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Tom left Number Two at midnight. It was late enough that he figured most of the people here would be fast asleep, and those who were still awake weren't going to bother paying any attention to the darkness outside their windows.
Under a disillusion charm, Tom approached the invisible barrier around Number Four and paused, looking around. He could see no disturbances around him. No ripples of other disillusion spells, no sounds of shuffling or breathing. Yes, he was positive he was alone. Curious to confirm it, Tom dropped the charm and waited to see if anything would happen. Nothing did.
No Order, eh?
There were two very interesting things about that. The first was that there was no reason for the Order to not be here watching over their precious Saviour. The second was that Severus hadn't mentioned this to him.
It seemed he was going to have to have a little chat with his dear spy.
Wand in hand, Tom walked around the property, just shy of the ward's barrier, trying to get a feel for the magic he could, well, feel. Hmm, definitely not just the blood wards.
He could feel more spells, one more obvious and the others somewhat more subtle. But none of them were spells he'd ever really expected to find here, and the presence of them was more alarming than anything else. It didn't make any sense to him. Why were these here? And who had cast them? He would need to examine them further to find out.
It seemed like he wasn't going to want to get into the house just yet after all.
Harry was quite sore when he woke the next morning, and groaned inwardly when he was given another list of chores, almost all of them a repeat of yesterday's.
He got to work without much complaining, glad it seemed to be rather cloudy today. He wasn't going to bother mowing the lawn or anything, seeing as he'd done that yesterday, but he was going to have to clean the windows and stuff, so he knew he'd be stuck outside for a while. Fortunately, the clouds meant it wasn't going to be as hot as yesterday, which was a relief.
With Uncle Vernon at work and Dudley sleeping in like he did every day during the break, Harry was left mostly alone, Aunt Petunia seemingly deciding to keep out of his way for once. That was nice. It wasn't going to last, of course, but it was nice while it did.
Just six more days until his birthday, and then one month until he could go back to Hogwarts. He could handle the chores and the cupboard. Hopefully nothing would happen to put his uncle in a bad mood.
Tom was fast asleep, enjoying a very pleasant dream when a loud knock on the door woke him abruptly. He grunted, annoyed, but otherwise ignored the sound, rolling over and intending on going straight back to sleep.
Then the knock sounded again, louder this time, quickly followed by an even louder third knock. Clearly the knocker had no intention of stopping and going away.
Cursing, Tom forced himself out of bed and headed for the front door, tossing a glamour on to make himself presentable. It wasn't like the Muggles would notice he was naked under the spell anyway.
Already annoyed at being woken, Tom found himself even more irritated when he realized who exactly had come calling. It was Potter's aunt.
"May I help you?" he said with a politely charming smile.
"Good afternoon," said the woman with a smile of her own. "I'm sorry for disturbing you. My name is Petunia Dursley and I live next door to you with my husband and my son. We wanted to invite you over for dinner at your convenience to properly welcome you to the neighbourhood, Mr-"
Fuck. He hadn't actually bothered thinking of an alias, had he? He'd never really intended on mingling with the Muggles. "Riddle. Tom Riddle."
"Oh, how refreshingly simple! Well, I do hope you'll accept our invitation, Mister Riddle."
Tom, still smiling, inclined his head. "It would be my pleasure, Mrs Dursley." Then he changed his expression to look convincingly upset. "I'm afraid I'm rather busy at the moment, and for the next few days as well, but perhaps in a week? The first of August?"
"That'll be wonderful!" Petunia exclaimed, positively beaming. "We look forward to seeing you the evening of the first of August at, say, eight?"
And as plans finalized and Petunia walked off, Tom shut the door and sighed deeply. Well, that wasn't how he had planned for things to go at all, though he supposed it was really his lack of planning that had landed him in this situation in the first place.
Still, this was probably a good thing. He would examine the wards and spells around Potter's house further this week, and then alter his plan depending on what final decision he came to on the matter. And besides, the Dursleys inviting him into their house willingly wouldn't set off any of those other wards or spells, which was another good thing. Having dinner with them was just something he was going to have to put up with, it seemed.
Ah, the life of a Dark Lord.
The Dark Lord was planning something. Severus was sure of it. He didn't know how to feel about that. Recently, the Dark Lord's plans had all been weird, for a lack of better words, few of them making much sense.
He'd regained his sanity, or at least some of it, and things had been back on track as if the Dark had never been derailed so severely in the first place. But then things changed again.
After the incident at the Ministry the other month, the Dark Lord had once again begun behaving oddly. It was like he had lost his sanity again, but in a different way than before, and Severus knew he wasn't the only one feeling uneasy about it.
Severus had no idea what caused this new...lapse in the Dark Lord's mental state. As far as he was aware, nothing had really even happened after the Ministry incident, leading Severus to believe something there was the culprit behind all of this, although what it could be he couldn't say.
Maybe possessing Potter had made him lose some brain cells.
No, as amusing as it was, Severus knew that couldn't be it. The Dark Lord was still as intelligent as ever. The issue was that he wasn't using that intelligence in the same way right now, which was what made this all the more strange.
What caused this strange change? And why? And how could it be fixed? Could it be fixed? What if it couldn't? There were numerous questions on Severus' mind, and all he could do right now was feel thankful that Dumbledore had taken him off of Potter's guard. He really didn't want to deal with that added stress right now. He had plenty enough as it was.
Everything was going well. He had so many plans in motion, plans most of his followers were oblivious to, plans he had no intention of revealing to anyone. All of those plans were going well. Every single one.
There was benefit in being known and recognized as a meddler. No one questioned his presence when he involved himself in things he truly had no business in. They knew he would be there regardless because he was the loving, meddlesome grandfather, and so they overlooked his presence and kept their tongues more loose than they ever should have.
It all worked so wonderfully in his favour.
So many of his current plans had been put into play years and years ago, some of them so long ago that the main pieces in them had been far too young to even realize they were pieces in his plans. Most of them still didn't know.
But these were things that had to be done. They were all tools, yes, but they were useful tools, and wasn't that all that mattered? What else would they be doing? Nothing worthwhile. Nothing more worthwhile than this. Yes, this was how things had to go. This was always how things were going to have to go.
He'd made a move the other month, and he was putting the final touches on his next move too. If Tom didn't take action quickly, he would lose his turn, and he knew Tom wasn't going to like that at all. Gellert had been much the same. He knew he wasn't any better.
That was why he did everything possible to ensure he remained on top. Because he knew he both couldn't and wouldn't have it any other way.
But really, what did it matter what move Tom made? He would beat him regardless. There was nothing Tom could do to counter him. Nothing at all. He had all the pieces in his corner, including the most important one of them all, and the fate of that piece was something no one was ever going to be able to predict.
That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!