Long before Harry Potter was born, another orphan was forced into this cruel world... Alone, hated and without support, he nonetheless became the most terrible wizard who ever lived.
But this time he won't be alone! With a friend by his side, Tom Riddle will forge a more glorious destiny than his isolated counterpart ever could.
"Hi!" the blonde girl half-smiled at him, though the emotion did not reach her stark blue eyes.
"Hi." he returned in an equally unenthusiastic manner, not bothering to try and fake any joy at meeting an annoying stranger that he would have to share a room with for the foreseeable future.
A few seconds of silence settled over them as he took in the miserable place that was supposed to be his new home. White tiled floor, brown tiled walls, tiled everything. One ratty bed on each side of the cramped room, one dark wardrobe and one table with a single rickety looking chair... otherwise, the room was completely devoid of any decorations or life. Even the world outside the window looked grey and dead.
He bloody hated it all, already.
"I'm Tanya." the annoying girl shared unprompted.
Well, at least he wouldn't have to ask her for her name now…
"Tom." he simply replied, ready to get this over with.
He hated that name too.
"Glad to meet you, Tom." Tanya smiled without joy again and he wanted to hit her.
Obviously he did not, because he was sure the Matron would lash him or something, so Tom merely grunted and went to unpack his things. He was sure he would soon be rid of the girl anyways.
o-TxT-o
It had been a month since his imprisonment in this place and Tom did not know what to think of it.
Wool's Orphanage, despite whatever intention its founder might've once upon a time have had, was not a kind place. Each day was filled with monotonous chores and rigorous discipline, punishing each break of the rules with fierce and unrelenting brutality, and whenever the watchful Sisters left the children to their own devices, fierce battles of territory and rank were fought amongst themselves.
For example, Ricky, or the 'Lunch King' as he preferred to be called, ran a gang whose sole purpose was to exploit his fellow orphans of their rare desserts. Most days they were handed simple apples for supper, but on Sundays the Matron sometimes treated her charges to something more delectable. Small cups of Jell-O or the odd piece of chocolate, were prized commodities which he and his cronies collected under threat of violence.
Tanya, as Tom had quickly learned, also held a great interest in chocolate. So great in fact, that she would not cave to the Lunch King's demands and relinquish her precious prize to his greedy, fat hands. The little gnat had then tried to corner her in the hallways after bible studies class, surrounding her with five of his friends, each at least a year older than the diminutive blonde.
Tom of course had hung back, content to observe the trashing his roommate was about to receive when he was unexpectedly proven wrong.
She did not get beaten to a pulp.
No, instead her bullies were the ones being trashed.
Swift kicks to the knees and their groins that had even him wince in sympathy, quickly shut the boys down, sending them to the ground where Tanya placed a dainty little foot on Ricky's wobbly throat and glared him into submission.
It was enchanting.
That power…
That confidence…
Tom craved it like a man in the desert would a glass of water.
After she was done with them, she stalked away, leaving the scene of the crime before a Sister could catch her in the act. Later, when one of the crying boys went snitching, she was the picture of innocence, claiming to have been in her room to study her textbooks.
That was also something Tom took note of.
How easily she manipulated the gullible woman with her wide eyes and a shy bite of her lips.
"But Ma'am, how could I have beaten up those six boys? I'm barely strong enough to open a pickle jar on my own…"
It seemed so easy. So frighteningly, wonderfully simple.
Thus, when the Matron had passed by on her nightly inspection of their rooms, he couldn't help but whisper:
"How did you do it?"
"What do you mean, Tom?" she quietly asked back from the opposite side of the room.
"Ricky and his gang… They all looked stronger than you… And you still beat them and got away with it. How?"
"Oh, you see… Strength is useless without the capacity to use it. They could have easily overwhelmed me if they had properly utilized their advantages. Like, they could have instantly tackled me to the ground and held me there. But instead they waited around and spent valuable seconds posturing, trying to scare me. Do you know why they did that?"
Tom thought about it for a while, before whispering his answer.
"Because they were overconfident. They thought they couldn't lose."
"Indeed. But you can always lose. No matter how strong you think you are, how many friends you have backing you up…"
Her voice turned wistful and strangely sad; in a way that he had never heard her talking like before.
"You can always lose."
The wind howled angrily against their window as Tom ruminated on Tanya's words long into the night. Ultimately, he found them to be true. His father had arms bigger than his head and shoulders two times as broad as him and yet he still died all the same. Even the Jesus guy that the Sisters kept preaching about died like a pathetic wimp in the end.
Everybody died eventually, no matter their power.
So, he just had to be better than all of them if he wanted to avoid that pitiful fate!
o-TxT-o
They were often left alone together, as contradictory as that sounded. The other orphans were irritating and so he kept his distance, which most of the time resulted in him being near Tanya who also kept to herself, hiding in some corner or another with her head in strange books. Tom had caught a few glances at the contents of said books and had, at first, thought it to be a different language before she explained to him – much to his embarrassment – that it was simply mathematics.
Of course they were taught about maths in class, but whatever Tanya was reading was so advanced that he could not make heads nor tails of it. Why were there so many letters between the numbers!? That didn't make any sense! Still, he didn't bother her about it, seeing as she was pleasantly quiet and her presence warded off bullies, who by now had learned not to mess with her.
Where he couldn't avoid the other children however, was during meal times. All the boys and girls had to present themselves in the gigantic main hall three times a day and eat what they were served. The Sisters periodically walked around to check for any 'mischievous behaviour', but mostly left them alone to eat at their own grown-ups table.
The rules were simple: If you made a mess while eating, you got punished. If you were tardy, you got punished. If your uniform was dirty, you got punished. If you were unduly loud, you got punished. If you said your prayer wrong, you got punished .
(Interestingly though, he never caught Tanya saying her prayer. She just folded her hands and silently moved her lips with an angry stare in her eyes, not producing a single sound.)
What the rules unfortunately did not account for was the other kids being giant idiots.
He had just been slurping down his thin vegetable soup like usual when the boy on the opposite side of the table got the bright idea to tip over his bowl, spilling the hot broth over Tom's pants. Yelping in pain, he would have nearly fallen out of his seat if not for Tanya's steadying grip.
That fresh bastard had it coming!
While the nitwit laughed and gloated about his successful prank, Tom's hatred grew and grew. It was a boiling fire inside him that rose through his veins and up to his throat where he released it with burning clarity.
"Choke on it!"
The hiss was both incredibly loud and nearly silent simultaneously and the world seemed to halt in its tracks for a moment as the boy's eyes glazed over.
Then he began coughing.
His hands gripped his throat as he started to sputter and convulse. Slowly his face turned blue and his eyes bulged as he suffocated.
The beautiful moment was brought to an end when Tanya appeared like a flash behind him and repeatedly hit him on the back. That seemed to snap the idiot out of it and he began instead to pale dramatically.
Throwing himself to the floor like the worm he was, the bully scooted backwards away from Tom, while pointing at him with a shaky finger.
"G-g-get away from m-me, freak!"
Eventually, due to the conflicting statements of everybody at the table, the Sister decided to punish them both for making a ruckus. It could have been worse, considering that they only had to stand with their face to a wall for an hour.
That night it was Tanya for a change, who asked him something.
"Did you do that?"
They both knew what she meant, but he decided to play dumb.
He didn't want her to get scared or angry at him for it like the Sisters might.
"I don't know what you mean…" Tom deflected, yet she was undeterred.
"That feeling deep in your core. That pressure in your gut that rises and rises until you can almost taste it… It's almost like electricity coursing through your blood. That thing."
What could she possibly know about that? Did she have that special gift as well!?
In hindsight it seemed almost obvious... The Matron had put them in the same room, despite her being a girl and him being a boy. That was clearly because they were both too different from the other kids to fit in anywhere else!
They were better than them.
And if she had the gift as well, maybe she could teach him more about how to use it…
"I guess…" he hesitantly replied, searching her expression. "Do you?"
"Yes."
Wow. Maybe he wasn't alone after all...
"Tom?"
"Mmh?"
"I think it's magic. We're mages, Tom."
Mages, huh?
o-TxT-o
Sitting on the piece of cardboard, so that his trousers wouldn't get dirty, Tom watched the other children on the yard play one of their boring games again.
"There will be a war soon."
Blinking his eyes slowly in confusion, Tom turned to look at Tanya who was sitting next to him, her book lying closed in her lap.
"What makes you say that?"
"I've seen it in the newspapers that the Sisters read during breakfast. Germany's war efforts are only growing with each passing year. In a few years Britain is going to get sucked into the conflict one way or another."
Tom didn't ask what made her so sure about that. If Tanya was saying it, then it was probably true. She knew a lot of strange stuff.
"And what does that have to do with us? We're too young to be soldiers."
They didn't send kids to the front lines. Looking around, he couldn't help but sneer imagining these pathetic weaklings holding a gun. No way would the King be stupid enough to entrust England's safety to these wastes of skin!
"They?" Tanya inclined her head in the other childrens' direction. "Definitely. But we are mages. We are the only children in this whole orphanage that possess magic. What does that tell you?"
"That being a mage is pretty rare, right?" he asked after a second of thinking.
Tanya nodded her head, making a few of her golden locks spill over her face, which she absentmindedly pushed back.
"Exactly. I'd wager it's something like one in a thousand or maybe even less, statistically speaking..."
He didn't know what 'statistically' meant, but nodded along anyways, committing her every word to memory.
"After all, have you ever heard of any mages in Britain before?"
"Merlin?"
Tom remembered that name only from a story book, but he was supposed to be an important guy in history.
"Well, if Merlin ever existed then he died hundreds of years ago. Today there aren't any publicly known mages around. Why could that be?"
She was testing him and he was loath to lose to her, so Tom kicked his brain into overdrive.
"Mmmh… Maybe they're secret?" Nodding to himself as the pieces clicked together, he continued: "Like, maybe they hide from the world, because all the non-magical people are so horrible. Like the Sisters."
'Like his father' was left unsaid, but still so loud in his own head.
"That's certainly a possibility. But a whole entire secret society of magical people sounds a bit far-fetched, in my opinion."
Shame and a little bit of sadness crashed into Tom. He had disappointed her with his answer! Of course that wasn't right, this wasn't some sort of story book after all!
"I think they're held under lock and key by the government. Just think about it, people like us… We can become incredibly powerful. Stronger and faster and more deadly than anyone else. With the war on the horizon, I'm sure the prime minister and the King are going to use them as Special Forces."
Focusing back on what she was saying, he attempted to make up for his mistake by finishing her thought.
"And that means they are going to want us. There aren't a lot of mages around, so they take every single one they can get her hands on. All for the war with Germany."
Tanya regarded him seriously before sighing in uncharacteristic frustration.
"Yeah, that's precisely what I fear..."
A stupid kid was yelling something in the background, but he paid them no mind.
"What are we going to do about it?"
He didn't want to go to war!
"We train."
"For what?"
"We train to become strong enough to fend them off until we're old enough to take a ship to America. Far away, to a land of freedom and endless economic possibilities..."
Freedom sounded good. He would have to find out more about America and what 'economic possibilities' really meant, but if Tanya was going then he was coming with her!
"Sounds good."
And then the old bell tolled and they had to get back inside, lest they wanted to get their ears pulled for tardiness.
o-TxT-o
Besides the silvery rays of the moon, merely the flickering light of a stolen candle illuminated their bedroom. At night – after the Matron had made her rounds – was the only time and place where they could do this without fear of accidentally being uncovered by a nosy brat.
Still, it was so exciting!
Tom hadn't felt as pumped to learn magic as he had ever felt in his life for anything!!
Finally, Tanya took a deep breath and broke their mutual silence.
"We are both new to this, so let us set some ground rules first. Magic is dangerous. In studying it blindly we must not become overconfident and hurt ourselves. As far as we know, we might be the only two mages on the planet, so it would be a great waste if this ability died with us due to our incompetence."
Grumbling, Tom agreed. Magic was the best thing that ever happened to him. Except maybe meeting Tanya, but secretly he always attributed that to his gift too.
"Furthermore, magic is something instinctual. It's produced by our bodies and sometimes strikes out on its own when we experience strong emotions. Yet, are we going to content ourselves with that? Becoming nothing but slaves to our whims in order to sometimes harness the force that should be ours by birthright?"
"No!"
Tom was a tiny bit surprised by the vehemence in his own tone. But after a second's thought he understood it, he was nobody's slave!
"Exactly. Magic is something that we have to master instead of it mastering us. It's the power to bend the world to our will with nothing but our thoughts and it's up to us to harness that potential."
When she put it like that, his gift sounded even more awesome!
"And the way that we are going to attain absolute control over our untamed magic is through cold logic. We have to dictate precisely where and what it can do in order for the magic to fulfill our specific desires. We need to be able to understand it at the deepest level, like we understand the motion of our fingers or the balance of our feet. Only then can we one hundred percent rely on our magic to never fail or abandon us."
His magic abandoning him? HIM!? No, that was just inconceivable. That should never be allowed to happen!!
"Good… I see the fire of self-improvement is already burning inside you."
Tanya smiled and suddenly he felt put on edge for some odd reason.
"Let's see you channel that fire into algebra then, because we are going to need a lot of it."
Oh no… Had those horrible books she read driven her insane!?
o-TxT-o
Over the years his control over his magic slipped multiple times, injuring some of the kids and once turning the Matron's hair baby blue. It rankled his pride a bit that Tanya never seemed to have problems with her emotions, always being perfectly composed in everything she did, but he could never find it in himself to hate her. Indeed, Tom shuddered to think where he would be now without her. Alone, surrounded by hateful morons and oppressive adults who despised his very existence, unable to even call upon his magic by choice…
No, he had decided that she would be his sister in all but blood. If that fat oaf had been able to call himself his father by virtue of once sleeping with his mother then Tom had all the right in the world to form new connections if he so desired. His parents had failed to fulfill their duties to their child and so he felt more than entitled to a replacement. Tanya would be his sister, regardless of if she wanted it or not. No one else could have her in their family...
Not that there was any risk of that happening anytime soon. The ongoing war on the European mainland laid heavy on everyone's mind and so fewer and fewer people were coming by to consider an adoption. They were both 'freakish' enough for the Matron to not even bring them out whenever an adult did show up, if only for slightly different reasons.
Tanya always knew the perfect thing to say to play up the façade of a bright but bookish young girl, completing nearly double the amount of chores as the other kids to gain free access to the local library. Yet, that same inexhaustible drive and intellect somehow scared the Matron. In her view, Tanya was an unnatural existence that exhibited all the traits that she saw as wrong with 'modern women'. Once, his roommate had made the mistake of speculating about economics in the Matron's presence and the ghastly woman had flown into a fit of rage about the 'scandalous and shameless suffragette spirit pervading the youth'.
The Sisters knew, however, that Tanya was reliable enough to be allowed to visit the library on her own; a luxury which they never granted to Tom. He was reviled by the Matron for his 'devilishness', whatever that old crone meant by that. It wasn't his fault that the other children never seemed to learn from the punishments he inflicted upon them. And really, if not for Tanya's cautioning hand, he might have pushed one or two of them down a flight of stairs. They were all so worthless when compared to her.
What made living in the orphanage mostly bearable, was their shared magic training. At first it had taken him an hour of migraine-inducing calculations and absolute focus to produce nothing but a tiny light above his fingertips. It was as if magic was sluggish, actively resisting his will to get pressed into the mathematical form he desired, like a bird resisting its cage. Then, once he finally mastered that little trick to make it work in under a minute, everything seemed to snap into place and his magic fully submitted to his will.
It was exhilarating...
Now he could do much more than produce simple motes of light. He could form a hot beam to burn stuff at a distance (Tanya called it a 'laser' for some odd reason) and he was able to project a weak field above his skin that protected him from attacks! That same field could even be concentrated into a small blade that was wickedly sharp, able to cut through solid metal like butter!
Sadly, he could only maintain one spell at any given time, but he didn't feel too bad about it, as his sister was also unable to do so, despite her genius intellect when it came to mathematics of any kind...
Nonetheless, he could make up for this glaring weakness by employing his focus orb.
Tanya had cobbled the tiny machine together from a pocket watch that he had taken off of a drunkard in front of the gate and the Matron's radio. It had taken her nearly a year of effort to make it function and Tom still couldn't wrap his head around how she had been able to design it in the first place. When she gifted it to him last Christmas, he had barely avoided crying from the sheer joy that filled his heart after using it.
That night cemented her in his mind forever as his family. No one else would be able to match this gift, no matter how many times she tried to downplay her achievements by calling it a 'rudimentary prototype'.
With the focus orb hanging around his neck, amplifying his power, Tom felt absolutely invincible. His 'laser' was now hot enough to melt stone, his shield durable enough to take a full punch to the face without making him so much as flinch, and his blade grew to the length of a kitchen knife, ominously glowing in its cerulean glory and eager to spill the blood of all who opposed him.
Naturally, Tanya still beat him more often than not during their secret sparring sessions in the boiler room, but that only made him more eager to get stronger. One day he would handily overpower her and then she would see his true greatness! In his quest to defeat death itself, that was certainly going to be step number one.
Tom was distracted from his daydream by a short knock on the door. A Sister promptly opened it and spoke with a worrying tinge of fear: "There is someone here to see you both."
Like she couldn't leave fast enough, the woman vanished and a middle aged man who looked to be in his sixties stepped into the frame. His hair was grey and wavy and he wore a nice brown suit with a silk scarf loosely hanging over his shoulders. Although he tried to project an aura of friendliness, Tom was instantly on guard.
Was this a government spook, here to enlist them for the war?
He shot a quick look over to Tanya who was only now putting down her pencil, rising slowly from her seat at the table to face the suspicious man.
"Hello there, children. It comes to you two probably as quite the surprise that I am here today."
"Indeed. We don't tend to get many visitors, being orphans and all that, sir." Tanya flatly stated, her posture tense in a way that Tom knew signalled her being ready to lunge forward at a moment's notice.
Mentally he prepared to cast his mage blade…
"Yes… Oh, where are my manners! My name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, but you may call me Albus if you want. I am here today to invite you both to a very special school, built specifically for children like you."
"And what precisely are 'children like us'?" he asked with a charming smile in hopes of distracting the man enough for his sister to finish him off if need be.
"Why, those that possess magic of course!" laughed the man and Tom felt a chill run down his spine.
Had the government known about their talents all this time? Were they being watched all that time?
Tanya hid her hands behind her back and calmly approached the bearded agent.
"And why would you think that we can do… 'magic' as you say? Aren't witches and fairies and such only products of legends and fantasy?"
Looking down at the blonde girl staring straight up at him, the spook shook his head in amusement.
"No, no, no… Witches are quite real, I assure you. As for fairies? Well, they make for a rather nice Christmas decoration if I do say so myself. And how I am sure that you are magically gifted is also pretty easy to explain. Through…"
The man stuck his hand into the inside of his jacket and Tom quickly hopped off the bed to get closer to his right while Tanya pulled up on his left.
"… These letters here!"
Oh… That was anticlimactic. What had a piece of parchment to do with magic?
As if reading his thoughts, the government agent looked him directly in the eyes and held one envelope out to him.
"When a child with magic in their blood reaches the suitable age, the Hogwarts Quill will write down their name and address, so that they may be enrolled into the Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Go on. Take a look."
Hesitantly he took the letter with his name and watched his sister do the same to hers, although she was clearly scanning the parchment for something. He waited until she gave him a near imperceptible nod, before they both opened their envelopes and peered inside.
It instantly struck Tom how fine the paper was and how gorgeous the gilded illustration at the top looked. Four animals were depicted in a crest: A badger, a lion, a snake and an eagle. And in the middle stood an emblazoned 'H', likely short for 'Hogwarts'.
Directing his gaze downward he intently studied what was written there in green ink. Idly, he wondered what the difference between witchcraft and wizardry might be, before discarding it as unimportant.
Despite all the flowery language and confusing terms used in the letter, it didn't actually explain the purpose or structure of the school at all. Highly suspicious…
Well, at least they now knew the man who led this secret government branch; a certain 'Headmaster Armando Dippet' was the source of their misfortune. Tom made sure to remember that name to hunt him down someday. How that bastard knew his name, however, was still a mystery...
The spook spoke up once again: "Furthermore, if that letter fails to convince you, I am the Professor for Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts and as such I have a certain nose, you could say, for magical objects. And you, dear Mr. Riddle, have definitely one such object hanging right around your neck…"
Instinctively he clutched his focus orb. Was the man going to take it away!? He would kill him first!
"Professor Dumbledore, sir, is participation in this school mandatory?" Tanya asked coolly.
He looked genuinely taken aback by the inquiry.
"Not necessarily, no. But it is the only place in Great Britain where you can study magic. Without an education at Hogwarts you will not be able to succeed in the magical world. All but the simplest spells will likely be forever out of your reach and you will be forced to live amongst muggles, I mean, non-magical people."
Not letting any reaction to that claim show on her face, his sister continued her questioning with a steely voice:
"Sir, are mages required to serve King and Country with their lives? Are Hogwarts students compulsorily drafted into the British Armed Forces or similar organizations after graduation?"
Blinking his eyes in shock, the man began to frown.
"My dear child, what gave you the idea? You are children, not soldiers! Hogwarts is supposed to be a safe space for all magical children to learn in peace. It was founded during a time when witch trials were still happening in order to offer comfort and shelter for all those in need. It is not affiliated with the military in the slightest!"
Exchanging a glance, Tom shrugged his shoulders. He didn't trust this Dumbledore guy at all, but they also had no evidence to the contrary.
"Mmh, assuming that this is true then what are the tuition costs? Those seem to be missing from the letter. And all the extra materials like cauldrons and text books that we are supposed to buy are listed with weird price estimations. I have never heard of a currency like 'Sickles' or 'Galleons'."
It took hours for their interview of the supposed wizard to finish and the only thing that convinced them that they were not going to get kidnapped was his prolonged patience and generally calm attitude. After all, why would a secret government agent make up all these elaborate lies about a hidden mage society and its socio-economic conditions or the intricacies of a mystical boarding school if he was going to just abduct them anyway?
Tom, however, vowed to nonetheless remain careful around the professor. During their talk, Dumbledore had curiously eyed his focus orb on more than one occasion, and merely the fact that he never reached out to touch it was what had saved his life.
Pressed against the glass of their window, both him and his sister watched him leave through the front gate and soon, they began to scheme…
o-TxT-o
As Albus apparated away from Wool's Orphanage, he couldn't help but breathe out in relief.
What had happened to these poor children to make them so… He didn't even have a proper word for what he just experienced! Jaded? Brutal? Lifeless? Paranoid? Dark?
All of these descriptors failed to do their characters justice...
Two orphans who had been prepared to murder him, deathly afraid that he would drag them away and send them to their doom. Mistrustful to the extreme, their keen intellect was obviously geared for survival and domination, brutality and craftiness. The best comparison he could come up with was that they reminded him of the worst parts of a vampire and a werewolf combined. As if the essence of a dark pure-blood family had seeped through reality to form two muggleborn siblings who were already scarred by life, while having lived so little of it...
Popping a lemon drop into his mouth to take the foul taste off of his tongue, Albus held onto one, somewhat happy, thought.
In a cold world that had apparently robbed them of their happiness and their childhood…
Those dreadful words echoed over and over again through Tom's head as he stared at the darkened ceiling of their room. It filled him with loathing and disgust to think that somebody else could have listened in on a conversation he had with Tanya, but it was now a possibility to be considered... From what Dumbledore had described, magic was even more vast and diverse in its applications then they could have ever imagined!
The man had brought a bloody pen to life and made it dance with a flick of his hand!
To give a dead piece of wood animated life was beyond absurd and yet…
Every single one of their socks could now be watching over them. Hell, even the walls could become spies for the shadowy 'Ministry of Magic' at a moment's notice.
His sister had subtly indicated that he shouldn't worry too much, because she was working on a solution, but how could he not fear that unknowable power?
Realistically, they were just two orphans. Mages – or was it wizards? – were rare, yes, but according to Dumbledore around two-hundred of them were born each year, so they would definitely not be the only children of interest. Naturally, Tom was expecting them to be mostly snivelling, inbred nitwits, unworthy of any real attention, but adults were stupid enough to not recognize his or his sister's greatness.
In this case, the apathy that authorities usually displayed towards penniless, low-born orphans, would hopefully work in their favour. No one would expect them to do anything extraordinary or ambitious, like for example, completing the entire Hogwarts curriculum in one year instead of seven. In theory, it sounded like madness, but Tanya was certain that the approaching war would spill over into the magical world as well.
After all...
"Where do you think the German mages will start bombing first?"
It would be the most strategically sound decision. First, they would attack the Ministry of Magic, wherever that was, and then Hogwarts, the breeding ground of tomorrow's magical soldiers. By Dumbledore's own admission, it was the only school of its kind in Britain! Which made it a critical point in the entire country's infrastructure, making it so that Tom really didn't want to be there when it collapsed.
That was why they needed to absorb as much knowledge as they could from the place, in as short a time as possible before snatching a place on a passenger ship sailing westward. The cramming would be monstrous, but he was confident in his ability to surpass the average child's progress by at least seven times over. Not to mention that Tanya would easily find a way to teach him whatever bits and pieces he missed. If she could devise multiple spells entirely without the help from supposed experts like Professor Dumbledore, then she would certainly manage to do that.
Why would he, the future strongest mage alive, be content with the creations of lesser minds? If he wanted to be the strongest there ever was, then only the creations of the most brilliant mind would be fit to find a place in his arsenal...
o-TxT-o
He was equal parts bewildered and awestruck by Diagon Alley. Since it both surpassed his wildest expectations and fell awfully short of them at the same time.
Each of the crooked, half-timbered houses lining the winding street looked positively ancient, as if the middle ages had never left this bustling corner of London while the rest of the city embraced modernity. Weren't wizards supposed to be better than the non-magical 'muggles'? Where was the electricity? Or the automobiles? Tom would be highly surprised if this place even had sewers!!
On the other hand, the very air was buzzing with invisible energy. Bright, multi-coloured lights lit up the many overflowing shops and market stalls selling the most fantastical curiosities. Plants with human eyes instead of leaves, candles that burned upside down, a talking teapot, clocks with way too many hands to be showing the time, a spectral bear that languidly spun around on one foot and other, infinitely more wondrous contraptions, potions or things that he had no name for.
It was all so much and between those mountains of mystical oddities, men and women in the most puzzling outfits pushed and shoved against each other in a manic race to acquire their items of choice. Everything was loud and vibrant and hectic...!
"Tom? Here, take my hand so we don't lose each other."
Wordlessly, he took his sister's hand and let her drag him where they needed to go.
His eyes roved over the dazzling scenery, utterly transfixed by the chaos. Tanya handled their purchases and he carried them, which he felt was more than fair. Slowly, his cauldron grew heavier and heavier with each book or vial or telescope placed within it, but he soldiered on, even when his shoulder started to ache. There was just so much to see still...
"Hey, do you kids want a pet?" their guide suddenly asked, pointing towards a shop window stuffed full with cages of all sizes. Owls, rats, cats and far, far stranger animals fluttered or hopped about inside and Tom instinctively sneered. Why should he care for a stupid animal that would only serve to waste his precious stipend?
Tanya, however, shrugged her shoulders.
"Can't hurt to look, right sir? Don't wizards send their post via owls?"
"Yeah, that's correct, little Miss. Every proper wizard has at least one owl. Can't get by without one really." Professor Barkbite explained genially.
Hiding his scowl, Tom followed the two into the dark interior of the building and was immediately assaulted by the smell of hay and bird droppings. Disgusting.
"Greetings, what can I do for you on this fine morning?" chirped the sales woman and he rapidly tuned out the annoying tone of her voice in favour of inspecting all of the different pets on display.
Outlandishly named monsters like 'Kneazles' and 'Australian Ringhoppers' sat side to side with regular rats and toads. How queer. Though if he was to be honest, their mindless busywork or broken submission was beginning to bore him.
Peering through the bars holding a large black snake, Tom gazed directly into the beast's eyes, daring it to try something, anything, to prove that there was still a predator beneath the limp veneer of an overly long noodle.
"Oh, bother... I'd kill you little human, but I'm not feeling up to it right now. Come back when it'ssss... ughhh... warmer..."
What.
Had that serpent just talked to him?
"Are you a magical snake?" he asked the thing and it just stared dumbly at him.
"Maybe not." Tom sighed in disappointment and was about to turn away when the animal spoke up again.
"You... are a Ssspeaker?"
Hah! He hadn't been wrong!
"Speaker? Do you mean how I am able to speak to you?"
"Yessss..."
"What are you doing, Tom?" whispered his sister who had silently appeared at his side.
"Uhm, I think I can talk with this snake." he replied lamely.
Because when he just said it like that, it sounded like he was going crazy!
Tanya raised a sceptical eyebrow and regarded the reptile carefully.
"Hello? Can you understand me as well?"
The stupid snake only darted its tongue in and out, not doing anything.
"Answer her!" Tom ordered the beast that was embarrassing him in front of his sister.
"Wow, Tom, how did you do that?"
"Do what?" he asked, confused.
"You hissed! Just like a snake!"
"But I didn't..."
Realization set in. And the damned snake had the gall to look smug!
In the end, he bought it, if only to teach it a painful lesson later. If it defied him like this again he would feed it to Tanya's new owl, piece by piece...
o-TxT-o
"And that's it, kids. Saved the best for last. Getting your first wand is an unforgettable experience! Go on in. I'll keep watch over your stuff outside, wouldn't want to intrude."
The professor shooed them through the creaking door inside of 'Ollivanders', but Tom shot him one last distrustful glance. Barkbite better not think of stealing their property while they were distracted or he would gut him, magical police be damned.
As the door closed behind them and the busy sounds of Diagon Alley abruptly cut off, he turned his attention towards the man behind the counter, who was smiling way more than appropriate for such a simple transaction.
"Greetings, children! I am Gervaise Ollivander and I assume I will have the honour of assisting you with your wand picking today?"
They both nodded quietly, but the smiling man's enthusiasm was not dampened in the slightest.
"Yes, yes! You must be so excited! Which of you wants to go first?"
Tanya looked at him questioningly, but Tom waved her off. He really didn't want or need a silly magic stick when he already had a far better alternative. Still, he would take one if only to blend in with the rest of the wizard population.
"Ahh, ladies first then! Very gentlemanly. Now, dear, please hold still while I take your measure."
Measuring tape shot out of his sleeve and wrapped around her midsection. Moving on its own, the ruler took her dimensions from head to toe, all the while Ollivander animatedly mumbled to himself about ridiculous terms like 'moderate springiness' or 'dragon heart contender'.
When he pressed the first wand into Tanya's palm however, nothing happened.
"That's not it!" exclaimed the vendor, rushing into the back of the shop to poke through the ceiling high shelves full of identical brown boxes to find another one.
This process repeated multiple times until he finally presented her with one that just worked.
Golden sparks shot out from its tip and a deep, echoing gong rattled the room as the piece of wood settled between her fingers. Even Tanya looked impressed as she inspected the thing.
"Yes, very good! A cherry wand with a dragon heartstring core, reasonably flexible, thirteen inches... You have great times ahead of you, young lady!"
Turning toward Tom, Ollivander beckoned him closer. He endured the pompous measuring ceremony without complaint and after quite a few quiet failures, he received yet another new wand to try out...
"Yew with a phoenix feather core, thirteen and a half inches!"
Except, instead of merely doing nothing like Tanya's unsuitable wands, the blasted piece of junk caught fire!
Throwing it away he glared at the idiot peddling such faulty wares. Did that moron want to kill him!?
"Oh my! Please forgive me... I was so sure that... You, young man, appear to be... You seem to already possess a wand. Is that right?"
"No. Never used one before." he bit out, still furious that he had nearly burned his bloody hand.
"Mmh... Curious. Most curious indeed!"
Tom knew what he meant with that question. But like hell would he show this creep his focus orb!
"I might have channelled my magic through a kind of... gem before. Does that change anything?" he admitted while gritting his teeth which seemed enough to mollify the wizard.
"A gem, you say? Mmmmmmh... I haven't heard of anyone doing that for centuries! But then again you seem like a rather extraordinary young man, no? Mmmhh..."
Humming to himself, Ollivander wandered back into the labyrinth of boxes that he called his shop and began noisily rummaging through his wares.
He returned with a few incomprehensible tools in hand that did not inspire confidence in his continued safety.
"Wands are sometimes quite fickle when choosing their wielder. They are like people in that aspect. A strong-willed wand requires a strong-willed wielder... And in that case, just like their masters, they never like to play second fiddle to anyone but their chosen partner. Mmmh... You wouldn't have to have this 'gem' on you by any chance?"
Projecting utter calm into his voice, Tom crossed his arms and sized up the nosy wandmaker.
"And if I did?"
Obviously catching onto the threat of imminent violence hanging in the air, Ollivander held up his hands in a placating manner.
"Well, hypothetically speaking, if you did, I would kindly ask you to permit me to examine this gem and maybe discuss a way to integrate it into a wand core. Otherwise, I would be forced to outfit you with a subpar replacement wand which would be far from ideal. It would permanently stain my pride as a professional to send a child on their first day of Hogwarts with an ill-fitting wand after all."
Unexpectedly, his sister agreed with the insane man: "I think you should do it, Tom."
What!? Tanya wanted him to hand over her masterpiece?
"I am sure that Mr. Ollivander is skilled and experienced enough to handle sensitive magical artefacts with the care that they deserve."
Despite not being worded as a question the man hastily nodded.
"I swear on my magic that I will take the utmost care."
Reluctantly, Tom produced the focus orb from under his shirt and laid it gingerly onto the ancient wood of the countertop.
Spindly fingers reached out for it and he had to bite his tongue in order to avoid doing something rash.
It was absolute torture, seeing the man hold and wave his instruments so closely over the orb in those nonsensical patterns of his.
"Remarkable... Absolutely remarkable . It's undeniably magical, but the whole design... It's so very... muggle?"
At this point, his amazing sister chose to try and share some of her genius with someone who clearly had never seen something as great as it before: "Sir, it functions based on the natural principles of thermodynamics and motion mechanics. In essence, it is a miniaturized computing machine that channels mana through a crystal at its centre. Can you see it here?"
"Mana? Hmm, this is genius! Truly the work of an inspired mind. And yet... It's also complete rubbish."
Tom's arm short forward without him even needing to think, the sharp force field projecting outward from his index finger poised to obliterate that heathen's worthless heart! And yet, before he could enact just vengeance on that bastard for slandering his sister's work, Tanya caught it and sent him a deep disapproving frown.
The worst part of it all, however, was that the scumbag hadn't even noticed anything, as absorbed as he was with his focus orb.
"It's missing the fundamental part that makes a wand special! The individuality! You could probably manufacture these things in one of those muggle manufactories by the thousands and nothing would be lost! It's just a fancy tool, like a pair of scissors or a hammer. No, no, no... This won't do at all for the young man!"
How would that insane scumbag like a hammer to the face then, huh?
"Runes might just do the trick. Yes, yes... The form will be a bit odd, but..."
Abruptly straightening up from where he had been crouching over the orb, Ollivander looked grim but determined.
"Tell you what, young man... This endeavour will require an extensive custom modification that will likely take me more than the rest of the day. Normally such a thing would cost hundreds of Galleons, but because of the never before seen nature of this gem and your impending school year, I will do so for free. Please write down your address on this piece of parchment here and I will owl you your wand tomorrow morning!"
Could this be a ploy of the Ministry to get ahold of their superior technology? Sadly, on second thought it didn't seem like this was the case. Everything in Diagon Alley appeared so behind the times that these people probably could not even conceive inviting such modernity into their culture. He had no solid reason to refuse this offer.
To distract himself from this mortification he gripped his sister's hand tightly as they exited the store.
As soon as they stepped out of the building, the door slammed shut behind them and they could hear the lock clicking shut. The sign in the window flipped from 'open' to 'closed' and above them, thick blue smoke began rising from the chimney.
"Old Ollivander is closing up shop real early today, huh? You were lucky that you caught him right now, then, haha!" laughed their guide.
Tom didn't feel very lucky though...
o-TxT-o
They would have ended their trip to the side of magical London right then and there if Tanya hadn't wanted to see the local bank.
'Money is the lifeblood of civilization and it behoves us to examine those places where it flows to and from,' was what she had said, but Tom was cranky enough to disagree. Silently.
Even their guide was uncomfortable with the detour, citing his healthy fear of 'goblins' as the cause and urging them to be especially polite to the bankers. Apparently entire wars had been caused in the past by arrogant wizards who tried to screw over the goblins running their financial system.
Why then didn't they establish their own goblin-free substitute? Tom just couldn't understand these people at all!
From the outside, Gringotts looked horribly distorted, each floor slightly angled in a different way, like a warped house of cards threatening to get toppled over by a fresh breeze. Inside it, thankfully, was far less architecturally repulsive: A lot of polished marble and gold contrasting heavily with the ugly, wrinkled dwarves scribbling industriously upon high oaken lecterns.
Professor Barkbite already made to leave after vaguely gesturing at the central hall, clearly eager to escape the place. His sister foiled his efforts by boldly walking up to one of the clerks.
"Hello, Mr. Ripbolt sir, I would like to inquire about your loan and credit options, if you would be so kind." Tanya asked earnestly, projecting an entirely fake aura of shyness and naiveté at the ugly creature.
"What kind of loan could you even pay back, child? Where're your parents?" it sneered with a mouth full of very sharp teeth.
"I don't have any, Mr. Ripbolt sir. I was unfortunately orphaned at birth, sir."
"Then get out of here! No job, no family! Laughable."
The goblin went back to scratching around on his paper, though Tanya seemed undeterred.
"While that might be true, Mr. Ripbolt sir, I have well-founded hopes of acquiring large monetary profits from several technological patents within the decade and as such would like to be able to consider my options until then, if it would not be too much trouble. I have heard much praise for Gringotts' services and would be gladdened by your patronage. It would be too sad a fate if I had to turn to a lesser competitor in the field, simply because I could not convince you of my sincerity, sir..."
Ripbolt stared at her as if she had said something funny before his leathery lips curled into a cruel smirk.
"There's no other wizard bank other than Gringotts, girlie!" gloated the creature and Tanya was completely caught off guard by that statement.
"Really? None?"
"How sheltered are you, child? Did you live under a rock your whole life?"
"Not even in the United States, sir? Or the colonies? From Canada to India, no other bank? Truly?"
Tom relished how the goblin's glee slowly vanished and its brow furrowed in obvious frustration.
"Not entirely... No. There are some... imitators."
He looked physically pained at the admittance and Tom knew that his sister had won the exchange. The chance that she was correct might be slim, but the bank would lose out on far more if they ignored a possible up and coming visionary for such petty reasons.
Barkbite let out an undignified whine at the prospect of having to spend the next hour here while Tanya and the goblins talked business.
o-TxT-o
Once they returned to the orphanage they had found that the solution to their privacy problem was simpler than expected. Now they both sat huddled together under a heavy blanket, while Tanya channelled her magic into it through her new wand to prevent any sounds from escaping. Tom provided the illumination by producing a tiny ball of light with his own magic. Talking and casting magic at the same time was always a good exercise!
"What do you need the money for?"
He had, of course, some inkling of her ideas, but he wanted to know what exactly she had meant with 'patents'. She couldn't be thinking of selling her focus orb design, right?
"Our world is about to radically change. The communists in the east grow more and more daring and soon the nations of Asia will experience the benefits of industrialization as well. When Germany inevitably loses the war after dragging Britain and America into it, the world will be split into two blocs: West and East."
Tom attentively listened, trying to visualize that description in his head. He could only come to one conclusion:
"There will be another war..."
"Yes."
War on such a scale? He could hardly fathom it. Not just two nations fighting with each other, but entire continents!
"And you want to make weapons, so that the West wins?"
"Not weapons, necessarily... I know of a few promising avenues for research and I'd also like to stop the extreme pollution of our environment, but that is secondary. The real point is: I don't know the future. With magic becoming a variable, there will be tons of possibilities that I could never consider. That's what I need the money for. To find a way to stop the world from ending."
"I mean, sure, a few million people might die, but the world as a whole will probably be fine! It bounced back from the Great War too..."
He was mostly playing devil's advocate, yet a small part of him simply didn't want to believe her.
"The first World War was comparatively tiny to what we are about to experience. With every year technology becomes better, faster, deadlier. Twenty years ago, armies still charged at each other with horses and bayonets. Now, they mow each other down with machine guns and artillery. It takes one second to kill a dozen men; an hour to depopulate a town! All without magic. Soon, somebody is going to develop bombs that can wipe entire cities off the map... One lunatic in the wrong place could shift the entire balance of our society disastrously. I know it's scary," she squeezed his hand when she focused back on his face and gave him a sad smile, "but there is no limit to human stupidity..."
"Always prepare for the worst." Tom echoed hollowly.
Was the world really doomed? Were they actually speeding towards the apocalypse?
He recalled the first thing he had ever asked her and what she had told him in reply.
"You can always lose."
Tom wanted himself and Tanya to be immortal. He hated losing after all.
...
Would just that be enough, though?
Could it even be considered winning if humanity got destroyed?
What good was a king piece without a chess board?
A ruler without subjects was merely a hermit with delusions of grandeur and a single student could never be the best of the class.
If he wanted to be powerful, then...
"I'll help you."
And his sister simply smiled back at him, discerning his reasoning with a single look.
Together they would find a way to save this miserable world from itself!
By any means necessary...
AN: This chapter should answer quite a few of you guys' questions about the canon and how on fire it is. Professor Barkbite is an OC character mostly because there aren't names for ALL professors during Tom's time at Hogwarts.
His name is a pun based on how J.K. Rowling makes her own names!
When they at long last arrived at Kings Cross it had taken them quite a while to figure out the trick to entering the secret railroad station for wizards...
'Platform Nine and Three Quarters' was, as its name suggested, positioned in the space between two regular train tracks. Pocket dimensions and solid illusions were consequently something that they would need to keep an eye out for in the future if they wanted to spot gatherings of magical people. It seemed that the casual violation of Euclidian geometry was a field that wizards simply delighted in.
Aside from its location, however, the train inside of the hidden realm appeared to be perfectly ordinary. Steam rose from its front and its wheels were greased with normal machine oil. Perhaps there wasn't much that could be improved on a steam engine, even with magic? Tom made a mental note to study steam engines more closely at some point.
Many children had gathered on the platform to say goodbye to their parents who tearfully hugged them or kissed them or otherwise wished them luck, which was quite honestly ruining his mood, so he quickly dragged his sister inside the first free cabin he found. After a while the train began moving and with a shrill blast of the locomotive's whistle they were finally off to Hogwarts.
He amused himself by trying to teach his pet new tricks, like having her fetch a ball…
The snake he bought was actually a female – contrary to what Tom had initially assumed – and her new name was Lucy. No, Tom did not care if she had some snake-specific title beforehand! She was now his pet and she would learn to obey!
Meanwhile, Tanya had immediately sunken into one of their Hogwarts textbooks upon sitting down and hadn't uttered a sound since. Were it not for the rhythmic noise of the pages turning, one could have mistaken her for a very lifelike statue.
To be fair, he probably should have been studying as well, but he had already finished the entire history book yesterday and it had not exactly been the most riveting material. Why should he care for the lives of people who not only were already long dead, but whose only contributions in life were inventing a few measly spells? His sister had done that when she was less than ten years old!!
The start of a large ruckus on the corridor outside had him turn his head, which Lucy shamelessly used to steal the fidgeting mouse from his hand and gulp it down straight away.
The door was soon pushed open and an unknown boy scurried inside before quickly closing the door and turning to face them.
"Hey guys, you don't mind if I hide in here for a few minutes, ey? My- Woah, what's up with your eyes!? "
Tanya looked up from her book and blinked until the telltale glow of her perception enhancing spell faded into her regular cerulean blue eyes.
"Nothing much. Who do we have the pleasure of conversing with?
"Ah, yes, ahem." He puffed up his chest and a cocky grin split his pudgy cheeks. "You stand in the presence of the illustrious, magnificent, formidable Alphard Black, soon to be the greatest sorcerer of the noble and most ancient house of Black, ho ho!"
This guy was certainly quite full of himself, but Tom could basically smell the several insecurities that lay underneath his false bravado.
"I'm here to begin my shining career as the grand successor of my dearest-"
A piercing, banshee-like cry ripped through the air, promising to inflict untold violence and misery: "AAAALPHAAAARD!!"
Suddenly the boy seemed far less confident, cowering away from the cabin door.
"Eh, that was my sister, Walburga..."
In what was probably supposed to be a whisper he added: "Maybe I went a little too far this time."
"She sounds like an absolute menace, yeah." Tom unhelpfully added, not bothering to fully suppress his smirk at the boy's suffering.
Watching this arrogant blowhard getting beaten black and blue should be mildly entertaining.
"Uh, eh... I'm sure it will be fine!"
"I'LL KIIILL YOUUUUUU!!"
By god, that girl had some lungs.
"You guys don't have an invisibility cloak by chance, so she won't see me leaving the train?" Alphard weakly grinned, all the while periodically glancing at the door.
It was obviously meant as a joke, but Tanya shut her book and decided to involve herself in this by producing her new wand from her sleeve and looking towards the arrogant child.
"We can offer you no invisibility, Mr. Black, but perhaps I can give you something better for now. Please hold still, I am still unfamiliar with the intricacies of wanded casting..."
Alphard looked at her in stupefied confusion for a moment before whatever formula Tom's brilliant sister had been compiling in her head shot out from her wand and splashed over the boy. Ripples of light settled over his features, transforming him from an unremarkable and boisterous eleven year old into the splitting image of a pretty girl that Tom recognized from one of those fashion posters near the entrance of Kings Cross.
Just in time too apparently, because not a second later their door flew open and a frazzled looking teenager stuck her head inside. Her face bore a strong similarity to Alphard's, but any comparison in that department became unnecessary the second that she opened her pinched mouth and started screeching again.
"FOUND YOU- wait."
Triumphant fury made way in her expression, only to then give way for frustration and a hint of jealousy.
"Ew, those curls look so muggle. And that shirt? Hideous! Why are you standing around here like this, tramp? You mudbloods truly get brasher every year, huh?"
Shaking her head in disgust, Walburga slammed the door to their compartment back shut.
Her brother, who had frozen in fear, was unable to form a single coherent sentence, stammering incomprehensible gibberish with his eyes frozen wide open. As amusing as that was at first, it quickly grew grating and so Tom hit him on the back of the head to shake him out of his little funk.
"What made her so spitting mad anyway?" he asked conversationally, pulling the shell-shocked wizard spawn onto the seat next to him, much to the annoyance of Lucy, who had to quickly slither out of the way in order to avoid getting crushed.
"Well, I kind of might have accidentally ruined her make-up set by knocking the expensive bottle of mermaid perfume over it... He he... She saved up for a whole year to buy that one."
"Ah, if that's all... Girls', am I right?"
He shot an apologetic glance at Tanya, but she just smiled blithely and subtly motioned for him to go on while putting her book away in her bags.
From the moment that she had offered to help this stranger for free, Tom knew what her plan was. This was their prime opportunity to form a meaningful connection to a member of the wizarding aristocracy or 'Purebloods' as they called themselves. By double teaming this fool with their amazing intellect they would have him under their thumb in no time and by extension, they would also have the favour of the house of Black.
o-TxT-o
"Haha, I just can't believe that worked! You might be a mudblood, uh, a muggle-born I mean, but your glamour charm is truly top notch!"
After a few more applications of the illusion spell they had successfully entered the castle without Walburga ever catching wind of her transformed brother and so, they were now waiting to be sorted into their respective houses. Among the gathered students there was much talk of all the grizzly or extremely difficult trials they were surely about to face, even if Tom could only roll his eyes at all this drama.
How this whole tradition would play out was literally written in the very first chapter of 'Hogwarts – A History'. Couldn't any of these wizard brats read? They were supposed to be better than their 'muggle' counterparts!!
Finally, they were summoned inside the great hall and for a short moment the sight of it all took his breath away. If the castle itself had looked like something out of a fairy tale from the outside, then the inside put it to shame with its sheer amount of wonder! Thousands of candles danced in the air in long, neat rows, illuminating four giant tables, each lavishly decorated in their particular house colours, and above it all hung the night sky as clear and bright as he had never seen it before. Stars without number sparkled above their heads as if the very cosmos was watching them.
Looking sideways at his sister, he saw that even she seemed to be awed at the varied display of magic that was happening all around them!
In a way, it was very understandable why wizards had such high opinions of themselves if they could conjure up such majestic sights. Nonetheless, his attention was soon drawn back to earth by the stern voice of the headmaster who demanded them all to quiet down and then pointed his wand towards what was probably the single most worn-out, tattered looking hat of all time that was sitting innocuously upon an equally ratty looking stool.
Tom believed himself to be prepared for whatever was about to transpire, but when the thing suddenly grew a mouth and began to sing, he still had smother his laughter.
"Gather 'round, gather 'round,
the talking hat is speaking,
to tell a tale as grand as time,
or maybe not worth keeping.
For in your minds there lies,
the potential to decide,
your future or your destiny,
which your houses will now guide.
Ravenclaw is far renown,
for learning at their leisure,
where others see just dusty books,
the Eagle spots a treasure!
The mighty Lion roars with strength,
in the house Gryffindor,
they like to bravely roam the wild,
and calmness they abhor.
In Hufflepuff you surely find,
some friends and loyalty,
the Badger's hole has space for all,
they're a cuddly bunch, you'll see.
The Snake however, is far more solitary,
a Slytherin plays no one else's role,
instead prefers to slyly slither,
themselves into any goal.
Those are your four options,
for life at Hogwarts school,
don't be afraid to put me on,
and come sit upon this stool!"
Lukewarm cheering filled the hall for a few moments before the headmaster began reading off names from a gigantic scroll.
"Addams, Eudora!" he announced imperiously and one girl stumbled to the front of the hall only to be immediately sorted into Ravenclaw upon making contact with the talking hat. Many followed her example, their personalities easily analyzed by the magical piece of headwear. Even Alphard managed to complete the procedure without his shrew of a sister offing him!
At some point, however, his own name was called out:
"Riddle, Tom."
Tanya gave him an encouraging pat on the back and a smile, sending him on his way, but all he could think of was:
'Please send us to the same house- Please send us to the same house- Please send us to the same house...'
They had, of course, made plans for both the possible scenarios that they would get to stay together or that they would be separated. Both had their own lists of advantages and disadvantages, but Tom simply didn't want to leave his sister out of his sight in this strange and unfamiliar new place. Anything could happen and he did not want either of them to be alone when it did!
Nonetheless, he plopped that ancient pile of leather on top of his head and sat down.
"Hmm, what do we have here?" the hat said, disturbingly inside his own head.
"Oh, calm down, would ya? I'm not actually in here. Just projecting my words solely towards you for a bit of privacy."
Tom still did not find that very comforting if he was being honest.
"Well, well, well... Cunning, ambitious, ruthless... My, you are the quintessential Slytherin, aren't you my boy! And a Parselmouth to boot! You are going to make it far in..."
Out loud, it exclaimed: "Slytherin!"
Polite applause greeted him as he walked over to the green and silver table and numbly watched the proceeding ceremony, hoping for the best outcome.
"Smith, Tanya." proclaimed Dippet in his steely voice and Tom looked on with renewed dread.
Time elapsed with excruciating slowness as the hat writhed to and fro with indecision, its crude face crumpled up like it was almost in physical pain. By contrast, what he could see of Tanya's expression was stony throughout, even as some of the professors began pronouncing a 'hatstall' until she did something they had never planned for and simply took off the ugly thing herself and announced clearly for all to hear:
"I choose Slytherin."
Without waiting for further acknowledgment she strode over and took her place by his side.
Soon after, outraged mumbling erupted in the crowd and the incensed headmaster appeared ready to drag his sister back to the chair and force her back under that hat, but ultimately it was the possible secret government agent/professor Dumbledore who came to her rescue. As if he would've allowed him to reprimand his sister when she had done nothing wrong!
"Miss Smith has made her decision after the hat clearly failed to provide her with sufficient counsel. I remember that this is not entirely without precedent. One Albert Kachinsky was allegedly sorted by the professors themselves back in 1773, I believe."
"That boy was a bloody half-beast! Of course the hat wouldn't have been able to recognize his primitive thoughts! From the accounts we have, he had furred ears and webbed feet, for Morgana's sake!"
"Mr. Kachinsky was a valued student of our school and he still earned his OWLs like everybody else. Miss Smith deserves a similar chance, no?"
Dippet obviously wanted to try and argue the point; however the small admonishing cough of his assistant reminded him that there were still five students left. Sending one last glare at his sister's direction, the headmaster went back to reading out names. Meanwhile, Dumbledore shot them a sneaky wink, though maybe that was just his imagination playing a trick on him...
Relief settled in as the developments of his sister's sorting were not undone even after everybody had been allotted to their houses. Some announcements were made and a magnificent feast appeared on their tables, but through it all Tom luxuriated in the feeling of knowing that he would have his sister by his side during their stay in the castle.
Of course, it did not take long for snide remarks from the overconfident pureblood pricks to start hailing down on them.
"Mudblood, what gives you the right to sit at our table? Go back to Hufflepuff and be useless over there. After all, the badgers like getting dirt all over them!"
The snickering of the speaker's cronies reminded Tom of the useless bullies back at the orphanage. It seemed that not even the wondrous gift of magic could prevent humans from acting like brainless mongrels if left mostly unsupervised. His fingers slowly clenched around his wand as they continued to laugh, the embedded focus orb in its hilt humming with violent intent. It would be so easy to slaughter these whining fools in the blink of an eye...
"I thank you for your consideration, but I am quite content where I am. I heard that all the most elite geniuses go to Slytherin, so I couldn't help but want to catch a glimpse of such glory."
Not every student who was listening to her words was fooled by the cheap flattery, but Tom saw at least a few who puffed up their chests, probably mentally patting themselves on the back for merely existing, like the spineless peacocks they were!
"Yeah, Tanya is alright, guys! She can cast a seventh year glamour wordlessly!" Alphard, who was sitting further down the table near the rest of his family, tried to reassure the mob.
"Is that how you hid yourself, then, you little rat? By getting help from a mudblood?" Walburga hissed threateningly and the boy shrank away from her with an awkward laugh.
"A seventh year spell, eh? How about you give us a little demonstration after the feast? I could do with some one-on-one lessons..." leered one of the older teenagers, who then shared a nasty grin with one of his friends.
Tom made sure to remember his crooked nose in order to find him later and remove this moving blight on life itself, for even daring to insinuate what he had.
"I am afraid that Mr. Black has slightly overestimated my abilities. I am nowhere near proficient enough to be on your level." Tanya deflected modestly, turning her gaze downwards with faux shyness.
She was trying to appear meek and helpless to surprise them later on when they inevitably ambushed her to inflate their hollow egos. Yet he could see how she hid her face to hide her rage and gritted teeth from the others on the table.
Oh, Tom could hardly wait to see her tear into these maggots!
o-TxT-o
Indeed, as soon as the prefect finished showing them their common room (which amazingly lay partially under a lake!) and prearranged dormitories, a group of boys tried to cut sister off from entering the girls' wing.
He had to force himself to hang in the back, blending in with some of the other curious onlookers and just keep himself to scanning the surroundings for any reinforcements or other possible traps. These people did not know their connection yet and he would not do them the favour of revealing it too quickly. The rest, Tanya would certainly be able to handle on her own.
Two second years, one third year and four fourth years encircled her, sneering or scowling in 'righteous anger'.
"Little mudblood thinks she can just choose our house."
"Was the hat not good enough for you? You think you're above it, unlike the rest of us!?"
"Maybe she's a squib... Can't do any magic and that's why the hat didn't recognize her!"
"Hehe, that must be it! Absolutely pathetic! "
"Well then little squib; consider this your first lesson on how things are going to go for you at Hogwarts. It's not too late to just quit school, you know?"
His sister was utterly unfazed by their immature insults, but kept up her facade of politeness by saying: "I would kindly beg you to reconsider this. There is no need for-"
"Too late, bitch!"
The leader of their pathetic group cast a red coloured spell at her that she nimbly dodged, followed by his fellows doing the same. She made a mockery of them when she easily spun in-between their attacks or dropped low to the ground to let their hexes and curses pass harmlessly above her.
Why were these idiots just standing there and yelling out their spells? It was as if the concept of closing the distance to physically restrain her or even just firing at point blank range was entirely foreign to their underdeveloped brains. Not that he wished for them to harm his sister, but simply to give her an actual workout instead of this sad display. It was no wonder that Dumbledore had been so sure to promise them that no wizard would ever be conscripted by the army! These moronic bottom feeders would only serve to give the Germans some free target practice!
Embodying the damsel in distress with an award-worthy amount of acting, Tanya sighed in despair as she leaned under yet another volley of black and blue lights splashing against a far off wall:
"Oh no, it seems I am under assault by vicious vagabonds! Nobody has called an authority figure yet, so I am all on my own! Good grief, I – the pitiful first year – will have to defend myself!"
If there was any confusion or unease on her attackers' faces at her words then it quickly morphed into full-blown panic when she finally began to retaliate.
A small foot smashed into the nearest shin and despite her petite build, it sent the boy to the floor howling in pain. One moment later her tiny fist lashed out, glimmering with magic, and crashed into the third year's stomach which forced him to regurgitate his dinner and sink to his knees.
After her small show of force any semblance of cohesion in their formation broke, as their survival instincts finally kicked in and they tried to get away from the little girl that was handily beating their asses 'with no use of magic'.
Alas, his sister was simply too fast for them, overwhelming them with quick and hard punches that notably were never aimed to cripple. Tom would know, seeing as she had shown him precisely where to aim in order to more permanently take somebody out of a fight. It was grating that their vaunted 'blood status' would protect these imbeciles from true retaliation, but there was a chance that they probably had influential parents, who could then pressure the school into harshly punishing Tanya for harming their beloved scions.
In the end, only the leader was left standing. He was a scrawny, pimply and now very scared teenager without an ounce of charisma left in his entire being.
"Ooops... Those must have been my violent muggle instincts overcoming me! Like a werewolf, only without the requirement for moonlight and thus much more dangerous. What do you say we solve this like proper mages, I mean, wizards then? Spell against spell, no trickery involved? You, the honourable voice for the entirety of house Slytherin wouldn't refuse something like that, right?"
She was making an example out of him, right here in the common room on her very first night. After crushing him through 'legitimate' means, nobody would be able to reasonably doubt her ability in the future! Furthermore, if this boy lost to a muggle-born first year in a duel, then he would essentially bring shame upon his entire house. No other battle in the future could undo that black mark on his social record, thus forever branding him as a weakling and an outcast.
For all her talk of peace and fairness, his sister could sometimes be even more devious than him...
"I..."
A dozen judging stares from his fellow students made the boy audibly swallow as he hesitantly nodded.
"I accept, m-mudblood!"
"How do wizards do this, then? Do we just count to three or-"
"Confringo!!"
For a single heartbeat Tom was worried that Tanya had underestimated her opponent, as the spell collided with her chest and shrouded her body in a blinding explosion of fire and heat. Loose papers were blown through the room and the gawkers covered their faces while shrieking in terror and moving further away from the fight.
Then, slowly, the smoke lifted and she stood there unscathed and undamaged, her protective shell fizzling out around her. The only sign that the explosion had affected her at all was the near invisible tremble in her hand as she stifled a cough. It was truly beautiful.
"Ah, so that is how purebloods do it!" his sister grinned, glowing eyes fixed on her frozen attacker, who gaped at her like a fish falling out of an aeroplane. "Don't mind if I return the favour then!"
In a flash, her slightly pink, cherry wood wand was in her hand and a concentrated beam of scorching light had already set the boy's robes aflame.
Screaming in pain and mortal terror, the boy stupidly dropped his own wand and began rolling around the floor to try and put out the fire licking at his skin.
Luckily for him, their head of house, professor Slughorn chose this moment to make his dramatic entry, obviously lured in by the fourth year's girly screams of fear.
"What is the meaning of this commotion!?"
Quickly taking control of the narrative, Tom pointed his fingers at the scene before him and declared: "These ruffians challenged her to a fight! They even tried to kill her at the end!"
Seeing how this event was going to play out now, the other Slytherins distanced themselves from the attack as well. Nobody wanted to be lumped in with those taking the blame and risk getting punished. Especially not when Tanya theatrically swayed on her feet and started coughing as if her lung was coming apart at the seams. Tom might have been fooled by his own sister's acting if not for the satisfied gleam in her eyes.
o-TxT-o
They were left mostly alone after that night. Aside from the occasional attempt at 'pranking' them (which were mostly aimed at Tanya) their first two weeks at Hogwarts were relatively eventless, if not somewhat tiring mentally, considering that he had to cram new terms and concepts into his head at seven times the speed of what was expected of them.
Particularly the vague and often outright nonsensical descriptions of wizard spells threw him off in the beginning. Everything was just so... lazy? They had a highly sloppy approach to casting their magic that he absolutely could not get behind.
His sister had first taught him how to control his magic like one would when using a well-sharpened knife, to control and understand every aspect of his spells for he was the master of his own abilities. Nothing he did happened without his consent.
And yet, the teachers here expected him to just… wave his wand around and mumble a few words and somehow that would accomplish what he wanted! There was no way to modulate the effect of a spell except to simply force more magic into it and hope for the best. It took him only one class of charms to consider this casting style's implications and deem them utterly unacceptable.
Fortunately, he had a special wand to compensate. It was a gnarled, bone-like spike whose most prominent feature was the golden circle inlaid in its hilt. Thanks to his sister (and to a lesser extent, Ollivander) he could now cast magic in the logical and sensible way he was used to while still channelling it through a wand, no silly hand movements or vaguely Latin sounding names necessary!
That Tanya was able to stand the 'lessons' without that aid made him respect her even more.
"Sir, is it possible to transfigure one's own wand?"
Tom looked up from where he had been idly calculating a conversion for the rather useful levitation charm 'Wingardium Leviosa' and approvingly considered what his sister had just asked. It seemed that she also wouldn't be able to stand this madness for much longer…
"Why would you possibly want to do that, Miss Smith!?" asked their professor, flabbergasted by what he likely viewed as total sacrilege.
"A multitude of reasons really, professor. As you can see, my wand is somewhat bulky, so I'd appreciate it if I could somewhat shrink it if the need arises. Or maybe I would want to hide it and turn it into an ordinary object instead. The possibilities are basically limitless."
"I guess you could… But you would need a second wand to do the casting and that introduces a multitude of problems. First of all, a wand that is not your own would not operate optimally and as such the result of a botched transformation rises dramatically! Second of all, your wand could interpret the magic of another wand as an attack and retaliate, which while rare; I can assure you is very unpleasant to deal with. Thirdly, any sufficiently powerful wand could possibly undo the transformation on itself and return to normal regardless. In short, it would be a waste of time and effort, Miss Smith. So don't try it!"
Mocking laughter accompanied his admonishment as he made to turn away, only for Tanya to clarify:
"So the only problem is using a different wand?"
"For Merlin's sake, yes, Miss Smith! Are you muggle-born all this slow? Now stop bothering me or I will have to deduct points!" the professor exclaimed exasperatedly, shaking his head and going back to writing on the blackboard.
After sending a nasty glare towards the professor's back, Tom shared a smirk with his sister.
This required research!
o-TxT-o
In their free periods or after classes had ended, they had free access to the library which naturally meant that they spent every waking moment they could spare in one of its corners. The first spell that Tanya had told him to master was the duplication spell, 'Geminio'. With just a few seconds of intense concentration he could near instantaneously copy an entire book to add to their growing collection! After all, perusing even a tenth of the utterly gigantic Hogwarts library would be a massive undertaking, so any literature that was too advanced for their current level of understanding wandered into their 'special storage bag'.
By putting his training to the test, Lucy had stolen an enchanted holding bag from the room of a seventh year student and he couldn't have been prouder of his pet when he saw that. That night, Tom even went through the trouble of personally seasoning a juicy rat before grilling it for her over an open flame, which had her wriggling in joy. Contrary to popular opinion, it appeared that Snakes could, at times, be kind of cute...
The disciplines that his sister and he both would grow to basically ignore in their entirety were: Astronomy, Divination, Art, History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Music and Herbology; simply due to how unreliable or limited in usefulness they seemed. They still paid attention in class and adequately completed their assignments of course, but neither of them had any interest in mastering oil painting or nurturing a 'Bone-melting Fungus' to maturity. The less Tom said about the questionable accuracy of reading the future in tea leaves, the better.
Despite considering all of those other classes as a loss, that still left them with Arithmancy, Transfiguration, Alchemy and Potions, Charms, Ancient Runes, Dark Arts and Defence against the Dark Arts to focus on, which was more than enough material to make one's head spin!
Arithmancy came easy to him, even if it was more used for warding and other similarly static, long-term spells. It made for a nice bridge between his calculated magic and the slapdash 'wizard way' of doing things.
Alchemy and Potions was also something Tom found he had some talent for. Brewing and filtering some arcane concoction was downright relaxing for his mind after being forced to absorb dry texts about magical theory for hours on end. His creations were also better than those of his peers on average, though he would admit that might have also been Slughorn's bias which he always made sure to stoke through repeated brown-nosing. It also helped that Alphard Black was a… tolerable partner during class.
His other two stand-out subjects were Dark Arts and its counterpart, Defence against the Dark Arts, which were the most thrilling hours at school. To be able to curse somebody into only speaking backwards or having their teeth grow uncontrollably was highly amusing, but still only appetizers for the main course. Stunners, shield spells and other protective magics were Dumbledore's forte and Tom could honestly say that he was the best teacher at Hogwarts, though he was definitely not his favourite.
As engaging as the eccentric professor's antics and hands-on approach in their lessons might've been, he didn't miss how the man always paid special attention to him. Of all the staff members, he was the one that was hardest for Tom to analyze and he could never quite discern his motivations. That man was, without a doubt, hiding something behind that easy going smile of his!
When he switched the soap of the sixth year boy who had so disgustingly leered at his sister with a batch of skin remover, Dumbledore had stared right at him throughout the entire day. But how could he have known!? There was absolutely no evidence connecting him to the scene of the crime and technically that particular potion wasn't even in the curriculum for their year!
Lastly, a class that he only really cared about because Tanya unexpectedly loved it, was 'Broom Flight'. He was not much of a fan of dangling on some rickety piece of wood several dozen metres above the ground, but his sister seemed to live for it. She was an absolute angel in the air, pushing the outdated school brooms to their limits by turning and tumbling through the Scottish wind or performing heart-stopping somersaults that always teetered on the edge of going wrong spectacularly while laughing freely in a manner he had never heard before in the orphanage.
Madam Quinzley only seemed to encourage her insanity further, vicariously living through his sister and most likely imagining herself in her place in order to experience the Quidditch career that a hip injury had apparently robbed her off. Tom hated the danger that those stunts meant for Tanya, but he could never bring himself to complain about it when she just looked so damn happy doing it. He was a truly magnanimous brother like that.
All in all, everything was pretty good until the winter holidays began...
The wands in question! these were drawn by hand so excuse the rugged look. They are nice and elegant to our characters!
"The only missing ingredient is there, I'm sure of it!" Tom vehemently argued.
"We'll likely get sent back to the orphanage if we get caught..." she reminded him unnecessarily, yet again.
"Then we simply won't get caught." he simply countered.
It wasn't like he necessarily wanted to trudge through some dark and dangerous forest either, but if he wanted to test his theory and impress Slughorn then he needed that damned mushroom. And buying it on the black market would ruin them both financially, even if they extorted some of the wealthy kids for extra funds.
"I'll trust that you thought this through, Tom." was all Tanya ultimately said about that before going back to reading.
He nodded determinedly, even though she couldn't see it. His sister had put her faith in him and he would never disappoint that trust. Exploring something like the 'Forbidden Forest' wasn't something he would be doing flippantly, but after listening to multiple fifth years about their experience of sneaking into the woods to fool around, he was confident that they would come to no harm. After all, if such morons could survive the supposedly 'deadly forest' then so could he and his sister.
And so, they waited for night to fall before stealthily leaving the common room through one of the secret passages that Lucy had discovered during her hunts. Apparently, the hidden door only opened when ordering it in 'Parseltongue', as the language of the snakes was called, which made some amount of sense considering that the Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin had allegedly been able to do so as well. Consequently, the tunnel also looked like nobody had used it in centuries, but neither of them was scared of some mould and a few annoyingly sticky cobwebs.
After walking for quite a while, they emerged near a shadowy outcropping by the lake shore and finally began their preparations. Multiple kinds of nasty predators were said to live in the Forbidden Forest, so he had prepared a scent-removing potion to hopefully keep them off their track.
It was hastily brewed, sure, but it should keep them relatively safe for a few hours nonetheless. Together they helped each other to apply the concoction over their entire bodies before casting a feather-light charm on their shoes in order to not be too loud when trudging through the snow and other forest debris...
Tanya took the rear position while he kept his eyes open for the 'Red-rimmed Centipede Cup', a mushroom that only grew on oak trees of four hundred forty four years of age or older. Why any fungus would be so extremely specific in its hosts' requirements eluded him, but he wasn't stupid enough to directly ask their Herbology teacher about it! It was an illegal ingredient after all.
The reason for it being outlawed was that not only could one use the mushroom to synthesize a nigh undetectable poison that caused the victim to, quite literally, rot away from the inside, but when used in exceedingly small doses it could also induce a suggestible state in its imbibers that was described as similar to the Imperius curse. If far less reliable and naturally less versatile...
Now, that had only been a smudged footnote in 'Taboo Contraband – Wizards Beware!', nothing more than the posturing of a retired auror who claimed to have experienced the 'deepest and darkest depravity of wizardingkind', but the more that Tom researched about what exactly those terms meant, the more he took a liking to the ideas they gave him.
Humans were inherently stupid. They were arrogant and didn't really listen to those they considered inferior. He would regrettably still be seen as a mere child for some years to come, however with the aid of a more direct method of influencing their decision making process, that wouldn't have to be so bad. Regardless, it would simply be a good option to have in their back pocket in case any stubborn politician tried to start another war or something.
And if the old book turned out to be complete rubbish?
Well then, he could still make some awesome poison to solve his problems in a far less elegant manner!
Despite many trees having lost their foliage during the harsh winter, it was still surprisingly dark in the Forbidden Forest. If he hadn't read up on what kind of creatures lived there, Tom would have been tempted to produce a bright light to properly see something. Alas, he had no intention of getting skewered by a centaur arrow from afar or jumped by a troll.
Still, even if he had nearly tripped over multiple gnarled roots hidden in the snow already, the sheer girth of the trees he was looking for made the ancient oaks rather easy to spot in the darkness. The 'Red-rimmed Centipede Cup' was equally distinctive, though rather ugly to look upon. Bulbous little legs sprouted from the gnarled wood, gripping onto their host's bark in the imitation of the large, poisonous insects it was named after.
The only problem left after finding it?
They were really high up from the ground. So as he slowly climbed up with the assistance of a charmed rope ladder, the icy winter wind bit into his skin, shaking him from side to side with each powerful gale. The jagged bark had also, somehow, managed to scratch him even through his thick clothes and he had to halt his progress multiple times because large black clouds would darken the sky too much to see even a hand in front of his eyes. To top it all off, it would seem that even his well sharpened knife had trouble sawing through the malodorous fungi when he finally got to them. Though that really only lasted until he reinforced the blade with magic... He just couldn't wait to be back inside the castle!
Unfortunately, it would seem that this forest wasn't done with its sabotage, since the branch he had been leaning on for support was far less solid than it looked and chose this very moment to give way under his miniscule weight. Noticing the crackling of the wood, Tom managed to lean back at the last second before the branch broke free and collided with a boulder far on the ground below only a heartbeat later. With a thundering crack the brittle branch splintered into countless pieces that dispersed in the snow. The entire forest seemed to hold its breath as Tom listened intently for any other suspicious noises that might come as a result of his little mishap.
At first, nothing was audible over the pounding of blood in his ears.
But then in the distance... A loud, animalistic howl pierced the cold night.
Other savage voices joined soon in, making a chill run down his spine, as each answering call only raised the thirst for blood that now seemed to pollute the entire forest around him.
Tom's first fearful thought was that a pack of werewolves had found them, but then he remembered that today had been specifically chosen because it wasn't the full moon yet. But still, one measly sound shouldn't be enough to lure some ravenous beasts towards them, right!? Branches must fall off from the older trees all the time! Their smells were completely masked, too!!
On the ground far below him, the unassuming silver ring on Tanya's hand morphed back into her wand and she began to methodically weave what he believed to be a concealment spell. Normally that would be more than enough to trick the base creatures of the forest into just running past them, but if he was right in his theory on what was now hunting them, that would not be enough by a mile...
"It's no use!" he half whispered, half yelled as he began hastily descending the oak, no longer caring for the noises he made. "Those are Gwyllgi!"
Probably Gwyllgi. Magical creatures just weren't his forte, damn it! Now he really regretted focusing on the bigger ones so much.
His sister seemed to mull his claim over for a second before giving him a sharp nod.
"They have magical eyes, yes?"
"Mm-hmm! Their hide is also special, but I can't remember how exactly. I think they're immune to fire or something..."
Thankfully, she didn't scold him for his shoddy memory. It wasn't his fault that that Newt Scamander guy wrote such boring books!
"Let's assume the worst and say that they are magic resistant like dragons." she added.
Tom's mind was running a mile a minute trying to come up with a good strategy. This was his true test! If he couldn't deal with a pack of creepy welsh dogs then how would he possibly survive the oncoming war?
"They know we're here and they have magical eyes, so we need a lot of light to offset our informational disadvantage. There's no time to lay elaborate traps, but maybe we can blind them? Wolves and dogs have sensitive noses, so targeting that should disorient them. Ehm... We can also choke them to death if we fill their mouths with sand, but they would need to stand still... Causing a tree to fall on them should definitely immobilize them... So maybe we can levitate one together and just drop it on them when the time is right?"
"Not a bad plan, but I am not good enough to cast two active spells at the same time. As long as I am supporting the Wingardium Leviosa I would also be helpless."
She was not giving herself nearly enough credit. Even with the aid of her orb it wasn't as if he could cast anything complicated simultaneously, either!
There was another howl in the distance, and this time it sounded worryingly close...
"Alright then, you stay up in the tree and bring a log in place and I will distract them with a few Bombarda Maximas. That will be sure to disrupt their footing, if nothing else!"
Tanya gave him a long calculating look, but thankfully didn't question his reckless plan. Tom was feeling a lot more scared than he wanted to admit. He had never been in a serious life or death fight before, so both the excitement and the worry were making him a little jittery.
As his sister quickly ascended the ladder behind him, he gathered all his rage, all his hope and pent up frustration inside his core and forced them to become reality in the way that wizards did it to achieve the greatest possible effect.
"Lumos Maxima!" he shouted and the night turned to day.
He had to shield his own eyes as a miniature sun exploded into being from the tip of his wand and scorched the nearly monochrome forest with its brilliant radiance.
It was a good thing he started with that, too, because a chorus of pained roars erupted from the thicket surrounding their position. A dozen black shadows started frantically moving away from the shining ball of pure light, yipping and shrieking in protest.
How had the monsters come so close!? Even if they were disgusting mutts, Tom would not underestimate them!
"Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima!"
Fiery devastation ripped their hiding places asunder as he let loose on them with all he had... It was really draining work despite his excellent stamina and great wand.
Soon, however, the beasts overcame their lingering fear of the bright light hovering in the air and tried to close the distance. They were large, ugly creatures with dark, furless skin as smooth as polished leather and bone spikes sticking up from their hunched spines. A foul mist wafted from their dripping maws as they circled around him, just waiting for a chance to jump and tear him into pieces, their red eyes glinting with malevolent hunger. Under their enraged attention Tom felt an unnatural weakness starting to creep into his limbs, but just as he was about to shout in alarm to try and warn his sister about this ability…
Tanya dropped the top half of the ancient oak tree on them. Jumping away from the wolves he barely saw an Engorgio spell hit the giant log mid-fall and enlarge it by several orders of magnitude just before it crashed against the earth, shaking it with colossal power. For a moment the ground rumbled as if the very world was ending, splattering snow and stones everywhere.
Recovering from his shock, Tom hastily scrambled back up to his feet and rubbed the dirt out of his eyes to spot one of the Gwyllgi who had survived the attack. The thing pawed at the ground in agony, trying to pull its lower half free from the weight trapping it. Tom was torn between letting it suffer for daring to attack him and his sister or removing it quickly before it became an actual problem...
The decision was made for him by another one of its surviving brethren leaping over the gigantic tree and trying to bite his head off. On pure instinct he unleashed his favourite spell at the monster, cranking the numbers in his calculation up as high as he knew they possibly could in the split-second he had.
A shimmering lance of magic shot out from his wand and skewered the black hound through its gaping maw. However, where normally he could cut through solid stone with how much energy he was expending in this one spell, he was now met with an unprecedented level of resistance. Impaled as the beast's brain now was, its massive bulk and fading murderous urges carried it forward while Tom's wand was stuck forward, aiming for it.
He quickly cancelled the spell to try and move away, but it was too late. A heavy, stinking carcass dropped onto his chest, sending him to the floor once again. Tom struggled to lift the sordid piece of meat off of his body, but in the end he had been forced to wait for Tanya to mop up the rest of their assailants until she could help him to throw off the disgusting thing.
They exchanged a sincere smile and a celebratory hug, uncaring of the fact that his coat had been ruined by Gwyllgi spittle and blood and finally made their way back to Hogwarts, carrying the mushroom that had given them so much trouble in a side pouch.
What he had not expected to find upon their return, however, was another pair of footprints near the edge of the forest. Someone had clearly attempted to follow them before turning around a short few metres into the woods...
Was this bastard's scent the reason why the wolves had been so quick to notice them?!
It seemed their work here wasn't quite done just yet...
o-TxT-o
Sniffing out the rat who had dared to mess up their expedition took Lucy the entire rest of the winter break. She was not enthused about crawling through cold and slimy pipes in the walls to reach the other houses' common rooms and then report back. His first guess was that it had been a Ravenclaw; they were after all characterized by their unending inquisitiveness. Yet the only boy with matching boot prints had a rather good alibi in the form of his girlfriend.
Ultimately, it turned out to be a first year Gryffindor. Identifying his boots was unnecessary, because the dullard bragged freely about his visit to the Forbidden Forest... Apparently it had been a test of his bravery from his housemates, though from how few steps this Lyall Lupin had actually taken into the woods, he was mostly lying about his accomplishments. Tanya didn't much care for the boy, considering that he couldn't have seen them, but Tom wanted revenge. Spiking his tea with a laxative was easy enough, as was throttling his stupid pet owl and feeding it to Lucy.
In the following months he intensified his studies, if that was even possible at this point. His amazing sister had gotten him a recipe for an advanced memory enhancing potion for Christmas, which aided him greatly in cramming as much theory as possible into his head. There were some side effects like the inability to dream and persistent headaches when he overused it, but with time he got used to it. Their shared efforts had also rekindled the enthusiasm of the upper year Ravenclaws who didn't want to be outdone by some no-name first year Slytheryins. Their one-sided rivalry got so bad, in fact, that the librarian began closing the library two hours earlier every day to prevent people from sleeping in there.
That was fine by him, though. It left him more time for actual practice. After all, all the knowledge in the world about how the cutting hex worked would not make him a master duellist overnight. At first he only trained alone or with Tanya in one of the abandoned cellar rooms, but through his obligatory 'networking' - as his sister called it - Tom got invited into the 'Slytherin Study Club'.
It turned out that behind her bristly exterior, Walburga was shockingly easy to sweet-talk, especially when he demonstrated such 'dark' skills as talking to snakes. Being a Parselmouth was apparently enough to turn her opinion of him almost entirely around and with a select few compliments about her hideous visage, the shrew was basically ready to kiss him! As if he would want anything to do with her, Ew!
Having garnered the support of both Walburga and Alphard Black, his entry into the club was a foregone conclusion. The entire thing was mostly just a fighting competition to allow for some duelling away from prying eyes. There was an official duelling club, but that was seemingly not exclusive enough for the purebloods... Not to mention that the professors strictly prohibited any gambling and coarse language while in the ring.
So, at first, he watched the fights as a polite bystander, offering cheers and congratulations when appropriate, until he goaded one of the Thornbarrow twins into challenging him to a duel. Naturally, he won handily, but in the subsequent matches he made sure to struggle appropriately, as per his genius sister's instructions. She had explained that by strategically losing, he ironically got better fights, because more people became willing to challenge him. Sometimes he would be focused entirely on dodging or simulating a leg injury! It was all very educational...
But honestly, the only reason he put up with these fops was that they would make for good investors in the future. The Blacks and Gaunts and their ilk were all old money with barely enough common sense to not build their houses out of pure gold. Charis Black was an especially annoying girl, because she constantly demanded his help with studying for the final exams and tried to sit close to him. If nothing else, it was at least gratifying to see that all his studying had paid off, because she was a seventh year student asking him for private tutoring!
She even made him promise to send her letters from time to time when she left the school, though she clearly wasn't counting on him also leaving Hogwarts behind...
o-TxT-o
Tom hid a smile underneath his palm as he pretended to scratch his nose.
"What do you mean you want to quit school!? You got an 'Outstanding' on every bloody subject!" yelled the headmaster, aghast with ignorant rage.
"While it is flattering to hear that you value us so highly, Mr. Dippet sir, please do understand that we no longer feel safe here in Great Britain with the escalating war on the European mainland. Therefore we would like to formally dissolve our contract with the school until we can feel safe again." his sister calmly explained
"What!? If that's supposed to be a prank then I won't stand for it! Your parents will hear of this, Miss Smith!"
"We don't have parents, sir. We're orphans." Tom gleefully chimed in.
Shooting him a dirty sneer, the aged man continued on without pause: "This is unprecedented! Completely unheard of! Nobody has ever just quit school after their first year!"
"But it is not illegal, right? Compulsory schooling lasts only until the twelfth year after birth and we have both exceeded that at this point. We are not required to attend Hogwarts or any similar institution, right?"
"By what law, huh? Some muggle paper!? No, proper witches and wizards have to attend all seven years of school! That's how it's always been and I'll be damned if I make an exception for the likes of you!"
He could basically hear the unspoken 'Mudbloods' hanging in the air. What a fool, to be so blinded by a single word to not recognize the two brightest minds of their generation were standing before him right now.
"Would you let us take part in the NEWTs to prove our competency, then?" Tanya asked diplomatically, though she really needn't have bothered.
"Absolutely not! Are you out of your mind, Miss Smith!? Do you think yourself the next Rowena Ravenclaw? And you, Riddle! Have you gone mad as well, boy?"
Did he think he would persuade his sister to reconsider now, of all times?
"Not particularly, no. I felt quite sane last time I checked, sir!"
"None of that sass, boy! Just for that I'll have you hanged upside down in the dungeons. Naked!"
Ah, so he was stooping to bodily threats now... How pathetic...
Tanya saw his questioningly raised eyebrow and from the fact that she didn't outright refuse his silent request for bloody escalation, he could tell that she was rather cross with the useless excuse for a wizard as well.
"Sir, please let us not make a mountain out of a molehill here. At the end of the day it was pure courtesy to your esteemed station that we even informed you of our plans beforehand. With us gone-"
"Hah! You are truly so arrogant that you think of that as a foregone conclusion now? The youth of today has become utterly deplorable... Blasted muggles think they can rule the world because they have electric light, but I still remember when the Frogs put their pansy monarch under the guillotine! I will hear no more of this farce. If I don't see you on time in the Great Hall come next year, may god have mercy on you, because I am going to damn well mobilize every auror that ever set foot in Hogwarts to hunt you down and drag you right before my chair! Nobody is going to just play truant on my watch because they feel like it! Report to the caretaker for your punishment, the both of you! He will think of something to discipline you with on your last day. Now get out!"
His sister's fists clenched in rage at that, but it was Tom who reacted first. The spell he had been silently preparing shot out of his wand, dozens of hours of quick draw training transforming his hand into a blur. To his minuscule credit, the elderly man behind the desk reacted by reaching for his own wand as well, but he was far too slow to stop the magical attack at point blank range...
The paralysis spell splashed over his robes and Dippet fell back down limply into his chair.
"There's no going back now." Tom remarked idly.
There would be no talking out of this one. Assaulting the headmaster was possibly the worst offense they could commit while in Hogwarts, short of killing another student.
"Now he is definitely going to send the aurors after us..." his sister mused, her voice tinged with disapproval.
"Nah, I reckon his pride will prevent him from spilling a single word about this. No way he would want people to know that he got done in by two first years. Not even purebloods at that! Who could possibly take him seriously after that?"
"True... You are a rather prideful man, aren't you, sir?" she asked the silently seething wizard while wearing a mocking smirk.
"Before anything though, we should probably relocate to a place with less... gawkers."
Tom meaningfully pointed to the multitude of animated paintings staring at them slack-jawed. It was kind of comical really, how a bunch of wizened old men all had that same facial expression of utter disbelief.
o-TxT-o
Levitating the headmaster into his bedchamber and tying him to a chair had felt very satisfying. After a year of watching that man sit all high and mighty on his throne, presiding over the Great Hall and playing as a powerful king, he had lost all his grandeur in a matter of minutes.
"You can always lose."
His sister was truly wise beyond measure it would seem...
Tom had then forced the man to swallow his experimental obedience tonic that he made from the Red-rimmed Centipede Cup. It had taken quite a while to convince Tanya of the necessity of the act, but there really was no other way. They still were not entirely sure if their wands were being tracked by the Ministry and thus casting one of the 'unforgivable curses' was reserved for absolute emergencies. Yet they had also needed Dippet to follow their commands and strike them from the Hogwarts registry completely.
His potion was ninety-nine percent safe, he was sure of it! Tom had even tested it on several gnomes and a house elf beforehand and most of them survived!
And so, in the end, when she had finally allowed him to force feed the old man the entire thing it had worked. His eyes had gone glassy and he had started babbling for his mother, his brain apparently having reverted to that of an infant. Unsurprisingly, the headmaster's missing mental faculties had made getting concrete answers out of him or making him sign the proper documents a tedious affair, but they still managed it. Furthermore, before the effects of the potions ran out and they obliviated him - two times just to be safe - Tom had him open his secret drawer and ransacked the entire thing. Who knew what crazy powerful magical items the wizard had collected over the centuries?
Finding and then pouring his favourite Whisky over his clothes while spreading out a few pictures of his deceased family members was the cherry on top. If the headmaster acted strangely on the next day and stunk of alcohol then hopefully none of the faculty would be impertinent enough to ask further questions.
Yes, Tom could with all honesty say that he was all around pretty happy with his final day at Hogwarts!
One week later, he and his sister stepped foot in New York City.
New York was dirtier than he imagined it to be. Tom didn't know what exactly he had been expecting of the 'city that never sleeps', but it was certainly something different. Looking back though, he realized that Tanya hadn't ever extolled the virtues of America in quite the glowing manner he painted it in his own head, yet he nonetheless couldn't help but compare the reality before him with his own lofty fantasies.
One thing was for sure however... it was most certainly a big city. There were buildings that dwarfed even Hogwarts, as massive as that castle had been. The streets were so wide that five automobiles could drive side by side. The signs and billboards loomed so high over the busy streets that it looked like giants had put them up. Everything was so much more imposing than London had ever been. That part at least matched his dreams of paradise.
The smell on the other hand? It was kind of disgusting...
"Tom, I think we have to go that way."
His sister pointed in the opposite direction of where they had been going and he sighed. How had they gotten lost in a city with a grid-based layout so many times already!? He supposed it might have had something to do with the fact that people here drove on the wrong side of the road...
"Pardon me, dearies, but are you l-lost?"
He slightly turned his head to look at the young woman who had snuck up on them and was smiling in a slightly vacant way. Her short red hair framed a tanned face with big green eyes that were made to appear even bigger by the thick glasses she wore.
"Actually yes, Miss. You see we were supposed to meet our parents at the Woolworth Building, but there must have been a misunderstanding, because the address we checked wasn't the right one. Are there two Woolworth Buildings perchance?" he responded sweetly, scratching his neck in feigned embarrassment.
"Woolworth you say?" mused the lady before suddenly leaning in close. "You w-wouldn't happen to be in search of the Magical Congress, are you?"
Her expression was dark and her tone decidedly ominous. Tom tensed and prepared a silent disorientation curse, while Tanya stepped forward with a placating gesture.
"Would that be a problem, Miss?"
The woman swiftly backed off and started chuckling: "Haha, I'm only m-messing with you, dearies! Forgive me. You're B-British, right? You've probably never been to the Congress then. Oh, how exciting! Come along, I was just h-heading there myself."
"And your name, Miss?" Tom inquired sharply, not trusting this complete stranger at all.
"Ah, I'm so f-forgetful today! Emily Willis, pleased to make your a-acquaintance!" she declared with an offensively poor English accent before giggling again. "And you two cuties? What're your n-names?"
"I'm called Tanya, Miss. And this is my brother Tom."
Even if it was just an act, hearing her call him brother made his heart beat quicker.
"Aww, how a-adorable! T and T! And you're like o-opposites of each other; one blonde and blue-eyed and the other black-haired with ch-chocolate eyes! It's like a matched set of d-dolls! I love it!"
He was certainly not adorable! At this moment he decided that this woman was definitely the most annoying American he had ever met. His sample size was small, sure, but the point still stood. So long as she continued to be useful though, he would suffer her overly excited presence and grisly stuttering.
o-TxT-o
"See, you just have to wave your wand at the o-owl up there!" said Emily as if that was supposed to be obvious.
The rotating door that had only led them to a mundane entrance hall before spun dizzyingly fast for a moment until it transported them to an entirely different room. Black marble and gold inlays gave the gigantic inside of the building some grandeur that contrasted interestingly with its minimalist utilitarianism. Bright light streamed in from every direction, because the walls were entirely made off of windows. Such a queer way of building could only come from a wizard's mind... How would a huge 'skyscraper' with glass walls ever work without magic holding it all together?
While he and his sister walked around the lobby, Tom listened absentmindedly as their annoying guide dispensed worthless trivia like:
"That is the m-memorial for the Salem Witch Trials! It's the reason for the foundation of the Congress, you know? The f-founders vowed to never let such a tragedy happen again."
or...
"Oh, that man was Mr. Atkinson! He invented t-toothpaste that tastes like lemons! It's my favourite brand! Hi, Mr. Atkinson!"
When she had at long last, finally, exhausted her supply of drivel, Emily's ever-present smile dropped.
"Well then, dearies... Where are your p-parents?"
Damn it! When he made that up, Tom hadn't counted on her following them so far!
Tanya came to the rescue: "I'm afraid my brother lied about that, Miss. We're both orphans, you see, and people tend to ask uncomfortable questions and get all judgemental when we tell them that. So it's easier to pretend that we still have a mommy and daddy."
"Oh, you poor dearies... I can u-understand that. Lost my parents early as well. But then, w-what are you doing all alone in the States?"
Together, they began to spin the sob story that they had agreed upon during their journey over the Atlantic. They talked about how they had excelled in school with their innate talent and dedication, of how they were determined to rise above their status as undesirables and good-for-nothings and how that had earned them a lot of scorn from the pureblood families that didn't want to see their scions unfavourably compared to two kids who came from nothing. With war on the horizon, they had chosen to flee to the USA, the Land of Opportunity, to have a chance at making their dreams of a peaceful and wealthy life free from discrimination come true.
That inspiring tale of hope and resolve, delivered with wobbly lips and soulful eyes did its job of melting the foolish lady's heart and by the end of it she was crying soft tears of earnest pity.
"Sniff... That... That's the most b-beautiful thing I've ever heard! Ah, that's the t-true American spirit! Oh my gosh, I'm so s-sorry for... hick... for getting all emotional like that, but..."
Unfortunately, multiple other people had also rudely joined to listen to their story, although they were thankfully less over the top with their reactions.
One dark-skinned man with a strange hat shook his head indignantly.
"Yeah, that's how the Brits be like."
Another with a blue eye-patch nodded seriously at Tom.
"Good luck, kiddos. You picked the best city in the world to start something fresh, but unfortunately wheat like you tend to get chewed up if you're not careful. It's not all glamour and riches here in New York."
"Too true." agreed his compatriot before they collectively went their way.
Suddenly getting self-conscious after realizing that she was crying in front of a group of strangers, Emily was all too eager to escape and lead them to their destination, though not without promising to meet them again afterwards.
o-TxT-o
They had to wait quite a while in front of the office for immigration related affairs, as they were apparently not the only ones who aimed to become US citizens today. A large family of disturbingly identical looking Italians occupied all three counters for nearly half an hour until it was finally their turn.
He and his sister both needed to be accepted members of America's magical society if they wanted to continue their education here and absorb its unique knowledge. Furthermore, if they wanted to handle appreciable amounts of money in the future then they needed a believable paper trail as well. As much as he detested it, Tom knew that just drugging every paper pusher and administrative official into compliance was not a realistic option.
So they had to put up with the bone-headedness of congress bureaucrats.
"You need a legal ward to be present to fill out these papers." uttered the clerk in the single most droning tone that Tom had ever heard.
"So we can look at them, but not actually sign them?" his incredibly patient sister incredulously asked.
"Correct." he responded with the tone of an already dead man. Though Tom would have to admit that he had seen ghosts with more life than this… husk of a person.
After a long pause Tanya puckered her lips in that cute way she did when she was about to do something that she hated and looked back up at the man.
"Does the guardian need to be magical?"
"Technically not, but No-Majs aren't allowed in the building..."
"And we can only sign those documents here..." she completed that sentence equally lifelessly.
Was this guy some kind of emotional vampire, draining visitors of their joy? Just to make sure, someone should really stake him through the heart...
Tanya and the clerk both stared at each in silence before she briskly put the papers down and grabbed Tom's hand.
"We'll be back."
Adults were so stupid sometimes.
o-TxT-o
"You w-want me to a-adopt you!?" Emily asked, shocked.
"Not necessarily. You would just have to become our legal guardian on paper, so that we can become proper magical citizens and receive an education. I know it's a lot to ask for from someone we just met and thus we are prepared to financially compens-"
Before his sister could finish, she was swept up by an aggressive hug.
"Oh, d-dearie, I would l-l-love to!"
Tom silently sent his sister mental support for suffering this indignity in his stead, but his feelings of sombre superiority were quickly squashed as the terrible woman reached out and crushed him against her bosom as well. Weirdly, her meager strength was still enough to trap him for a few seconds, before he managed to wriggle free. What an annoying bint!
Well, since she would from now on be the one to pay their bills and give them shelter, maybe she wasn't too bad, he supposed. Outwitting her would also not be hard which really just made her the ideal puppet to shield two otherwise suspicious children. Maybe he could convince Emily to regularly buy them ice cream... That would undoubtedly raise his opinion of the woman!
o-TxT-o
The office for family related affairs was located on the second floor of the building and boasted even longer waiting times than the other one.
Tom passed the time by going over the computations for his altered apparition formula yet again. It was an incredibly complex piece of work, far too complex for even his genius intellect to adapt to on the fly and so he wanted to laboriously pre-calculate all the necessary steps beforehand. Tanya had forbidden him from ever attempting teleportation on his own and he certainly understood her concerns, but surely, just moving a single meter forward shouldn't be that monstrously dangerous...
His sister on the other hand was deeply absorbed in incomprehensible government papers and brochures while Emily was childishly whipping back and forth in her seat, humming a lullaby and smiling at the blank wall. The difference in maturity between the two was so absurd it wasn't even funny.
When they were finally called inside the office the middle-aged, bald man behind the counter instantly recognized their patsy and struggled to suppress his laughter when they explained the purpose of their visit.
"Ah, Emily, would you mind waiting outside for a bit? Just wanna talk with the kids to make sure they know what they're getting into here."
The woman looked decidedly sour at the prospect, but complied wordlessly.
As the door closed behind her, the bald official leaned over the desk and rolled his eyes.
"Ah, sweet Emily... Now she wants to be a mother... The girl is a bit of a basket case. Doesn't have quite all the cups in her cupboard, if ya catch my drift."
Yeah, Tom had guessed as much already. If the stutter hadn't been a dead giveaway, then it would have certainly been the fact that she was willing to adopt two foreign kids that she met today.
"Was an auror until not too long ago, too. Not the best in the field, but definitely the kindest gal in the district. Helped take care of things when that Obscurus tore up half of Crosby Street..."
"Is there a point to you telling her history to us?" Tom asked, irritated by the guy who was already bad-mouthing their pseudo-parent. Emily was still profoundly annoying, sure, but she was also their chosen pawn whose miniscule contribution would greatly support their future rise.
"I'm getting to it. Well, later there was that nasty business with Grindlewald... Mmhh... He singlehandedly took down half our men and poor Emily was among them. One blasting curse hit right besides her temple, rattlin' her little brain around and... well, she hasn't been the same since. Gone all cookie and sentimental, ya see."
"Injuries in the line of duty should be treated with respect . To sacrifice your health, potentially even your life for your country should never be ridiculed." Tanya suddenly stated with a surprising amount of venom in her voice. Her eyes were glaring coldly at the man, the raw rage and disgust in her narrowed gaze cowing him into submission.
"Hehe, I guess... Just wanted to warn you, is all. She's not exactly ideal mother material. Maybe you should reconsider. There's better witches out there, I'm sure..."
"Noted. If you could now kindly turn your attention towards our paperwork, I would be most grateful if we could resolve this issue quickly. I also believe that our soon to be guardian should be present for this."
"Yes, yes, of course."
A 'Section C1 Wizarding adoption' involved more or less just a signed declaration of intent from both parties and a willingly given drop of blood for the procedure to be over with. With that receipt alone they wouldn't be able to inherit her family's wealth in the event of her passing or receive any other hereditary benefits, but they were legally considered her children now and as such were eligible for certain benefits. Most notably, of course, was a right of citizenship and free state-sponsored education.
Stepping outside the cigarette-smoke infused office, Tom was about to congratulate Emily with some cheap flattery for adequately performing her role when the emotional dam that the unstable woman had been apparently building over the course of the last hour finally burst.
"I-I-I did it! Hahaha! hick- I'm n-not useless a-anymore!"
Having learned from her previous behaviour, Tom hastily took a step backwards, narrowly avoiding her tear-stained clutches while his sister bravely resigned herself to her fate of being cuddled like an overgrown doll.
Sadly, his desire to remain unmolested was interpreted as a rejection by the alleged terrorist victim.
"I'm s-sorry, Tom, if you – sniff– got s-scared by William's r-rumours. I might be d-damaged, but... b-but I'm not... I'm not c-c-crazy! Y-You have to b-b-believe me!!"
And now she was crying even harder. Wonderful...
"Don't worry, Miss Willis." Tanya mumbled from inside her strangling embrace, sending him a hidden signal with her fingers. "If we believed you were anything but sane then we wouldn't have chosen you to be our guardian."
That was, of course, a bold-faced lie and a complete inversion of the truth. Yet for the sake of Emily's fragile psyche he gritted his teeth and submitted to the inevitable. By Merlin's beard, how many bloody times would he have to hug this insufferable wreck of a woman!?
o-TxT-o
In the week that followed, it turned out that the answer to that question was a lot higher than he would have liked. Emily had vivid nightmares and sometimes in the morning would not recognize them, which led to even more panic attacks. Even particularly loud sounds, like a slammed door or dropped book could make her cower in fear.
He and his sister had silently agreed to take turns in comforting the distraught woman as they both hated the task equally, though for different reasons. Tom didn't want to waste his valuable time on somebody so weak and Tanya had only said something cryptic like 'in another life that could have been her', whatever that meant...
Still, despite the struggles they managed to settle in comfortably enough. Tom especially enjoyed the feeling of ownership that came with their new home. Emily worked in a magical bookstore and so was out of the house for nine hours every day, which left them with more time than they ever had to themselves. Of course, that didn't mean more time for lazing around, merely more time for intense physical training!
"And now turn that ball into a sheep!"
Doing that with a wand was child's play. Without one or even the assistance of his focus orb however...
"Does that look like a sheep to you, Tom?"
The misshapen thing gurgled pitifully as its round body collapsed on its spidery legs.
"I'm trying here, Tanya!"
"Well, you are clearly not trying hard enough!"
He knew she didn't mean it, obviously, but the insults served to stoke his spirit. Concentrating deeply, he aligned his vision of what a sheep was supposed to look like with the construct under his control and pushed.
"Baa..."
"Acceptable."
o-TxT-o
August came and went and it turned out that getting admittances for Ilvermorny - as the American version of Hogwarts was called - was much harder than changing nationalities. Probably because administering a few thousand immigrants was generally an uncomplicated process when one could use magic to automate most of it. Wizards also fundamentally didn't care too much for muggle borders.
Gaining access to the exclusive facility that housed all of their children however, involved jumping through a few more hoops. Especially since they had narrowly missed the deadline for applications...
Tanya's owl was flying herself ragged, carrying correspondence between her and the headmaster to and fro. Eventually though, their exceptional grades won the man over, but not without him visiting them in person for a more direct evaluation of their suitability. So when he heard the doorbell ringing the very next day, Tom was not surprised at who was waiting outside.
"Good evening, child. Is your mother home?" questioned the large, well-dressed man in front of him.
"She should be back in a jiffy, but please come in, Mr. Lankvarden, sir. As it happens, my sister was just making us some tea in the kitchen." Tom replied winningly, hospitality basically oozing from his every well-cleaned pore.
That was of course no coincidence, as their detection ward had alerted them two minutes ago of a magical person entering their apartment building.
He made sure to accept the grey-haired man's coat and bowler hat - both just as blandly grey as the rest of his outfit - and carefully hang them up on the wardrobe like a good little servant. Why was everything about this man so hideously grey!? Even his damn eyes were colourless and dull!
While he led the bland headmaster to the kitchen, regaling him with some of his wondrous experiences since crossing the Great Pond, Lucy silently crept out of her hiding place to slip a small gift into his coat pocket.
The scene they walked in could have been ripped straight from an advertisement poster. Their small kitchen sparkled in the golden light falling through the window, illuminating Tanya's petite form that was busy setting out their finest china.
"Ah, Mr. Lankvarden, you've come early! Thank you so much for your quick response!" she beamed at him, wiping off nonexistent dust from her pretty summer dress. Tom knew from her rare rants on the topic that she much preferred pants over the usual woman's wear, but they also had a certain image to sell here...
"There's nothing to be thankful for, Miss Wallis. I'm merely doing my job."
Their target was entirely unmoved, however, simply glancing at his watch and taking a seat where Tom normally used to sit next to his sister. The bastard.
Tanya finished bringing out a third cup and took the kettle from the stove to pour them tea.
"Well then, how can we help you, sir?" Tom initiated the conversation with an eager smile. The headmaster didn't seem like the type who appreciated beating around the bush for long.
"Alright. I've seen your grades and I've read your story. Now what I want is the real reason you left England."
His sister nodded solemnly.
"Our story was the truth, sir. We are orphans and that means it wouldn't be good for us when war finally breaks out. We're nobodies. Powerless. When the bombs start to fall, it won't be the houses of the pureblood families that get hit..."
The grey man inhaled sharply and adjusted his cufflinks.
"I have seen my fair share of children in the few decades I have been Ilvermorny's director and none of them have given me that good of an excuse for something so clearly suspicious before."
Was that a compliment or an admonishment? What did he even want to hear from them!?
"This talk of no-maj wars and their consequences... That was what Grindelwald was all about. Nobody has seen neither hide nor hair of that man for over three years and now you two show up with grand talent and a spotty past. So, out with it, do you have anything to do with him?" Lankvarden sternly demanded to know.
A heavy presence slowly settled over the room as the man's magic started to leak from his body. Tom unconsciously started to sweat, even as his hand under the table inched towards his wand. Did this lunatic really think they were some criminal masterminds in disguise!? Well, technically they were, but right now they were the good guys in this scenario!
Who even was Grindlewald, really? Tom knew that he was allegedly some super-powerful wizard practicing dark magic who wanted wizards to rule the entire world or some such, but other than one picture on a faded wanted poster he had no clue how he actually looked or how he behaved...
"I believe you are mistaken, sir." Tanya said stoically. Her hand trembled only the tiniest amount as she took a cube of sugar and stirred it into her beverage. "We have nothing to do with that villain and I would greatly appreciate it if you would not make such hurtful accusations."
The sound of her sipping at her cup before daintily setting it back down was deafening.
"I am not making any accusations, Miss. I am merely asking a pertinent question here. I was not there when that man attacked our brave aurors in this very city or when he escaped from confinement, but we as a people have not forgotten. Skin-changing and trickery are his forte. His agents could be anywhere. There can be no ambiguity about this matter."
What was his goal here? If Lankvarden truly believed that they were Grindlewald or one of his supporters then wouldn't it be an asinine move to confront them face to face within their own territory, alone and unguarded!? There was something foul with this impromptu interrogation...
"It should be easy to verify our identities with a drop of blood or by casting the counter charm on us to dispel any possible illusions. We have nothing to hide." retorted his sister, spreading her arms as if daring the headmaster to search her right this instant.
"Your confidence is heartening, but I am still not convinced of your motives. I have been in correspondence with a former teacher of yours who has shared with me some troublesome observations. Is it true that you already studied seventh year material at Hogwarts despite the wishes of your professors?"
"Yes." Tom simply answered. "We wanted to learn as much as possible in the limited time we had."
"So you already felt compelled to leave your homeland behind a full year ago?"
"Yes. The signs for the events of the Great War repeating were obvious, even back then."
Tom took a gulp of his own drink. It was bitter, just how he liked it.
"Bah. No-Majs are as dangerous as they are fickle. That whole mess with Germany will sort itself out in time." Lankvarden declared dismissively. "And is it true that you have a developed interest in dark magic?"
"I would not call it 'developed'. All forms of magic are inherently fascinating and worth studying. Knowing how to shoot a gun and becoming a murderer are two different things however." Tanya supplied.
"Which means yes then. I can't say I approve, but it is part of their syllabus. Regardless, is it the case that you like to play pranks on people? There has been a reported increase of injuries at your school, especially amongst those who ran afoul of you two."
"We were the targets of much scorn and violence ourselves." Tom justified, letting his real frustration and resentment bubble to the surface at this point. "With all due respect, you weren't there, sir. My sister got jumped by a whole group of upper years who tried to kill her! On her first night in the castle no less!"
"Indeed. You will find Professor Slughorn can give ample proof as our witness, sir. We are not sadistic people and we have never instigated any violence." she added.
"Mmmhh..."
Their tense staring match was disrupted by the sounds of the lock turning and the apartment door opening.
"D-Dearies, I'm back! I picked up some more toothpaste if you need any!" Emily called out joyously and Tom had never been more thankful for her empty-headedness.
Lankvarden raised a brow and stood up, leaving the kitchen. He and his sister exchanged a relieved glance before following the man.
"O-Oh, I didn't know w-we had a g-guest? Who m-might you be, Mr.?" asked their guardian cautiously, her posture frozen stiff with fear.
"We told you yesterday that Mr. Lankvarden would come here to check us over. He's the headmaster of Ilvermorny." Tanya softly explained, a patient smile on her lips as began rubbing soothing circles on the woman's back, dutifully dampening her onsetting panic attack.
"Ahh, s-sure... I remember..."
She clearly did not, but not even Lankvarden was impolite enough to mention it.
"I was just on my way out, Miss Willis. Don't worry; I will keep a clear eye on your children. They won't get up to any mischief under my watch." he said, smoothly slipping into his mantle and placing his bowler head on top of his head.
"Oh, that's g-good to hear! It's a big relief to know that they'll be s-safe, hehe..." Emily answered, her eyes going glassy as she probably thought back to her own school days.
"Miss Will, if you would be so kind as to answer merely one last question for me..."
"Uh... y-yeah?" she stuttered as she snapped back to reality.
"Would you say that young Mr. Tom and Miss Tanya have been good and dutiful children to you since their adoption?"
Emily blinked a few times in confusion, adjusting her glasses before laughing hard enough to almost drop her glasses again.
"A-Absolutely! T-They're my little d-darlings and they're the best thing that has e-ever happened to me!"
"That's all I needed to hear. Goodbye then, Miss Willis. Until Monday, children. See you at school."
Tipping his hat, Lankvarden tapped his shoe on the floor once and instantly dispersed into a cloud of dust.
Ah, so that was why he was so confident in his chances of escape...
o-TxT-o
They had to take a train to Massachusetts and then another one to the school, all the while wearing their itchy new blue and red student uniforms. He had been forced to read 'Ilvermorny: A History' by Tanya and as such knew that it was theoretically supposed to be blue and cranberry-coloured, because one of the founders liked the pie so much, but to him it was still just red.
Other practices seemed pretty silly to him as well, like how they were technically not even supposed to possess a wand yet. Students had to leave their wands at school until they were of age to 'ensure the protection of the Statute of Secrecy and themselves'; what a complete load of bat guano. In Britain it had worked out just fine! Also, it would be a cold day in hell when he gave up his wand, with his sister's focus orb that she had made especially for him, to some greasy, American numbskull to toy around with for weeks on end!
Regardless, the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was not entirely without merit. The native Indians which had been hunted to near extinction with the advent of proper English civilization had their own systems of magic, which were now partially taught at Ilvermorny. Tom did not expect much arcane sophistication from bush-dwelling savages, but anybody who could channel magic without a wand deserved at least a fraction of his attention...
In contrast to Hogwarts, their curriculum also included the natural sciences, which deeply interested him. Tanya had proven that magic was not some indescribable, ethereal thing, but instead something that could be measured and carefully controlled. The laws that governed heaven and earth were surely similar in that aspect, no matter how much the Matron back at the orphanage might have hated the idea. Were radio waves not also similar to magic, in a certain sense? Unseen and unheard they travelled around the globe to deliver messages to those with the ability to listen. Tom wanted to know how they did that, so that he may slave them to his will like his magic already was.
There was no fancy boat tour for them when he and his sister and about one thousand and five hundred other students exited the train. Instead they had to trudge through half a kilometre of rocky woodland before they reached the peak of the mountain that the school had been built on.
The construction was a conglomerate of different building styles, each one obviously added to the main building over time and with a new vision of what it was supposed to be like. A dozen multi-coloured towers with distinct roof and window shapes stretched into the grey sky, each one a monument to a different era or culture. That architectural development ironically left the main hall of the school as the least impressive and most plain part of them all, considering that it had doubtlessly been built in simpler times with a tight budget.
Inside the building, he and his sister were greeted by the professors who insisted on grouping them in with the first years.
Diplomatically, Tom tried to circumvent the whole hassle: "Oh, do we really have to take part in the selection process? At Hogwarts we were already sorted into Slytherin. Is there no equivalent of that house here?"
"Well, Mr. Riddle, quite frankly, I don't know." answered the woman who judging from her embroidered collar was going to be their Ancient Runes teacher in a clipped voice. "I've never been to Hogwarts and though I'm sure it has its own way of doing things, over here we do things our way. So please step on the knot and let the ritual do its work."
In the middle of the hall was a small podium surrounded by four large animal statues, the symbols of Ilvermorny's houses. The whole setup looked a little garish to him, but he nonetheless complied, if only to get done with this quickly and not leave his sister alone in this place.
A slight tingle went up his spine as his foot touched the intricate ornament on the floor. Tom stared expectantly at the snake, waiting for it to choose him, but to his horrified shock, it was instead the bloody cat who roared at him. Oh well, the animals here probably had different meanings anyway. The Horned Serpent was most likely some lame pretender snake that had more in common with the dim cow it took its horns from, than Salazar's pet.
Tanya went after him and the surprises unfortunately didn't end with his sorting. Like with the talking hat there was a lengthy pause before any of the animals made their decision. Ultimately, it was the Thunderbird however who almost hesitatingly beat his wings to welcome her into its house.
No, no, no! That had to be a mistake! Why wasn't that traitorous cat yowling for his sister!?
The selection process continued with the first years and he didn't know what to do. He nodded mechanically when the curious children around him asked him questions, but when the feast appeared on the tables, he didn't touch any of the food.
That night, Tom had a vivid nightmare of unending chasms, of fiery beasts hunting him and a terrible green light striking a thunderbird down. And in the morning his brilliant sister's judgement was proven to be impeccable yet again, because Great Britain had officially declared war against Germany.
o-TxT-o
Now that the entrance ceremony had finally ended, and he had returned to the quiet of his office within the school, William Lankverden stared at the envelope he had found in his pocket earlier that day with pursed lips. All his detection spells were coming back negative and there was no poison or potion of any kind on the paper, but he still didn't entirely trust the thing. That boy, Tom, must have been more subtle than most children if he had managed to slip such a letter into his coat undetected. Definitely a problematic trait for any child to have, especially if they were little geniuses...
Deciding to bite the bullet, he telekinetically sliced the envelope open from a distance and extracted the paper from within.
"Dear Mr. Lakverden, I hope you will not be cross with me for sharing this small gift with you. I trust that both my sister's and my own conduct could prove our suitability in order to continue learning under your extended tutelage, but should that not have come to pass, then I can only hope that the contents of this letter may make you reconsider.
With all due respect,
Tom Willis."
Attached was a complex runic array for a spell of some kind...
William's unflappable expression twisted into abject puzzlement as he unravelled the meaning behind the thing. Could that really be...?
Broomless flight?
Little genius indeed...
Do any of you have an idea as to how JK Rowling would've named a native american character if she made one?
An idea has appeared and there is need for something properly in character~
After waking up from his nightmare Tom would have normally sought comfort in the presence of his sister, but at Ilvermorny meals were held in separate cafeterias due to the higher student numbers. It was miserable.
Thus he was sitting in the corner of the Wampus dining hall and thinking about how he could potentially switch houses. Burning down the common room and the dormitories might temporarily work, but repairs could be made easily with magic...
Suddenly, one of the American kids approached his table and plopped down beside him. Tom briefly glanced at the worm and concluded that he was nobody worth noticing. It was just a short, brown-haired boy with a large nose and a mole underneath his left eye.
"Hi, I'm Jeremy." sighed the intruder with a lazy sort of tiredness that belied intense boredom.
"Tom." was all he deigned to respond with, more because of a reflex than a conscious effort to be polite.
Neither of them said anything as they both listlessly dug into their provided meals.
Eventually the boy spoke up again, languidly stirring in his bowl: "Are you still sad that your cousin got sorted into Thunderbird?"
"She's my sister."
"Ouch. Anyway, you're from England, right?"
Tom hummed vaguely in response, biting into his unbuttered toast.
"How is it there? Do they have better food than this?"
For comparison the boy held up a spoon full of bland oatmeal and curled up a corner of his lips.
"My mom says it's healthy, but I think they just feed us this stuff because it's cheap."
He hummed again.
"Not one for conversation, ey? Yeah, I get that. Honestly the only reason I bothered sitting with you is that my mom's nagging me about making a friend. Hadn't bothered to last year and now she's all worried and stuff. Ughhhh."
"I don't wanna make friends right now. So would you kindly sod off."
He knew that Tanya would call that 'a very unnecessarily undiplomatic' declaration, but he was just not feeling up for being nice at the moment.
Instead of getting angry or leaving him alone, however, Jeremy only snickered.
"Yeah, if anyone gets that feeling then it's me. Other kids really suck. But tell you what, if you hang out with me none of the others are gonna bother you. I can tell my mom that I found a friend and you can keep to yourself. Win-win, right?" drawled the persistent boy before stifling a yawn.
"You could also tell your mother that without being such a nuisance for me. You'd be lying either way." Tom grumbled, narrowing his eyes in annoyance.
"Nah. She always finds out when I lie. It's not pretty."
Jeremy shivered.
"But I don't want to be your friend." Tom sniffed haughtily.
"Feeling's mutual. I guess we have more in common than we thought, huh?"
"We have nothing in common."
He and this plebeian were not at all similar. At all!
"Yeah, yeah. This is already turning out to be bothersome. Say, can I look at your notes later? I feel like catching up on some sleep during Arithmancy."
"Go die."
"Uhh... I'm just gonna take that as a yes. As thanks I'll leave you alone in the evening. How's that sound?"
Tom began contemplating hexing this boy right in the middle of the cafeteria, along with other means of disposing of this irritation, but alas, he knew that their loathsome headmaster would probably use that to throw him out. Maybe everything would grow more bearable with enough time, just like with Hogwarts...
o-TxT-o
It just wasn't working.
Despite his best efforts at distracting himself with studying and networking, Tom was growing increasingly agitated. He just felt so... stifled!
There were no secret passageways or unused towers or even forgotten dungeons here! Everything at Ilvermorny served a purpose and when it didn't then the teacher nonetheless ensured that no curious student could poke around in it. Not even the woods surrounding the compound were 'forbidden' as powerful wards had been created to keep out dangerous magical beasts and muggles alike. It was as if the Americans were so deathly afraid of their children killing themselves that they even forwent moving staircases! How was he supposed to keep his instincts sharp when he was being coddled this much!?
But no, that was also just another mental distraction from the real problem at hand...
Moon Greenfeather.
One hundred and seventy eight centimetres tall, short hair, muscular, bronze-skinned, hazel-eyed with his favourite food being grilled salmon.
And he was now Tom's enemy number one.
Forget that idiot Grindelwald or even that creep Dumbledore. Moon was at the very top of his shit list.
Why? Because he took his Tanya from him!
Tom had Lucy spying on them around the clock so much that her belly was getting raw from all the crawling around he had her doing, but he didn't care.
They were eating together! They were learning together!
It just wasn't fair! It should have been him; not that brown-skinned bastard!!
Still... He was the greatest wizard of his generation and so he would not cry or do anything silly like that. No, because if Tanya saw fit to spend her time with some muscled freak then she probably had a good reason to do so. Tom had not asked her what that reason was, of course, because that would be illogical. No one could replace him! He was the only one she could fully trust after all...
Nonetheless, he always felt relieved when it was time for Charms class. It was the first and only class of the week that his house shared with Thunderbird, undoubtedly due to that loathsome headmaster's interference. They weren't sitting next to each other, but at least he got to see his beloved sister again with his own two eyes instead of the blurry possession-sight of his pet. What never failed to sour his mood, however, was the dirty cuckoo next to her...
"Who can tell me what the disentanglement charm is?" asked their professor and seeing Moon's arm rise, Tom quickly thrust his own into the air.
Raising a brow at their simultaneous reaction, the bespectacled woman wisely chose him over the inferior imposter.
"Yes, Mr. Wallis?"
"Enodo, Miss Hicks."
"Correct. It is quite the useful spell for getting out of sticky situations, but aside from that most simply cast it to clean up their extensive shoelace collection."
Few chuckled at the lame joke and Tom faked a grin as well, but naturally Moon had to ruin it.
"It can also be of great use in taking care of certain climbing plants like Thrashing Ivy, who regularly get tangled up in themselves."
"True, true. As I always say: 'With a creative mind the applications of even the simplest magic are limitless!' Five Merits to Thunderbird!"
He earned Merits for that!? Tom's teeth gnashed against each other in rage.
"Relax... Merits are meaningless anyway. Pukwudgie wins most years anyway for being a pack of goody little two shoes..." Jeremy drawled while picking his nose, one of his arms barely supporting his head from flopping onto the table and descending into a marmot-like slumber.
Tom schooled his expression back into careful neutrality.
"It's not that."
"Meh, is it because that dreamboat is hanging out with your sister?"
"Shut it!" he hissed in annoyance.
"Hehe, you're too easy..."
Professor Hicks obviously did not appreciate the chitchat: "Mr. Flitkins, are you listening?"
"Yeah, yeah." replied the chronically sleepy boy, not even bothering to meet her gaze.
"Then you surely already know how the disentanglement charm is performed and would be willing to demonstrate?"
"Ugh."
"Mr. Flitkins, I will not repeat myself."
"Fine, fine..."
Jeremy's wand slipped into his hand and he very un-energetically began to cast, only for his chanting to be interrupted by a hearty yawn.
"En- ahhhhh-haaaaa… odo. Sorry. Homework kept me up all night."
Tom knew for a fact that it in fact had not. Nothing except the threat of corporeal punishment could keep that fool from sleeping. Still, the remark served to further irritate their teacher and Tom already knew that Jeremy was not dull enough to do so without reason. This was going to be another prank of his...
"Let's do this again, but properly. Enodo!"
A pinkish light left the boy's wand and unexpectedly curved upwards, towards the rich tapestry decorating the classroom. The cords that affixed it to the wall promptly unravelled, sending the entire thing crashing to the ground in a plume of dust that made more than a few sneeze.
"Ooops?"
At this point their teacher was fuming, but neither of them cared much for the extra homework she doled out, because this was actually quite hilarious. Jeremy shot him a hidden smile and for once, Tom found himself sharing it. The only thing that would have made it better was if the wall hangings had fallen on Moon...
o-TxT-o
Most of the books in Ilvermorny's modest library (compared to Hogwarts' size at least) contained stuff he already knew. Interesting advanced topics like the Dark Arts or ritual magic also seemed to have been censored from the archives entirely for some forsaken reason. Still, he had hundreds of copied works that they had stolen from Britain to consume, and as such Tom wasn't too bothered by it.
Absentmindedly, he whispered towards his sister: "So Xylomancy is basically like reading tea leaves?" before turning the page of his book.
She hummed noncommittally, halting her own reading.
"Mmmhh... Well, kind of. In the sense that you trust in your fate to guide you by relinquishing control. But in practice it's quite different."
"So it's useless, then."
Prophecies that weren't one hundred percent accurate were more of a danger than a benefit. Still, of course being able to tell the future – even if it was highly unreliable – was not completely useless. By repeating the divination process multiple times, one could ascertain general trends in one's immediate future. Thus, his sister, who shared his opinion on the matter, was forced to play devil's advocate.
"I mean, it's definitely better than reading tea leaves or coffee grounds. Far less possibilities and ambiguity to read into for one. There are only so many ways a stick can fall, after all. It's not in our textbooks, but carved human bones are said to be even better for that purpose."
He would have thought of that! There was only one who could have beaten him to the punch!
"Is that Injun babbling to you about his ancestors again?" Tom couldn't help but hiss out.
That got a raised eyebrow out of Tanya as she gave him a long look.
"Don't call him that where he can hear you. It's not the twenties anymore... Also don't worry; Moon is just helping me study for Shamanology. I may have a deep distaste for the religious connotations of the subject, but it has its strong suits. His people have a long history with weather dances... Imagine summoning an entire blizzard! Most fascinating..."
"I don't like him." was all he had to say to that.
In response she only lightly shook her head, blond locks glinting in the candle light.
"You don't have to like him. He's still a useful connection to make."
"Mph."
He would still keep an eye on the guy. He didn't trust him one bit! Who did that redskin think he was, getting close to his sister like that?
"Are you jealous?"
How did everybody come to that conclusion!? He was a master of hiding his emotions, Merlin dammit! Not that he had anything to be jealous of from that guy to begin with...
"No."
"We spend at least two hours every week in the library together, Tom."
"I know."
It wasn't nearly enough time in his opinion. Tom knew what true loneliness felt like and he hated the thought of ever experiencing it again.
Tanya slowly sighed and closed her book to look directly at him with an odd expression on her face, and Tom suddenly felt very, very small...
"Please don't worry, Tom. Do you remember what we agreed on for our plan?"
Each word tasted like bile on his tongue, but he answered nonetheless.
"That we each have our own roles to play."
"Exactly. You, Tom, are going to be a fine leader one day. I know that you will excel in politics or business when you're older, but that is going to take time. I'm not that kind of person. I don't want to lead from the frontlines."
As much as he wanted to deny that and tell her that she would be a magnificent ruler for their future subjects, Tom still did not understand why she was talking about this topic.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"It means that we won't always be seeing each other. We are partners, but our paths lead to different positions in life. It's only natural that we work with different people as well to accomplish our goals."
Of course he knew that! But he didn't want to... to just...
"I still don't like that Greenfeather fellow... He's up to no good."
Tanya huffed mirthfully, rolling her eyes.
"He's not interested in me beyond my skills. Moon is a pragmatic fellow with his own goals as well."
"Can't we talk about something else now?" Tom asked sourly.
"Mmmhh..." his sister exaggeratedly tapped her chin. "Benowitz & Blau answered my letters yesterday. Their interest rates are slightly worse than Gringotts, but as Emily is considered a single parent we can gain some subsidies from the state if we somehow convince them that it's for our education. Personally, I feel..."
Tom listened to her talk of money and laws with natural skill, nodding silently from time to time. America was at long last recovering from the 'Great Depression' that had destroyed much of the economy in the previous years and employment rates were slowly starting to rise again as his economically savvy sister was all too eager to tell him.
Magical manipulation of the stock market was a serious crime that the MACUSA made sure to investigate seriously, but with their adopted mother's help, Tanya had been able to buy some small share certificates through non-magical means. The poor confused woman needed to be walked through every step of the process in laborious detail over the phone, yet, secretly, Tom wasn't sure that he would have done much better. Global economics could give any ancient rune array a run for its money where arcane obscurity was concerned.
o-TxT-o
"I harshly reject these accusations, Mr. Lankvarden, sir. I had nothing to do with that."
The annoying thing was that this whole incident had indeed not been his fault.
"It was not an accusation, Mr. Wallis. I merely asked if you had an inkling on who could have done it. After all, we both know that you spend a lot of time watching over the school."
Damn it! How did this old coot know about Lucy!?
"I have absolutely no idea, sir. Though if i were to hazard a guess..."
"Well? Spit it out, boy."
"Moon Greenfeather. He seems very suspicious, sir. I don't want to throw around wild allegations, but I have heard him talk repeatedly about how he believes the separation of the magical and non-magical members of his tribe to be – and I quote – 'asinine'."
The grey man behind the heavy oaken desk gazed at him blankly.
"And who's throwing around accusations now?"
"You asked me for my opinion, sir, and I gave my opinion. There's nothing more to it than that."
Again, silence settled over them as they locked eyes.
"Alright, Mr. Wallis. If you are so confident in your assessment of him then how about we question him ourselves?"
Pressing a nondescript button on his table, a microphone folded itself out of the table in front of his mouth.
"Moon Greenfeather, to the Director's Office, please. I repeat: Moon Greenfeather, to the Director's Office."
Tom adopted a cocky smirk even if inside his mind he was screaming at himself for letting his hatred cloud his judgement. He just wanted to sow some subtle seeds of distrust, not escalate this into a confrontation! Now he was either going to look like a bigoted arse or a scared culprit when that idiot proved his innocence. After all, Moon was far too pathetic to become a political terrorist.
The door behind him opened and he was prepared to throw a casual dismissive glance over his shoulder, only for his eyes to widen at who was standing there at the entrance to the room.
"What is the meaning of this?" asked a pissed off looking Tanya and Tom knew that he had messed up.
"Miss Wallis, I do not remember inviting you to my office, but perhaps you can shine a light on this situation. Please come in."
Following behind her through the door was Moon with all his unnatural tallness. Next to his petite sister he looked like a lumbering troll.
"How can I help you, sir? Oh, hi, Tom! Didn't see you there."
This guy...
"Speaking plainly... Mr. Greenfeather, did you paint the message 'Dreamers awaken – Grindelwald frees the world!' at the wall of the potions laboratory?"
"What? No way!"
"Where were you then around eight pm last night?"
"Sleeping, sir? I get up early for training."
"And what would be your opinion of such a message?"
"I dunno, sir. Maybe someone thinks Grindelwald is involved in the war overseas? The magical community would need to pick a side I imagine. I don't care much for it, but it's only a question of time 'til America is dragged into the conflict again 'cause of the Brits. No offense, Tanya."
"No, that's quite right." she smiled at the muscled troglodyte's words and Tom's fist clenched. "Though, if you would allow me to ask Mr. Lankvarden, sir... Why is it that we heard of this act of vandalism only now? And furthermore, what does my brother have to do with any of it?"
Ha! She got him there! The fool still hadn't let go of his unfounded suspicions, but would he admit to them in front of another student, inevitably leaking his prejudices to the entire school!?
"Well, as an exemplary student and a foreigner, he has a unique perspective on such matters and I sought his opinion on it. He named Mr. Greenfeather as a possible suspect and here we are." explained the grey man calmly, folding his hands in front him.
"Ah, is that so?" Tanya replied too evenly, pointedly ignoring Tom.
He was dreading that conversation already...
"Eh, wouldn't be the first time I get called here for a mistake like that, right sir?" Moon asked with a sardonic laugh and Lankvarden nodded with pursed lips.
"Two times, Mr. Greenfeather."
"Yeah, once because that Scarlatina-girl thought I was being a creep and following her, just because I went to the toilet and the second time was when Millers accused me of stealing his golden pen. Turned out he broke it and didn't want to tell his mother, ha! I guess being a redskin does that to you sometimes."
"Mr. Greenfeather, I would appreciate it if you did not make such remarks in my office. The school administration has been nothing but fair to you or your extended family."
"I didn't say nothing, sir. Just stating facts, is all."
The headmaster's expression turned sour and Tanya stepped forward, holding her hand up.
"Alright, before this turns unproductive, am I right to assume that we are done here, sir? We wouldn't want to waste any more of your precious time and keep you from administering the rest of the student body."
They said their goodbyes and left one after the other, although his sister still refused to look at him.
o-TxT-o
"Grindelwald Returns!" screamed the animated headline of the Salem Courier with large, bold letters.
Consequently, the hows and whys of his subjugation of the German ministry of magic were the talk of the school and probably most of the magical world.
The first thing that came to Tom's mind however was:
"Ugh, I'll have to send Emily a letter with a soothing charm attached... She's going to freak out about this."
"You and me both." groaned Jeremy from his left.
His mother was apparently a worrywart and a politician. An uncomfortable combination.
"Are your moms scared of that guy or something? Grindelwald is a weakling! No need to fear a guy who has to hide from a single zoologist, haha!" mocked the girl on the other side of the table.
"Who, Newt Scamander? I thought he just helped the aurors with that Quilin business." replied her friend.
Tom had actually read up on that last week. Why people entrusted some puny Chinese animal to decide the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and then acted surprised when somebody messed with its mind remained an enigma to him. Like, wasn't that the most obvious way to quickly rise to power? It was at least something he would have tried.
"Nah, they totally duelled each other! Scamander tamed a White Wolpertinger with his bare hands! My uncle says he's super strong!"
Tuning out their inane chatter, Tom went back to his favourite thought exercise: How could he benefit from this development?
Regardless of which side won, the other would be weakened. Aurors would die in droves and livelihoods were going to get destroyed, leading to an overall rise in crime and civil unrest. The people would look for a strong leader just as the Germans had done after getting fleeced by France at the end of the Great War.
Grindelwald was not the kind of guy that could hold position for long, however. He was an ideological extremist who would make as many enemies as he had allies. Ilvermorny was living proof of how draconian the regime cracked down on any of his supporters.
The boy who had painted his little slogan on the laboratory wall had been found last week and promptly dispelled for 'spreading dangerous and malicious ideologies among the vulnerable youth' as the headmaster called it. Everybody knew that was an overreaction, but it had been an example to deter others from uttering anything positive about the man who was apparently now controlling Germany's magical elite.
Lectures about the importance of the statue of secrecy and the dangers of no-majs had been held and some poor sixth graders had been forced to design motivational propaganda posters in class which were now displayed as 'art' all throughout the school. Some likened this madness to the witch hunts, though they kept those uncomfortable comparisons private.
Could he potentially use that fear? That uncertainty?
Possibly... But adults would not respect a child in a position of power. Aging potions would also not fool them for long.
Maybe he could anonymously sell them something to make their fears go away?
But what might that something be?
Wizards were scared that the muggles would find out about them and destroy their way of life like they had done in medieval times. Thus, they employed wards to keep them out of places, glamours to hide their appearances and spells to erase their memories. Yet all of these measures could fail and regularly did so. The only reason why the whole world didn't know about the existence of magic already was that the people who raved about it were seen as lunatics or attention seekers.
In a way, that same mundane disbelief of the general population against everything supernatural was the most powerful tool to keep them in line. Science and 'common sense' attempted to explain away everything outside of their scope without any auror even needing to lift a finger. Subsequently, the greatest magician America currently knew about was Harry Houdini and not Gellert Grindelwald.
However, the world was growing increasingly connected. What one person learned could become known to the whole world the next day. The anonymity of the wizarding world was no longer protected by the isolation of one community to another... It all came back to one of his longtime fascinations: The radio.
Telephones were of course pretty handy as well, but they only connected two people with each other. Radio waves on the other hand were everywhere, surrounding them at all times! They even travelled through physical matter as well, effortlessly bypassing all obstacles in their path, be they mountains or the skyscrapers of New York.
Theoretically a well crafted long frequency wave could reach every single person on this planet if they weren't hiding deep below the earth.
Then what if he...?
Mmmhhh... He would file that thought away for later. Something like that exceeded his own skills by a huge margin still.
"Hey, Tom! You with us?"
"Of course, Josephine. I was merely planning the letter for my mother." he responded easily, running through the memories of the past conversation in the blink of an eye. "And the answer to your question is yes. They will lose the war, as they did the first."
"How'd you know that?"
His sister told him. But Tom could hardly say that and still hope to be taken seriously afterwards...
"It's obvious. They are surrounded on every side by enemies. No matter how good their forces are, they are outnumbered. The better question should be... What would Grindelwald have to gain from supporting the losing side?"
"Isn't it a bit early to speculate on the winners already? I heard that he is the greatest wizard of our age. Overconfidence like that will only tempt fate." remarked Donald nervously.
'You can always lose.' Tom remembered bitterly. Just being better than somebody else did not automatically guarantee a win, as he had painfully learned this year.
"I guess..."
"Bah, you're all being stupid." Jeremy lazily yawned, earning himself much scorn from the girls who hurled insults in his direction for the perceived affront.
Tom however was mildly interested in what the sometimes insightful boy had to say.
"What do you mean?"
"It's obvious... Doesn't matter if he wins or loses. If the war gets as big as the last one there will be enough eyes on Europe that when he reveals the existence of magic to everybody, no one will be able to hide it from the no-majs any more."
The thought struck Tom like a lightning bolt. Grindelwald was a fanatic! Of course he wouldn't act like a rational human being and serve his own best interests! Else he would be living the high life on some paradisiacal south sea island right now, and not fighting a bloody war! He had made the mistake of forgetting that.
Grindelwald didn't need to take over the wizarding world...
He just needed to force the other magic users into action to subdue the muggles before they could do the same to them!
It was as simple as it was mad. He had to talk to his sister about that immediately!
o-TxT-o
Their simultaneous excuse from class due to a sudden 'illness' would certainly come out, but the mark on his record was worth the risk. Tanya seemed to think so as well, as she had become lost in her own head by now.
"Yes, yes... You are correct. One should never underestimate the irrationality of lunatics like that. Hmmm..." she hummed gravely, stewing in her dark thoughts.
Her face twisted with burning rage for a split-second and Tom wished that his legilimency was good enough to take a peek inside her mind without her noticing.
"Can we trust the government to handle that if we tip them off?"
"Ideally yes..." Tanya spoke slowly, the unspoken doubt heavy in her voice.
"What can we do then?" he prodded her, feeling both excitement and dread at where this was heading.
"Hmm... It's too late to stop the war in its entirety by now, but..." and the words spilled from her pinched lips with great reluctance, "But we could certainly cut it short by severing the neck of the snake so to speak."
"We kill Grindelwald?"
Yes, yes, yes!
Finally a worthy opponent and time away from Moon! This would bring them back together, closer than ever!
"Before it's too late, yes."
He didn't ask anything as naive as 'But isn't he extremely well protected?' or 'How do we find him?', because he had some rough ideas for solutions to those problems already, and he was sure that his sister had much the same.
Instead he gave her one last push, using her own words to shatter the last remaining traces of her reluctance: "You can always lose. That applies to him as much as everyone else."
She regarded him with a long, searching look before carefully inclining her head. Her blue eyes sparkling with beautiful determination.
They could do this!
Sorry everyone! Due to a few extreme factors (extreme lazyness) I procrastinated posting the chapter here! Hope you can forgive me with this offering of more Tom and Tanya!
Also kind of a heavy question: Why didn't the wizards intervene in WW2? Not like overtly, but a few motivated indivuals in the right places could have done a lot to prevent the Holocaust for example. I don't know, am I going too far here? Is there a lore reason? Am I stupid?
