Chapter 8: Inside Job
-oOo-
September 3 1995, Chamber of Secrets
Salazar Slytherin imagined a lot of things during his long life. One thing he didn't imagine was that teenagers would hijack the chamber of secrets and renovate it into their own little clubhouse-studio-apartment.
"Victor!" A very frazzled Tom barged into Victor and Hermione's bedroom. The sight before Tom was rather typical. Hermione was laid back comfortably between her boyfriend's legs. Her head resting on his chest and one hand gently grasping his shirt. Victor was gently reading her a book as it balanced against one of his knees with the help of magic. An arm firmly around her hips as his free hand ran through her curls. Victor would occasionally give a kiss to the top of her head mostly checking to see if she had fallen to sleep. That momentary pause in reading was exactly when Tom barged in.
Victor sighed. He was so close to getting his girl's big brain to finally fall asleep.
'Honestly! What's a guy gotta do to get some peace and quiet around here? Move out?' Victor thought for a moment, 'Nah! That would be inconvenient and chances are Tom would still keep barging in on an hourly basis.'
"What did Luna do now?" Hermione asked as she tightened her grip on Victor's shirt. She moved her free hand to gently rub at her eyes. It was pretty dark in their room until now.
"She won't stop!" Tom started his rant, "The only way to get her to stop is to kiss her! I'm trying so hard to do my research and she won't stop interrupting me! Every time I turn a corner there she is doing something absolutely annoying! Like balancing a donut on her nose! I can't focus! If I give her the kiss she demands then she says she'll be silent for a bit. Thankfully she is silent but THEN SHE DOES SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY!" Tom leaned against the doorframe, his energy exhausted after the last part. "Entertain her so I can figure out these damn horcruxes!"
Tom got his strength back and started pacing his arms flying around in exasperation. He only got this animated and emotionally unbalanced when it was about Luna.
"Umm…Tom?" Hermione asked as she sat up and moved to the end of the large bed.
Tom didn't hear her. He kept pacing and ranting and speaking with such passionate irritation, something very typical of a Luna induced rant.
"Tom? Honey?" Hermione had a tendency to call Tom honey when she was trying to gently coax him out of a rant. However, this rant had gone passed normal and started to get to a point where Hermione was starting to worry a bit. At this point only Victor could really snap him out of it.
Luna walked into the room asking questions and pushing Tom even further. The interesting thing about this situation, Victor realized, was that while Luna's methods came off as annoying her method was sound. Luna pushed her boyfriend to the breaking point and as a result whatever obsessive research Tom was doing would eventually come out in the rant.
Luna realized early on in their relationship that Tom had a tendency to keep quiet about the research he was doing and let it annoy him, making him become angrier and more snappy at everyone, even Luna.
It wasn't Luna he was mad at! It was whatever answer he couldn't find. It made him act like a total asshole to Victor and on the rare and shocking occasion, Hermione. Considering Tom was protective of the girls this was very out of character for him. He loved both girls equally and differently. One like the precious baby sister he needed and one like the very understanding yet eccentric girlfriend he never knew he needed. Neither he ever thought he would have but both could never dream of doing without.
"Tom!" Victor hissed his warning. Immediately Tom slowed down, paused and looked at his brother in surprise. That his warning was loud and at the same time somehow silent.
"Ignore my girl one more time and this book will find its way to your face." He finished his threat, as a book hovered next to him in the air. Hermione facepalmed.
"Violent…unnecessarily violent. Thank you, my beloved." Hermione rolled her eyes before looking back over at Tom whose mind was having a hard time turning back on. So she took advantage of it.
"Honey…" Tom looked at Hermione.
The frustration and exhaustion in his eyes was evident to everyone to see. Tom has been researching how to put his soul back together for years now. Ever since they figured out who he really was.
Hermione was helping, she did want the same thing for him after all, his soul whole and healthy. Yet her research had been entirely different from his. She wanted to know how to do it and protect him entirely. With Luna's help they found a way to purify the soul pieces. Luna could research just as well as them. She even had a back for getting them into esoteric places with just the right kinds of books.
Tom, however, just wanted to fix his soul. He wanted to stop the insane part of him that was nothing but ego. The part of him that was somewhere out in the world causing destruction. He wanted to have every bit of himself under control so he could stay in this happy world they built away from bombs falling from the sky, away from hunger, away from meddling old fools, and an inferior world of magic that is slowly dying from their inability to adjust to time in motion.
They first realized that Tom's weird obsessive item collecting had to do with his soul and him wanting to be whole again. They realized they couldn't truly do their own thing, couldn't truly be free until they fixed him. The entire situation has broken Tom's heart just a bit.
Tom finally had a family! He had the love and respect he craved for. He wanted to go explore the world and cause their usual mayhem. Yet because of him they are stuck in Britain till they capture Voldemort and purify him. The items they already purified just needed a way back inside Tom. Yet Voldemort? Voldemort was half of Tom's own magic and knowledge.
"I just want this to be over with…" Tom sat down next to Hermione. Immediately laying his head on her shoulder as her hand instinctively cupped his cheek. Tom was quite taller than Hermione but he loved resting his head on her shoulder and she never discouraged it. Her automatic response was to gently stroke the free side of his face whenever he did it. She tended to mother Tom in a way the others couldn't achieve. The way only a sister could…
"Obsessing over it won't help," Hermione gave his cheek a gentle tap, "you need food, water, breaks, to pay attention to Luna before she does something crazy…" Hermione finished with more of a concerned tone.
"I am paying attention to her!" Neither of them noticed Victor being coaxed into the hallway. Neither registered his grumblings as he followed Luna. Victor grumbled something about Luna still being terrible at stealth and her whispering being pointless because they aren't even paying attention to them anyway.
"Giving her a kiss to shut her up isn't the same!" Hermione gently scolded.
The flashing lights coming from the hallway are ignored with expertise by the siblings talking as they sat on the end of the bed.
"I want to show Luna the world. I can't if we can't fix the Voldemort problem…I can't leave Britain without that piece," he sighed sitting up and facing Hermione.
"Rome wasn't built in a day, Tom…"
"Yeah well they didn't have us or our idiotic other halves." Tom finished their usual back and forth. It was true! If all four of them had been there then chances are Rome would have been built faster, in the least. The first time they said this was when Tom tried teaching Hermione about potions and she got upset with a mistake she made on an advanced one.
-oOo-
Flashback
"But I did exactly as it said!"
"Preparing this ingredient requires practice. Only potion masters can do it and they train hard."
Tom held back a sigh knowing she would mistake it for dissatisfaction. After the conversation where Luna explained that he needed to be careful with what he said to her because she looked up to him…he watched his words and actions in moments like this.
"Look at your work. It's nearly the perfect color. It's only off by a shade or two. It's far more pure than most potion masters can achieve."
"But yours is perfect! I really thought I removed all the entrails. This happened because it wasn't just the skin…"
"And yet you're getting better and better. Don't forget that each time you have created this potion it's done exactly what it was supposed to do."
"But I want mine to be perfect like yours!" She stomped her foot in frustration. Holding herself against impossible standards she often forgot it took Tom time to achieve.
"Rome wasn't built in a day, Hermione…"
"Yeah well they didn't have us or our idiotic other halves!" Which instantly made them both burst into laughter.
Frustrations with potions instantly replaced with Tom's hesitant question of "it's a bit too quiet isn't it?"
End flashback
-oOo-
An explosion rocked the floors. Cackling feminine laughter could be heard as if it was in every room. An annoyed Victor entered the room, grabbed an item, and left again.
Hermione and Tom completely ignored this.
"Now! You are going to let Luna take care of you and get some sleep. She won't stop bugging you till you give in. She's intense that way." Hermione couldn't exactly describe how Luna got what she wanted out of Tom…she just knew she didn't want to know in case both misunderstood the question and told her too much.
The door burst open. Finally a pissed off Victor entered the room grabbing their full attention. Magic swirling around him.
He yelled "how the fuck is that my fault!" Before being ripped from the room without warning.
"Sooo Luna and Victor…" Tom's voice was slow and hesitant.
"Ignore it…"
"Gladly…"
Hermione spent the next thirty minutes listening to Tom vent the last of his frustrations. The thud against the wall and what sounded like a siren was ignored considering they honestly didn't want to know. Victor and Luna had their own way of working things out. At the moment whatever was going on had Luna totally entertained. Until Victor burst into the room and ordered Tom to get out. Tom gave Hermione a peck on the cheek in thanks before he too was ripped from the room by Luna's magic.
"Victor? Are you okay?"
Considering the sudden silence giving the house a haunted horror movie feeling she couldn't help but ask cautiously.
"Don't worry about it…"
"Luna seems kinda…"
"Don't ask either"
"Maybe we should…"
"Bed…book…now!"
Hermione smiles and instantly makes her way back to Victor after he made himself comfortable against the headboard.
"You could try talking to her like a normal person…"
"Where is the fun in that?" Victor smirked.
"You think they are gonna be okay?"
"Hermione. If there is ever anything you never have to worry about it is those two. The deal is you take Tom and I take Luna. She's just worried about Tom's obsessing considering he hasn't been sleeping for two days straight. If it reached day three she would have done some shit for real…"
"So they are going to be fine?"
Victor pulled Hermione closer to him, the book lying forgotten. Victor kissed Hermione's lips, cheeks, tip of her nose, eyes, forehead, then back to her lips and this time deeper. He had other ways of distracting his girlfriend. Luna was a lot of fun but Hermione offered a brand of fun that caused cravings in him only she could satisfy.
"They will be just fine. You however…won't…"
Hermione giggled as the candle light Victor used to read went out.
-oOo-
30 minutes later
"I think I forgot something." Victor said to Hermione
"Leave it, it can't be that important"
"Sure"
-oOo-
September 3 1995, Greater London Insane Asylum
The night shift nurse walked past the cells doing her evening check in with the patents, as she neared room no. 8 she could hear the man's insane ramblings
"Fudge will come! Any day now he will come for the drills! The drills need to be made for Fudge" Vernon yelled from his padded room, his hands restrained in a straight jacket.
The nurse felt a bit sad for that one, snapped because of pressure to make quotas they said to her. Oh well, not her problem.
-oOo-
September 4 1995, Chamber of Secrets
"Pretty Kitty!" Luna squealed in delight as she hugged the head of the over excited basilisk. The creature lifts its head and gently tosses its mistress into the air. The basilisk was absolutely delighted to see its old master happy.
~ I likessss the namesss kittysss,~ it said as its snake like laughter echoed through the chamber.
"STOP CALLING HER KITTY!" Tom yelled. Truly frustrated and annoyed by his girlfriend's apparent need to name deadly vicious creatures cute things. He facepalmed, taking the chance to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration and count to ten. Tom's been telling Luna to knock it off for hours now! His frustration was less about her antics and more about the fact that the name was starting to stick!
If you noticed Tom showed a faint smile at the site of his girlfriend being bounced on the head of their childlike basilisk. Of course he would deny it. The delighted giggles as the basilisk gently tossed her into the air and caught her on its nose did not make Tom's heart flutter. He was furious! He was not going to call his basilisk kitty!
"Hey Tom! What in the world is Luna doing?"
"Playing catch with Kitty, I guess?" He instantly realized what he said. "DAMMIT!"
Victor tried his best not to smile, looking casual and only mildly concerned. Enjoying the moments and happiness his brother had and the fact he managed to trick his brother into calling the basilisk Kitty.
He realized a few hours back that getting his brother to mindlessly talk about Luna with the basilisk resulted in him calling the creature Kitty. It was hilarious!
-oOo-
September 4 1995, Transfiguration classroom
Neville looked around at the smaller than average class. During the four years in Hogwarts a lot has changed. People kept leaving. It got so bad that they had to combine all four houses for one class.
Neville always knew that Hogwarts was built to house a lot more students than what it had, but everyone just assumed it was because of Grindelwald and later You-Know-Who. He never once thought that the muggleborns had a lot to do with it. On paper the muggleborns were 10 or 20% of the population and that they were the bottom 10 or 20%. So the most menial and most low paying jobs were always filled with them. And that's how it should be, they were new to their world and they had to work themselves up.
Except times changed and things were different now then it was a few hundred years ago. Not to mention all the craziness with Fudge in the last few years. If they didn't like what magic had to offer then they would just turn around and go back to the muggle world where they would get to live a much easier and comfortable life. Sure they didn't have magic but if all you had to do was to use a fellytone and you would have house elf level service come to your house for Knuts then well even Neville would be tempted. Especially with how prices for basic items had gone up.
By the end of 1993 all the muggleborns decided that they didn't want to deal with the insane corruption of the minister and ministry so they all left. Either one by one or by groups they all decided that they didn't want anything to do with this. The Daily Prophet proclaimed it as an economic and social victory. Now they didn't have to worry about muggle culture infecting the magical world or muggleborns taking away their jobs. A lot more jobs opened to a lot more people.
Except nobody wanted those jobs, they were all jobs fobbed off to muggleborns because they were low paying, demanding and involved long hours. The half-bloods didn't want the jobs because they were used to getting the more respectful and higher paying jobs and the purebloods didn't want to increase the pay. They were at an impasse… until the half bloods started to leave as well.
Suddenly the shopkeepers and store owners and landlords realized that they had no other choice but to give in to the demands. So they did and fobbed off the price difference to the consumer and then everything became more expensive. Which made a lot more half-bloods and even purebloods leave. No point in making 25 (1250 pounds) Galleons a month if you would spend it all on food and nothing else.
So here they are, Diagon Alley was empty of people, shops went out of business, Hogwarts was only filled with the wealthy. Even hardline blood purests like Nott and Greengrass realized just what their politics would do to the world.
Hopefully, Neville thought, the Tri-Wizard tournament would help.
-oOo-
October 4 1995, Hogwarts
Locket Voldemort screamed in frustration. After possessing Ginny Weasley he started to learn about how times changed since he created his Horcrux. He was furious and elated at the same time. It was insulting that he was brought down at all, not to mention by a toddler but that was why he created the Horcruxes. His frustration grew to elation soon after realizing the current state of Magical Britain.
Everything was in chaos, the muggleborns were gone and all he had to do was to step in and take charge. All he needed was basilisk venom to fuel his ritual to completely possess Ginny and recreate his body and since he was already there he would use the basilisk to kill Dumbledore.
Except he couldn't find it! He couldn't find the basilisk, he couldn't find the chamber, he couldn't find any trace on where the entrance was.
He blamed Dumbledore.
-oOo-
October 15 1995, Chamber of Secrets
"So, we are just going to walk into Hogwarts? Like it's normal to walk into a school you don't go to?" Hermione asked, flabbergastingly.
"Yes." Tom stated refusing to explain himself more than truly necessary. They passed into needless repeating fifteen minutes ago. What part of breaking into a school full of children did she not understand!
"Again?" Hermione asked. Her voice dripped in disbelief and concern.
"Yes again…"
"Because it went so well last time?" Hermione stated clearly remembering Dumbledore trying to kill them and the wards. Not to mention the weird way Neville and the twins could track them.
"Yes!"
"So, we are breaking into a school again?" Victor asked knowing this would set his brother off because why the fuck not?
"YES, AGAIN! YES, WE ARE BREAKING INTO A SCHOOL! YES, I HAVE A PLAN! YES! YES! YESSSSS!" He was breathing hard by now. His foot stomped every time he yelled a yes as if to solidify it.
Luna knew she shouldn't. Considering Hermione was the only one who was truly concerned about the plan. She really did not understand why Tom thought this would work. In her defense Tom didn't explain his plan very well.
Yet she couldn't help it…
"So…we are breaking into a school?" Luna asked as if truly curious.
"FUCK IT ALL!" Tom yelled in frustration as he opened a hidden passage to an unused Hogwarts corridor and walked out and straight into someone's chest.
Tom looked up and looked eye to eye with Sirius Black.
"Hello?" Sirius Black said in confusion, not used to hidden passages opening up and people walking into his chest.
"Hi." Hermione said from behind as she glared angrily at Tom's back.
"Hello." Sirius repeated himself.
"Sup." Victor threw in.
"JAMES!?"