Tom just smiled back and winked at her.
At the staff table, Dippet started his speech. "Greetings students. Welcome back to another wonderful year here at Hogwarts." The Headmaster continued in his dry droning style. Most of the students just wanted him to sit down so they could eat. His wrap-up though grabbed many of the students' attention.
At a gesture from the Headmaster, James stood up. "Joining us this year for two to three days a week will be Professor Evans. Professor Evans will be teaching a Magical Dueling class that will be an optional area of study for Third years and higher. Professor Evans has taught dueling skills to Aurors and will also be teaching this course at the Phoenix school."
Tom noticed that Merrythought looked a bit off at this announcement. Tom did not really like the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor but he could see where the new class could be taking over her area. Apparently his father did too.
After the Headmaster's introduction, the new Professor Evans said a few words. "Thank you for your greeting. My class will focus on learning to defend oneself from attack by fellow witches and wizards. We will work on both formal dueling and magical combat. This class augments your Defense Against the Dark Arts studies. Since we will work on only one area of that curriculum, you will still be required to take that class. Thank you."
As the new professor sat down, Nott leaned over to Tom. "That seemed like an odd speech from your dad."
Tom nodded his head towards Merrythought. "I think Dad was trying to reassure Merrythought he was not after her job."
"Thank you, Professor Evans," Dippet was saying as James sat down. "Due to space considerations, the professor's office will be located in the former location of the second floor girls' bathroom. A new, smaller bathroom may be found down the hall."
Headmaster Dippet continued his speech but Tom was no longer paying attention. Instead he was staring at his dad. James threw him a subtle wink. Tom smirked in return. Well, that answered the problem of sneaking into the girls' loo to get into the Chamber!
2 September 1941
"I didn't know there was a lounge on the seventh floor," Mary commented as Tom led them inside the room. It was very comfortably appointed with a chairs and a couch settled around a fire. Tea and biscuits sat on a table in the middle.
"Professor Evans opened it for us," Nott commented from where he was already seated in the room.
Tom led Mary, Xurana and Laura into the room. Mary and Laura settled onto the couch while Xurana wandered around the room looking at the paintings and furniture.
"I've been up here before," Xurana insisted. "I know this room wasn't here before."
Nott threw her a disbelieving glance. "We go to a school that had three new towers appear over night and you are worried about one new room appearing?"
"Come on, Xurana. Sit down. I want to hear what Tom has to say."
Xurana didn't glance at Mary's commanding tone, but wandered over to take a seat in a chair anyway.
Once Xurana was seated, Laura smiled at Tom. "What was so important you couldn't talk to us in the common room about? And why aren't Ella, Janek, or Andrea here too?"
"We have to discuss some things about our House. This doesn't involve them," Tom answered.
"Too bad," Mary commented with a slightly false note of regret in her voice. Tom resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Mary was a great girl but all of the girls made comments about the others when they were absent. It was like they were fighting for a prize or something. Tom didn't understand it. Nott claimed he didn't either but Tom wasn't sure he believed him.
"I wanted to talk to all of you about some things I learned over the summer. Very important things that we can't tell anyone outside this group yet," Tom said. He pulled a scroll out of his robe.
"This is a contract to keep anything I tell you secret unless I give you permission. Nott has already signed it. If you don't feel you can sign it I'll understand but I can't tell you anything."
Laura picked up the scroll. "This is a magically-binding contract?"
Tom nodded, "I figured out how to do it from some notebooks my father had in his library. They belonged to a friend of his while he was in school."
Laura looked up at Tom. "Is this that important?"
Tom nodded, "I think so."
"Why?" Xurana asked.
"I can't answer that until after you sign the contract."
Mary had been looking at Tom with a speculative look. She took the contract from Laura and quickly signed her name. Handing it back she said, "I want to know what has you so stirred up."
Laura signed immediately after while Xurana seemed to be hesitant. "What if we think someone else should be told?"
"You won't be able to," Tom replied. "The magic will prevent you from telling anyone what I tell you here tonight."
"Just sign it, Xurana," Nott said in a bored tone. "Or you can leave."
Xurana threw Nott a disgusted look but signed the contract. Once she was done, she dropped the quill and looked at Tom. "What is so important?"
Tom picked up his tea, sipped it, and put it back down. "Everything we have been taught about out House is wrong." Tom paused to hold up his hands to prevent the girls from interrupting him. "I know this is going to be difficult for you to hear, but please, just listen," he said in a pleading voice.
Tom looked at the girls. "This summer I inherited a set of journals. They were Salazar Slytherin's from his student days until he left Hogwarts. He talked about his dreams and what he wanted from his students. It wasn't until after he was damaged in a magical accident that he came to hate Muggles and the Muggle-born. His illness warped the image people had of his House."
"He wanted students who were mentally flexible. Slytherin wanted people who could look at a problem and come up with unique solutions. This came to us as cunning. He wanted the ambitious students, yes. But by ambitious it originally meant the driven students, not to win-at-all-costs. Let's face it. If you want to be sneaky, don't get put into the House known for openly 'sneaky' people.
The girls sat stunned by Tom's words. Mary sat with her jaw open, looking at Tom in shock. Her face went blank during Tom's comments. Laura smiled at Tom with an excited look on her face. Xurana seemed the most upset at Tom's revelations.
"How can you say that? How do you know those journals are real? What makes you think that you can say that over a thousand years of House traditions are wrong? Our House traditions formed the basis of true wizard society!" With each question, Xurana's voice grew louder.
Tom leaned back in his chair to observe Xurana. She had always been the most observant and contained of his friends. Her outburst seemed a bit out of character for her.
"The journals are real. I have spent a good part of the summer reviewing them. There is no chance they are forgeries."
"How can you be sure of that?" she challenged.
Tom gave her a rather cool smile. "Among other things, they were written is Parseltongue. That rather limits who could have written them."
Xurana gave Tom a small smirk. "So we have to take your word for what they say? How do we know this isn't a power play by a Half-blood to get more power from the Purebloods?"
"Xurana!" Laura cried out. "How can you say something like that about Tom? He's been our friend since we got to Hogwarts!"
Tom ignored Laura and glared at Xurana. "I guess you will have to take my word for it, Pureblood. Unless you have another Parselmouth hanging around?"
"Where did you get the journals?" Xurana challenged Tom. "How can you prove their authenticity? Why would you get them?"
Tom was starting to see red crowding his vision as his anger grew. Leaning forward in his chair, Tom almost hissed out, "I am the only living descendant of Salazar Slytherin! I retrieved his journals from the Chamber of Secrets! No one has a better right than me to those journals!"
Mary and Laura looked almost ready to faint at Tom's angry words. Even as shocking as Tom's claims about the mistakes of their House, this one put that to shame. Neither could think of any possible way to react to the news. Not since Slytherin left the school had a known descendant of the Founder attended Hogwarts.
The surprising reaction was Xurana's. Her angry expression abruptly dropped away to be replaced by a small smile. Not a smirk, an honest smile.
"You finally admitted it. I wondered how long it would take."
Her sudden reversal caught Tom by surprise. "What?" he asked as Nott started to laugh.
Xurana's smile became slightly smug. "Really, Tom. I've known since First year. A Parselmouth that is obeyed by all the snake ornaments in the dorm? You have a snake familiar and don't need to use the password to enter the common room. The snake during our House initiation almost bowed to you! Every year it looks for you before beginning the initiation now. It wasn't that hard to figure out."
When Tom heard her comments it was his turn to act stunned. "You knew?" he asked.
"I just needed you to admit it," Xurana confirmed with a grin. "I figured if I got you angry enough you would tell us."
Nott chuckled, "That certainly worked. So much for our 'cunning' Founder's Heir! Hey!"
Nott's chair suddenly flipped back, throwing him onto the floor. A blizzard of pillows dropped out of the ceiling atop the Slytherin Fourth year.
"Tom! You're playing dirty!"
The girls looked at Nott being buried by the blizzard of pillows. Mary muttered, "I'm not going to ask where the pillows came from." Then they turned back and ignored the ambushed Nott to concentrate on Tom.
Laura turned to Xurana, "Why didn't you tell us?"
The pretty Fourth year shrugged. "I knew but I didn't know. I didn't want to start a rumor. I figured Tom would tell us sooner or later." She turned a mock glare on Tom, "I expected you to tell us last year."
"How long have you known you were Slytherin's Heir?" Mary asked Tom.
Tom shrugged, "It was a couple of years before I came to Hogwarts," he answered vaguely.
"So when we were going through all of the House inductions you already knew? You must have been laughing at the older students trying to impress us," Laura commented with a small smile.
Tom felt relieved they were taking this so well. Much better than he expected. The girls were his friends but all of them were raised in families where one or both parents were Slytherin alumni. Slytherin parents tended to push their House values on their children even more then parents from the other three traditional Hogwarts Houses.
Xurana broke Tom out of his thoughts. "What else did you learn in the journals?"
For the next two hours Tom told the three girls and Nott all about the history recorded in Slytherin's journals. Tom read some of the passages to the group. The Houses did not exist for the first ten years of the school. At first the Houses were informal groupings for the purposes of contests and organizations. The dorms were segregated by age and sex, not House affiliation. It was not until shortly before Slytherins magical accident that the House structure became formalized.
The five Fourth years discussed their plans for changing the course of their House.
"You do realize we are going to have to keep the Revolution pranks going?" Nott asked.
"I had planned to," Tom answered, "but why do you say we have to keep it going?"
"It'll keep the other Houses distracted. If they are worried about the pranks, no one is going to have time to wonder what is going on in Slytherin."
"Except, Ella, Andrea and Janek," Xurana commented. "They spend a lot of their free time in our common room. I think you should tell them, Tom." She glanced at the other two girls and then back at Tom. "They will realize something is going on."
"I planned to tell them after we discussed it tonight," Tom said. "They are not in our House, but are almost adopted Slytherins." Tom snorted, "I think Ella would give me an earful if we kept this secret.
Nott laughed, "She thinks she is everyone's mother. I start doing my homework before she even walks into the common room now. Too afraid of one of her 'talks'."
Mary gave her friend a smile full of mock sympathy, "Oh, so it's because you are afraid of her and not that you are sweet on her?"
The girls laughed as Nott attempted to protest his innocence. Tom kept his comments to himself. He did notice Nott seemed particularly concerned that Laura accepted he had no romantic interest in the Polish witch. Laura herself just laughed at Nott's protests of innocence, but Tom wasn't sure she hadn't noticed the same thing also.
Mary caught Tom's eye and winked, telling Tom she had the same thoughts he did. Tom laughed quietly at Mary's subtle manipulation of Nott. Tom made a 'tisk-tisk' motion with his fingers to which Mary gave him an innocent smile.
Tom interrupted the laughter with a quiet cough. "We need to get back to our dorm. It is almost curfew. I just wanted to say thank you to each of you. We are going to set Slytherin back onto the course Salazar originally intended. We will show the rest of our House what it means to be a true Slytherin."
"You can be so dramatic sometimes, Tom. You sound like a politician," Mary commented with an innocent smile.
"Oi! No need to get insulting!" Tom growled with a mock pout.
The others laughed at Tom's expression.
3 September 1941
Professor Evans's Office
Tom knocked lightly on the door that formerly opened into the second floor girls' bathroom. A muted comment from the other side was all the invitation Tom needed to open the door.
"Professor Evans, I presume?"
James laughed. "Cheeky brat. Come in and close the door."
Tom stepped into the room and absently closed the door behind him. The former bathroom looked nothing like it did before. About half the size of the original bathroom, the office looked like it came from a modern (for the 1940's) Muggle executive office. Well-constructed dark oak bookshelves lined two of the walls. A number of books shared space with numerous wizarding photos and other items. A large round table dominated the center of the room. The table did not have legs, but rather the entire center seemed to be made of solid wood. A large painting of Hogwarts hung on the wall behind Professor Evans's desk. The desk itself was modest sized but matched the construction and wood of the bookshelves.
James set the book he was on his desk aside and smiled at his eldest son. "And what can I do for you today, Mr. Evans?"
"I just wanted to see what you had done to the place, Professor Evans. It looks a lot like your office at the Phoenix Foundation but smaller."
"Your mum did it with Mrs. Catchbottom. I came in after the Sorting Ceremony and the room was done."
"What happened to the Chamber opening?"
James hissed, Open
The large round conference table slid to the side to reveal the opening to the Chamber of Secrets.
Tom glanced down the tunnel. "Did you clean it? The sides look scrubbed."
"The house elves did it last night. Apparently they know where the Chamber is but can only access it with the permission of a Parselmouth who knows where it is. I called an elf here to ask if they could clean it. I hadn't seen an elf that excited since Dobby. Next thing I know there was a swarm of elves working on the tunnel and the whole Chamber. I guess having an area of the school they couldn't clean drove them spare. It was like Christmas morning for them."
Tom laughed at the image his father's words conjured up for him. It would have been fun to watch the elves working on the centuries old layers of dust, cobwebs and slime.
"Watch this," James said with a smile. Stairs
Tom watched as the cracks he noticed on his broom trip down the tunnel widened to reveal circular stairs spiraling down the tunnel. The activation of the stairs also caused magical torches in small recessed niches to ignite.
"Neat," was Tom's only comment.
James smirked. Slide
The hissed comment caused to stone stairs to change like the stairs to the girls' dorms. The stairs now formed a perfect slide that spiraled down to the basilisk's feeding chamber below. The torches had also extinguished to leave a hapless intruder sliding down into an abyss only to be potentially met with a monster snake.
"Oh, that's evil," Tom said softly. He was impressed at the cunning thinking of his ancestor; although he did remember this was intended to hurt people, not just prank them.
"I have something else to show you."
Tom looked up as James closed the tunnel with a hissed word. The chairs around the table repositioned themselves neatly around the table. In less than five seconds there was no trace a tunnel had ever been opened here.
"Come over to my desk," James said. James led Tom around the desk to stand behind it. James turned to look at the painting of Hogwarts hanging on the wall.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
Tom looked up in shock as the painting dissolved into a black canvas. Then writing appeared on the canvas:
The Count and Countess
With Assistance and Inspiration from
Messrs. Prongs, Padfoot, and Moony
Presents
The Marauders' Map, Mark II
The writing faded as it changed into a map of Hogwarts. Like the original Marauder's Map, this Map marked the names of everyone in the castle or on the grounds. Each name was trimmed in a color to highlight House affiliation, staff, or visitors.
"That's wicked!" Tom said in excitement. "You made a new Map!"
"Even better," James smirked. "Map Locate Albus Dumbledore"
The Map suddenly pulled the Transfiguration classroom with Dumbledore's attached office and their immediate surrounding environs. Dumbledore's name was bordered by blue to indicate a professor. Tom noticed the red bordered name of Minerva McGonagall in the classroom with him.
Before Tom could comment, James said, "Map Change Hogsmeade"
Now the Map changed to show the whole village of Hogsmeade. All of the shops and houses appeared on the Map with the dots of the villagers and shoppers moving through the village.
Tom was shocked. "Dad, you did all this?"
James smirked. "I found the book my father and his friends swiped from the Potter library when they made the original Map. Between that, the Map and your mother's help we have the Marauders Map Mark II."
Looking at the Map, Tom asked, "You have everything in the village on the Map?"
"All the buildings, yes. The public buildings, like the Three Broomsticks and the Post Office, have the internal floor plan visible. Private homes it just shows who is in the house. It would have been an invasion of privacy to have the Map show too much "
"How did you do this?"
"Hogwarts wasn't really too difficult to do the basic map. It ties into the school wards and the schools magical connection to what we call the Room of Requirement. Only a Founder's heir could do it. My father could because of his Potter connection directly to both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. You could do it as the eldest of the Slytherin line. Zebedee Longbottom could also as the current Gryffindor heir. Whoever the senior Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff heirs are now can as well."
"Hogsmeade was more difficult as no ward surrounded the town. When I added some additional wards on our house, the Minister allowed me to place a very light proximity ward on the whole village. The wards 'tastes' each person's magical signature entering their zones. Then the Map can track people as they move through the warded areas. Neat, huh?"
Tom nodded, "Very neat. Can this tell you when one of Grindelwald's people come inside the ward?"
"It only says they are a visitor. The school wards only recognize students, staff and visitor. The Hogsmeade wards are even simpler with just villager and visitor. It will alert me if anyone tries to breach the wards on our house."
Looking at the Map, Tom muttered, "There goes getting away with any pranks."
James laughed, "No one else knows about this Map except your mother. My father, Padfoot and Remus would be very upset with me if I used the Map to stop pranks. So, I guess I will just not notice those little things."
Tom smiled at his father. He was relieved that pranks would go unnoticed but he wondered what it would mean to his plans for Slytherin.
Almost like he could read Tom's mind, James motioned Tom to a chair and told him to sit. Tom became very concerned over his father's sudden seriousness as he sat in the indicated chair.
James settled into his chair. "I have some news for you Tom about Grindelwald's hunt for you."
Concerns about the Slytherins and his plans for them dropped completely away. "What have you heard?"
"After the 'invasion' last spring, we became concerned that it really made no sense. Their force was enough to be taken seriously but not enough to hold any land they took. We started looking for infiltrators."
James sighed, "Last week we learned someone at the Ministry accessed Tom Marvolo Riddle's birth records. Unfortunately it seems to be someone with Wizengamot connections and we cannot tell who it was."
"So they know who I am?" Tom asked in an almost whisper.
James smiled, "Not exactly. My superior in the Department of Mysteries replaced certain key facts about your life. For example, he removed three years off your age. He also did not have you arriving in the orphanage until you were four. This means Tom Evans falls outside their search parameters."
Tom breathed a bit easier at the news.
"You will have to be more careful about you use of your Parselmouth abilities. They automatically connect you in most people minds with Slytherin's line. If the Dark Army spies hear about a 14 year-old Parselmouth named Tom, they may grab you no matter what their profile says."
Now Tom felt a sense of guilt. His father was doing everything in his power to protect Tom and the rest of the family. The Dark Lord wanted the Heir of Slytherin for his own purpose. And here he was, telling his friends exactly who he was. While he tried to change his House, the adult world was trying to drag him into the war.
Tom realized the 'right' thing to do for his own protection was to put aside his plans for developing the true vision of Slytherin. But who knew how long this war would last? Tom felt this had to be done while he was a student. Once he left school, it would be much more difficult to influence the direction of the students in the House. Right now he was one of their own. As a Fourth year, he was at the prefect point. He was old enough to be taken seriously, but still young enough to have time to turn the House. If he waited until Sixth or Seventh year, he would not have enough time to implement his plans.
Tom struggled with what the right thing to do was. He knew what his father would say. Keeping him safe would be the most important thing. But what would Harry Potter say? Tom had heard stories about his father's time at Hogwarts since he first learned the truth about who his father was and their connection.
The lesson Tom remembered hearing in all the Harry Potter stories was Harry always did what was necessary to protect others and fight evil. He was driven to it. Why did Harry have to rescue the Philosopher's Stone as a First year? After he learned of the Prophecy, Tom could accept that as a motive, but even before then, Harry always worked to help people around him.
"Tom?"
Tom smiled slightly at his father, "Sorry Dad. I got lost in my thoughts." What he was really thinking was 'I glad my father never tries to use Legilimency on me!' while using his rudimentary Occlumency skills to keep the nervousness from showing on his face.
"Tom, keep yourself safe. The most important thing right now is your safety. I don't want to face your mother if anything happened to you."
"Okay, Dad. I'll do my best to make you proud."
Although he felt guilty, Tom was proud of that statement. What he meant by making his father proud and what he heard were two different things. This was Tom's turn to do something for his father. The corruption of Slytherin ultimately caused the rise of Lord Voldemort. By correcting that, Tom could ensure all those who died because of his alternate self would be able to live full lives. He would make both the adult James Evans and the teenage Harry Potter proud of him.
After a couple more minutes of small talk, Tom left his father's office. With a big smile, Tom made his way back to his common room.
If Tom turned back to his father's office as he walked away, he would have noticed James standing in the doorway watching him leave. An odd expression halfway between frustration and amusement fought on his face. Once Tom was out of sight, James sighed and walked back to his desk.
James sat in his chair and called up the Marauders'' Map to see Tom approaching the Slytherin common room. James watched for a few minutes as Tom's dot was surrounded by dots labeled with his friends' names.
With a muttered, "Mischief Managed," James shut down the Map. Staring out the window James wondered to himself, "Was I always that obvious to Albus when I was about to do something heroically stupid? I think I owe my old Headmaster an apology."
In his imagination, James could hear the old wizard chuckling his agreement and patting him on the shoulder
3 September 1941
Somewhere outside Liverpool
"Have you learned anything yet?"
The question was all the greeting the dark cloaked wizard received as he stepped into the Muggle flat outside of Liverpool. The building looked like any of a dozen similar ones in the area. Most of the residents worked in the various factories and yards. Unemployment was almost unheard of as every hand was pressed into service to help with the Muggle war effort.
No one really noticed the young widowed woman who moved into the flat with her brothers. The neighbors all knew the newcomers worked in one of the factories but they never really asked which one. No magic was used in the flat, but a very subtle ward kept the locals from being too curious about the new tenants.
No one arrived in the flat via magic. No Portkeys or apparitions were permitted within 30 minutes of travel from the flat. No wizards were known to live in their area of Liverpool. None of the Dark Army agents wanted the British Ministry of Magic to become curious about who was using magic in the area.
Acturus Black was not happy with the restriction. Traveling by Muggle means was beneath the dignity of a Black. Enlisting with the Dark Lord was a move to preserve the Ancient and Noble Family of Black. The British Ministry was being led astray by Muggle-lovers like Potter and that idiot Unspeakable, the Count! Unfortunately, the Dark Lord's lackeys did not seem to recognize the honor he did them by joining their forces.
The Dark Lord promised the Black family dominion over all Britain after Grindelwald's victory. Acturus Black would be the Dark Lord's regent in Britain whilst Grindelwald directly ruled the rest of Europe. Thus Black would be able to ensure the survival of his family and the other right thinking Pureblood families of England.
"Have you learned anything yet?"
The bored condescension of the witch's voice caused Black's blood to boil.
In cool, aristocratic tones Black answered, "My son sent me a detailed profile on all of the incoming First years at Hogwarts. None of them fit the profile precisely. Two boys fit the correct physical profile. We confirmed neither are orphans. One is a Pureblood Ravenclaw and I know his family. The other is a Muggle-born Hufflepuff. Slytherin's Heir is not at Hogwarts."
The witch nodded, "One of our sympathizers who 'fled' France procured a minor position at the Phoenix school. One student there seems to fit the profile but it may be a stretch."
One of the Dark Army wizards asked, "Could he be home schooled? I didn't attend a magical school. My parents trained me themselves. If their Ministry learned who the boy was they could have prevented him from attending their school, Christina."
The Dark witch nodded her agreement. "What you say makes sense, Wolfgang. Black, find out if the Ministry has him stashed somewhere. Otherwise we may need to try to grab this boy from the Phoenix school and 'test' him."
Black nodded, "It will take time. I dare not move too fast or I will draw attention to myself. I noticed they started watching the Wizengamot members closer than before."
Christina waved his concern away. "Just get the information. Oh, and have your son look at the Second years at Hogwarts also. He may have started earlier than we expected."
Black visibly clenched his jaw at the witch's obvious dismissal. Instead of the hex he desperately wanted to cast, he simple said, "Very well." Then he turned to make his way back home.