The fact she has some sort of leverage drives me crazy. Even more so the fact that she's apparently going to use it if required. How dare she threaten to even gonearthe Chamber of Secrets with Bryant in case I don't attend the afternoon session as demanded …

I don't feel one good thing, only anger, when my face is reflected on one of the window panes I pass by in Hogwarts' echoing corridors. And for the very first time, I notice them – and pause.

Red irides.
In this odd sight, I only find myself confirmed in each and everything I've always suspected.

All the darkness of the world within me, and now ruthlessly intensified. Coldness, impatience, hatred ... All while scruples and empathy are far, far away.

"There he is, on time as always," Rouvenia calls out as I arrive in the Room of Requirement, disgruntled and with burning nerve endings all over my body. "Line up in a circle! Today, Tom will show us how to –"

"Will I, Rouvenia?" I yell. "Not at all, not before –"

"But that was her birthday wish!" Myrtle is quick to protest, causing my inhibitions to plummet already. "You forgot to congratulate her, so fulfilling her wish is the least you can do now, Tom!"

"Why the hell are you even talking to me?" I snap at her. "Do you have the slightest idea just how much your voice is like acid to my brain? You're worse than a mandrake, so please – by Merlin, just shut up!"

Myrtle is busy snorting, but all the other ladies now stare at me as though I were human's wrong.

Good. May they see me for who I am.

"Tom!" Harper puts her hands on her hips, simply shaking her head in weary disbelief.

Meanwhile Eric, next to Black and Lestrange, really tries to stifle it, but I hear him chuckle in amusement until he gets a nasty look from Leonora. He simply shrugs it off and whispers, "Well, he's right, her voiceisshrill."

"How can you be so mean, Riddle," Rouvenia reproaches me as well, crossing her arms over her chest. "Apologise to Myrtle, will you?"

"Yeah." Leonora also pouts. "And how aboutnow?"

"I'm not going to apologise for some universal sentiment just because your patch indignation is based on subjective morals," I growl. "And if you really wish to fly, I demand to see who, if any, of you has even improved since the last afternoon we've wasted our time on your paltry ambitions in this room."

I hear Elliott groan, I know hehatesme for my arrogance.

"Is there anything that might upset you?" I ask him nevertheless.

While everyone stares at me, puzzled, undecided, he comes right up to me to wield his index finger in front of my face.

"I'm absolutely upset about you and your behaviour! And you know what? Myrtle, as annoying as her voice may be, is absolutely right!"

"My voiceisn'tannoying!" she shouts, whimpering into our conversation with her whiny vocal cords.

"Sorry," Elliott murmurs while I just shake my head in exasperation.

Each sound that escapes her mouth proves the matter of the fact beyond doubt, in glorious irony at that.

Eric, a prime example of an emphatic and charismatic Gryffindor, walks over to Myrtle with a grin to put his arm around her shoulder now. "We all have something about us that bothers others," he whispers. "It's quite alright, Myrtle, just own it."

She glances up at him in shock. He is conventionally handsome – and clearly too kind to her. He might learn the hard way how impossible it will be to shake her off again ...

"Back to you," Elliott grumbles and raises his finger again. I can't help but follow its movements, I'm so bored otherwise … "When Rouvenia wished to celebrate her birthday – which of course you forgot anyway – we had to make sure that you didn't die away in the shadows."

"I've never asked anyone of you to do that," I cut him off immediately. "It just so happens that I live where you had to hold your little bash. Otherwise you wouldn't have seen me."

"Tom," Harper sighs. She's approaching us both as though she could still hold me back after her warnings in the forest today, "pull yourself together, will you – you promised Rou to show us. And Orion back there's only here because he wants to learn to fly. Aren't you, Black?"

He nods, and dramatically so.
Why isheoffended again?
Oh, sure. The curse that made his mouth disappear the other day, and haven't I threatened him yesterday?

"We all want to learn that, and this is precisely what these sessions are for," Harper adds, insisting on looking at me.

"And I," I almost whisper, "am only here today because you wanted me to be. Reap what you sow." I glance from her to Elliott, then I let my gaze wander round the room. "At least give me an illusion of talent and determination instead of rudimentary remnants of it …"

One could hear a pin drop, only Myrtle sighs and giggles into Eric Johnson's shirt, reminding me incessantly that she's getting on my nerves.

"Myrtle," I say as gently as I can manage, it still sounds like a command ... "Tell me – what have you learnt since the last time we met?"

"Ah ... well, a Patronus," she eventually admits, proudly even.

"Really?" I'm surely too astonished. "Did anyone see that?" I ask, causing Harper to frown yet again.

"She picked it up very quickly," she retorts, probably thinking to herself that it tookmealmost a year. The mere presumption of her thoughts makes me smile back in utmost cynicism.

"Congratulations, then," I tell Myrtle and turn to the next person. "Mulciber, per aspera ad astra –"

"Through adversity to the stars! Right?"

I languidly nod. "Phenomenal ... Avery!" I glare at him. "Are you somewhat sober again after last night or –"

"I don't drink during the day anymore." He even winks.

I all but nod.

"Nott!" I shout and immediately make him fiddle for his wand out of pure reflex.

"No, I don't want to see defense," I tell him.

He gulps, then proceeds to ask, "What do you want to see?"

It dawns on him just as I spread my arms as wide as I can and nod at him.

He clears his throat, takes a deep breath, then he finally dares to make a move.

Three curses, in quick succession, all silent – and even if they're easy to parry, I like his efforts.

"Good. Who's helped you?"

"Leonora," he admits.

"After I realised," Leonora shouts, "I'd been handedhiscoffee at Quidditch the other day, I felt rather unwell and wanted to make up for it."

"The end justifies the means," I simply claim, and suddenly Rouvenia is standing right before me.

"So are you done now?" she urges. "Can we finally get started and practise flying?"

"No, we can't," I say, "I want to see duels."

"Heavens – get in line," Rouvenia yells without taking her eyes off me. "Riddle wants to see duels ... Let's give him duels!"


"Is that enough now, huh?" Leonora asks, exhausted after she's won the last of a total of five duels.

"It is, I'm not impressed, but neither am I entirely disillusioned. So put your wands away, you won't be needing them." I motion to those who are now leaning against the walls or sit on the floor to come to the centre of the room. "You concentrate and visualise your body in your mind until you can feel the magic in you – and break it down."

"You mean," Eric calls out, "we visualise how we ... dissolve?"

"Exactly."

"No spell?" Black asks, angry by the very idea of it.

"Control over magic," I bark back, "doesn't always require words."

Some in the room immediately close their eyes and start to breathe shallowly, but at least as many stare at those first attempts, wondering if it might really work.

"Riddle, how long did it take you to –"

"Shut up, Orion," Rouvenia hisses with her eyes closed, "I'm trying to concentrate!"

"Also doesn't matter," I tell him. "You've seen it, with your own eyes. It works."

Black grimly nods and then closes his eyes, too, but not much happens. The entire room is quite silent, they all try. What a relief to not hear anyone.

Just like the calm before the storm.

Eric is the first to get the hang of it. Although only his hand and then his arm turn to smoke, the others are amazed by it and seem all the more motivated to get there themselves.

"Look," Eric shouts with a laugh as his black smoke turns red for a change, "you can even choose the colour!"

"Oh, I want purple," Rouvenia decides with enthusiasm. She grabs Leonora's hand on the left and Harper's on the right. With her eyes closed, she asks, "What colours do you want?"

"Orange," Leonora says, taking a deep breath to better visualise it.

Meanwhile Harper is staring at her free hand turning to smoke. "Green …"

"I get it!" Nott shouts in awe, promptly dissolving into white smoke – who would have thought?

He whirls through the air, even I can't deny he's finally good at and for something ... Eric promptly joins him in deep red. Their colours quickly remind me of Austria – and therefore of Gellert Grindelwald ... Green, purple and orange quickly join in to distract me, and Myrtle and Elliott also fly after a few more moments.

We can only hope that the Room of Requirements swallows their noise – because the cheering echo in the air couldn't be louder along the old castle walls.

"That's indescribable!" we hear Rouvenia rejoice, but I'm abruptly distracted by Hagrid.

"I can't do it. I'm too big and heavy, I think …"

"You're not," I decide, "you need to trust in yourself."

He gives me an indecisive glance. "Maybe if I think me to be a feather?"

"Why not, try it …"

"But it doesn't work for me either!" Black joins us in childish nagging.

"Spare me your accusing undertone, Orion, just concentrate better."

"Oh look, it's working!" Hagrid shouts as his hand begins to evaporate. Soon he, too, is flying across the room with great joy, while Harper suddenly takes me by the shoulders to smile at me.

"Tom, join us! Fly with me!"

"Or you threaten me?" I utter under my breath.

"Oh, come on," she moans, yet her stern gaze stresses she truly means it. "What would you do to protect me?"

I raise a brow. "Kill, as you're well aware …"

She tilts her head back and sighs in a mixture of impatience and incomprehension, but as much as I deliberately distort the context, this question does indeed hold a sobering mirror up to me. If it were about her soul, I'd do it all …
And yet the situation is not reversed.

Just as she is about to say something back, Rouvenia passes us by like a laughing lightning right before she resumes her form to beam at us.

"That's absolutely brilliant! Tom, why didn't you show us to do that earlier?"

"How the hell is this supposed to work?" Black sounds as annoyed as a person can get.

"Wait, wait," Hagrid chuckles, coming to a halt next to him, "I'll show you, you just have to –"

Black roughly pushes him aside to spit at his feet. "I certainly won't let you show me a thing, you dirty half-blood!"

"Black!"

In irritation, he turns his gaze to me, but Echidna's key to fresh food certainly doesn't get pushed around or insulted by anyone in my presence today.

"If you're unfit to conceptualise and execute this form of manifestation like everyone else around you, you're free to go back to wasting your time messing around at the Black Lake. Otherwise, get it together and show Hagrid some respect!"

He stares at me, my unexpected support for Hagrid makes him speechless.

"You of all people say that? After shouting at Myrtle earlier? I'm not going to be told to respect a useless Gryffindor, and certainly not by you!"

"Trust me, Orion," I say while a few others in the room literally come back down to earth to test their landing, "my patience is hanging by a thread these days – and you certainly don't want to be the first person on my mind when it rips."

"Why don't you yourself show me how to do it?" he grimly replies, approaching me in all his insolence. "Why aren't you flying today? Why haven't you done much magic in general since you've been back at Hogwarts?"

"I silenced you last Thursday, in case you forgot …"

"That tiny curse doesn't count," he growls, "so just admit it, you're not in the physical condition for complicated magic, are you? You've looked more dead than alive for days. Sullivan may cover for you with piano lessons and Rouvenia keeps you from tripping over whenever you're dizzy, but –"

"Do you want him to do a magic trick for you now, Orion?" Harper hisses, landing right next to us.

"Or would you rather I support you – with my elbow?" Rouvenia sneers.

"I don't know what I was hoping to get out of coming here," he shouts. "As son of a family with pure blood since the Middle Ages, I'm practically a noble – and I'm being shown questionable magic by someone who surely has never spoken of his parents for a reason!"

An instant silence falls around us.

Indeed, a topic that should interest quite a few in here – only a handful of people know fragments of my heritage.

"You hit the mark, Orion," I applaud him dangerously quiet, inching considerably closer to him. "Shall I tell you something about my family?" He holds my gaze defiantly when I almost whisper, "Most of them were cruel and insane – two traits I'm no stranger to, as you've known for years. And yet you stand before me, foolish and untalented, with nothing but your pure blood of inbreeding and ignorance in your veins."

"Take that back! Maintaining blood purity is a tradition of all sane families!"

"And where does it lead?" Rouvenia exclaims. "Since I was twelve years old, I've known that I will be forced into a life I'd never have chosen for myself – just for pure blood?"

"Traitor!" he shouts. "That you as Slytherins aren't ashamed to still stand behind Riddle after a statement like that!"

"What's your problem?" Avery asks, moving in front of Rouvenia as if to protect her. "She's to marry her own family! Can't you see how crazy that is?"

Black shakes his head and then speaks to the whole group. "Just go on and water down your magic with mud! And do believe in Riddle for all I care. I see him. I see how he acts like he knows everything, when in fact, he's just on the sidelines during all our exercises. Why won't he show you how brilliant he is?"

"Careful what you wish for," I say, still rather calm in light of his audacity, "if you're not prepared for it."

"Don't waste magic on him," Harper warns me, and she's probably right.

I'm considering it while looking at her just when he calls out, "You better not turn your back on me!"

"Orion," I moan over my shoulder, "I really don't have the patience for you today –"

"You know what? I am going to the Black Lake! To Dean and Raymond, and with them straight to Dumbledore. Who knows? He might even have a theory as to why your eyes have been turning red lately!"

"Irides," I correct him. And I realise how displeasure literally creeps up inside me at these words. Why the blazes is everyone suddenly daring to threaten me of all people?

"What?" he asks perplexed.

"My Irides," I repeat, "not the eyes."

He sets himself in motion and shrugs his shoulders. "Whatever, irides – I'll see what Dumbledore says about it."

"Like hell you will," I mutter more to myself than to him, mobilising the last bits of magic in me …