Night.
Draco pretended to be asleep.
They had explicitly agreed last time to attack Tom together that night, but for some inexplicable reason, he had fallen asleep. As a result, his accomplices next door had been left waiting all night.
"Strange. How did I fall asleep for no reason that day?"
They were all Pure-bloods and aristocrats, and none of them was much better than the others.
That time, standing them up had caused Draco's credibility among his companions to plummet.
It took him two whole days to finally make it up to them.
"I have to make the sneak attack work tonight." Draco clenched his fist in secret.
He had organized another sneak attack, but this time, the real goal wasn't revenge. It was to restore his standing and credibility among his companions.
To keep himself from inexplicably falling asleep this time, he spent the entire time pinching his arm with his other hand, making sure he stayed alert.
He listened quietly to the footsteps outside the door, waiting until the Prefect on patrol had left...
"Good. Now!"
Draco quietly turned over and got up, only to see a furtive figure creeping toward the door.
"You're... Mm!"
Before he could get a good look, the figure suddenly clamped a hand over Draco's mouth.
At that moment, Draco felt that the scene before him was strangely familiar, as if it had happened a few days ago.
"Don't panic. You're just having a nightmare. You'll be fine once you fall asleep."
At the strangely familiar whisper by his ear, Draco sank into sleep once more.
Tom gently set the little blond's head back on the pillow, then muttered to himself in confusion.
"What a strange thing. Do young people these days not sleep at night?"
With the witness taken care of, Tom quietly slipped out the door.
Thanks to his previous experience sneaking around at night, Tom found his way out of the common room with ease this time.
Someone was already waiting for him outside the common room.
"Not bad. You got here early."
Tom had thought he'd moved fast enough, setting off the moment curfew began, but Quirrell, who lived in an office, had managed to get there even faster.
"It's only right that I not slack off when serving Lord Voldemort." Quirrell bowed slightly.
Voldemort, who lived on the back of Quirrell's head, found the whole scene uncomfortable.
Although he had accepted the false fact that he was a Horcrux, in his own mind, he still thought like Voldemort.
Watching the body he was possessing address someone else as "Lord" gave him the inexplicable feeling that he was being put in a subordinate position.
Ever since he'd left Borgin and Burkes, he hadn't fawned over anyone.
Next...
The flattery was over. It was time to get down to business.
To make a Vitality Potion, they needed ingredients from Snape's storage room.
Snape's office was near the Slytherin Common Room, and the two of them reached it after only a short walk.
Looking at the office door, which had been sealed with a Locking Charm, Quirrell relaxed his body and handed over control.
After a spasm, Quirrell's body stood ramrod straight. He no longer looked as timid as before, and an air of authority radiated from him.
He drew his wand and pointed it at the lock.
Alohomora was a useful unlocking charm, but it had one problem: it could make noise while unlocking a door, drawing attention.
After all, every teacher's office had a bedroom, and most professors lived in their offices. Snape was no exception.
With Snape's years of criminal experience and wariness, he would react at once if he heard the lock being picked.
A flash of light.
"Done." Voldemort gently pushed the door.
The lock made no sound at all. The door to the Potions professor's office opened silently, without even the creak common to most old wooden doors.
"Snape's grown too comfortable. During the wizarding war, a door wouldn't have opened this quietly." Voldemort spoke in a low, eerie voice.
He scanned the office and soon spotted a distinctive wooden door.
Powerful magic clung to it, and the lock had been protected by an even more complex Locking Charm than the one on the office door.
But none of that posed a problem for Voldemort's spellwork.
Before long, the three of them were standing before the door to a storeroom filled with jars and bottles of every kind.
"Whoa..." Quirrell stared, wide-eyed.
There was so much stuff here that even if he spent his entire secret stash, he probably couldn't afford half of it.
Voldemort immediately got to work, quickly gathering the ingredients needed to brew the Vitality Potion, just as they had planned.
St. John's Wort, mint, Chamomile...
He took whatever was on the shelves, emptying every jar of the ingredients they needed.
"What are you doing? Why are you taking so much?" Tom shot him a look and stared at him as if he were an idiot.
"What's wrong?" Voldemort and Quirrell were both baffled. They couldn't understand why Tom was reacting so strongly.
"If you only take these few ingredients, you're practically announcing that you're making a Vitality Potion. What if Snape finds traces of it on me later?"
"Oh, right!" The two of them suddenly understood.
"Then we'll take everything. That way, no one will know what Potions we're making."
Voldemort promptly took out a magic pouch, intending to loot the entire storeroom.
But before he could, Tom shot him another scornful look.
"What now?" Voldemort asked, rather irritably, his voice rising a notch.
"Are you stupid? If we loot the whole storeroom, Snape will hide the next batch of ingredients somewhere else. If we run short of ingredients in the future, they won't be so easy to get."
Tom looked at Voldemort with exasperation.
Splitting one's soul not only turned a person into a deranged, obsessive maniac; apparently, it also lowered their intelligence.
"Then what do we do?" Voldemort froze where he stood, unable to think straight.
"It's simple. We just mislead him."
Venom of the Horned Beast, Fire Lizard Bile, Wolfsbane roots...
They took a little of every poisonous ingredient that could be combined with the ingredients for a Vitality Potion.
That way, when Snape discovered the theft, he would assume someone was planning to brew poison and wouldn't notice Tom's plan.
Before leaving the Potion Ingredients Storage, Tom also took small quantities of Rue Em Blood and Lanian Horsehair, among other ingredients for a Stimulant.
A Stimulant temporarily increased the potency of one's magic.
The Dueling Club was about to begin, and Tom wanted to brew some potions to enhance his abilities so he could perform exceptionally well in the matches.
"Does this count as doping?" Tom muttered to himself.
He suddenly felt like he had no sporting spirit.
No, it didn't count.
Potions were different from Muggle stimulants. Stimulants consumed the body's potential, forcibly drawing out its latent abilities, while Potions enhanced the body with the magic contained in the potion.
Unless someone drank too much at once, they caused no harm to the body.
Once they were done, Tom and Quirrell slipped away quietly.
They didn't bother restoring the Locking Charm they had broken.
Snape brewed Potions every day and therefore visited the storeroom daily to collect ingredients. After they took so much, he would certainly notice right away.
Before you continue