Tom Riddle is Here-Plan in Action

Part 19

Dumbledore was growing quite concerned. At first, he had definitely believed that it was the Slytherin students involved in the city of unrest that had suddenly plagued Hogwarts, and while he was still almost certain that was the case, he could not help but feel that it was some sort of...cover for something far more dangerous at play. Something which involved Tom Riddle 2nd time Jr and the young Malfoy Heir. Those two, they were central in whatever it was that was at play, and he could not help but be worried that it was not going to end well, whatever it was that they were doing. It was clear that whoever was calling the shots was getting irate that it was taking so long for them to do it. Whatever it was that they were planning on doing, it was big, and required quite a bit of planning. While he could not just forget what was going on with his students, he also needed to focus on what could potentially be happening with the two Slytherin boys.

Though things with the general student populace was also beginning to get problematic as well, he was more than aware of that. Gryffindor, which had previously been held in quite the high regard, thanks to his interventions on multiple accounts, was now getting dragged through the dirt. More and more people were questioning the house that he had worked so hard to build up. It was painful to see just how easily that reputation seemed to crumble in to pieces. It hurt him, and he knew that he could not do much about it. At this point, any sort of intervention on the behalf of the Gryffindor house would only fuel the rumors which were already circulating around that he had favorites and Gryffindor was amongst them. He could not have that, it would be detrimental to his career. It was already bad enough that the rumors were there, let alone him doing anything that would gain the fuel of those rumors to potentially reach ears outside of Hogwarts.

It was almost frightening what the Slytherin students were capable of when they truly put their heads together. It was one of the reasons he did his best to keep them pressed. He knew that they were dangerous, most Slytherins were intelligent enough and even the idiotic ones were not short on their ambition to get things done the way they wanted them to be. It was a dangerous combination, intellect and ambition, and the will to do anything to get what you needed or wanted. That was what Slytherins had, most of them in vast spades beyond what was considered necessary. He would admit, it was almost frightening, but he would not allow that worry or that fear to get to him. He was destined for more than that, he would not allow himself to get worried.

It was really too late for that but he would continue to lie to himself if it worked enough perhaps he would truly believe that there was something more that he could do to stop this. Even though really it was far too late for that. He breathed inwardly, the information that the Weasley Twins had brought him not only made it further difficult to ignore the problem, but he knew that he would have to do something. It would seem that Pucey, he had once again spoken to Draco and Tom about something regarding a plan of sorts, someone was getting impatient about said plan taking too long, and Tom, so it would seem, was in favor of speeding their plan up, but the young Malfoy heir had decided against it. From what the Weasley's told me, Tom had gone along with Draco's decision to keep their original time line. It would seem that no matter what they did they would be punished either way and as such, Draco felt it better to be punished on a better standing and having their plan actually be put into place rather than the other way around.

"I cannot help but worry," He muttered to himself, stroking his beard. "I wonder...If I could get Severus to talk to the two, perhaps he would be able to get more information than I would." He shook his head contemplating. "No," He muttered to himself. "There was no way that Severus would speak on something like that, and they would likely suspect him." He thought about other things that he could do but the only thing that he could think of in this context was getting Pucey to talk to him. It was already obvious that Draco and Tom would not say anything like what was really happening. If he could talk to Pucey, perhaps he would be able to get to him.

According to the Weasley's he was trying to warn the two. Or at least, that was what the two had settled on. If that was truly the case, he may be able to get Pucey to put his faith in him, but he recognized he would have to go a different direction than he did with Tom and Draco. He had learned that the difficult way. He would likely not be responsive if Dumbledore just said that he wanted to help, but he would have to prove it. He did not know if he could do that, but he could try and meet with the boy and see what he could glean from him at the very least.

It really could not hurt. At this point there was nothing that he could do that would make him know less about what was going on, and any step he took forwards would likely gain him some sort of information that he had not had prior to this, so he supposed, despite the recklessness that it was, there was really no harm to talking to this Pucey boy.

-

Pucey came rushing to Tom and Draco, his eyes wide with shock as he came to stand before the King and Prince respectively. Draco glanced at him, curious, while Tom just look rather apathetic at the person before him.

"What is wrong?" Draco wondered, keeping his voice light.

"It isn't that something is wrong," Pucey breathed out. "Dumbledore wants to talk to me." Tom straightened at that. This was an interesting turn of events, and proved that Dumbledore was in fact having the Weasley's spying on them, and that the Weasley informed him of most likely everything that happened that they had seen. They had already known that, but it was nice to have it officially confirmed.

"It is alright," Tom said simply, a regal shrug of his shoulder calming Pucey down effectively. "Just make sure to be vague, and if he tries to push the questioning, walk out of the room." Pucey turned to look at him a small smirk on his lips.

"I know, I can do that. I have had to do it to people before. Pucey glanced at Draco. "Are you sure that this is a good idea, continuing this?" He wondered, tilting his head slightly.

"Yes," Draco said, his eyes boring into Pucey. "Are you...questioning my choices?" Pucey shook his head quickly.

"Of course not, I was just worried, I apologize." Draco sighed, leaning back into Tom but tilted his head in dismissal.