Author's note: Just a reminder that things that look like canon misfires are on purpose.

Chapter Five – Tom Riddle and Saturday

A normal wizard might, after having spent his night discussing a seemingly intractable problem, reading more information, and walking for miles - a normal wizard might want to catch up on his sleep.

The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Tom Riddle currently sat at his desk with a fresh sheet of parchment and outlined the broad steps of his plan. Things always seemed simpler if you broke them down that way.

"Step One: Locate and penetrate a small shack hidden by uncertain arcane magic in a vast forest."

Tom saw no reason to be concerned yet.

"Step Two: Overwhelm Dark Wizard who cannot be touched by most of my magic."

Tom could think of several quite simple other ways to incapacitate a person. Moving forward.

"Step Three: Steal the device of power, find out how to wield it without being trapped by unknown magic."

If Bellatrix didn't know something relevant, Tom could always set the amulet aside for further investigation.

"Step Four: Deliver the Dark Wizard to Tobo for questioning."

That was more than Tobo had asked for - and that was the way Tom liked to operate.

There. Shouldn't take but a couple of days.

Having settled that, he cast an Encryption Charm on the paper, then put it with his History of Magic notes. While normally, he preferred to sneak out to the library unseen, Bellatrix was usually up early as well, and he wanted to see if she could help him at all with the Amulet.

Today, however, something caught his attention in the common room, so he summoned a book from within his robes and it appeared in hand as though it had always been there. Tom sat down and pretended to read it in his usual seat.

Instead of having finished hours ago, one of the House Elves remained working in the common room. Probably because of the fourth-year girl trying to speak with it, literally begging it to respond to her.

"Orney! Pleeeeaaase! You know me, Ashley! Please, stop ignoring me! Why won't you talk to me? We - we used to talk for hours while you cleaned my bedroom..." The girl was sobbing now.

Tom bit his lip to stop from smirking. What do you know, the old fool predicted it perfectly. Tom surely never would have thought about the consequences to sentimental idiots banned from all house elf interaction. But then, why hadn't he thought to just make the elves invisible in the first place, if he didn't want such pathetic results? The man has some foresight, but obviously not enough.

"Please, Orney! Just, please, just say goodbye, I know, I know it's against the rules, but please just - please, just one last word!" Ashley was absolutely wailing, loudly enough that people were starting to come out to see what the commotion was. The Elf finally turned to look at Ashley, tears in its eyes as well, to Ashley's shock and silence.

"Goodbye, Ashley." The elf gasped then wailed as it ran from the room; the girl fell to the floor, crying anew, while about an audience of around fifteen students gathered in disbelief.

The Elf will be going off to hurt itself, very badly for disobeying a direct command like that. Dumbledore had to have stressed to the elves not to say a single word to any student, to prevent another similar plot by me or anyone else. Apparently this Ashley girl would rather have the Elf punish itself than... not say Goodbye? And then never speak to it again?

This was all too bizarre for Tom to try to puzzle out; he looked at the crying girl in confusion one last time and walked out of the common room. He didn't like feeling confused, and he was beginning to grow angry at himself for wanting to solve a puzzle not worth his time. Perhaps breakfast and a pretense of socializing would calm him down. It wouldn't hurt to actually be seen around school a couple of times this weekend either.

"What's up with MacNair lately?" Terence Keen asked the Slytherin table as Tom took his usual seat.

A tall blonde girl replied, "Likely upset about his House Elf not speaking with him anymore."

Tom burst out, "What?" That doesn't sound right…

The girl looked at Tom and said, "It was his family's Elf, it came to Hogwarts with him, Walden knew it since he was a baby. And now that it's a Hogwarts employee, they can't even speak anymore. He was so angry he tried to curse the poor thing's head right off. Luckily the Elves are warded against students' spells, but of course it had to be reassigned."

Tom was well aware of the warding, otherwise he might have used something besides trickery and loopholes in his plot. But he was quite surprised at MacNair's depth of feeling. I may have to reassess his usefulness.

"Well, where is he now?"

The blonde girl just shrugged and continued to eat.

"So Tom, what are your plans for today?" Tom slowly turned right and stared at Thomas Chang.

Chang originally came from China; they receive their wands at age six there, and train extensively in combat. Tom had traded some help with homework and other things like that for some of Chang's exotic spells. The boy knew magic Tom had never even heard of. Nothing truly impressive - he was still young - but there were some useful tricks the Chinese had come up with.

"I have some researching to do, and then I am going to practice Transfiguration for a few hours."

"Why would you practice schoolwork on a Saturday?" Chang asked Tom jokingly.

"Why would I need to practice my school work at all?" Tom replied completely seriously. "I have my own research to do, speaking of which I should get to it." Enough socializing. I don't have the time to try to relate to these people.

On his way to the library, he reflected on Chang a bit. Perhaps I am overestimating him, he seems to have lost the passion for learning he had when he first came to Britain. Disappointing.

This morning seemed to be full of one letdown after another. Everyone is just so weak. Hm. Maybe I could tell Bellatrix that Chang has been insulting her, and then we can see what he can really do.

Although it was an idle thought, he felt a bit of a shiver as he considered, honestly, if he could introduce Bellatrix Black to Thomas Chang in the context of Battle Magic.

I can just see the Forbidden Forest, completely on fire, with the heat from the purple flames starting to melt the school off in the distance as though it were made of wax.

On second thought, perhaps that should wait for Tom to become immortal - or at least fireproof.

Bellatrix wasn't immediately available when he entered the library; all things considered, that was probably the worse option when he saw who was at a table near the entrance, surrounded by Hufflepuffs.

"Oh, hello there Tom, how are you today?" Why he thinks trying to push my buttons is a good idea is beyond me.

"I'm fine, Monroe. Are those friends I see there?"

All the Duffers were girls, naturally. "Yeah, I make a lot of friends." Monroe was actually grinning.

Tom smirked and replied, "I'm sure you find it easy. You could pull a Knut out from a girl's ear, and they'll think you Merlin reborn." Two of them gave him hostile looks, while the others were just confused.

Monroe apparently finally remembered he was a Slytherin, started to look ashamed at cozying up with some Hufflepuff girls. But his face relaxed, he pushed his chair back, told the girls to wait a moment, then walked over to the roped off area delineating the Restricted section.

Giving Tom a smug look, he walked past it and picked a book off the shelf, thumbing through it casually while leaning against the shelf. Only his mouth smiled as he said, "Say what you like Tom, it doesn't bother me. I can do this and you can't."

Tom was careful to keep his anger hidden. "Except that I could bypass the wards if I needed, I don't need permission like you." Well. I probably could get past the wards; the problem is that Dumbledore would certainly know about it if I did.

Tom had never been given permission to enter the warded section, not even once. He had asked three teachers with innocent enough excuses, but they all either fully explained to him what he was asking permission to learn about, or they sent him to a teacher who could. Who but Dumbledore would have warned the staff? Surely he must realize I actually need access at some point, or I wouldn't be able to become a Professor...

The memory of Groleo's shop calmed him down. Hogwarts certainly doesn't have a monthly subscription to magazines that contain articles titled "1001 Ways To Make Corpses."

"As much as I love our intellectual discourse, I do have business elsewhere. A pleasure as always, Mr. Monroe."

With an insolent bow, Monroe returned to his table. The sight of his back made Tom draw his wand, but he turned and walked away before Monroe saw. One day I'm going to Transfigure that whelp into a glass vase and cast Reducto to see how he likes being in a thousand pieces.

Fortunately for Monroe, Bellatrix wasn't in the library, so Tom was able to leave before his fury grew.

All right. If I were Bellatrix Black, where would I be?

The girl liked to spend her free time wandering the halls. This had not been a mystery Tom could solve by following her around invisibly, except that she seemed to want to avoid her fiancé. Tom had quietly mentioned this to her, one day when they were hiding out together, and she blurted out, "I'm afraid I might kill him right here in school."

Tom had nearly shuddered at that; she had been completely serious. And of course if she does anything at all, I'll get blamed for it.

So now he tried a path he'd found her on before, through a corridor in the dungeons, when he heard somebody step out of the classroom behind him.

"What are you doing now, Mister Riddle? I dislike the way you stalk through my hallway; it makes me want to reach for a bezoar, just in case." Professor Slughorn was chuckling and looking up and down the hallway, to make sure they were alone - or to make sure they weren't.

A pity Bezoars don't work on Transfiguration sickness. "Have no fear sir; I'm occupied with figuring out how to bring down a different Dark Wizard at the moment," Tom joked along.

"Hah! Dark Wizard, you give me too much credit Tom. I'd never survive as a Dark Wizard."

I agree completely.

"Surely you've considered poisoning him? Personally that's the way I would do it if I had to." Professor Slughorn liked to make dark jokes, but Tom could tell his heart wasn't into it. More than likely, it's just to get on my good side.

"Yes, I suppose poisoning does make the most sense, thank you Professor."

Slughorn chuckled again, "Ah I feel safer already knowing that the world will soon be less one Dark Wizard."

Tom smirked. "Well, if they'd just make me Defense Professor already, the world wouldn't fear Dark Wizards."

The next laugh was a bit forced. "All jokes aside, Mister Riddle, you are only in your fifth year and have yet to even take your OWLs. You know I can't make any suggestions or recommendations for you."

I had forgotten about those bloody stupid tests. Tom sighed. "Yes, well, in any case, sir, I have to prepare to assault the enemy's home. So I'll leave you to it."

Professor Slughorn was smiling freely again. "Ah, good luck to you Tom, I'm sure you will make Salazar Slytherin himself proud." Slughorn saluted Tom, and Tom returned it before walking away.

Almost another hour was spent blithering around Hogwarts before Tom saw Bellatrix, outside by the lake, sitting halfway up a tree.

Tom looked up the tree. "Come down from there." He didn't want her looking down on him as they spoke.

"I like the view, the clouds' reflection on the lake is so pretty."

"Bella. Come down."

Bellatrix sighed and gently floated down from the tree.

Tom began warding the area so they could talk in private. Unfortunately, Bellatrix always grew far too excited when he did this.

He could tell she was only waiting for him to finish the privacy enchantments to speak, so as soon as he finished but before replacing his wand, he said, "Bella, tell me all you know of defensive artifacts."

"Oh." Bellatrix frowned. "Generally, they are made from things that already have certain properties. I don't think they are often made from scratch, but rather have shields built into them, and folded over and over on themselves, like forging a sword."

Tom shook his head. "No, I don't mean a device for blocking attacks; I mean something that totally renders them inert."

Bellatrix's eyes grew wide. "But I've never heard of anything like that before! That would be seriously powerful. Are you talking about something specific?"

Tom already had his cover story. "Yes, but I plan to craft it myself, eventually. But what types of other protections would one put on such a device once they worked out the fundamentals? Say I made an amulet to wear around the throat, surely it should strangle anybody who happened to defeat me in some way…" Tom tapped his cheek with his finger, finally allowing the girl to speak.

"No, I mean... you could but… Most of these devices tend to have a mind of their own, they will betray their master if legitimately defeated. I don't know why, but my father told me that's almost always the way it works in legends, the powerful devices want to go to powerful wizards."

So I just have to defeat the wielder of the amulet? If the device simply handed itself over this would be much simpler, but he didn't trust that it would be that simple.

Tom waved his wand, and the world washed in around them again.

"Is that all?" Bellatrix sounded disappointed.

"No, you can also go find Aerys Flintwood, and have him come to my dorm immediately. In fact, tell him to join you in my dorm, tell him there is gold involved, so binding him and dragging him along won't be necessary this time, Bellatrix."

Bellatrix looked intrigued, "What is this -"

"Now, if you will…" Tom gestured back towards the school and Bellatrix set off on her errand.

As Tom sat at his desk waiting, he practiced a few drills. He gestured with his wand and a glowing bat appeared, then lowered his wand and closed his eyes for a few moments to allow the bat to fly around. He snapped his eyes open and shot a small jet of blue light shot out, sending both back to non-existence.

Tom was about to conjure another bat when he felt somebody reaching for his door through his wards. Releasing the wards, the door opened just as Bellatrix was about to knock.

She was standing there with the short weasel-faced boy.

"Thank you Bellatrix, you may wait outside." Tom said as he gestured Flintwood into his dorm, and shut the door on Bellatrix.

"Bellatrix said you had some kind of job for me, Riddle?" The boy said warily. Tom found that out strange, as the boy was usually rather happy to earn some money.

"What else did she say?" Tom could feel his magic leak with annoyance; likely the boy felt it too.

"She… She said that if I didn't report to your dorm within 10 minutes flat you would give me a 10 minute head start to flee Hogwarts before you set after me."

Damn you, Black! "No, no, no…" Tom took a breath and composed himself again.

"Look, Flintwood… All right. Look. Twenty-five galleons. How long to acquire three rings of specific metals?"

Flintwood straightened up and smiled. "I imagine I could find them somewhere within a couple of hours."

"Tin, Iron and Platinum, please deliver to Bellatrix." He waved the door open again. "Well, I wouldn't want to keep you."

Flintwood looked a little confused, but left without any questions.

Alchemy provided some valuable secrets, especially as most wizards didn't give the subject a second thought once they heard it was all about "turning metal to gold." Few realized there was magic in metal, not much, but enough for some small advantage.

Tom saw Bellatrix still standing outside his room. "Bella, I will need you to guard the door for me. If anybody other than the headmaster himself comes to interrupt me I want you to…" He thought twice about saying "curse them into oblivion," as this was Bellatrix Black.

"That is. If anybody comes to interrupt me, tell them I am studying in the library. Then take them there as if you were looking for me in the first place. I cannot be interrupted for the next few hours."

Bellatrix tilted her head in confusion but simply nodded, and Tom closed the door on her again.

Tom prepared every ward he possibly could on the door and turned to begin his work. No more hesitating.

Outside the door, Bellatrix could feel magic building up to protect the room - and then nothing. The huge force was all washed out.

He must be working on his device, I can see why he wouldn't want to be interrupted, that would be delicate work. Could it be possible that he can create this device, as he spoke of it? He would have had to learn some deep magical secret, but knowing Tom, this is more than possible...

Terence Keen gave Bellatrix an odd look as he walked past.

"Tom's in the library."

He stopped, confused. "I wasn't looking for Tom."

"Well he's in the library, do you want me to take you to him?"

Keen snorted. "Oh... the library, right, that's good to know." The boy took a step closer. "Come on, what type of blood magic is he really practicing in there?"

Bellatrix's eyes widened. She had to stop him!

"If he's practicing blood magic, do you think it's smart to be speaking so openly about it?"

He should have just minded his own business in the first place.

"Merlin… You're serious aren't you?" Keen turned pale.

"Am I?" Bellatrix put a sweet edge into her voice. "Even if he was sacrificing a bunch of squirrels, it wouldn't be any of your business."

"No, I suppose not..." He looked at Tom's door once more and then walked away, rather quickly. Bella smirked and settled in with a book.

After a time, the rat-faced boy reappeared and handed Bellatrix a small pouch. "Look, I don't even want payment for that. Tell Riddle I don't want to be involved in any of this anymore, and I won't be helping him again."

Bellatrix put the pouch in her robes and waited for Tom to emerge, as she wouldn't interrupt whatever was going on inside the room.

It was perhaps another hour before she felt the wards break; she stood up to attention as Tom opened the door.

His robes were fresh, but he was still sweating and looking pale and tired. "Do you have the package?"

She pulled it out of her robes. "I do. Tom, are you Ok? Just what did you-"

"It iss no concern of yourss!" Tom seemed to hiss at her as he reached out, nearly snatching the pouch from her before he put it in his own pocket.

"I need to leave the school now for a short time and deliver this." Tom said, rather quickly, "You will continue to convince people I am present but unaccounted for at the moment, is that clear?"

"Yes." Bellatrix nodded vigorously.

"Did anybody ask after me while I was inside?" Tom asked her.

"Not really, Keen was looking for you but I told him you weren't here and he left."

"Good." Tom walked away without even bothering to ward his room again, so Bellatrix laid a few charms on the door and went on her way. What in Merlin's name is he up to?

As Tom turned the corner into the main common room, he stopped short, as it seemed everybody was staring at him. He wasn't being paranoid, they were in fact looking at him, and he didn't like the way they were whispering.

"Bellatrix…" Tom thought, instantly regretting involving her in any way at all. He walked towards the exit, ignoring the looks. He couldn't help but hear the whispers though.

"squirrels?"

"blood"?

"ritual"?

As he made his way across the room, it only made him more confused.

Tom left the common room and started down the hallway, and saw Headmaster Dippet and Professor Dumbledore were coming towards him.

What? No! They can't know anything! Stay calm...

Headmaster Dippet was looking rather sheepish when he said, "Mister Riddle, I'm afraid you're going to have to come with us and answer some questions. I've received some alarming reports as to your activities."

Tom looked at Dumbledore; the man was looking rather severe, and stood just a few feet in front of the Headmaster. Ha, Dippet won't approach me alone.

Oh.

Wait.

That's not... actually good...