Chapter 21

Disclaimer

I don't own HP

TMR POV

I was expecting Samhain to bring with it something more but once more I was disappointed. Harry seemed busier than ever and hardly paid me any mind, only seeing each other in passing every morning before he vanished, barely glancing my way which left me miffed and angry, Why wasn't he paying me any attention?

Things went like for the first few days till I finally had enough and confronted him about it outside his study.

"You know, if you don't want me all you have to do is say so. I am not going to be one of those fools who wait around for something that's never going to happen" my words were clipped and cold, my eyes betraying nothing.

"Oh Tom, this is nothing like that. I just came to the startling realization that you are young yet, a child and I wondered if you were ready to be with me fully. You see I don't take well to my partners wandering and given your age, it is inevitable that you would want to, let's say, sample what the rest of the world has to offer" that was the longest sentence he'd uttered since coming home for Samhain but that realization was trumped by his words.

It took me a moment to assimilate all he'd said. I was understandably furious.

"I'm not a child Harry" I ignored his scoff of amusement before continuing;

"And I would never leave you to 'sample the rest of the world' as you so crudely put it. You're mine as I am yours, nothing can change that" I may have screamed that last bit to make him understand just where I stood when it came to him.

"Such passionate words from one so young, you keep surprising me Tom Riddle" a new voice chimed in before Mort extracted himself from the shadows that seemed to part for him.

"Mort" I acknowledged before turning back to Harry.

He was looking directly at me with a soft smile on his face before closing the distance between us in two long strides and cupping my face with his palm.

"Good" he didn't elaborate more on that, just left a lingering soft kiss on my forehead before heading back into his study.

"Well, that was rather anticlimactic" Mort looked amused, more amused than he should have been as if he was privy to some secret.

"I don't like you" I stated bluntly before heading outside, ignoring the shouted 'I like you too' and the following hysterical chuckles that followed that declaration.

I stayed outside for a long time, lost in thought. By the time I finally came back and took in my surroundings, darkness had already started to creep in but that didn't stop me from noticing that I had trekked further from the house than I had realized.

Looking around, only the dense forest that surrounded the manor greeted me.

Regret was not an emotion I was intimately familiar with but at this moment in time, I felt it in spades.

I didn't have any more time to consider my newfound ability to feel regret when I heard rustling to my right making me stand to attention and hiss in pain as my legs got accustomed to standing.

"Who's there? Show yourself" my voice was commanding and deceptively calm while in my mind I was forming strategies and discarding them just as fast because after all, how can I form a worthwhile strategy when I didn't know who or what I would be forming it against.

Finally, the shrubs parted and from it emerged something unexpected. It was a man who looked to be in his early twenties, beautiful but the most remarkable thing about him was his eyes.

They were blood red and looking at me as if I were food.

'Vampire' my mind whispered, making me take a startled step back.

"Well, well, well, I certainly didn't expect to find food so soon" his voice was scratchy and deep but it didn't have that velvetiness, not like Harry's.

"Food?" I heard myself ask tauntingly, making a show of looking around as if to spot the aforementioned food.

"Don't play coy with me child" his grin was full of teeth as he walked leisurely towards me, looking unconcerned as if I didn't matter. Like I wasn't a threat and that angered me more than him calling me a 'child'.

I had spent the first few years of my life being looked down on, considered weak and a freak and I had worked tirelessly since Harry found me to never be that weak ever again and I had carved quite a reputation for myself so seeing him consider me 'food' and weak like those 'muggles' at the orphanage did things to me, bad things.

"I AM NOT A CHILD" I didn't raise my voice; I was simply stating a fact.

"Indeed" he didn't try to hide the mocking tone of his voice before suddenly I found myself against the tree behind me, fangs piercing my neck.

For a long moment, my body went completely still; my mind seemingly refusing to comprehend what was going on. It felt like I was out of my body looking in.

When I finally came to, pain flared through my body causing me to jerk against the immovable force that was keeping me immobile.

"With us again I see. I thought the shock was never going to wear off. Nobody likes it when their food doesn't at least try to escape. Makes the blood tastier somehow the more you struggle" he leered, withdrawing his fangs and running his tongue across his lips when he caught my eyes.

Standing there, suffering from blood loss because I wasn't fast enough, wasn't the top predator I thought myself to be and being caught unaware, made to feel weak.

I felt myself retreating into my head and finally giving fully to the darkness that had been my companion since I was a child, a darkness that was only kept at bay because of Harry.

When I finally came to, it was to a somewhat horrific scene.

I was covered in bits of flesh, bone, and other unspeakable things.

Body parts were littered everywhere I looked like a wild animal had torn someone from limb to limb in uncontrollable rage and madness.

It only took a moment for me to understand what exactly had taken place here. I did this and given that I was the only person around, that was a pretty obvious observation but the funny thing was, I wasn't as horrified but that observation like one would usually be.

What had happened when I had blanked out and given up control? I wondered, not remembering fully though bits and pieces of memory were flashing through my brain, though I was unable to fixate on any one of those memories enough for me to a complete picture but given the scene around me, I didn't need those memories to know exactly what had happened.

After some time trying to recollect what had happened some more, I stopped trying and sat against the tree where all this had begun and that's how Harry found me in what could have been minutes or hours since I sat down.

"Well, this is quite an interesting scene you've got going here Tom. Didn't know you were into gruesome murder scenes or I would have had something arranged for you" he talked casually, seemingly un-phased by the body parts he was stepping on to get to where I was sitting.

"I'm tired" I didn't know what made me utter those words at that moment but I couldn't help it. For some inexplicable reason, I was feeling exhausted.

"That's to be expected given the circumstances. When you let your darkness consume you instead of you working together with it, that is an expected side effect, so to say. Don't worry; it will be gone soon enough" he explained taking my hand and helping me stand.

I didn't resist him, letting him pull me up, how could I when I was still in shock over his words?

"You know about it? How?" and if my voice cracked a little while asking him, Harry was graceful enough to overlook it.

"Everybody has it Tom but unlike some of us, they chose to ignore or actively fight against it instead of embracing it as a vital part of themselves but for those of us who embrace it, we have reaped unimaginable rewards. The trick is learning how to not let it consume you and find a way to balance it out" during his longwinded explanation, I felt the tell-tell of the 'cleaning' spell he cast over me, dispelling all the gore from my person.

"I see" was my short answer.

We didn't take the rest of the way to the entrance of the manor. Harry didn't ask whose entrails I had been covered in and I wasn't forthcoming with the details either making for a silent few minutes.

"Mort left a few hours after you. He apparently has more important things to attend to" he informed me when we were climbing the stairs, his face giving nothing away.

When we finally reached the doorway leading to my room, Harry stopped walking, bringing me to a halt with him.

"Don't you want to come in?" I was feeling particularly fired up tonight and ready for a tumble in the sheets with Harry.

"I want to but…" he didn't seem to be able to finish that sentence so I finished it for him.

"But what? You have suddenly realized that you don't want me anymore? Is this what this is? Was I just an amusement?" I was angry, incensed and voicing fears that I would have rather stayed hidden.

I didn't get to go on a full tirade because Harry's lips were on mine so fast it took me a second to respond. It was a glorious kiss, the best we've ever had full of promise, possession and unbridled lust. It went on and on that I lost all sense of time when he finally pulled back, I had to take a huge lungful of air.

"Never doubt that you are wanted" his scratchy and gritty voice was doing things to me, pleasurable things;

"But with the night you've had, you need your rest. I need you fully awake and conscious when I finally take you, over and over again" that last part was whispered hotly in my eyes before he disappeared into his own room, leaving me with a problem, a 'hard' problem to sort out.

That night, after I had calmed down from earlier events, I went to bed and started working on assimilating the darkest sides of me with the ones I had always been more aware of and able to control.

It was hard and I lost myself in my head for hours upon hours but the end result was well worth it, I was finally fully in-touch with all parts of my conscious and sub-conscious mind and what an addictive feeling, to have that much power at my fingertips, simply incredible.

I finally fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning, anticipation coursing through my veins. The wait was finally OVER!