Thanks all for reviews left. Each and every one is appreciated.

I am still struggling with my health (more scans and meds and drs visits). Pneumonia and pleurisy suck, big time! My advice is don't.

So the chapter didn't go as far as I wanted it, but I wanted to post before you give up on this entirely . Not that I blame you, I am feeling the same myself. Ffn no longer shows me how many are reading my chapters so as far as I know, I could be throwing this into the abyss.

To Boldly Go...

Outside the long-abandoned classroom, the ghost of a cavalier drifted along the dusty corridor, its moans alerting the Knights of Walpurgis to its approach. The boys waited, breaths bated and eyes on the door in case the ghostly form emerged through the wooden door.

After a long moment, there came a groan from the bottom of the corridor and they all breathed a collective sigh of relief knowing the danger had passed. If it had been the Bloody Baron, he'd have sensed them and come to see why they were out after curfew. Tom, whom the Baron had a soft spot for, lit the last torch and moved back over to the table where the other boys were assembled.

"Is that all of us?" Victor Avery asked once Riddle had taken his seat at the head of the table. When Tom had told him there was a special meeting and not to mention it to the others, Avery had panicked. Had he done something wrong? Private meetings with Tom in out-the-way classrooms were rarely, if ever, pleasant and it had been a relief to find out others were here.

"It is. I have reasons for keeping this between ourselves." Tom leaned back in his chair and made an encompassing gesture to the knights with a long-fingered hand. "Consider yourselves... my inner circle."

As he knew they would, Malfoy and Yaxley visibly preened. However, Avery peered at the empty spaces around the table and frowned.

"I have chosen you. Don't let me down," Tom added, the 'or else' implicit, if unsaid.

Avery couldn't leave it at that. "I understand why Dolohov was excluded, but–"

"Why? What do you mean by 'understand'?" hissed Tom. What had Dolohov been saying?

"I, ah... he... er," Avery glanced over to Malfoy and Yaxley hoping for some support, but they avoided his eye. He ploughed on, hoping he wasn't about to say the wrong thing. "He's been... er, argumentative at meetings... and trying your patience, about... Summers."

Tom nodded, and Avery exhaled, relieved he hadn't awakened Tom's ire.

Deciding it was safe to join in, Malfoy cleared his throat. "All the Dolohovs are acting strangely of late, not just Antonin. In his last letter, Father told me he saw Rickard Dolohov coming from a side alley in Knockturn. He was doing a little business late in the evening and Dolohov Snr looked decidedly shifty. There's nothing down that alley, just a couple of low boarding houses and..." he paused, "...Snatchem Inn. "

"Snatchem's?" Yaxley's eyebrows shot up. "That place! It's where all the vampires, hags and riffraff hang out! My father tried it closed down years ago. All the other Ministers and Aurors wouldn't back him up; they said it better for the scum to stay in Snatchem's than frequent pubs where the decent folk drink."

Malfoy's nodded, lip curling in distaste. "Which means, unless the Dolohovs have taken lodgings down there..."

"He's selling his blood or buying unsavoury services," finished Yaxley.

Tom's dark eyes narrowed. "Services? What do you mean? Whores?" He'd seen Muggle whores plying their trade not far from Wools, yet he'd never thought witches (and wizards) would stoop so low.

Yaxley shuddered. "The Dolohovs may be odd, but even they wouldn't stoop that low."

"Paying for it?" asked Tom.

Yaxley snorted. "Oh they'd pay, alright, but it's mainly Hags, goblins and other creatures trading down Snatchem's alley. The type of services they're offering ranges from simple magical mishaps, to a poisoning or even the occasional assassination. Whatever dastardly deed you have in mind, someone out there will provide it."

Tom filed the information away. He had seen Snatchems in the past but there had been a troll-type creature guarding the door who'd shown him his club when he'd moved towards the door. He'd never bothered going back down there afterwards. Although he didn't really remember the nondescript lodging house facing the pub, he doubted the Dolohovs were living there. They may have lost money and influence after losing Grindelwald's favour, but they weren't penniless. He couldn't see Antonin's father selling blood to vampires (at least not his blood), which meant he must want to see someone harming.

The conversation that he'd had with Antonin in the corridor had made him uneasy, now the prickle grew stronger. This couldn't be a coincidence. Antonin had overheard an unknown person in his father's house saying Von Kendrick wanted Buffy and now his father was seen, possibly seeking out poisoners and murderers. He'd need to warn Buffy. No he needed to take care of her.

In Tom's mind, a fantasy began to play out, one in which he was the hero. A group of masked villains would attempt a kidnapping. He'd race in, and – with a great display of powerful magic that amazed everyone – save her in front of the entire school. Buffy would fall into his arms, her soft body crushed against him, tears of joy and gratitude on her face. The image was quite... pleasant.

"Where's Mulcibar?" Abraxas asked suddenly, pulling Tom from his fantasy. "And Nott? Why aren't they here?"

"Nott is helping Sluggy with potions," Tom replied. Everyone knew Slughorn had lined Nott up for an apprenticeship with a renowned alchemist in Europe. Since the beginning of term, they'd hardly seen Nott as Slughorn constantly monopolised him after class.

"As for Mulcibar," Tom went on, "he isn't as trustworthy as you are." Mulcibars bragged of links to both Grindelwald and Von Kendrick. It was better to keep him out of this.

"What about Marcus?" Yaxley pressed. "I'd have thought Lestrange would be here."

"Ah," Tom replied. There were reasons Marcus wasn't invited. If he told his father Buffy intended to sneak out of school, the Minister could very well approach Buffy's mother and she'd put a stop to it. Buffy would not be happy if her plans were spoiled by the Lestranges. "I will tell him when I am ready to do so and not before."

For a moment, Yaxley looked as if he might argue, to say Marcus was trustworthy, but then he looked away. It made Tom wary. He'd been on the fence about inviting Yaxley to the meeting. Up until last year, Yaxley and Dolohov had been close. That was when Dolohov had begun losing interest in his schoolwork, and Yaxley had grown more and more studious. Not that Yaxley would ever be a star pupil, but nepotism could open so many doors for you and Yaxley was ambitious. He wanted a career in the Ministry and wouldn't let his friend distract him.

It was too late to go back now. "I have plans for Halloween," Tom began, rubbing the palms of his hands together in a circular motion. "I thought a Dark Lord and his Knights could go visiting."

"What do you have in mind? Mudblood baiting?" Yaxley asked gleefully. "There's the first years. I thought, we could kidnap one, tie him up and then chuck him in the lake. Gifting a Mudblood with our attention is almost traditional at Halloween." He looked at Malfoy. "Dad is always telling me about the stuff he and his friends got up to. The teachers always assumed they are after-party pranks and never stirred themselves to find out who's behind it."

Frustration flowed through Tom. Yaxley was... boring. Sadly, he was also very useful to his plans. To hide his irritation, he lowered his gaze to the table before looking back up with a practised little smile, ensuring he looked every inch the dashing, young Dark Lord. "I have other plans for the evening," he drawled. "Something far, far more amusing than throwing a Mudblood into the lake. Something that I believe no Slytherin has ever done before, not even Salazar."

That caused a rustling and a few exchanged glances amongst the Knights. They doubted him. Tom tried not to let it anger him. The Purebloods were all the same – set in their ways. They had a tendency to regard new ideas as 'new-fangled foreign inventions' or, worse still, 'going Gryffindor'.

He said quietly, "I am planning to visit Fairyland this Samhain."

"You mean, go to where they get the little sparkly creatures from?" Avery asked. He'd leaned forward, elbows on the table, regarding Tom thoughtfully. "Are you planning hosting a party? It's easier renting them from an authorised dealer than catching your own. The wilder ones have a tendency to bite."

Tom had to bite his tongue. Hosting a party? What sort of Lord does he think I am? The Lord of Misrule? Tom took a deep breath and decided to ignore it. "I'm going to the real Fairyland, the place where real Fae live. I've a mind to break into one of their palaces and steal one of their precious artefacts to teach them a lesson."

Buffy may have hinted she'd rather go alone, but Tom had no intention of letting that happen. What if something happened? She'd need his help. Having his knights around to watch their backs would be useful.

Abraxas slowly shook his head. "Too dangerous." He flushed at Tom's hard look. "Well, it is."

Shooting a look around the room as if he thought the Fae themselves might be listening in, he lowered his voice, "They're bloody dangerous, Tom. I came across a book in our library while I was researching, um, er..." Abraxas pulled at his collar and Tom saw a flash of embarrassment in the blonde boy's eyes. "...um, I was looking at... treaties on land warding. Yes, Land Wards, that's what I was looking for."

"Of course, you were," snickered Yaxley. "More likely it was racy novels you were looking for."

Abraxas jutted out his chin and ignored him. "I found a book pushed to the back of a tall stack. It was small and old with the gilded title all rubbed away."

"Definitely looking for smut," drawled Yaxley.

"Hush!" snapped Tom. "Go on, Abraxas."

"Out of curiosity, I opened it and found it was about the Fae. It said they'd broke off all contact with us a long, long time ago. I'm guessing it meant thousands of years. They'd created new lands with a combination of long-lost magic, spatial folding and some intense warding. It's unplottable. No one knows the exact locations of their realms, only that at certain times of year they travel from place to another following special pathways. It said that on those nights it was better for all to stay home. That bad things happened to those who invoked their wrath."

"Invoke their wrath?" repeated Tom unimpressed. Were his Knights all cowards that they preferred to stay by their firesides? He'd do better asking the Gryffindors!

Victor was nodding in agreement. "My nan used to say the same! She said you should never draw their attention. That their magic works in different ways to ours and they hate people spying on them. I vote for going Muggle baiting..."

Tom rubbed his brow, stifling the urge to leave and slam the door behind him. This was like herding Kneazles. Did Grindelwald have this much trouble? Every time he came up with a dastardly plot did his supporters start to whine about going Muggle baiting instead? What did he need to do to be taken more seriously? Summon a basilisk?

"...We can take our brooms, fly over to the nearest village and set a few fires in the thatch to scare them," Avery rattled on. "It'll be fun watching them scuttling around in their night clothes trying to put the fires." He laughed. "They'll need to use buckets of water."

"It's what our fathers and grandfathers used to do." Malfoy chuckled. "Cause mayhem on a Halloween in the villages. Good, clean fun."

Yaxley grinned, rubbing his fat hands together. "The Ravenclaws are planning a firework display. I vote we steal a few and scare–."

Vote? Vote? Did he think this was a democracy?"Enough!" spat Tom. The shadow of the snake lay in his voice. A soft sibilant sound to remind the others of who he was. Sometimes the knights needed reminding was the rightful heir to Slytherin – and it wasn't them.

Raising his hand, he pointed to Malfoy. "Are we not more than our fathers? Are we not more than our grandfathers and our grandfathers' grandfathers? I chose you as my bravest Knights, yet it seems an American witch has more courage, more ambition, than you."

Malfoy's jaw dropped. "Buffy is going to... the Land of The Fae?"

Tom smiled – tightly. "Not only is she going, she intends to find the royal palace and break into one of the vaults there. Tell me again your plans again for the evening? Oh, yes," he sneered. "Setting off fireworks and throwing a feeble child into the lake. Phtt!" he scoffed. "Do you realise how pathetic and how utterly void of ambition that sounds? You might as well be a bunch of pranking Gryffindors!"

The three knights gazed at him – wordlessly.

Now he had their attention, Tom settled back in his chair, his eyes resting on each Knight in turn as he spoke. "Now, who intends to join me in the realm of the Fae? Or are you really going to tell me you prefer throwing fireworks at Muggle houses?"

This time, no alternate was suggested. Each knight nodded, none of them wanting to be outdone by a slip of an American girl.

….

Up in a corridor on the left-hand side of the seventh floor, a Slytherin, a Ravenclaw and a boggart wearing its true form stared at a blank stretch of wall. After a moment, Lovell shifted, his gaze going over to the opposite wall where a tapestry depicted trolls learning to ballet dance.

"Lovell, it's here. I know it is."Buffy pointed at a blank section of wall in front of her.

Lovell squinted at it. It didn't look any different to him. It was a wall, looking like a wall. " Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Uh-huh. Just where Tiptoes said it would be."

"I don't see anything."

Taking out her wand, a small crease forming between her brows, Buffy began to cast. Her wand sliced through the air, leaving a trail of shimmering gold sigils in its wake. If Lovell had expected a simple Specialis Revelio, he couldn't have have been more wrong.

A complicated series of runic formations clung to the stones in front of them, and Lovell leaned in, admiring if unable to make sense of them. His cousin's ability to decipher and cast complicated and obscure runes had surprised him from the begining. The Lovegoods had never displayed an affinity to that branch of magic and, although he'd hesitate to voice it to her out loud, he wondered if the ability came from her father.

"See?" Excitement coloured her voice as Buffy turned back to Lovell, an eyebrow arched and wide smile on her face.

Before he could answer, Spikey flew down, hovering in front of the glowing runes, for all the world looking as if he was knew what they said. Lovell wondered at it. Buffy's familiar seemed more intelligent than other boggarts. Not that he'd had many dealings with boggarts, only casting a single Riddikulus in DADA class back in his third year, but they said familiars grew to be like their keepers and Buffy surprised everyone.

"Earth to Lovell? Tell me you are seeing this?"

Flushing, he pulled his attention from Spikey to the runes – and failed to see what she was getting so excited about. "Er, no." Warding runes like this were a mystery to him. He'd dropped the subject back in his third year.

"There." Buffy pointed to rune in the middle of the sequence.

"Is that the rune for... cavity?" he asked. Spikey butted the side of Lovell's head. "Spikey! Stop it! You're freezing my head."

Buffy gave the little boggart a dark look. "Stop that!" She turned back to the runes and pointed to first one sequence and then another lower in the stack. "Lovell, do you know what this and this sub-rune means?"

Spikey floated through the wall and then peered out from behind one of the stones and grinned, showing a row of sharp teeth.

"'Hidden' and 'guarded'," replied Lovell after a second or two, determined not be outdone by a boggart.

Buffy's grin widened. "Uh-huh, that means we are in the right spot. My Spidey-senses gave me a tingle, but I wanted to be doubly sure. Plus I wanted you with." Her voice took on an odd note, as if she was reciting something, "We can boldly go, where no man has gone before."

Deciding it must be a Muggle reference, Lovell sighed and pushed his long fringe out his eyes to get a better look at the now fading spiral of runes. "More likely, you want me here in case the room tries to eat you."

Buffy huffed in indignation. "Lovell, the room is not going to eat us." She turned back to the wall. "Just think... think of all the rare moths that might be hiding in there."

"And since you attract dark creatures, they'll probably be rare flesh-eating ones," muttered Lovell. He put a hand on the cold stones of the stone wall. "How do we open it? Is there a password or do we need to tap the stones in sequence, like at the Leaky?"

"Tiptoes says I have to walk past three times thinking of what I require. Then the door will appear like... um, magic. Tiptoe says that if I want it teacher-proof, I need to include that in the visualisation."She glanced off down the corridor. "Dumbledore told me this place existed and I don't want him bursting in when I'm fighting a dummy." She looked back at Lovell, her eyes becoming speculative. "Hey, cuz, do you fancy–"

"No."

Buffy pouted. "You didn't even know what I was going to ask."

Lovell leaned his back against the wall. "I don't need the gift of sight to know you want a dummy – me – to beat up. You told me, in your last life, you gave Giles concussion."

"I... did?" The memory of sparring with Giles was hazy – all her past life memories were fading the longer she was in this dimension. It might have something to do with the rocks Trelawney had given her, or maybe it was because it was natural to forget your previous life.

Suddenly, realising what else Lovell had just said, she spluttered, "Me? Beat up you? As if! You're my favourite cousin!"

"I'm you're only cousin!"

"So? I'm not gonna beat you up!" She bit her bottom lip. She'd never meant to hurt Giles either – it had sort of just happened. "Okay, I'll visualise something to beat up instead of you. Are you ready?"

At Lovell's nod, she stepped back, then walked forward – a look of intense concentration on her face. A few feet down the corridor, she turned and walked back, then turned once more, walking past Lovell and looking over her shoulder at the wall as she did so.

There, where there had been no door before, a new door shimmed and solidified into existence. Lovell quickly moved away from the wall, regarding the door apprehensively.

"This is it," said Buffy, stretching her neck and shoulders. "Let's see what the room has given me." With that, she pushed open the door, Lovell and Spikey close on her heels.