Chapter 2
Draco and Tom were sitting together in the common room of Slytherin. The dark green light which was cast around was calming to them.
"Severus is meeting with the other professors and Dumbledore." Tom muttered softly. "You trust him?"
"Yes," Draco said simply. If there was anyone who deserved trust it was Severus. The man had proven himself over and over and over again. To not trust him would be a slight to him, and Draco was not fond of preconceived slights.
"Than I shall as well. Do you think that he knows of what we are doing?"
"Of course he does. He will not likely interfere though. Just watch. I shall bet that the moment the meeting is done, he will find a way to contact us and request audience before the second day is out."
"How can you be so sure?" Tom asked, curious, as he carded his hands through the younger boy's hair.
"Because, no matter what...Severus dislikes Dumbledore. Sure, the man may work under him, and perhaps even handle his presence well, but people like Severus do not get along very well with Gryffindors." Tom looked at Draco curiously. Draco pressed his lips together but eventually decided that it would not cause too much harm.
"Promise you will not utter a word of this to Severus." He asked, blue eyes shining.
"Promise." Tom quickly agreed. Draco narrowed his eyes. "I promise I will not allow Severus to know what you are going to speak to me of." Draco was much more satisfied with that. More binding. Such a Slytherin.
"There was this group of Gryffindors when he was in school. They bullied him mercilessly. My father, before he turned as cruel as he currently is now, helped him several times, and introduced him to the Dark Lord. Severus found purpose. While Dumbledore constantly let them slide by because they were from his house, the Slytherins did not stand for such things. They even began sending older students to stay with Severus at all times." Draco admitted. Tom nodded, thoughtful.
"That is..quite interesting." Tom stated.
"I know. Severus was broken long before that. Slytherin helped him find his place. It gave him much more confidence than he had previously. A lot of people think that it was the Dark Lord which began the hatred of our house, but...People did not even know that the Dark Lord was a Slytherin. It was suspected, but none of the followers of the Dark Lord were ever mentioned, and nobody knew who they were until after the purge. Not just that, but it was Dumbledore who stated that the Dark Lord was in Slytherin in the first place. Even though he is correct, it is still nothing but speculation." Tom nodded. This was quite the hefty amount of information which Draco was handing him. Though he did not doubt that Draco was more than aware of that.
"As of now, I would say that the next best option is to begin to pick out Dumbledore's faults." Tom whispered softly, contemplative.
"Of course it is." Draco agreed. "For people with utter loyalty to Dumbledore, which is most of the other houses, it will be necessary to show that Dumbledore is not as without faults as they had thought him to be. We will need other houses to come over to our side if we really want to manage this. What is the best way to do that? To take down their idol."
"True," Riddle agreed.
"We will have to be incredibly careful though." Draco said softly. "Dumbledore is incredibly powerful, and willful. We need to start small. Very small. With smaller publications and smaller deeds of wrong which he has done. Nothing big." Tom smiled, teeth bared.
"What a wonderful idea."