AN: Reason why I'm not replying to any reviews - I'm too damned lazy to go through them again. I'm not perfect, after all. Plus, I'm tired and trying my best to bring you all an awesome chappie. Sorry for the lateness, I hope you'll all excuse me... *begs for forgiveness* Unfortunately, this chapter is rather short.

Anyways thanks to everyone for reading or reviewing and keeping up their hopes for this fic. The new school year has been getting in my way. I didn't have much access to the internet over the summer hols, either.

Chapter 7: Hogwarts

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Tom's eyes widened, staring incredulously at Harry, who was sitting on the stool with the sorting hat.

No... This couldn't be! They couldn't be separated! Harry had said that he wanted to stay with Tom!

Tom! Not that pair of idiotic twins or that stupid Lupin boy!

So... Why?

You'll become great. You have the potential. And young Harry Selwyn, I can tell, will be one of the greatest influences and the best companion in your life. If you're put together, that is.

The Sorting Hat had told him so and, while he wasn't so sure about the influences part, he knew the companion part was correct. He wanted it to be correct.

Harry was the only one who could possibly understand him, the only one Tom would allow to understand him. Harry was his and they shouldn't - couldn't - be separated.

Tom watched, seething, despairing as Harry looked his way mournfully, walking hesitantly towards the Gryffindor table. Tom narrowed his eyes as the idiotic twins met him halfway, glomping him and dragging Harry over to sit next to them. He growled as Harry smiled, greeting Lupin and looking bashful with the Gryffindors clapping and cheering. Harry laughed along with his newfound friends and clapped joyously as Winterhall, Alexandria walked to the Hufflepuff table, joining the Japanese boy.

For the rest of the feast, not once did Harry look his way.

"Tom..."

Tom gritted his teeth, an emotion he had never got before - sadness - welling up inside him.

"Tom."

It was accompanied by an emotion he was very familiar with - anger - that boiled and burned inside him with a searing, unstoppable heat.

"Hey, Tom, can you hear me?"

Then came the ugly, green thing - jealousy - that rose, such a different green from the clear, emerald green of Harry's eyes. Something he had thought would be left behind after Harry became his.

But Harry wasn't his.

Harry, Harry was Lupin's and those idiots' and the crowd's and the-

"Tom! Wake up!"

Tom's eyes snapped open, a mesmerizing green above him. Harry looked worried, unsure and Tom blinked, trying to clear the dreams and separate them from the reality. He felt the soft sheets beneath him, uncomfortable due to the sweat that made it cling to his skin. The room was dark, but there was a hovering light above, illuminating the green canopy of his bed.

"Hey, Tom... Um, are you alright? You were having a pretty bad nightmare and you... Er... Kept calling out my name. It was kind of scary," Harry explained, quietly so they wouldn't wake their neighbors. "I couldn't really sleep, so I came over and then saw you tossing and turning."

"I'm alright now, Harry," Tom replied, feeling slightly embarrassed. It was the night of the start of school feast, or maybe early morning of the next day Tom wasn't sure, and both he and Harry had been sorted into Slytherin.

Stupid subconscious. Projecting these kinds of doubts...

"Uh, Tom..." Harry mumbled, chewing on his lip. Tom raised an eyebrow, sitting up and absently clearing the mess away his a flick of his hand and some concentration. "Can I... Sleepherewithyoutonight?"

Tom blinked, trying and failing to untangle the slew of words that had escaped Harry's mouth seemingly all at once. "Pardon?"

Harry bit his lip slightly. "Can I... Um, sleep with you in your bed tonight?" He asked, tentatively, as if he were afraid of being rebuked. At once, Tom felt relief surge within him. Harry still needed him, Harry was still his - though the other would deny it and scold him vehemently if he had said that aloud. "I can't seem to settle down and fall asleep by myself so please can I sleep here?" And then the most pitiful look Harry had ever worn was shoved into his face and Tom felt an amused smile grace his face. He wanted to tease Harry about his request, but Tom wouldn't do that while Harry had ammo. Tom was the one that had a nightmare, after all.

"Of course," Tom agreed after a moment. He absently wondered what their neighbors would think when they woke up to find the two of them in the same bed, but that would never happen, since they had both asked their Magic to protect their privacy.

As Harry snuggled down, Tom almost let a grin flitter across his face. He couldn't wait for morning to come. He had a feeling that Hogwarts was going to be great.

.:*Hogwarts*:.

Hogwarts was not great. That was the conclusion Tom came to after the first day.

They didn't get to do anything.

The professors droned on and on about what they were going to learn, and they didn't actually learn anything. Just listening absolutely bored him. He and Harry could already do all that stuff. He didn't need anything this school could give him. If this was the level they taught at, then what was the use of coming to Hogwarts?

"Welcome, my students, to Transfiguration Class."

Tom glared up at the smiling old professor. That idiot was annoying. And, for some reason, Harry really enjoyed the presence of that senile old coot.

Tom wasn't jealous, really, he wasn't. After all, who would be jealous of some old man with grey ing hair and freakishly long beard? Not Tom, that was for absolute certain. Tom just hated the fact that Harry always seemed to be delighted when near the other. Harry always smiled a tad but brighter when the other was around and seemed to relax in the old man's presence. His gaze held respect, too much of it for Tom's taste.

"Transfiguration is probably the hardest class in the curriculum we have at Hogwarts. It's a very delicate art, so, to avoid possibly fatal accidents, I hope you will all be on your best behavior and listen to what I say," Dumbledore directed a stern glare to his students at this before returning to his previous happy demeanor. "In this class you will learn how to do this," a wave of his wand and the desk became a pig, "and this," another wave and a quill became a rooster, "or similar things, at least." He gave his wand another wave and they turned back.

Many of the students were in awe and probably would've been giddy if their other classes weren't such let downs. They hadn't gotten to do a scrap of practical work.

"Since I doubt you want an in depth description of the curriculum and the theory is unnecessarily complicated, I shall start you off with some practical work." At once, everyone, Slytherins included, noticeably perked up. Even Tom was feeling anticipation. He looked beside him and frowned a little. Harry didn't seem all that excited. There wasn't really much change in his demeanor except for the more prominent glimmer in his eyes. For Dumbledore.

At once, Tom's mood plummeted and he sulked, not that he'd ever admit he was sulking. Why couldn't Harry pay more attention to Tom? Like before, when Tom was the center of Harry's world.

He huffed and took out his wand as soon as they were given the assignment. Turn matches into needles? Simple. He and Harry could do that wandless with their eyes closed and their hands behind their backs. But they might as well try the spell, right?

Muttering the incantation grumpily, Tom jabbed his wand at the match. It jolted up, surprising him, but became a needle with ease. He smirked with satisfaction as he eyed the other struggling students. Harry was the only one who had gotten it on the first try like him.

Ha! None of the others could ever match up to either of them. That's why they were the best, why he was the only one Harry belonged to.

"Very well done, Mr. Riddle, Mr. Selwyn," a voice said from behind them. Tom hid a scowl and looked behind him. Dumbledore. He couldn't help but glare up at the man even as Harry beamed at the praise. "On the first try, too. Ten points for each of you."

"Thank you, Professor," a Harry said, receiving a nod of approval in return. Dumbledore then looked to him. The older man's eyes twinkled with amusement at the glare he was receiving and Tom's eye twitched.

"Thank you... Sir," Tom eventually drawled out, giving a reluctant, but polite smile. Tom received a pat on the head instead of the nod and he clenched his fists.

"Keep practicing and why not try to transfigure patterns this time?" Dumbledore suggested before going off to help some other students.

Damned old man. He did that to irritate him, Tom just knew it. He looked to Harry who was inspecting his own needle. When Harry saw his stare, he smiled back confusedly and Tom exhaled, trying to relax enough to smile back. He managed a twitch of his lips, but that head pat had really cut his temper short. Too short for genuine smiles.

Stupid old fool.

.:*Hogwarts*:.

Harry thought it was relatively nice. He was able to meet new people and get to know the teachers on the first day. There might have not been any practical work, but Harry used the first class of all his subjects to compare the curriculum of this time and his time. It wasn't very exciting, true, but a boring, ordinary Hogwarts was something of novelty to him. He might as well enjoy the normality while it lasts, not that there was much of that in first place, considering the fact that he was going to Hogwarts as Tom Marvolo Riddle's best friend.

Transfiguration was a pleasant surprise. They had it with the Ravenclaws, but had arrived late and were, thus, unable to get a seat next to Naradia and Ida. However, his mood lifted because of three things.

One, they got to do practical work. True, it was only the match to needle transfiguration they learned in first year, but he and Tom had fun transfiguring different patterns onto the needles and comparing them. They also got twenty house points for Slytherin, which was a bonus.

Man, he never thought he'd actually ever say that getting house points for Slytherin was a good thing, ever.

Secondly, Tom seemed to get along very well with Dumbledore! And that was great, because while Tom and Fortuna were somewhat wary of the man (Fortuna said it was because he was too powerful), Harry really did want to get along with his past - future? - mentor. Dumbledore seemed fond of them, too, despite being the head of Gryffindor while Tom and Harry were in Slytherin. Harry didn't want to be able to believe that Dumbledore was a bad person.

Thirdly, Harry was just really glad how he had friends in every house. There was Lyall and the twins in Gryffindor, Alex in Hufflepuff, Naradia and Ida in Ravenclaw and, last but not least, Tom in Slytherin. Harry personally thought they made one big, happy family. He was really glad that Tom seemed to be getting along fine with the others, even if he was a bit quiet. The Slytherin heir answered their questions politely and occasionally joined them in their games. If that wasn't a good sign, then what was?

Harry hummed as he chopped the salamander tail carefully and precisely. As much as his magic had grown and his knowledge of the future stayed, his potions skills still weren't the greatest. Luckily for him, Tom demanded to be his partner and the other boy was much better at potions than he. One would think, with Harry's experience in cooking, he would get progressively better at potions, but no! His potions skills weren't very good, passable at most... But at least they weren't appalling. Five years under Snape's tutelage had to mean something right? Harry could dice and slice and prepare the ingredients, it was just actually making the potion which he failed utterly at.

Pushing the chopped up salamander tail to Tom, the slightly taller boy scrutinized it and gave Harry an approving nod, gathering the salamander tail and putting it into a bowl to use later. Harry puffed up with pride at that. Tom was a perfectionist and, to get his approval, that was a big thing. He had finished with his part, now Tom just had to complete the last stages of the potion.

Tom moved and went about putting the salamander tails with an amazing efficiency as he finished up the potion. He was rather stunning to look at as he worked. He went about the work station swiftly, not even having to glance at the instructions as he stirred the potion three times clockwise and left it simmer.

Harry smiled a little.

Someone's got a crush~

The teasing voice had him jumping in surprise. Fortuna.

Instead of the annoyance he would usually have felt when being teased by the immortal, he felt relief. Fortuna had been worryingly quiet and tired recently and Harry had no idea why. He mentally scowled at the snake.

I do not have a crush on Tom, Fortuna.

Ah ah, I didn't say it was you nor did I say it was Tom being crushed on.

Harry rolled his eyes. You implied it.

... Tom is really rubbing off on you isn't he? I remember a time where you would stutter and blush... You're no fun, anymore!

Harry swore the mental presence of Fortuna was pouting, how she achieved that he wasn't sure though. Probably the same way he conveyed eye rolls and scowls mentally, but he didn't actually know how he did that.

So... Where have you been recently? I haven't talked with you in a long time, Harry commented.

Oh, here and there, Fortuna said cryptically. Well, I'm going to get some shut eye. I'll be in the dorms on the bed if ya need me. And with that the link was cut.

Harry frowned a little, wondering what Fortuna had been doing.

A boom cut off his thought process and he instinctively threw himself down, taking Tom with him. Just in time to avoid a flying porcupine quill and smoke that came from the table beside them.

The Ashcroft twins.

Slughorn quickly rushed over, muttering incantations and clearing up the botched up potion. "Mister Ashcroft and Mister Ashcroft," Slughorn puffed angrily. "What in Merlin's name happened?"

The twins were grinning sheepishly, covered in black ash. "Er... Oops?" One of the two ventured.

Slughorn sighed. "Well, at least nothing too bad occurred. Just be thankful that it wasn't deadly."

"Those fools," Harry heard Tom grumble from beside him as they picked themselves up, "Don't they know that you have to turn the heat down before adding the porcupine quills?"

Harry had to bite his lip to stifle a laugh. Tom sounded so much like Snape that it was disturbing to the point of being funny. "I didn't know that either," he told Tom with a grin.

All Tom did was raise an eyebrow and smirk. "I know you didn't know. That's why I'm the one in charge of making the potion, no?"

Harry mentally told Tom he was lucky to avoid being hit by their cauldron.