The Headmaster's Office
Tom was unsure how he felt about Headmaster Dippet’s request.
He would do it, of course, but it was inconvenient to him. He had things to do and people to order around.
It would give him time away from the school to see how the new fifth-year comported himself. That could be very useful in picking apart this enigma. Hendrix was already lying to him about who he was. He lied about not remembering that he had recognised and attacked Tom. Then there were his fast reflexes. He claimed to have been raised by muggles, so he should not have been in too many dangerous situations. There were still too many unknown variables to figure him out.
It did not make any sense to him! Why would muggles want a wizard trained so well in battle?
So Hendrix Evans, if that was even his name, had to be lying.
Maybe Hendrix was a spy for the Dark Lord Grindelwald? That would be the most likely explanation for why he was trained so well. It would not explain his hatred of Tom, though. Maybe Hendrix had some relatives in Hogwarts that let slip something about Tom to him? Yes, that could explain everything away… except maybe, the fact that Hendrix’s whole story seemed to be thrown together rather haphazardly.
Well, that and the signs of abuse he and Madam Filch had found. That led credence to him being raised by muggles. Those were similar injuries that Tom had acquired before he had learned to defend himself. Broken bones that had healed using only his innate magic. Scars that told a story of being beaten or tortured. Blunt force injuries that had caused brain damage and had affected his vision. The malnutrition was so extreme that Hendrix was not as tall as he should be by this age. His bones were weaker because of it too. Thankfully, most of the damage was healed easily enough with some heavy spellwork. Bones were rebroken and mended properly. Brain damage had been soothed and his vision was slowly being corrected. With the brain, everything had to be gradual. So while it only took a few spells, the magic would take weeks to work fully—three weeks, where a small portion of Tom’s magic would be syphoned to power his spellwork. A potion regime was designed to restore the bone density of Hendrix’s body and to help him grow how he should. The only thing they could not mitigate was the scars left behind by the abuse.
Tom doubted that Hendrix would ever know just what all they had done for him, and he hoped that he would not. Normally, Tom would have never gone to that extreme to help someone, but something about Hendrix drew him in. The teenager was not interested in healing beyond being able to take care of himself and use it against his enemies. He could imagine using those spells to hurt someone, heal them, and start all over again. It would be a good tactic to get information out of someone. Maybe Hendrix would be his first true victim if he got too impatient. He could always knock the other student out in the dorms and then float him to the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets. No one would be able to bother them there.
He would give himself until the end of October to figure the other teenager out before kidnapping him. Maybe he would slip him a sleeping draught? No, those were not simple to counteract and mostly were for longer periods. Instead, he would stun him. The stunner had some serious downsides, mainly the red flash of the spell as it was fired, but if he was close enough to the mystery, then Hendrix would not know what hit him. Or if he ambushed Hendrix while the other teenager was asleep.
He shook himself out of his deep thoughts as he realised his magic had grown cold and was starting to affect those around him. Tom had been too engrossed by his thoughts and had not noticed that breakfast was drawing to an end. It would be time to meet up with Hendrix soon.
‘Wait a minute, Hendrix should already be here.’ His internal dialogue said. ‘Madam Filch must have kept him back a little longer than planned. Maybe she wanted to make sure he ate breakfast before being introduced and subjected to the rest of the school.’ He nodded internally as if to agree with himself before he finished off the rest of his breakfast.
His followers had expected him to rise immediately after he finished eating and he could see the surprise on their faces when that did not happen. Of course, he would not explain himself to them so he stayed silent. Thankfully it was only another moment or so before the doors to the Great Hall opened up to reveal the wizened Headmaster Dippet along with Hendrix in a rather plain set of black robes.
“May I have everyone’s attention?” The Headmaster's voice was strong. When the entirety of the Great Hall was looking at him he proceeded. “We have a new fifth-year student this year. Please welcome Hendrix Evans to Slytherin house.” The polite applause died down before he continued. “His joining us is due to the unfortunate demise of his entire family due to the war so please, respect his privacy.” Everyone went quiet and some people even looked shocked. Not many families in England had been affected by the war so far, and none had lost everyone. Not even the muggleborn students. “Tom, if you would?”
Tom could see that Hendrix was trying his best to look unbothered by the attention, but his mask was not as good as someone who had spent years in the house of the snakes and Tom could see right through it. Most of Slytherin was capable of it.
Tom rose to his feet gracefully and walked over to the Headmaster and Hendrix without an explanation to his followers. They did not know everything about him, nor did they need to know that he was not going to be in the school that day. If they did then they might have decided to cause some trouble without him there to keep the rivalries calm. The Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry had gotten intense during his second year and had led to several members of each house being sent to St. Mungos after a small-scale battle had broken out in the Entrance Hall. One sixth-year Slytherin student, a Black, had been permanently pulled out of the school after a blood curse had been cast on her by a Gryffindor student. Thankfully Headmaster Dippet had expelled the guilty party, a halfblood fourth year that Cassiopeia Black had spurned, Jackson Gocelyn. Sadly, Gocelyn had been stripped of his magic and obliviated instead of being thrown in Azkaban because his father had been from a ‘Light’ family and had convinced the other ‘Light’ and Neutral families to be lenient. Lord Gocelyn had been forced to set up an entirely new identity for his only child in the muggle world. It had rendered the line dormant in the eyes of magic. If there was no new heir, or heiress, born within the next ten generations then the line would be declared extinct and their Gringott's vault, and properties, be seized by the Ministry of Magic.
Tom hoped to never meet a descendant of the vile half-blood muggle. He was rather partial to the Black family as he had several of them as his followers. He respected their heir, Arcturus Black, and had his cousins, Alphard Black with Pollux Black, in his inner circle. Arcturus’s younger sister, Dorea Black, was only a second year. He did not have much to do with the quietest Black.
Due to the blood curse, Lord Sirius Black, Arcturus’s father, had been unable to marry off his oldest daughter, and she would remain one of the only Black children who would stay unmarried. No wizard wanted a witch who was unable to bear children, after all.
Tom had been able to calm the rivalries between the two houses midway through his third year, and no more fights had broken out in the year and a half since then. It had required him to reveal his newfound heritage to certain influential members of the house, but at least there was not the danger of extreme measures being taken.
He really could not afford for there to be a relapse.
Tom followed behind the Headmaster as they walked to his office. He was so deep in his thoughts about how Hogwarts used to be that he was slightly surprised when they came to a stop at the gargoyle that protected the Headmaster’s office. ‘Seriously, who puts a password-protected guardian on an office that students are supposed to have access to in an emergency? There isn’t always a prefect or professor around.’ It was just another thing for him to change when he took over the wizarding world.
The Headmaster said the password, demiguise, and they were soon walking into the office.
“Thank you, Headmaster, for not broadcasting that I was not going to be in the castle. I’m not sure if I would come back to an all-out war or not.” Tom said with a frown on his face.
Dippet looked surprised at Tom’s admission. “Don’t tell me you had something to do with the tensions calming?”
Tom’s cheeks flushed slightly. He thought for sure that Dippet had known. “Yes sir, I thought Professor Dumbledore would have told you?”
The elder wizard shook his head. “The only thing he told me about you was that he did not trust you for some reason.”
Hendrix stood off to the side, listening in on their conversation confused.
Tom sighed and looked away from the Headmaster. “That incident at the end of my second year was around the time I had found out who my mother’s family was. It had been too close to the end of term for me to change things, but I started as soon as we returned to the castle on September first.” He hesitated as he glanced at the intrigued older man. “My mother was a Gaunt, and since I’m a parselmouth, I was able to greatly influence the members of my house to call a ceasefire. Of course, my influence in Gryffindor was almost none so I worked with Charlus Potter to get both houses under control. What happened to Miss Black was inexcusable.” His eyes were the only part of him that showed anger for the fate of the witch.
Headmaster Dippet stared at Tom for a moment in silence before he nodded. “Yes, being cursed barren is a horrific fate. I am truly grateful that you were able to work with Mister. Potter to soothe tensions. Why did you choose Mister Potter? He had never been a very vocal Gryffindor.”
Tom smirked at the Headmaster. “He might not be vocal, but being the Heir of Gryffindor carries just as much weight with their house as it does being the Heir of Slytherin, sir.”
Hendrix was shocked. The Potter family were descended from Godric Gryffindor? Why had no one ever told him that?
The headmaster looked at Hendrix for a moment before he looked back at Tom. “Tom, would you mind casting a privacy ward? Just for a moment?”
Tom flicked his wand into his hand from his holster and silently cast a couple of wards around them. “All done sir.”
Headmaster Dippet watched Tom cast magic with a look of pride upon his face. “You have a magnificent way with your magic Tom.” He said once the wards were up. “Now, I do not feel a hint of guilt giving you this, as being one of the Heirs of the school does give you certain privileges.” He pulled a small mokeskin bag out of a drawer of his desk and handed it to the teenager. “I know Professor Dumbledore is rather hard on you, and now I know why. He does not believe that you should get any special treatment. Normally you would not get special treatment, but there is something written in the charter that any Heir of this school's founders should be taken care of by the school. I know you have made do with the normal stipend for books and supplies, but I know that is not enough with inflation. I’ve been trying to get that stipend raised for the past fifteen years, but the governors will not allow it.” There was an annoyed look on the Headmaster’s face now. “I have also tried to convince them to allow you to stay here during the summers, but I do not believe even your status as Slytherin's Heir will be able to change that.” He said with a regretful look on his face. “I do wish there was more I could do to help you, Tom.”
Tom was stunned by the Headmaster’s words. He could barely believe it. He had wanted to keep his identity a secret so badly, but he could have had more books if he had come out. He could have had robes that were not secondhand? He could maybe have gotten a pet. Well, maybe not the last one as living at Wool’s during the summers was not conducive to having any kind of pet around. Especially not a snake like he would have loved to have. He took the mokeskin pouch with slightly shaking fingers. “Thank you, sir. It means so much to me. I was going to have to get a new uniform anyway because the house elves were not able to get all of the blood out of the ones I was wearing when Mister Evans’s portkey landed him on my desk. Same with my books.” He almost clung to the little pouch.
The older wizard smiled sadly at Tom. “I know about your ruined supplies. That was one of the reasons I was going to give that to you anyway. It is connected to one I have here so you shouldn’t have to worry about money unless you make some big purchases. I’m sad to say that renting out a room in Diagon for the summer would be out of the question. I put a hundred galleons in there to start. Every four months I will put in another fifteen, and the month before term starts in September I will add seventy-five. If I had it my way every student that needs it would get fifty like I have been petitioning the board.” The Headmaster suddenly looked as if he had gained another twenty years during the conversation. “Have fun in Diagon Alley today, Tom. I have made sure that Mister. Evans also has one of these pouches.”
Tom smiled at the Headmaster. “Truly sir, thank you for this. I will not betray the trust you have placed in me.” Tom then flicked his yew wand and dismissed the wards. “Are you ready to go, Hendrix?” He finally turned to look at the mystery. He refused to look too deeply into those expressive eyes as he did not want to see if the other knew what the Headmaster had done. He did not like being pitied.