Revealing the truth
Harry did not know how he had managed it, but even with the knowledge that there was something very wrong with Quirrell, he managed to pass his end of year exams. The pain in his scar had been distracting, sure, but thankfully, Tom was able to block a good chunk of it out, so that instead of feeling like his head would split wide open any second, Harry only suffered from a light headache most days, and not even that one some lucky rare occasions.
That was a good thing, too, because the summer was stupidly hot and humid, and Hogwarts was sorely lacking any sort of air conditioning - making classes and sitting through the exams almost unbearable. Sitting through the written tests was probably the worst it got; between being nervous about remembering the correct answers, and already sweating from the uncomfortable temperatures, it was a small miracle the parchments were not drenched - Harry suspected charms shielding them. Thankfully, the fact that they'd receive special quills to prevent cheating had been announced early, even though that one had taken Tom by surprise.
'Huh, I wonder if that was my fault', he had stated when McGonagall had made the announcement.
'What, Tom Riddle cheated on his exams?', Harry teased.
'No, but I may have created specially enchanted quills and sold them to some of my less academically inclined peers - what? It was easy, you only needed to create a charm that would link your subconscious memories to the quill and that would see the quill write the answers you didn't know yourself on its own, using that knowledge from your subconscious. Worked like a charm - pardon the pun. When more and more people started buying into the concept, I even expanded the charm, creating a link between the memories of everyone who owned these little beauties, and plucking the correct answers from there... can't say I'm surprised it was eventually countered, I guess someone slipped up after I graduated.'
'Likely', Harry replied. 'Man, you must've made a fortune with those.'
'One and a half actually, but I mostly traded them for favours - introductions to important people, access to family grimoires, chances to study the odd family artifact... and of course, it gave me a reputation amongst those who knew about these quills.'
'And you were never found out?'
'I made sure that everyone knew that there would be... consequences if anyone told', Tom said with a bone-chilling grin.
'Yeesh, do I want to know?', Harry shook himself.
'Let's just say that Marcus Hornsby thoroughly regretted announcing his intent of ratting me out to Dumbledore and leave it at that', Tom smugly explained.
'Yup, I do not want to know', Harry decided. 'But considering that we now receive quills for our written exams, I guess someone did snitch?'
'Apparently so, though it must've happened after I graduated - can't say I'm too surprised, in all honsety. Half the reason our little racket never got found out because no one dared to mess with me, but after I was gone, I imagine those who still had their quills got careless, and I know for a fact that some of my clients handed theirs to their younger siblings for emergencies, so there are a lot of ways it could've been found out. Considering I still have my plaque for special services up in the Trophy Room, it was apparently never linked to me, fortunately, though I imagine a certain silver-bearded meddler had his own suspicions.'
'So, essentially, if I fail my written tests, I have you to blame for accidentally making cheating impossible?', Harry teased.
Tom, needless to say, was not amused. 'If you fail your exams, you have exactly one person to blame, and it isn't me', he replied. 'Oh, and don't even bother to ask me to sneak you the correct answers - you'd be wasting your thoughts, and I won't do so anyways.'
Harry chuckled. 'And here I thought being a Slytherin was all about succeeding by any means necessary', he joked.
'Well, you're not a sly Slytherin, so go ahead and run towards the challenge of passing without me as a security net like a good little Gryffindor.'
And all things considered, it turned out that even if the safety net of Tom's vast knowledge had been an option to fall back on, it hadn't been needed. There had been a few instances in which Harry wasn't too sure about the answer, particularily in Astronomy, but he was confident he'd passed that one, too. Honestly though, who cared if Mars was particularily red of late?
The practical exams were, however, where he excelled at. In Charms, his ananas danced step so well, Tom even broke his silence and remarked on how the fruit danced better than he'd ever been able to. In Transfiguration, his snuffbox was remarked upon as being one of the best Professor McGonagall had ever seen (though Harry did feel somewhat bad for the mouse from which it had been transfigured). Even Potions went surprisingly well, and while Harry's Forgetfulness Potion was of a slightly darker orange than it should be, it turned out he'd only made it slightly more potent than required - Tom snarkily commented on how mayhaps Snape would forget being such a prick if he drank it.
Tom did, however, break with his earlier statement on one particular occasion - History of Magic, their last exam. 'Oh, bugger me, that damned ghost is not only dead boring, but lazy as well!'
'Don't tell me that this is the same exam you wrote in your day', Harry groaned as he looked over the questions.
'He didn't even bother to switch up the order of the questions', Tom confirmed. 'Oh, and of course the year of the exam still says 1939 - you know what? That level of negligence is just begging to be used accordingly.'
Needless to say, Harry was confident that he'd passed that one, and when Binns announced that time was up and that they were done, just about everyone was loudly cheering, including Harry.
"Well, that was far easier than I expected it to be", Hermione stated as her, Harry and Neville headed down to the lake. "I needn't have bothered with the Werewolf Code of Conduct of 1637 or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."
"Really?", Neville asked. "Because he came up in mine - or was that Uric the Oddball?"
"Hey, did the year of the exam say something other than 1992 for either of you?", Harry then asked.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Yes, actually, it said 1946 on my parchment. Wait, what was it for you?"
"1939", he revealed. "Do you guys think Binns purposefully mixed old exams to avoid people copying?"
"I think he simply forgot what year we actually have", Neville laughed.
Tom disagreed. 'Huh, that's a possibility I didn't even consider - crap, what if Dumbledore put him up to it, and you received the one I took in my first year on purpose?'
Harry barely managed to surpress an eyeroll. 'Calm down, captain paranoia. The day's too nice to keep thinking about this sort of thing.'
It was true; now that they were officially done with the exams, Harry could finally allow himself to relax a bit. The three Gryffindors reached a nice spot by the lake, not too far away from where the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were currently busy messing with the Giant Squid.
'Ah, you're right', Tom surprisingly enough decided to agree. 'It really is a nice day. Would be perfect for a bath in the lake, I imagine it's nice and warm right now.'
'We'd need swimming clothes for that, though - are those even allowed here?'
Tom shrugged. 'Dunno about allowed, but I know that folks had them in my day - in the summer, we'd sometimes come down here for a quick swim on hot days - and nights, for that matter. It was really relaxing, and the view was generally nice, as well.'
'What, did you get to see someone's ankles?', Harry teased.
Tom groaned in annoyance. 'Not what I meant, you little pain - trust me, when you see the lake sparkle with the light of sun and stars, you'll understand. And for the record, we already had proper bathing suits in my day - maybe you could suggest Hermione pack one for next year?'
Now it was Harry's turn to mentally groan.
"How's your scar doing, by the way?", Hermione asked somewhat hesitantly.
Harry winced. "It still hurts a bit", he admitted as he rubbed the offending mark. "It did get better of late, but... ugh, I wish I knew what caused this."
Neville drummed his fingers against his chin. "Could it be that it's somehow reacting to something?", he wondered. "Gran mentioned it some time ago, apparently, sometimes, curse scars react to the person who created them - though I wouldn't know how that would work, in this case..."
'Tom? Could that be the cause?'
'Mmph, Longbottom has a point, I don't see how that particular explanation would work, unless...'
'Unless Voldemort is in the castle', Harry completed, an uneasy feeling forming in his stomach.
Hermione, over the past few months, had gotten quite good at reading Harry, she thought. It helped that he was finally beginning to open up more emotionally, especially since they had smuggled out Norbert, though much to her annoyance, he was still rather cagey about his homelife - which had only fueled her suspicions that something was very wrong there. Naturally, she had been tempted to press him for details, but had thought better of it - for one, Hermione did not want to ruin their friendship by doing something like that, and she had a gut feeling that Harry would open up about that on his own in good time.
Still, she was concerned. Maybe it had been the stress of the exams, but lately, he had been a bit short with most people, and his headaches did not help his mood, either. These were things that she could understand, though, something that couldn't be said for his odd periods of being... well, to her, it almost seemed at times as though he was having entire mental conversations with himself, complete with jokes, if the odd smile was any indication. It was mindboggling to witness (though it was hard to spot at times, as Harry somehow still managed to partake in regular conversations during these phases), and it was concerning that this had been going on more or less since they had first met. She had hoped that this was just something she imagined, but apparently, it was not, and even worse, these mental conversations seemed to grow more frequent.
Then, there were some of the things he did and said that... just didn't make sense for him to know. She could understand him knowing things from the first year textbooks before they covered them in their classes (she read ahead herself, after all), and she could even understand him knowing a few slightly more advanced matters from second year, since he did go to the library regularly... but some of the magical concepts that had come up in their study sessions were at least fourth grade material! There was no way Harry could positively know them, and while Hermione would be the first to acknowledge that he was brilliant in his own right, him simply coming up with them was... highly unlikely.
Nevermind the fact that he had killed that troll... she wanted to believe that he had simply acted on instinct, that he somehow knew the right spell to stop the troll, but the more she actually thought on the matter, the less sense this explanation made. There was something else, some other source of knowledge he had, and a small, nasty part of her mind suggested that maybe Harry's apparent brilliance was merely him drawing on that knowledge - Hermione made an effort to dismiss these thoughts, but they were rather persistent.
Nevertheless, looking at Harry blanching as he once again lost himself in his thoughts brought some of these suspicions back to the surface, and Hermione was tempted to confront him about some of these things. She decided against giving in to that temptation - no good would likely come from it at this time, after all. So, she instead decided to focus on the one thing she could think of - the scar.
"Let's trace back a bit", she thus suggested. "You said this started when you overheard Quirrell talking with someone?"
"Yeah", Harry confirmed. "No idea who the other person was, though, I didn't see anyone else in that room. Whatever was said put Quirrell into quite a frenzy, though - I don't think he even noticed me when he ran out."
Odd... and it did sound deeply concerning. Hermione's mind wandered back to what Neville had said about curse scars reacting, but... that couldn't be the case, could it?
Neville, meanwhile, had ideas of his own. "He could've talked to someone over the floo network", he thought out aloud. "Was there a fireplace in the classroom?"
"Ah, I don't think so?", Harry replied. "At least, I didn't notice one, but I didn't look too closely..."
Hermione drummed her fingers against her leg as she thought. It was possible that Quirrell was simply mentally disturbed, but then, how would this affect Harry's scar?
Neville seemingly had a similar idea. "Could be that he's suffering from some kind of disorder - maybe his sickness is affecting his mind? There's some ailments that can cause you to see things, my great-grandfather died from something like that, I think..."
"But how does that relate to Harry's scar, though?", Hermione asked while watching Harry, who was once again deep in thought 'conversations'. Suddenly, he turned white as a sheet and shot up, startling both her and Neville.
"Harry, what's wrong?", the other boy asked.
"I need to talk to Dumbledore", Harry said. "I think I know what's going on, and he needs to know!"
Hermione opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, but Harry was already on the move, rapidly walking back into the castle.
"What the hell got into him?", Neville asked confused.
"I don't know", Hermione replied as she shook her head. "Come on!"
Keeping up with Harry was a minor chore - he was moving quickly, and seemingly had a destination in mind, something that surprised Hermione, considering she wasn't too certain she could find the headmaster's office without a map of sorts. Harry however did not seem to have this problem, which meant that either he'd already been there... or that he was drawing on whatever source of knowledge he kept hidden. Either way, she was concerned, and a quick glance at the huffing Neville told her that so was he.
"Bloody statue!", she eventually heard Harry's angry voice, and when Hermione and Neville turned around the corner, they spotted Harry walking towards them, now visibly angry - a slightly scary look, and for the briefest of moments, it seemed as though there was a slight red shadow over his green eyes, though that had to be merely a trick of light... right?
"Harry, wait!", Hermione called as he made to rush past them, panting heavily - she was not out of shape by any means, but Harry had walked at such a pace that she was a bit out of breath. "What's going on?"
"Man, how did you even find his office?", Neville muttered while breathing a bit heavily.
Harry waved it off. "Not important right now - listen, I think Quirrell is possessed by Voldemort, and I need to tell Dumbledore."
WHAT?!
"Harry, what are you talking about?", she asked. "Why would you possibly think something like that?"
Harry shook his head. "It's a long story - who would know how to get into Dumbledore's office?"
Hermione gaped a bit in disbelief while Neville answered, telling that Professor McGonagall would be the most likely. She was still struggling with trying to make sense of what Harry had just suggested, and so caught up in it that she barely noticed Harry rushing past her again - only when Neville grabbed her by her sleeve did she pull away from her thoughts.
Quirrell being possessed by You-Know-Who... how did that even make sense? Was it even possible? How could anyone have missed it, if it was true? And how would Harry even consider this? These thoughts rattled through Hermione's brain as she and Neville hurried after Harry, who was still walking at a rapid pace.
Where did he take the stamina to keep up this speed? Quidditch training?
"--need to speak with Professor Dumbledore", Hermione heard Harry's voice when they finally reached Professor McGonagall's office. "It's very important."
"The headmaster left for London ten minutes ago", Professor McGonagall replied. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry and departed immediately."
"You mean he's gone?"
Professor McGonagall's tone crew slightly more severe. "Professor Dumbledore is a very important wizard, Mister Potter, and he's called upon for counsel quite often -"
"But professor, it's important -", Harry tried to argue.
"More important than the Ministry of Magic?", their teacher inquired.
"Professor, it concerns the Philosopher's Stone", Harry began just as Hermione and Neville, now having caught their breath, entered the office - just in time to witness Professor McGonagall drop the books she was carrying in shock.
"The-- Mister Potter, how do you even know about this?", she asked.
"That's not important right now - professor, I have reason to believe that Professor Quirrell is going to try and steal the Stone, and if the headmaster is gone today, he'll likely --"
Professor McGonagall raised a hand to cut Harry off. "That's quite enough, Mister Potter", she sternly said. "I do not know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured that it is quite secure, and that Professor Quirrell has the headmaster's trust. I seriously doubt that any theft attempt will take place inside Hogwarts, especially by members of the faculty."
"But Professor -"
"Enough, Mister Potter", the teacher said. "I know what I'm talking about - I would suggest that you head outside and enjoy the good weather."
Hermione did not need to see Harry's face to know he was barely managing to conceal his anger, she had seen this body posture often enough to know he was furious. His anger became all the more apparent when he briskly turned and shot out of the office, once again paying no attention to either her or Neville, and stormed down the hallway.
Professor McGonagall shook her head. "Did the Weasley-twins put him up to this?", she asked, seemingly directed at her and Neville. "I would suggest the two of you look after your friend."
Hermione nodded, still confused, and then shot out of the office herself, followed by Neville, to try and catch up with Harry. Once again, it wasn't easy to keep up with him, as aside from having a minor head start, he was still rather rapid in pace, and it wasn't until they reached the fourth floor classroom they used for their study group meetings that they managed to catch up to him.
"Bloody useless adults!", Harry furiously ranted. "He has the headmaster's trust, hah! If you're right, that bloody bastard is literally playing the host for that monster - I swear, if there was ever a time in which your mistrust in Dumbledore was warranted, this is it!"
"Harry?", Hermione asked, and she nearly flinched back when she saw his furious look - yet again with that reddish shadow over his eyes - which soon gave way to surprise. "What... is going on?"
"Who were you talking to? There's no one here", Neville panted as he huffed.
Harry blinked sheepishly. "Oops", was all he said.
Hermione took a deep breath. She knew full well this could easily be the end of their friendship now, but... worry won over any sense of preservation. "Harry, you're... look, I tried not to bring this up, but I'm concerned about you - there's something odd going on with you, I noticed that already before Halloween, and I just thought that you'd tell us - me - on your own time, but this right now... I need to know what's going on with you!"
Harry visibly deflated as Hermione took another deep breath. "Trust me", he sighed. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Neville took one last breath before properly standing up. "Try us", he said. "Look, I didn't want to bring it up either, but your tendency to just... zone out is a bit concerning. Hell, if I had to guess, I'd say you're talking to someone through your mind. Between that, and some of the things you know, like the way to headmaster's office without looking at a map... nevermind some of the spells you showed off. I know you don't like to talk about personal stuff, but if you do have someone whispering in your ear like that... that isn't normal."
Huh, maybe Hermione should've voiced her concerns to Neville beforehand.
Harry's eyes meanwhile briefly flashed angrily as Neville finished, and once again, Hermione thought that she saw that reddish shadow pass over them, before he sighed wearily and visibly deflated. "I guess", he said. "It's just... you're gonna think I'm absolutely mad."
Neville chuckled. "We just saw you rant to yourself", he teased. "Won't get any madder than that."
"Yeah, well... okay, here goes nothing." Harry took a deep breath. "There's... I'm sharing my body with another soul - well, part of a soul, we're still not sure of the specifics. He's called Tom Marvolo Riddle, a former Hogwarts student - he told me about magic, and he, ah, may have given me pointers here and there - he didn't help me cheat", he quickly added, looking at Hermione, "just... helped me understand some stuff better, and he did show me some more advanced stuff."
Hermione blinked. "Nevermind that - how... how does that even work?"
Harry shrugged. "Our best guess? It has to do with how the Killing Curse works - Tom said that it rips the soul from a body, and that small imprints remain in the wand that did the deed. When Voldemort tried to kill me, something went wrong, the curse failed, and we think that whatever imprint was left of Tom latched on to me. We don't know for sure, though."
Neville shook his head. "That's... wow, I did not see that - you do realize that this sounds dangerous, right?"
Harry threw his hands up in frustration. "I know, believe me, and we are trying to figure out how to get him out of my scar, but until then, we're stuck together. And honestly? Tom was the first friend I ever had, he has helped me navigate the Wizarding World, hell, he even saved my life from that troll!"
Hermione blinked at that, that would explain a lot of things - nevermind the troll dying, Harry having no real friends other than this... soul fragment inhabiting him gave her more pointers to the hellhole that had to be his home than anything else. "You mean that that spell you cast... that wasn't you, but this... Tom Riddle?", she decided to focus on the more obvious (and the subject where getting an answer out of him was more likely).
Harry grimaced. "Yeah - I briefly gave him control over my body and magic for that." He cringed. "That... somehow sounded even worse out aloud."
"I'll say", Neville said while shaking his head. "Blimey, that... I don't even know what to say to that."
"Is he... can he simply take control whenever?", Hermione asked, her voice laced in concern.
Harry shook his head. "No - he's locked in my scar, and there's a bunch of wards preventing him from even leaving. I have to allow him to take over if... well, if it's really necessary. It's not something either of us enjoys, though - it can be quite painful for especially him."
"Blimey", Neville repeated. "That... blimey."
"I know it's a lot", Harry admitted. "You see now why I kept this to myself?"
"Yeah - so... you going on about Quirrell being possessed by You-know-who, this was him talking to you?", Hermione asked, trying to push past her own confusion.
Harry nodded. "Yes - though it was Neville who provided the base for his explanation."
"I did?", Neville asked.
"Yeah - you mentioning curse scars reacting, and Quirrell potentially suffering from some kind of mental illness, it, ah, it sounded an awful lot like what he and I got going on."
Hermione cringed at that. "Let's not think on that - you think that Quirrell is going to try and steal the stone for You-know-who, then?"
Harry nodded frantically. "That's a given - and with Dumbledore gone, it'll happen today."