Augusta looked at Neville's letter again. No – it still said that her grandson was in Slytherin. Her first impulse was to charge into Hogwarts and demand a re-sorting or to pull him out of the school.

Of course she knew they wouldn't re-sort him. That never really happened – or if it did, it was once in several centuries. Pulling him out of school was a poor option. And those final sentences in the letter struck her hard.

'I guess all the sneaking around to steer clear of my Uncle taught me how to be cunning...'

Like it or not it was obvious that Neville, at least, felt she and Algie had forced him to take up the Slytherin mantle.

She looked the letter over again. Neville apparently very much liked his roommate, Theo Nott. She recalled Nott Sr with a shudder – a horrid man. Neville, however was getting along with the son. She wasn't sure whether to be pleased by that, or not.

Harry Potter was also in Slytherin, another shock, but that perhaps would make the idea more palatable to her. Draco Malfoy was Harry Potter's roommate – no surprise there, as close as those two seemed.

Well, all in all, it could be dealt with she supposed. She didn't want more visits from Minerva with lectures on how to treat her grandson. She pulled a parchment onto the desk and wrote a reply. She tried to reassure Neville. that she was proud of him and encouraged him to continue his friendship with Ron and Dudley even if they were in a different house than he was. That, hopefully would keep him in touch with students she could totally approve of.

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Tom walked quickly toward the Great Hall and breakfast. He was glad that Severus had made no comment this morning when he had gone to see him. He had forgotten to give him the days he wanted to assist Severus in Potions when he had spent the night. The Professor was in a good mood and had even smiled when he penned his name down as his assistant for the two first year classes.

"We are to go 'exploring' the orphanage and 'questioning' a few people next weekend." Severus had ventured, watching Tom carefully.

Tom had sighed a bit and nodded. Tom was still sorting through his emotions at present. Maybe talking to Yvane would be good once he figured out what he felt.

"I'll be ready." Tom had said firmly. Severus nodded and Tom had left, heading for food.

Quirrell suddenly appeared in his path, startling him. "Quite early to be in the dungeons, Mr. ...Riddle."

"I was confirming the days I'll be helping Professor Snape as an assitant." Tom answered warily. Rubbing at his arms that were starting to itch.

"Ah, w..well – a good way to have an extra reference on your resume when you apply for a job, then." The Professor's eyes watching him intently. "Any thoughts as to what you wish to do?"

Tom had made no secret of the fact he wished to work on the dragon reserve to his new Head of House, and Severus and Lucius knew about his desire to collect accounts from dragons and dragonriders – as well as memories. He was reluctant to tell anyone else, though – this wizard especially. He felt an odd aversion to him.

"I'm interested in the dragon reserves. They sound interesting." Tom answered slowly.

"Indeed." The wizard seemed flummoxed by that and Tom escaped down the hall with a muttered 'excuse me, I'm missing breakfast' - Leaving the wizard and his parasitic passenger to mull over what could attract him to dragons?

Tom arrived at breakfast scratching at his arms, chest and anywhere else he could reach that was socially acceptable to scratch in public.

"Whats wrong?" Percy asked in concern.

Tom sat next to his seventh year roommates and snarled. "I met up with Professor Quirrell – I think I'm allergic to garlic fumes." They all laughed and Tom grimaced in resignation. The itching was subsiding and he reached for some bacon and eggs. He looked over at the line of first year tables.

Harry and Draco sat across from Dudley, the three of them deep in conversation. Neville sat next to Dudley, with Ron next to the two of them. Theo Nott was across from Neville. This was how they had sat all week, the Houses were mixing a little – mostly due to prior friendships or in the case of the Patil sisters – because of family. The Houses still sat next to each other in most of the upper years.

Hermione listened to her roommates giggling about some new hair ribbons that changed color and sparkled rainbows of color. She didn't understand why they insisted on talking about such things. They were Ravenclaws not silly Hufflepuffs. They should be studying their Herbology or Potions. She was going to have to do a lot of extra reading to get to the top of the class in either one of those.

Hermione grimaced unhappily. It wasn't fair, Harry Potter and his friend Malfoy had obviously had a great deal of prior instruction and were going to be hard to beat in Potions. They knew a great deal about Herbology as well – and the Longbottom boy knew many of the answers to questions, but his family had Greenhouses. How was she supposed to compete with that?

She gathered up her books and headed back to the library, her roommates trailing after her. She hoped they wouldn't distract her – Saturdays were the times she could try to get ahead on studying and look at the extra reading that was suggested.

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The second week the first years – and the other years fell into a routine happily. Harry greatly enjoyed the Herbology and Potions. DADA was interesting, although Quirrell made him nervous at times – he seemed to stare at him when he had the class reading a section of the textbook. History was okay as long as he studied on his own during class.

Harry had sent for his Potter family history books, as the assistant had directed and had found the oldest one that told how the family had started. That era was really quite interesting.

Charms and Trasfiguration were harder. Harry had difficulty understanding the concepts of Trasfiguration. Charms was a bit better – Harry always got the spell eventually, though Flitwick seemed disappointed that he was not 'brilliant' at it the way his mother, Lily, had been. McGonagall was equally disappointed at Harry's lack of talent in her class. Apparently James had been very, very good at it.

Flying, of course was wonderful. Flint had agreed to let the first years 'show their stuff' so any talented ones could be encouraged to be ready for the next year. Draco and Harry were eager to impress the Quidditch captain.

Tom found himself oddly feeling at home in the Gryffindor tower. Sure, the students were loud and unfocused most of the time. Tom always made sure that Dudley, at least got his work done and studied – and by default Dean always got things done as well. Seamus usually fell in with what they were doing and would be followed by a complaining Ron.

His roommates, except for Jack, seemed only ambitious to win at Quidditch or to get the prettiest girl to go out with them. Very minor ambitions compared to the ones Tom had once had. He sometimes amused himself – and Yvane wondering what they would say it he asked them to help plot the overthrow of the wizarding world.

He suspected they would drag him to McGonagall and he would recieve detention and a lengthy lecture. Probably be set a long essay on the inappropriateness of trying to overthrow governments.

He had written a long letter to Dora, he knew she was very busy at Auror training, but she had sent a few short notes. Apparently Rufus Scrimgeour was treating her fairly, though he tended to give her long looks if she questioned anything.

Tom hated rambling about how much he missed her, but found himself doing so anyway. His greatest fear was that she would find a dashing older Auror apprentice and drop him. He had found out when the first Hogsmeade weekend was and hoped she was able to meet him there at the Three Broomsticks.

One convenience of the Tower was that he could keep Wylda with him if he wanted and only needed to open a window to send her off to Dora.

He thought ahead to the coming weekend. He would face Billy Stubbs and put the horrors of the orphanage behind him.

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Severus sat with Harry Friday after Potions class for lunch, again. With Harry there to help clean up took no time at all. Severus explained the expedition into the muggle world they were planning. He felt Harry did better with more information, and if Albus was right he would eventually be in the center of the coming conflict – he should learn how this sort of thing was planned and executed.

Severus told him about all the memories they had observed and the old 'friends' of Tom's that they would be interviewing. He left out some of the more lurid details regarding Billy.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just ask Tom, himself?" Harry asked in confusion. Tom would surely be willing to answer whatever questions they had.

"We can't appear to know more about Tom Riddle than we should. Tom will be there to help direct the questioning so we get all the information that we should. Also – our Tom was only sixteen. These people will have known him for at least a bit longer and may know more to assist us." Severus explained.

"When you talk to the ones that were in the cave – we really need to find out where that was." Harry said emphatically. At Severus' questioning eyebrow he continued. "I agree with Tom that Voldemort wouldn't leave anything at the orphanage – buildings get torn down all the time. The Horcrux would not have been safe. But that cave – he could do all kinds of enchantments to keep the cave safe. I think it would have appealed to him."

Severus leaned back and thought hard. Yes, Harry was right. A cave at the sea-side would be a good hiding place. There were thousands of them, and they would be easily hidden.

They had intended to ask about the cave incident – but not in any depth. They would have to rethink that.

"I do believe you are correct in this Harry." Severus smiled, "An excellent thought."

Harry squirmed in pleasure. He hadn't been able to talk his dad into letting him come along. Severus had actually paled at the thought of Harry being anywhere near Billy Stubbs. Severus wouldn't say why, but he had been emphatic that Harry stay at school this weekend.

"I got a letter from Aunt Petunia." Harry changed subjects at lightning speed at times, making Severus blink in surprise. "Your cousin Eleanor has been over to visit at Aunt Tuney's new house. She and Rosemerta have started a gardening club with her. A bunch of their friends and people moving into Spinner's End are planning to show up every Wednesday. She sounds delighted. And she's got a bunch of owl nests with eggs in them." Harry beamed happily.

Severus smirked and sipped at his tea. Yes, Tuney was settling into her home and job and numerous 'hobbies' very well. Lucius had run on about it all at length on his visits. It also seemed that Lucius was becoming a fixture in Tuney's house whenever he could find time or an acceptable excuse to be there.

Lucius had managed to foist Dobby off on Tuney, to Severus' intense relief. He wouldn't need two house-elves and Harry would feel safer with the mad creature gone. Lucius had spent the better part of a day removing and reworking all the bindings and spells on the house-elf. Dobby had bewailed the fact he was going to another home. He had finally quieted when Lucius had said it would be Harry Potter's Aunt and Cousin he would be serving. Dobby had considered this – he liked Petunia - and Lucius said Harry Potter would be visiting. Dobby finally gave in with good grace and was becoming invaluable to the very busy Petunia.

Severus shook his head. Having just Tinker in the house once again would be a relief. Tinker and he had become used to one another. Tinker knew what was needed and there was never any of this shrieking angst that Dobby was forever causing.

Severus and Harry lingered a bit over the tea, but Harry finally stood. "Someone named Hagrid sent me a note – he wants to see me for tea this afternoon. He seems to know me."

Severus grimaced unhappily. Hagrid was so insufferably Gryffindor. Loud, prejudiced against anyone not in Gryffindor – especially Slytherins. Fond of any animal that was likely to kill a person. Severus squirmed, Hagrid was also kindhearted and had been unfailingly supportive of Severus against all naysayers since Severus had started working there. He had tolerated Hagrid as best he could because of it.

"Hagrid is a nice man – knew your parents a bit when they were students. He likes dangerous creatures – so say a very firm no to any pets he'll likely want to foist off on you." Severus thought a bit. "You might take Dudley and Draco with you to be introduced. Warn them though – no pets from Hagrid."

Harry nodded happily and gave Severus a hug before trotting off to find Draco and Dudley.

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Tom wandered slowly around his old orphanage. For him it had only been a couple years since he'd seen it. Time – wise it had been about fifty. Tom snorted. The others had grumbled about the dilapidated state and dingyness of it. Tom had smothered a sneer – it didn't really look all that different from when he'd lived here, except for the emptiness.

Albus and Lucius waved their wands, looking for 'residue from Dark Arts'. Severus eyed Tom and followed him upstairs to Tom's old room. Tom quickly riffled through the few hiding places there were and shook his head.

"Unless he found somewhere else ..." Tom shrugged.

They wandered through the other empty, dark bedrooms. Albus and Lucius eventually caught up with them. Albus sighed and agreed there was, perhaps nothing to find.

Of the muggles they wanted to question, they tried Eric Whaley first – Albus had been sure that the boy that had been Voldemort's roommate would have some insight. The man had, however, not remembered him very well. He'd started rooming with Voldemort after he'd started at Hogwarts and only saw him during the summer. The boy he remembered had kept to himself – they'd not exchanged more than a handful of sentences. Albus tended to believe him as Mr. Whaley had not even noticed the Tom Riddle with them as resembling Voldemort at all. Severus legillimized him carefully while Albus talked to him and found nothing.

They then apparated to a pleasant cul-de-sac with stately old homes. They were already in muggle clothing and they walked up to the house and knocked on Mrs. Amy Ragsdale nee Benton's door.

She was expecting them and opened the door with a troubled look. It was still mid-morning but she had tea ready – likely for her own nerves. She looked at the impressive figures of the wizards before her and sighed.

"I had hoped to never hear of the orphanage I grew up in or Tom Riddle again. It was such an ugly time." She nervously stirred the tea with her spoon. "So your investigating him for possibly criminal activity?"

"We especially would like to hear about the incident at the cave – and where it is." Severus intoned. "We think that there might be ... evidence there."

The woman seemed even more agitated and shook her head. "I don't know how he did it – trapping poor Dennis and I in there – we couldn't find the entrance, we were desperate. Tom was so angry at us." She hunched down in the expensive chair. "Dennis wanted to get into the army – it was sweeping up all the soldiers it could. He wasn't old enough, but the army wasn't picky about that. He needed to buy a fake ID - not that they really looked close at them, but he needed something to give them." She sighed. "He did get in and died over there in Germany. I wanted to get a job at the war office as a secretary – one of the older girls was going to vouch for me but I needed a nice outfit for the interview – so I would look old enough."

There was a long pause, the woman looking stricken with guilt. She had glanced at Tom, and he was glad they had applied a glamor to him – the presence of a Voldemort replica would not have helped here.

"That year all the kids had gotten a bit of Christmas money. To my shame, the only way to get what Dennis and I wanted was to take the other children's Christmas money. I'd only just gotten the clothing and had set up the interview when we went on that trip to the sea. I guess the only time the place could afford that trip – or when some patron would spring for the price was very, very off season – in January. Little Tom was outraged at our theft – I can't blame him, really. He didn't let us out of that cave until he had something of equal value to him." There were some tears dripping down now.

"At the time I was a self-centered teen, and I just wanted out of there, didn't care about the cost to the other kids. Later in life, when I had married an officer in the Army and got a fine house and children of my own. Then I started having horrible dreams about the other kids in that place – and how I worsened their situation." She grimaced in shame. "Everyone thinks I'm such a philanthropist, trying so hard to help orphans. I'm just trying to make the disappointed and angry faces I see at night go away."

She straightened and looked the wizards in the face at last. "If Tom's gone foul of the law, he certainly had several pushes in that direction from people like me – and that horrid Mrs. Cole. Looking back – I don't know why she hated the boy, but she made his life hell." Amy pulled out a map and pointed to a spot. "We went there – I'm afraid I can't pinpoint where the cave is, but that is the general area."

Severus had looked closely at her memories there at the forefront of her mind when she had finally faced them. He had a good look at her memory of the cave – he felt he would know it if he saw it.

They thanked her and Albus held her hand a moment as they stood at the door. "My dear, you really need to forgive the thoughtless teenager ... she's done her best to redeem herself." Amy's eyes filled with tears again, and she patted Albus' hand, but did not answer.

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