Harry relaxed fully once he was in Slytherin common room, which did make him feel the irony, who would have thought he'd feel at home, surrounded by future Death Eaters and a Dark Lord in Slytherin territory of all places? Sure most of the Death Eaters here were dead by the time he'd been born; it was mostly their offspring and Tom that had made his life a living hell. Or helped at any rate, he couldn't fully blame them for everything. If the Ministry and Dumbledore had done the right thing, he would never have gone to the Dursley's and had a proper upbringing with Sirius. What kind of idiot didn't realize that the finger wasn't blown off but rather cut off? Even the Muggles would have realized that. Instead they'd rather celebrate the downfall of the darkest wizard in the magical world and sweep his parents death under a rug and use a child as a beacon of all things good and light or scapegoat when they felt like it. No he'd been raised as a weapon, abused and ignored in a bid to make him stronger yet malleable enough to do what needed done to defeat Voldemort. Worse was his so called best friends had been in on it, what kind of eleven year olds thought that it was right to do what they planned? There had been no reprieve for him. Not even after defeating Voldemort, he'd been hunted down continuously until they'd got what they wanted - him dead.
He'd used to think Slytherin's were dark, evil, such an insipid idiot he'd been as a child. No, they just knew what they were fighting for even at the age of eleven. They were loyal to their dying breath for a single cause they believed in. It took a lot to shake their faith in that one cause, here he was thinking of Severus Snape. Contrary to popular belief Slytherin's didn't stab each other in the back for a better position. They tried to better themselves, no doubt, would regularly duel to prove they were better, once it was over they'd go back to normal. Some were never challenged; he hadn't been since coming but had seen quite a few duels. It always amused him how they could duel so fiercely then go back to laughing and chatting afterwards (if they hadn't been hurt in the process, then they were sent to the Healer with a thousand excuses on the tip of their tongue).
"Hadrian, sit over here," Tom demanded imperiously, gesturing towards the very taken seat beside him, with just one look to Avery, the teen stood up and moved to the only other available seat within their little group. Tom knew the anger was just simmering under Avery's skin, he was curious to see what would happen when it exploded. It never ceased to amazing him how they would be cursed by him without feeling angry yet when he paid more attention to someone else they got jealous and angry. Four years at Hogwarts and he was still analyzing and categorizing them, he needed to know which strings to pull if he needed something after all.
Harry refrained from rolling his eyes, not at Tom, but at the fact Tom was going to make Avery snap, he had no doubt sooner or later he'd have a fight on his hands. Hopefully later, but that wasn't exactly a Slytherin move to make, even if it made the others look down on you for attacking someone when they were weak, what could they do if you advanced in the ranks regardless? He had no concerns though; even injured he knew he could take the wizard on without a doubt. "Only because I'm exhausted," he murmured quietly, giving a soft sigh when he sat down on the green leather couch, grinning at the exasperated look Tom gave him.
"How did detention go?" Thaddeus asked, before scowling just thinking about Dumbledore, they all hated the old man something rotten. "What did the old fool have you do?"
"Wasn't Dumbledore," Harry told him, suppressing a tired yawn, "Slughorn told me that I was serving detention with him tonight."
"That explains why you're early," Lestrange said, never once looking up as he scribbled away on his parchment, getting his homework done.
"How would you know? You've been doing homework since dinner," Mulciber snorted in amusement, peering at the sheepish Rabastan.
"-That's the Ravenclaws been infor-" Alphard stopped in mid-sentence, surprise flickering through his grey eyes that marked him a Black, when he saw Harry sitting on the couch, he should be in detention. "-med, honestly you'd think they'd know everything reading a book." he tried of course, like any Slytherin to make his slip unnoticed as possible and try and cover what he was really going to say.
"I knew it!" Harry snapped, "You've been using the other houses to get revenge on Hagrid, it stops now."
"What makes you think that?" Alphard cried out in surprise, as he ambled over conjuring a seat and sitting down beside them.
"I wasn't born yesterday, I knew the second I heard that none of the Slytherins had attacked him something was up, and it was just a matter of finding out what." Harry informed them amused. He wasn't angry, not really; in fact it warmed him that they were loyal enough to seek vengeance on someone who had hurt him. He wasn't used to that kind of loyalty; he'd certainly take this over the light side any day.
"And just how did you come to know the Slytherin's hadn't touched your precious Hagrid?" Tom enquired smoothly, a dangerous note in his voice.
Harry snorted, "Precious? Hardly. Had detention with him, how else?" it wasn't as if Hagrid was in any of his social circles if he could call them that, he merely had acquaintances outside of Slytherin probably Myrtle being the only exception. "It stops now, you've had your fun, I mean it, if I find out you've been encouraging anyone to curse him I'll do to you what you're trying to get them to do to him considering the spells they're having to use to have any affect on him it will land you in the hospital wing for at least half the year." he met their eyes, showing them all how serious he was.
"Why? The son of a bitch deserves it!" Nott protested most heavily at the ultimatum Hadrian had delivered.
"Probably," Harry shrugged, knowing that if it hadn't been him it would have been one of the other Slytherins who almost died, "It's not about whether they deserve it he's fucking twelve years old no matter how much older he actually looks, he's a kid, a stupid one, he's learnt his lesson, plus once it stops and word gets out that I put a stop to it…" Harry purposely trailed off a vicious grin appearing on his face. "It will be me that he looks up to, not Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore? Why would he look up to Dumbledore?" the name as always was spat out with extreme prejudice and distaste.
"Are you kidding? Haven't you heard the rumours? The students think it's only because of Dumbledore that he's still here, which is largely right I suppose, but when he realizes I'm helping him his loyalty to me will be second to none." Harry told them smugly.
"Why do you want that half-breed's loyalty?" Avery scowled in distaste at the mere thought, "He's a Gryffindor." which was said with more distaste than the mention of 'half-breed'.
"Not this again," Harry heaved a sigh of irritation, "We all have parts of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw in us, they're all just personality traits for Merlin's sake, the stupidity of the houses is utter nonsense, just because Dumbledore is Gryffindor don't cast his stink over the entire house, in fact I'm pretty sure Dumbledore manipulated the hat into putting him into Gryffindor, he's too manipulative, he gets away with things that Gryffindors don't have the savvy of succeeding at." hopefully while he was here he could stop the house prejudice as well as everything else Dumbledore had probably spurn by just being the way he was.
"He's right." Tom replied smoothly, "The right set of circumstances can turn even the most foolhardy Gryffindor into the perfect Slytherin." and he really wanted to put it to the test.
That quietened them down immediately, nobody and Harry meant nobody in Slytherin contradicted Tom, with the obvious exception being him. It was amusing to see the proud purebloods cling so tightly to Tom, as if they had an deep seated need to follow someone, give their lives purpose, to be drawn towards power. He didn't think he'd understand even if he spent a thousand years trying to, he was beginning to wonder if he could actually stop it, stop everything that went wrong or if it was just too much even for him. There was one thing he did know though, if he was going to defeat Grindelwald he would need to keep up his training, he couldn't let himself get out of shape. He'd never been a follower not really, he'd just gone along to fit in, and he'd never been a true willing leader, it had been thrust upon him.
Loud thumping on the common room door had them all twitching in surprise, "I wonder who that is," Dorea said as she stood up and wandered over, opening the door which couldn't be opened from the outside unless they had the password. Which evidently the person on the other side didn't, which was why they were all curious, absolutely everyone had stopped what they were doing, craning their necks to see better past Dorea and to the entrance itself.
"Um…er…healer Chang said to bring this to Hadrian Peverell," he fifth year Hufflepuff said nervously, who wouldn't be with the eyes of the entire Slytherin house staring at you.
"Hadrian it's for you," Dorea gestured to him.
"Bring it over for me, Dorea, please," Harry asked, realizing what it was, but he didn't want to move, he was too tired.
"Thank you," Dorea said plucking the box from the Hufflepuff's hands before the door slammed shut.
"Who was that?" Harry asked there was something really familiar about him.
"Adam Amos Diggory, pureblood, always Hufflepuffs, lost his brothers to the Dragon pox, he's the only heir to the Diggory line now," Thaddeus answered in usual pureblood fashion. "They're thirty nine on the rich list last time I checked."
Harry gulped, well that explained why he was so familiar, it was Cedric Diggory's grandfather. Hell everyone was someone's grandfather or mother for Merlin's sake. It was quite weird seeing a woman that looked like Bartemius Crouch Junior, or rather who he would later look like when he was born. People seemed to forget where they came from, Bartemius Crouch Junior's grandmother was a Slytherin, and it had annoyed the hell out of him trying to figure it out - who she reminded him off. He'd seen Alan Pettigrew sneaking off under an invisibility cloak! He hadn't realized at the time what Crouch had said to him, about him being forced to live under Pettigrew's invisibility cloak after his father 'rescued' him at his mothers pleadings her final wish. Under guilt that he hadn't been a decent father or husband he had given into her demands and removed his son from Azkaban. Alan Pettigrew was actually quite handsome, sixteen years old, wavy brown hair, cheeky smile, thin and wiry; nothing at all like what his son would look like. "I think someone will need to do a recheck," Harry snorted, he was curious where he stood on this so called 'rich list'. Either he had been oblivious to it during his own Hogwarts years or it had been stopped.
"Here," Dorea plonked the box on his knees.
"Thanks, Dorea, you're the best," Harry said giving her a grin, which faltered when she blushed, oh hell no, he didn't want to even go there. Too late he had. Now he needed to Oblivate himself, post-haste. She was his grandmother for Merlin sake! He needed to get out of there fast, "I'm heading up for the night, I'll see you all later." with that he hoisted himself up, balancing the box precariously before quickly making his way up stairs inwardly shuddering.
Opening the door with his hand, catching the box before it fell on the floor; he wandered in and sat down on his bed, going through it all. There had to be dozens upon dozens of cards, all wishing him well after what happened. He felt the ice around his heart thawing somewhat, they cared about him, not the stupid hero his time had daubed him. It wasn't just Gryffindors that cared (some even had gift vouchers to Honeydukes), no these names were familiar and from all different houses. Picking out one of his gifts, he opened it, grinning when he saw his favourites nestled within the box, these were from Myrtle. Putting the sweets from his favourite Ravenclaw aside, he began to open all the rest, all of them sweets of some kind, by the time he was done his bed was covered from head to foot. Shaking his head amusedly, he bent down and opened his trunk before gathering up the sweets into the box Myrtle gave him, expanding it in the process he'd just put it in his trunk and was straightening up.
A startled squeak left his lips when arms enveloped him, he would deny that to his dying breath though. "What was that about?" Tom demanded, jealousy simmering through him. Hadrian was his; he shouldn't be flirting with anyone else! He absolutely forbade it.
"What was what about?" Harry asked, having a funny feeling where this was going, grunting slightly when Tom tightened his hold on him possessively. Merlin it should worry him, but instead all he felt was a sense of smug satisfaction that Tom felt that way.
"You know very well what I'm talking about," Tom stated right into Hadrian's ear, they wouldn't be disturbed he had told the others they weren't to come up until curfew.
"You seriously think I would do anything with Dorea Black?" Harry managed to choke out, grimacing at the images it was planting in his mind; he really needed to be Obliviated of this past half hour. "She's my bloody grandmother for Merlin's sake Tom, I don't know about you but I'm not really into incest." whether he was in this body or not, the names written on his blood test meant nothing; he would always consider who he was before as his real family. James Potter and Lily Evans-Potter would always be his mother and father. Charles Potter and Dorea-Black Potter would always be his paternal grandparents, unfortunately he didn't know the names of his maternal grandparents, even Dudley didn't know their names Petunia had been such a sour faced woman and never mentioned them bar once, hating the fact they'd loved Lily when she was nothing but a 'freak' according to his hateful aunt.
Tom froze at that pronouncement. "Dorea Black and Charles Potter?" he hadn't seen that one coming a mile away, a light wizard and a dark witch, what would happen if Hadrian had changed the past so much that they didn't get together? Would Hadrian cease to exist? That thought left him cold as he tightened his hold further he would need to keep a keen eye on them in future.
"Yes," Harry replied exasperated, "Now please stop talking about it before I gouge out my eyes," he shuddered a little.
Tom chuckled, it was barely audible but since they were standing so close Harry had no trouble hearing it.
"Sweets from your fan club?" Tom queried having no trouble changing the subject, well the little crush Dorea Black had on Hadrian would amount to nothing, and he would still make it clear that he was his though.
"Oh no, never call them that," Harry said shaking his head, breaking away from Tom and laying on his bed with a sigh, "Anything but that actually." it reminded him too much of a past he would rather forget. "But yes they're from the others, Myrtle got me my favourites, yours is in there as well, help yourself if you want."
"Would you rather I call them friends?" Tom said, sneering the word but he was amused.
"Call them what you want," Harry murmured, "Tom…what was your first few months at Hogwarts like?" silence followed the question and Harry began to think Tom wouldn't answer. He was curious, a boy who for all intents and purposes was a Muggle-born, only recently learned of Hogwarts, with no known last name sorted in Slytherins dungeons. It couldn't have been easy by any stretch of imagination.
"Extremely difficult," Tom replied eventually, his tone cold, he didn't want to talk about it but if he wanted Hadrian to tell him things he would need to return the favour - and if it helped Hadrian trust him completely then he would do it. "I was unaware of the hierarchy system, but I soon came to know, sitting at the bottom didn't sit well with me. I studied day and night, helped by natural affinity for magic, then in a single day it all changed and I suddenly had the respect of the entire house after I was attacked by a higher year, when he wanted to put me in my place. Something he regretted wholly until the day he left Hogwarts." cold satisfaction coated his voice, the pain had rendered the idiot incapacitated for days, the Slytherins as always covered and Slughorn merely thought he'd been suffering from a cold.
"How quickly did you realize you weren't Muggle-born?" Harry asked sitting up there was still a lot he didn't know about Tom.
"My first year, I learned that only descendants of the great Salazar Slytherin could speak to snakes," Tom said smugly, "It's when I began searching for information on my parents, to find out what happened to them." he'd been so sure his father was a wizard and his mother had been a Muggle. High hopes that his father was out there, unaware of his existence. It was only when he couldn't get any information on the last name Riddle did he begin to highly suspect the truth. He wouldn't wait to get rid of that name, and his father would pay with his life for abandoning him.
Harry nodded having already known part of that information, his thirst for knowledge truly knew no bounds, and he'd known that but to have begun at eleven? He truly did have one of the brightest minds of his generation, he didn't count, he wasn't as book savvy as Tom and he wasn't truly from this generation, added to the fact he was mentally twenty-two or was it three now he wasn't keeping track of that age anymore. He had fully embraced his life here, and he was determined never to look back, with Tom's prying it was a little difficult to do that but he was resolute in his determination to succeed here and live not just survive. He had everything here he needed and wanted.
Gleaming black eyes observed him from the flickering candles in the corners of the common room, carnal appreciation and possessive need to own clearly written in their depths. He knew Hadrian could be quite vicious himself, but due to his insistence of going soft on Hagrid…he began to wonder if Hadrian appreciate and understand just how cruel he could be? Could he care for him knowing how he punished the others? Perhaps letting him see a meeting would let him know whether Hadrian could stay with him for the long haul…he knew if they went any further he would never let him go.
In fact he seriously doubted he could ever let him go even now. He never let go of anything he wanted.
Meanwhile down in the common room...
"Druella, will you do the honour of accompanying me to the Yule ball?" Rabastan asked the female Rosier formally.
"I accept," Druella replied, giving him a very wide toothy smile, like all females excitement thrummed through her she couldn't wait to pick a dress for the occasion, she must write to her mother at once.
"Brilliant," Rabastan said, formalities out of the way, with that he wandered back over, they would discuss times closer to the day naturally.
"What are you doing?" Aiden hissed, "We're not to take anyone,"
"What gave you that impression, Avery?" Mulciber asked, a frown appearing on his face, everyone took a date well almost everyone, and it was just one of the rites of passages especially for the first ball.
Avery turned to stare at Mulciber in confusion, how could he have been the only on to see it? Had they not been paying attention, "Tom doesn't want us to have partners for the Yule ball." he told him slowly, disbelief written across his face, they honestly hadn't been paying any attention.
"He told you that?" Rabastan seemed more amused now than concerned, he ha a good idea why Aiden was saying what he was.
"Well, no, but he's made it pretty clear," Avery stated surely.
"Pretty clear how?" Mulciber demanded an explanation, judging by how relaxed Rabastan seemed Avery was probably blowing whatever he'd seen or heard out of proportion - he hoped.
"He glared everyone who brought up the Yule ball and worse when they worked up to asking," Avery replied, shaking his head, were their heads buried in the sand?
"And who were they asking?" Rabastan hid a smirk behind his hand, bloody hell how obvious could Avery be? He was acting like a clueless eleven year old virgin for Merlin's sake.
"Ah!" Mulciber caught on, relaxing into his seat, sighing in relief, well at least he wouldn't have to retract his invitation to Gaylene Lestrange, Rabastan's cousin, who he was very protective of he'd had to promise not to do 'any funny business' oath wise before he got permission - not that he'd asked for it.
"What, ah?" Avery's eyes snapped to Mulciber perplexed, was he missing something?
"Answer the question, who was being asked every time Tom glared?" Rabastan asked, glancing briefly at the stairs, straining his hearing just to make sure nobody was coming down to the common room. Judging by the look on Tom's face nobody was going to be coming down those stairs from their Dorm room any time soon.
"Um…I only really noticed it when it was Hadrian I think," Avery admitted thoughtfully.
"Exactly, and what did he tell us at the start of the year just a few months ago?" Rabastan couldn't believe he had to spell it out for him.
"The usual," Avery replied immediately.
"To keep our hands of Hadrian, quite literally, keep our hands off, he didn't mean fighting - he can take care of himself, Tom especially knows that." Rabastan continued on. "He doesn't want anyone taking Hadrian to the ball."
"Except him," Mulciber added with a chuckle.
"You what?" Avery rasped out gaping at his friends, stunned to the core. "You're kidding!" there was no way Tom would prefer Hadrian over everyone else here surely? Yes he was powerful but come on? He'd only been around a year, the rest of them were just as smart what made him so damn special?
"I can't believe you've not noticed," Mulciber shook his head. "Where's you're mind been these past few months?"
Carrow just smirked, he'd long ago gotten over his distaste for Hadrian, in fact when his ire wasn't aimed at you he was actually really funny, his sarcasm knew no bounds. Unfortunately Avery just got angrier and angrier, he was treading on very thin ice when it came to Tom and if he didn't stop he'd know all about it. Tom wasn't exactly the most patient of people that was putting it lightly really; if he didn't stop he would find himself looking in on them from the outside. He was quite honestly surprised it hadn't happened when he'd been stupid enough to cast both a disarming charm at an unarmed opponent then a torture curse using his wand of all things. "I guess you best be quick about getting a date," he commented wryly.
Avery groaned piteously at that realisation. "Oh Merlin!"
"I think he's got it," Carrow threw at Rabastan.
"You think?" Rabastan laughed stretching out on the couch languidly.