It seemed like a few hours had passed when her name was called, though logically she knew that most of the time it was only minutes before someone was being escorted out of the testing rooms in either tears or rage.

Lena entered a small room with a table on one side of thirteen wizards and one witch, a chair on the other side next to a single-person potion station that looked quite unused.

"Good morning, Miss Farland." A man in the center looked to be reading off a sheet. "We will ask you increasingly hard questions and should you answer at least thirteen out of the fourteen correct then you will be allowed to try to brew a potion that has never been-" The man paused as he looked up at her, raising an eyebrow and then continuing, slower as he did. "-done before… am I clear?"

"Yes, sir."

The woman on the end leaned forward. "How old are you, sweetheart?"

"Fifteen. And that counts as your first question."

The table seemed to blink, straightening, and the man next to the woman narrowed his eyes. "In which phase of the moon does the Fluxweed need to be picked in order to properly brew Polyjuice Potion?"

Lena thought about it for only half a second. "Full moon."

The third man looked bored, though his eyes said differently. "What are the ingredients of Skele-Gro?"

"One Chinese chomping cabbage, three puffer-fish, an ounce of knotgrass, three hairs from a puffskein, and five scarab beetles."

This went on, listing conditions or ingredients and the exact order of things until it got to the man at the end hidden in shadow. Leaning forward into the light, Nicolas Flamel grinned at her and she knew that he was going to throw her for a loop, as she was determined to get all the questions correct.

"If you were to guess… what is the one thing the Elixir of Life cannot treat?"

Eyeing Nicolas, she frowned slightly and decided to just guess based on the amount of time she'd spent watching Perry and Nick make eyes at each other. "A broken heart."

The people at the table all looked to Nicolas, whose grin split into a wide smile. "Indeed."

"Well done!" The woman at the end smiled widely, the table clapping hesitantly.

Standing, the man that had read her the instructions waved to the potions bench. "You have four hours, starting now, to make a potion that has never been made before and submit it to the Department of Mysteries for testing. Anything you do or put into the cauldron will be automatically recorded and any ingredients can be fetched by a house-elf and will be refunded by the ministry if the potion is validated."

Bowing her head, she moved to cast cleaning charms on all the equipment, before looking to the bench. "I need Horseradish, Wormwood, moonstones, Sage, Alihotsy leaves, an Ashwinder egg… and a bar of chocolate, if you don't mind."

With a small 'pop' the ingredients appeared.

First, she started about setting water to flame so it would boil then she got to powdering the horseradish, moonstones, sage, and ashwinder eggshell. Carefully chopping up the Alihotsy leaves and wormwood, before pouring water she'd boiled over the chopped pieces in a jar, she caped it tightly and set it aside so it would infuse the water.

Lena stirred in moonstone powder and the ashwinder eggshell powder into half a cauldron of water before slowly melting the chocolate into the shimmering silver liquid until it turned the water a sparkly maroon color, before adding in the sage powder, only stopping when the potion started to bubble.

Leaving it on medium heat for seventeen minutes and setting a timer, she turned to where the water in the jar with the leaves was turning a dark orange. Touching the outside of the glass every once and a while to check if it was cooling, she finally strained the leaves out and mixed the horseradish powder in until it deepened to a royal blue color. After the seventeen minutes were up, she took an eyedropper and carefully added in the blue liquid, waiting a few seconds after each, until after the third one the liquid in the cauldron shimmered a soft pink color before it changed to a color she could not describe as anything other than liquid silver.

Flicking off the heat with just a thought, she waited until the cauldron was cool, the potion shimmering in the light before taking a ladle and filled as many vials as she could.

"What… what does it do?" One of the men breathed softly, as if in awe.

"I call it 'Riddelium'. It's a potion that works to give happiness in the face of difficult situations and it will work against the feelings that dementors inspire, making it easier to cast a Patronus charm or just be around the creatures in general. It could also be used as a medicinal treatment for depression or anxiety, as it's not addictive- to my knowledge at least."

Nicolas stood, clapping, and moved forward from the table to shake her hand with a mischievous smile. "I'm sure you'll get your results by Yule, Miss Farland. It was a pleasure to meet you."

Lena smiled widely at him. "You as well, sir."

Then she was swept up in questions about the thought process that went into Riddelium that lasted almost the rest of the time she'd been given to brew before she was finally let go of.

As she walked out, shoulders un-tensing for the first time in the last week, Nicolas caught up to her with a slight bounce in his step. "You did amazingly. Really freaked me out though- I thought you were going to present your potion for flight?"

"Ah, but that would be stealing the spotlight from Perenelle. Plus, I thought that maybe after my mastery we could both lay claim to that potion, a joint-project of sorts."

"You know many people have come to Perry for help and she's given up her time to work on their ideas and make them work… but none of them have ever come back and offered her any credit." The taller man slung an arm around her shoulders with a wide smile and a deep chuckle. "I knew I liked you for a reason!"

She scowled teasingly at him. "I thought that reason was that I put up with you nagging me about my love life?"

Giving a loud boisterous laugh that had people eyeing them, she smiled slightly behind her hand and the broad-shouldered man nodded. "That too, Lena-bean, that too..."

"Excuse me."

Lena looked up at where Lucius Malfoy was standing by a man who seemed familiar yet she couldn't seem to place. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy? Is there something you would like passed along to your son?" She looked up at Nick. "I forgot to mention, as I didn't know you'd be here, but this 'High Inquisitor' woman was appointed by the Minister and she's going through our mail- one of the reasons I haven't owled you all year except that one time."

"Alright, but did you get that sorted out? Because I was quite worried that I'd have to come down here and get into a fight with someone about-"

The man next to Malfoy cleared his throat, seeming irritated for some reason. "Miss Farland, why are you out of school at this time?"

She blinked slowly, before tilting her head. "What does it matter to you?"

The stranger's brown eyes seemed to gleam as if taking her words as a challenge-

But then Nicolas was ruffling her hair and chuckling good-naturedly. "Lena was doing the test for her potion's mastery because Sev got his knickers in a twist and wanted her to get that before runes- though you think we should stop by and fill out your papers for that one too while you're at it? As long as the dour bat doesn't look at the dates filed…"

Grinning up at Nick, she shook her head. "I'll wait until I'm out of the country and then have Janus file it for me. I am coming to see you this summer, am I not? Sev said that was the plan, but that he'd be staying here."

"More time for us- plus then when we go to the beach we won't have a vampire with a black umbrella following us around."

They both snickered softly at the mental image.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Malfoy's companion seemed to really not like Nicolas, scowling deeply at him as he stepped forward slightly and his hand was drifting towards his wand as if restraining himself from cursing the larger man.

Lena frowned and stepped further in front of her friend, glaring at the strange man that was setting off about sixty different signals in her head, as if he was wrong and yet somehow… right?

"Lena, it's alright." One of Nick's hands settled on her shoulder, holding out his other hand to the man. "Nicolas Flamel. Nice to meet you, Mr..."

"Gaunt." All of the tension seemed to drain from the man before smiling stiffly as he shook Nick's hand. "Apologies, I had thought you were-..." The man's eyes glanced her way for a moment before he waved it off. "Well, either way, it was a simple mistake."

She put her hand over where Nick's was resting on her shoulder. "Walk me to the floo?"

"Only if you fill me in on why Perenelle sent you those obscure healing scrolls."

Lena gave a small wave of her hand as if to dismiss the subject as nothing, purposefully not exaggerating or looking at the wound on her arm. "They gave me an idea about a healing potion." She was about to lay out a rudimentary idea that she'd gotten from the scrolls to cover the fact she'd been injured, when she felt a snapping feeling in her chest that knocked the wind out of her, gasping for breath as she grabbed for Nicolas.

The man instantly took her arm to hold her up. "Lena?"

Suddenly she could breathe again, gasping and leaning over as she felt her body sort of restart.

Her eyes drifted to where a red band of magic was glowing around her wrist. "I- I need to get to Hogwarts to- to make sure she's dead. Come on!" Grabbing Nicolas, she ran full-tilt to the nearest floo, opening it to the Headmaster's office and guessing the password off the top of her head. "Peppermints!"

Lena found herself in the Headmaster's office, looking around the empty room and then running down the stairs, Nick appeared along with Lucius Malfoy and his companion- all running after her. She skidded to a stop in front of the Defense classroom, watching the Aurors carry out a stretcher with a white sheet over it.

Vicious victorious rage took over her, filling her veins with spite and making her laugh sharply through the adrenaline. "HA! Take that, you soggy bag of tits! You evil conniving bitch!"

"Lena Farland! I have a few questions for you!" A woman she recognized as Amelia Bones (from her questioning after the Quidditch World Cup) started over, with Sirius Black on her heels.

Nicolas sighed. "What did you do this time?"

She shrugged, trying (and failing) to look innocent.

Amelia Bones sat across from her at the table in the empty classroom, the other four men leaning against the walls with Nick looking tired and the other three looking slightly entertained. "So, Miss Farland… Can you tell me why Lord Malfoy and Lord Gaunt overheard you say you wanted to 'make sure she was dead'? ...Did you kill Delores Umbridge?"

"Indirectly, yes, but it was because of a blood pact we made."

The woman blinked. "Sorry- what?"

Lena sighed. "I got detention with Umbridge my first class with her because apparently, she didn't like the fact that she wouldn't be able to teach me anything I didn't already know. However, when I arrived at detention, I was told to write lines but she didn't give me any ink and handed me this odd black quill."

Miss Bones paled slightly, motioning to Black, who left and then came back a moment later with the blood quill in an evidence bag, setting it before them. "This quill, Miss Farland?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Fun fact- it writes in blood. Anyway, I started to do my lines, thinking she was crazy, and then the quill starts writing in my blood. So I made a deal with her. She could give me as many detentions and lines as she wanted if she didn't use that- that torture instrument on anyone else in the castle. However, since I was already bleeding-"

"It was classified as a blood pact and when she tried to use the quill on Blaise Zabini, it killed her." The woman looked a bit stunned.

Lena frowned. "Is Blaise alright?"

"Oh- uh- yeah, his wound was easily healed as it was only done once. May I ask if-"

"Was that why you sent us that weird letter?" Nicolas looked beyond pissed, as well as Black and Gaunt, the large man snarling. "Wait until Perry hears about this- she'll take guardianship of you just to get you away from this godforsaken school and corrupted Ministry- idiocy!"

Lena snorted softly, starting to roll up her sleeve and gently unwrap the bandages, looking at Nicolas with a lopsided smile. "I'm alright Nick. Really. Plus Hogwarts is my home… though I'm sure Dumbles wouldn't mind the offer of a good Defense teacher?"

Grinning slowly, the man nodded. "I'll fire-call Perenelle from Albus' office. She'd probably be delighted to help me teach."

"More like stare at your butt as you teach."

She ducked the playful swat, chuckling as the man muttered in French and walked out.

Pulling off the bandages, she laid her arm on the table. "Here. Take a picture if you need it, it's not likely to heal anytime soon. In fact, Severus says it cut down to the bone and then some."

Black and Malfoy seemed to go a bit green, Miss Bones even looking a bit disgusted, but the man- Mr. Gaunt- was just seething quietly in the corner. He straightened, looking at her with deep brown eyes while dipping his head slightly. "We will make sure that there is hell to pay for this, Le-... Miss Farland." Then he glared at Malfoy Sr, snapping out: "Lucius, come along!"

So maybe it was Malfoy Sr that was the companion, not the strange Lord she couldn't seem to remember the face of…

Interesting.

Lena sighed in relief at being able to walk through the school freely, having been released, and she smiled at the Common Room as she made her way in. "I think, my snakes, that everything will be much better in the second half of this year. First, I might actually be able to help out in the potions lab. Second, Umbridge is dead. And third… I suspect we will have the Flamels teaching us defense."

"Lena- you're bleeding." Ginny moved forward with furrowed eyebrows, looking at her arm.

"Ah. Right. Did I mention that I weaponized a blood pact to kill Umbridge because she decided to use a blood quill on me?"

Theo just put his head in his hands. "Janus is going to kill me."

Other than that, the whole Common Room looked more worried that she was wounded and less that she had (indirectly) killed a teacher.

"Wow. Have I really desensitized all of you that much?"

Lucian Bole snorted, getting a medical kit out, as he was learning under Pomfrey and was the resident healer when Severus wasn't around. "We'll all be in shock and awe later when you're not bleeding out." The boy then grinned at her. "Plus, it'll just turn into another story that'll circulate the school and I bet by the end of it you'll have fought Umbridge in a duel with swords to protect Zabini or something ridiculous like that."

"You wound what's left of my delicate pride. I would definitely be in a beautiful gown, swooning, and Lena would be in golden plate armor. I'm not some cheap damsel in distress." Blaise smirked as he moved over to where Lucian was carefully wrapping her arm with a salve he'd probably made himself. Leaning over so he could capture her lips in a soft kiss, the boy smiled fondly at her and ran his hand over her cheek when he pulled back. "I'm glad you're okay, though I wish you'd told us earlier."

"If I told you without you making the connection yourself, I would have been the one dead."

The smirk got wider. "Then I'm glad that you distracted me from asking."

Severus strolled in, glaring at her and Blaise, who stepped away but kept his smirk. "You're always causing me trouble, aren't you?" Then he moved to put the locket around her neck, putting the ring in her hand so she could put it on. "Nicolas and Perenelle just stormed the school- and get this- now Perenelle wants to help me teach when she's not staring at her husband."

"You alright angel? What happened?"

"Did the toad finally decide to eat more than she could chew?"

One moment loves. Give me time to settle everything and then we can all curl up and talk. For now, here's the memory.

Lena tilted her head, trying to focus on two places at once, speaking a bit slower than normal so she could. "So… just give Perry the younger students you don't deal well with. Split the work. I bet she'll love working with the youngins."

"Lena you should really-"

A moment, remember dearest?

"That might work…" Severus nodded to Lucian as the boy moved back to his group of friends, the man sitting down in the emptied spot. "How did the test go? I assume Nick was on your panel from his mysterious appearance."

"The questions really weren't that hard with all the things you had me memorize and the Patronus potion was fairly simple to brew after all the practice I had over the last two weeks." She smiled at him widely. "All in all, they would be mad not to give me my mastery."

"Lena?"

Putting her hands to her face, she sighed.

Yes, dear?

"Angel, you really should let one of us go, as we both know it's been straining your energy keeping us like this."

"Plus you said after Umbridge was dead you would."

You're really asking me this... This is what you two want?

Marvolo sighed. "If I could stay with you like this forever, then I would, but as I'm not as connected to you as 'Riddle'... I think you should let me go."

"Lena?" Severus leaned in slightly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Standing slowly, she looked at the Hufflepuff ring with a long sigh.

Goodbye Marvolo.

"We will meet again, angel."

Right… well, in that case... I'll see you around.

Taking the ring off, she didn't let herself hesitate, throwing the ring into the fire before taking a deep breath and rubbing at the bridge of her nose.

Is this right? Am I really killing the one person I could love for the chance that Voldemort might go after my friends?

Riddle's voice was soft, gentle. "If there was any other way… but this is necessary for our happiness."

She had half a mind to leave the ring there when it turned back into the Helga Hufflepuff's cup, but she scowled at her weakness and levitated the cup out of the fire and set it down on the table before where Severus was watching her with wide eyes. "Here. It's yours now. I don't think I could bring myself to keep it. Not after…"

Ginny reached out and took her hand, eyes understanding. "He's very charming."

"Yeah. Charming." Her voice was hollow and she shook her head taking her hand back. "Excuse me, I'm going to sleep for a week." Then she left, planning to curl up in Riddle's arms and question her actions.

Thomas's hand curled around the arm of the chair he was in, bringing his hand up to the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache to mask that he was shaking slightly, memories (that he both remembered and yet didn't) flashing before his eyes.

-a warm figure pressed to his side, a giant library around them and a younger version of himself sitting close by-

-his hands, bloody, as he stood over Hepzibah Smith with a cold sneer on his face and a golden chalice clutched in his hands-

-"Sharing is caring."-

-watching a woman with long black hair walk into Borgan and Burkes, feeling a charming grin start to cross his face, only for a man to take her waist, his stomach twisting slightly in jealousy-

-"I can tell if a person is a danger to me by touch. Bad intentions are more painful while family and friends are warmer or lighter feelings…"-

-Rosier announcing his marriage in a bright and happy tone and then turning to him, voice curious as the boy asks about possible matches, having to watch the pity in his friend's eyes as he tells the boy there is no one in his near future-

-blood, dripping from a thin arm as delicate hands wrote line after line of the same five words, the words written in shiny red liquid-

-loneliness, driving him to greed and torment-

-"I don't think I can marry someone without a body."-

Putting to use his new studies into occlumency, he quickly sorted off the ugly memories of darker times, keeping the ones of a warm presence and soft hair in his hands to steady himself.

Rising from his chair to stand and capture the attention of the arguing Wizengamot, he spread his arms in what was meant to be a peaceful gesture, but the anger in his eyes might have betrayed him because the room was silent almost immediately.

"Lords… Ladies… the generation of our future was put in danger by one woman today and I agree that there is much to think about when considering the corruption that led to the grievous oversight, but let me remind you that there was one person who knew about every so-called 'educational decree' passed. One man that I would bet knew exactly what type of a person Miss Umbridge was because he'd worked with her for years." His eyes landed on where the man in question had gone still. "Minister Cornelius Fudge."

"What- no-... That-" The man fumbled over his words, looking to his side where Lucius Malfoy sat.

Standing, Malfoy Sr nodded solemnly. But if Fudge thought that he was about to be saved, he was mistaken, because Lucius was loyal to him. "You are right, Lord Gaunt. I have seen Fudge often consorting with that Umbridge woman in confidence, though I have to admit, I never liked her."

The room dissolved into chaos, the Lords and Ladies showing just how much they didn't like Fudge now that Malfoy (who had been the leader of the dark faction and was one of the wealthiest lords) had given him up to the wolves.

Thomas let satisfaction wash over him, sitting back and nodding across the table at where Lucius sat.

Fudge would not escape.

He could respect that his darling angel got to kill the toad, as he would never devoid her of any such wish, especially to protect herself- the way it made him almost giddy to know that she was so very cunning to get away with literal murder aside...

But the man in the high tower was his to destroy.

He watched lazily as the wolves descended on Fudge, the man not even knowing how to defend himself, finally getting dragged out by the Aurors before Lucius Malfoy took up his stage and played up the role of the regretful bystander who wanted to account for his mistakes by taking up more responsibility in the new administration of the Ministry.

Hands moving to come together under his chin, watching the pieces move cleanly into position, he then cast his thoughts to the possible timeline of how long it would be before he could see Lena face to face, watch her recognize him for who he actually was…

When he was whole, reborn by the hands of an angel.

Then the Black King and the White Queen would be ready to meet in the middle.