Harry Potter and the Great Doom of Things

Albus Dumbledore sat down on his seat at the Great Hall and adjusted his glasses. He briefly smiled at Dippet and then took a look around the hall.

Every teacher was seated at their table, but the two students already at Hogwarts were missing. Albus immediately got a bad feeling; usually Tom Riddle's absence soothed him, but right now it only made him nervous.

He had always been worried about the boy's influence on seemingly everyone, but now more than ever did it hit him. The new student -Alan Taylor- had been there for under 24 hours, and Tom Riddle already had him under his spell. His warnings had seemed to give no effect, and now the two were both absent -hence the bad feeling.

He would just have to hope they arrived before the rest of the school.

And just as he finished the thought, the door to the Great Hall opened. In walked Alan Taylor, followed briefly by Tom Riddle, both seemingly immersed in a conversation.

Albus only turned his gaze away from the pair when a set of green eyes suddenly found his. He blinked at the sharp look that he found there and focused on Dippet's robes as the headmaster spoke.

"This year will of course be different, what with the war, and no less Grindelwald, but we will have to do our best to remain a positive atmosphere," the man spoke with a grave tone and Albus nodded his agreement.

He was only half-listening, his main focus on the two boys once again. Alan Taylor was talking animatedly with his hands, a smile on his face, but an unmistakable hardness behind his eyes. Tom Riddle seemed to be listening with unwavering focus, which was from Albus's previous observations a rare occurrence.

The professor got the unstoppable itch to hear what they were talking about and managed to last five seconds until he cast an unnoticeable sound amplifier charm, which would channel the conversation straight into his own head. It was of his own creation; he was quite proud of it since it had taken him years to get it to this usability. The voices slowly filtered through.

"Then why would there even be need for school houses in general? If your point is that some houses are favoured to others, why not solve the problem by merging them?" said Alan Taylor's voice. He saw the way Tom's eyebrow raised in consideration and wondered again at the way the boy behaved around the new student. If Albus didn't know the nature of Tom Riddle so thoroughly, he might've believed that the boy was actually comfortable.

"That would be one solution, though I do doubt some houses' ability to, as you put it, 'merge' with those of others'." Tom said this without emotion, though his gaze flickered to the teachers' table and once again Albus pulled his eyes away. He took a sip of pumpkin juice as Taylor's amused voice answered, "And by 'some houses' you mean Gryffindor and Slytherin?"

Albus was a little taken aback by the accurate description. It seemed that Alan Taylor had done more than enough reading on Hogwarts' history. Tom Riddle seemed to notice this too and produced a scarily genuine-looking smile. "That could be implied, yes."

Albus was pulled back from the conversation when the doors to the hall opened once again and a stream of students walked in. He cancelled the spell, looking as the cultish worship group, that was often described as 'Tom Riddle's friends' walked to their table. Albus turned his eyes to the doors, waiting for the incoming first years.

For the rest of the evening he had the strange feeling of being watched.

~

Tom took a look at the people swarming in and then at Taylor, who was looking right back. He caught the eyes of Avery, who glanced at Taylor with question in his eyes before turning to Rosier to mutter something.

Taylor turned to look behind himself and caught sight of Tom's acquaintances. As he turned back around he raised a questioning eyebrow at Tom, "I presume those are your friends there?"

Tom almost answered truthfully, but then managed to stop himselfat the last second, "Yes, they happen to be." It truly was concerning how his mask seemed to occasionally slip around Taylor. It made him nothing but more suspicious of the new student, as this rarely ever occured before.

The group had made their way to their table and stopped before it. They evidently noticed Taylor sitting opposite to Tom, and Mulciber, who had prior to this sat at this place furrowed his eyebrows.

"And who is this, Riddle? If I may ask," he added as an afterthought. He clearly wasn't too worried about pleasantries at the moment, his sole focus now moved onto Taylor. Said boy raised his eyebrows, and Tom introduced, "Mulciber, this is Alan Taylor, our new transfer student. Taylor, this Mulciber, Avery, Rosier, Lestrange, and Nott."

Taylor nodded at group and stated politely, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Mulciber made a wry face at the name and turned to Tom once again. Tom was far from surprised.

"Will he be eating with us this evening?"

Tom glanced at Taylor and noticed something light up behind his eyes. It was almost an invisible change, which Tom may not have noticed, had he not been so good at reading people. He turned his gaze back to Mulciber, and from his periphiral vision saw Avery eyeing Taylor's face with interest. Apparently he had noticed too.

"Yes, he will. You may all sit down now."

He saw Taylor grin and turned his gaze back to the boy as the group sat down, Mulciber having taken a new seat next to Nott. Taylor replied to his questioning look, "Shall I also need to ask for your permission to sit down, from now on?"

Tom pretended not to hear Lestrange cover a laugh with a cough and smiled pleasantly as he answered, "That won't be necessary."

Mulciber, probably feeling left out as he tended to do while not speaking, chimed in, "So, where exactly did you transfer from, Taylor?"

The boy watched him with an unreadable look. "I transfered from France."

Mulciber, no doubt noticing the short answer, latched onto the topic. "So you enrolled in Beauxbatons, I presume?"

This had everyone's interest, including Nott's, who had been reading a book through the whole conversation. Taylor leveled his gaze fully on Mulciber's, his eyes portraying nothing as his voice spoke calmly, "I didn't, as I was homeschooled by my mother."

Mulciber, not caring about the eyes on his, and instead staring back with just as much intensity, spoke with a conversational tone. "And what of your father?"

He immediately after let out a grunt, apparently having been kicked under the table by one of them. By the look on Avery's eye, it had to have been him. Tom himself was curious to know anything about the mysterious student, and if his theory was correct, this was right on the topic.

Taylor to this point had not drawn his gaze away and now let a sardonic grin spread out across his face.

"Oh, but it would quite hard for him to teach me magic, as he happens to be a muggle."

This statement had everyone extremely still, including Tom, who apprently would not stop getting surprised by the boy. He had been somewhat right in his guess, but he had definitely not expected Taylor to reveal it to a group of pureblood Slytherins, whose families were known to have very bigoted opinions on muggles. The approach seemed almost... Gryffindorish.

Mulciber broke his gaze from Taylor to glance at Tom, before looking back, "You're a half-blood, then."

He obviously had not forgotten that Tom was one himself, although the topic was ignored most of the time. Taylor looked at Tom too and then answered, "Yes, that seems to imply it."

Their conversation was cut short when the doors opened and the first years arrived. There turned out to be only ten new Slytherin students, although it was hardly a surprise as their house was the smallest of the four.

After the sorting the Headmaster got up. "Welcome back to Hogwarts, and welcome to Hogwarts to all the new students. I am sorry to inform you that this year the elective subject of Alchemy will not be held due to not enough students signing up for it," Dippet told them with a grave voice. Tom himself had been one of those few students signed up for it, so he truly was regretful it wouldn't be taught this year. He caught the eyes of Lestrange, who shook his head with poor imitation of sympathy and sent back a glare.

"But besides that, I hope you have a wonderful year at Hogwarts. Let the feast begin!"

The food appeared and didn't seem to phase Taylor, who was looking very closed off. They all gathered food on their plates, and this time Avery was the first one to speak. "So, Taylor. Do you play quidditch?"

To Tom's utter dissapointment, he apparently did. Upon learning this fact, Lestrange managed to launch a despairingly long debate over the sport, which last almost to the end of the feast.

"You really should come to the try-outs," said Lestrange, Mulciber nodding along. Taylor gave a grin, but shook his head. "I'm afraid I have too much on my plate already with this year. Next year will be the N.E.W.T. year, after all."

After the feast, they descended down to the dungeons with the rest of the Slytherins, and from there to their dorm. Once there, Avery and Rosier, who had both been sending him meaningful looks throughout the feast, walked up to him. Rosier was the first one to speak, "Would you mind speaking to us for a moment?"

Tom watched as Taylor, who had been regarding the interaction from his bed, got up suddenly. The boy spoke, "I actually think I forgot my bag at the common room. I'll better get it."

He didn't even glance at the foot of his bed, where said bag lied, instead walking straight through the door.

"Well, at the very least he can get a hint," said Lestrange, dodging the subtle jinx delivered by Nott who was sitting next to him on the bed.

Tom raised an eyebrow at Rosier, "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

Rosier regarded him with a blank stare, before switching looks with Nott. Mulciber was the one to answer, "Well, the new student, evidently."

Tom kept looking at Mulciber silently, no trace of emotion on his face. Lestrange quipped, "Or not."

"I don't see how there would be anything to talk about," Tom spoke carefully, keeping his eyes on Mulciber, who was in turn watching him just as closely. The boy took a slow step closer. "I just think we're all wondering whether he will be a permanent addition to our -what does Dumbledore call it again- 'worship group'?"

Avery grabbed Mulciber's shoulder to try to steer him back, but the boy kept going forward, now right in front of Tom. Mulciber was a few inches shorter than him, but kept his gaze on Tom's with the easy confidence of a pureblood-raised child.

"We're all wondering, whether the mudblood-" Mulciber was cut off, but, surprisingly enough, not by Tom's magic, rather someone else's.

Tom kept the passive look on his face though his insides screamed at him to attack, and instead looked at the doorway where Taylor was standing. The boy walked closer with a relaxed pace, hands on his sides and an easy smile on his face. He spoke with a kind tone, "That's enough, don't you think?"

Mulciber tried to open his mouth to speak, and upon finding he couldn't, he instead took out his wand. The rest of the group did the same, save for Tom, who was instead watching Taylor with a newfound pique of interest. The boy was doing wandless magic.

Taylor raised an eyebrow at the wands, but still didn't take out his own, instead turning his gaze to Tom. "Are your friends going to attack me, Riddle?"

Tom didn't break the eye-contact, but spoke to the whole room all the same. "No, they're not."

His acquaintances dropped their wands, though Mulciber very reluctantly, and Tom continued, "Although I'm sure Mulciber would appreciate it if you gave him his voice back. He is rather fond of it."

He smiled at the twitch in said boy's eyebrow and Taylor looked at him with a grin. "Well, since you asked so nicely," he answered pleasantly, and the next moment Mulciber opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Rosier looked at him with a meaningful gaze and spoke, "I think you've said quite enough this evening, haven't you?"

Rosier glanced at Tom, and Mulciber seemed to get the message, because he nodded and walked to his bed in silence.

The rest of them stayed quiet for a moment, before Tom spoke, "I think it's best we all go to sleep. It's been a long evening."

They all nodeed or muttered their agreement, and Tom held back a sigh. It had gone just as well as he had thought it would go. He wasn't sure why he didn't want to share his suspicions of the boy to the group. Maybe he just wanted to be the one to figure him out first. In the mean time, he was sure Taylor would continue to surprise him.