Info: My friend (Ms Foo Foo Cuddlypoops) and I were roleplaying this, I thought I'd turn it into a One Shot as we never finished. Hope you all enjoy!
Parings- Tommary, Hermione/Ron. Slytherin!Harry.
Harry couldn't stand it any longer. His hand gripped onto the Horcrux, ready to remove the bloody thing from his neck.
"'Mione, Ron. I'm going for a walk." He stated and without waiting for a reply, he stormed out of the tent. He needed some fresh air and he placed a Notice-Me-Not charm around him, something he learnt from Hermione, just in case there were snatchers about.
The Horcrux was making him feel different emotions and none were good. Just how could they destroy this thing?
Harry wasn't paying attention to where he was going. He didn't even know how far he was from their tent. He then paused mid step. Was he lost? No... He could just use a tracking spell. Panic over.
His nose scrunched up at a ghastly smell. He looked further into the distance, what was that? He pinched his nose to try and get rid of the horrifying smell. It was a dead, or dying animal.
Suddenly the Horcrux shot out from beneath the chosen one's shirt and began to tug at his neck, dragging him towards the fallen beast. It was a large, golden-brown stallion, that lay in the middle of a clearing with a huge, nasty looking gash in it's belly. It's chest rose and fell in shallow breaths and it's eyes blinked feebly. Barely a meter away from the animal, the Horcrux stopped dragging Harry closer.
It began to glow a pale blue and cracked open, a ghost-like form flying out of it and hovering between Harry and the horse. As the horse seemed to grow weaker, the figure grew more defined and less transparent, until finally in a flash of blinding light and one last rasping breath from the horse, the locket shut again and fell dully on Harry's chest.
Before the boy who lived stood a very solid, very naked and unmistakable man. Tom Marvolo Riddle looked older than he had when Harry had first encountered him, maybe in his twenties. His features were sharper, his face slightly hollow, his black, wavy hair lay in perfect curls on his forehead, his deep blue eyes took in the boy in front of him.
"Hello, Harry..." said a hissing, amused voice in Harry's head, although Tom did not open his mouth. "Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise?"
Harry stared, taking in Tom's appearance. He had to blink a few times to get out of his shock. What just happened? Now, not only did they have an insane Voldemort to deal with, he also had to deal with a twenty year old Tom fucking Riddle? What was the world coming to?!
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it pleasant," Harry managed to drawl out. He actually hated surprises. But he was quite impressed with himself for getting himself together so quickly. Harry ran a hand through his messy hair that desperately needed cutting. Where was Hermione when he needed her? What were they going to do now?
"Oh dear, am I that underwhelming?" Tom queered, actually opening his mouth this time, instead of speaking in Harry's mind. "I would have expected at least a gasp..." Tom stepped forward.
"No need to look so scared..." He gestured to his nude form.
"Where would I be hiding a wand?" A shiver ran down his spine. "I forgot how cold being human is... Do you have any clothes, or are you just going to stare at me?" Tom had watch Harry almost every moment through the confines of the locket and now that he was finally out, he felt a strange uncertainty.
The boy could kill him quite easily now. He was a memory, he had no Horcruxes of his own and he didn't have a wand either. There was only a cerain amount of things one could do with wandless magic...
Harry shook his head, getting out of his shock. Blushing lightly at Tom's comments. Hold up. He wasn't blushing. He was just cold. That was it. Clothes. Tom needed clothes. They'd have to make their way back to Hermione and Ron. But first. Harry took off his coat and chucked it to Tom.
"That's all I can give you for now, Tom." The name felt foreign against his lips as he spoke again.
"You're going to have to come with me to our tent. Only if you promise not to hurt Hermione and Ron," He didn't care that Tom didn't have a wand, there was still wandless magic. That and physical fighting. Harry made sure his wand was in reach. He didn't want to hurt Riddle. Not yet, anyway.
Tom smirked as he pulled on the coat, wrapping it around his slim form. "Did you like what you see, Harry?" came the hissing voice in the boy's head again, but Tom pretended he hadn't spoken at all and followed the younger man, his long fingers gripping the fabric tightly. He was freezing. Quite literally freezing. But he didn't show it, besides a few winces, when his feet found a particularly cold patch of earth.
"I'll promise not to hurt your friends, if they promise not to try and dismember me... I rather like having my body back." Tom purred, walking quicker so he was directly beside Harry. "I had almost forgotten how stunning I look."
Harry blushed again, focusing on looking at the ground as they walked. It turned out they weren't that far from them, before he walked past the protected spell that Hermione had put around them the two days before, he spoke again. He chose to ignore Tom's last comment.
"We're here. Ron might be difficult to deal with, Hermione will be more comprising. I have no idea how they'll react to you," He told Tom.
They walked in and Harry bit his lip. Unsure what to expect.
As they entered through the tent flap, both Ron and Hermione turned. Ron began to talk "Hey, Harry, Hermione thinks we ought to try and look through all her stupid books ag-" he stopped and Hermione joined him in a stunned silence. "H-Harry... Is- Is that?" Hermione all but whispered. "Why is Tom Riddle in our tent?"
Tom gave a bored little sigh and stepped forward. "The short version is: Harry found a dying animal in the woods, I saw my chance to be free of merely being a memory and I used that animal's last bit of life force to turn myself from a memory to a solid human being." he thought for a minute. "Oh and I haven't told Harry this yet, because he wouldn't have believed me, but I want to help you." he said this very matter-of-factly as he addressed mainly Hermione. "My older self is a weak and insane and he needs to be gotten rid of. I know how to do just that, therefore I advise you to take me up on the offer."
Ron seemed to have recovered slightly, because he drew his wand and pointed it at Tom. "It's a trick, 'Mione!" he said, trying to step in front of her and shield her. "He's just trying to get us to let our guards down and then he'll kill us in our beds!"
Tom sighed again, not seeming too worried about the shaking wand pointed in his direction. "No, no, no. Please don't be so obvious. If I wanted to kill anyone it would be Harry, don't you think? And I was alone with him in the woods, just a few moments ago. Why would I want to try and murder him here, where he has backup? I could have just ended his life then and neither of you imbeciles would have been any the wiser." His tone of voice was pitched as though he was explaining something to a small, stupid child and a slight hiss at the end of his words hinted that he was starting to loose his temper.
Harry wasn't really paying attention to what Hermione, Ron and Tom were saying as he went through some of his clothes to try and find something Tom could wear.
"Harry! We have Tom Riddle in our tent, what are you doing?" Hermione raised her voice slightly after narrowing her eyes at Tom.
Harry found a green hoodie and a pair of his black jeans and chucked them over to Tom's direction, not caring if he caught the clothes or not. He then turned to Hermione and Ron.
"Yeah, a naked Tom Riddle," Harry replied, rolling his eyes as he collapsed down on the sofa. Ron groaned.
"Ew! Mate, did you see-" Harry just nodded and Ron made some fake puking sounds. Or he was being sick, who knows.
"Harry you can't have thought this through properly! I know he's saying he's telling the truth but that's exactly what he'd want you to believe -" Harry put his hand up to silence her and she shut her mouth tight, giving him a look. Harry then cursed in Parseltongue.
"Look. Tom was right. He would have hurt me in the woods. And Tom is also right, Voldemort is getting weaker by the day. We need to trust Tom. He may be the only chance we have,"
"I believe that Harry didn't mind what he saw, Weasley." Tom smirked and caught the clothes, giving Harry an unappreciative glare, as he studied them.
"Well... At least the colours aren't terrible..." He used wandless magic to let Harry's coat hover around him as he changed.
"They're a little small, too. You must be shorter than I am." Tom remarked, once the coat dropped on the floor.
Then he turned to Hermione, who had decided to turn away while the young Lord Voldemort changed, and Ron, who was looking, speechless, between Harry and Tom. "Do they always look this gormless?" he asked in Parseltongue, while giving them both a pleasant smile. "No wonder you haven't managed to do anything but run around hiding so far."
Ron glared at him. "Oi! What's he saying?"
Harry rolled his eyes at both Ron and Tom. He knew they would be a nightmare together. He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he turned to Ron,
"Nothing you need to worry about," He said in English before he glanced at Tom and spoke in Parseltongue.
"Have any better ideas?" He decided to ignore Tom's comments about Hermione and Ron, they had bigger things to worry about at this point in time.
Hermione gave Harry a look as she walked towards him, she whispered in his ear,
"You really liked what you saw?" She questioned with raised eyebrows and Harry fought his blush as he bit his lip.
"That is not of your concern," He replied with, which didn't help as Hermione gave him a knowing look as she walked back to stand next to Ron.
Tom sighed and walked over to sit next to Harry. "Simple." he hissed, smirking.
"Tell me what you know and what my older self is up to and I'll tell you how to destroy the other Horcruxes, where I think I would have hidden them, where I did hide them and what you're doing so idiotically wrong." he smiled sweetly at Harry. "Destroying myself... Now that should be fun." He grinned, adding a almost child-like element to the triumphant, sadistic Voldemort that Harry knew. "Weeding out the weak, as it were... Getting rid of the cankerous branches on my overgrown tree... It's almost like Christmas has come early!" Tom looked gave Harry the most genuine smile he'd given any of them during the entire evening, before straightening up and, surprisingly, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Apologies... I'm just happy to have something to do. Being trapped inside an inanimate object for a few decades is incredibly dull."
Harry blinked. That actually sounded like a pretty good idea. He turned to Hermione and Ron. He tried to ignore the feeling he had when Tom sent him a genuine smile. He couldn't like Tom. He just... Couldn't.
"Basically he just said to tell him which Horcruxes we've found and what Voldy is up to and he'll tell us how to destroy said Horcruxes," He said and Hermione's eyes widened but Ron replied before she could even speak.
"He's lying to you! Why would he want to destroy himself? He is clearly insane!" Ron exclaimed, waving his hands about. Hermione sighed and put her hand over Ron's mouth, who turned a light shade of pink. Hermione didn't see this as she turned to Harry and Tom.
"Do what you have to do, we are with you all the way," She said with a nod.
Tom smiled at Hermione, leaning back against the sofa, with his arms stretched out on the top of it's backrest, one arm brushing Harry's neck as he put it there.
"At least one of your friends isn't as stupid as they look..." he drawled in English smirking slightly as Ron scowled at him from behind Hermione's hand.
Antagonising the ginger boy was going to be fun, he thought. Almost as much fun as watching Harry being tormented by his attraction to him... He hadn't open shown it, but he'd been looking into Harry's mind during most of their conversation. It was only natural that they felt a connection, he thought, they were so much alike. And if there was anyone Tom would like to take over the world with after they had dealt with his old, boring self... Well, Harry was definitely on the top of the list. His eyes took on an ever so slightly hungry expression as he imagined this. But first things first... he reminded himself, taking a deep breath to calm his desires, get him to trust you. Love you even. Oh this was going to be so much fun!
Hermione pursed her lips. "I don't need validation from you, Riddle. And Ron's a very capable wizard!"
Tom beamed at her. "Oh, I'm sure you both are!" he said, brightly, if a more than a little patronisingly. "You'll have to forgive me. I grew up in Slytherin house. Playful insults are the way most snakes communicate. I had no idea Gryffindors where this sensitive."
Harry raised an eyebrow, Gryffindor's were not... Okay... Maybe the were a tiny bit sensitive, not that he'd tell Hermione or Ron that.
Hermione sent a glare at Tom, though she didn't reply. She removed her hand from Ron's mouth. Ron folded his arms grumpily.
"We shouldn't trust him. He's bad news. When he turns out evil I will be there to say I told you so," He said with a huff and Hermione gave him a look which promptly shut Ron up.
"So. Let's talk," Harry said and started to explain briefly to Tom what Voldy was up to. He glanced at Ron and Hermione while he was talking to Tom. Ron had chosen to slouch down on a chair while Hermione had started to pace.
He didn't know why he felt like he could trust Tom. He just... Did.
Tom barely listened to what Harry was saying, simply picking out the key words and filing them in his brain for later use.
He mainly sat there, listening intently, while mapping out the various facial expression Harry was making and studying the way his lips moved. He really was quite attractive... If you took away the glasses and maybe straightened out that ridiculously messy hair. Tom had had a limited amount of sexual relationships, most of them with very trusted members of his own gang at Hogwarts, but he knew when he was attracted to someone. Usually he would ignore it, but the instant pull of "Want. Want. Want" in his mind was a little overpowering. He despised being controlled by anything but his own mind, but this time it felt nice. The lust for more made him feel alive.
"Interesting..." He interjected. "You've done better that I'd imagined." he mulled over the key words he'd heard out of Harry's rambling, before saying. "I'm sure there will be a Horcrux in Hogwarts, possibly also in Gringotts, depending on how much trust my older self has for his new followers, that much is certain. From what you've said about the snake Nagini, I'm assuming she is one too and as for destroying them, welll..." he smirked, winking at the Gryffindor. "You're very lucky that I'm adept enough to cast and control Fiendfyre..."
Hermione let out a quiet gasp. "You can really do that?!" she asked, excitedly. "You can actually control it. That's really rare. Even the person, who created the spell had a lot of diffic-" she broke off, a little abashed, when she remembered who she was talking about and Tom looked like he was trying hard not to laugh.
Gringotts, Hogwarts and the Snake? Yeah, shouldn't be too hard... Harry then tried not to laugh at Hermione, though he was very impressed with Tom. That took some talent and skill.
"That's all well and good," He drawled out. "But how are we even getting past the Goblin's? And what about school? We'll be recognised the moment we get there!" Harry exclaimed running a hand through his hair.
Hermione, getting over her shock, turned to Harry.
"We can do this, Harry. Calm down!"
Harry raised his eyebrows.
"When does saying 'calm down' ever work, 'Mione?" He questioned ludicrously.
~~~ The End.