It has been years ago since Tom realized that he wanted Harry. Harry, who had been his favorite student, and is now a Professional Quidditch Player. It has been a year since they have been dating.
And it has been ten years of being a dark lord, acting in the shadows. He was a politician now, he was first a teacher at Hogwarts and had been champion duellist for the last seven years. Not even Flitwick or Snape or Dumbledore can compare.
The only one who had even been close to defeating him chose to be a Quidditch player, and his lover- ironically enough, the one person which the aurors came to about Voldemort's activities was Tom himself!
When Tom was discovered to be Voldemort, he discovered Harry sitting on the ground, looking at the home they built together. Tom went and sat beside him, saying nothing. They sat like that without looking at each other for a while, until Harry cracked the silence.
"Did you ever love me?," Harry burst out, still not looking at him. His lips were pressed in a thin line, and it was fairly obvious he was stopping himself from crying.
Tom sighed and looked at him, but Harry refused to face him, so Tom grabbed Harry to his side and turned Harry's face to meet his.
"I was already doing this before you came into my life. Being a psychopath, I could never love." At this Harry flinched away from him but Tom held his face tighter.
"But you, against all odds, drew my to your side like an unstoppable magnet. I do love you, Harry. And whatever I have done, nothing of it was your fault."
" I, I thought I was nothing more but your mask. A normal life to hide what you've been doing." Harry said softly, with a tinge of despair. Harry's hand held Tom's shirt tightly.
"I even thought you're going to leave me. That now you no longer need me. But, but Tom I need you. And they're going to take you away from me. They all look at me with pity, like I lost everything, because apparently Harry is just too Harry to kill anyone, or to help you with it, and is too stupid, too open to know. But Tom, I can't lose you. Please." Harry continued on, desperate and a bit hysterical. Tom shushed him, his hand touching Harry's back calmingly.
Tom thought about Harry, how pure he is, how honest, how open, how innocent, naive and adorable he is. No one could help being charmed by him, not even Tom. Harry who almost defeated him in the duelling competition through sheer unpredictability, sheer will, and a heart-stopping smile that made him stumble and stare and gape like a love-sick puppy. Harry, who talks to anyone, charms everyone, helps everyone. Harry who gets himself into incredibly daunting situations, and slithers out of them like the best Slytherin, and yet blunders through his daily life like the adorable, messy-haired, green-eyed lion he is. How despite how similar his and Harry's situations had been, had still turned out so beautiful. Heck, Tom's enemies even LIKE Harry, thinking him too innocent and naive to see that Tom trapped him into their relationship and is manipulating him. Harry's magic feels like a warm, comforting hug to anyone he meets. The others were right when they say that Harry is just too Harry to kill, though they lack the intellect necessary to describe it sufficiently.
"I didn't want to scare you away, Harry. You are too important to me. That's why I didn't tell you. But Harry, no matter what happens now, no one would take you away from me. You are my light, you are mine alone, and I'm going to kill anyone who dares change that." Harry frowned in his arms at the word 'kill,' and looked at him questioningly, whilst Tom kissed the frown away.
"I don't understand why you kill people, Tom. You can charm everyone, convince them to do your bidding, and yet you kill them."
"To tell you the truth, I don't either."
Tom continued "It's magic. And my instincts, telling me to. These people I kill, it feels like magic itself is telling me to execute them, like I have been chosen by magic itself to stop them."
"Why would magic tell you to kill them?"
"Because their lines will lead to the death of magic one day, that we will be discovered by muggles and that would be the start of the end of the world. I'm not just another serial killer, Harry. Do you believe me?"
Harry murmured "I always do, even when I shouldn't, Tom. But I don't want you killing anyone."
Harry looked at him determinedly and insisted "we should make a compromise, you know. You tell everyone what you've been doing. That ever since you've been here in the Wizarding World, you have been trying to correct it and stop the weakening of magic and stop squibs from becoming a common occurrence. I don't think that killing is necessary Tom, it's not right. You should turn yourself over. You are NOT a monster, and I want them to see it. I want them to see you as I do, Tom- I want them to see you as that git who made me fall in love with him, that irritating prat who wouldn't stop hounding me until I couldn't live without him."
