A/N: Well now, that was a long hiatus. I've been busy the last couple of months, but I had some time to kill last week so here we are. Hope y'all had a good Pride Month!

Also, I made some edits to the story while I was reading through it to catch up and remind myself of what was going on in this story. Nothing major, just some wording changes and other minor changes to make things consistent.

Flower of Life

The students of Hogwarts, most of them anyways, were walking in groups to the carriages that would go on to take them to Hogsmeade. They would be heading on the train to go home for the winter break to spend time with their families.

Morgana was able to catch a glimpse of one of her favorite training dummies among them, she'd been toying with Reginald Lestrange's mind on the regular since he'd made the mistake of targeting her. It was almost a shame that he was leaving, honestly. She'd been learning a good bit about the difference between muggle and magical minds since she'd started experimenting on the older boy's.

From what she'd been able to gather, magical minds were significantly more hardy than muggle minds, with some amount of natural mental defenses. Well, she assumed they naturally had some amount of natural mental defense. If the boy was being trained in occlumency, he was rather poor at the art.

Beyond the heightened resilience of the magical mind, Morgana could see very little if any difference between the magical and non-magical mind.

If she had to give a guess at any benefits magic might have for the mind, it would likely be an increased longevity. A sort of resistance to the mental deterioration that tended to plague the human race in the later years of their lifespans. The mind was a complex instrument however, so it was possible she was missing something. Her assumption on this was based on the seeming longevity of the mind that most old wizards and witches had, but even then there seemed to be some amount of deterioration as they still showed some of the mental rigidity that she'd seen in more mundane old people.

As a little side benefit to her experimentation, she'd also taken the time to raid the boy's mind for any information on magic she could find within it. It was faster than learning it herself from books and also came with the side benefit of giving her another person's perspective on the curriculum. She still needed to go through the books herself as well to get a more complete understanding, but the extra knowledge helped her move through the books faster as well.

Anyways, while she was losing a subject of experimentation and a source of knowledge, she was gaining a different opportunity.

As Reginald Lestrange exited her view from the window, Morgana smiled to herself and turned to head up the stairs. Winter break would be the perfect time to experiment with the Room of Requirement.

~FoL~

The Room of Requirement was truly amazing. Her initial visit was mostly experimental, she'd wanted to test what sorts of rooms could be created along with just making sure she could find it at all. She'd made an Olympic sized swimming pool, a complete copy of the Hogwarts Library, a baseball stadium, and then she'd gotten a little more weird.

She'd made a room that looked and appeared to be the Rocky Mountains in the middle of winter. She hadn't explored to see how far she could go in that sort of creation because it was so sizable and she hadn't wanted to use that much time, but the fact that it could be replicated at all was impressive.

After that, she'd created the place she remembered feeling perhaps the most at home in her first life. She'd created a beach, with waves rolling in from what really seemed to be the Atlantic Ocean to all her senses. The sun shone brightly overhead, and the heat was reminiscent of the Florida beach she'd used as inspiration for the area.

After changing into attire more suitable for the beach that she'd acquired from the Room's eagerness to meet her wishes, she spent most of her visit there, enjoying the atmosphere which was exactly as comforting as she remembered it to have been. 'Wonder if I can get sunburnt here… Probably not, I'd guess. It's not like that's a real Sun up there.' She smiled, gazing up into the simulated summer sky from where she was resting on the warm sand of the beach and feeling truly comfortable for the first time in… how long?

She remained there for quite some time.

~FoL~

Whatever Morgana had expected upon coming back to the Slytherin common room after her excursion in the Room of Requirement, it certainly hadn't been prim and proper, always so respectable looking Tom Riddle relaxing across an armchair in a sitting position she would've expected from a fellow bisexual rather than whatever Riddle was.

Actually, come to think of it, she didn't really know anything much about the boy outside of his future actions in a timeline that didn't contain her, so maybe he was in fact a fellow bisexual? He'd always seemed too monstrous in the books to care about any human attributes like sexuality, it always seemed like power and anger were all that mattered to whatever Lord Voldemort had become by the 1990s.

She tilted her head curiously at him, and the boy raised an eyebrow at her. Oh, right, it was probably weird to stare.

She shrugged and moved to lounge on a couch, her back flat on the seat cushions and her legs draped over the armrest. Once she was comfortable, she reached into the bag she'd left on the ground and pulled out the third year text on Arithmancy she'd borrowed from the library.

As she'd expected, the book on magic math or whatever it was was extremely dry. She groaned aloud, she was going to have to learn five years worth of this drivel?

Stupid theory subjects.

~FoL~

Her second visit to the Room of Requirement was more important, but perhaps much less interesting and enjoyable than her first visit had been.

Her second visit was all about extracting important resources from the room. Primarily money that had been left behind and lost over the years by Hogwarts' many students that could be useful to her now.

They wouldn't need it, and she could certainly use it.

Most of the money was in galleons, sickles, and knuts, but there had also been a reasonable amount of muggle pounds for her purposes as well. Nothing too extravagant, but she was a couple hundred galleons and pounds richer than she'd been when she'd found the room.

There were also a lot of trinkets about the room that could probably be sold as well, but that would be a little more difficult than just finding money lying around. It likely wasn't worth the effort, she only needed the money for emergencies as it was and the money she'd found would be plenty for that purpose.

She had thought about looking for enchanted items that might be useful, but after considering the sorts of things she knew the room would go on to contain she decided that she would wait on that until later.

~FoL~

Morgana had, thankfully, been rather unobtrusive so far to his enjoyment of the peace and quiet that came along with Winter break over the last several days. If she was even in the common room, the girl mostly just lazed about reading her Arithmancy textbook on the couch across the common room from where he studied whenever she was actually there.

She tended to take a break from that when he was working on practical Transfiguration to watch his efforts, but left him entirely to himself outside of that.

Tom was certainly grateful that the girl hadn't chosen to bother him with anything so far, though he was certain that wouldn't last forever.

"Say, Tom?" Well, he hadn't expected it quite so soon.

He looked up from his textbook to gaze dryly at the girl. "Yes?"

"Why are you so stiff and professional all the time? You seem much more relaxed away from all our housemates." The girl was kicking her legs where they hung over the couches armrest as she lazily stared over at him.

"Considering who all our housemates are, why do you think I would put up an act for them?" Tom's voice was as dry as his stare, he was honestly surprised the girl didn't already know why he acted the way he did around all the purebloods and nobles in their house.

"What, it's a house politics thing? Surprised you're willing to put up with the likes of Lestrange for that." Her voice darkened in tone near the end of her second sentence. Lestrange must have made quite an impression on her then.

Tom shrugged. "He's useful enough, I don't have to like him to make use of him. It's not as if I can easily rid myself of him at this point anyways."

Morgana held his gaze for a few seconds thoughtfully, before nodding and picking her book back off of where it had been propped on her chest and returning to reading. Ah, she'd been prodding to see what he thought of Lestrange.

The girl could put up an excellent act when she wanted to, he wasn't surprised that she'd so easily convinced his four allies in Slytherin of her scared little girl routine.

~FoL~

It was on Christmas Eve that a thought occurred to Morgana. If the Room could make a complete copy of the Hogwarts Library, did that include the Restricted Section? It was with this question in mind that she set out for yet another trip to the Room of Requirement.

Before long, she found herself in just that section in her simulated copy of the Hogwarts Library, her eyes scanning across titles on the shelves for anything that she could find that she knew wasn't cursed.

Her eyes paused when she found a specific title, one she hadn't expected to be there.

"Secrets of the Darkest Art…" Her hand moved up slightly to reach towards it, before pausing. "Well, I do know it's not cursed at the very least." She reached her hand up to pull the book from the shelf without incident, and opened it up to a random page to see a rather grotesque illustration.

She frowned. 'Guess I should've expected that kind of thing from this book.'

She flipped through the pages, ignoring the various distasteful illustrations and magic in search of one in particular. 'Nope, nope, nope. Ah, there it is. The Horcrux. Amazing that the Hogwarts staff let this book exist in the library for so long with something like this in it.'

'The Horcrux is amongst the most foul acts of magick any one wizard can commit themselves to, but as all such magicks go; a great sacrifice comes with a great reward. So long as the product of this most dark magick persists, its creator will be anchored to this world and free from the clutches of Death itself. The sacrifice involved is perhaps the greatest any one wizard can make; A piece of their very own soul. The consequences of such a separation can range from true madness to a dampening of some emotional reactions to nothing at all that can be noticed. A truly practiced practitioner of magick with the right preparation in place ought to experience only the last of those options. Too many great men have lost their minds pursuing this magick without the proper method, and so it only makes sense to outline the proper methods for those who come after me.'

What followed was the outlining of a ritual that was difficult to understand with her limited knowledge on the subject involving a complex ritual circle and the requirement of a recent cold-blooded murder to make the ritual possible.

The passage told her more than it might have told another who read it. In particular, the part where it mentioned how a skilled practitioner could avoid the consequences of the act explained a lot to her.

It was likely a young Tom Riddle in another timeline would read that passage and come away from it believing it might be possible to make more than one without consequences. The boy struck her as very intelligent and charismatic, but lacking in the experience and intuition that might have let him realize the flaws in such an idea.

Perhaps the book was right, and it was possible to create a Horcrux without negative consequences to a person's mental state. The issue there would be that each person likely only had so much soul to give, and each piece would make it harder and harder to avoid those negative consequences.

With what she'd learned of Arithmancy so far, it was even possible that he would be right as far as making a second Horcrux would go. Making a three part soul could in theory add stability instead of removing stability, but that would cause its own problem. A young Tom Riddle would likely see that as confirmation of his theory and keep going, losing the stability of a three part soul as a consequence and beginning his descent into madness as he tore his soul apart more and more.

She would have to keep an eye on the boy, he didn't seem so horrible as he was right now and she'd hate to see him become a monster.

She put the book back on the shelf and turned to leave the Room. She'd peruse the rest of the Restricted Section when she was more versed in detecting curses.

~FoL~

The following morning, Morgana woke with the expectation of another normal day outside of the Christmas Feast. It was because of this that she was pleasantly surprised by the wrapped bundle at the foot of her bed.

She scooted her way over to the present and snatched up the note that was tied to it.

'A simple gift for a fellow enjoyer of magic. Merry Christmas!' It was unsigned of course, but she recognised the handwriting; Dumbledore. He probably figured she wasn't going to get much on Christmas what with her orphaned status, it was thoughtful of him she supposed.

There was another smaller present beside it that she could see now that she was closer, but that could wait until after she tore the wrapping on Dumbledore's present to pieces to reveal… Newspapers? On closer examination, she saw what they were. At the top of each paper read 'Transfiguration Today'. There was also another note atop the stack.

'Just some of my favorite editions, they were collecting dust as it is. I also took the liberty of purchasing a subscription for you, it really is a fascinating journal and I'm sure you'll be able to handle the material.' She shook her head in amusement, of course the old man had noticed how far ahead she was in his class, and just like the teacher he was he had given her the gift of knowledge for Christmas.

She'd have preferred an invisibility cloak to be honest, but the latest discoveries in Transfiguration would have to do. She did rather enjoy the subject, it would be good to get some more perspectives on it at the least even if she could learn everything she really needed at the moment from textbooks. Hopefully the other present would have something more immediately helpful or at least fun.

Upon picking up the second present, she could almost immediately tell that the wrapping contained a bottle of some sort. There was also a note attached to this present.

'Merry Christmas Morgana!'

'I hope this morning finds you well. I wasn't sure what to get for you, but I knew you might be lacking in gift givers like young Tom. I found this useful in my own school days and thought you might make some use of it. Be warned, however! It is only to be used twice per week at a dosage of one sizable gulp or less. Any more than that and you might risk gaining a dependency to it.'

'Professor Slughorn'

After another couple seconds of ripping up wrapping paper as violently as possible, a bottle labeled 'Focus Potion' was revealed. Assuming that the potion enhanced the drinker's focus, Morgana could definitely see how that would be useful. She set it on her nightstand and stretched as she got out of bed to begin her day.

Today was going to be a lazy day as Christmas should be, so she just dressed in pajamas and slippers before walking out the door. It would probably be seen as improper or something considering the time period she was in, but she couldn't find it in herself to care too much. She was dressed enough for her own tastes, that should be plenty.

~FoL~

The girl was a disgrace to her noble blood, no sense of propriety at all. She supposed it couldn't be helped, the girl had been raised in a muggle orphanage from what she had heard from Hogwarts' staff members.

Still, pajamas? At a feast? The girl was lucky she was so gifted, near any other student would likely have been reprimanded the moment they entered the Great Hall. She would have done it herself, but it was better not to interact with her for the time being.

She sighed.

Oh well, perhaps the girl would gain tact with age.

~FoL~

"Oh come on, Tom. Do you ever do anything fun? Just one game?" He let out an aggravated sigh, he should never have let the damned Fata girl get the impression she could talk to him.

"Yes, Fata. I happen to enjoy reading, shockingly enough." He gazed balefully at the short girl who was whining at him from across the table she'd set up a wizard's chess set on.

"Pleaseeeee, I'm bored!" The damned girl was pouting at him. As if to irritate him more, her familiar let out a loud "Caw!" from her shoulder, staring expectantly at him. Tom glared back at her. "And what the hell would I get out of playing a game with you? You're probably not even good with how childish you are."

The younger girl frowned for a moment. "I dunno, what would you want?"

"For you to leave me alone." Merlin, how had he ever had a high opinion of this girl? She'd only gotten more and more annoying ever since she'd first talked with him.

"Hmm… Well that wouldn't be any fun. Any other ideas?" The witch was grinning at him, was she getting enjoyment out of pestering him?

"I could just ignore you until you do it anyway. How does that sound?"

"Nah, we both know that wouldn't work. How about I promise not to bother you when your little gang is around? Is that good enough for you?" Fata's grin widened, and he realized why immediately. He couldn't afford to have this damned girl around pestering him when the other students came back. It would make him look weak and he would have to do something to stop her. He could wait until then, but there was no real guarantee of being able to scare off the admittedly rather skilled younger witch. Unfortunately… "Fine." He ground out. "Just one game." It would be better to deal with this now.

"One game a week?" She raised an eyebrow challengingly at him, clearly she knew she had him cornered on this one.

"Once a month." He stared her down, daring her to question his offer.

She just shrugged, unbothered as ever under a stare that made his peers shrink away from him. "Sure. Can we play now?"

"Fine, whatever." He grumbled, before sitting up to eye the board. He was white, surprisingly enough, so he made the first move; e4.

"Why are you so grumpy about it anyways? Chess is a fun game." She made her own move; e6.

"It's a waste of time, I'd prefer to be doing something more productive." He noticed the intent of her move and moved to counter; g3.

"How so? It's a game designed to help with strategic thinking." f5.

"I could be using this time to learn more about magic or the magical society I've found myself in. Those will be significantly more helpful for my life than some minor gains in strategic thought." He countered; d3.

"Hmm, that's a fair enough point. I suppose knowing about the society I've been thrust into would be helpful. Check." She moved her Bishop to check his King; Bb4.

"Have you really not been looking into that at all? I suppose that explains a bit." He blocked with his knight; Nc3.

"I've been a little too focused on general magical knowledge, I figured it would be helpful to keep myself safe in this House." Ne7.

He smirked in acknowledgement. "Yes, I suppose that would be more of a priority. I did the same in my first year here." Bd2.

She gave him a curious look. "Did you ever get attacked?" Nbc6.

"No, only threats and posturing. I was beneath the notice of the upper years and the lower years noticed how quickly I'd advanced before they got bold enough to make any moves. That's what I assumed at the time anyways, but perhaps they never had what it took to actually attack me." He shrugged; a3.

"Well, we can't all be so lucky I suppose." She grinned at him and her bird let out a "Caw!" of agreement prompting her to stroke the crow's feathers. She made her next move, taking his Knight with her Bishop; Bxc3.

He let a smirk cross his face. "I suppose you had fun tossing around those four then?" He took her Bishop with his own; Bxc3.

She let out a laugh. "Yes, it was rather exhilarating looking back once I wasn't so angry anymore." fxe4.

"I'll have to let them know you enjoyed it." He drawled out; dxe4.

She lightly glared at him. "Sure, if you want them beaten half to death again." h6.

"That would be rather amusing. I don't know if they'll bite on that after the last time though." Bxg7.

"Shame, that." d5.

"Mhm. Check." He moved his Queen to put her into check; Qh5.

"You know, you're rather good at this game for someone with so little interest in it." She took a few moments to eye the board in thought before she made the move Kd7.

"I see it as a waste of time, doesn't mean I'm not good at it." exd5.

"You know, it's almost as important to take some time to let knowledge settle as it is to pursue more, at least in my experience. This is a good way to do that." exd5.

He snorted. "And what made you so full of wisdom?" Rd1.

"Just something I picked up. You can ignore me if you want though." Kd6.

He eyed her for a few moments, actually taking the time to consider what she'd said. "I suppose it doesn't matter since I already agreed to this. We'll see if you're right or not about that." c4.

"You'll come to see it my way I'm sure, sooner or later." Bd7.

"I doubt it." The next several moves came and went without conversation as they both focussed in on the game. cxd5.

Qg8. Bxh8. Nxd5. Bc4. Qe6. Ne2. Rxh8. Bxd5. Qf6.

Tom looked up from the board for a moment to look at Morgan's for a few moments. "What do you get out of this, Fata?" Nf4.

"Entertainment mostly." She paused for a few moments before continuing. "Aside from that, it is a good way to learn more about you." Nd4.

"Really? And what has you so interested in me?" Ng6.

"You just seem like someone worth investing the time into." She didn't elaborate further, but from the look in her eyes he thought there was more there than she was saying. For a moment he was tempted to crack into her mind to see what she was hiding, but he resisted the idea. It would be more interesting to figure her out without such crude methods. Re8.

"True enough, I suppose." Her excuse mirrored his own reasoning for giving her the time of day after all. He'd have just annoyed or scared off an unexceptional witch or wizard that tried to engage with him as she did. Kd2.

Another several moves went by without comment.

Qxf2. Kd3. Qe3. Kc4. b5. Kb4. c5. Ka5. c4. Rhe1. Qxe1. Rxe1. Rxe1. Bf7. Bf5. g4. Nc6. Ka6. Bxg6. Qxg6. Kc5. Qxh6. Nb8. Kxa7. Nc6. Ka8. Re7. Qf6.

Morgana looked up at him. "Checkmate." Ra7.

Tom stared down at the board for a few seconds. "I can't believe I lost. I thought I had you when you lost your Queen."

She shrugged. "Shouldn't have let me corner your King like that. 'Sides, I only need one Queen." She gave a cocky point towards herself with her thumb.

"...I'll let you have that one." He shifted back to sit sideways across the armchair, picking up the book he'd been reading as he went.

"Better luck next month!" "Caw!" The girl and her bird were still bothering him.

"Yeah, yeah. Let me read, Fata." He gave her a quick glare.

"Sure, since you're so invested. One thing first though."

He looked over at her in annoyance, she had that stupid grin on her face again. "And what exactly is that?"

She pointed across the room at a grandfather clock that was set against the wall. The time shown on its face was 12:06. "And what is the significance of that? I know it's late, we wasted over an hour on that game I'm pretty sure."

"Do you really not know? Happy Birthday Tom!" She let out a mildly annoying giggle of amusement at that, and Tom froze in a bit of shock. He'd never had anyone wish him a Happy Birthday before that he could remember. The other orphans had always been too scared of him, and Mrs. Cole and the other workers had always been too wary of him to bother. Tom felt his body start to relax and he let his face settle into a very small, but genuine smile for once. "Thanks, Fata…" He trailed off for a second, before continuing. "Now, will you leave me be? I appreciate it, but I am trying to read here."

The girl eyed him curiously for a moment, before nodding. "Alright, I'll leave you alone. I'm tired anyways." She stood, stretching in a way that vaguely reminded him of a cat, before she walked off towards her dorm room. "Gnight Tom."

He thought about ignoring her, but… "Goodnight."

~FoL~

Pressure was mounting, more and more were other witches and wizards calling for him to act, to do something. He would have to, eventually.

Grindelwald would have no intention of stopping his conquest with Europe.

As Albus sat in his office, grading papers and contemplating his fears, muggle London was being bombed by the German war machine. The bombings did little to harm the average witch or wizard, but what it represented was much more present in the collective minds of Wizarding Britain.

Grindelwald would come for them. It was not a matter of if, but rather when he would come. He had not been so bold yet, but when his muggle allies moved to send ground forces across the waters separating the British Isles from the continent he would have to come along as well if he did not wish to see them repelled and many of their numbers cut down.

That raised a question, however. Why would Grindelwald support and allow the bombing of London if he wished not to provoke Albus?

Grindelwald certainly did not want to provoke his ire, he was as aware as Albus was that there was no certainty as to which of the two of them would emerge the victor if they were forced to duel.

Was it simply to weaken the English in the case of conflict? It would certainly do that to the muggles to some extent, but he must know that Wizarding Britain would not be too terribly effected by such tactics.

No, there was a far more likely alternative. He was testing Albus, seeing whether Albus would ever stand up to fight him. He knew that Albus detested violence after what had happened with Ariana, and he was curious as to whether Albus would ever be willing to confront him directly.

Truthfully, he did not want to fight Grindelwald. Ever, if he could help it.

Aside from his distaste for violence, he was also certain that… Grindelwald knew what had really happened, who had really killed Ariana. He did not want to know who had killed his sister.

But that fear of confrontation would destroy his home, reduce it into a shadow of itself if he let it truly take root. No, he had to make a choice, there was no longer time for stalling.

Albus waved his hand, banishing the papers he had been grading, and summoned a fresh roll of parchment to write on.

It was time to make a statement.