~The Time of Roses~
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Summary: Harry travels back to 1942 in order to kill the 16 year old Tom Riddle. But apparently, someone else had the same idea. Who is the mysterious Arcturus Black? And why is he kissing Riddle? SLASH HP/TR.
Warning: Rated M for slash (homoerotic romance) between Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, with a little interference from Arcturus Black. Whoever he is...
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~Chapter 3~
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Harry couldn't sleep. Too many strange thoughts were swirling around in his head: Arcturus Black, who almost looked like Sirius. Arcturus Black, who was sorted into Gryffindor. Arcturus Black, who appeared to be a time traveler, just like Harry. Who was he, and what was he doing here? Had he come to kill Tom Riddle as well?
Harry sighed and buried his head in the cool, smooth satin of his pillow. It didn't help. The thoughts kept churning in his mind. Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle, who had dreamed of a boy with a scar. Tom Riddle, who was still searching for the Chamber of Secrets. Tom Riddle who was going to become Voldemort. Except that he wasn't Voldemort. Not yet. Tom Riddle, whose breath had felt so warm against Harry's face...
What was that noise? That slight rustling sound by the door? Was someone creeping out of the dormitory at night? Harry lay still, listening. Soft footsteps against the marble floors, coming closer... No, no one was sneaking out of the dormitory. Someone was sneaking in! How very strange...
Harry lay motionless, feigning sleep. His perpetually messy hair had fallen halfway over his eyes; he didn't think anyone would be able to tell in this soft light that he was not sleeping unless they looked very closely. A shadowy figure was weaving its way through the room now, bending over the sleeping boys and scrutinizing each face in turn.
The figure stopped at Riddle's bed. "There he is," whispered a voice softly. Harry peered at the intruder through the strands of his dark hair. Gryffindor robes? How had a Gryffindor student been able to enter the Slytherin dormitory at night? Long, black curls gleamed in the candlelight. Arcturus Black? What is he doing here in the middle of the night?
The next moment, Harry realized precisely what Arcturus was doing, for the Gryffindor boy pulled a wand out of his robes and pointed it at Riddle. "Apparently, Sybill predicted the future correctly for once, Tom," he breathed. "You are about to die, Lord Voldemort. Before you can hurt any more people."
Harry waited, breathlessly, for the deadly curse, but Arcturus seemed to hesitate. He ran his fingers through his black curls and looked uncertainly at the sleeping boy in front of him. "Damn. This would be easier if he looked more like himself..." muttered the young assassin. "Why does he have to look like a bloody angel?"
I know all too well how you feel, Arcturus! Harry felt his heart beating wildly in his chest. He felt a strange urge to leap out of bed and knock the wand out of Arcturus' unsteady hand, and he groaned inwardly. Merlin! Hermione was right. I really do have a "saving people thing", don't I? I don't even want to see Tom Riddle dead. Well, if I really want lives to be saved, I need to let Arcturus do this. I need to let him kill Voldemort. I failed miserably at my task already. Now all I need to do is stay quiet and let the mysterious Arcturus save the lives of all of Voldemort's future victims with one swift, deadly curse.
What was taking him so long? Arcturus seemed distracted by something. "Damn. He's... beautiful. Why does he have to be so beautiful?" Arcturus' wand was shaking in his hand now. He stood there for a few moments, in apparent irresolution, staring at Tom. "And I'm not gay, no matter what my idiot friends think," he whispered to himself. "They don't know anything about me. I'm attracted to girls, damn it! I'm not attracted to boys. And especially not to him..." A slight sigh escaped him. The next moment, he bent over the bed and touched his lips lightly to Tom's pale forehead, and then his mouth.
Tom moaned softly in his sleep, and Arcturus leaped back, startled. "Oh, Merlin!" He looked at Tom, his grey eyes wide in the dim light. "What the hell did I just do? I'm supposed to kill him, for Merlin's sake! Oh, I'm pathetic! This is going to be harder than I thought..." He shook his head slowly.
Harry closed his eyes. He could hear Arcturus' footsteps, retreating towards the door, then the slight creak of the heavy oak door as it open and closed.
Arcturus Black couldn't kill Tom Riddle either. Harry felt strangely relieved at the thought.
Tom stirred in his sleep again. *Come back...* As he whispered the phrase in Parseltongue, his lips curled in a slight smile. The dark, full lips that Arcturus had kissed a few moments before...
Suddenly, Harry felt quite certain that he could pull off the killing curse, after all. He knew that if he uttered the Avada Kedavra curse at that moment, deadly green sparks would fly from his wand and strike his victim dead.
The only problem was that it wasn't Tom that he wanted to kill right now, but bloody Arcturus, who went around kissing people in the night.
Harry buried his head in his pillow and groaned.
...
"What in Merlin's name has come over Arcturus?" John Lupin sounded distinctly annoyed. "The match is about to start any minute, and he's still over in the stands, smiling at those Ravenclaw girls. GET OVER HERE, ARCTURUS!"
"He's been cursed. I'm sure of it." Alastor Moody looked grim. "He's been acting strange all day, flirting with every girl in sight."
"He has, hasn't he?" The round-faced Algie Longbottom frowned. "My girlfriend, Enid, said that Arcturus blew her a kiss in the hallway and complimented her on her... er... bosom. She was very annoyed. Hexed him within an inch of his life, of course."
"Perhaps Arcturus is trying to prove something." The voice of the Gryffindor keeper, Minerva McGonagall, was distinctly chilly.
Moody shook his head stubbornly. "Cursed," he said darkly. "It's the only explanation. Hitting on Enid is one thing - she is a fine-looking lass, begging your pardon, Longbottom - but I saw Arcturus flirting with Jane Selwyn in arithmancy class, and there can be no natural explanation for that. That girl looks like a toad."
"She does not!" Algie Longbottom sounded indignant. "She's perfectly horrid."
Moody frowned slightly. "Yes, that's what I meant, Longbottom."
John Lupin looked worried. "Perhaps Arcturus has drunk some sort of love potion? No, that can't be it, either - amortentia would make him fall in love with one girl, not all of them."
"A potion?" Moody nodded slowly. "You may be on to something there, Lupin. I've noticed Arcturus taking little sips from a bottle he keeps in his pocket when he thinks no one is noticing. Probably something far more sinister than a love potion, if you ask me."
"Having problems with your seeker, Lupin?" Tom shot the Gryffindor captain a look of false sympathy. "We don't have to play if you'd like to concede the match to us instead."
"Our seeker will be here in thirty seconds, Riddle," snapped Minerva McGonagall and stomped off to retrieve Arcturus from the stands, her long braids flying behind her. Harry couldn't hear what she said to him, but Arcturus looked rather sheepish as he followed her onto the field a few moments after.
"About time, Mr. Black." The flying teacher, a small wiry foreign wizard whose name Harry didn't catch, looked sternly at Arcturus. "Teams, assume your positions, please."
The two teams lined up. Arcturus Black, John Lupin, Algie Longbottom, Alastor Moody, Minerva McGonagall and two boys named Frobisher and Sloper made up the Gryffindor team, while Harry, Tom, Abraxas Malfoy, Cepheus Lestrange, Alphard Black, a third year student named Orion Black, who looked like cheerful miniature Sirius, and a boy named Crockett played for Slytherin. It felt a little strange to be playing Quidditch wearing the silver and green Slytherin uniform, and Harry's glance flickered enviously over to Arcturus, who was looking very handsome in the red and gold robes of Gryffindor House.
Harry felt Tom's hand on his shoulder. "Good luck, Harry. Show them what you can do."
"Oh, I'll show them all right." Harry's gaze was fixed on Arcturus.
Tom laughed. "That's the spirit!" He ruffled Harry's hair gently, and Harry saw a look of deep annoyance run over Arcturus' face.
The golden snitch was released into the bright spring air, disappearing in a flurry of light and motion, and the other balls followed. Harry leaned forward on his broomstick, scanning the air for any sign of the snitch. There! A slight movement at the very edge of his vision... Harry shot off through the air, and he heard a slight murmur from the crowd below. The Silver Arrow Dumbledore had so kindly provided for him was somewhat slower than the broomsticks Harry was used to from the future, but it was rather responsive, and if you angled it just so, it was perfectly possible to get some decent speed out of it.
Unfortunately, Arcturus Black seemed to be every bit as fast on his Silver Arrow as Harry was on his. The red-robed Gryffindor boy raced after Harry through the fragrant spring air. A dangerous glint in his grey eyes suggested that he wasn't going to let Harry get his hands on the snitch in this lifetime if he could help it.
Harry changed directions, and so did Arcturus. Harry groaned. Why did Arcturus follow him around like that? Fly off and search for the bloody snitch yourself, Arcturus, and stop following me wherever I go! Merlin, he's annoying! Stop following me, or I'll show you some moves from my future you won't appreciate!
Wait a minute... Harry grinned suddenly. No, that's all right, Arcturus. You just go ahead and follow me. He veered his broom suddenly to the left, and sure enough, Arcturus followed.
Far below, he could hear the flying teacher's excited stream of commentary. "And Orion Black approaches the goal, yet again! Ah, good shot! But the Gryffindor keeper, McGonagall, makes another spectacular save... And where is the snitch? The two seekers seem to be heading in the same direction. Something appears to be happening up there. I think the Slytherin seeker has spotted the snitch! He's going for... Merlin's beard!"
Harry could hear the murmur of noises from the crowd as he dove suddenly towards the ground far below, hand outstretched, as if to catch the snitch. He looked quickly over his shoulder. Yes, Arcturus was still in hot pursuit. Harry smiled to himself and headed straight for the ground in a blur of speed. He could feel the rush of wind from Arcturus' broom right behind him, sensed that he was drawing closer...
At the last possibly instant, Harry straightened his broom, mere inches from the ground, and swooped back up in the air.
"Oof!" Arcturus hit the ground with a thud. Harry gave him a brief glance, then soared up and grabbed the golden snitch, which was hovering quietly over by the Gryffindor goalposts. The crowd sat in stunned silence for a few moments before frantic applause and cheers broke out.
John Lupin stared wide-eyed at Harry. "Wait, what just happened? Did you just pretend to see the snitch down there, so Arcturus would follow you?"
"That was bloody brilliant!" Abraxas' Malfoy's eyes were shining.
"Fantastic, Harry!" Tom Riddle was laughing. "How did you think of that? I've never seen anything like it!"
"Neither have I." There was an expression of rapture on the flying teacher's face as he gazed at Harry. "What a brilliant tactical move! I have to try that myself when I go back to Poland this summer and play for the Grodzisk Goblins!" He chuckled. "They won't know what hit them!"
Harry stared at him. "You play for the Grodzisk Goblins, sir?"
The little wizard grinned. "Indeed I do, Mr. Black. I'm their seeker."
"But then... then you must be... Jozef Wronski?" Harry blinked in confusion. Did I just teach Wronski the Wronski feint? Oh, no, I can feel a headache coming on, just thinking about it...
Arcturus had scrambled to his feet by now, and he was approaching Harry with a rather strange expression on his face.
"Did you... did you get hurt?" Harry couldn't help feeling a little bad about Arcturus' fall.
Arcturus shook his head ruefully. "Just my pride. No sweat. But what I would like to know is where you learned that particular move. It is a rather unusual one." He fixed Harry with his bright, grey gaze. "I don't think I've seen that feint before."
Something in his tone seemed to suggest that he had, perhaps, seen it after, at some time in the future.
"I... It just struck me as a good idea..." Harry faltered. To his immense surprise, a slow grin spread over Arcturus' face. He looked around rapidly to make sure that no one else was listening. Then he bent closer to Harry and whispered: "You'd better not be who I think you are, Black. Did you follow me here? I told you I was doing this alone, you moron. This is my mission."
"What?" Harry stared at Arcturus in complete incomprehension.
Arcturus flushed. "Oh, I guess you are not. My bad. You just reminded me of... of a friend of mine for a moment. No, of course you can't be. You were speaking Parseltongue before, weren't you?"
"That was the best Quidditch match I've ever seen!" A large boy with a mop of wild, black hair came up to them and began shaking Harry's hand violently up and down. "I heard yeh were good at Quidditch, Black, but that was incredible, that was!"
Hagrid? Harry smiled up at the familiar face. "Thank you, er... Rubeus, was it?" Hagrid looked almost the same, even without his exuberant beard.
"That's right!" Hagrid beamed at him. "Not much of a Quidditch player meself - a little too heavy for a regulation broomstick, yeh know - but it's great fun to watch." His black eyes twinkled. "Funny, isn't it, how the pair of yeh jus' showed up here a few weeks apart and made the matches more interesting!" He looked thoughtfully at Harry and Arcturus. "Now, there's something about the two of yeh that's been puzzling me - I can't put me finger on it, exactly, but... Are yeh two brothers?"
"Brothers?" Harry smiled at his friend from the future. "No, of course not. We don't even know each other from before. But we do have the same last name, so I assume we are distant relatives."
"Oh, I wasn't talking about the name." Hagrid put his large head to one side and looked at the two boys. "No, there's something else abou' the pair of yeh that's... that's..."
"That's what, Hagrid?" Arcturus looked at him with interest now.
Hagrid shrugged. "I don't rightly know how to say it, Black. Yeh two don' look the same, but yeh feel the same. Like one of those flobberworms that splits itself in two and becomes two flobberworms. Like... like yeh are almos' the same person, if yeh know what I mean..."
Harry and Arcturus looked at each other for a moment in stunned silence. Then Arcturus whispered: "But that's... that's complete nonsense, Hagrid..."
Hagrid rubbed his nose thoughtfully. "Yes. Yes, I suppose it is, Black." He lit up in a sudden, wide smile. "I'm wondering if either one of yeh is interested in rare creatures? Yeh both seem like the sort of people who are fond of animals. I've got a few interesting ones if ye'd like to take a look some time."
Harry and Arcturus' eyes met.
"What sort of creatures, Hagrid?" asked Arcturus in a resigned sort of voice.
"Oh, I can't tell yeh beforehand, Black." Hagrid smiled happily to himself. "Tha' would ruin the surprise, now, wouldn't it?"
