Identity Discovered
"Found something!!" Draco tapped Mattheo's knee to get his attention and slammed the pureblood book on the table, his hand placed on the page dedicated to-
"The house of L/N?" Mattheo looks at the page carefully and analyzes all the names. Despite it being a pureblood family in the UK, it was a name he'd never once heard anyone talk about. But- why? "Have you ever heard of this family?"
"Nope, there isn't much information about them either." He turned to the page to the back of the family tree and showed Mattheo the information part of the family. Compared to all the other families where they'd go into details of family traditions, beliefs, and contributions to the wizarding world this one family had only a few paragraphs that explained the life of the first pureblood born to this family, their unique magic....sorta.
Mattheo stared at the information, reading the words out loud, "'Little has ever been discovered on this families history aside from their implementation of-'" He stopped for a moment to see that the section describing the family's magic was completely illegible. A lot of the information looked at if the ink was smeared, words her incomplete, and anytime it mentioned the type of magic used, the word was crossed out so many times it looked block of redacted text. He looked at Draco, who was equally just as confused, and turned back to see the family tree to try and find something that appeared useful.
"Got her!" Draco pointed at the second to last row on the tree to the name 'Y/N L/N'. "She was born same year as your father, so if she did attend Hogwarts all that information would be in the restricted section."
Mattheo looked back at all the names and noticed a pattern that he hasn't see in any of the other family pages, "every single one of them share the same surname. Any who doesn't has their names crossed out"
"Or Blurred." Draco pointed at the names below Y/N, her kids. There was no sign of who the father is and the names of the kids weren't readable, nor was there anything on when they were born either. "Whatever this family was about, they took great pride in their secrets and name."
Both of them were so focused on the book that they didn't hear the common room door open or sense the person that was now looming over them.
"And what do you two think your doing?" Both the boys jumped at the sudden voice and looked up to see Snape glaring at them. Then his eyes set on the book in Draco's hand and, before anyone could explain, snatched it from him. "I assure you nothing good will come out of what you're doing."
"Not like we were getting anywhere, most information on the family, spouses- everything, is missing" Mattheo glared at the professor, demanding any kind of response that would be deemed even the slightest bit useful.
"The family is filled with insufferable pride. If you didn't share their name, you weren't worthy of being called 'family'. Now, why exactly are you two looking into a dead family?" Snape closed the book shut and hid it inside his robe, making it very obvious neither of them were getting it back.
Draco sighed and reached for the books he had on specific houses, hoping to maybe find something there. "We were trying to figure out why both you and my father were so insistent of hiding the identity of Y/N L/N." They both heard Snape halt his breathing and freeze in his tracks before grabbing his wand and levitating the remainder of the books they had.
"Whoa, what the hell?!" Mattheo stood in front of his professor and had his wand in hand, not willing to let his professor leaving without and explanation.
"Believe me when I say this: The less your father knows of her existence, that safer everyone will be. No one knows the extent of their past together, but it was messy enough for her to willingly jump in front his killing curse and left your father wanting more vengeance than ever." With that information, Snape walked past Mattheo, all the books they had floating behind him.
Mattheo slowly turned to face Draco in shock, trying to make sense of all he just heard. This mystery woman had some kind of past with his father that resulting in her willing sacrificing her own like for.....what? Who did she protect from that curse? Why was his father so angry that it happened?
Draco takes a sew seconds to watch his friend be a mumbling mess, trying to make sense of everything. "Okay," Draco stood up from the couch and walked over to Mattheo, hand in his robe pockets. "We know who she is and it's safe to assume she attended Hogwarts with your father. Which means?"
Mattheo looked at Draco, waiting for him to finish his thought, but he never did; wanting Mattheo to come to the same conclusion himself. Then it clicked, there were faculty that had attended school with them, there were also some of the school ghosts they could talk to if they became desperate enough. Mattheo tried to think which person would be the most helpful and gathering information. "I'm sure the headmaster is the only one who can remember enough about her. He was their teacher at the time and the only other person who might've known her was Hagrid-"
"But they would've been going into their third year when he started, meaning he won't know as much about her. And, if they were close enough during school I highly doubt Hagrid would wanna talk about anyone associated with your father."
Mattheo nodded and turned to begin walking towards the door to the dungeon. "Headmaster it is."
○○○
Since his first encounter with her, Tom couldn't help but notice Y/N almost everywhere he went. He never took notice of the classes in which the houses were combined until he kept seeing her in his class before him every time. Always one of the first to arrive, always one of the first to leave. Potions, Transfigurations, DADA, flying.
He was able to accept having a few classes with a student that was obviously favorited and beloved by the staff, not unlike himself. But what he couldn't accept was seeing her outside of class, walking with friends to the great hall, rushing past him when going from one tower to another. However, what he refused to tolerate, was always seeing her in the library, always seated right next to the restricted section. He hated it.
One day he had enough, convinced she was following him around like many of the other students, and decided to confront her. He marched over to where she was sitting and glanced at the cover of the book she was reading 'Pureblood History: Great families of the UK'. He swiftly moved behind her, noticing she wasn't even reading the pages, rather chanting something of her own. He looked at the page she was on: 'House of L/N'. So this was her family? Why is she reading something she should already know?
He then looked at the pages again to see the words begin to distort, blur, become impossible to read. He reached to grab the book from her hands when her wand came up from under the table and pointed at him. Still she never stopped mumbling and the page kept changing.
Eventually the light from her wand dimmed and she fell silent. Tom looked at the page and read the only line that was clewrly stated "Little has ever been discovered on this families history aside from their implementation of blank magic." He was irritated, no that's not the right word. Furious, he was furious with this woman. She very clearly destroyed a book that appeared to already be enchanted, she technically threated him when trying to stop her from ruining said enchanted book. And he was still convinced that she was following him around and spying on him.
"People don't need to know my family history, Riddle." She closed the book and began walking over to the shelf she grabbed it from, walking away from Tom. This fanned his anger even more, she had no reason to walk away from him, and no right to speak to him as if she was more superior (she didn't. but he hated the attitude hiding behind her voice when saying his name).
Tom wasn't having any of this, he was here to confront her for constantly following him everywhere despite having no real proof of this. He grabbed onto the wrist in which she held her wand and pulled her back towards him speaking through gritted teeth. "You do not walk away from me"
She glared at him setting the book down on the table beside her. "And you don't tell me what to do, now let. go." When is became clear he wouldn't falter, twisted her arm so it was more uncomfortablefor him to grasp onto and dropped her wand into her free hand, pointing it at her trapped wrist. "Relashio."
Tom was a little confused as to what she said until he felt his grip on her wrist unwillingly loosen as she grabs the book again before moving away from him. He watched her quickly walk out the library after returning the book and cursed under his breath while brushing his hand through his hair. He looked back at the table Y/N was previously sitting at and noticed something, two things actually. The first was a silver bracelet that looked like a snake spiraling up what would be an arm if it were worn. The second was a small note that sat next to the bracelet. The note was also completely illegible except for one word that was underlined and written over countless times at the bottom on the note 'Riddle'.