Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter characters!

Chapter Four.

The last hour of the train ride went unnervingly fast for Emma, especially since she'd allowed herself to fall asleep on Tom's shoulder. She woke up, and he was looking down at her with a mixture of annoyance and amusement.

"Sorry Thomas." She smiled, and it was a grin that he very rarely saw on her. A true one, unlike the charming smiles she gave to their professors.

"You know, my name is just Tom, right?"

"Oh I know," Emma smiled cheekily up at him, "But I like Thomas. It makes you sound more...mysterious." She stood up, "Now, Thomas, we should make our rounds and make sure the transfer from train to carriage is smooth and sound, should we not?"

"That's a good idea." Tom replied in a smooth voice, although Emma could tell from the look in his eyes that he really, really didn't want to go babysit some prepubescent children. She went to walk off the train, but he stopped her. "Wait... Em, we should probably meet up tonight."

Although they were friends, it was hard for Tom and Emma to get any alone time, and they really needed it. They had some of their friends who could do the "dirty work" as they called it, which was so far, basically bullying some muggle born children, but they didn't want the guys to listen in when they were forming their plans.

"Sure, when and where?" Emma asked, grabbing her wand from her pocket, just in case. They exited the compartment, the last two, and noticed that there were only a few stragglers on the entire train left.

Tom leant in as they reached the exit, brushed her hair away from her ear, and whispered, "Common room... 3am?"

She closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply, before turning to him and biting her lip. "Sounds perfect."

The two of them got off of the train and made their way to the platform where the carriages would leave from. "Hey, you two!" Emma called walking briskly over to three third years who appeared to be in a heated shouting match. Tom rolled his eyes and started moving towards the carriage he knew their group would be in—Emma could handle this bout of misbehaving children by herself.

"Hey, Riddle!" He turned to see Abraxas Malfoy standing right behind him. Very unsurprised, he formed his face into a politely confused look, and smiled as he addressed the older boy.

"Malfoy, how are you this lovely evening?"

"I think you know why I'm here, Riddle." Abraxas said coldly, staring into the younger boy's eyes accusingly, and Tom, unfortunately, had an inkling of an idea as to why he was indeed there.

"No, actually, I'm unaware." Tom smirked, "Enlighten me please, Malfoy."

"I want you to stay away from Emma." Malfoy said shortly, "She's mine, and you're not going to take her away from me."

Tom raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that she belonged to you, but I can assure you that I have no intention of 'taking her away,' whatever that's supposed to mean."

"I've known Emma our entire lives, and suddenly, she meets you and she's not interested in hanging out with us anymore. She barely wants to spend any time with me, because she's more worried about whatever she's planning with you. You'd better watch yourself, Riddle, if you don't stay away from her."

Malfoy strode away after that, and Tom just stood there staring after him for a second, before regaining his cool and going into the carriage. Emma hopped in just before it had the chance to take off. "What happened to you?" She asked, "Ditching me like that."

Tom just smiled at her, and his look told her that he'd explain later. She seemed to accept this, and sat down next to Malfoy, absentmindedly taking his hand. The ride felt shorter than usual, and soon, Emma found herself walking into the school's beautiful Entrance Hall. Feeling as though they should stick together, she let go of Malfoy's hand and started to quicken her pace.

"Hey!" He said loudly, "Where are you going?"

"I'm sure that Tom and I should sit together to symbolize unity or something like that... see you later sweetie!" She called back, and she ran to catch up with the dark haired boy who strode along by himself.

"Oh hey, Emma." He said quickly, flashing her a quick smile, "Fancy seeing you here."

She just stared at him incredulously, and muttered what sounded distinctly like, "You are an odd, odd child, Thomas." They walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall together, and were the first two to sit down at the Slytherin table. Emma seemed to catch Slughorn's eye, and he winked at her discreetly—but it wasn't subtle enough to miss Tom's observant nature. His eyes lingered on Slughorn for a few more moments before he turned his attention to Emma.

"Did you notice that?" He asked in a low voice. She smiled coyly at him, brushing her hand against his arm, and Tom knew that Slughorn was still watching.

"Notice what, Thomas?" She asked in a low, dangerous voice, "Last year really paid off, didn't it?"

At some point during their fourth year, Tom decided that Slughorn would be a very valuable fountain of knowledge—the middle aged wizard knew much more than he put on, and he could be of incredible use to the two of them. So Tom had him hooked on his superior intelligence and magical ability, as well as the obvious fact that he would be "going places," so to speak, and Emma, who was very pretty and radiated power, used her good looks and charm to make him covet her.

"It really did." Tom murmured, playing along and bringing himself even closer to her, "You, my dear, are brilliant. You really are."

She smirked, and her next words, he knew were sincere, "I'm only learning as we go along. Helps that I have the best with me." She paused for a few moments, "Is he still watching?"

Tom spared a glance in the direction of the Head Table, and saw that Slughorn's eyes were no longer on the two of them. "No, we're good." He said breathlessly, pulling away. Emma bit her lip (a bad habit that seemed to be forming at a rapid pace), and looked back up at the Head Table. Slughorn was talking to Dumbledore now.

"He's still here?" Emma didn't even bother masking her distaste for the man as she leaned over to talk to Tom, "Why can't he just be... gone or something?"

Tom opened his mouth and was about to answer, when Albus Dumbledore got up from his seat and went sweeping towards the Entrance Hall, presumably to collect the First Years and have them sorted. He just looked over at Emma, who smiled weakly. The rest of the students were congregated in the Great Hall when Dumbledore came back in, First Years following behind him.

"They're so cute." Emma commented, "All daze d and confused." They watched as the hat sung it's song, and then the first years were called up by name. It seemed to be a small load of about forty new students in total, and only seven were sorted into Slytherin; two boys and five girls. Tom and Emma congratulated them all individually, and Emma took into notice how flattered the girls all seemed to be while talking to her fellow Prefect.

"Welcome back to a new year at Hogwarts!" The Headmaster stood up, and the hall was silenced immediately. "This year, we have a single change in staff; Professor Goldbourough has been replaced in the Divination department by Professor Nilbourne, who I promise is an excellent seer. I just want to remind the students that the Forest is out of bounds, and..." Emma zoned out after a while. Next there would be the discussion about House points and the cup, as well as the Quidditch teams. She had no interest in either of them. She was scanning the hall until her eyes found...

"Oh look, Thomas, its Horny Hornby." She said quietly, "I wonder if she's prepared to have her life ruined." She barely breathed the sentence, and Tom chuckled a little bit. They weren't entirely sure what they were going to do, but in their third year of Hogwarts, they had already decided the fate of some of their fellow students. She looked throughout the hall again, and her smile turned wicked.

"What?" Tom asked, and he moved his head so he could see what she was smiling at. "Oh." He said, "You're not going to chicken out on me, are you, Miss Ashwood?"

"Absolutely not." She said, and he saw a glint of hatred in her eyes, "I definitely will not." She repeated. Dippet finished his speech, and as soon as the feast began and Emma had some food shovelled on her plate, Tom nudged her as a Fourth Year girl with glasses made her way over.

"Emma!" She said, "How was your summer! I'm glad to see that you're back this year!" Emma rearranged her face into the sweetest smile and gaze she could possibly muster.

"Hello, Myrtle! I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me." She put on a frown, "My summer was absolutely amazing." She said, "I spent the warm days with my boyfriend, basking in the sunlight, getting tanned, and... you know." Tom felt disgusted even though he knew she was putting more glamour on it than there actually was. Myrtle was, indeed, hanging onto her every word, and no doubt fantisizing about what Emma and her boyfriend did on those long days together. "How was your summer?"

"Oh..." Myrtle's face dropped, "Well as you know... the Muggles are at war right now." She said, and Emma had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. She didn't care much about the Muggle war. "So my parents and I had to go abroad to avoid it for a while. It wasn't a very good summer."

"Oh well that's too bad." Emma said, a sad tone to her voice, "But Tom and I have to uh, talk." She said, "So I'll see you later?"

"Yeah!" Myrtle grinned, "Wait, is Tom your boyfriend?" She asked, and Emma smiled, biting her lip (again).

"No, it's Malfoy, actually." She said quietly, and Myrtle smiled anyways.

"Oh that's a great choice!" She exclaimed, sitting down quickly so she could wrap her arms around Emma, "I'll see you tomorrow!" She stood up, and bounded away.

"That girl is way too hyper." Tom commented as he bit into a piece of pork. Emma looked revolted.

"That mudblood just hugged me." She hissed, and he laughed, turning away from her. The feast ended, and the two of them directed the Slytherin students to the Common Room.

"Password is ambition!" Emma said quickly, and they all filed in quickly. "I'll see you later?" She added aside to Tom, who nodded.

"It's still early. Go get some sleep." He said, and she nodded, "I have something funny to tell you later, anyways."

Emma nodded again and made her way upstairs, where she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

She awoke with a start about six hours later, looked at her watch, and saw that it was 2:55. Perfect timing. She thought, but somewhat suspected that the boy she was meeting had something to do with her timely arousal. She got up, brushed the knots out of her hair, and walked down to the Common Room.

"Good morning, Emma." His voice was low from the other side of the room, and she saw that he was sitting in the corner furthest away from the entrance to the Common Room, as well as the entrance to the dormitories. She smiled widely at him as she made her way down to the couch he was sitting on and sat down next to him.

"Good evening, Thomas." She said in a low voice, licking her lips and grinning as he rolled his eyes.

"This 'Thomas' bit will never end, will it?"

"Never." Emma promised, "But maybe sometimes—you know... when I forget." Emma genuinely missed Tom over the holidays, and wished that he could come and visit her. They'd asked Professor Dippet after their second year, if he could come and visit for a few days, but of course, he just had to go ask Dumbledore, who said that it probably wouldn't be for the best.

"So, how was your summer?" Tom asked, sitting so that he was facing her. Emma sighed and shrugged.

"It wasn't bad. I've had better, though. Malfoy wouldn't leave me alone 'til I told him I'd date him." She said, "I mean I like him and everything, but I just... I don't know." She looked at him straight in the eyes. "How was the orphanage?"

"It was fine." Tom said, clearly a lie, because he blinked right as he said fine. "The kids there don't even bother me anymore. I stay in my room, I don't go near them."

"Sounds lonely." Emma frowned, they had this same talk every year. This was the first she was truly concerned, "We can see if you can come to my house for Christmas or something. Mum would love that."

"Great." Tom said, giving her the best smile he could muster. "Now, as for that boyfriend of yours. He told me to stay away from you, just for your information."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Really, now?"

"Yeah. He told me to stay away from you, 'or else.'" Tom chucked, and Emma almost burst out laughing. "I don't know what he thinks he can do to me."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about him." Emma said after a few minutes, "I don't understand what his problem is."

"He can probably sense that you're not all that into him, and thinks I'm the problem or something."

"Yeah probably." Emma agreed. They sat in silence for a few more minutes. "So?"

"So?"

"Did you figure stuff out this year?" Emma asked quietly, "I was doing some research this summer..."

"Yeah." Tom said quietly, "I found out that the entrance is located in the original Slytherin bedroom. He lived in this bedroom for about twenty years when he got sick of it and decided to move down to the dungeons, where he was more isolated, but he made his secret entrance in the original room."

"That's interesting." Emma said quietly, "Does it mention in any books, the location of this room?"

"Slytherin never told anybody, and I guess it wasn't relevant to the other founders at the time." Tom replied, "So we're drawing a blank on that." He paused, "What did you find out?"

"We're definitely looking at a deadly species of snake here. Possibly a basilisk. It will need to be controlled." Emma replied, pushing a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "The basilisk will kill upon having eye contact with its victim, so if we get in there and that's what it is... then we need to be prepared. Don't want any accidents."

"So we'll take mirrors until I can tell it not to harm either of us." Tom said, "But the real question is how will we find this stupid place."

"Maybe Slughorn knows?" Emma suggested, "I feel like he would, maybe. Or at least point us in the right direction."

"We don't want him getting too suspicious, and he's creepy, Em. You see the way he stares at you."

"So we'll write it off as a History of Magic paper, and I can handle myself." Emma said, "Don't worry."

Tom didn't answer. They sat in silence again for a while, and finally, he yawned. "We can get another good three hours of sleep or so if we go back now." He said, and Emma stood up, also yawning.

"Sounds like a good idea." She held her arms open, and he allowed her to hug him, resting her head against his shoulder as she did so. "Goodnight, Thomas."

"Goodnight, Emma." He said, and they parted ways.

Emma got up to her room and crashed the moment she lay down on the bed, falling into a dreamless sleep.

A/N: Hmm, a jealous boyfriend, a creepy teacher, and a plan. What could happen next? I updated today (Even though it's May 3rd now, I spent all of yesterday writing) to try to get it out for Wizard Independence Day :P ... Also here in Canada, I got to vote for the first time! Fun stuff! Next one should be out within the next day or so! Thanks to everyone who put it on alert or favourite or reviewed! I'm glad to know some are enjoying it! Stay tuned!