Chapter 19

Voldemort held the small leather-bound book in his hand, a thoughtful expression on his face. Beside him, Nagini slithered over to see what he was holding.

'What's that?' She hissed, stopping beside him.

'My old diary. It's one of them'

She gave him a curious look. 'I thought you destroyed them all after your resurrection'

He shook his head. 'Not all. I destroyed most of them to regain my sanity, but I'd completely forgotten about the one Lucius had' He sneered at his own stupidity.

Nagini peered over to get a closer look at the diary. 'That was pretty dumb. What are you going to do with it now?'

He leaned back in the emerald green armchair and sighed, closing his eyes. When they opened, he cast his blood-red gaze over his private chambers.

'Snape thinks that Hadrian still has the diary. He thought that having Rabastan give Hadrian the diary, Hadrian would confide in it. Is he that much of an imbecile? Siding with the Order all these years must have addled his brain' He sneered. Snape was always a cunning man. The fact that he thought that Rabastan, of all people, wouldn't recognize the diary as a horcrux was just pure stupid.

Snape obviously had a reason to give Hadrian the diary. Voldemort knew what the diary could do. He'd created it, after all. Although Snape himself may not have exactly known the full extent of what the diary was capable of, he did know that it was dangerous to whoever would write in it. It wasn't possible that Dumbledore would have ordered Snape to give it to Hadrian. As far as Dumbledore was aware, Voldemort and Hadrian were all dead.

Hiding from the rest of the Wizarding world was rather frustrating for his followers, Bellatrix in particular. The semi-insane witch was crazy for battle and bloodlust. But they had to wait, to bid their time, until Hadrian was older. They would launch their attack then. In the meantime, however, Snape was practically harmless to the death eater cause. Telling Dumbledore that, in fact, Voldemort was still alive wouldn't put him into a good position. That is, if Dumbledore even believed him.

That meant that Snape probably made the decision to give Hadrian the diary by himself.

Voldemort's lip curled in disgust. He'd always despised traitors, regardless of their side.

Despite of Snape's decrease of brain cells, he was still a threat to Hadrian while he was anywhere near him. Snape probably thought that the diary would have turned Hadrian against everybody, and ultimately, made him destroy himself. He wasn't wrong on what the diary could have done.

Hadrian was smart enough to have stopped writing in it as soon as he saw that it wasn't Rabastan responding, but Snape didn't know that. Voldemort didn't want to dispose of him quite yet. He could be an asset in the future.

Voldemort's eyes slid back to the diary he was still holding. He flicked his wrist, unsheathing his blackthorn wand. Twirling it around in his hand idly, he came to the decision on what to do.

He placed his hand on the diary, lifting the protective enchantments on it. The diary glowed a faint black, before returning back to normal. He effortlessly duplicated the diary and all the properties, including Tom Riddle, with an almost lazy flick of the wrist. Placing his hand back onto the original diary, he reset the protective spells on it.

He was curious as to what Snape would do if Hadrian possessed the diary long enough. Would he try get Hadrian killed through whispering in Dumbledore's ear? Would he vanish without a trace? Or yet, what would he do if Dumbledore found himself in possession of the diary? He stopped that train of thought before it could get further, shaking his head. Now wasn't the right time.

Maybe he'd let Hadrian choose what to do with the diary and Snape eventually. He deserved some fun after having to pretend to be under the diary's curse. His son was also more creative than he was…to Voldemort's complete and utter dismay. Voldemort liked to think that he was more creative, but the unanimous decision from his inner circle said otherwise, unfortunately.

Nagini eyed the diaries. 'What's the second one for?'

'It's going to be sent to Hadrian. He'll pretend to be under the fake diaries' influence and use it to trick Snape. Obviously, Snape had a motive to plant the diary in Hadrian's hands, and I'm quite curious to see what he would do if unexplained events and tragedies happened while he thinks Hadrian is behind it'

She thought for a minute. 'Are you planning on getting him to murder somebody?' She did the Snake's equivalent of an eyebrow raise. 'Isn't this a little too early? For both him and the plan?'

Voldemort shook his head. 'Not homicide; Not yet. I reckon…The younger me was very against children and showing any type of compassion towards anything. I considered it a weakness. If he heard how I have a child now, he would probably try to get that child killed'

'Hmm…And maybe, if Snape somehow gets a hold of the diary, he'll start writing in it if Hadrian can disguise it, and eventually Snape would destroy it to prevent himself from being influenced by it so Hadrian wouldn't have to worry about that anymore' Nagini hissed.

'The diary isn't like the original. It can be charmed for words to appear on it, but other that, it's a mundane muggle diary'

Nagini slammed her head into the armchair in disbelief and frustration. 'For the leader of the most formidable force against the rest of the wizarding society, you really are an idiot' She hissed, shaking her head at him. 'You can put another charm onto the diary; this one to specifically bewitch the first person to properly write in it. If the diary looks like something Hadrian would use as his to-do list or to communicate with you, Snape would write in it so you would think that Hadrian was writing to you, when in reality, it was Snape with Hadrian's notebook. Snape will realize that it's obviously Tom Riddle, and figure that Hadrian placed a glamour on the book to change its appearance. He'll either leave it alone, destroy it or give it back to Hadrian. If he destroys it, problem solved. If he gives it back to Hadrian, Hadrian won't trust it because Snape was in possession of it and could have tampered with it and it will give him a reason to destroy it'

Voldemort grumbled something unsavoury under his breath, which Nagini chose to ignore with a snakish smirk on her face. He took a deep breath, then turned back to her.

'That's…a surprisingly good idea' He finally said. The smirk remained on Nagini's face.

'It's something that comes with being a genius'

'Oh zip it, won't you?' Voldemort sighed in exasperation. 'It probably won't even work, Nagini' Nagini continued to give him a smug look, knowing full well that it was the best plan they'd had so far. He turned away from Nagini and held his wand in his hand, thinking about what sort of a two-way communication book between him and Hadrian would look like.

'Small, inconspicuous, and very plain' Nagini offered helpfully, sensing his dilemma. He shrugged.

'I would have gotten it eventually' He defended. She did the snake equivalent of an eyebrow raise.

'I'm sure you would have'

He levelled his wand at the fake diary, and transfigured it, watching as the neatly bound black leather changed to a normal dark brown, the golden 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' engraved onto the front vanishing, with smooth brown leather in its place. A large leather strap and a metal clasp appeared on the side of it, perfectly symmetrical. The fake diary now resembled an ordinary muggle notebook. He opened the book, and instead of the old, soft yellow pages of the diary, there were crisp, white pages with neatly inked on lines and rows on the first page. Wordlessly summoning a quill from his desk, he wrote the words 'classes starting soon', then the word 'alright' underneath it in green ink with his left hand. To finish, he erased a part of the word 'classes' and the top part of 'alright' to make it look like Hadrian had been careless with erasing the conversation. This way, Snape wouldn't be able to tell whenever it was Tom Riddle or Voldemort that Hadrian was writing to.

'Oo, interesting' Nagini hissed as he put the quill away.

'I'll send it to Hadrian in a package with a letter. I don't want to bother Quirinus again to be the messenger'

'That man doesn't have anything better to do, though. What does he even do in his spare time?'

Voldemort shrugged, and transfigured the quill into a cardboard box. He looked around, summoned a pure silver mini replica of a Basilisk from his desk along with a piece of parchment and an envelope and transfiguring it into a silver seal. Years of business affairs with foreign countries for the exotic creatures bred and raised on Riddle Manor, selling new creations and spells and the occasional generous donation from a death eater had made Voldemort quite wealthy. Aside from being an evil leader, Voldemort was still an innovative genius, after all.

Quickly drafting a letter and casting half a dozen protective charms on it, he placed it into the box with the two-way notebook. Another layer of spells later, he sealed the box and closed his eyes in concentration.

Angderr swooped into his room and landed on the coffee table in front of Voldemort and Nagini. He blinked his yellow eyes at them, and hooted.

'Hello Angderr' Nagini hissed. He hooted in return, and turned to Voldemort, who opened his blood-red eyes.

"Angderr, apologies if I disturbed your hunting again, but this is rather urgent," He said. Angderr blinked. "Take this to Hadrian. Don't let anybody take it," He didn't need to add the last part, though. Angderr had a fearsome reputation of mauling anybody who tried to take a letter he was delivering. Voldemort tied the letter to Angderr's leg, and as soon as he was finished, the owl grasped the package in his claws and took off with a powerful swoop of his wings through the window, back into the night.

'Are you sure about this?' Nagini asked. Voldemort sighed.

'I guess we'll have to see' He waved his hand and the window, magically closing and drawing the green and silver velvet curtains over it.

The next morning, Great Hall…

The great hall was abuzz with activity, with students chattering loudly, excited for the weekend's activities. A wide array of muggle and wizarding clothing was seen around the entire hall. Blaise was dressed in a simple black leather jacket and a pair of blue denim jeans his mother had bought him from her trip to muggle France earlier in the year. Surprisingly, Daphne was the only other one who was in muggle clothing. Dressed rather similarly to Blaise, she was wearing a grey activewear hoodie and black denim jeans. Hadrian, Theo, Draco and Pansy were all in casual robes with their standard clothing underneath.

Blaise yawned, reaching forwards lazily to pour himself some pumpkin juice, still half-asleep. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, having stayed up late to finish some of his homework. He helped himself to a generous serving of scrambled eggs and grabbed a few pieces of toast and started to butter them, before taking a whole stack of pancakes and started to slather those in butter too, in his rather delirious morning state of mind.

"DEAR MERLIN!" He yelped, dropping and butter knife onto his plate with a loud clang. A large Ninox owl was standing in the middle of the Slytherin table, looking quite smug with itself, a letter tied around it's claws. A cardboard box had knocked over a bottle of Raspberry jam, which was now spilling its contents onto the tablecloth.

Two seats down on his left, he heard an exasperated sigh. "For the last time, Angderr, what did I tell you about landing on the food?!". He could also hear Draco's not-so-subtle snickers.

"Hadrian, tell your owl to get it's foot out of my bacon," A calm voice from opposite him said. He looked up, and sure enough, Angderr's claw without the letter attached to it was in Daphne's plate, standing on her bacon. Next to her, Theo snickered from behind his book. Angderr, unruffled from the glares that seemed to be coming from the students around him, walked down the table to where Hadrian was facepalming internally. He sighed and rubbed his forehead.

'Angderr! How are you?' Sonoro hissed, poking her head out of Hadrian's sleeve, unbothered by the stares she was getting from half of Slytherin house. Hadrian slammed his head onto the table in embarrassment, wishing that he could cast a notice-me-not on himself without anybody seeing. Angderr hooted loudly, ruffling his feathers, the package laying discarded in a puddle of strawberry jam. Hadrian groaned. Honestly, these two were going to drive him up the wall.

"So," Daphne began once Angderr had left, and the school went back to their usual activities. "What was that about?"

Hadrian shrugged, wiping the box with a napkin gingerly, a disgusted grimace on his face as strawberry jam mixed with bacon grease started to trickle down his hand. "I don't know why I'm surprised, though. This happens every other time. We haven't been able to train him not to land on the food," Tossing the ruined napkin aside, and cleaning the gross mixture off his hand, he picked up the letter, stowing it into his bag along with the partially cleaned box. He rose from the table.

"I'll be back at the dorms," He told his friends, before leaving the great hall. On his way back to Slytherin, he spotted numerous students chatting with each other happily as they passed him, dressed in colourful muggle clothing. It was a Saturday, and many had plans of hanging out with friends, exploring the castle or just simply going back to dorms for more sleep. A large group of fourth years stood in a courtyard dressed in t-shirts and shorts with small packs that jingled with the metallic clinking of coins whenever they moved. They were waiting to go to Hogsmeade.

He entered his dorm, and put Sonoro down onto her rock, before he cut open the box with a diffindo. He didn't want to touch strawberry jam mixed with grease ever again in his life. Ever. Inside the box was a small, worn leather notebook. When he opened it, he found yellowing, frayed pages. He raised an eyebrow in confusion when he saw conversations that looked like they were from him and his father. Murmuring the protection phrase, he opened it up and began reading.

Hadrian.

I assume you are befuddled about the whole situation with the diary that you received from Rabastan, with me claiming to be writing back to you. I will give you the full explanation when you come back from Christmas. The information is too risky to be written and delivered through owl or a third-party. As you may know, Rabastan recently sent you a diary which was given to him by Snape. Be cautious around Snape at Hogwarts, he is trying to hurt you. For now, just know that he had attempted to do so through the diary Rabastan sent. Enclosed in the package is a replica of the original diary but without the enchantments.

I understand this may be difficult, but over the next course of weeks, you will have to start acting as if you were under the diary's influence. The longer that Snape thinks you are exposed to the diary, the more that you'll have to act isolated and odd. But do so in the manner that only Snape would pick up on. It is vital that the headmaster or anybody else bar your closest friends become informed of this. Over the course of the next few weeks, pretend to be more isolated, anti-social, and more malicious. Lash out more, have more emotional outbursts. Stay away from your friends and appear apathetic. After around two months, find a way to get the diary to Snape I am leaving you to your own creative reign for that. Feel free to do whatever you want if the other staff aren't alarmed. Again, I shall explain everything in full context when you return for Christmas.

All the best,

Your father

'What's it say?'

He put the letter down. 'Father wants me to act like I'm under the influence of the diary and get it to Snape somehow. Apparently, he sent me a copy of the diary but without any of the dark enchantments on it which can manipulate the user. God knows what young Tom Riddle controlling Severus Snape could do' He shuddered. 'Anyways, he wants me to get the diary to Snape. Apparently, Snape will destroy it or give it back. If he gives it back, I'll dispose of it through you. Isn't your venom lethal?'

Sonoro bobbled her head proudly. 'Yep. Can kill a healthy human in ten minutes' When Hadrian raised his eyebrow at her, she quickly added. 'Don't ask me how I know, okay?'

'Okay…Well is it theoretically strong enough to destroy the diary?'

Sonoro shook her head. 'From what we saw of the diary, it's uncharmable and indestructible'

Hadrian frowned. 'If your venom can't destroy the diary, then probably not a lot of other things can. Besides, what even was the diary?'

'No idea, snakeling. Maybe there's some information about it in the library' She hissed, getting off her rock slowly.

'I guess…Cmon, let's go downstairs. The others will be back from breakfast soon'

He walked over to Sonoro and let her crawl up his forearm, before stowing the parcel and letter into his trunk and going back down the stairs to the common room.

Slytherin common rooms, fifteen minutes later…

"So," Blaise leaned back in the armchair. "What do you all want to do?"

The Slytherin common room was empty. Everybody else was either still at breakfast or somewhere else.

"Hmm, should we explore the castle?" Pansy suggested.

Hadrian shrugged. "Sounds good to me,"

"Why not. We have nothing else to do here. Why do the second years and above get to bring their brooms but we don't?" Draco whined.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "For the last time, Draco. Some of the first years haven't even touched a broom yet, let alone know how to fly. Do you really want Longbottom flying around on the pitch?"

Draco opened his mouth to say something else, probably something to do concerning Lucius.

"Stop arguing, you too. And no, your father can't do anything about it, Draco. Let's go already," Theo said. Draco shut his mouth, Daphne shook her head at Draco, but they both shut up.

As they were walking down the corridor, Theo turned to Hadrian. "What was the parcel and letter about?"

Hadrian paused uncertainly. "Here isn't a good place or time to explain," Theo nodded and they continued walking. The group eventually arrived back at the grand hall, where Theo handed one of the two maps they took to Pansy. A group of Ravenclaw girls were just leaving, talking amongst themselves.

"Let's split up," Theo said. "I'll go with Hadrian and Daphne, Pansy, you go with Draco and Blaise. We'll meet up again at the great hall for lunch and share our findings. Okay?"

"Sounds good to me," Blaise said. Everybody else chorused their agreements.

They split up, with Pansy, Draco and Blaise continuing up the grand staircase, while Hadrian, Draco and Theo went to explore the outdoors, with Sonoro being their impromptu guide.

'So, down there is the whomping willow' Sonoro hissed, peeking her head out of Hadrian's sleeve. 'I don't advise getting too close to it' Hadrian translated to English for Theo and Daphne.

'Over there is the black lake. Don't worry about the squid, she's quite friendly if you don't disturb her'

'And here is Hagrid's hut. Nothing interesting around here, but according to Martha, those pumpkins grow really large around October'

'And here is the forbidden forest. Good prey in there'

The group stopped at the edge of the Forbidden forest. Even at day, the forest looked sinister and mysterious. Daphne cast a tempus.

"We still have an hour before lunch. Should we go back into the castle?" She waved her wand and the tempus disappeared. Beside her, Theo picked up a branch with peculiar slash marks on it, turning it over in his hands.

Hadrian paused for a minute, before deciding that he might as well tell them about the diary then. He cast numerous eavesdropping charms around the area, eliciting a curious look from Theo and Daphne. "Guys," He began. "I have something to tell you," Theo put the branch down, and turned to him. "Recently, you know that parcel I got from Angderr? The one before today?"

Daphne nodded. "The clothes?" Both she and Theo knew that the parcel weren't just clothes. They never were, especially if it was a parcel sent from the dark lord to his son.

"Yeah. Those were actually my transfiguration and charms books from Rabastan and Barty with notebooks. Apparently, the notebook that Rabastan sent me wasn't an actual notebook, but a two-way diary. But Rabastan wasn't the one who was the one writing back to me through the diary. Tom Riddle was,"

Theo frowned. "Your father was writing back to you through Mister Lestrange's notebook?"

Hadrian nodded. "In a way, yes. I talked with the diary for a little, and found out that it wasn't my father, but rather a version of my father in his teens. Rabastan knew that he had sent the diary to me and told my father, who owled me. Apparently, Severus Snape had taken the diary from Malfoy Manor, where Mister Malfoy was entrusted to keep it safe by my father. I returned the diary a few days ago through Professor Quirrel, who is actually an associate of my fathers,"

"Wait," Daphne interjected. "Professor Quirrel knows your father?"

"Yep. It's really rather odd,"

Daphne shrugged. "Sure sounds like it,"

"Anyways, my father wants to know what Snape if I had the diary for an extended period of time. Apparently, if you wrote in it for long enough, it would be able to control you. So he sent me a fake diary replica and a letter explaining it to me. He wants me to act like I've been writing in the diary for the next couple of weeks and eventually get it to Snape,"

"So…for the next couple of weeks you'll be acting weird? And why do you need to get it to Snape?" Theo asked.

"Basically, yeah. Getting it to Snape is really the only way that I can stop acting under the diary's influence. Snape will write in it because it's disguised to look like a notebook or two way notebook with my father, realize it's actually young Tom Riddle and either destroy it or give it back to me. If he gives it back, I'll have an excuse to get rid of it,"

"Why not just pretend that you owled your father about the diary and he told you to destroy it right away?" Daphne cocked her head to the side.

Hadrian shrugged. "According to my father, if somebody started writing in the diary, young Tom Riddle would try to convince them that he's their friend, so they won't suspect anything is wrong. We can't act as if I knew the diary was dangerous in case Snape catches onto the fact we know he's a traitor,"

"So we're bidding our time to confront Snape," Theo said. Hadrian nodded. "When are you going to tell the others?"

"Probably once we get to the privacy of the dorms. Speaking of which, we should get going,"

The three of them made their way back up to the castle. They were still a little early, as lunch was just beginning. However, Draco, Pansy and Blaise were already waiting for them at the entrance, looking rather worn out, Pansy and Draco's usually pristine robes crumpled and messed up. They were all panting. A closer inspection revealed that Blaise had a rather large bump on his forehead.

"What happened to you lot?" Daphne asked curiously.

"You," Blaise panted. "Do NOT want to go onto the fourth floor anytime soon. Gryffindors. Potter and his cronies,"

"Let me guess, Potter and his friends decided to let off dungbombs in the corridor?" Hadrian asked skeptically. The three shook their heads.

"They attacked us. Don't know how they knew we were coming up, but they found us on the fourth floor as we were exploring. They started throwing spells left and right. Blaise got hit by a tripping hex and crashed into a suit of armour, but Draco managed to finite the slug vomiting curse he was hit with. That Blood traitor Lavendar Brown tried to hit me with Ulcera, Desaungeo and colorifor perma. I dodged them all," Pansy said proudly once she caught her breath.

"Must have been at least ten of them, all shooting at us. It's a miracle I was the only one injured," Blaise shook his head a little woozily.

Draco sneered. Despite looking like he had just had an encounter with a stray cat trying to eat his robes, he still looked arrogant as ever. "Bet you Potter and his little group thought that they could get away with anything just because he's the golden boy they're Dumbledore's favourites. It was definitely Potter who organised it. As we were getting away, we heard Weasley and Finnegan loudly congratulating Potter on how 'well he planned it'. We'll show them not to mess with us,"

Pansy nodded in agreement, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Not even being the boy-who-lived is going to save Potter from complete and utter public humiliation," Draco and Blaise both nodded, equally dark and devious looks on their faces at the thought of revenge. A hexing war wasn't unusual; In fact, the six of them had them quite often, especially when an argument, usually between Daphne and Draco, got out of hand. But what Potter and his cronies did was an attack, on pride more than anything else. And as insult to injury, Potter would probably make sure the whole school knew about it before the next morning.

Daphne cleared her throat. "As touching as all this is, you three can scheme about your revenge later, when we will, of course, help you. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I want food." She then turned on her heel and calmly walked into the great hall.

Hadrian had a disgusted sneer on his face, his mind racing. He had an idea on how Potter had known that his friends were coming down the corridor. It seemed that Callistus Potter did take after his brainless father after all, if he thought that he would not be getting any retribution for his actions. Callistus Potter was basically a piece of walking whale ready to be served on a shiny silver platter at a fancy muggle restaurant.

"Cretinism must run in the Potter blood," He snorted, before walking into the great hall and joining Daphne at the table.

'Snakeling, do you think…?' Sonoro hissed. She had been silent the entire time, bristling with anger while listening to Pansy, Draco and Blaise's recount. Hadrian was eternally grateful that she hadn't to speak during it, otherwise he would have been subjected to an earful of curse words in parseltongue from a very irate snake.

'Something he got from James Potter? Yep. Probably inherited it as an Early Potter Heirloom to help you at school'

'This, son, is being passed down to you from the marauders themselves. Use it for good and hex as many slimy snakes as you can for me. Especially try to hex Snivelly Snape' She mimicked James Potter's arrogant tone. Hadrian bit back a chuckle at how accurate it was, and took a seat next to Daphne, helping himself to some pumpkin juice.

Alright, I finally finished this chapter! I'm publishing this at like 12 AM, but I really wanted to finish it today. I'm sorry it took so long. I can't remember a good chunk of what I wrote in my previous chapters and there's probably major plot holes. But anyways, thanks for reading!