The past Slytherins:
Tom Riddle (obviously). His intentions are unclear, he looks like you would imagine Riddle to look from JK's descriptions. He is unpredictable and does the strangest things, sometimes against his future self, for no clear reason. Brilliant, cunning, dark…as JK described.
Zevi Prince: A relation of Snape's, his mother's father. Harry's biggest ally in with the snakes and against Tom - though he is definitely loyal to Tom. Smart.
Cygnus Lestrange: The father of Rodolphus, Rabastan…whatever other Lestrange's JK mentioned. Hates Harry with a vengeance, for 'taking Tom away.' Has a deal, as of yet unknown in contents, with Dumbledore.
Abraxas Malfoy: Draco's Grandfather. Likes Harry well enough, a mixture between Lucius and Draco.
Alphard Black: Sirius' uncle. The one who in the books gave Sirius his fortune. A lot like a Slytherin Sirius.
Chapter 17:
There was a sharp, acute burning sensation in his arm - so painful that it made his head spin. Then, just as abruptly, it ended. Feeling sick, he felt himself pitch forwards, unbalanced. Tom's hands shifted up to his shoulder, supporting him. Ha? He supported his minions. He didn't think he'd ever be able to look in the mirror without vomiting.
'I'm going to go check on Sirius!' he gasped. He couldn't deal with this. He couldn't be in this room. The dark mark was everything he stood against: he dared not to look down. Tom's grip tightened on his shoulders.
'Sit down, before you fall down,' he ordered. The command was accented with a firm push until he was leaning against one of the Slytherin bunks. He shook his head, his mind a daze. A smart sting to his face, and his eyes shot up. Did Riddle just slap him? Tom grabbed his jaw, staring at him.
'Calm down,' he instructed slowly. 'I haven't given you a dark mark.'
He felt his breath catch. He hadn't? Harry's gaze flicked down to his arm. Then up to Tom's face, his raised eyebrow, his dammed smirk. Then back to his arm. No…skull. He stared at his arm. No tattoo, just a series of crescent moons, as small as nail marks. It looked like Tom had just dug his nails into his arm, tightly. His brow furrowed with confusion.
'What?'
Tom passed a hand over the marks, and he watched with something like horrified fascination as the marks weaved into the form of a small snake. It was gold and silver in colour, with killing curse green eyes. His eye colour exactly. He didn't want to admit it, but the snake looked pretty cool. It was small, subtle and discreet. More his style than the gapingly obviously viper tongued skull of the dark mark. He got the shock of his life when the snake wink and moved, up his arm and out of side. His skin tingled with magic. Then, Tom took his hand away and a series of crescent moons rose out of his arm once more. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. He glanced askance at Tom.
'What is it?' he asked.
'It's a mark, my mark - your mark.'
'That's not the dark mark,' he said, frowning at the suspiciously innocent looking crescents.
'No, it's not…at least not the one you're accustomed to.'
Riddle looked distinctively smug.
'What does it do?' he demanded.
'Don't you trust me?' Tom smirked.
'No,' he said shortly. Tom chuckled.
'Go and find Sirius,' he said. He looked like the cat had got the cream.
'Tom…' he groaned. 'What does it do?'
Tom simply spun away from him, out of the dorm.
'Hello Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape.'
___
He shot to his feet, yanking his jacket down over his arm.
Feeling a little dizzy, he walked out of the dorm. Dumbledore's eyes snapped to his face, his arm.
'Harry, my boy.'
He winced as Tom's hand brushed past his arm as he reached a hand up to slam the dorm door. A low hissing occurred, too low for anyone not a parseltongue.
Mine.
His eyes widened slightly, but he kept his features carefully composed.
'Professor?' he questioned carefully.
'Sirius arrived at the hospital wing around ten minutes ago, after a death eater attack - do you know how, perhaps?'
He looked back impassively at the old man.
'I have no idea,' he said simply. The saddest thing was that it wasn't even a lie. He did have no idea about how Tom had managed it…and to be honest he wasn't sure he wanted to know. He didn't tend to like Tom's more ruthless methods very much.
'Harry…' why did the headmaster sound so disappointed. The Slytherin's had tensed, watching the power play with speculative eyes.
'Show us your arm, Potter!' Snape snapped. He felt anger bubble in the pit of his stomach. Yet, how could he show them his arm? He rolled up his right sleeve.
'Other arm, if you will.' Dumbledore's eyes were devoid of any twinkle. He hesitated only for a second, before rolling his sleeve up. The skin was unblemished, and he felt a tell tale tingle on his upper arm - the serpent mockingly out of sight. It was, admittedly, an amazing piece of magic…not that he'd ever tell Tom. He hardly needed the encouragement.
'Yes?' he asked defiantly. Despite it all, it hurt that Dumbledore had him pegged for a corpse cruncher.
'I-' Dumbledore's expression faltered for a moment. 'You understand that I had to check,' he said pleasantly. 'For the greater good.'
He narrowed his eyes, but didn't snap back, too aware of the guilty little snake on his shoulder.
'I want to see Sirius,' he said. 'Is that all you wanted?'
'Your friends seemed to be under the impression that you received a letter from Tom.'
They were not getting into that again. He couldn't help but feel a slight resentment towards his best friends. What right did they have to tell Dumbledore anything about his life? Manipulative old goat. Hackles raised, knowing that he shouldn't, he glanced at the Slytherin heir.
'You know, you could have just walked up to Gryffindor to see me,' he said.
Tom smiled, something of a genuine smile. It was small, fleeting - but it was human and it was real.
'Mr Potter…' a low growl from the potion's master.
'What?' he asked innocently. He nodded slightly to Tom, in thanks of Sirius, before walking out.
AN: Aloha! Thanks for all the reviews. I'm still considering hiatus, but I had the idea for this chapter, so, I hope you enjoyed. Did you really think I'd do something as obvious as the dark mark?