A/N: Newly revised chapter! Woot! But about last chapter, I know it seemed that everyone accepted Tom really quickly, but there will be clashes. Big clashes.
Warnings: (Er, there's not really much of anything yet, but I'll give em to you anyway.) Slash, femmeslash, Sirius, and HANDCUFFS. Oh, and a little bit of vulgar humor at the end.
Disclaimer: -Sitting in McDonald's, eating a pancake- I own Harry Potter! -Starts choking on a fishbone in her pancake-
Exchanging slightly panicked looks, the adults quickly headed out the kitchen door to go look for the wayward teens before they blew the house, or each other, up. Many of them hadn't registered Harry and Tom leaving, and the one's who had had quickly pushed it out of their minds in favor of comforting the almost catatonic Ginny Weasley. Now they were regretting that decision. Standing outside in the hallway though, they couldn't hear any shouting, or curses being cast, or scuffling that signified muggle-style fighting. The house was quiet.
Walking up to the first-floor landing, they saw that Tom and Harry were sitting on the ground, both cross-legged, and there didn't seem to be any negative energy flowing between the two. This was probably because Harry was currently staring off into space, running his hand through his hair and muttering wordlessly under his breath, as if he was working something out. Tom just sat there and gazed inquisitively at the thinking teen, a scrap of parchment held in his hand loosely. There was a collective sigh of relief.
Tom looked round, noticing them for the first time, and poked Harry's side. Harry jumped slightly and glared at Tom.
"What was that for?"
"It seems that those friends of yours seemed to realize that we weren't downstairs and have come to rescue you from me."
Harry snorted and stood up, dragging Tom up with him. Dumbledore stepped forward.
"Ah, my dear boys, it is good to see that you two are alright. We hope that you two will continue to cooperate with each other, until we can figure out what is going on with these handcuffs."
"Actually Sir, I have an idea as to what might be going on." Eyebrows rose speculatively on the adults, and Harry flushed slightly. Dumbledore gazed at him.
"What is it?" Everyone could tell that Dumbledore was humoring him. Harry scowled, but continued.
"Er, this might take a bit of explaining. Do you think Ginny will be okay if we go back downstairs?" Dumbledore nodded, and the group headed for the kitchen.
Once there, Harry gave Ginny a small, comforting smile, and then dragged Tom to the opposite end of the room, as far away from her as possible. From the thankful look Ginny shot back, everyone could tell it was the right thing to do. Tom also shot Ginny a look, but this one was a mixture of calculation and… remorse? The look vanished as Tom averted his gaze from her. The adults who had gone to look for the two teens filed into the room. Dumbledore smiled kindly, eyes twinkling, and spoke.
"Harry has a theory on what is going on with the handcuffs." More speculative eyebrows. Still scowling, Harry stepped forward to tell them his theory.
--A/N: I could stop it here you know, make you guys wait to find out what Harry thinks happened. I could… but I won't. I rather value my life thank you very much.
--
All eyes turned to him, and he looked rather disconcerted.
"Er, I think I know what's going on. Um, when the handcuffs appeared, um, a note, written to Tom from Ol' Snake Face," making fun of Voldemort seemed to take away some of Harry's nervousness, as everyone, except for Snape, Tom, and Dumbledore snorted, "Appeared. It said that when Tom came into contact with an important wizard on the Light side, the handcuffs would appear, and that Tom was to go back with the Light wizard in tow." Before Harry could continue, he was interrupted by the confused occupants of the room.
"That's impossible! You-Know-Who wouldn't take such a risk!"
"There's no way You-Know-Who could know Riddle would run into Harry!"
"The Dark Lord would not engage in such a half-baked, hair-brained, and utterly Gryffindor scheme."
"It must be from someone pretending to be him!" The babble was broken by Harry.
"Oi! I know it seems completely out of character for Ol' Snake-face, but let me continue. We know it was from him, because it was written in Parseltongue. I'm pretty sure he has a much different plan in mind. You're right, just wildly hoping that, if Tom runs into a Light wizard, it'll be one he can overpower, is very half-baked. He knows what'll happen this summer right? Technically it's in his past, so he'd remember. I think that whatever happened to make Tom into a Dark wizard will happen while he's here." Harry was interrupted by a stunned Tom.
"Wait, I'm the Dark Lord? I mean, I figured I was in the future, but, he doesn't look like me! Or even act like me. He's got a familiar, a snake, and I don't have one of those." Everyone turned to look at Tom, who seemed to realize he had acted rather Gryffindor-ish, and he blushed slightly, then smoothed his gob-smacked face into one of indifference. Dumbledore spoke.
"To answer your questions Tom, yes, you are Lord Voldemort. Nagini was given to you as a present from one of your classmates on Christmas of your fifth year. I'm must admit to being surprised that Lord Voldemort did not inform you that you were him."
"I'm actually not that surprised." Everyone turned to face the speaker, and interestingly enough, it was Ginny. She didn't seem to notice the attention, since she was gazing thoughtfully at Tom and Harry.
"Voldemort wouldn't have wanted anything to influence Tom. He would have wanted Tom to be bitter towards the Light, and not just be attracted towards the Dark for the power. Does that make sense?" Everyone in the room looked confused, with the exceptions of Harry, who had a look of pride on his face, Tom, and Snape, who both looked cool and indifferent. You could see the interest and understanding if you looked in the right places though. Hermione, ever the smart one, seemed to pick up the thought.
"Yes, I see what you mean. If power was the only thing drawing Tom over to the Dark, then there's always a chance for reform. You-Know-Who needs Tom to be heartless; otherwise he wouldn't be able to do the things he's done. But Merlin! What could we possibly do that would lead Tom to becoming Voldemort!" At that point, a slightly irritable Tom spoke up.
"Tom is in the room at the moment." He seemed not to enjoy being treated as if he was invisible. For a moment, he sounded like an average teenager.
"As for what you guys do to make me become a megalomaniac, I don't know. I guess you'll have to watch your step." He sounded slightly smug. Harry threw him an irritated look.
"We're not going to wait on you." Tom rolled his eyes.
"I didn't think you would."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"Mr. Potter, I do believe that your theory is correct. Is there anything else?"
"Well, if you're all done being so flatteringly disbelieving, and now that Tom's done being an arse (everyone sniggered), we have a few issues to resolve. Like, does anyone from the past remember Tom going missing for awhile? If not, why not?" It was a good question. Dumbledore seemed to have an answer though.
"There is not a lot that is known about the time-stream continuum, but it is believed that no time elapses between when someone leaves their own time, and when they return. This is mostly because when one returns, they return to the exact moment that they left. From what we can see, that is the truth." Harry nodded. Tom asked the next question.
"Does that mean you know how to return me to my time?" The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes dimmed slightly.
"Alas, we don't. We will put every resource into trying to return you. If you stay here too long, it could start to tear at the seams of our reality. There are a great many risks to you being here." There was a collective gulp at Dumbledore's words. They sounded very ominous. Looking around, Ginny decided to lighten the mood. With a grin, she asked a question of her own.
"So, how are they going to shower?"
A/N: -Falls on the floor laughing- A reviewer asked me about the shower thing, and I just had to put that question in there. Okay, seriously, I know it seems like they figured out Voldie's little scheme too quickly, but just because they think that's what happened, doesn't mean that is what happened. -Cackle- I'm not too happy with the chapter in any case, so review please.
