Tom joined Abraxas and Flynn in the Great Hall for dinner. Hermione wouldn't be able to meet him in the Room of Requirement for several hours yet, and as she was presently in a double History of Magic period, their diary was silent. He knew she would write to him the second she was finished with class, studying, and dinner, but until then he could focus his attention elsewhere.

Which was fortunate, since there was a lot on his mind. He'd been so distracted by her absence, nevermind the dementor nonsense upon her return, that he hadn't made a firm plan for how effectively to use their remaining time in close proximity.

He'd almost entirely forgotten about his own quickly approaching summer holiday, which Slughorn had pulled him aside for that morning in the common room. At the end of last term, he'd inquired as to whether or not he had to go to Wool's every summer if he had accommodations elsewhere for some or all of the holiday. It seemed Slughorn had finally gotten around to campaigning for Tom's freedom during the summer hols with the headmaster, because his request was conditionally approved.

He had to spend at least the first week of his summer holiday at the orphanage, but after that, a member of the staff could come get him and apparate him to a meeting point with the family of whichever friend invited him over. Abraxas had mentioned several times that his family was happy to let him have a few friends over for the summer, since there was a cottage the Malfoy scion would inherit upon graduation that would offer them plenty of diversions for their holiday.

When Tom mentioned what Slughorn had told him, Abraxas and Flynn were pleased.

"I'll draft a letter for Father tonight with the happy news," said Abraxas. "He mentioned how ridiculous it was that they didn't foster orphans, or even muggleborns, with wizarding families for portions of the summer to make it easier for them to get acquainted with wizarding culture."

Tom hummed in agreement, pleased that Abraxas had spoken quietly enough to not gain the attention of their peers. The last thing he needed was to make a trip to an abandoned classroom before his prefect runs to remind some of his lesser followers that a half-blooded orphan was far stronger than all of them combined. Nevermind the prowess and power of the muggleborn witch they hadn't met.

That was something to ponder later, he realized. For all that he hesitated to introduce Abraxas and Flynn to Hermione, he knew the pair would remain loyal through the future. Had she met them already? Befriended them, perhaps? Did them knowing her now have any benefits for the future? He would have to think on these things with care another time. If he came to a decision soon enough, they could meet one another before summer hols and then Hermione would have some frame of reference if she were to interact with them in her time.

It would, of course, be much easier for Tom to figure out such things if he had more information.

"I'll likely require the assistance of both of you soon," he told them as his gaze drifted lazily over their classmates. He'd made a habit of scanning the masses on occasion just in case he spotted more insight into Hermione's subdued melancholy. "I need to find a particular type of spell before we go on holiday."

"We can check the library before you go off to do prefect rounds," Flynn said.

Tom nodded his agreement, though his attention was split. One of the Gryffindor pairs he usually watched, a third and fourth year girl and boy respectively, had just greeted each other in a different way than usual. Tom knew the two were friends, and showed few signs of developing into a romantic engagement, though their physical intimacy sometimes suggested otherwise. Tonight, the boy had arrived at dinner late, giving him the chance to come up behind his little friend and hug her around the shoulders. Tom blinked, bewildered, when he nuzzled the side of her neck with no repercussions. The girl had grinned after her brief startle, laughed, and leaned her head against his until he sat down beside her at the table.

Tom thought the boy was a bit enthusiastic, rather akin to some of the Hufflepuffs, really, but the overall gesture might be worth experimenting with Hermione. She sometimes turned shy before or after their hugs, but perhaps taking eye contact out of the equation from time to time would help.

He wasn't sure how much good the hugs would do for her in the remaining weeks of his fifth year, since she'd go a full six months without a hug at all unless he made a point to continue the habit as an adult.

Did his older self have a different friendship with her entirely? If he could just find a way to keep an eye on her somehow, maybe he'd be able to know what sorts of things he needed to be prepared for in the future.

"Whenever we're finished eating I'll explain what I'm after," Tom said, keeping his voice low. "I'm going to the room tonight. So if we don't find anything before then, keep looking when you can. This side project needs to be finished before term ends."

Abraxas and Flynn murmured their agreement.

It wasn't until several minutes after Tom left them to their own devices in the library that Flynn thought it safe enough to address the elephant in the room.

"Is it wrong of me to assume that she's unaware of the measures he's trying to take to ensure her safety?"

Abraxas hummed softly, his briefly raised eyebrows and tensed expression speaking volumes on their own. "I imagine, given the circumstances, that he's thinking in terms of having the information he needs to navigate the future as well. Though this spell idea of his is...it's walking a thin line."

Flynn snorted. "That's an understatement. If he were anyone else, I'd think he planned to use it to spy on the poor thing when he shouldn't be."

"He shouldn't be invading her privacy at all," Abraxas muttered. "Not that Tom gives a damn about that. Still. With his own sex it's one thing to be unashamed in the washrooms after Quidditch. It's another to look through time and space and not stalk a third year he doesn't even realize he's smitten with."

Flynn stopped halfway towards reaching for a book that looked promising. "Smitten is a bit much, don't you think?"

Abraxas turned and stared at him with his brows raised. "Flynn, honestly, what else could it be? When have you ever heard Tom sing someone's praises besides his own? When has Tom ever put this much time, energy, and effort into a girl? And didn't you notice, when we tried to petition to get Crabbe removed as captain, Tom had completely lost interest in being captain overnight? We didn't know what he was up to in the room all the time, but we do now."

"He'd met Wendy already," Flynn muttered. Several pieces clicked into place. "Bollocks. You're right, Malfoy."

"I'm aware," Abraxas said dryly. "My worry is, say we find this spying spell he's dreaming up, what if he doesn't build in some sort of failsafe? What if he accidentally checks on her when she's indecent and subsequently realizes she means more to him than he claims when this spell is his only way to see her until sixth year?"

Flynn cringed. "I think he'd catch himself pretty quickly, don't you?"

Abraxas shrugged. "I'd hope so. But who knows? We've known the prat since first year and I know I've never seen him fancy anyone."

"Me either. But if she means this much to him, he must respect her. He's pretty indifferent towards snogging and the like, but he also doesn't tolerate crudeness in the Knights."

"Crude behavior is a liability to his plans, I'm sure," said Abraxas. "Still, there's only so much we can do beyond mentioning it if we find something."

The pair fell into a comfortable silence, occasionally placing books on the table they were using. Flynn was the first to give up on searching the stacks, returning to the table with a few thin volumes. They had made sure to mark potentially relevant sections with scraps of parchment, so he was able to flip the first book open with ease. His notes were neat and concise, listing the book, the potential spell, and anything else he thought Tom might care about for each spell he found.

Unfortunately, it didn't take them long to learn that most of the spells they were looking at were woefully temporary or hyper-specific. Scrying spells were essentially what they needed, but Tom wasn't looking for Divination help. He wanted to be able to see and hear her surroundings 'like Muggle television, but clearer'.

Flynn and Abraxas had a very surface-level understanding of television, enough to know what Tom was hoping to find, but still. The whole idea gave Flynn a bad feeling. He certainly didn't consider Tom a degenerate in the realm of sex, the boy had always prized his self-control, but Wendy was changing him. Maybe for the better…or maybe he'd get worse.

"Wish we could meet the little bird," he muttered to Abraxas. "At least so we'd know what to expect with him."

Abraxas, who'd finally joined him in taking notes, hummed his agreement. "Don't be too obvious about it or he'll never introduce us. Assuming he can, of course, he didn't explain how the Room lets them meet face to face."

"Aren't you interested in knowing what she's like?" Flynn asked. "I mean, we know a little, but she can't be just like him or she'd annoy the piss out of him."

Abraxas chuckled quietly. "I actually imagine she's rather normal, aside from her smarts and magical power."

Flynn gave him a look. "Normal? You think Tom fancies a normal witch?"

Abraxas shrugged. "If she's not his opposite in many ways, then he'd find her boring, wouldn't he? So she'd have to be more normal to pique his curiosity. But not so normal to also be boring, which is where her smarts comes in. And her magical abilities must be providing him some sort of challenge, seeing how far he can push her compared to what he can do… So yes. I think she's a powerful, perfectly normal little third year who had the misfortune of becoming Tom's latest obsession."

Flynn agreed, then frowned. "It's gonna be a damn shame when she doesn't excite him anymore," he said. "What if he's just using her to get information about the future?"

"Then we hope he does let us meet her," Abraxas said. "Tom may not know how to befriend the girl but we can. Help her make the best of getting caught up in his schemes. Surely she's met us in the future as well, given the few times Tom's mentioned our grandchildren."

"Poor little birdie," Flynn said. "Suppose we'll have to make sure she gets nice presents and such to make up for all the nonsense she'll be going through."

Abraxas smiled. "Absolutely. Chocolates and pretty baubles and whatever else makes ladies happy in her time. We'll need to look out for our little sister-in-arms."

"Yeah," said Flynn. They met each other's eyes and laughed quietly at the absurdity of it all. "I suppose we will."

20th September 2013

Dear Sirius,

Please give Kreacher my best for his delicious cakes and treats. They were absolutely fantastic! And thank you for my birthday gifts as well, of course! I've started wearing my quidditch jersey to games and practices now that the pre-season has started.

As for the cleverly sneaky bit of your last letter: Harry and I are mostly alright, though if he hasn't talked to you, I think he probably should. And yes, I've told him so already.

He doesn't like to talk about it, but we both had some of the more severe reactions to the boggart exercise with Professor Lupin. Maybe the dementor exposure made it worse? I'm not sure. But Harry's really bothered him. He told me what it was and I told him to talk to you about it, but I'm not sure if he has.

I know I've had at least one nightmare about mine, even though mine's far sillier than his was. He's mentioned not sleeping well a few times since. But otherwise we're both doing well. Classes are alright and we manage to study with our Slytherin friends at least twice a week.

I wonder if we'll be able to spend time with them at Hogsmeade in a few weeks without too much trouble though. I know the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry stuff is bugging Harry at quidditch practices and tryouts. It's all the normal trash talking, of course, but it really is bothersome after a while. Especially when it's the house you should've been in…

I'm a bit afraid to talk to him about switching houses, if I'm honest. He's had so much change this summer and I don't want to make anything worse or make him feel pressured about it. Suppose I should bring it up soon though. Maybe we can try to enjoy one last year as Gryffindors before they all hate us forever?

I hope you're doing well and enjoying your freedom, by the way. Have you found any new hobbies yet? Or did you end up asking Tom for work with the Order? Hopefully you're not sitting around being lonely in that big old house waiting for Harry to get back from school. He'd be quite cross with you for doing so, you know.

Lots of love,

Hermione

Sirius,

I miss Grimmauld more than I thought I would. It's weird, having somewhere that's actually home aside from Hogwarts. But I always have Hermione by my side, so I'm not lonely or anything. Just a little homesick, I suppose.

Classes are alright. Hermione and Draco are great at helping all of us organize our assignments when we manage to study with our Slytherin friends. I think some of our Gryffindor friends are getting interested in our study group too. Neville asked me about it during a free period last week while I was waiting for Hermione to get out of Ancient Runes. He mentioned some others feeling overwhelmed with the extra homework from our electives, but said something about them being afraid of the Slytherins.

It's stupid, we're all students at the same school taking the same classes, but whatever.

Quidditch practice started this week. And tryouts of course. That's fine too, I suppose, when I can drown out all the Slytherin bashing.

I am a bit worried about Hermione, but I don't know how to talk to her without prying. Professor Lupin is amazing and the best Defense teacher we've had yet, but that first lesson did a number on a few of us. 'Mione and I had some of the bigger fears, I guess. When we talked about it after the boggart lesson, she just kept insisting hers was too silly to take seriously, and that mine was important and that I needed to talk about it…but Sirius I think she has it backwards. Mine's just a dumb kiddie fear, but it's not so bothersome now. I hardly even think about it. But I think her boggart really bothered her and I don't know how to help.

Do you think Lord Riddle already knows about her boggart? Can he help at all? She'd doing the Hermione thing of focusing on school work and helping everyone else, but sometimes I see Draco give her worried looks too so I know I'm not the only one who's noticed.

I guess I could be being paranoid. Those damned dementors have gotten close to the grounds a few times. Not often, but it's hard being on the Quidditch pitch when we can see them out in the distance. Hermione's always in the stands supporting me of course, but I'm afraid they'll attack her again and that won't help anything if she's already fretting over school work and her boggart.

Am I being ridiculous, do you think? I don't know if you even care about this sort of stuff… I'm just rambling really. But in case it helps Hermione, I'm gonna send it anyway. Just…tell me if I'm boring you, alright?

Love,

Harry

Sirius had reread the letters multiple times since they'd arrived four days late due to a storm delaying the owls. Anger had risen into his cheeks on the first read-through. The tear tracks had long dried though they itched when he blinked a stray droplet down from time to time.

He was so damn proud of his boy for asking for help, as obvious as his discomfort doing so was. But he also wanted to watch Vernon and Petunia die slow, vicious deaths for making Harry think of himself as a burden in the first place.

"Arseholes," he muttered, wiping his face with the back of his hand.

If it wasn't so glaringly obvious how little they each thought of their own problems, Harry and Hermione's insistence on the other getting help would be humorous. Sirius hoped there would come a day where they both knew his focus was with their best interests and happiness in mind.

It was because he had their best interests in mind that he stood, straightened his robes, and thought of the day he was reunited with Harry.

His Patronus, an adolescent version of his animagus form, sat at his feet.

"At your earliest convenience, we need to speak," Sirius said curtly. "Go to Tom."

His Patronus disappeared in a wisp of white, but the drawing room wasn't empty long. A young white fox pranced into his line of sight, bearing Riddle's voice: The floo is open. Proserpine. My study.

"Kreacher, I'll be back," Sirius called into the house. "I need to speak with Riddle."

The elf appeared with a soft pop "A'course, Master, Kreacher is makings dinner, sir."

"Thank you."

Tom, along with Abraxas and Flynn, were waiting for him on the other side of the floo. The foremost of the three seemed exhausted, or perhaps suffering a headache, and offered Sirius the barest of smiles in greeting.

"You look busy," Sirius said.

"You look upset," Tom parried, eying the letters in his hands. "I was wondering what they'd write you."

Sirius dusted soot from his trousers and walked forward to drop the letters on Tom's desk. Abraxas was standing against the door frame, almost oddly far away from the other two Sirius thought. But it let Sirius take one of the empty seats across the desk from Tom. Upon closer inspection, Flynn and Abraxas seemed tired as well.

"What's going on that has you three weighed down?" Sirius asked. The letters from the kids had already triggered his anxiety, but seeing all three of them clearly bothered wasn't helping.

"Just fretting about things on the horizon," Flynn said, trying to look cheerful for a moment. "Old man stuff, you know."

Sirius stared at him. "Didn't Riddle freeze you both at twenty-two?"

Flynn waved him off. "Still, what, at least twice your age?"

"I do not need age reminders today, thank you," Tom said. He was scanning Hermione's letter first, Sirius noted, as unsurprising as it was. Sirius knew she was Tom's ultimate first priority in every scenario, but he needed to know about his son.

"What's going on with my kid, Cronos?" he asked, trying not to snap. He knew Riddle could only do so much, prevent so much, but Harry suffering was Sirius' biggest temper trigger since being released and Tom knew that.

Tom's lips twitched. "Cronos is the best you could come up with, hm? I'm far from a time-god."

"Are you really that far from it though?" Flynn asked.

"I don't keep time, I just play with it," Tom said. "You two know that far better than he does."

Abraxas snorted dryly. "He's more of a Hades or a Pan, if you're going for accuracy."

"Dionysus on bad days," Flynn muttered.

Tom glanced up to stare at both of them. "This is your near-daily reminder to never pursue careers in comedy."

Grinning briefly, Flynn shrugged. "You're just mad we didn't say Zeus."

"Zues was a whore," Tom said, switching to Harry's letter. "And given who my Hera would be, and what she's capable of, I'm perfectly content with Hades."

"Not Ares?" Abraxas asked, his tone too light to be genuine, even to Sirius.

Tom shot him a dark look. "You two are just hilarious today, aren't you?"

The light faded back out of Flynn as he sagged into his chair. "This plotting and planning shit is awful without her."

"Cry me a river," Tom said, more out of habit than malice.

"That's what's gotten into you three?" Sirius asked. "You miss Hermione?"

Flynn shrugged, but wouldn't meet his eyes. Tom, naturally, focused on reading. Abraxas only sighed.

"She meets younger us soon," he said. "But our fifth year is about to end. It's a six month gap on this side of time. A lot happens while we're away, This time we have to make sure it happens instead of just using Tom's fancy spells to keep an eye on her when we can."

"It's more severe for Tom," Flynn said, "given the whole not-yet-reciprocated-bonding thing, but we're waiting to get our little sister back. She doesn't even know we're her friends too right now."

"We knew it'd be tiresome this time around," Tom said softly.

"Doesn't make it less miserable," Sirius said. "Feeling powerless sucks regardless of the circumstances or how much you can rationalize it."

Tom hummed his agreement. "Once upon a time, these two idiots thought I'd eventually get bored of her."

"In our defense," Abraxas piped up, "we were teenagers and she was the first girl you'd even taken a shine to."

"We also thought you'd never discover the value of romantic attachment and wind up marrying her off to one of us," said Flynn.

"At the time, that was a reasonable assumption," Tom said.

"You crucio'd both of us for it."

"Of course. I was sixteen, she was mine, and as far as I was concerned, no one was good enough for her. Myself included. Your audacity was an affront to her worth, in my eyes."

Sirius tried to shake the mental images they were conjuring out of his mind as Tom handed him back the letters. The older wizard's lack of surprise did nothing to alleviate Sirius' anxiety.

"Alright, Sirius," Tom said. "What I'm about to tell you will be almost no comfort, you understand? Also understand that if you try to do or say anything stupid in response to what I tell you, I reserve the right to wipe it from your mind in order to prevent anything untoward from happening to this timeline."

Sirius sighed. "Great. Go ahead then."

"They have to get worse before we can step in," Tom said. "You can comfort them however you like given what they've told you, but we can't physically step in until something happens that gives the Board cause to revisit the school."

Sirius tried to focus on his breathing. "So we just have to sit here and do what? Let them suffer until they lure in dementors again? How close to death does my kid have to get to justify being able to do something?"

"Not as close as you think," Tom said. "You need to remember something, Sirius. Harry isn't the target."

"Just collateral," Sirius snapped.

Tom shrugged. "If you want to think of it that way, sure. It's more his proximity to Hermione that will ever put him in danger. Albus doesn't know why she matters, but he's also still baffled that I'm providing a scholarship to a seemingly random muggleborn witch. He doesn't know why I've singled her out. He doesn't know why I have any connection to her at all. I'm sure he's figured out it isn't just her very impressive marks and test scores, but honestly, how could he know? Everyone who does know is under secrecy oath. But he thinks she's the easiest way to get to me."

"She is," Sirius said. "You've admitted that before."

"Yes," said Tom. "But she's also never unguarded, whether I'm with her or not. Right now, younger me is still at the school. She'll have my basilisk when we go on summer holiday and she'll have Crookshanks. Albus knows Peter can't get to her because of Crooks, so that assassination attempt has failed. His only hope now is the Dementor's Kiss, but he has to be careful about that too. If other students are around and get hurt or Kissed, it ruins his plans. He needs the world to think a freak accident happened, that way if I sack him, the public is split and he can still recruit Death Eaters."

"She can cast a Patronus under duress," Sirius said.

"When she's protecting someone else," Tom said. "She'll always save Harry first. That's just who she is. She hasn't learned how to multi-cast. Younger me doesn't even know she's capable of multicasting high-level spells yet. She can't save herself and Harry at the same time."

Sirius put his head in his hands. "New question then: How many times does Harry have to think she's gonna die saving him before we put an end to this?"

"Not many."

Sirius snarled behind his hands. "Damnit, Riddle, that's not a bloody answer!"

"I know," Tom said calmly, the fatigue in his face speaking volumes. "Welcome to the burden of keeping time intact."

Sirius took a few more breaths before he spoke again. "What was his boggart? What was hers? What could they possibly be so afraid of, that they also consider plausible, that could upset them both to the point of luring in fucking dementors?"

Tom sighed. "You can't address this directly until he tells you about it himself."

"I fucking know that, Tom."

"At the root, he's afraid you'll stop wanting and loving him," he said. "She's afraid I'll never see her the way she sees me."

"Romantically?" Sirius guessed.

"More like at all."

Puzzled, Sirius looked up again. "Explain."

"She thinks I see through her," Tom said. "That all she is in my eyes is a tool to be taught and molded and shaped to my use. She doesn't think I see her as a person, as worth something, beyond her use to me."

Sirius could only stare at him. "Isn't she right, about younger you anyway?"

"I saw her," Tom said. "I just didn't understand what I was looking at. Or why she's different. I'll start to soon, but for now, she's as blind as I was. And you know how the saying goes."

"So I just have to accept that my comfort isn't meant to comfort either of them enough to actually matter right now?" Sirius asked. "I'm supposed to sleep at night until this all blows over knowing my kid is suffering and needs me?"

"They'll comfort each other," Tom said. "No it will not be enough to change the course of time, but when the time comes where they're meant to have these issues properly soothed and dealt with, you will be able to heal his pain."

"And Hermione's?"

"What Harry and I can't soothe, Jean and David can," he said.

Flynn snorted, but tried to hide it with a cough.

"What?" Sirius asked. "I thought you'd dropped your blood supremacy shite in school?"

"I did, that's not it," Flynn said. "They can only soothe things if they know she's hurting, is all. She hides a lot from everyone. Tom, on both sides of the timeline, included. Not that the younger is good at consoling anybody."

"I figured out physical affection helped on my own, thank you very damn much," Tom snapped, though the words were heatless. "Bastard."

Sirius turned to Abraxas over his shoulder. "Does it always suck this bad?"

"No," Abraxas said, a small smile tugging at his mouth. "There will be fun times later. This year is just especially shite."

"And you," Sirius said, turning back to Tom. "Do you need to scan my letters before I write them back?"

"I'd prefer to," Tom said. "Just to be safe."

"What else do I need to know then?" Sirius asked.

Tom, Flynn, and Abraxas shared a weighted glance that made Sirius' hackles raise.

"Nothing today," Tom said eventually. "Go write your letters if that alleviates your anxiety. And don't forget about your potions. You can hardly help Harry with his issues if you aren't treating your own."

A/N: I've started Chapter 42 and I felt like updating a little early :)

The 10 chapter buffer is almost established, but there's some plot lines trying to come into existence that while I LOVE the thought of them, Meggie has reminded me countless times to stop adding plot to this epic-length monstrosity and she's right. Lol. I should stop adding plot. But it's not my fault Tom and Hermione are constantly on their bullshit.

Anyway, Hello, friends, how are we? Any fun plans for Halloween? Any predictions for next chapter or things that might be happening soon?

As always, remember I'm active on Tumblr under the same username. I shitpost when I'm bored at work, answer asks, and sometimes provide out of context spoilers~ I love how many of you I've already convinced to join me on that dumpster fire of a website xD Love you guys xoxoxo