Chapter One: A Snake Under the Chair
Anyway, he had things to consider. Like the accelerated timeline. It was clear to him now that the Ministry was planning to close in on Hogwarts by this time next year, and likely the Order, too. No more dissent would be possible. It was only logical that this would be the next step.
And what about me?
Tee had sealed his own fate when he chose to cross wands with his older self, of course, and a sinking sense of despair and regret had been eating away at him ever since. Surely this hadn't been the right choice, surely it was another lapse in judgment — because it was surely going to end in his death. In the end, he would be just another Horcrux between the Order and Voldemort, another trinket to be destroyed.
And yet there was the weight of Dumbledore's letter in his pocket. Tee had read the pages over and over until they curled at the edges and felt soft as cloth in his hands. He knew each word by heart, charging him with what had once been Dumbledore's role; maintaining the balance of power and keeping Hogwarts autonomous, whether it involved fending off the Ministry or Death Eaters. But Tee had never been one for duty. It was convincing himself to start doing his 'duty' to Salazar Slytherin that had gotten him into this mess to begin with. Why repeat the idiocy?
Dumbledore would regard him from over the top of his half-moon spectacles, with a reproachful twinkle in his eyes, and say 'Tom, it is because it is the right thing to do.' Even now, his tongue burned with acid at the thought. Despite himself, his hand went into his other pocket, brushing the rounded surface of the Resurrection Stone. Not since that disastrous rendez-vous with his mother had he dared turn it three times and coax a wraith from beyond the Veil.
I'm not scared, he thought. I just don't need to speak with him. He certainly made himself clear in his letter. I know what he wants me to do.
"Do I want to do it?" he said, aloud, to no one in particular, as he watched Lucius finally leave the premises. No trouble, then. His shoulders sagged with relief. Do I want to die?
Tee scoffed. After all this, to die for what? Just because his own experiences as an unfortunate side effect of Horcrux creation had dissuaded him from trying it again, didn't mean he was keen to throw himself before the sword. Sometimes he was certain that Dumbledore got him mixed up with someone else — Severus Snape, Lily Evans — one of his more pliant little prodigies from the Muggle world.
The kids try to make sense of Snape’s parting gift. Minerva searches for a Defence candidate and reckons with Section One and the Board Representative, Lucius Malfoy. T.M. Riddle meddles. Read from the beginning at FFN|AO3











