7

The next morning, Harry woke to a warmly lit familiar room, tucked under a thick blanket. He rubbed his eyes for a moment, then moved smoothly, albeit slowly, into an upright position. He sighed as he realized that Severus must have worked on him for a while for him to be as healed as he felt. He neither felt a pull on his injuries nor did he feel stiff as he would have had his cuts and bruises healed naturally. Harry couldn't help but admire the amazing capabilities of magic.

Not long after he woke, while he was poking at the angry pink scars along his torso, there was a soft knock on the door of the room that led to Severus's living room.

"Come in." He said softly. The door clicked open and swung inward. Severus followed it in, levitating a tray of food behind him the whole while.

"I thought you had classes today." Harry said. Severus put the tray down in Harry's lap and gestured for him to eat before he spoke.

"I do, but they are all afternoon classes, due to start in…" he cast a quick wandless tempus. "…a little over two hours. Incidentally, that is your class period. Do you think you are well enough to attend?" The potions master asked as he pulled up a chair beside the bed. "Your cuts have closed again, better than before even."

Harry smiled through a bite of bread. "Yes, I'm feeling much better, Severus. Thank you for healing me again."

Severus looked uncomfortable at the expression of gratitude and waved it off. "I'm only doing what I should have in the first place. It is my job to take care of students who pass through these halls and I made the mistake of ignoring you because of your father."
"Severus, I've already forgiven you. Don't worry about it anymore. Besides, you've saved my life more than once since I've been here and twice this year already." Harry grinned. "No point in dwelling on the past."

"That seems to be your new motto lately." Tom said from the doorway. Both Severus and Harry jumped at the sudden appearance and Harry's hand shot to his scar.

"What?" Tom asked. "Does it hurt?"

Harry shook his head. "No! That's not it. Usually it hurts when you're near me, but it doesn't even sting right now!" He said excitedly, putting down the last of the egg he'd been nearly inhaling before Tom appeared. He set the tray on the side table and, moving nimbly, Harry stepped out of the bed-he idly noted that someone had changed him into pajamas-and around Severus, who was staring at him curiously. Harry made his way to Tom, who stood still in the doorway, watching him with a guarded expression.

"It hurt when we shook hands in the Great Hall, and it bothered me being in your office, but not right now. And not when you touched me last night…"

When Harry came close, he raised a hand and touched the man's cheek hesitantly, obviously ignoring the taken aback expression that crossed Tom's face at the sudden invasion of personal space. After almost half a minute, when nothing of any import seemed to happen to the occupants of the room, besides the slow raising of one of Tom's eyebrows, a smile split Harry's face nearly in two.

"Harry?" Severus asked, thinking, as Tom had suggested the night before, that the boy might have truly lost his mind.

"It doesn't hurt anymore…" Harry said, his energy suddenly declining to a more subdued mood. He smiled, facing Tom but not seeming to really register his presence. He raised his hand to his neck. A slight hissing could be heard before a white head popped out from beneath his pajama top.

What is it? Ami hissed grumpily. I just got to sleep.

Sorry to wake you, Ami. I thought you might want some breakfast. Harry said distractedly.

Severus, who was completely lost by now, not having understood Harry's Parseltongue, looked to Tom. The Dark Lord's features were pinched, his eyes squinting as if it would allow him to decipher what was going on. This expression soon morphed into a glare. The Dark Lord did not like being confused.

"Harry, would you care to explain?" Tom demanded.

Ami moved her head to look at Harry's face as well, having noticed something was wrong. Though the boy was smiling, it seemed like one of the smiles he put on for her to make sure she didn't worry about him. But she was distracted momentarily as Harry prepared to give her breakfast.

While the other inhabitants of the room were staring at him in confusion, Harry sat on the end of the bed and set Ami down next to him. Then he waved his hand over an empty space next to her. The moment his hand passed over the space, a small squeak was heard and a grayish ball of fur could be seen darting towards the edge of the bed. A second later, the mouse was in Ami's mouth, the pink tail hanging out as she swallowed it whole.

Tom and Severus gawked at him. Then they exchanged glances. A fifteen year-old boy had just performed some of the most difficult wordless and wandless magic without even paying attention, something it had taken them years of practice to be able to do correctly. Harry just watched Ami eat her meal, pleasantly ignoring their stares. Tom cursed under his breath then moved forward to Salazar's portrait. He knocked on the side of the empty frame lightly.

"Salazar, can you come here? We need your help."

Almost a minute passed before anything happened, but then Salazar stepped into view. He developed a worried look on his face when he saw Harry sitting on the bed staring into space. He put a hand to his face and rubbed his forehead with a groan

"We need to know what's happened to him." Severus started, standing from his seat next to the bed. "I came into his room not thirty minutes ago and he was fine, then Tom came in, and Harry started going on about how his scar didn't hurt anymore, then… He got like this."

"It's alright." Salazar began, but Tom interrupted him before he could continue.

"'Alright'? How is that 'alright'?!" Tom snapped. "He doesn't even seem to see us, let alone hear us!"

"Snakeling!" Salazar exclaimed in a warning tone. Tom's mouth clicked shut. "Thank you. Now, as I was about to say, Harry does this to some degree or other whenever he needs to think. Granted he doesn't usually zone out to this extent. Think of it as a form of meditation. A precursor to occlumency, if you will, in the self-study stages."

"But why now? There shouldn't be anything he needs to think about! My presence doesn't cause him pain anymore. That should be the end of that."

"Tom, think. You should know better than that. When Dumbledore first got to you, you were already wise to the pains of life. You knew you were different and you kept away from everyone by choice. When he came to you to take you to Hogwarts, you already knew not to trust him. But Harry has been in his grasp for years. He trusted the devil because Dumbledore took him away from his relatives. Until the end of his second year, Harry never even began to question him.

"Harry was told by Dumbledore that you and he were connected by a curse scar that would always hurt him when you were near, and when you had particularly high emotions. It's yet another lie that Harry has just stumbled upon and he needs to sort through his thoughts. But, again, think. He could always tell when he was in danger if his scar hurt. It was a strange sort of safety blanket. He no longer has that to rely on, even though he knows, logically, that he should no longer need it now that you two have a truce. Everything in his life is changed."

"And he is overwhelmed." Tom sighed. With the revelation Harry had stumbled upon with his former friends, he supposed he should have expected a break down at some point. But he'd thought last night's episode would have been it.

"Exactly."

But he'll be alright? Ami asked, having listened to them as she finished her meal. She'd since slithered up onto Harry's leg and the boy was now slowly stroking her head. He's never done this around me before.

"Yes, he'll be fine." Salazar nodded his head. Then he turned to Severus. The Potions Master was still hovering over Harry as if preparing to catch him if he fell. Even though Harry seemed fine, there was this air around him that made him seem like he was exhausted. "Are his injuries healed? I heard what happened from one of the portraits in Gryffindor tower."

"They have healed, but just barely." Severus answered. "I still have no idea what got into that Weasley boy. To do that to his best friend."

"He was no such thing." Tom frowned, glaring at an unoccupied spot in the room. Salazar looked away from Harry and focused his eyes on Tom. Severus did as well, a questioning glint in his dark eyes.

They didn't even need to ask for him to elaborate.

"Harry found out, last night, that Dumbledore has been paying those two children to be his 'friends'. They've been keeping tabs on him, likely even influencing his decisions. He told me that the Weasleys had a large influence on his house sorting. Evidently the sorting hat wanted to put him in Slytherin. Dumbledore could not have that, his weapon in my old house."

"That bastard! If I were able-!" Salazar growled in frustration.

"Don't worry Sal. I'll bring him to you." Tom muttered, clenching his hands.

"I'll help you." Harry's voice floated over to them, calm, quiet and even. Their head turned and they saw him, eyes focused on Tom although his words were directed at all of them.

"I want him gone and out of my life."

Ami slithered up and around his neck and nuzzled his cheek and Harry smiled. He looked each one of them in the eyes, pausing on Severus.

"Are you in?" He asked, knowing Severus had yet to answer his former master. The black-haired man bowed his head and sucked in a slow breath. Tom said nothing. Neither did Salazar.

The Potions Master glanced up at Tom before directing his attention back to Harry.

"I'll help you. But I'm not joining your alliance. I can't…not yet."

Tom's hand reached up and latched onto Severus' shoulder. Severus tensed and Harry saw the man's sleeve slip down over his hand, surely grabbing for his wand.

But Tom barked a laugh.

"Calm down Severus. I was merely going to soothe your fears."

Severus, seeming slightly more pale than normal, turned with both brows raised.

"And what fears are those…Tom?" Severus said the man's name as if it was being strangled out of him. As uncomfortable as he looked, Tom's hand must have been burning him. Harry, beginning to become comfortable with Tom and his alliance, oddly did not feel as though the dark lord was planning on causing Severus any form of pain.

"You need not fear retribution for your choice. I will not force you into my ranks, I promise you." Tom said, as sincerely as Harry thought he could manage. Severus though he might be the only one in the room who caught the quick dart of Tom's eyes to Harry's face, as if attempting to evaluate the boy's thoughts.

"I…appreciate that. Thank you."

There was a somewhat awkward silence for a moment before Salazar cleared his throat.

"Alright!" He clapped his hands together lightly. "Time for you to eat!"

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