The morning mail arrived as usual on Wednesday the 31st of January, leaving Tom with an impatiently anticipated letter in his hands. Naturally, he hadn't procrastinated on the correspondence with the Minister, sending him his elegantly phrased wishes of a happy New Year together with a proposition regarding the details of the Custodarium-Ministry cooperation.
He'd consulted the matter with Aaron Morgenstern (now a Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Law Division junior employee) at the party – the magical laws of child custody were rather simplistic: in short, custody could be passed between parents, godparents or immediate relatives freely, the authorities only interfered in the event of disputes. If a child's legal guardian died or proved unfit to raise it, their custody would fall upon the next eligible candidate. If no eligible candidate was available, the case was to be "handled individually". There were laws to protect an orphaned child's inheritance, not as much the child itself. Until they started Hogwarts, the Ministry had no way of checking up on the children.
In his letter to Minister Spencer-Moon, Tom proposed a system of child protection with the Custodarium staff as the executive power. They would check up on every "known" (source of that knowledge left unspecified) magical child's wellbeing at least once a year. If they detected unsuitable conditions, they would report to the Ministry of Magic and apply for a custody transfer. If the Ministry came upon an uncared-for magical or Squib child, it could temporarily or permanently leave it in Custodarium's care.
Additionally, any minor ought to have the right to seek refuge at Custodarium of their own volition, regardless of their family status. In such events, Tom requested for a new sort of protective custody to be established, so that the staff could legally handle the child until the situation resolved itself in their jurisdiction.
The demands were daring, but he'd phrased them carefully and explained the reasoning behind each of them to make them difficult to dispute. There was also one strong argument in their favour – the bill would shed positive light on the Ministry without it costing them a Knut.
Despite knowing that, Tom still felt a touch nervous as he opened the envelope – this was direct correspondence with the Minister of Magic, after all, and a crucial point to his plans.
Dear Mr. Riddle,
thank you for your letter, your initiative is most meritorious. I have considered your propositions and found no reason to demur. I shall present a bill to the Wizengamot as soon as possible in high hopes of it coming into force before your facility starts operation in June.
I am looking forward to our future cooperation.
Yours sincerely,
Leonard Spencer-Moon
Minister of Magic
That wasn't too bad, Tom thought in satisfaction.
"-serious?"
"No way!"
"-a shame… so handsome."
He glanced up from his the letter to see a group of fifth year Ravenclaw girls look away in a hurry. Alarmingly, they weren't the only ones staring – there was an ominous hum of murmurs, mostly in female voices, throughout the Great Hall, heads turning in his direction.
Walburga Black, a pretentious classmate who used to have a very annoying crush on Tom in third year but washed her hands off him after the incident with Malfoy, gasped loudly and hastily passed a magazine to Christopher Nott and his friends on the farther, blood-purist side of the Slytherin table. They seemed awfully pleased about something, laughing and whispering to each other conspiratorially. Finally, they stood up and made for the door, pausing by the spot where Harry and Tom had been sitting. The Hall grew almost completely silent in anticipation.
"And here we were wondering how you'd convinced Potter to buy you an island," Nott spat, a haughty smirk on his face. "Never guessed you were this resourceful."
Tom turned to face him while Harry looked up from his scrambled eggs, confused.
"What's this about, Christopher?" Tom said, keeping his tone and expression neutral with the whole school watching.
Nott lowered his voice to make sure it didn't reach the head table, but the students in their vicinity heard it. "It's about you bending over for your rich blood traitor boyfriend, sugar boy." He savoured the gasps that comment had earned, then continued more loudly, "You're a disgrace to all of Slytherin."
Tom was quite stunned by the open attack, first horror, then anger washing over him, but he still had the presence of mind to catch Harry, who was about to go full Gryffindor and probably hex the motherfucker on the spot, by the arm.
As much as Tom would love nothing more, he realised this situation required careful handling – the sight of Harry forced him to cool his head; he needed to protect this person and he had to do it right.
Nott's group meanwhile made for the door, the rest of them uttering "Disgusting faggots," and "Poofters," as they walked by. Harry's face was pale and torn between shock, anger and mortification.
Tom closed his eyes for a second to gather his thoughts, then took a look around. One fifth year Slytherin girl nearby was sitting quite awkwardly with her hands beneath the table, it was as good a bet as any.
"Can someone please pass me the thing? Filomena?"
The girl started at being singled out, but she obediently handed him her copy of Witch Weekly.
Britain's young favourites favour each other!? Tom Riddle and Harry Potter's secret love revealed!
The article was mostly twisting what they'd said publicly before and speculation, the only new information being that they'd reportedly lived together in Custodarium. There was a photo of them sharing a smile and another of them walking to the greenhouses rather close to each other and laughing about something. All in all, there was no proof, but that only made Tom feel more gutted, because it didn't matter.
If they denied it now, they'd look like idiots once they actually decided to come out – the reputation of a private person or outright liar never did anyone's political career any good.
He forced a chuckle and turned to Harry, saying as casually as possible, "Took them long enough, eh?"
Everyone was staring at him with wide eyes, Harry included.
Then the Hall burst into excited chatter. Tom used the opportunity to murmur, "It will be best to play it cool, like we weren't trying too hard to keep it a secret, just not flaunting it."
xXx
Harry barely had enough time to process the instruction and nod minutely before the assault of questions started.
"Since when?"
"You're gay?!"
"How did it happen?"
"Why haven't you told us, mate?" said Dalamar, the only source Harry could pinpoint since he was sitting directly to his left.
"Er, you never asked," he offered uselessly. "Look, um, sorry, we didn't want to make you uncomfortable since we room together and all."
"Oh! Ohhh, have you, you know, while we were sleeping…"
"No! I mean, er-" Bollocks, how was he supposed to answer that with a straight face? Especially since he could hear someone yelling "WHO'S THE TOP!?" and "PROOF OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!" from another table, probably Gryffindor.
"Nothing of the sort, Dal, I promise," Tom came to the rescue with an effortless lie. Harry wished he had that kind of self-control.
"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" group of students started chanting and Harry felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment.
Someone at the head table moved to interfere, but halted when Tom stood up, facing the Hall with his hand raised palm forward, obviously waiting for the students to quiet down. He had the other hand in his pocket – on his wand, Harry realised, and it had the familiar shake to it.
"Let's be civilised about this, friends. Yes, Harry and I have been romantically involved for about a year and making decisions as a couple. No, I assure you nothing inappropriate has been happening between us at Hogwarts. We are all witches and wizards here, I believe we are above Muggle prejudices, but if anyone has a relevant concern to voice, please do so now." The a challenge in his words didn't transcend into his voice – his tone was even and conciliatory.
He waited for a few beats of silence to pass, then continued with a cordial smile. "Very well, let's consider this sorted and eat our breakfast in peace."
He sat down again and went back to eating his porridge like nothing of import happened. The Great Hall gradually returned to just slightly above its usual level of chatter, some professors were nodding in approval.
"Wow," Harry exhaled. "That was…" Scary. Brilliant. Impressive. I love you.
"Just an emergency measure, Harry, don't let your guard down," Tom finished instead.
"Oh." Of course it couldn't be that simple for Harry Potter, he should have been used to it by now.
The Slytherin part of the Knights had been exchanging looks awkwardly, the unsaid "Did you know?" hanging in the air. Some, like Dalamar and Clarence, wore a smug expression, others, like Fulcran, a confused one.
"So, congratulations," Clarence offered.
"Congratulations," more people joined in.
"I'd never guess you fancied blokes," Fulcran mused.
"That's because you're thick, Ful. I had my suspicions since summer," Dalamar retorted.
"Me too," said Clarence. "Does your uncle know, Harry?"
"Er, yeah, he sort of guessed," Harry admitted, scratching the back of his neck.
"See? It's the way they look at each other sometimes! I bet Sarah knows, too."
Harry turned to glance in her direction. The fourth-year Ravenclaw looked crestfallen.
"I'm so sorry!" she told them, teary-eyed, when she caught up with them while they were walking from breakfast. "My friends kept asking about you, so I told them you live at Custodarium together, um, I didn't think it would spread and people would assume…"
"Er, it's alright, we were planning to go official after Hogwarts anyway," Harry said soothingly.
"But…"
"As Harry says. You don't have a problem with it, do you?" asked Tom.
"No, no! I'm really happy for you!" the girl squeaked hurriedly.
"Then don't worry about it, we had to deal with it sooner or later."
'Later' would have been much preferred, though. This was a terrible timing – the article about the revelation of their relationship came out in the Daily Prophet two days later, in the same issue as the announcement of Minister Spencer-Moon's law proposition.
Unsurprisingly, they were faced with a shitstorm from the pure-blood party. Harry and Tom had both received a few strongly worded letters, and a number of politicians expressed their concern over the moral development of children entrusted to individuals with such "questionable lifestyle choices".
Fulcran got a letter, too – from his father. To protect the family honour, he was rather uncompromisingly instructed to stop associating with the "swarm of freaks". Admittedly, that was rather hard to do when his room was full of them, so it wasn't much of a concern for now. The real washout was that he was going to directly oppose the bill and would recommend his associates to do the same.
It seemed less likely that the bill would be passed than not, they could only thank Merlin that the Minister was a decent man and hadn't withdrawn the proposition in the first place. There was nothing they could do to shift the odds, and it was bloody frustrating – Tom did his best to hold his head high through it all, but Harry knew the uncertainty had been eating away at him.
At least no one had been stupid enough to try and hex them. Harry could live with the occasional "faggot" or "sissy" by the bigoted minority, although he had to admit the slurs still stung just a bit, no matter who they came from. He didn't really get a choice in the matter, did he?
What hurt him more were the cautious glances in the locker room after Quidditch practice and the ever-present whispers or giggles from the more tolerant part of the students, his friends. Literally nothing had changed, he hated how people started treating him differently overnight just because they'd learned whom he dated. Would Ron have been like this? Neville? Seamus? Damn, he missed them…
But as they say, there was something good in everything bad. A couple of other students gained the courage to come out, too, after the revelation, and Harry had caught more watching him and Tom with a wistful expression he'd imagine for someone coming to terms with who they are or building resolve.
He realised they'd become an inspiration to the other queer kids at Hogwarts. Ironically, the pure-bloods from the most traditional families and the Muggle-borns they hated shared the burden of a homophobic family background, Harry couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for them to be gay. The Dursleys had been homophobic as hell, of course, but he never liked them and was glad for every "fuck you" to their pretentious suburban lifestyle – these kids probably loved their parents and struggled with the idea of disappointing them.
He imagined being raised in a loving but strictly religious family, then finding out he was a wizard and gay. Shit, they really had to start checking up on the magical children as soon as possible, law or no law.