Harry was following Hagrid as he cautiously walked through the root-filled soil. It was hard not to trip in this place, especially in the dark, as it was.

Suddenly, a piercing screech tore through the air. He recognized that voice.

Ophelia!

Hagrid looked at Harry with shock on his face. The shadows cast by the lamp highlighted his hurry.

"We need to go after her!" Hagrid almost shouted. He turned to the direction the voice came from and hastily made his way through the twisted branches, tearing them away with a machete he took out of his clothes as he dashed forward.

Harry followed him in trepidation. Ophelia's screams hadn't stopped yet. They made his body freeze at the same time his blood boiled and screamed for retribution. Someone was hurting her, torturing her.

At first, Harry had been cautious of her, especially after Ron had told him about the Blacks. His prejudice slowly disappeared after Harry saw Julius scorn her in public at the Great Hall. She wasn't that different from himself, after all. She was also an orphan and had a family that despised her. She was brave as well, braver than him. Sometimes Harry asked himself if she wasn't more worthy of belonging in Griffindor than he was. After all, the hat wanted to put him on Slytherin for a reason, right?

The more he interacted with her, the more he noticed his Slytherin side. It flustered him at the same time it made him amazed by her.

As he followed Hagrid through the grove, they soon arrived at a clearing. Ophelia was resting on the ground. Her face was plastered with sweat and there was a red liquid flowing from her nostrils. Above her, a half-horse half-man stared at the distance. Baring his teeth at a retreating shadow. His bow was ready and pointing at the distance.

"Cursed abomination..." The thing muttered and lowered its bow.

Hagrid nodded at the...man? "Firenze, good to see you." He said and bent down to hold Ophelia. She was breathing unsteadily, twitching every second as if someone was pricking her with a needle.

"This is..." Hagrid muttered.

The other man scowled. "Curse of pain," he said, still staring at the distance. "It seems we found out who was killing the unicorns." He said and looked at the sky, searching for something up there. He frowned "And his foolishness might have cost him his life, after this"

Firenze stood there, gazing at the stars, and muttered as if reading them. "And as the dark lord awakens, the ruler shall rise again to his throne, in fury and madness."

Hagrid frowned in confusion but said nothing.

The centaur sighed and turned to Harry. "You must leave this forest, Harry Potter, this is no place for one such as you," he said as he put his bow on his back. Harry was surprised he knew who he was. Hagrid was holding Ophelia as he nodded gratefully at the centaur.

Harry stared at the centaur and asked, hoarsely. "What was that thing?"

The centaur turned to look at him and continued. "It is a terrible thing to kill a unicorn. Drinking its blood can prolong life but at the cost of a cursed existence..."

He approached Harry and lowered his face to look into his eyes. "Do you know what is hidden at your school at this very moment?" He said pointedly.

Harry widened his eyes in realization.

"A last piece of advice for you." The centaur said with a conflicted expression on his face. "Your worst enemy might be hiding as your greatest ally, and your greatest ally might be hiding as your worst enemy."

Harry frowned. The man nodded to himself one last time and rode away, leaving Harry puzzled. What was that about?

...

It was supposed to be an ordinary day.

Lelouch rose from his bed and got ready for breakfast. His mind on his latest studies on dark magic and his plans to relieve wizard lords from their riched through chess.

As he arrived at the Great Hall, he soon noticed the strange atmosphere of the Gryffindors. They were quiet that day and some of them were purposefully scowling at him. There was some new development he wasn't aware of. Kallen glanced at him, her expression was grim. Lelouch frowned as he went to his seat on Slytherin's and turned his eyes to inspect the other table. Harry was alone beside Neville. Ron and Ophelia were nowhere to be seen.

Lelouch frowned. The detention at the Dark Forest... Something happened there. Something serious. Lelouch clenched his hands but kept and impassive face.

He ate in trepidation. He had already planned on meeting Kallen before Lunch, she would be able to enlighten him. Daphne kept glancing at him during breakfast as if expecting a greater reaction from him, he just smiled serenely at her, if she was expecting him to blow up over this, she would be disappointed. Did she know what it was all about anyway?

As they finished their meal, Dumbledore rose from his seat to address the crowd. "Some of you might have already noticed that two students aren't here today," he said. "Yesterday, during detention inside the Dark Forest, Ophelia Black and Ron Weasley were attacked by a dark creature." Lelouch twitched. "They will recover in time. I want to use this chance to remember you all to keep away from the Forbidden Forest. It is forbidden for a reason. That is all."

Lelouch frowned. His information was lacking and very vague.

When they were returning to the Common Room, Daphne glanced at Lelouch once more and called for his attention. Lelouch lowered his head to hear her. Daphne whispered into his ears. "Pansy was at the infirmary at the time Hagrid arrived with Ophelia and Ron on his arms." She said. "She overheard that Ron was hit by a Cutting curse."

Lelouch frowned. A curse meant a wizard was behind it.

"As for you sister..." she said. "Cruciatus overexposure, they said. They don't know if she will ever wake up."

Lelouch stopped suddenly and the middle of the hallway. Daphne turned to look at him, with a slight smile on her face, probably glad to get a reaction out of him. Lelouch stared back at her, his expression still serene. Something was raging inside of him, though. He ignored it and smiled beatifically at her.

"And what of it?" he said. Daphne stared at him for some seconds, clicked her tongue and left for the Common Room in a hurry. Lelouch suddenly turned on the next hallway and left for the seventh floor, to the Room of Requirement.

...

Kallen hurried through the corridors of the castle. Her flying lessons with Ravenclaw had just ended.

Harry was extremely worried over his friends. As soon as he arrived at the infirmary he was driven off by Madam Poppy. All the other teachers had gathered there. They gave no explanations to Harry, just told him to come afterward. He is probably visiting them right now.

Kallen, on the other hand, had to check on Lelouch. The last time something like this happened, it expelled the end of The Black Knight's first rebellion.

She rushed through the seventh year corridor, did the ritual to open the door to the Room of Requirement and rushed inside.

She stopped and blinked at the scene in front of her.

There were broken bookcases spread through the room. Lelouch's table was split in the middle. His mannequins were broken and shattered, among pieces of many dummies that resembled Charles, Quirrell, and Dumbledore.

He was in the middle of it all, pacing in the middle of the room. His eyes were shining with a sickly purple light, vaguely resembling a geass. He noticed Kallen and raised his head to stare at her, snarling with barely restrained anger.

"Two paintings had seen Quirrell leaving the grounds of the castle just before Ophelia's detention," he explained, almost growling. "This is a provocation, towards me..." He froze and his expression suddenly shifted into despair and realization. "This is my fault..." he whispered and brushed his hair with his hands in a nervous gesture. His expression was shifting between rage and horror.

Kallen approached him hastily and slapped his face with force. He stared at her for some seconds and she scowled at him. "Get your shit together, Lelouch," she said.

Lelouch breathed in deeply and went for his table after recovering his calm exterior. Kallen sighed and smiled at him in relief. The Room reconstructed the table for him. He sat down on is chair and started drumming his fingers.

Cadogan was on a portrait by the wall, also wearing a grim expression.

"He returned to the school minutes after she was brought back here," he said and frowned. "He seemed satisfied about something." The knight continued.

Lelouch scowled. The chances that Quirrell had done it were very hight. Lelouch wouldn't take this lying down. He crossed his fingers and rested his chin on his hands. He had plans to make.

...

Lelouch spent the next days in a stupor. Quirrell was still the same during his classes, except for a strange glint of interest he had in his eyes when he glanced at Lelouch.

Ron recovered three days after the battle. His memories were hazy, but he remembered a hooded shadow and a spell being thrown at him. As for Ophelia, the school was holding its breath. No one was sure if she would wake up, or if she would still be the same after waking up. There were some harrowing examples of cruciatus' overexposure, after all, Neville's parents being just one of them.

Lelouch became even more vilified after the 'accident'. Somehow, he was taking the blame for that from the Gryffindors. Harry Potter especially seemed to despise him. Lelouch's silence about it all had become just another flag pointing at his guilt.

He already had the beginnings of a plan to deal with Quirrell, but five days after the incident, some new information arrived for him.

As he arrived at the Room of Requirement, he noticed there were already three people there. The Weasley twins were sitting on a table in the middle of his office, Kallen was there was well. Everyone had grim expressions.

Lelouch frowned and approached them. "I didn't expect you to come today." He said to the twins.

One of them made an uncharacteristic scowl. "Tom made it personal..." he said.

Tom? he had never had of this person before. His confusion must have appeared on his face because the twin took a piece of paper from his robes and showed him.

Lelouch opened it but it was blank. The Weasley approached him and touched the paper with the tip of his wand while chanting. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he said.

Suddenly, the blank note came to life, It was a map, and points were moving on it with names above them.

"The Marauder's map." He explained. "It is a map of Hogwarts that shows everyone currently inside it and their respective names."

That was impressive. If that was true, this map had unparalleled strategical value.

The twin sighed. "We weren't taking you suspicion of Quirrell seriously until our brother almost died for it. We decided to tail him, follow his trails, see if there as any truth to your caution towards him." Lelouch raised his eyebrows at him. So, they found something.

"When we closed on him with the map, we immediately noticed an incongruency," he said. "At the time, he was alone in the corridor, but the map was showing two names on the place he was standing on. There was his name, Quirinus Quirrell, and the name of another person, one Tom Marvolo Riddle."

The silence stretched.

The other twin concluded. "We believe he is possessed,"

They stood there in silence for some seconds before Lelouch raised the corner of his mouth in loathing and asked. "Who is this Tom Riddle?" He almost growled.

One of them shook his head and sighed. "We have no idea. The only thing we are certain of is that there is an award for him in the Trophy room."

Lelouch scowled. "Have you asked the teachers about it?"

He shrugged. "We are planning to tell Dumbledore about it. He might be able to do something."

Or he might already know...

Lelouch sighed. "What did Ron and Harry had to say about their encounter."

The twins stared at one another and shrugged with a derisive smile. "They seem to think that the one they faced in the forest was Voldemort himself." he snorted.

Lelouch narrowed his eyes and thought about it. The fact that Quirrell was searching for unicorn's blood indicated he is in death's door. It fitted with the hypothesis that he was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone.

What was most baffling in all this is still the fact that, under the assumption Quirrell isn't the real target of his trap, Dumbledore decided to create a complex trap to capture this Tom person, whom Lelouch had never heard off, exposing an entire school filled with children to danger and to the constant contact with such hazard.

That meant that Quirrell, Tom, or whatever wasn't ordinary in the least. But Quirrell was a well-known wizard with a known background. That meant the real danger had to be the shade possessing him.

Tom Marvolo Riddle. Lelouch clicked his tongue. He had asked the Room about anything it had on this person, but the search came empty. It was as if this person had never existed in Magical history.

But how could someone who had never existed worry Dumbledore so much? That was impossible. It meant he had to have operated with a pseudonym, like Lelouch himself did with Zero. A pseudonym only Dumbledore knew about.

He took a small notebook from his desk's drawer and wrote down two names. The first one was his own, Lelouch Vi Britannia. He made an arrow pointing down and wrote "Zero" in the respective space. Next to his name, he wrote 'Tom Marvolo Riddle', made another arrow and wrote down a question mark.

He drummed his fingers as he stared at the name. His eyes soon narrowed as he identified a pattern.

"I don't think it is a good idea to tell Dumbledore about it..." He said, slowly. His mouth quirked into a sly grin. Immediately he took a pen and started permutating Tom's name letters. Kallen and the twins stared at him in astonishment while he worked on it, an amused smile blossomed on his face. When he finished, he chuckled and turned his notes for them to see.

"I am quite sure Dumbledore is well aware of it already," Lelouch smirked. "After all, Tom is just another name of an old friend of his"