable, so as he counted each step that lead him to this unknown gathering, he wondered what would become of it all, and whether he would be able to watch a meeting or two without joining in, to prepare himself. He only hoped that he'd be able to work around the fact that he didn't know the first thing about Dark Magic; he only knew the defences against them. This was, he knew, the first test to see whether or not he could go through with the long and unsure path ahead of him.