— —
Chapter 25
"Bloody hell, Harry! We've been worried sick!" Ron exclaimed as he saw Harry and Tom appear through the barrier and onto Platform 9 3/4s at Kings Cross Station on the morning of September 1st.
"I sent a couple owls," Harry said, looking at him incredulously. He'd been relieved when Hedwig showed up at Tom's cottage the day after he'd arrived there earlier that week. Harry had then proceeded to send quick notes to his friends about his fight with Sirius and his current living arrangements.
"Yeah, but… well, I don't know. It's kind of crazy to just run off and disappear to some place that no one else has any idea how to get to," Ron said.
"Oh Harry! Thank Merlin! There you are," Molly Weasley's relieved voice exclaimed over the din of the crowd as she rushed over and pulled a startled Harry into a big hug.
"Uh… I'm fine," Harry said.
Hermione, with her arms crossed over her chest, and Ginny behind her, both appeared a moment later.
"What did Sirius tell you lot happened?" Harry asked, suddenly feeling a sense of worry and dread build up in his chest.
"Well, not much, really," Hermione said. "Just that the two of you had some big row about…" she hesitated and looked over to Tom apologetically, "About you and Tom," she finished. "He said that he didn't think Tom was good for you, and you got angry and left."
Harry's brow furrowed. "Did he say why he… doesn't think Tom is…?" Harry asked, trailing off with a question.
Hermione huffed a bit with obvious frustration. "No. He couldn't come up with a single reasonable thing, but nothing anyone else said seemed to budge him on the matter."
"Oh… okay," Harry said, still feeling rather wary. "So why the heck are you lot so worried about me? You knew where I was."
"Knowing that you're 'at Tom's', and knowing where Tom's actually is, are two separate things," Hermione said pointedly.
"Harry, dear," Molly Weasley said drawing attention to her, "you have to understand how concerning it would be for everyone for you to be somewhere completely inaccessible. And with no Floo connection, even!" She looked at Tom apologetically, "I'm sure your home is protected and all, but the fact that no one has any idea where it is… well, it's concerning."
"I'm afraid the wards aren't setup for visitors," Tom said apologetically. "It's an Approved People Only ward. The house isn't even visible if you aren't on the approved list. It's sort of like a Fidelius, in that way. If I add someone to the wards, it requires a sample of their blood and a brief ritual around the central ward stone. If anything, it's considerably more convoluted than a Fidelius charm. Although, arguably, a skilled enough team of wizards could make an attempt at deconstructing my wards, if they knew exactly where the house was, while a Fidelius is an entirely different sort of magic. In any case, generally, I just don't bother having guests, because it's such a bother to do so."
Molly Weasley heaved a sigh and nodded. "It is understandable; still, we were worried."
"You lot best be boarding the train soon," Arthur Weasley said, coming over to join the group. "Oh, hi Harry."
"Hi Mr. Weasley." Harry hesitated and glanced around, frowning.
"I don't suppose Sirius is here?" Tom asked, since he was fairly sure that Harry wouldn't.
Hermione frowned sadly and shook her head. "Not as far as I know."
Tom placed a hand on Harry's back and rubbed it gently. "He can come to visit on the first Hogsmeade weekend," He said gently. "Maybe he'll have cooled off by then."
Harry scoffed. "Who said I wanted him to," he grumbled bitterly, grabbing the cart he and Tom had put their trunks and Hedwig's cage on to, and pushing it towards the train.
Ron and Hermione exchanged concerned looks before following along with the elder Weasley's and Ginny.
They went to the luggage compartment and dropped off their trunks there, in favor of taking them into their compartments.
Goodbyes were said, with Ginny parting first, saying she was going off to look for some of her friends in a compartment further up. Molly and Arthur hugged Ron, Hermione, and then Harry. Tom stood to the side, trying to wait patiently so they could actually board the train when suddenly he found himself being hugged by Molly Weasley as well. Tom's eyes practically bugged open with the obvious shock of it and he remained motionless for a moment before he awkwardly patted Molly's back.
"Thanks for looking after Harry," she said quietly, smiling at Tom and then stepping away.
"Uh… you're welcome," he responded inelegantly.
Harry grinned in obvious amusement and Tom just gave him a flat glare.
Finally the group climbed into the nearest train carriage and began looking for a suitable compartment. They came upon Neville and Luna and quickly piled inside.
"Hey Neville, hey Luna," Harry said, smiling warmly.
"Hey Harry! Ron, Hermione," Neville said with a nod of his head. "Oh, and Tom too! So you really are coming to Hogwarts then?"
"It would certainly seem so," Tom said with a crooked smile. "It's still rather surreal, honestly."
"It must be weird," Ron said, getting Pigwidgeon's cage up into the top storage rack. "I mean, you've never had normal school, have you?"
"Well, I attended muggle primary school for a number of years," Tom said with a shrug.
"This will be considerably different than that," Hermione said gently.
Tom chuckled. "Yes, I imagine it will."
"Is it going to be alright with you not working during the school year?" Neville asked. "You said you brewed potions all the time and sold them off for money, but now you won't really have time to do that."
"I have quite a bit saved up. Plus my Hogwarts tuition is being covered by some sort of scholarship for orphaned or abandoned muggleborn, or muggle-raised halfbloods. Since that includes my meals at the school, as well as room and board, it puts me in a fairly safe position, financially. The cottage I live in is not only paid for, but completely cut-off and hidden from the muggles, so it's not as if anyone is going to come asking for land taxes or utility payments."
The train whistle blew and the last few stragglers on the platform rushed to board the train. Ron leaned out the window and waved to his parents. Harry and Hermione waved as well. The train started to move and was soon completely clear of the station and on it's way.
"Well, I'm afraid that Ron and I have Prefect duties," Hermione said, standing up and double-checking Crookshanks carrier to make sure it was securely shut.
Tom blinked and looked up in surprise. "Ron is a Prefect?"
Ron gave Tom an affronted sort of look. "Why's that so surprising?"
"No reason," Tom said quickly, smiling innocently.
Harry snorted and snickered behind his hand.
Ron glared at him too. He turned to find Hermione standing at the doorway, with a small grin on her face as well. Ron huffed, rolled his eyes and slid the door open.
"See you lot in a bit," Hermione said with a wave goodbye and then slid the door shut.
"So how are you, Luna?" Harry asked.
"Oh, very well, thank you," She said, smiling calmly and clutching a copy of the Quibbler in her lap.
"Quibbler still going strong then?" Harry asked, nodding down at the magazine.
"Oh yes, circulation's well up," Luna said happily.
"Have you been reading the Prophet over the summer?" Neville asked excitedly. "All those articles about what happened at the Ministry have been crazy. And then all of that coverage from Sirius' trial! I'm surprised you lot managed to get onto the train without getting mobbed."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm trying to learn to ignore them."
"Oi, come back here, Trevor!" Neville exclaimed as his toad made a bid for freedom and darted beneath the seat. Neville dived after him.
"Are we still doing D.A. meetings this year, Harry?" asked Luna, while detaching a pair of psychedelic spectacles from the middle of The Quibbler.
"Well… I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I mean, last year we did it because of Umbridge, and we got rid of her, thankfully. But this year we've got Snape instead, so we might just need it anyway."
A loud Thud! and then an 'ow!' came from Neville beneath the seat, as he had suddenly jerked and banged his head. He came back out with Trevor in one hand and the other rubbing at his head. He had a look of utter horror on his face. "What do you mean, we've got Snape this year?"
"Dumbledore managed to convince an old friend of his to come out of retirement and take back his position at Hogwarts. However, this old friend was a Potions Master, and most certainly not a Defense professor," Tom explained. "It's fairly easy to deduce that Snape gave up the Potions post for him and has finally managed to get the post he had wanted all along, which as I understand it, was the Defense job."
"Oh Merlin!" Neville groaned miserably. "Just when I thought I would finally be rid of him!"
"Well, at least now you've got a shot at Potions?" Harry offered up.
Neville gave Harry a flat expression. "Do you honestly think that I qualified for Advanced Potions?" he asked dryly.
"Slughorn takes students with Acceptable and Outstanding for Advanced Potions. You don't have to have gotten an Outstanding or even an Exceeds Expectations on your OWLs," Tom said.
"Hm… well I did manage an Acceptable, which I was honestly pretty surprised with," Neville muttered. "Not sure I'd really want to go on with Potions, even if it is a different professor.
"Yeah, I could take or leave Potions, myself," Harry admitted. "But dropping Defense is out of the question. So I'm stuck with that greasy git no matter what for another year."
Neville sighed and sank back into his seat, looking defeated. "It's just not fair. Oh yeah, there was something else I wanted to ask you about!" Neville sat up straighter and pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet he had tucked away somewhere. It was folded open to the second page and there was a picture of Lucius Malfoy standing proudly below the headline 'Criminal or Victim?"
Neville handed it over to Harry who grimaced slightly at the sight of it. "Oh yeah, this," Harry said, in a flat tone.
"You think any of that rubbish is true? Can you believe that he actually managed to get off!? After what he did to us in the Ministry!?"
Harry glanced sideways to Tom and then quickly back at the paper. "Yeah, well apparently he gave up the names of a bunch of people in the Ministry who were under the Imperius curse. Plus he testified for Sirius at his re-trial."
"He probably tossed around some money as well," Neville grumbled. "Er, well… his wife did, I guess."
"He's put himself at risk by doing all this, though," Tom chimed in. "Any other remaining Death Eaters now see him as a traitor. No telling what Voldemort might do to him, should he get to him."
"Do you think any of that stuff about being coerced is true?" Neville asked dubiously.
"Voldemort insisted on staying at Malfoy Manor for all of last year, and I rather doubt that Lucius Malfoy was in any position to refuse his master when he first expressed his desire to take up residence there. Just imagine how the man must have felt every time he left the house, knowing that Voldemort was back there in the same house as his wife. If there was any reluctance on Malfoy's part, he certainly wouldn't have been in a safe position to do anything about it."
"Yeah, but does anyone honestly believe that there was any real reluctance?" Neville asked.
"Before Voldemort's return, Lucius Malfoy had become a very successful and influential man. He was close friends with the Minister, and when he wanted something, he got it. He already had a great deal of power. Power that he earned. When he was younger and first joined the Death Eaters, the promises of the Dark Lord probably seemed rather tantalizing, but now he was hardly in a position to need or want it. He already had what he wanted. He'd managed to put his past behind him and to get the majority of people to forget, or at least act like they forgot his involvement with the Death Eaters in the first place. He'd moved on. And then, his past came back to haunt him, threatening everything he'd accomplished over the years, and he was powerless to do anything about it, for fear of putting his family in further danger."
"Hm…" Neville frowned deeply.
Harry changed the subject to OWL results shortly after that, and conversation lulled on for the next hour or so.
Finally the compartment door slid open and Ron and Hermione returned.
"Wish the lunch trolley would hurry up, I'm starving," said Ron longingly, slumping into the seat beside Harry and rubbing his stomach.
"How were rounds?" Tom asked conversationally.
"Boring.", said Ron. "Fantastic," Hermione said at the same time. They looked at each other, Hermione sporting a look of mild annoyance. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Tom. "We helped the most adorable little first year."
Hermione went on to relate a brief story that Harry really didn't care enough about to pay too much attention to.
"You should have seen Malfoy though," Ron grumbled when Hermione was finally done with her story.
"What'd he do?" Harry asked curiously.
"Just the usual," Ron said shrugging. "Snobbing it up with the other snakes."
"I don't know, he seemed to be acting different to me," Hermione said.
"How so?" asked Harry.
"Well, he didn't bully a single first year, for one," Hermione said almost incredulously. "I didn't really see him bully anyone."
Ron twisted up his face as if he were trying to remember any of this.
Just then, the compartment door slid open again and a breathless third-year girl stepped inside.
"I'm supposed to deliver these to Neville Longbottom and Harry P-Potter," she faltered, as her eyes met Harry's and she turned scarlet. She was holding out two scrolls of parchment tied with violet ribbon. Perplexed, Harry and Neville took the scroll addressed to each of them and the girl stumbled back out of the compartment.
"What is it?" Ron demanded, as Harry unrolled his.
"An invitation," said Harry.
Harry,
I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment C.
Sincerely,
Professor H.E.F. Slughorn
"Professor Slughorn?" Neville said, "Isn't that the new potions professor?"
"Yeah," Harry said, frowning perplexedly at the invitation.
"What's he want with me?" Neville asked almost incredulously.
Harry just shrugged in confusion.
"It doesn't surprise me one bit," Tom said, looking over Harry's shoulder at the paper. "From what I understand of Slughorn, he likes to handpick students that he thinks either have great potential themselves, or who have family connections to powerful or influential people. He holds this thing called the Slug Club where they have dinners, and tea, and parties where he brings in old students of his who have gone on to bigger and better things, for the sake of providing his select few with future networking opportunities."
"Networking opportunities?" Neville echoed incredulously. "But why me?"
Tom shrugged this time. "Your family name? The fact that you were with Harry in the Ministry? There are any number of reasons. If you don't want to keep getting invited to his parties just try to be as unimpressive as possible and he won't invite you back."
Neville looked torn at that statement, as if he were unsure if he wanted to be 'unimpressive', but also feeling rather horrified by the prospect of being invited to 'parties' where he was supposed to 'network'.
"But we were at the Ministry too. Why didn't we get invites?" Ron asked, clearly affronted.
"He's only got so much room in a train compartment," Tom offered with a shrug. "He picks people from all grades and houses. It was probably a bit of a stretch to pick two people from the same house and the same year, as it is."
Ron continued to frown, but not quite as deeply.
"Hmm…" Harry hummed thoughtfully, glancing at his watch. "Well, it's almost lunch. Suppose we should go?" he asked Neville.
Neville still looked a bit bewildered but shrugged and nodded.
"See you when you get back," Tom said as Harry stood and walked towards the compartment door, paused, looked back and grinned.
"See you in a bit," he said to the compartment as a whole as he and Neville left and closed the door behind them.
Ron huffed out an annoyed breath and folded his arms across his chest. "I still don't see why he picked Neville…"
"Ron!" Hermione scolded.
A minute of slightly uncomfortable silence passed in the compartment before someone finally spoke. It was Luna.
"So Thomlyn, what house do you expect to be sorted to?"
Ron perked up with a look of sudden dawning. "Blimey, I didn't even think of that! You've gotta be sorted, don't you?"
"I would expect so," Tom said with a light chuckle.
"How's that work? Is he gonna get put in with the first years?" Ron frowned.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "He's hardly the first transfer student, Ron."
"Uh, who else?"
"In second year, there was a student that transferred in with the fifth years," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"I wasn't exactly around for the sorting in second year, was I?" Ron said flatly.
"Oh. Right," Hermione said. "Well, there was also one in third year, and you've no excuse for not noticing that year."
Ron frowned, clearly not remembering this. "Fine, whatever. So how is it done?"
"The transfer student is sorted after all of the first years are done," Hermione said simply.
"Why didn't you just say that?"
"So where are you expecting?" Luna asked Tom, ignoring Ron and Hermione's distraction.
"Slytherin," Tom responded simply.
Ron made a choking sound. "Whut?" he exclaimed.
"Is that really so surprising?" Tom said with a mild chuckle.
Hermione looked thoughtfully. "Well, not entirely, I suppose. I was thinking Ravenclaw, personally."
Ron twisted up his face, looking Tom over as if seeing him for the first time. "Does Harry know this?"
Tom laughed. "Yes, Harry knows. Although he actually had the gall to tell me he thought the Hat might suggest Hufflepuff. Something about me being loyal to those I feel responsible for, and my willingness to put in the hard work and effort for difficult tasks. I told him, if the hat tried to put me in Hufflepuff I'd set it on fire."
Luna giggled.
— —
"So what was it like?" Ron asked Harry and Neville as he pulled his robes on over his clothes, later that evening.
"Boring and exhausting," Harry grumbled. "Tom was right about Slughorn handpicking people he thinks will be important, or who have important relatives. "One bloke, Belby, was in there only because his uncle invented the Wolfsbane potion and got an Order of Merlin for it. But once Belby told Slughorn that his dad and uncle don't get on, so he doesn't really know the man, Slughorn basically ignored him for the rest of the meeting."
"Ginny was there too," Neville added once he had his own robes on over his clothes.
"What!?" Ron exclaimed, clearly very affronted. "Why was she there?"
"Apparently Slughorn saw her get Zacharais Smith with a Bat Boogey hex and he was impressed enough that he invited her without even knowing who she was. She said she was afraid he was going to give her detention, but then he invited her to lunch instead."
Ron dropped himself down into his seat unceremoniously and pouted.
"You really didn't miss anything, Ron. Believe me. It was awful," Harry said sitting down beside Tom who was already wearing a set of plain black robes.
"I bet the food was better at least," Ron groused.
"Well, there is that," Neville said concedingly. Ron looked annoyed again and Harry shot Neville a look that clearly said not to say anything else.
"Hmph… so were you invited because of the Ministry?" Ron asked Neville.
"No, he didn't even know about that. He was surprised when he found out Ginny and I had been there."
Ron frowned. "So why'd he invite you?"
Hermione jabbed Ron in the ribs, glaring at him slightly. "Whut?" Ron said defensively.
"Er… he mostly asked me about my parents," Neville said quietly.
"Oh." Ron went a bit pink at this and slumped back in his seat.
Finally the train arrived at the station and everyone started to clamber into the halls and out the exits. They each left their pets by the pile of luggage as it was unloaded from the luggage compartment, since the house elves would be collecting it all and transporting it to the proper rooms during the feast.
"So is Tom supposed to go with the first years?" Ron asked, seeing Hagrid collecting the first years at the head of the path that led down to the boats.
Hermione frowned. "I don't know that, actually."
"The first years always arrive later than the rest of us taking the carts," Harry said. "I don't see why Tom can't go with us but wait by the entry to the antechamber where McGonagall greets the First Years."
"I'll go with that. Being surrounded by eleven year olds in tiny boats doesn't entirely appeal to me," said Tom.
"You could always take the same boat as Hagrid instead," Luna offered up.
"That appeals to me even less," Tom said, looking rather dubiously horrified with the suggestion.
"I never understood how he could get into one of those things and not sink," Ron mused as the group headed towards the carriages.
As they passed the first carriage, Tom's hand absently traveled up and stroked along the stringy mane of one of the Thestrals.
"You see them too?" Luna asked, her eyes brightening.
"Hmm? Oh," Tom hesitated, his hand in mid-air, as it dawned on him exactly what he was doing. Then he looked at Luna curiously. "You see them?"
"Oh yes," she nodded smiling simply.
"Who…?"
"My mother."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Tom said with a small dip of his head.
"Thank you. It was a long time ago now. But I still miss her. Who did you see die?"
Tom became aware that Ron, Hermione, and Neville were looking at him with considerable curiosity. "A homeless man. It was winter in London. He had frostbite on his toes and fingers and hadn't eaten in days. He tried to stay warm, and I stayed with him… but I could tell he wouldn't make it through the night. It was just too cold. I never even knew his name."
The group climbed into the carriage and it was silent for several long moments as the carriage began to move up the road towards the castle.
"How old were you?" Hermione asked finally.
"I was eight. It was my first winter on my own after running away from my last foster family."
"Blimey," Ron said, shaking his head. "I can't even imagine that."
"You're better off not trying. Lets change the subject. Death is always a rather grim topic," Tom said.
Conversation was light during the brief trip up the winding road to Hogwarts and soon enough the carriage came to a stop in front of the castle and the group piled out. They made their way through the large double doors into the entrance hall with the throngs of other students. Hermione made it her task to guide Tom over to the antechamber where the 1st years would be welcomed and Tom followed. He gave Harry a small smile and a wave as he perched himself against the wall beside the door and Harry was slowly dragged into the hall by his friends. Just as Tom was about out of sight, Harry saw McGonagall approaching him, so he figured that was probably all set to go.
Harry let out a long breath trying to calm his nerves. Part of him still felt rather incredulous over the whole situation, while another part was exceedingly excited by it.
Finally he found a seat along the Gryffindor table with his friends and settled into the din of excited chatter. He casually joined in on some of the conversation going on around the table but his eyes kept slipping back to the door to the antechamber, wondering how long it would be before the first years were brought in.
He and Tom had agreed to sequester themselves in their beds with a silence ward at ten o'clock that night and use their watches to talk, so Harry knew he'd still get to talk to Tom again that night, but doubted he'd have a lot of frequent opportunities after that right away. He wondered how many classes they'd actually share in common. Tom wasn't taking any of the elective courses since he didn't have the OWLs on record to qualify for any of them. The Gryffindors had always shared Potions and Herbology with Slytherin, so Harry was expecting that to be the same this year, but outside of those two classes, Harry didn't expect to have a lot of time where he would normally have much opportunity to interact with someone from Slytherin house. The only variable was that, what with it being NEWT level classes now, fewer students were taking some subjects, so it was possible some classes would be further combined.
There really weren't a lot of places to just hang out around the school with people from different houses. The common rooms were the most comfortable and casual places, and those were house specific. He supposed they'd probably spend a decent amount of time in the Library, and while Tom would probably be perfectly comfortable there, and Hermione would be thrilled, Harry would really rather spend a little less time around so many books.
Outside of that, Harry could really only think of the Room of Requirement, and he supposed that would really just have to be sufficient. It could become whatever you needed, after all.
The door to the antechamber opened and McGonagall came out. She went to the front of the hall and placed the little three-legged stool down and the sorting hat was placed on top of it a moment later. She then returned to the antechamber and a moment after that she reappeared again, but this time with a group of tiny first years streaming right after her. And then Tom. Harry couldn't help but grin and snicker at the sight of him coming in behind all of those little eleven year olds.
Great Merlin, Tom was a Hogwarts. How surreal.
Once the group of students had been settled into a line, the Sorting Hat sang it's song, which seemed exceedingly long this year, and rather doom-and-gloom, if Harry said so himself. Finally the hat shut up and the sorting began.
Harry hadn't felt this anxious during a sorting since his own, and the fact that Tom would be the last one sorted, only made it worse. A couple of the firsties were hatstalls, and Harry caught himself biting his nails in anxious frustration wishing for it to get over with faster.
Finally, the last of the first years was sorted and McGonnagal called out "Thomlyn Moore, who will be sorted and transferred in with the sixth years."
Tom walked forward with the same calm grace he usually projected, but Harry could see subtle hints of nerves. Tom had expressed a concern the day before over giving the hat access to his mind. Harry had wondered the same thing, in fact.
Tom sat on the stool, which looked comical, since he was considerably larger than the first years who usually sat upon it, and then McGonagall dropped the hat upon his head. Unlike the first years, it did not fall low enough to completely cover Tom's eyes, so Harry could still see his face.
Tom closed his eyes and his brow puckered with apparent concentration. Harry watched, apprehensive and shaky, as Tom's face slowly slipped through subtle expressions. Harry's nerves only increased as the seconds ticked on - and then the minutes. Harry had to admit that he'd honestly expected Tom's time under the hat to be rather brief - Tom himself had said his first sorting was virtually instantaneous - and the duration of this sorting only served to fuel Harry's fears that the hat could tell who Tom really was. Perhaps Tom was trying to convince it to not tell Dumbledore the truth?
A dozen different fears flew through Harry's mind and suddenly, at the three and a half minute mark, the rip in the hat opened and the voice called out, "Gryffindor!"
Harry's jaw dropped.
Tom looked just as dumbfounded. He seemed to remain rooted to the stool in utter astonishment for several moments, and McGonagall had to actually pluck the hat off of his head to jolt him out of it.
Tom seemed to be in a bit of a daze as he walked down the aisle towards Harry. Harry was aware that there was clapping going on around him, and Hermione was encouraging Seamus to scoot down a bit, to make room for Tom beside Harry, but it was like he was hearing all of this from somewhere deep underwater.
Tom saw the opening and made his way there, coming to sit beside Harry with a slight wobble.
"Gryffindor," he rasped as he finally sat down.
"Holy hell! How the heck did this happen!?" Harry practically squawked, finally snapping out of his stupor and gaping at him.
Tom's jaw seemed to work for a moment but no words came out. He closed it, swallowed and glanced around, blinking several times as if to try and shake himself out of his daze.
"It — it said you were my compass and if I didn't follow you, I might lose my way and tread the wrong path."
Harry blinked, rather stunned by that statement. It was also rather sweet, in a mildly foreboding sort of way. Tom leaned in closer then. "It also seemed to suggest that if it had sorted me where I belonged that I might succumb to… temptation. It… it made me choose. It said it was my choice to make."
"And you choose Gryffindor?"
"I choose you."
Harry paused, gaping but slowly he closed his mouth and smiled softly at Tom for a moment before it morphed into an amused grin and a chuckle. "Merlin, how sappy are we?"
Tom snorted.
"Hey, congrats!" Ron's voice broke in and pulled them out of their isolated little world. "And here you sounded so sure you'd end up on Slytherin!"
Tom laughed weakly. "Eh heh… yeah."
"Wow, Gryffindor! How do you feel?" Hermione asked.
"A bit, stunned, to be honest," Tom admitted.
"Hey, there! I'm Seamus Finnigan. Sixth year," Seamus said with a slight wave of his hand to Tom. "You know these lot already, do you?"
"Oh yeah, we met over the summer," Ron confirmed. "Er, but Harry's known him longer, I guess. Sort of…"
"Hi, I'm Dean Thomas. Also sixth year," Dean said, reaching across the table and offering his hand. Tom shook it politely and gave a slight nod of his head.
"I'm Thomlyn Moore. Or just Tom is fine. It's a pleasure to meet you both."
"So, wow. New roommate. It's gonna get a bit crowded in the tower, eh?" Seamus said with a laugh.
They quieted down a moment later as Dumbledore took to the center podium and began to make his welcoming speech. Harry looked sideways to Tom to find him seeming to stare at something that wasn't quite in the right direction for Dumbledore. He followed his gaze and saw that Snape was staring hard in their direction. His eyes were narrowed and calculating.
Harry glanced back at Tom and found his brow puckered and a small frown plastered firmly on his lips.
"What's up?" Harry whispered to Tom.
Tom sighed, grimaced, and looked back at Harry with a tired expression. "I really screwed up…"
"Being sorted into Gryffindor?"
Tom quickly shook his head. "No, not that. Just… letting that cover-story slip to Severus. I'd been tossing it around in my head for some time, and while it seemed like a good idea one moment, I'd talk myself out of it the next. I knew it was probably a bad idea to let myself actually move on the idea, and I'd basically talked myself out of it. Then I just went and… said it anyway."
"Oh. Hmm… Yeah, I'm still not sure what to make of that. I mean, it seems kind of risky letting that idea get out there. Not really sure why you'd even want to."
"It provides me with an avenue to hold onto things I know I should probably let go of. It's… it's the sort of thing the hat warned me about."
"Oh?… hmm. I guess I can maybe see how that could happen."
"It's really just this temptation to hold onto things from my past. I need to move on — to distance myself from it all completely. But this cover story provides me with a loop hole and I just… I shouldn't…" Tom sighed and shook his head weekly. "We can talk later."
Harry nodded his understanding and refocused on Dumbledore just as he finished his speech. Dumbledore clapped his hands together with a flourish and all of the tables suddenly filled with food and the hall erupted in excited chatter.
"Oh Merlin, look at that," Harry exclaimed, laughing with mild incredulity a moment later. Tom looked at him in confusion before following Harry's eyes down to his own chest. His eyes bugged out slightly as he saw that his previously plain black robes now bore the Gryffindor crest upon it. His tie, which had also been plain black before, was now striped in red and gold.
"Bloody hell, this is surreal," He rasped. "I'm a Gryffindor!"
Harry barked out a laugh before partially covering his mouth and just snickering instead.
"Not what you were expecting?" Seamus asked from Tom's other side.
"I… no." Tom shook his head. "It was not what I was expecting."
"Oh the train he told us he thought he'd end up in Slytherin," Ron said as he reached out and began to shovel food onto his plate.
"Oh yeah?" Seamus asked, looking at him curiously.
"Er yeah, uhm… my… father was in Slytherin. And any and all family before him, from what I've gathered, was as well," Tom said before sighing and just reaching out to get some food for himself, clearly eager to try and change the subject.
"Eh? So is your family gonna be upset with you being sorted into Gryffindor, then?" Seamus asked.
"Tom's an orphan," Hermione said.
Seamus blinked at her for a moment before looking back at Tom with a small grimace. "Oh - well, then I guess they won't mind."
Tom chuckled weakly, shook his head and shrugged. "I suppose not."
The meal progressed in earnest then, with everyone eagerly loading up their plates and genial conversation filling the hall. Plenty of focus was given to Tom from their year mates, and Harry could tell that Tom was less than thrilled with the attention, but kept his polite mask up and answered questions whenever they were posed.
"Wait, so how do you two know each other?" Lavender Brown asked a ways into the meal, as plates were emptying and conversation had picked up. She looked between Harry and Tom from her spot several seats further down, just past Neville and next to Parvati.
Tom looked to Harry with a questioning sort of look and Harry felt himself pull in a deep breath, realizing he needed to make the decision as to just how honest they were going to be up front, or if they were going to try and…
He pushed the breath out, shaking his head to himself somewhat, realizing that the idea of trying to keep it secret was utterly unappealing.
"We started writing each other about a year ago - sort of a penpal deal. Then we met in person at the start of the summer and spent almost the whole two and a half months either at his place or mine," Harry said, as casually as he could manage with his heart pounding away nervously on his chest. "I guess it was somewhere in the middle there that we started officially dating."
Lavender blinked at him for several beats. "Dating?" she finally asked, sounding both incredulous and bewildered.
Harry's gaze remained mostly on his plate, acting as nonchalant as possible. "Mmhmm, yeah. I guess that's why Dumbledore was so interested in getting Tom to transfer to Hogwarts. He figured if I was dating someone who lived off campus I'd end up sneaking off to see him."
Lavender's eyes were huge and hungry for details. Harry gave her a cautious sideways glance and grimaced. He knew this was the fasted way to get this news out into the general public, but he still kind of hated it.
"You two… are dating?" she asked again, for clarification.
Harry made a humming sort of sound and nodded his head, taking that moment to take a bite of the pie in front of him, rather than make eye contact.
"Like dating, dating?" Parvati's voice broke in, sounding excited.
"Wait, whut?" Seamus asked, blinking at them from Tom's other side.
"And they're gonna let you two share a dorm?" Dean asked with a laugh, amusement clearly in his voice. "Bloody hell, are we gonna have to keep an eye on you two? Make sure no one is sneaking into someone else's bed at night?"
Seamus snorted. "Don't be daft, you can't cock-block a bloke like that! Sharing a dorm with his boyfriend? You can't have a more prime opportunity! As long as they use silencing charms, I say we leave them be. Just… you know, don't break up and start some sort of barmy drama in the dorm room, because that'd be really annoying."
Harry choked on the bite of pie currently in his mouth while Tom snorted beside him.
"Well, I'm grateful for your sentiments, Seamus," Tom said, chuckling lightly. "And I'm hopeful that Harry will tolerate me for the whole of the school year. —Beyond if I'm truly fortunate, but I suppose only time will tell."
Harry looked over at Tom then, reached his hand out and lay it over top of Tom's, giving it a squeeze. Tom smiled back.
"Wo-ow," Parvati said with exaggerated emphasis, gaping at Harry for a moment before something of a lightbulb seemed to go off in her mind. "This explains so much about the Yule Ball!"
Harry made another choking sound, while Seamus burst out laughing.
Tom's eyes lit up a bit. "Are you the one he took to the dance?"
Parvati smiled prettily and seemed to primp at her hair a bit. "I am. Although Harry dear wasn't much of a date. I suppose I can forgive him now, given the extenuating circumstances. I rather doubt Padma will ever forgive Ron, though."
"Oi! What'd I do wrong?" Ron exclaimed.
Parvati and Lavender both gave him flat glares.
"If you have to ask that question, then you're clearly hopeless," Parvati said.
"Unless you're gay too," Lavender added. Her brow creased with a small pucker for a moment before her eyes went somewhat wide as she looked back at Ron. "You're not, are you?" she asked, sounding rather horrified by the prospect.
"NO!" Ron exclaimed instantly, holding his hands up before grimacing and glancing over at Harry. "Not that there's anything wrong with that.. just… I'm not."
Harry couldn't help but laugh, and Tom snickered beside him.
Finally the last of the deserts were cleared and Dumbledore took to the podium once again, spoke for a brief time, and called the feast to a close with a pass at singing the school song to whatever tune each person felt was most appropriate - which was awful, but also fairy business as usual.
Tom had stared at Dumbledore with dumbfounded shock as the whole thing proceeded before looking at Harry with incredulous questioning in his gaze.
"Not how they did it when you were younger, eh?" Harry whispered to Tom when it had all finished and the students began to stand, and the prefects gathered the first years.
Tom snorted. "Most certainly not. Headmaster Dippet wasn't nearly as… eccentric, as Dumbledore," Tom whispered back and Harry chuckled.
Hermione helped to corral the first years with great zeal while Ron put forth the least amount of enthusiasm for the task as was possible. Harry and Tom followed along with them, and pretty much the majority of the rest of the Gryffindors as the group left the Great Hall and began making their way further into and up the castle towards the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Do you already know where it is?" Harry whispered to Tom.
"I'm aware of the location," Tom said with a nod. "Actually entered the common room once, but it's been a very, very long time."
"Dare I ask what you were doing in the Gryffindor Common Room?" Harry asked with a single arched brow.
Tom smiled and shook his head. "Hardly matters."
"Watch the step!" Hermione's voice called out just as the three first years who were directly in front of Tom and Harry reached one of many of the notorious trick steps that littered various stairwells throughout Hogwarts. Tom reached out and caught one of the students just as his foot sank through the false step, and managed to prevent him from taking a spill.
"You'll want to keep an eye on that one. It's predictable - it's always fake," Hermione was saying in her lecturing tone as she continued to lead the group further up the Grand Staircase towards the seventh floor.
Finally they reached a stretch of wall with the large portrait of the Fat Lady in a pink dress.
"Ab absurdo," Hermione spoke in a loud clear voice to the painting which then swung to the side, revealing a circular hole behind it, and the common room beyond. "Make sure to remember the password, as if you forget it, you'll be stuck out here until someone else comes along to let you in. The password is changed once a week on Sundays and is posted on the board, right over here —" She guided the group of eleven year olds to the bulletin board along the wall not far from the entrance.
Harry jerked his head to the side and Tom nodded. The pair left Hermione and the firsties and made their way further into the common room. Tom walked somewhat slowly, looking around with rather wide eyes as he took the space in.
"This is seriously bizarre," Tom muttered.
Harry snickered. "You've said that several times tonight."
"Then I haven't said it enough," Tom chuckled. "Merlin there is far too much red in this room."
Harry guffawed. "Yeah, well I'll take it over the Slytherin common room any day. The whole black leather with skull buttons, and green glowing light from the lake was creepy."
"Oh ho? And what pray tell were you doing in there?"
Harry chuckled and shrugged. "Hardly matters," he echoed Tom's words from earlier, earning him an eye roll. "Come on, lets check out the dorm room."
Harry made his way through the growing crowd of the common room towards the stairs that led up towards the boys dormitories with Tom trailing directly behind him. They reached the third landing and a sign was placed beside the door that read 'Sixth Years'. Harry pulled it open and quickly entered. He paused and looked around, blinking slightly.
"Weird."
"What's weird?"
"This is the same room that we've had since we started back in first year, but I'd swear it's bigger."
"Space expansion, no doubt," Tom stated with a shrug.
"Oh brilliant," Harry said with a grin as he went over to his bed and noted that the newly added four-poster bed that currently had Tom's trunk sitting beside it, had been added directly to the left of Harry's bed. To the right was Ron's and the rest of the room remained the same.
Tom chuckled and sat on his bed, bouncing slightly to test it out and running his hand over the beddings appreciatively. "So what do you think, Harry? Will we be taking advantage of the situation and sneaking into each others beds as Seamus suggested?"
Harry flushed and ducked his head, but the grin on his lips was impossible to hid. "Maybe," He said, grinning cheekily.
Tom grinned as well for a moment longer before letting out a small sigh and looking around the room. "A new beginning…" he said softly.
"What's that?"
"Just something the hat said."
"How'd that go, anyway? Did it realize…"
"It never explicitly said anything to suggest it knew who I er… used to be. And yet it did seem to understand things that might suggest otherwise. I did ask it if there was any guarantee of privacy, or if it might go discussing what it found in my head with the Headmaster, and it said that what was discussed between the hat and I, would remain between the hat and I. Hopefully, that's true."
"Yeah, hopefully."
"Well, I know it's a bit early still, but I'm feeling rather knackered. I might just call it a night," Tom said as he hopped off his bed, popped open his trunk and began to dig around inside.
Harry yawned and shrugged. "Yeah, I could probably do the same."
They each prepared for bed and made their trips to the loo. Neville came up during this time and began to get ready as well. By the time both Harry and Tom were ready, Ron entered the dorm room and began getting ready as well.
They each climbed into bed, closed their bed hangings, called out their good nights and went to bed. Though, it wasn't too much longer after that when Tom slipped from his bed and crawled into Harry's bed.
Not that Harry was complaining.
— — —