Disclaimer: I am not JKR and I don't own Harry Potter.
Hi I'm Q and here's my Tom and Harry demons AU! Reviews make my world go round, and I hope you like my story :)
Harry didn't mean to befriend Tom. Honest, he didn't. It just sort of happened, and yeah, maybe he should've broken off the friendship when he figured out that Tom was (quite literally) the King of Hell, but he'd never in a million years have imagined he'd land himself in this situation.
Stupidly, Harry had managed to get himself killed in a car accident a mere two minutes ago. He'd been sent to Heaven, but had not been accepted because of his ties to that place down under. Since he couldn't go to heaven, he had voluntarily descended into Hell to go find his best friend. Which was even more disturbing when he put it like that. He found Tom in an office setting talking into the phone in his deceptively charming voice.
"Yes, yes, at your earliest convenience. No need to trouble yourself on my account. I have all the time in the world after all." Tom said in honeyed tones. "Get him to me whenever you can." Harry, and probably the person on the other end of the line, understood that appearances, and everything really in Tom's case, were deceptive. He understood that what Tom really meant was that he wanted whoever it was today, and would have him today. The King of Hell turned around to look at Harry, and a confused look passed over his face, quickly followed by amusement. Of course it only took Tom a matter of seconds to jump to the right conclusion. "Let me guess. You died, and they wouldn't accept you into Heaven because of me?" Aware of exactly how immature the action was, Harry stuck out his tongue. "Join the dark side Harry, we have better cookies," Tom chuckled at the thought.
"Haha really funny Tom," Harry muttered sarcastically, still sore over having to come down to Hell.
"I certainly think it is, but onto more important matters: do you think you'd like to stay here?" He inquired delicately. Harry shuffled awkwardly for a moment before answering.
"Well seeing as I've got no better place to go... yeah I suppose I can perhaps tolerate your company for the rest of time." His best 'put upon' expression was fixed to his face, but Harry didn't mind all that much. Tom was an evil bastard, probably a psychopath even, but he'd proven that he cared for Harry more than once.
Tom grinned like the cat that caught the canary. "Excellent," he practically hissed, "Be sure to be here bright and early tomorrow morning. I'll have Lucius lead you to your rooms. In the morning we'll have a small ceremony inducting you into the ranks of Hell." Harry started to protest, but Tom lifted a brow, and he remembered how bad of an idea that really was.
"Fine," he growled. Tom looked over to the doorway, and called out to the guard stationed there.
"Lucius come in please." Harry glanced up and inspected the newest addition. He had long platinum blonde hair, a decidedly arrogant sneer, and a gait that practically screamed he thought of himself as a member of the aristocracy. Which reminded Harry that he needed to figure out how the bureaucracy of the underworld worked, but he would save that for later.
"My lord what do you require of me?" Tom inclined his head towards Harry, but kept his eyes on Lucius. Harry didn't miss the change that came over him every time someone else entered their presence. Tom grew colder, becoming the so-called devil with an angel's face.
"You are to bring my new guest to his suite. The one right next to mine will do." Lucius' eyes widened imperceptibly.
"My lord? That suite has not been used in decades!" He cried out in shock.
"Are you questioning me Lucius?" That same silky soft tone from earlier had entered his voice and Lucius tightened his posture and shook his head no frantically. With Tom's change in tone had come a change in temperature as the room dropped to freezing point instantly. Tom nodded towards the door, face set in a smile as authentic as the mirages he was known for. Lucius left, but Harry stayed back to give Tom a hug.
As per usual, the blue eyed man stiffened, but then hugged Harry back. "Can't get enough of me hm golden boy?" Harry flicked his nose,
"As if." Harry followed after Lucius to his private quarters without further comment. Honestly Harry didn't know what he'd been expecting of Hell, but it certainly wasn't this. Sure the walls were mostly black or red, but the decor was rather sophisticated, polished even. Most of the chairs were made of leather, real leather, and the tables were all strong woods with a couple 'Business Insider' magazines strewn on top. It brought to mind the nice banks by where he used to live, and Harry was starting to wonder where all the torture chambers were, not that he wanted to see them. Apparently Lucius noticed his confusion,
"The head demons live in a separate area of Hell the torture racks are in the outer rim, The real estate around here is rather pricey as it's practically the only place from which you can't hear the screams." His lips quirked up in a smirk when he said 'pricey' and Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be let in on the joke.
"Thank you for explaining," he said instead. Lucius nodded and opened the doors to Harry's room. The moment after, the man hurried down the hall, as if he'd been summoned. Harry had half a mind to call after him, and ask that he not leave quite yet, tell him that he still needed help, but decided against it at the last minute. Who knew how much help that man could be, even if he was one of Tom's people. Harry popped his head into the room and realized quite quickly that his suites had been set up to look exactly like his own home, 12 Grimmauld Place. He thanked Tom in his head and slumped down into his bed.
Next thing Harry knew it was morning. A raven haired man he didn't recognize had shaken him awake. He had blue eyes like Tom's, Harry noticed, but a darker shade, and that's as far as the resemblance between the two went. Tom's hair was curled in little ringlets that annoyed the man to no end, and his face was more angular. This man had straight hair, and a beard covering quite a few of his facial features. There was also a difference in aura, Tom's was nearly overpowering and when full force would cow the strongest. This man's aura was powerful by normal standards, but had nothing on Tom, and even now the man seemed almost... afraid? Of Harry? He cleared his throat and smiled reassuringly,
"Good morning, do I have to report to Tom already?" To clarify, it had been a joke, but by the way the man simply nodded, Harry assumed it wasn't one here in Tom's kingdom. He got up and quickly threw on some decent clothes. From experience Harry already knew that Tom disapproved of most of his closet, but Harry had refused to change his style of dress for a friend. That being said he found it odd that his normal clothes were all present in his wardrobe, but he brushed it off.
Harry strode into the living area, where the strange demon had positioned himself, "Hello, I'm afraid I forgot to introduce myself earlier. My name is Harry, it's nice to meet you." He held out a hand, which the other man ignored and simply stated,
"Rodolphus" Harry was puzzled at the man's behavior, but followed after him without further comment.
He led the way to the same office Harry had found Tom in the day before. Once inside he found Tom, and a few others sitting down at a conference table that hadn't been there before. Harry quickly noticed Lucius from the day before, and Snape surprisingly. Snape was just as dismayed to see him, but settled for a sneer before turning his attention back to Tom. Rodolphus quickly sat down next to a man who bore a remarkable resemblance to him, and a woman that reminded him of his godfather's cousin. Harry took the last available seat, to the right of Tom. Apparently this had some sort of significance as everyone turned their head to him in perfect synchronization. Tom laughed it off.
"Good morning Tom, is there anything to eat? I'm starving," Tom turned to look at Rodolphus and mockingly drawled,
"I'm quite sure I told you to take care of Harry's needs this morning Rodolphus. Was that too much for you to handle?" Harry, immediately realizing what was going on, laid a hand on Tom's shoulder.
"Hey it's not his fault, it's mine. I didn't realize I was hungry until we got here. Besides I'm a full grown adult already. I can take care of myself, or are you trying to imply I can't?" The unsubtle attempt at manipulation did not go unnoticed by Tom.
"Nice try golden boy, but you're going to have to try harder than that. Although I will admit it's a good point. You are a full grown adult who should be able to look after himself. Which brings me to my next concern. How is it, that after I've told you a million times to be careful and look where you're walking, you died in a car accident?"
"Hey! I was chasing after this kid's pet and I didn't think–" Harry cut himself off at Tom's utterly exasperated look.
"I told you your hero complex would get you killed someday,"
"Well it's not like I could just let the poor kid lose his rabbit!" Harry returned heatedly. Tom's expression went inscrutable, and Harry, not for the first time, wondered what the hell the other was thinking.
"Indeed not." A silence stretched out for a a few minutes until finally he broke it again. "Well that's not what you're here for. I've decided to make you my second-in-command, a right hand man if you will." Harry started protesting immediately,
"What does that even entail? I'm not a demon! Why would I want to be your right hand man? Tom you can't just drop something on me like this out of the blue!" Tom just looked amused as he normally did when he had the upper hand in their conversations.
"How was I supposed to break it to you then?"
"I don't know, you could've started with a 'Hi Harry. How are you doing today Harry? Harry listen, I have an open position within my ranks. Would you like to join me?' That would've done nicely I think!" He exclaimed, gesticulating wildly and oozing as much sarcasm as possible,
"Yes well I suppose I saved us both valuable time. Now if that was your only concern..." Tom trailed off before disappearing in an ominous cloud of dark smoke.
"No that was not my only concern! Tom get back here! Tom!" Harry got the distinct impression Tom was laughing at his predicament wherever he was. He sighed, exasperated at his best friend's antics and tried, yet again, to remember why he'd befriended Tom. Drawing a blank, he turned his attention to the remaining ten people around the table. "Okay so is there any chance one of you could tell me what my new responsibilities are to be?" The black haired woman waved her hand excitedly, and bounced up and down in her seat. The crazed look in her eye didn't reassure Harry, nor did the 'so done with this' expressions the rest of the demons around the table were sporting. One in particular, her husband, Harry read discreetly nudged her, presumably to shut her up.
"Pick me! Pick me! Ooh pick me! I can tell you!" Harry nodded at the over exuberant ravenette. "Okay so basically you have to come supervise the torture sessions in the dungeons. You'll love it! There's blood! And corpses! And severed spines! And guts! And eyeballs! And best of all there's brains in jars!" She said in a cross between a coo and a squeal. The others around the table nodded in agreement. Harry highly doubted he would love it, but he reluctantly followed the crazy ravenette down to the dungeons, learning along the way that her name was Bellatrix, and that she was indeed his godfather's cousin. Not that he was surprised, his godfather had a large family.
Eventually they reached the dungeons, and Harry realized that the loud, tortured screams resonated down the hall were not in fact a figure of his imagination or even an exaggeration. Flabbergasted, he turned around and demanded of the others who'd followed Bellatrix and him. "What are his crimes?"
Silence reigned for a few minutes until Rodolphus answered, "Does it really matter?" Harry sputtered before finally looking forward. Which was definitely a mistake as he promptly threw up at the sight, as if the stench hadn't been enough.
"Yes, it really does," Lucius took pity on him, and pulled out a clipboard which clearly stated that the man's only major sin was lying under oath. A lie which had saved several lives. Harry was beginning to realize the system down here was just as skewed as he'd always been told, but in a different way.
"If you mind so much why don't you choose his punishment?" Suggested a demon Harry didn't know the name of.
"Well I'd say he's had enough punishment, but next time a case like this comes up why don't you just make him apologize to the person or people he lied to?"
"Apologize?" Bellatrix said it almost like a word she'd never heard before. The blank looks on everyone else's faces did not reassure him in the slightest. Harry could see he would have his work cut out for him with this group.