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OTP Boot Camp Challenge - 45. Patience
Patience
It had taken patience, lots of it to be able to worm his way through those solid, seemingly impenetrable barriers that Tom kept around him and then through to his icy heart.
Harry doubted that Tom had even noticed him at first. It was extremely unlikely that he had, being the Heir of Slytherin. Harry himself had not really taken notice of Tom either, easily assuming that he was like every other cold-hearted Slytherin that he had ever met.
Tom was cold-hearted but not necessarily like the other Slytherins. How could he be like the purebloods when he was raised in the muggle world?
It had taken time but Harry had noticed those small actions, ones so small that they were almost thoughtless, actions that bellied some hidden kindness that went unnoticed by the other Slytherins. Noticed or ignored, Harry was not sure because Slytherins were known for their perceptiveness and noticing things other people would not. They were not likely to miss something like this especially if Harry, a Gryffindor, had noticed it.
Harry knew for certain that Tom had noticed him when he had crashed into him on the way to Potions. It would have been difficult not to. Harry had been running down the corridor, hoping to make it to the Potions lab before Snape got there, turned the corner and run straight into the Slytherin boy.
It had not been one of Harry's best introductory meetings with someone but it had been memorable even if it had been entirely too short with him scrambling to pick his things up while apologizing and running away again. It would have been embarrassing had he not been in a hurry.
Harry had been startled when Tom had approached him while he had been in the library to return one of the quills he had missed in his hurry. It had been entirely unexpected. Harry had not even noticed that he had been missing a quill in the first place, Tom had been thanked nonetheless.
Harry had soon found himself with company whenever they were in the library at the same time. It must have been a strange sight to anyone who passed by their table. A Slytherin and Gryffindor sitting at the same table and not fighting over something, was almost unheard of.
Words had come later, after they were comfortable in each other's presence. Harry and Tom were still wary of each other, but had learned to speak. Their greetings had turned into full blown arguments over whichever topic they felt like discussing or something they had recently read. It was almost as if the Hogwarts Houses did not exist, they often simply forgot about something as trivial as their different houses. There were never any set expectations in real life, there was no such thing as a Sorting in real life. They were simply two people who enjoyed similar things.
They had become notorious within the school for being friends despite being in warring houses. That news had spread like wild fire for the first week, each house often having their own theories on how such a thing had occurred. Those rumours had provided Tom and Harry a fair amount of amusement as each new theory came to life under the overactive imagination of the school population.
Neither had noted the changes that had taken place subtly over time. Everything had been done silently, unnoticed by anyone but those who were able to take a step back and look at the entire picture. By the time they remembered to look back, they had already been too far gone.
