Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Warnings: Alternate Universes (Medieval, Modern, period of War), a good (person) knight Tom, a tint of OOCness.
Enjoy the story!
If you were given a chance to choose between mortality and immortality, which one would be your choice?
"I'm a wizard. I'm immortal." Harry smiled, his grin wide on his face and Tom chuckled softly. He tucked a few strands of black locks behind his lover's ear and gave Harry a kiss on the tip of his nose. Their knees touched and Harry let out a soft laugh when Tom leaned down to place a kiss next to his earlobe.
"Hey, that tickles…" Harry turned his head and kissed his boyfriend on his cheek. Tom raised an eyebrow.
"Oh yes? I thought wizards are not supposed to feel sensations like humans." Tom retorted back, but his arm pulled Harry by his waist, gathering him closer. The television in front of them was playing a movie – The Avengers, Harry had shouted and hurriedly put the disc into the player before Tom managed to put The Godfather back on repeat – but Harry found himself snuggling more into his lover than focusing on it.
"Ohhh, we wizards can feel a lot of things, Tom. If not, how could I rate how great you are in bed?" Harry looked up into Tom's blue eyes, and Tom smirked back at him.
"Oh come on, I'm Zeus when it comes to sex."
"Tom, please don't. All your sex escapades were in the past. Only I can rate you as a Greek God in bed or not." Harry bit him on his naked shoulder and Tom retaliated by leaving a hickey on his pale neck.
They continued to make out on the leather couch. The lights in the living room were dimmed; the only thing that enabled Harry to look at Tom's features was the moonlight. It was winter, and it was snowing heavily, and Harry found himself burrowing down into Tom's embrace, attracted to his body heat like a firefly towards a light. They settled down comfortably after Tom managed to wrap Harry completely in his arms, and Harry had never been more grateful to have him in his life.
If only Tom can take more days off.
"I really am a wizard." Harry murmured again against his lover's chest after a moment of peaceful silence. He felt Tom's chuckle vibrate in his chest, and tilted his head up.
Tom's blue eyes met his green, causing Harry to melt even more.
"I know. I believe you. What else make me love you so much, but black magic?"
Harry laughed at his joke, but inside of him, something broke.
It felt like his heart.
"You, my prince, are to live until the days are gone, and to love again and again, until he remember you all by his own."
"Nonsense." Harry pulled back his hand, glaring at the witch who just predicted his future. Tom stood by his side, his eyebrow raised and he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder when he realized they were shaking.
"She was just bluffing. There is no such thing-"
"Come, Tom, let us leave this place." Harry quickly stood up from the stool he was sitting on. He grabbed Tom by his wrist, and dragged him out of the small hut as fast as he could. However, he could feel the old woman's eyes burning a hole at the back of his head. He could feel it as well, the magic flared from the woman when she spoke of his future, and his soul screamed for him to get away.
Once they were away and safe from the crowd, who were enjoying the festival in the village, he stopped walking abruptly and turned to look at Tom.
Tom was staring at him incredulously as if Harry just grew another head.
"What was that?" he inquired, his eyes sharp and cold but Harry knew him better than that.
Tom was worried.
"Nothing… the woman is creepy." Harry murmured quietly, looking down at the grass and inwardly sighed when Tom stepped closer to him.
"My Lord." Tom addressed him and Harry couldn't help but glared at him.
"Harry. After all these years Tom, call me Harry."
A small smile appeared on Tom's face and he gently wrapped Harry's smaller form with his cloak. Then he looked around the area – an empty grass field – and then the sky, before he sighed.
"It seems that we have to go back before it starts to rain." He stated quietly and Harry wanted so much to just grab the older man and keep him with him forever.
"Tom…"
"Yes?" Tom turned to look at him, blue eyes bright and Harry nervously chuckled before he got onto his tiptoe and pressed a chaste kiss on his knight's cheek. Tom's face was indifferent when he pulled back, but his blue eyes softened and he reached one a hand to run his fingers through Harry's black locks.
"Let us return to the castle, Harry. The King and Queen must be worried sick." He murmured softly, and Harry closed his eyes contentedly.
"All right. We should go back to Nagini and Hedwig." Harry promptly agreed and grinned happily when Tom pulled him close by his waist. He covered Harry's face by the hood of his cloak, and leisurely walked them back to their horses.
And if Harry's hand somehow found its way to hold onto Tom's, neither of them found it necessary to point it out.
Harry stood patiently in the crowd. There were a lot of people waiting for their loved ones and Harry felt his fingers tremble as he held onto Tom's scarf wound around his neck. He could heard the loud sound of an approaching train and quickly straightened himself.
When the train stopped and the soldiers came out from their coaches, Harry quickly scanned the crowd for a familiar face. But when he couldn't see him, Harry's eyes started to feel warm and his body trembled violently. He ran through the crowd, eyes searching wildly, refusing to let go of the fact he knew he would not find who he was looking for.
This was his curse, and Harry was abruptly stopped when he was grabbed from behind and turned around.
"Tom-" Harry started, starting to feel a smile taking over his rather teary, miserable face when he was met with a pair of warm brown eyes instead.
"Harry."
Harry stilled. His lips apart but no words came out of his mouth. However, his hands lost their grip on the scarf that he gripped so tightly, and the silvery-green material fell on the ground, stepped on by the rushing people around him.
Harry didn't realize it though.
He was used to being stepped on and destroyed.
Cedric was looking down and smiling at him, one arm bandaged and a scar on his forehead. However his smile was small and sad and sorry and Harry couldn't help but to laugh instead.
"Really, Cedric? Really?" Harry laughed, didn't care to response when Cedric's other arm wrapped around his shoulder to pull him into an embrace. Harry felt himself shake and his eyes were blurry and warm.
"I'm so sorry, Harry. He tried his best to come back… he did. I'm so sorry, Harry. I'm so sorry." he felt Cedric murmur into his hair and Harry laughed harder, closing his eyes tight and laughed and cried and laughed again.
"Mother?" Harry gently held onto his mother's hand once she sat down next to him on his bed. Lily smiled at him fondly and patted him on his cheek with her other hand.
"You are a special child, Harry."
Harry tilted his head, confusion written on his face and Lily laughed a bit at that.
"Remember the story of your birth?" Lily inquired with a raised eyebrow and Harry laughed, amused.
"Of course, Mother. You said you could not conceive with Father, and then you made a wish." Harry spoke, grinning at the tale and Lily hushed him with a glint in her smiling eyes.
"Yes. I made a wish to the moon. I pleaded so that I can have a child of my own, to love and to cherish. Then the moon shined so bright and I woke up the next day in my bed, instead of the floor where I knelt the night before."
Lily smiled at him, and Harry stared at his mother quietly. Silence came in between them for a moment, and then Harry shook his head slowly.
"Mother-"
Lily cut him off and kissed him on his cheek.
"I told myself, from the first time I held you in my arms, until today, that maybe this is the sacrifice. Harry, my son, you have never been a healthy child. You always get sick, and easily struck down with cold. But no matter how much you are hurting or wounded, when the night comes and the moon rises, all your misery and pain will be gone." Lily murmured softly and Harry felt something cold ran through his nerves.
"Mother, I do not think that was a good reason to my recovery. It was a big wound but-"
"No one else would have survived the gash, Harry." Lily's eyes were sharp when they looked at him next, and Harry gasped once Lily pressed her palm against the previously big hole on his chest. It had healed by itself quickly when Tom had carried him into the room. The attack at the castle was unexpected and when Harry felt the sword stab break his skin on his chest, he thought he would not make it.
Oh how wrong he was.
"Mother-" Harry tried again; but again, he was cut off.
"Have you ever heard of the moon magic?" Lily asked him abruptly and Harry let out a desperate noise.
"Mother, please-"
"Lily, Harry." Both mother and son turned to look at the source of their interruption, and they quickly put a smile on their faces when they saw it was James. James looked at Harry with worry on his face and he slowly approached the big bed.
"How are you feeling, son?" James asked him while he ran his fingers through Harry's black locks. Harry smiled up at his father.
"I am doing better," he answered before looking at his mother as well, "But it is becoming late. Maybe both of you should go to bed now."
Lily looked at him with pained eyes; as if she was hesitant to leave him, and Harry gave her a reassuring smile in return.
"It is all right now, Mother. Please go to sleep." He leaned forward to press a kiss on their still locked hands, making Lily sigh in defeat.
"Fine. Just… think about it, Harry." Lily kissed him on his forehead gently, followed by James, and once his parents were out of his chambers, he stared silently at the open windows, where the full moon was shining bright.
After 16 years of his life, this was the first time he ever felt scared looking at the moon; and Harry wondered whether Tom would find him mad if he ever were to tell him about it.
"Tom, Tom, Oh God, Tom, no, no, don't do this to me, no!" Harry shook the bloody body in his arms, words coming out fast and he stumbled on his words like he was out of time. His hands were shaking and tears were blurring his warm eyes and Harry didn't care if he was screaming and crying in the public like a mad person.
Tom's eyes were half-open, staring up at him and Harry wanted so much to hit him for acting so reckless. The mother of the child he just saved was holding onto her son tightly while some people around them were calling for the ambulance.
"Tom…" Harry whimpered, leaning down to rest their foreheads together and he felt it when one of Tom's bloody hands touched his cheek. Harry cried quietly, his shoulders shaking as he tried to cover Tom's slowly cooling body with his own.
"You're so stupid, Tom, why are you so stupid?" Harry murmured brokenly, ignoring the way his tears were wetting Tom's cheeks and the way Tom's blue eyes sparkled amusedly, albeit only a little, at his words. Harry could see the woman crying as well, muttering her gratefulness to Tom for saving her son's life and Harry shut her down angrily.
This was not supposed to happen. Because Harry had planned everything for Tom from the start and still, he died at the same day, the same time and the same way.
His life for someone else's.
"Harry…" Harry looked down at his lover's face, blurred by his tears and he quickly helped the other man to lean closer to him. His blue eyes were bright in the sunlight and Harry cursed his magic for not working where there was no moonlight.
"Yes?"
"It's you… I see you…"
Harry gasped, green eyes wide as he looked at the dying man in his arms. Tom was smiling at him with blood dripping from his lips and his head and Harry couldn't find another word to explain how he was feeling. Then Tom did something unexpected and gripped him hard on his wrist.
"I love you, Harry… do not ever forget that." Tom whispered almost fiercely, and seconds later, Harry was left sobbing at what left of his dead lover, and his broken, repeating reality.
When he heard the quiet wailing of a baby somewhere in the back of his mind, announcing the arrival of the new Tom, reincarnated and alive again, Harry couldn't help but smiling bitterly.
He sipped his cup of tea, sitting alone in his apartment and working his magic with his mind, Harry wondered, how does it feels to be alive.
Harry sat down on the grass field with Tom next to him. Both of them sharing the big cloak Tom always brought along every time they went out together, since Harry often got sick and Tom disliked it very much. They stared up at the dark sky and the full moon, Harry sighed softly and snuggled closer to his older companion.
He felt Tom's arm around his tightened and chuckled at the way Tom kept pulling the cloak so that it kept covering up Harry's body.
"I cannot believe I have been with you for years…" Harry murmured quietly and Tom chuckled at his statement.
"You chose me, Harry, when you were a child. I am, and will always be here to serve you for that." The young knight responded and pressed a loving kiss on top of his companion's head. Harry looked up at him, crinkled his nose adorably before pulling Tom down for a deep kiss.
They kissed each other quietly and softly, once in a while Tom laughed at the way Harry stared dazedly at him, and some other times, Harry made it his mission to make Tom blush a lot more than he did. The moon shined brighter and Harry made a happy sound when Tom finally relented and pulled them down to lay on the grass instead. He rested his head on Tom's shoulder, fingers picking on the commoner's clothes he recently bought for himself. Tom slapped his hand away, not unkindly, before he grabbed the hand for himself to hold.
Harry chuckled at Tom's attempt to hold hands and quickly pressed a kiss on his cheek.
"I love you, Tom Marvolo Riddle."
Tom's blue eyes seemed fathomless as they looked down at Harry, and Harry felt delicious shivers ran through his skin when his lover reached out a hand to touch his face.
"I love you more than life itself, Harry James Potter. Do not ever doubt that."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Harry quickly took out his handkerchief to wipe away the coffee that spilled on the stranger he just bumped into. He was just on his way out from the café and was spacing out when suddenly another body collided into his and caused him to spill his warm coffee on the stranger's shirt.
Oh dear, Harry thought to himself in horror, the shirt looks expensive.
However, he was stopped by a gasp from the stranger. Harry looked up from his position at the man's chest and his green eyes widened comically. He saw a pair of sky blue eyes and dark hair on pale skin.
It was Tom.
After years of avoiding looking for him, or even to find his location, Harry met him again. Harry believed that if he didn't look for Tom, maybe Tom would have a better chance of surviving more than 27 years of his life. And now Fate played her cards which placed Harry in the same position, again.
"… Tom."
"Ah, yes?" Harry blinked his eyes again, and saw Tom smirking down at him.
"I said you owe me a date for this expensive shirt you just ruined, and my name is Tom." He repeated and Harry found himself blushing hard.
Even after all those years.
"Well, Tom," Harry stammered and forced himself to act strong. He took out a few 100-dollar notes from his wallet and pressed it into Tom's hand. "I refuse to. I'm sorry I ruined your shirt anyway. Good bye."
Harry hurriedly walked out from the café; his coffee and handkerchief long forgotten. But he knew he could never get away from Tom as Harry watched from the corner of his eyes, how the other man was staring at him until he disappeared into the crowd.
The day it happened, Harry was reading in the library and didn't realize the commotion outside of the palace. He did hear the sounds of horses approaching the castle and tilted his head to look outside. But once he saw what was going on outside, his book dropped down to the floor.
Harry had never ran as fast as he did back then.
His father, King James, Tom and a few more knights had gone out two days ago for hunting. It was summer and the sun was cruel to his unhealthy body and Harry used the night to bask in the moonlight for a better rest.
However that day, to see his father with his knights and Tom nowhere to be seen, made Harry's body shiver with chills. He ran to where his father was and was shocked to see a lot of people gathered around. Even the healers were there.
"Father," Harry called out croakily and James quickly turned to look at him. Then Harry realized that his father was injured and his stomach churned at the thoughts running in his mind.
"What's happening-"
"Oh Harry, son," James approached him and pulled him into a tight embrace, in which Harry returned as fiercely but his eyes didn't move from the small crowd in front of them. The other knights were standing in cautious postures around him and Harry wanted so much to ask,
What was going on?
His father seemed to get the idea when Harry tried to pull away and get near the small crowd of people, but his grip on Harry tightened.
"Son, no. He is badly injured. There is a big chance he would not-"
"Tom…" Harry whispered with wide eyes, and quickly escaped his father's hold to get to his knight. The King stood still, watching from afar with a mournful expression on his face while his only heir dropped to the ground at the sight of his childhood friend, personal knight and close companion, bloodied and on the verge of death.
Harry whimpered as he carefully touched the pale skin of his lover, his body was cradled by a healer who tried her best to stop the bleeding on his stomach and chest. Harry didn't know what was happening around him as he carefully and shakily ran his fingers through Tom's black hair, matted with blood.
"Tom…" he whispered quietly, as if there were only the two of them at the moment and to see Tom's blue eyes, barely opened but staring into his eyes as if Harry was his world, was almost enough for the moment. His breath caught in his throat and never ever in his life, he felt as helpless as he was at the time. His fingers carefully and gently wiped away the blood on Tom's forehead before turning to look at his father. James stared back at him, eyes apologetic and with a shaky sigh, he stepped forward.
"Son…"
"What happened, Father?" Harry whispered hoarsely. All his attention was at his father and his senses screamed at him to grip onto Tom and never let go. What Harry didn't realize was the sky abruptly turned dark and the warm summer day slowly became cold and colder. James closed his eyes and sighed regretfully.
"On our way back, we were attacked by thieves. Smart ones with dangerous weapons. We were not ready." Harry inwardly whimpered at those words and turned back to look at his older lover.
Their relationship had always been a secret; merely because Harry was a crown prince and Tom was a loyal knight – his loyal knight – at heart.
And now, looking at Tom dying on the ground, made Harry wonder if he should have loved him more openly and deeply than anything else. He felt a small tug on his sleeve, and Harry blinked away tears that he did not realize had formed.
"Tom?" he called out again and felt Tom chuckle weakly. The healer had already stopped trying to heal him, seemingly had given up on him, and Harry wanted so much to just keep Tom close to him for eternity.
"Tom, everything is going to be all right, trust me, just go to sleep, get your rest, you must be tired." Harry quietly spoke, lips smiling but hands shaking and his breathing uncontrolled. Tom let out a small sigh and Harry had never seen his eyes, albeit half-opened, as blue as they were at the moment. His bleeding lips curved into a small smile and when he finally closed his eyes – without any last words, without a last kiss – for the last time, Harry couldn't help but to close his as well, and cried for the last moment of Tom's life.
Afterwards, people slowly pulled Tom away from his hold and Harry who seemingly had lost the ability for fight, let them. James held onto him to stand up and helped him walking back to his chamber. The sky had gotten dark and the rain had started to fall.
Harry believed the sky was crying for them.
It started that day, where Harry had stopped aging, and when his magic burst into life when the night comes and the moon was up. His kingdom was later lost in a war against the neighbouring kingdom, and Harry, after losing both parents and position, left the place without no regrets and remorse.
Harry cursed his magic for being there, but unable to help Tom survived.
"Harry?"
"Yes, Tom?"
"Talking about wizards… Wizards are seriously immortal, or something like that?"
Harry stared at the moon from his position; his head resting on top of Tom's naked chest, as their bodies tangled comfortably with each other on Tom's king sized bed. He felt Tom's hands stroking his back, causing him to sigh softly and close his eyes to focus more on Tom's steady heartbeat. The sight of the bright moon could wait; Harry had forever to see them, but not a second should be wasted when he was with Tom.
"Maybe…" Harry replied quietly, and Tom stilled in his movement, before he pulled Harry even closer to him, "… who knows."
'What is the use of immortality if you are not here with me?'
He felt Tom's chuckle vibrate in his chest, and Harry burrowed himself under the blanket, inside Tom's warm embrace. He wanted this moment to stay forever; after years and years and years of being with Tom, Tom and Tom. Maybe this time Harry could find a way out to stop their tragedy in process, and maybe this time Harry could finally die with Tom forever, and ever.
The ticking of clock reaching 12 in the midnight was audible in the dark room, illuminated only by the moonlight. Harry's cellphone beeped to alert him about today's event that Harry had memorized by heart.
He rubbed his thumb gently against the skin of Tom's chest, near his heart, and his green eyes opened slowly, half-lidded. Tom was still awake, but his heartbeats were slowing down, indicating that it wouldn't be long before Tom would fall asleep.
"Tom."
His eyes felt warm and blurry, but Harry just needed to say it before the moment came and took his lover from him again.
"Hm?"
Long fingers ran through his dark hair, and Harry willed a tear or two to fall from his half-lidded eyes. He smiled and pressed a gentle kiss on Tom's (kind, loving, protective) heart, and murmured against it the adoring three words he knew Tom would response with his actions rather than words – because thousands of years with Tom had taught him that Tom speaks his words better in actions –. Then he slowly realized that Tom had gradually fallen asleep, by the way his breathing became slower and calmer.
'I love you. I love you. I love you. Hundreds of times, thousands of times; I love you.'
"Tom…"
'That will always the truth, I love you, nothing but the truth,'
"It's already a new day…"
'So please, please don't go.'
"… Happy 27th birthday, beloved."
A/N: An OOC Tom, I know. Tom is the most unlikely person to sacrifice himself for someone else, but for this plot I've decided to put him into the shoes of a typical knight, who would kill and be killed for people he wanted to protect. As for Harry, I can't say whether the circle is coming to its end or not, so yeah. :)
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