AN
Amelia is good at hugging, Naenia is still learning.
February to April 1943, 5th year
It was barely there. Only a few times did his mask slip and reveal something dark and hungry and always it was gone so quickly that no one noticed, except for Naenia, herself, who had been watching him for that very purpose.
Tom pretended as if nothing had happened and Naenia, to her shame, did the same.
He had not done it, she told herself. There was a chance that he would never do it. That it would stay hypothetical. A mere idea, never to be put through.
The others didn't notice. They were open books, no matter how schooled their expressions were, and she could read in their mannerism that their classmates and friends did not suspect anything amiss. Naenia and Tom were that good at acting. She knew Tom wanted this farce that they were putting up to be true, but she could not let it be.
"What is on your mind?" Amelia asked - because she knew Naenia better than even Tom thought he did, because she had what Tom and Naenia were both lacking – empathy. "Is it Tom again?"
Naenia gave her friend a sad smile. "Let's not talk about it, please."
Amelia looked at her for a moment, before pulling Naenia into a hug. Amelia's arms were surrounding her shoulders, Naenia could hear her heartbeat, could smell her parfum and, slowly, she raised her arms to return the gesture.
"That's okay," Amelia said softly. "Just know that I am here for you whenever you need me, alright?"
"Thank you," Naenia said quietly and let go.
Amelia gave her a bright smile and then took Naenia's hand to pull her along, resuming their walk through the castle.
Outside, on the grounds, a thick layer of snow had assembled. Aside from the path to the greenhouses and the tracks the groundkeeper had made, there was no way to get through. Additionally, it was entirely too cold, even inside the castle – according to a very thickly dressed Amelia who had looked at Naenia's light cloak with mild shock and then draped a heavy Hufflepuff-coloured scarf around her neck.
Naenia appreciated the gesture, even if it was unnecessary. The cold had never bothered her. She would prefer it to the heat of the summer anytime.
So instead of taking walks outside they had resorted to wandering around the castle. It had the added benefit of attending to their prefect duties, not that Naenia really cared about that.
She stood outside the bathroom making sure no one could barge in while Amelia consoled the crying girl. And when her friend emerged again, the girl cradled in her arms, Naenia didn't comment and wordlessly led the way to Ravenclaw Tower.
She didn't mention to Amelia that she had encountered the crying girl once before. Amelia wouldn't like that she had left her there and then forgotten all about it. Even if Naenia wouldn't have been able to console the girl as Amelia had done. She just was not made for this.
To lift the mood again, Amelia told Naenia about a fascinating book she had started to read recently. A book simply titled Gilgamesh.
"What is it about?" Naenia asked curiously.
"A legendary god-king called Gilgamesh," Amelia said, face full of excitement. "I just finished a story about him, his friend and the Goddess Inanna, who has her own set of stories. There is actually one where she descended into Kur, the Underworld, much like the story of Lucifer Morningstar, the Devil, who is also associated with the planet Venus."
Amelia laughed. "But I digress. Anyway, so in this first story Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu – oh, right, I have to tell you about Enkidu. So Enkidu was supposedly sent to Gilgamesh, because he was a cruel and arrogant king – to challenge his strength and teach him humility. They fight and then become best friends."
She made a sweeping gesture. "Like, the bestest of friends."
Naenia laughed. "That's not even a real word."
Amelia shushed her. "Whatever. One day, they help Inanna with a troublesome tree, but in the end Enkidu dies. There is another version where Ishtar, as Inanna is called there, wants Gilgamesh to become her consort. When he refuses, she sends the Bull of Heaven to attack him, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat it. Enkidu has to die as punishment and this starts Gilgamesh's quest for immortality."
"Immortality," Naenia echoed.
She had only understood half of what Amelia had been saying – there was a lot of context missing from her rambling, but that last sentence had caught her attention. Her chest hurt.
Amelia nodded. "There's the overall motif of the meaning of life in many of Gilgamesh's stories. He fears death, because he saw his best friend die. He fears meaninglessness. But by going on a search for immortality, his life is given a meaning and so the circle comes to a close. I haven't read all about his journey, yet, but it sounds very fascinating indeed. And it seems like it inspired many other stories and legends."
"The Iliad and the Odyssey?"
Amelia beamed. "So you know!"
Naenia shrugged. "I may have read about them in passing."
"The bible, too, if you're not of the opinion that it was the other way around. But people say that the Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest – or was it second oldest? – religious text surviving time."
"Egypt holds the oldest religious texts," Naenia said.
"Second, then," Amelia waved a hand. "You know, some people say that Gilgamesh did become immortal after all – because his story will live on forever, passed down through the generations."
"You seem really invested in this tale," Naenia said, smiling fondly at her friend, trying not to think about the reason her chest felt so tight.
Amelia's face brightened. "I am! It is so fascinating!"
She gave Naenia another hug, not giving her enough time to return it.
"I would offer to lend you the book, but it's actually from the library." Amelia laughed. "But maybe that's for the better, because I don't have to give up my copy. You can get your own."
"I might think about it," Naenia said.
Amelia gave her a pout. "You do so much light reading, not giving a care in the world about your still perfect grades – surely you can fit one more book in there somewhere?"
Naenia laughed. "I think I just might."
"See?" Amelia beamed at her. "Easy."
Naenia looked around to see where they had wandered off to while neither of them had paid attention. They were somewhere on the fourth floor, she knew that much at least. The corridor looked like one of the less frequently used where a lot of the rooms had been empty for decades, if not longer.
A door to their left opened.
Amelia was ready to reprimand whichever student had decided to break into an abandoned classroom, when – to both Amelia's and Naenia's surprise – a group of Slytherins emerged, Tom at the front and the rest of his flock right behind him.
Both groups faced each other and for a moment no one moved. Then Tom nodded at the two girls and went past them, the other boys close behind him.
"Looking good," Black remarked and winked at Amelia, who gave him a lopsided grin in return.
The two girls watched them disappear.
"So, that was weird," Amelia said. "And we can't even reprimand them, because two of them are prefects."
Naenia huffed amusedly. "Even if they weren't, you would have a hard time lecturing any of them."
Amelia sighed. "They wouldn't listen to me, would they?" She shook her head. "Did you know that many students call them the 'bad boys' of the school? And they didn't even do anything to warrant that kind of reputation. I mean, Riddle is the model student of Hogwarts."
"At least nothing anyone can link to them," Naenia mused.
Amelia's eyes widened. "Please tell me they weren't responsible for what happened to those Gryffindors."
"No. Too obvious for Slytherins. If we were to do something – be it scaring someone into submission, carrying out revenge or anything along those lines – no one except the people involved would ever know about it. And Tom has a very tight leash on his flock, so it can't have been a slip on their part either."
"I am going to ignore everything you just said and implied for the sake of our friendship," Amelia said. "But 'flock'? Like some birds?"
"Or sheep," Naenia said, grinning, before sobering up again. "You can't call them his friends, not really, and they are flocking around him, so," she shrugged, "flock."
Amelia laughed, shaking her head. "I will never get that image out of my head." She took Naenia by the arm and they continued their way.
Ꝋ
There was a hissing sound, just low enough to grate on her nerves, but not loud enough for her to locate it. Naenia doubted she would have heard it if she had been in her own body, but Marin's senses were a lot more sensitive than her own.
She directed the mink down another hidden corridor, down the stairs, trying to see whether the sound would get louder, but it didn't. Down another staircase and up again and now it was barely even there. They stopped. Marin sniffed the air and Naenia let it sort out the different scents on its own, while she tried to figure out where to go next.
Her initial plan of having a chat with some of the ghosts had gone out the window the moment she had heard that hissing sound. It had been too distracting and she hadn't found any of the ghosts yet, anyway.
Marin set off again, of its own volition, and Naenia let it. The sound got louder again. It was almost as if it was moving around.
It went on like this for a few more hours with neither Naenia nor Marin finding anything of importance, nor any hints towards the origin of the ominous sound, until Naenia decided it was enough and called Marin back to the dorms. She had to let her mind rest, too, after all.
The next morning was marked by a new round of hostility against the Slytherins. There had been another incident in the early hours of the day, if the whispers were to be believed. A Ravenclaw boy and Hufflepuff girl, seventh and sixth year respectively, had been found lying unconscious on the ground in front of a hidden alcove.
There were a few other incidents over the next few weeks. All in similar, yet different manners, none of the victims from Slytherin – which did not help their reputation at all.
Naenia wandered the castle at night, in the body of her undead mink, talking to the ghosts, trying to locate the hissing whenever they heard it. Which was not very often and not always on the nights when another incident occurred, but they often correlated.
The victims didn't remember any details, they never did. Head trauma, some of the whispering students said. Attacked by a vicious animal, according to others.
"How would a wild beast even enter the castle?" Nott said, half annoyed and half amused.
"It could have already been in the castle," Avery said.
Lestrange swallowed his food. "And no one saw it during the day?"
Avery shrugged. "Could be a nocturnal animal."
"I don't think it was an animal," Nott said. "If it is indeed linked to the other incidents that hapened over the past months, then it has to be something else."
"Intelligent beast," Avery said immediately.
Nott rolled his eyes. "Why are you so fixated on that? It could be another student for all we know."
Avery huffed and turned to Tom, "What do you think, Riddle?"
They all watched as Tom took a deliberate sip of his tea and then set his cup down carefully. He took his time answering the question.
"Whatever it is," he said eventually, "it is either highly intelligent or being guided by someone with at least a remote amount of intellect. If the attacks are all of the same origin – and in that case they are attacks, of that there is no doubt – then there must be something that all these students have in common. By determining that we can gather clues leading to the real culprit, who has been going about their purpose very cleverly."
Naenia elected to watch the other Slytherins instead of Tom, who was retelling his opinion on the matter in a very calm and rather expressionless matter-of-fact way. They were all hanging on to his every word. Mulciber was still stuffing his face with food, Rosier drinking his tea. Both Nott and Black wore similar expressions of furrowed brows and thin lips. And Lestrange, Avery and Malfoy were looking at Tom with their mouths hanging open.
Tom held up a hand to count on his fingers, "These incidents all happened at different times during the night, in different manners and with different results. They are either not using the same method for every attack or their method is very versatile. Furthermore," and here he let his gaze sweep over the others, "their exact goal is still unclear, as none of the victims seem to have any idea what happened to them or why. There is not enough to go on right now, but of course it would be best if no more incidents were to happen at all."
Tom looked around once more, finally settling on Avery again.
"Although without evidence that these attacks are linked," he continued, "it is highly unlikely that Headmaster Dippet will take steps to prevent further incidents from happening."
His reasoning was logical and sound. An interesting observation from so little information, most of it based on rumours and whispers. Unless Tom had more direct sources.
Naenia took a sip of her tea and watched as the other boys thought about Tom's words and drew their own conclusions. She watched how they looked at him admiringly. All of them.
Naenia had observed this many times, but now it dawned on her that these people had come to truly respect Tom. He was still a halfblood, a poor orphan, but they seemed to have either entirely forgotten about that or disregarded it as something irrelevant – which purebloods usually never did, they were too stuck in their views on blood purity and social status.
Tom might not have regarded them as his friends, but Naenia doubted they cared. They genuinely respected him now and still – still, she had a nagging feeling that it was not enough. That it would never be enough. Not in Tom's mind.
She could not help but wonder to what lengths he would go to achieve something he could never reach.
At least there were no more incidents until Easter and nothing happened during the Holidays, either. Easter was nice and quiet, even though a few more students than usual from their year had stayed at Hogwarts to study for the upcoming O.W.L.s.
Naenia finished her homework early on and devoted herself to some light reading. She finished the book about Gilgamesh that Amelia had recommended to her. It was interesting, but held nothing of personal interest to her regarding the matter of immortality – which was what had incited her interest in the first place. It was still a nice collection of stories.
Tom studied. He, too, had finished his homework right at the beginning of the holidays and was now devoting himself to research upon research, delving deeper into the subjects taught in their classes than any fifth-year student was expected to. He was on top of nearly every class, coming dangerously close in those Naenia prided herself with being the best in, and had already surpassed her in everything her parents had taught her once.
She might have stayed ahead of him, had she devoted herself as much as he did, but she frankly didn't care about school all that much. Naenia liked Runes and Potions and Necromancy, but she couldn't study the latter as much as she wanted to – not at Hogwarts, where she was surrounded by people like their dear Professor Dumbledore, who kept an annoyingly close eye on everything she did or didn't do.
So Tom had surpassed her a while ago, left her behind while she had opted to stay stagnant in her knowledge and skills. School knowledge, she told herself, only that. Nothing of importance.
His interest in the Dark Arts was a different matter altogether. One which Naenia preferred not to dwell on and decidedly stayed ignorant about. Not her best idea, admittedly, but acknowledging what kind of books Tom was actually taking out of the Restricted Section or borrowing from the purebloods would have forced her into a rather difficult position.
Tom was her first friend, one that she valued and one that she had to keep a close eye on, lest he do something unspeakable. She could only hope that he had given up on the idea of creating a Horcrux.
AN
I think you can guess what's coming next.