Chapter Text
Heir Abraxas Brutus Malfoy and Heir Orion Arcturus Black have known Lord Tom Marvolo Riddle since they were eleven. They have been followers of his since they were 15. They aren't friends; Tom Riddle doesn't have friends, but they're something close. He never once acted the way he did with Peverell.
It all started on the first day of their seventh year when a new student arrived. Historically, transfer students weren't all that common, but with The Dark Lord Grindelwald on the rise, many parents had opted to send their children away from his sphere of influence. All this to say, Harrison Peverell joining the Hogwarts class of 1945 was not something special. Tom begged to differ.
"What do you know about the Peverell family?" He had asked during Peverell's sorting, eyes trained on him.
"Not much," Orion responded, letting his gaze run over Peverell. He had tan skin and dark hair. He was short and small, but he filled out his uniform well. A Seeker, probably.
"As far as I know, the name died out long ago. Rumor has it you have to fulfill certain requirements to become Head of the family, which are almost impossible to achieve," Abraxas said. "But he's wearing a Lordship ring." Tom hummed his acknowledgment. Peverell was sorted into Hufflepuff.
"Watch him," he commanded. "I want to know if he can be brought into the fold."
So Abraxas and Orion watch him. The first thing they notice is that he makes friends with everyone. All Houses, all blood statuses, all species. He has the manners of a Pureblood, but he rarely puts them to use. He's an orphan and a halfblood, and he doesn't try to hide either of those facts. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He is terrible in Potions but is second only to Tom in Defense. Otherwise, his academics aren't particularly noteworthy. Needless to say, they're able to answer Tom's question quickly.
"He's a Blood Traitor with no Occlumency shields. It is doubtful that he would support your ideals, let alone be a useful addition to the Knights," Orion reported about a week into school.
"Keep watching him," Tom said. "He's hiding something, and we're going to find out what it is. He doesn't have to join us for his secrets to be useful to our cause." Abraxas and Orion nodded their assent and continued their mission.
A few weeks later, it became clear there was nothing to see. They had witnessed Peverell use a few low-level Dark spells, but most Purebloods learned those and had magical cores that were in a grey area, so that wasn't very shocking. If Peverell had secrets, they wouldn't be surmised through unobtrusive observation.
Their attempt to tell Tom as much was met with a glare.
"So get close to him. Gain his confidence," he said like it was the most obvious way forward before his eyes widened minutely, and he strode away. Abraxas and Orion followed quickly, but behind his back, they shared an incredulous look. Tom's motives for doing the things he does were rarely clear, but he usually laid off when it seemed to be going nowhere. So his insistence that they keep at their task was odd, to say the least.
Despite their confusion, they followed his instructions. The next day in Defense, Abraxas and Orion moved from their usual seats to sit on either side of the Hufflepuff. Peverell went tense.
"Switching it up today, huh?" He asked, voice thick and falsely casual.
"Yes," Abraxas responded, flashing him a charming grin. "You're the talk of the school. We thought we'd see if the rumors are true."
"Is that so?" Peverell raised an eyebrow, going even tenser. Judging by the glint in his eyes as they slide over to Tom, he's read between the lines of what Abraxas said.
"Is it true that you killed your parents so you could claim the Peverell estate?" Orion asked teasingly.
"If it were," Peverell shot back in the same joking tone, "why would I tell you?" Abraxas and Orion offered their best fake laughs. Peverell was not impressed. He refused to give more than one-word responses for the rest of the period.
Later that day, Abraxas and Orion put up silencing wards over a table in the library and put their heads together.
"This won't work," Orion said simply. "He doesn't trust us."
"Not many non-Slytherins do. Tom has something of a reputation, especially with the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Peverell hasn't been at Hogwarts long enough to form his own opinions."
"I doubt his opinions would differ much from the standard anyway," Orion argued. "And even if they did, Peverell being open to our ideas and, to a certain extent, our friendship, is not the same as him holding us in his confidence."
"Do you think he would respond better if it was somebody who was less closely linked to Tom?" Abraxas wondered. Orion shrugged.
"It's worth a shot," he muttered, watching Tom where the boy sat a few tables away, scribbling erratically in a journal and then scowling at it before writing some more. Ever since Myrtle's death the year prior, there had been something distinctly off about him. The longer Abraxas and Orion took to complete their mission, the more likely they would face harsh consequences.
Just their luck, Peverell had an adverse reaction to all upper-class Slytherins and even some of the Ravenclaws whom are sent his way by Abraxas and Orion. Strangely enough, he'd looked at them with a small, polite smile up until they told him their last name. Then his smile froze, and he got this faraway look in his eyes like he was seeing somebody else in their face. At some point, they stopped reporting back to Tom after every failed attempt. Why would they bother him when there was nothing to say?
The only person who had any sort of success with Peverell was a fifth year named Eileen Prince.
"Excuse me," she had said to him in the library one afternoon in early November. Abraxas and Orion watched subtly from a few tables away. "This is going to sound so silly, but my friends were wondering if it was true that you're American but were too afraid to come over here themselves," she nodded over to her friends who were suddenly very interested in their Charms homework. Peverell, as is typical, offered her a polite smile and answered her question without offering any additional information about himself.
"My family moved to America when I was very young, but I was born here, and when my parents passed, I moved back."
Prince smiled gratefully and then said in the direction of her friends, "See, was that so hard?" Then, seeming to remember the manners she was raised on very suddenly, introduced herself. "I'm Heiress Eileen Prince, by the way," she said, bowing her head slightly and offering her hand. Peverell nodded a bow in return and took her hand, kissing it.
"Lord Harrison Peverell, well met Heiress Prince," he said and gave her a larger, real grin. "But everybody calls me Harry." Prince smiled back and slipped back over to her friends. Abraxas and Orion did not gape because that would be unbecoming, but it was a near thing. Prince was a well-known Pureblood name, and while the young Heiress had no specific connections to Tom himself, the Prince family had many of the same ideals as he. And yet, Peverell had not to fake a kind tone with their Heiress, Eileen.
Peverell truly was a mystery. They said as much when they reported back to Tom that night. This new information reignited Tom's insistence that there was something different about Peverell. He was smiling when he told Abraxas and Orion to double down on their efforts, or they would sorely regret it. The two Purebloods had no choice but to listen.
So they continued to pester Peverell almost every day. The more time that passed with no answers, the more crazed the glint in Tom's eye became. Other missions were set aside for later. Figuring out Peverell was the top priority. By the time they were returning from winter break, "The Hufflepuff Problem", as they'd dubbed it, was a topic which caused many eyes to roll and many tired sighs to be released.
"I don't understand it," Felix Rosier said to Artemis Avery and Claude Mulciber during a conversation similar to many overheard before it. "It's like he's lost all ambition for anything that's not to do with Peverell."
"If I didn't know any better," Artemis responded, examining her nails, "I'd say he was interested in courting the young Lord Peverell."
"Actually," Claude interjected. "I think that's exactly it."
"Do you?" Artemis asked, a wicked smile splitting her regal face. "How interesting." When their talk switched to other things, Abraxas and Orion stopped listening.
"Do you think it's true?" Abraxas asked Orion, not daring to raise his voice above a whisper. "That Tom wishes to court Peverell?"
"It very well may be," Orion answered. "And it would explain his behavior. Tom has never shown interest in someone in that fashion. Perhaps he is not used to it."
"Perhaps," Abraxas agreed. Tom's emotional deficiencies were a poorly kept secret within the Knights' inner circle. He was powerful, intelligent, and worthy of much respect, but when it came to matters of the heart, Tom was far from an expert. Abraxas and Orion didn't blame them. As the only two of the Knights who were aware of his past and of the steps he'd taken towards immortality, they understood why he struggled.
The Hufflepuff Problem had just taken on a whole new light.
The next time Abraxas and Orion spoke to Peverell, they approached the situation a little differently.
"So, what do you think of Tom?" Abraxas asked bluntly as he and Orion slid into the seats next to Peverell in Defense. The seats had become their usual after the first few days they'd sat there in a row. Peverell still rolled his eyes at them nearly every day, but at that point, it felt like he did it out of routine rather than actual disdain.
"What do I think of Riddle?" He repeated, clearly shocked by the forthcoming nature of the question. "What's the catch?"
"No catch," Orion answered. "We just want to know."
"In that case," Peverell said, eyes ablaze with a strange passion Abraxas and Orion had never seen in him before and something else they couldn't recognize, "I think he's a Pureblood-supremacist hypocrite who's too much of a Slytherin to have his own opinions. I think that he lets his fears and self-doubts compromise his integrity far too often for him to be a respectable leader. I think he holds himself above everyone else when he has just as many issues as the rest of us, if not more." He trailed off for a moment, clearly a little out of breath. "He's an asshole," he finished simply.
"You've been thinking about that," Abraxas said. It wasn't a question.
"You could say that, yes," Peverell said wryly. Anything Abraxas and Orion could have said to that was interrupted by Professor Merrythought starting class.
When the evening came, Abraxas and Orion were hesitant to deliver this new information to Tom. It was not positive. He was unlikely to react in a way that left anyone better off. After delaying for as long as they could, they finally approached him.
"Well, to put it simply, Tom," Orion began, but he didn't finish his sentence. Instead, he glanced, panicky, at Abraxas for help. Abraxas only raised nodded encouragingly. Orion swallowed.
"Yes?" Tom prompted after a little while longer.
"He hates you," Orion finally concluded.
"Hates me?" Tom repeated, his voice still eerily calm.
"Yes," Abraxas said. "I believe his exact words were 'he's an asshole', though that's only a small sample of the choice words he had for you."
"Hm," Tom said. "That's interesting."
"I... yes, you could say that," Orion agreed hesitantly. Tom's reaction was more than strange. Abraxas and Orion had expected him to rage and blow things up with a side portion of torture. This, though, was a show of reason that was rare from Tom. It gave them no small amount of pause.
"Thank you, gentleman. There's no need for you to continue with this task. I believe I have everything I need."
"You do?" Orion asked.
"Yes," Tom said, clearly slightly amused now. "You're both dismissed." After another moment of blank staring, they both nod and leave Tom to himself.
Abraxas and Orion reported the news to the other Knights.
"You're saying The Hufflepuff Problem is over?" Corvus Lestrange asked, clearly not convinced. "All this time, and he's just giving up?"
"I don't think he's giving up," Leopold Avery, Artemis's twin brother, said. "There's no way."
"What else could he be doing?" asked Corvus. Leopold shrugged, unable to answer.
"I think he's finally taking matters into his own hands. He's going to approach Peverell himself," Archibald Nott argued.
"It's what Walburga always encouraged him to do," Orion mused. "Be upfront about his feelings, I mean."
"Oh, please," Artemis chortled. "Your darling fiancé was just trying to get him to go after her."
"And besides," Corvus said. "There's no feelings there. Tom is just interested in getting more power on our side."
"Of course I know that," Orion grumbles, unhappy with the reminder that he'll have to marry his disgusting, self-centered cousin. "That doesn't change the fact that she did it."
"I agree with Archibald," Abraxas said. "You didn't see him. He was way too smug for this to be anything else."
"I don't think he was smug," Orion disagreed. "But he wasn't furious, so I see why you would think there is something else going on."
"We should wait and see," Laurel Greengrass said. "If he goes after Peverell, it will be public. An alliance or match with the Peverell family would hoist the Gaunt family back into their former glory. Tom would not let that opportunity go to waste."
So the Knights agreed to wait.
They didn't have to wait very long. The very next morning, Tom was speaking to Peverell in the Entrance Hall. They were standing close to one another, Peverell leaning casually against the wall and Tom less than a foot away, facing towards him. By the time Abraxas and Orion arrive, they've been speaking for a while.
"So your little followers were trying to get information out of me?" Peverell was saying, and Abraxas flinches at the clear irritation in his voice.
"Yes," Tom agreed easily. "But, for the record, I didn't think you would want to speak to me."
"Ok, sure. But why'd you only call them off last night?"
"Because I forgot, and it was cause for great amusement when they reported back to me last night? I heard that you had some choice words about me," he said, and the smile that spread across his face was real and joyful. And then the strangest thing happened.
Peverell laughed.
"What the hell?" Orion said under his breath. This time, neither Abraxas nor Orion could keep his mouth from falling open.
"Alright, love. I'm glad you called them off now. It was getting hard not to bite their noses off every time they sent somebody else to talk to me," Peverell said.
"Love?" Abraxas said disbelievingly.
"I would have done it sooner if I knew it was bothering you. It had honestly never occurred to me that they would still be so committed after these months."
"You shouldn't underestimate them," Peverell advised. "They'd probably take a long walk off a short pier if you asked." Tom frowned thoughtfully.
"Probably, yes," he said. Peverell took a step forward so he was standing firmly in Tom's space and strung his arms around the taller boy's neck. Abraxas and Orion gasped in unison as Peverell leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Tom's lips. They had thought nothing was stranger than Peverell laughing, but seeing him kiss Tom was stranger by a long shot.
"I'll see you later?" He asked when he'd pulled away.
"Of course, my soul," Tom said, and he pulled Peverell into another kiss. When they broke apart, Peverell peered over Tom's shoulder at Abraxas and Orion and chuckled.
"I think you broke the dynamic duo," he said, nodding in their direction. Tom turns his head to look at them and rolls his eyes.
"Get out of here, both of you," he ordered. "And feel free to spread the news." The two Heirs nodded and obeyed.
"Corvus owes me so much money," Abraxas said as they left. Orion laughed.