Lily had actually begun to enjoy herself. It was a little fun lying to people without guilt, and learning new things, and meeting new people. Yes, her schedule was far too regimented for her taste, even before classes started, and she preferred her dad's teaching to any of the professors (though perhaps she was biased). But the days leading up to the opening feast had gone by fast. She could tell that T'Chone was enjoying their mission far less, despite her best efforts to put him at ease- mostly through teasing. She wished she could sit with him. Even though they'd known each other for only about a month, she'd grown so used to his presence. It didn't feel quite right without him there.
Still, it was fun watching the first years get sorted, and she'd dug into the feast with enthusiasm. At a certain point, she'd noticed several of the professors missing, and was assured that things were going according to plan. She'd just need to slip through the crowds in the after dinner rush, and…
"Lisa, Lisa!" Lily turned, her mood dipping at the familiar voice.
"Septimius!" She turned, smiling at her 'uncle'. God that was weird to think about.
"You're trying to get to the dungeons right?" He trotted up to her.
"Er, yeah. I got a little turned around, no big deal!" She tried to wave him off. "I'm sure I can figure it out."
"Oh, everyone gets lost on their first week." Septimius assured her. "I'll show you back."
"You don't need to do that." She tried. "I don't want to put you off."
"It's no problem, really. It'll just be a few minutes."
Lily suppressed a sigh, resigning herself to following him, at least until she convinced him she could make it the rest of the way. He was just trying to help, but she'd be lying if she'd said she wasn't frustrated with him. She masked it with cheer. "So, how was your week?"
"It was alright, it's nice to be back at school." Septimius said, which was code for 'not good'.
"Yeah, it's great here. Your tips really helped us."
He led her down a flight of stairs, then another. "Okay, we're almost there- oh, hello father." Lily hated the overly formal tone that Septimius took with his father, though not nearly as much as she despised the man himself. Most of all, she hated that he was here, now, looking down at her over his hooked nose. "Lisa got lost, I was just showing her back to her dorms."
"I see." Snape said. "How conscientious of you. Five points to Ravenclaw."
Septimius nodded gratefully. "Thank you, father." It was the closest Lily had seen the professor be anything close to caring.
"Now then, I'll make sure that Ms. Rushman returns to her dorms. You should return-" At that moment, Riddle burst through the door that Lily had just come from.
"Severus. We may have a situation."
"So I've heard." Snape said dryly. "Be sure not to lose your way again, Ms. Rushman." He said in clear dismissal.
Riddle, it seemed, hadn't even noticed her presence. He looked at her, judging, evaluating. "I got turned around after the feast. Luckily Septimius found me."
"Lucky indeed." Riddle murmured. "Severus, you should go check on your project, and bring help. I think Lisa and I need to have a little chat."
Snape arched a skeptical eyebrow at Riddle, but did not argue. Septimius on the other hand… "She got lost, it happens to first years all the time!"
"Be assured, Mr. Snape, that your friend isn't in any trouble." If Lisa hadn't known better, she would have believed him. Septimius, though, let out a relieved sigh. "Now, you should return to your dorms. We don't need any more students out where they shouldn't be. Isn't that right, Lisa?"
"Of course!" She nodded, even as the bile burned in her throat. Why was he here? Did he suspect her? Did he know? He led her past the Slytherin Common rooms, to his office. She wanted to puke.
"I believe, Ms. Rushman, that someone may be trying to break into Hogwarts." Riddle told her.
"How would someone even do that?" She asked, trying to control the tremble in her voice.
"It'd be nearly impossible, but, I can't help but wonder…" She felt a presence probe her mind. Tensing, she threw up memories from the feast and from her last lesson with him, but he batted them aside. Snape hadn't been taking her seriously when he'd examined her mind, but Riddle was. He struck deep and true, and despite Lily's best efforts to hunker down, he snagged a fragment of a memory, just an image- the last time she saw her dad. It made sense that he was on her mind. She wished he was here right now, more than anything. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and Riddle smirked.
"I see." Riddle said, his voice deathly calm. "Potter sent you to infiltrate the castle. Clever of him. Ruthless, but clever." He trailed his wand along her forehead, pushing back a strand of her hair. "If you want to live, you will tell me what his plan is."
Just like that, terror turned to resolve. She would never betray her family. If she died, she'd make sure her dad and T'Chone got out. "Please don't kill me." She begged, as she cast her mind for a plan- a lie.
"Then you'll tell me what I want to know." Riddle said, his voice icy. "Speak, or I will rip it out of your mind myself."
"We were supposed to make a diversion." She burst out. "Me and Tevin, we were going to make a scene after the feast. But he lost his nerve!" It wasn't a very believable lie, and Riddle wasn't buying it.
"You're lying." He hissed. "You think you can deceive me, girl?"
"Didn't I, though?" She managed. God she wished her dad were here. She wondered if he'd be proud of her. She hoped he didn't hurt himself too badly over this. She wished she could see him one last time, tell him it was okay, that she loved him.
"I suppose you did, Ms. Rushman. You really are a fine Slytherin, it's a shame that you fell into Potter's lot." Riddle mused, as behind him a door appeared.
"It's Potter." Lily said, hoping to distract him.
"What?"
"My name." She boldly met his eyes. "Is Lily Potter. And I'm not afraid of you."
Her dad burst through the door. "Avada Kedavra." He'd told her the importance of that spell, what it meant for him to use that spell. Riddle wheeled around in shock, flipping his desk in the curse's path just in time. Lily felt her arm sting as wood splintered the room, but she was already running. Her dad was going on an all out offensive, giving her time to escape. He followed up the curse with a bolt of lightning. It collided with a transparent shield, leaving the heavy taste of ozone in the air. Riddle transformed the wooden splinters around him into snakes, and sent them after her dad. He lobbed a series of blasting curses back at Riddle, negligently decapitating the snakes with his off hand. One of the snakes made a bid to bite her heels, but Lily stunned it. She was at the door now, and Riddle spared her a glance, but her dad launched another fierce barrage.
She bounded into the hall, breaking into a sprint. When she was at the stairs, she plowed into Septimius. "Ow! Lisa?" He squawked. "What's going on? I heard explosions!"
"Run!" She shouted, breathless, not even pausing. After a moment of shock, he followed.
-----
Harry ducked as the killing curse seared through the air where his head had just been. The curse blasted apart the wall behind Harry, but he was already moving. Riddle had been able to shield himself from his direct attacks, so he needed to be cleverer. Just as he had with Hela, Harry tried transfiguring the air around Riddle into steel. He certainly hadn't been expecting it, and within Hogwarts he wouldn't be able to simply apparate out from the trap.
Harry's hopes that the ploy would buy him time were dashed as the metal surrounding riddle began to flutter, parting into thousands of individual bodies. They lifted off- a thousand hornets swarming in the air. They intercepted a concussive blast that Harry had sent to take advantage of Riddle's confinement, and most were torn into mangled scraps, but a few had taken a wider arc and were now diving at him. Harry was forced to vanish them while Riddle retook the initiative.
Thankfully, that 'just' meant more killing curses. Good ol' Tom, always obsessed with the killing curse. While obviously lethal and creating a lot of collateral damage even when they missed, the spell was predictable, and Harry knew how to handle it. In the corner of his glasses, he saw a notification, a link established via protean charm and Wakandan technology. Dumbledore en route.
Well shit. He needed an escape plan. One that didn't result in Riddle running straight down to Neville, Ron, and Ginny's rescue attempt. It would be best if he could find a way to keep both Riddle and Dumbledore occupied, but how?
The curse blasted the wall behind him again, this time tearing a path into the hallway. Eager for a more open battlefield, Harry leapt back. He sent a hail of simple stunners at Riddle, a cover for his real attack, a piece of rubble he launched at him from the other direction, it made a crack like a gunshot as it rocketed towards him, and it tore through Riddle's unprepared shield, puncturing his shoulder.
Riddle hissed as blood stained his cloak. Wizards were durable, Harry knew from personal experience, and it would take more than a single wound to bring either of them down. Still, it was a start. Harry launched a brilliant bolt of energy at Riddle, hoping to capitalize on his success. But Riddle reacted quickly, flicking his wand and causing the spell to detonate prematurely. It exploded so brightly that Harry was forced to squint. Blindly, he sent out a series of blasting and cutting curses.
When the light faded, Riddle stood unscathed by Harry's assault. But something seemed off, he stood unnaturally still. "I'm surprised." He said. "At how ruthless you've become. Sending your own flesh in blood in here to die, you've grown more like me."
Harry wasn't going to rise to the bait. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a ripple, the telltale sign of a disillusionment charm. He whirled on his feet and almost reflexively, sent an overcharged concussive blast. The disillusionment charm dropped as Riddle put up a shield, but when the spell hit, the image vanished.
Too late, he saw a flash of green. It hit his chest, and Harry fell to the ground, limp. Fuck, Loki was never going to let him live this down. Riddle hadn't actually moved at all, he'd just created an projection as a diversion, and it had worked almost perfectly for him. He silently thanked Shuri for the vibranium armor beneath his robes. The curse had impacted hard, and he was sure that he'd be sporting an ugly bruise tomorrow, but he wasn't dead.
Riddle, ever suspicious, cautiously approached him. When his foot came in range, Harry unsheathed a vibranium blade that was slotted at his wrist, striking Riddle's ankle. His robes were enchanted, but the vibranium cut through them regardless. He grunted in pain as Harry drew blood, sending a killing curse down at him before he could dig the knife in. Harry rolled, putting up as strong a shield as he could muster. The explosion blew both of them back. Riddle collided with a wall, while Harry tumbled further down the corridor, towards the stairwell. As he recovered, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He made a wager.
"We're nothing alike." He said loudly. "What are your plans with my friends? Or the resurrection stone?"
"Oh, you're right, of course." Riddle rasped. He was rising too, and despite the wounds Harry had inflicted on him, he seemed in better shape from being further from the explosion. "You may be ruthless, but you'll never have my vision. I'll do things with that stone that you've never dreamed of. To say nothing of that fool Dumbledore."
"Fascinating, Tom." Dumbledore spat. Nearly every piece of rubble in the corridor rose into the air, morphing into sharpened blades. Only a few of them pointed at Harry. Dumbledore stared Riddle down, his eyes burning with rage and betrayal. "Why don't you enlighten me?"
-----
"Take us to Hermione and Luna." Neville said to the room. Nothing happened.
"Bugger." Ron muttered.
"Take us as close as possible to Hermione and Luna." Ginny tried. This time, a door dutifully appeared. She glanced at Neville. "See anything?"
"Coast is clear." He said, pushing through the door. "Ron… is this corridor familiar to you?"
"No way." Ron breathed.
"What are you two on about?"
"I never even thought about it, but yeah, it's been closed off for as long as I can remember." Neville said.
"We're in the third-floor corridor." Ron told Ginny. "You know… Fluffy?"
"Where else would Dumbledore hide something at Hogwarts?" Neville rolled his uninjured eye, while his enchanted one scanned their surroundings.
"Ron, if we have to fight a three-headed-dog, I'll defer to your expertise." Ginny demurred.
"Oh, that'd be easy. Just play a flute and he'll go to sleep." Ron said. "We good to go?"
"This corridor's warded to hell and back." Neville said, scanning with his wand. "But it looks like we've slipped past the worst of them. If you touch that door-" He gestured to one end of the hall, to the door that opened up into the Charms Corridor. "-you'll trigger at least five enchantments."
"Let's not." Ron said, as they ventured deeper. At the very end of the corridor, they came up on a door, and Neville held out a hand.
He furrowed his eyebrow. "Its… locked but that's all." He said finally.
Ron chuckled. "So, alohamora would do the trick? Déjà vu."
Neville unlocked the door and pressed in. Instead of a trapdoor, they found an elevator. "Well, that's convenient." Ginny said.
"I don't like it." Neville said.
"Is it warded?"
"Well, no." He admitted. "But it'll be very hard for us to get back out." That may be true, but none of them were willing to turn back now. Their friends were down there.
"One problem at a time." Ron said. "And the longer we take, the more likely it is that we'll get caught." They filed in, and the elevator began descending automatically.
"The defenses are a little thin, aren't they?" Ginny asked,
"Well yeah, but then again, so were the defenses to the Philosopher's Stone back in our old timeline." Ron said. "Three first-years were able to get through them. I think he was mostly counting on Hogwarts being impenetrable."
"And trusting people too much." Neville muttered. "He'd never suspect any of his teachers of betraying him."
Ding. The doors opened into what could best be described as a sitting room. A man lounged in an armchair and looked up from his book casually. "Sir, I wasn't- Hey! Who are-" Ginny took him out before he could reach for his wand- a slashing spell to the neck.
"Let's go." She said shortly, trying to keep her anticipation in check. They scoured the halls, finding offices, a library, a potions laboratory, and even a bathroom. Neville, predictably, found it first- a stairwell leading deeper down. They each nodded grimly and headed down without saying a word.
It was a dungeon. Ginny swallowed, feeling something churn in her stomach at the thought of Luna and Hermione being kept in such a place. The cells looked comfortable- with beds, tables, desks, and even what appeared to be private bathrooms- but they were still cells. The first few rows were empty, but then-
"Luna!" Ginny gasped. "Oh, Luna!" She whipped her wand, slicing through the bars without a thought.
"Ginny?" Luna blinked in shock, sitting up from bed. She looked older now, of course, and paler. Her eyes were dimmed, and Ginny hated it. She slid to the foot of the bed, taking Luna into her arms. "How are you here?"
"I missed you so much." She whispered fiercely, holding her close as Luna cautiously reciprocated the hug. She was trembling. "We're going to take you home." In an adjacent cell, she heard Ron cry out Hermione's name. Ginny took a breath and pulled back. She needed to keep it together, every second they wasted was a chance they got caught.
"Is there anything we should know?" Neville asked. "Sorry, but we're on a timer. Dumbledore's coming back. No word from Harry."
"I can't tell you some things." Luna said quietly. "They-" The words halted in her throat.
"They've got something on you." Neville concluded. "Something controlling you."
Luna didn't deny his words, which was confirmation enough. "Fuck." Ginny hissed.
"There are only so many methods to magically control a person." Hermione said, in an analytical tone that was so familiar. "I can tell you that we are not under the imperious. We have not taken a potion that would allow people to control us." Hermione was still Hermione, but she too was worse for wear… worn down. There was something else odd, both of them were nearly completely cloaked in robes, like they were hiding.
"Is it from an artifact?" Neville asked.
"No."
"Was it any sort of spell cast directly on you?"
"No." Hermione's lip curled in amusement. They really were just going to play a game of twenty questions, weren't they?
Ron snapped his fingers. "Oh, what about when Harry was forced to compete in the Triwizard? The Goblet of Fire-"
"-put him under a magical contract." Ginny finished seamlessly. "Is that it? Are you under a contract?"
"I… cannot say." Hermione smiled.
Ron barged back up the stairs, the rest of them trailing in tow. "I'm going to burn this place to the ground."
"Magical contracts can't be negated through mundane means." Hermione said. "You'd need complete magical destruction."
"Got any basilisk fangs?" Ron grunted, shoving his way into the first office he found.
"If I were a contract, I wouldn't be in there." Luna said. Ginny ventured towards a library but was run off by Hermione's arch look.
Neither witch objected when Neville tried a room. "Looks like this is Lily's office. How involved is she with this?"
"Can't say!" Luna chimed. Harry was going to be devastated and-
"Wait." Ginny said flatly. "Luna, what's that?"
"What's what?" Luna asked in genuine confusion.
"On your hand." Ginny grabbed it, fingers running over the black tattoo engraved on her palm. She rolled Luna's sleeve up, finding more tattoos. "What did they do to you!"
"Can't say." Luna said in a small voice.
Hermione looked down at her feet, rolling up her own sleeve. "We were here for a reason." While Luna's marks looked like runes, Hermione's were an indecipherable network of lines and nodes.
Neville looked through the drawers of Lily Snape's desk, finding a thick pile of papers. "Sod it." He muttered, drawing a flask and uncorking it.
"What is that?" Hermione asked.
"Riddle gave it to us, before our mission into the Time Vortex. Most corrosive substance in existence, he said."
"I didn't catch that name… and did you say you were in the Time Vortex?" Hermione looked lost.
"Oh, forgot about that Fidelius Charm." Ron said. "It's a long story."
Neville tipped the flask into the stack of papers, and watched them pop, smoke, and disintegrate with satisfaction. "Huh." Ginny hummed. "Did he tell you what was in that potion?"
He shook his head. "He was never exactly liberal with information."
That acid spread, tearing through the wood of the desk, and dripping onto the floor where it began to eat through the stone. "Okay, let's remember that he has a Basilisk." Ginny tried to keep the urgency out of her voice.
"What?" Hermione squeaked.
Luna took Ginny's hand. "There are other prisoners."
"You're free?" Ginny asked. She'd expected something more dramatic- a flash of light, a sudden invigoration, or an obvious mental struggle.
"Yes. But there are others. I won't leave anyone behind." She said with determination.
"We wouldn't dream of it." Neville said. "Lets-"
Ding.
"Well, it seems that Riddle was onto something after all." They heard Severus Snape's distinctive drawl.
"No sign of a struggle, a clean hit." Lily Snape said. "They knew what they were doing."
"Luna, rescue the others." Hermione whispered, before looking to Neville. "Let me lead." He nodded.
Hermione walked down the hall stiffly. "Professors!" She called, stepping out into the sitting room.
"Hermione!" Lily gasped. "What happened? Why are you out of your cell?"
"A group of wizards tried to break me out." Hermione explained, in a dull tone, as if the words were being forced from her. "I killed them… as ordered."
Ginny peaked around the corner. Hermione was facing the two professors, along with half a dozen other wizards grouped behind them. She didn't like how exposed Hermione's position was, and she could tell that Ron didn't either, he looked ready to jump in wand blazing at the slightest provocation.
"That's… good." Snape said finally. "Show me to them." He walked past her. Once he stepped into the hallway, he'd be a sitting duck.
Lily, however, furrowed her brow. "I… never ordered you to do that."
They were busted. The three of them leapt out of cover, hurling curses at the Snapes, while the other Order wizards launched a barrage of their own at Hermione. She took the spells very deliberately. Dark curses she dodged, but the rest she tried to intercept with her own body. Through her now torn robes, Ginny could see what was happening. The tattooed lines running along her body were lighting up, pulsing with each spell she tanked, the light pooling into the nodes which began to glimmer with stored magic. Then it was Hermione's turn. With wild eyes, she lifted her arm up, and the pattern ran in reverse, light flowing from the nodes through the lines along her arm. Snape gurgled, lifting up into the air and twitching in pain. Hermione closed her fist, and he crumpled like a crushed soda can. Blood and gore sprayed out behind him, and what was left of his body slumped to the floor. Hermione collapsed herself, panting, tears streaking down her face.
Everyone in the room gaped at Hermione, who glared up at her professor. "I trusted you!" She screamed. "I admired you! You- you-" She lifted her arm up, presumably to do to Lily what she'd just done to her husband. However, instead she was slammed back into the wall. Lily didn't have her wand; she hadn't even moved. Ron and Ginny formed a protective wall in front of Hermione while she rose to her feet. "What… what was that?"
"Hermione. You may think that I've been cruel, but I haven't done anything to either of you that I wouldn't do to myself." She vanished her robes and ripped open the buttons of her blouse. Her skin was marked, just as Hermione and Luna's was. Runes like Luna's, connected in an intricate network resembling Hermione's. At that moment several runes were lit up, connected by illuminated tattooed lines. "Albus and Severus were pushing to send you into the field, but honestly." She shrugged. "It wasn't my priority. You were research."
Ginny and Ron, both running out of patience, fired off spells at Lily. Another rune lit up on her stomach, and a faint shield appeared in the air. Ginny had tried for the strongest blasting curse she could muster, but it didn't so much crash as ping against the shield. It glowed faintly in the air as it absorbed their spells. The rune brightened as well, the tattooed lines lighting up as magic flowed through it into the network.
"Shit." Ginny hissed. If anything, they'd just made her stronger. Ron echoed the sentiment with a 'bugger'.
"Try to leave one of them alive for interrogation." Lily told the wizards flanking her. "But don't hold back."