– – – – – Rebirth Chapter 03 – – – – –

Once again, Tom and Heri easily completed their finals with top marks. Unfortunately with the end of term finals, came the end of term, and a return to muggle London.

When they returned to St. Ada's Children's Mission, they were greeted with a sight that horrified the both of them. Father Lucas was back. The man had gone on a mission out of country for several years, and both Tom and Heri had hoped the man would never come back. But here he was.

The two tried to stay under everyone radar, and succeeded for several days. They would escape into London and spend as much time as they could manage at the public magic library off Diagon Alley. But one week after their summer holidays began, the inevitable happened.

Tom tried to always stay by Heri's side. Separating them made them weaker. Together they were stronger. But today, for some reason, the two were not together. Tom was making his way through the large, gray, stone building, looking for Heri so that the two of them could leave and head into London, but he was nowhere to be found.

He was walking down a deserted hallway when he heard muffled whimpering coming from behind one of the doors. He turned and instantly knew which door it was. Father Lucas' door. And that only meant one thing. One of the unfortunate boys of the orphanage was currently enduring the man's perverse desires.

Tom quickly turned to leave, intent on getting far away as possible before he drew undesired attention to himself when a louder yelp caught his ear.

Tom felt the blood in his veins turn to ice. It was Heri.

He spun around, threw the door open, and ran inside. There he saw Heri being pressed against the wall with his pants down around his ankles, Father Lucas' knee pressed firmly between his legs and Heri's hands wrists held tightly by one of the large, filthy man's sweaty hands. Tears were streaming down his face while the man's other hand was planted firmly over his mouth.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU FILTHY MUGGLE BASTARD!"Tom bellowed as his hand flew up and a burst of wandless magic sent the man flying across the room and smashing against the wall.

–

While Tom had saved Heri that day, his actions only brought about a mountain of problems that followed them through the rest of the summer.

First Tom received a letter from the Ministry of Magic informing him that they had detected use of magic in the presence of a muggle. It was only a warning, but if he got a total of three warnings, he could be facing expulsion from Hogwarts, and if any muggles were ever badly hurt by him, he could be facing legal prosecution.

But that was only the start of the trouble. The week following Tom's attack on Father Lucas, he was taken, forcibly, out of his and Heri's room, in the dead of night by a group of clergymen and some of the older boys from the orphanage. Several more stayed behind to restrain Heri.

Heri learned later that they had taken Tom to perform an exorcism on him. The boy refused to tell Heri any of what was done to him, but Heri could tell that Tom was both furious and shaken by the experience.

Heri knew that Tom was also ashamed by the whole experience. Being unable to use his magic to fight back made him feel weak and helpless and that was a feeling that utterly infuriated Tom. While at Hogwarts they were both so powerful and quickly gaining a tremendous amount of respect. But once back in the muggle world, they were just weak, helpless boys again. Now even more unable to defend themselves than before thanks to the Ministry's increased security wards.

After the incident with Father Lucas, Tom refused to allow Heri to go anywhere without him. Outwardly, Heri acted as if he were annoyed by the whole thing, but he had to admit that he felt a lot safer knowing Tom was there with him. He too had been shaken by his encounter with the priest and what had almost happened.

The two made it a point to spend as little time near the orphanage as humanly possible, and it was with great relief that they traveled to King's Cross station on the morning of September 1st.

–

Their third year at Hogwarts was productive in many ways, and also frustrating in others. They had begun attending what was called the 'Slug Club'. It was a gathering of students who were seen as having the potential to be powerful or influential in the future, by the Slytherin Head of House, Horace Slughorn. It wasn't solely made up of Slytherins though – but rather anyone and everyone who was seen as having vast potential.

Heri and Tom being invited was both surprising and not. Being orphans, they had no familial connections to power or prestige, but that made the accomplishment of getting the invitation to attend, that much more valuable. It showed that they had both garnered Slughorn's attention entirely on their own merits.

Tom's power and influence in Slytherin house continued to grow, and Heri was seen as his right-hand man and received almost as much respect by association. They continued to excel in their classes, and were evening matched with the sixth years in Merrythought's Dueling Club.

This was also the year that Tom first managed to start conning the teachers into giving him access to the restriction section of the library – which had been a highly fruitful endeavor.

One endeavor that continued to fail to produce results, however, was the search for the Chamber of Secrets. They continued to comb the school in search of anything that could lead them to the secret Slytherin chamber, but turned up nothing. They had found the secret entrance to the kitchens, knew where the entrances were to the other three house common rooms, had found a secret passage way behind a mirror on the second floor that seemed to lead into Hogsmeade village. But no signs of the Chamber of Secrets.

They stayed over the Yule holidays and used the three weeks where the castle was nearly deserted to continue their search. Tom and Heri also used it to raid the restricted section of the library.

They had managed to get a signed permission slip from Professor Merrythought for an extracurricular project they had volunteered to do over their holiday. They actually had their 'project' done the first week, but continued to spend their days in the library, using it as an excuse.

Second term continued on much like the first. Professor Slughorn continued to invite the pair of them to Slug Club dinners, Tom continued to grow his base of respect and awe among the Slytherins, as well as spend a great deal of time delving into the Dark Art's books he found in the restricted section. And Heri was there by his side at all times.

Once again, as finals drew near, Tom tried to convince his professors to allow him and Heri to remain in the castle over the holidays. However it seemed that Dumbledore was even more suspicious of him now. It seemed he suspected something about Tom's and Heri's frequent explorations into the restricted section of the library, and thought they'd simply use the unsupervised nature of the summer to take further advantage of it. So he was once again, turned down.

That summer was one of the worst ever. Some of the older boys who had taunted them in their youth had grown quite large, and very violent during their months away from London. Tom and Heri both found themselves on the receiving end of their fists and kicks. At one point, Tom was so badly injured that Heri had apparated them to St. Mungo's out of desperation. The act had earned Heri a warning of his own, both for performing under aged magic, but also for apparating without a license.

Tom had yelled at Heri afterwards – telling him he was a fool for getting such a warning on his record and risking expulsion, but Heri had only yelled back, telling Tom that he'd do it all over again, the consequences be damned. He would never stand by and watch Tom dying.

It seemed to take a bit for it to sink in, but Tom had, in fact, almost died. And once it really did occur to him just how close he had come to death, he seemed to become consumed by a powerful and almost irrational fear of death.

Tom was such an ambitious person. He had so many things he wanted to do. Things he wanted to learn. Things that he couldn't do if he died young.

The two managed to get an invitation to visit the Black family house in London thanks to Lucretia. While there they were introduced to her younger brother Orion who would be starting Hogwarts that September. After dealing with the pleasantries that were mandated by polite pureblood society, Tom and Heri were finally free to explore the Black Family Library.

Lucretia hung on Heri's every world, and it was clear to Tom that she was developing a crush on the smaller, delicate, teen, and yet Heri himself seemed utterly oblivious. Tom wasn't sure how he felt about Lucretia paying his friend so much attention. On one hand, it had gained them access to the Black Family's collection of Dark Arts books and a temporary escape from the orphanage during the summer. On the other hand, whenever she would hang onto Heri, or place her hand on his arm, or his shoulder, a small, angry demon seemed to emerge from Tom's chest and all he could think about was how badly he wanted to make her hurt for daring to touch what was his.

Lucretia and Orion's mother, Melania, seemed a bit smitten by Tom's charms, and this turned out to be a tremendously beneficial occurrence. While looking through the library, Tom and Heri came across several books that they were practically drooling over – if they were tactless enough to do such a thing... which of course, they weren't. But just the same, they desperately wanted them. Removing them from the family library, however, did not seem to be an option.

It was at that point that Melania had offered to make copies of the books for them. Tom had played the part of the polite, impressed, and disparately appreciative young man, and spent the time asking polite and intelligent questions about the process involved in copying a book. It wasn't at all a simple spell, and the fact that Melania was able to perform it so fast and with such perfect results, just showed that she was truly a powerful witch.

In the end, the pair spent four days in Black Manor before September 1st arrived and the four of them took the floo to King's Cross and onto Platform 9 ¾.

Heri found Orion to be interesting enough. He was a bit eager for a Slytherin, but Heri couldn't blame him for being excited, seeing as how this was his first year attending Hogwarts.

While on the train, they met up with Cygnus, Orion and Lucretia's cousin, and the younger brought of Walburga. Walburga was made prefect that year, so she merely deposited her younger brother in their compartment and left with her nose in the air. Tom did not wish to be rude to the family that had taken him and Heri in for the last week of their holiday, and who had given them free copies of several incredibly rare and fascinating books on a wide range of subjects, but he really had no desire to spend the train ride with a couple of first years. He and Heri managed to excuse themselves as politely as possible, and went to find the compartment that had their year mates, Walter Gibbon, Aldous Baddock, Casper Crouch, Duella Rosier, Astraea Malfoy, and Chthonia Carrow.

Tom's appearance drew all of their attention directly to him. Their eyes were filled with awe and respect and Heri could feel the smug elation pouring off of his friend and smirked at him. He had come a long way from being the 'mudblood of Slytherin'. Heri also knew that this was exactly what Tom needed, after two months of subjugation under the filthy orphanage muggle's fists.

The train ride passed quickly enough and the group of forth years took the carriages up to the castle. The first years were sorted, and as expected, both Orion and Cygnus were sorted into Slytherin house. The feast was filled with conversations about summers spent traveling abroad, or spent with private tutors hired by their parents. Tom and Heri remained silent during most of this. There were a few who asked them questions about any news on the muggle war. Being secreted away in the magical world beneath mountains of ancient wards, very few of them had any exposure at all to what was going on in the muggle world and their war.

The previous December had marked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, so the Americans were now deeply embroiled in the war along with the rest of Europe. There had been air raids from the Germans in Britain for months, and they had targeted London quite a number of times. Nothing had gotten close enough to the orphanage for Heri or Tom to be directly impacted, but the uneasy air that had surrounded the city has still managed to effect them.

Tom dodged most of the questions, insisting that the muggle's problems were no concern of his, and he would gladly sit back and watch them all destroy themselves with their bombs and their planes.

September first had fallen on a Friday that year, so they had Saturday and Sunday to rest and prepare before classes on the 4th. Heri and Tom took advantage of that time to sequester themselves away with the books they'd gotten from Black manor. The one that Heri would come to treasure the most was a Necromancer's Grimoire. The book would end up consuming a vast amount of time for Heri during the next year and beyond.

One of the books that Tom had gotten was the first book that he had ever encountered the term, Horcrux. It was a book on soul magic, that only discussed the theory behind the Horcrux, but it was more than enough to spark a powerful interest in Tom. His close call with death over the summer had brought him face to face with his own mortality, and the more he thought about it, the more determined he became to utterly defy death.

Again, another year began to pass by with surprising speed. The pair continued to search for the Chamber of secrets, and continued to not finding it. They did, however, find something else incredible.

It wasn't even during one of their searches of the school when the discovery was made. Heri was alone, wandering the castle late in the evening past curfew. He had his grimoire with him since he had been cross-referencing something in it with a book in the restricted section of the library – again, somewhere he wasn't actually supposed to have been, and didn't have permission to be in. He had heard a noise outside the library and had disillusioned himself just in time to slip past the caretaker and begin to race down the halls to escape. He had, however, rounded a corner just in time to see one of the Professor's turning into that corridor from the far end. He had instantly doubled back and ended up racing up the stairs in his attempt to avoid detection.

All the way up to the seventh floor, he had run. Encountering Peeves, another professor, and the caretaker again, all in his travels.

Heri knew that he'd be in trouble if he was caught, but that he would be in even bigger trouble if he was caught with that book in his possession. Necromancy was strictly forbidden by the British ministry, and even owning such a book could get him into a world of trouble. He was finally getting so desperate that all he wanted was to find a place to hide the blasted book, so he could retrieve it later when there were fewer people patrolling the halls, when a door suddenly appeared on a stretch of blank wall that he'd doubled back in front of in his attempts to avoid detection.

Heri gaped at the door that hadn't been there for a few seconds, stunned by its sudden materialization out of nowhere, when he heard footsteps from down the hall behind him. He quickly pulled the door open and stepped inside. Little did he know, as soon as he'd stepped inside, the door on the outside vanished, completely hiding him inside.

–

"It was filled with junk!" Heri whispered excitedly. "And books! So many books! All sorts of questionable, and banned books! You've got to see it!"

"And it was in the seventh floor corridor opposite the tapestry of Barnaby the Barmy?" Tom asked.

"Yes!"

"We searched there. There was nothing there."

"I think the trick is that you have to walk back and forth in front of it needing something. I needed a place to hide my book and suddenly there's this room filled with things that other students obviously wanted to hide as well. I mean, it wasn't just books that could have gotten them in trouble, there were tons of broken things, and even an axe with dried blood on it! Loads of the objects in there looked incriminating. I bet I'm not the first person who wanted to hide something who stumbled across it."

"We'll definitely have to check it out..." Tom mused thoughtfully. It made him wonder what other things they may have missed in their searches just because they didn't walk past something more than once, or speak the right words, or mentally think the right thing while they were there. It was utterly frustrating to think that he could have gone right past the Chamber's entrance already and just missed it because he didn't do the right silly trick.

But no... he was sure that there would be some sort of sign. Something that only one of Slytherin's descendants would be able to see, or identify, or activate. He just had to keep trying.

–

"You're always reading that book..." Tom griped quietly as the two of them sat on their respective beds that were placed directly next to each other in the Slytherin dorm room. They were the only ones there – the other's opting to attend the Gryffindor – Slytherin Quidditch match that was currently being played.

"It's fascinating," Heri said in a muffled voice, as his face remained buried in the book.

"No doubt. But there are other books as well."

Heri looked up and rolled his eyes. "I know that. However this book is more interesting right now. There's just so many... concepts I'd never considered. The way it describes the spirit plane, and the course that souls take, and rebirth... it's just fascinating."

Tom snorted. "Rebirth. Ridiculous."

"What do you mean?"

"Sounds like nothing but speculation and religious nonsense to me."

"It's nothing like that. And it's not speculation. Necromancers are able to transport their consciousness to the spirit plane. They can commune with the dead, and have been speaking with them for thousands of years. There are volumes of documented studies conducted by Necromancers in their surveys of the spirit realm and the experiences of the souls that exist there.

"The truly powerful of them can actually call the soul of a dead person back into the physical plane and if they're powerful enough, they can even reattach that soul to a living body! Although it's rarely effective in the long term, and it's seen as a defiance against nature to attempt such an extreme act with the intention of maintaining it since it upsets the balance and goes against the natural flow of life, death, and rebirth; but for brief returns, it's possible. They've made a study of learning all the aspects of the spirit plane, the journey the soul takes upon death, and the process of being reborn; how long it usually takes before a soul is considered cleansed and allowed to return to the physical plane... It's a powerful art that's been in practice among Necromancers for thousands of years. The reason most people don't know about it is because they hold their secrets tight. Only those studying the necromantic arts under a necromancer master are supposed to ever gain access to a grimoire like this. I wonder how this thing ended up in the Black library..."

"Perhaps one of the Black's ancestors was a necromancer." Tom suggested.

Heri nodded his head slowly. "That's the best I can figure as well. He probably died unexpectedly though because a Necromancer is supposed to guarantee that his grimoires end up in the hands of another necromancer, or that they're destroyed."

"That's the book that Mrs. Black couldn't copy, right?" Tom asked after a silent moment of contemplation.

"That's right. I'm still shocked she let me keep it."

"You did notice the look on her face when she saw you reading it, didn't you?" Tom asked, narrowing his eyes.

Heri looked up and blinked in confusion. "What look? I didn't see any look..."

"When she saw you flipping through that book she looked shocked," Tom mused slowly. "I got the distinct impression that she didn't expect any of us to be able to even open it, let alone read it."

Heri's brow furrowed and he looked down at the book for a moment. He closed it, set it down on the floor in front of him and looked across at Tom. "Okay, you pick it up and open it."

Tom rose a single brow as if he had just been given a challenge and stood up from where he had been sitting on his own bed. One stride was all that was necessary to come standing beside the book. He bent over and picked it up. He began to pull the cover open, but was instantly met with resistance. He narrowed his eyes, focused on a buildup of his powerful dark magic and tried harder. Finally he managed to pull the book open, but suddenly came up short as he discovered the pages blank.

"It's blank." he said flatly.

"What?" Heri gasped as he stood up and darted over to Tom's side.

He looked over Tom's shoulder and frowned at the book as he took it from Tom's hand. He closed the book, and reopened it without any trouble. Suddenly all of the pages were once again filled with text and drawings.

"Well, that's curious," Tom mused.

"What do you think it means?" Heri asked, still frowning in confusion at the book.

"Well, don't they say skill in Necromancy goes through families? Perhaps, in order to read from that book, you have to have descended from a necromancer."

"Or maybe, in a past life, I was a necromancer!" Heri exclaimed.

Tom gave him a flat look for a moment before rolling his eyes. "Sure. In a past life. Personally, I think it's more likely that one of your parents or grandparents was a necromancer."

"You just don't have any faith in the afterlife."

"As far as I'm concerned, there's no legitimate evidence that we don't just blink out the moment we die."

"Well, if I can become a necromancer, then I'll be able to provide you with proof." Heri said, tilting his head up indignantly.

"No, that's the problem. Necromancers cannot prove anything that they have supposedly 'discovered' in their journeys into the other plane. They can just tell people what they experienced and we have to take their word for it. I don't work that way."

Heri huffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Then why don't you try to become one too and then we can explore the spirit plane together. If you see it for yourself, then you'll be convinced."

"Well, if that blank book was anything to go by, I may not have the correct biological or magical affinity for it." Tom said, sneering disdainfully at the book.

Heri scoffed. "As if that would stop you from mastering it anyway."

Tom looked up at him and smirked. "You do know me, so well."

–

The remainder of their fourth year passed in a whirlwind. The two paid frequent visits to the Room of Hidden Things, as they had dubbed the mysterious magical room that Heri had stumbled across that year.

They had both come to the conclusion that it was an utter treasure trove for them. People had lost, or hidden a great many things in the school, and a fair amount of those things were valuable.

Of course, the illicit books were a severe boon to them. There were so many books on every imagining dark subject, hidden away in there – no doubt from students who didn't want to get caught with them, much like Heri's own reason for having discovered the room. The difference was that the owners of those books had apparently never figured out how to get back into the room to retrieve their things later.

One day while in there, Heri had discovered someone's old school trunk, still completely full. From the homework lodged inside the book bag, they determined that it was about 15 years old. It was filled with clothes of a high quality, and had belonged to a Slytherin. The robes even fit Tom perfectly, while being a bit long and a tad loose on Heri. They had divided them up between the two of them, so that they could have some fine-looking clothes for once. Tom was the one who suggested that the room of hidden things probably had some sort of charm on it that preserved everything within it, exactly as it had been when placed there, since they discovered nothing in the room that was molding or disintegrating, despite the presence of some cauldrons still filled with failed potions, and even a few boxes of chocolates.

Harry had almost eaten a couple cauldron cakes before Tom stopped him, waved his wand over them, and with wide eyes, instantly banished them. Heri had looked at him questioningly until Tom replied that they had had Amortentia in them – the world's most powerful love potion.

Heri had swallowed thickly at that, and vowed not to ingest anything found in the room. Even with the preservation spells, there was no telling what would have happened if he had ingested expired love potion.

In addition to keeping all of the fine robes, and a complete set of 5th and 6th year textbooks from the abandoned trunk, they also kept the trunk itself. The student who had owned it was undoubtedly from a wealthy family that spared no expense in regards to their son. The trunk had several compartments. The first compartment looked normal, but had a false bottom with an expansion charm. Pull the bottom up and out and suddenly you're looking down into a space twice the size of the trunk. The second and third compartments were normal sized, and appeared depending on how many times you turned the key before opening it. Close the lid, turn the key twice, open the lid, and you've got the 2nd compartment. Close the lid, turn the key three times, open the lid, and you've got the 3rd compartment. It was undeniably handy.

Heri allowed Tom to claim it, since they shared everything anyway, and he knew Tom would appreciate having a fine, expensive-looking trunk more than he would. Heri cared less about appearances than Tom did, plus Tom also had an image to uphold with the other Slytherins, as the heir of their house's founder.

In all, their trips to the Room of Hidden Things was very fruitful for the two magical orphans. Tom had filled the expanded hidden bottom of the trunk with anything and everything that appeared valuable, with the intent of pawning most of it off that summer for additional spending money. And their book collection had grown considerably.

–