Chapter 4
"Are you sure this is necessary?"
"The only missing ingredient is there, I'm sure of it!" Tom vehemently argued.
"We'll likely get sent back to the orphanage if we get caught..." she reminded him unnecessarily, yet again.
"Then we simply won't get caught." he simply countered.
It wasn't like he necessarily wanted to trudge through some dark and dangerous forest either, but if he wanted to test his theory and impress Slughorn then he needed that damned mushroom. And buying it on the black market would ruin them both financially, even if they extorted some of the wealthy kids for extra funds.
"I'll trust that you thought this through, Tom." was all Tanya ultimately said about that before going back to reading.
He nodded determinedly, even though she couldn't see it. His sister had put her faith in him and he would never disappoint that trust. Exploring something like the 'Forbidden Forest' wasn't something he would be doing flippantly, but after listening to multiple fifth years about their experience of sneaking into the woods to fool around, he was confident that they would come to no harm. After all, if such morons could survive the supposedly 'deadly forest' then so could he and his sister.
And so, they waited for night to fall before stealthily leaving the common room through one of the secret passages that Lucy had discovered during her hunts. Apparently, the hidden door only opened when ordering it in 'Parseltongue', as the language of the snakes was called, which made some amount of sense considering that the Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin had allegedly been able to do so as well. Consequently, the tunnel also looked like nobody had used it in centuries, but neither of them was scared of some mould and a few annoyingly sticky cobwebs.
After walking for quite a while, they emerged near a shadowy outcropping by the lake shore and finally began their preparations. Multiple kinds of nasty predators were said to live in the Forbidden Forest, so he had prepared a scent-removing potion to hopefully keep them off their track.
It was hastily brewed, sure, but it should keep them relatively safe for a few hours nonetheless. Together they helped each other to apply the concoction over their entire bodies before casting a feather-light charm on their shoes in order to not be too loud when trudging through the snow and other forest debris...
Tanya took the rear position while he kept his eyes open for the 'Red-rimmed Centipede Cup', a mushroom that only grew on oak trees of four hundred forty four years of age or older. Why any fungus would be so extremely specific in its hosts' requirements eluded him, but he wasn't stupid enough to directly ask their Herbology teacher about it! It was an illegal ingredient after all.
The reason for it being outlawed was that not only could one use the mushroom to synthesize a nigh undetectable poison that caused the victim to, quite literally, rot away from the inside , but when used in exceedingly small doses it could also induce a suggestible state in its imbibers that was described as similar to the Imperius curse. If far less reliable and naturally less versatile...
Now, that had only been a smudged footnote in 'Taboo Contraband – Wizards Beware!', nothing more than the posturing of a retired auror who claimed to have experienced the 'deepest and darkest depravity of wizardingkind', but the more that Tom researched about what exactly those terms meant, the more he took a liking to the ideas they gave him.
Humans were inherently stupid. They were arrogant and didn't really listen to those they considered inferior. He would regrettably still be seen as a mere child for some years to come, however with the aid of a more direct method of influencing their decision making process, that wouldn't have to be so bad. Regardless, it would simply be a good option to have in their back pocket in case any stubborn politician tried to start another war or something.
And if the old book turned out to be complete rubbish?
Well then, he could still make some awesome poison to solve his problems in a far less elegant manner!
Despite many trees having lost their foliage during the harsh winter, it was still surprisingly dark in the Forbidden Forest. If he hadn't read up on what kind of creatures lived there, Tom would have been tempted to produce a bright light to properly see something. Alas, he had no intention of getting skewered by a centaur arrow from afar or jumped by a troll.
Still, even if he had nearly tripped over multiple gnarled roots hidden in the snow already, the sheer girth of the trees he was looking for made the ancient oaks rather easy to spot in the darkness. The 'Red-rimmed Centipede Cup' was equally distinctive, though rather ugly to look upon. Bulbous little legs sprouted from the gnarled wood, gripping onto their host's bark in the imitation of the large, poisonous insects it was named after.
The only problem left after finding it?
They were really high up from the ground. So as he slowly climbed up with the assistance of a charmed rope ladder, the icy winter wind bit into his skin, shaking him from side to side with each powerful gale. The jagged bark had also, somehow, managed to scratch him even through his thick clothes and he had to halt his progress multiple times because large black clouds would darken the sky too much to see even a hand in front of his eyes. To top it all off, it would seem that even his well sharpened knife had trouble sawing through the malodorous fungi when he finally got to them. Though that really only lasted until he reinforced the blade with magic... He just couldn't wait to be back inside the castle!
Unfortunately, it would seem that this forest wasn't done with its sabotage, since the branch he had been leaning on for support was far less solid than it looked and chose this very moment to give way under his miniscule weight. Noticing the crackling of the wood, Tom managed to lean back at the last second before the branch broke free and collided with a boulder far on the ground below only a heartbeat later. With a thundering crack the brittle branch splintered into countless pieces that dispersed in the snow. The entire forest seemed to hold its breath as Tom listened intently for any other suspicious noises that might come as a result of his little mishap.
At first, nothing was audible over the pounding of blood in his ears.
But then in the distance... A loud, animalistic howl pierced the cold night.
Other savage voices joined soon in, making a chill run down his spine, as each answering call only raised the thirst for blood that now seemed to pollute the entire forest around him.
Tom's first fearful thought was that a pack of werewolves had found them, but then he remembered that today had been specifically chosen because it wasn't the full moon yet. But still, one measly sound shouldn't be enough to lure some ravenous beasts towards them, right!? Branches must fall off from the older trees all the time! Their smells were completely masked, too!
On the ground far below him, the unassuming silver ring on Tanya's hand morphed back into her wand and she began to methodically weave what he believed to be a concealment spell. Normally that would be more than enough to trick the base creatures of the forest into just running past them, but if he was right in his theory on what was now hunting them, that would not be enough by a mile...
"It's no use!" he half whispered, half yelled as he began hastily descending the oak, no longer caring for the noises he made. "Those are Gwyllgi! "
Probably Gwyllgi . Magical creatures just weren't his forte, damn it! Now he really regretted focusing on the bigger ones so much.
His sister seemed to mull his claim over for a second before giving him a sharp nod.
"They have magical eyes, yes?"
"Mm-hmm! Their hide is also special, but I can't remember how exactly. I think they're immune to fire or something..."
Thankfully, she didn't scold him for his shoddy memory. It wasn't his fault that that Newt Scamander guy wrote such boring books!
"Let's assume the worst and say that they are magic resistant like dragons." she added.
Tom's mind was running a mile a minute trying to come up with a good strategy. This was his true test! If he couldn't deal with a pack of creepy welsh dogs then how would he possibly survive the oncoming war?
"They know we're here and they have magical eyes, so we need a lot of light to offset our informational disadvantage. There's no time to lay elaborate traps, but maybe we can blind them? Wolves and dogs have sensitive noses, so targeting that should disorient them. Ehm... We can also choke them to death if we fill their mouths with sand, but they would need to stand still... Causing a tree to fall on them should definitely immobilize them... So maybe we can levitate one together and just drop it on them when the time is right?"
"Not a bad plan, but I am not good enough to cast two active spells at the same time. As long as I am supporting the Wingardium Leviosa I would also be helpless."
She was not giving herself nearly enough credit. Even with the aid of her orb it wasn't as if he could cast anything complicated simultaneously, either!
There was another howl in the distance, and this time it sounded worryingly close...
"Alright then, you stay up in the tree and bring a log in place and I will distract them with a few Bombarda Maximas. That will be sure to disrupt their footing, if nothing else!"
Tanya gave him a long calculating look, but thankfully didn't question his reckless plan. Tom was feeling a lot more scared than he wanted to admit. He had never been in a serious life or death fight before, so both the excitement and the worry were making him a little jittery.
As his sister quickly ascended the ladder behind him, he gathered all his rage, all his hope and pent up frustration inside his core and forced them to become reality in the way that wizards did it to achieve the greatest possible effect.
"Lumos Maxima!" he shouted and the night turned to day.
He had to shield his own eyes as a miniature sun exploded into being from the tip of his wand and scorched the nearly monochrome forest with its brilliant radiance.
It was a good thing he started with that, too, because a chorus of pained roars erupted from the thicket surrounding their position. A dozen black shadows started frantically moving away from the shining ball of pure light, yipping and shrieking in protest.
How had the monsters come so close!? Even if they were disgusting mutts, Tom would not underestimate them!
"Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima!"
Fiery devastation ripped their hiding places asunder as he let loose on them with all he had... It was really draining work despite his excellent stamina and great wand.
Soon, however, the beasts overcame their lingering fear of the bright light hovering in the air and tried to close the distance. They were large, ugly creatures with dark, furless skin as smooth as polished leather and bone spikes sticking up from their hunched spines. A foul mist wafted from their dripping maws as they circled around him, just waiting for a chance to jump and tear him into pieces, their red eyes glinting with malevolent hunger. Under their enraged attention Tom felt an unnatural weakness starting to creep into his limbs, but just as he was about to shout in alarm to try and warn his sister about this ability…
Tanya dropped the top half of the ancient oak tree on them. Jumping away from the wolves he barely saw an Engorgio spell hit the giant log mid-fall and enlarge it by several orders of magnitude just before it crashed against the earth, shaking it with colossal power. For a moment the ground rumbled as if the very world was ending, splattering snow and stones everywhere.
Recovering from his shock, Tom hastily scrambled back up to his feet and rubbed the dirt out of his eyes to spot one of the Gwyllgi who had survived the attack. The thing pawed at the ground in agony, trying to pull its lower half free from the weight trapping it. Tom was torn between letting it suffer for daring to attack him and his sister or removing it quickly before it became an actual problem...
The decision was made for him by another one of its surviving brethren leaping over the gigantic tree and trying to bite his head off. On pure instinct he unleashed his favourite spell at the monster, cranking the numbers in his calculation up as high as he knew they possibly could in the split-second he had.
A shimmering lance of magic shot out from his wand and skewered the black hound through its gaping maw. However, where normally he could cut through solid stone with how much energy he was expending in this one spell, he was now met with an unprecedented level of resistance. Impaled as the beast's brain now was, its massive bulk and fading murderous urges carried it forward while Tom's wand was stuck forward, aiming for it.
He quickly cancelled the spell to try and move away, but it was too late. A heavy, stinking carcass dropped onto his chest, sending him to the floor once again. Tom struggled to lift the sordid piece of meat off of his body, but in the end he had been forced to wait for Tanya to mop up the rest of their assailants until she could help him to throw off the disgusting thing.
They exchanged a sincere smile and a celebratory hug, uncaring of the fact that his coat had been ruined by Gwyllgi spittle and blood and finally made their way back to Hogwarts, carrying the mushroom that had given them so much trouble in a side pouch.
What he had not expected to find upon their return, however, was another pair of footprints near the edge of the forest. Someone had clearly attempted to follow them before turning around a short few metres into the woods...
Was this bastard's scent the reason why the wolves had been so quick to notice them?!
It seemed their work here wasn't quite done just yet...
o-TxT-o
Sniffing out the rat who had dared to mess up their expedition took Lucy the entire rest of the winter break. She was not enthused about crawling through cold and slimy pipes in the walls to reach the other houses' common rooms and then report back. His first guess was that it had been a Ravenclaw; they were after all characterized by their unending inquisitiveness. Yet the only boy with matching boot prints had a rather good alibi in the form of his girlfriend.
Ultimately, it turned out to be a first year Gryffindor. Identifying his boots was unnecessary, because the dullard bragged freely about his visit to the Forbidden Forest... Apparently it had been a test of his bravery from his housemates, though from how few steps this Lyall Lupin had actually taken into the woods, he was mostly lying about his accomplishments. Tanya didn't much care for the boy, considering that he couldn't have seen them, but Tom wanted revenge . Spiking his tea with a laxative was easy enough, as was throttling his stupid pet owl and feeding it to Lucy.
In the following months he intensified his studies, if that was even possible at this point. His amazing sister had gotten him a recipe for an advanced memory enhancing potion for Christmas, which aided him greatly in cramming as much theory as possible into his head. There were some side effects like the inability to dream and persistent headaches when he overused it, but with time he got used to it. Their shared efforts had also rekindled the enthusiasm of the upper year Ravenclaws who didn't want to be outdone by some no-name first year Slytheryins. Their one-sided rivalry got so bad, in fact, that the librarian began closing the library two hours earlier every day to prevent people from sleeping in there.
That was fine by him, though. It left him more time for actual practice. After all, all the knowledge in the world about how the cutting hex worked would not make him a master duellist overnight. At first he only trained alone or with Tanya in one of the abandoned cellar rooms, but through his obligatory 'networking' (as his sister called it) Tom got invited into the 'Slytherin Study Club'.
It turned out that behind her bristly exterior, Walburga was shockingly easy to sweet-talk, especially when he demonstrated such 'dark' skills as talking to snakes. Being a Parselmouth was apparently enough to turn her opinion of him almost entirely around and with a select few compliments about her hideous visage, the shrew was basically ready to kiss him! As if he would want anything to do with her, Ew!
Having garnered the support of both Walburga and Alphard Black, his entry into the club was a foregone conclusion. The entire thing was mostly just a fighting competition to allow for some duelling away from prying eyes. There was an official duelling club, but that was seemingly not exclusive enough for the purebloods... Not to mention that the professors strictly prohibited any gambling and coarse language while in the ring.
So, at first, he watched the fights as a polite bystander, offering cheers and congratulations when appropriate, until he goaded one of the Thornbarrow twins into challenging him to a duel. Naturally, he won handily, but in the subsequent matches he made sure to struggle appropriately, as per his genius sister's instructions. She had explained that by strategically losing, he ironically got better fights, because more people became willing to challenge him. Sometimes he would be focused entirely on dodging or simulating a leg injury! It was all very educational...
But honestly, the only reason he put up with these fops was that they would make for good investors in the future. The Blacks and Gaunts and their ilk were all old money with barely enough common sense to not build their houses out of pure gold. Charis Black was an especially annoying girl, because she constantly demanded his help with studying for the final exams and tried to sit close to him. If nothing else, it was at least gratifying to see that all his studying had paid off, because she was a seventh year student asking him for private tutoring!
She even made him promise to send her letters from time to time when she left the school, though she clearly wasn't counting on him also leaving Hogwarts behind...
o-TxT-o
Tom hid a smile underneath his palm as he pretended to scratch his nose.
" What do you mean you want to quit school!? You got an 'Outstanding' on every bloody subject!" yelled the headmaster, aghast with ignorant rage.
"While it is flattering to hear that you value us so highly, Mr. Dippet sir, please do understand that we no longer feel safe here in Great Britain with the escalating war on the European mainland. Therefore we would like to formally dissolve our contract with the school until we can feel safe again." his sister calmly explained
" What!? If that's supposed to be a prank then I won't stand for it! Your parents will hear of this, Miss Smith!"
"We don't have parents, sir. We're orphans ." Tom gleefully chimed in.
Shooting him a dirty sneer, the aged man continued on without pause: "This is unprecedented! Completely unheard of! Nobody has ever just quit school after their first year!"
"But it is not illegal, right? Compulsory schooling lasts only until the twelfth year after birth and we have both exceeded that at this point. We are not required to attend Hogwarts or any similar institution, right? "
"By what law, huh? Some muggle paper!? No, proper witches and wizards have to attend all seven years of school! That's how it's always been and I'll be damned if I make an exception for the likes of you! "
He could basically hear the unspoken 'Mudbloods' hanging in the air. What a fool, to be so blinded by a single word to not recognize the two brightest minds of their generation were standing before him right now.
"Would you let us take part in the NEWTs to prove our competency, then?" Tanya asked diplomatically, though she really needn't have bothered.
"Absolutely not! Are you out of your mind, Miss Smith!? Do you think yourself the next Rowena Ravenclaw? And you, Riddle! Have you gone mad as well, boy?"
Did he think he would persuade his sister to reconsider now, of all times?
"Not particularly, no. I felt quite sane last time I checked, sir!"
"None of that sass, boy! Just for that I'll have you hanged upside down in the dungeons. Naked! "
Ah, so he was stooping to bodily threats now... How pathetic...
Tanya saw his questioningly raised eyebrow and from the fact that she didn't outright refuse his silent request for bloody escalation, he could tell that she was rather cross with the useless excuse for a wizard as well.
"Sir, please let us not make a mountain out of a molehill here. At the end of the day it was pure courtesy to your esteemed station that we even informed you of our plans beforehand. With us gone-"
"Hah! You are truly so arrogant that you think of that as a foregone conclusion now? The youth of today has become utterly deplorable... Blasted muggles think they can rule the world because they have electric light, but I still remember when the Frogs put their pansy monarch under the guillotine! I will hear no more of this farce. If I don't see you on time in the Great Hall come next year, may god have mercy on you, because I am going to damn well mobilize every auror that ever set foot in Hogwarts to hunt you down and drag you right before my chair! Nobody is going to just play truant on my watch because they feel like it! Report to the caretaker for your punishment, the both of you! He will think of something to discipline you with on your last day. Now get out!"
His sister's fists clenched in rage at that, but it was Tom who reacted first. The spell he had been silently preparing shot out of his wand, dozens of hours of quick draw training transforming his hand into a blur. To his minuscule credit, the elderly man behind the desk reacted by reaching for his own wand as well, but he was far too slow to stop the magical attack at point blank range...
The paralysis spell splashed over his robes and Dippet fell back down limply into his chair.
"There's no going back now." Tom remarked idly.
There would be no talking out of this one. Assaulting the headmaster was possibly the worst offense they could commit while in Hogwarts, short of killing another student.
"Now he is definitely going to send the aurors after us..." his sister mused, her voice tinged with disapproval.
"Nah, I reckon his pride will prevent him from spilling a single word about this. No way he would want people to know that he got done in by two first years. Not even purebloods at that! Who could possibly take him seriously after that?"
"True... You are a rather prideful man, aren't you , sir?" she asked the silently seething wizard while wearing a mocking smirk.
"Before anything though, we should probably relocate to a place with less... gawkers ."
Tom meaningfully pointed to the multitude of animated paintings staring at them slack-jawed. It was kind of comical really, how a bunch of wizened old men all had that same facial expression of utter disbelief.
o-TxT-o
Levitating the headmaster into his bedchamber and tying him to a chair had felt very satisfying. After a year of watching that man sit all high and mighty on his throne, presiding over the Great Hall and playing as a powerful king, he had lost all his grandeur in a matter of minutes.
"You can always lose."
His sister was truly wise beyond measure it would seem...
Tom had then forced the man to swallow his experimental obedience tonic that he made from the Red-rimmed Centipede Cup. It had taken quite a while to convince Tanya of the necessity of the act, but there really was no other way. They still were not entirely sure if their wands were being tracked by the Ministry and thus casting one of the 'unforgivable curses' was reserved for absolute emergencies. Yet they had also needed Dippet to follow their commands and strike them from the Hogwarts registry completely.
His potion was ninety-nine percent safe, he was sure of it! Tom had even tested it on several gnomes and a house elf beforehand and most of them survived!
And so, in the end, when she had finally allowed him to force feed the old man the entire thing it had worked. His eyes had gone glassy and he had started babbling for his mother, his brain apparently having reverted to that of an infant. Unsurprisingly, the headmaster's missing mental faculties had made getting concrete answers out of him or making him sign the proper documents a tedious affair, but they still managed it. Furthermore, before the effects of the potions ran out and they obliviated him - two times just to be safe - Tom had him open his secret drawer and ransacked the entire thing. Who knew what crazy powerful magical items the wizard had collected over the centuries?
Finding and then pouring his favourite Whisky over his clothes while spreading out a few pictures of his deceased family members was the cherry on top. If the headmaster acted strangely on the next day and stunk of alcohol then hopefully none of the faculty would be impertinent enough to ask further questions.
Yes, Tom could with all honesty say that he was all around pretty happy with his final day at Hogwarts!
One week later, he and his sister stepped foot in New York City.