(Third Person POV)
"Tom?"
Luna Lovegood's light, dreamy voice drifted through the corridor.
Ivan closed his eyes for a brief moment and slowly rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Luna," he said with the patience of a man hanging by a very thin thread, "how many times have I told you not to call me that?"
Luna tilted her head thoughtfully.
She raised both hands and began counting on her fingers.
"Eighty..." she murmured.
"Eighty-one..."
"Eighty-two."
She looked up brightly. "This is the eighty-second time."
Ivan sighed. "Then perhaps the eighty-third will finally work."
He looked at her seriously. "My name is Ivan now."
Luna smiled serenely. "But you're Tom."
Ivan's eye twitched.
"It's a secret," he said through gritted teeth. "How many times have I told you that?"
Luna immediately began counting again.
Ivan raised a hand. "No need to count."
She blinked. "There isn't?"
"No."
He let out another tired sigh. "Just... Remember not to call me Tom when there are other people around."
"Oh."
She nodded happily. "Alright."
Then, as though the entire conversation had never happened, she resumed skipping cheerfully beside him down the corridor.
Ivan wondered, not for the first time, whether the girl experienced reality in the same way as everyone else.
He strongly suspected she did not.
After walking a few more steps, Luna suddenly stopped.
"Oh. I almost forgot."
She turned toward him with her usual gentle smile. "Thank you for saving me."
Ivan glanced sideways. "It was simply part of the task."
Luna shook her head. "No. It wasn't."
"It was."
She looked at him with an expression that somehow managed to convey both innocence and absolute certainty.
"No. You saved me because I'm precious to you."
Ivan stared at her. "...Excuse me?"
"Everyone knows."
She smiled as though explaining something painfully obvious. "That's why I was chosen."
Ivan pinched the bridge of his nose again. "You were chosen because you happened to be my date for the Yule Ball."
"No." She shook her head once more.
Ivan opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Then wisely decided not to continue that particular argument.
Instead, Luna began humming an unfamiliar tune while happily continuing down the corridor.
Ivan followed a few paces behind, looking every bit like a man questioning every decision that had brought him to this point in life.
Or rather...
In this life.
He still didn't understand it.
Not even slightly.
How had she recognised him?
She shouldn't have been able to.
It was impossible.
Luna Lovegood had never once seen his real face.
The version of Tom Riddle she'd known had been nothing more than a memory preserved inside an enchanted diary.
Even then, he'd only ever appeared to her in the form of letters.
And he had completely changed his body.
Different hair.
Different eyes.
Different height.
Even his magical signature had changed in order to trick even Dumbledore.
By every logical measure, he should have been completely unrecognisable.
Yet...
On the second day after Durmstrang's arrival at Hogwarts...
She had walked straight toward him with a smile on her face and said, "Tom. I finally found you."
Then she'd clapped her hands happily. "I win."
Ivan had very nearly suffered a heart attack.
He still remembered that moment with painful clarity. Fortunately they had been alone or she could have ruined everything.
…
Months earlier...
Or perhaps years.
Time had become rather difficult to measure while existing as enchanted ink trapped between the pages of a diary.
Luna had been...
Different.
Most normal people would have been cautious upon discovering a sentient diary.
Luna had simply accepted that the diary talked and introduced herself politely.
Asked whether he was lonely. Then spent hours telling him about Wrackspurts, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, and the fascinating migration habits of Moon Frogs.
He still wasn't entirely certain which of those creatures actually existed.
At one point, when he finally realised he couldn't control Luna like he did with Ginny, he had suggested they play a game of hide and seek.
He'd instructed her to place the diary somewhere specific.
A place he knew Ginny Weasley would eventually discover it.
Then he'd instructed, "Come back in a few hours and see if you can find me."
It had been a perfect escape.
Or so he'd thought.
But apparently… Luna Lovegood had taken the game very seriously.
Very.
Seriously.
She had never stopped looking.
And now, years later...
The moment she spotted him among the Durmstrang delegation...
She had simply continued the game.
"I found you."
Ivan had tried denying everything, acting like he didn't know who she was and what she was talking about.
But then she'd leaned closer and whispered quietly, "You don't have to pretend. I know it's you, Tom."
That...
Had unsettled him more than almost anything else in recent memory.
So, after several seconds of stunned silence...
He'd done the only sensible thing.
He'd played along.
Officially, they were merely acquaintances after the Yule Ball.
Unofficially...
Luna had apparently decided they were still friends.
Whether he liked it or not.
He glanced sideways at the blonde Ravenclaw, who was now watching a butterfly drift lazily through the winter air with complete fascination.
"...You're so annoying," he muttered.
Luna smiled without looking at him. "No, I'm precious."
For what felt like the hundredth time...
Ivan seriously considered whether he could get away with killing Luna Lovegood.
His eyes drifted toward the cheerful Ravenclaw, who was now crouching beside a patch of grass, apparently watching a beetle crawl across it with immense fascination.
"..."
He imagined the possibilities.
A perfectly silent Avada Kedavra.
A conveniently misplaced staircase.
Perhaps she could accidentally wander into the Forbidden Forest.
The centaurs were notoriously temperamental, not to mention the Acromantula colony…
"...No."
He let out a long breath and abandoned the idea once again.
They were still inside Hogwarts.
The castle was practically overflowing with professors, ghosts, enchanted portraits, house-elves, and Merlin knew what else.
Getting away with murdering a student would be nearly impossible.
More importantly...
It would be spectacularly counterproductive.
He had spent months constructing the perfect disguise.
A respectable Durmstrang champion.
An intelligent, talented young wizard.
Quiet.
Polite.
Competent.
Everything Tom Riddle had once pretended to be.
Destroying that carefully crafted image because one peculiar Ravenclaw insisted on calling him Tom would be...
Unwise.
Painfully so.
He had waited over fifty years.
He could tolerate a few more months.
Probably.
His thoughts drifted toward the Room of Requirement.
He had already confirmed that Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem had been discovered.
Which meant...
The Horcrux hidden inside it had almost certainly been destroyed.
A small annoyance.
Nothing more.
He had long expected it to be found.
And he still possessed everything that truly mattered.
Power.
Knowledge.
Patience.
And now...
A living body once again.
The tournament itself was little more than an inconvenience.
A useful stage upon which to display his abilities while measuring those of the supposed chosen one.
Once it concluded...
There would be no further reason to remain hidden.
The wizarding world had enjoyed its peace for long enough.
Soon...
Lord Voldemort would return.
Not as a shadow.
Not as a wraith.
But in the flesh.
And this time… There would be no mistakes.
Everything would proceed according to his design.
Beside him, Luna suddenly looked up from the beetle.
"You're thinking something evil again."
Ivan froze. "...What?"
She smiled. "You get that wrinkle between your eyebrows whenever you're planning something."
He immediately smoothed his expression. "I wasn't planning anything."
"Oh."
Luna nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose that means you're worrying instead."
"..."
Ivan stared at her for several long seconds, then he looked up at the grey winter sky.
Was this...
His punishment?
Surely, after everything he'd accomplished, after cheating death itself, after creating Horcruxes and orchestrating one of the greatest rises to power in magical history...
He did not deserve this.
Luna slipped her hands behind her back and smiled.
"Don't worry, Tom. I won't tell anyone, I'm your best friend."
Ivan closed his eyes. He really wanted these few months to pass faster…
But for now, he had to play along.
He put on a smile and said, "thanks Luna, and don't worry, I promised you I wouldn't do anything evil."
"It would be better if you didn't say it with a fake smile," said Luna. "Look, like this," she showed him a happy smile.
Ivan's carefully practiced smile twitched at the corners.
…