Chapter 23

New Members

Harry has gotten a letter from Grindelwald the day after Professor Slughorn's party. It was a short letter with barely a signature. It read, "Harry, where will you be spending your summer? I wish for you to spend it with me. Talk with me tonight. G."

For the first time, Harry's mind went towards the summer which still felt so far away It was the end of January, the next meeting the Knights is at the end of the week, and the concept of summer was so foreign and strange to Harry's winter-cladded mind. He was preparing so much for both the immediate and far distant future, he didn't think of what he will do during the summer months.

He looked around at his friends and was silent in thought. He was distracted for most of the day, just going through the motions during classes, and not even getting riled up or angry when people passed him notes or taunted him about his sexuality. After dinner, Harry was in his dormitory kneeling in front of his trunk when Tom walked up to him. "What happened?" he asked simply.

"What do you do during the summer?" Harry asked, not even looking up at Tom. He opened the secret compartment on the bottom of his trunk and pulled out the two-way mirror as Tom answered.

"Return to my 'lovely' home of an orphanage," Tom sneered. "A very grim and desolate place. Why do you ask?"

"He wrote to me again," Harry said. "After sending those stupid weekly letters, it seems he finally responded. It has nothing to do with Dumbledore, but more with me. He wants me to spend the summer with him, and that made me realize that I have no plans at all for the summer."

"That would be troublesome especially since you came here under special conditions," Tom said thoughtfully, now close enough to finger Harry's necklace, admiring the crystal's shine. Harry made a humming sound, nodding. "It would be a good idea, I believe, for you to spend the summer with Grindelwald," Tom continued. "It would give you a chance, at least, to be close to him. Physically, close I mean. He might lower his guard and you can steal the wand."

"That actually sounds like a good idea," Harry smiled. "I think I'll accept his offer—Tom, can you please lock the door?" He stood up, brushing against Tom. The older Slytherin took out his wand and locked the door without moving, his other hand wrapping around Harry's throat.

"Just remember who your master is, Harry," he whispered, kissing Harry as the boy moaned.

"You are," Harry breathed.

"Good boy," Tom chuckled. "Now when you talk to your fake master as if you can bring me along."

"Yes, Master," Harry nodded, sticking his tongue out cheekily as he added, "Afraid he'll get a bit handsy?"

"I'm hoping for it," Tom said. "It gives me an excuse to kill him."

"No, not kill," Harry said. "Remember, we need to make sure that Dumbledore defeats him in 1945. I want to keep that event the same. Sort of like a key moment in time. It'll give Dumbledore praise and attention that we can use to slip under, okay? We just need the wand."

Tom chuckled, "My scheming snake," he said lovingly. "Fine then."

Harry smiled and looked at the mirror he held. "Gellert Grindelwald," he said.

He waited a moment and the appearance of Grindelwald walked into view. "Harry, my boy, there you are," he said, smiling way too much for Harry's liking. "I'm very happy to see that my letter has come, and I have to thank you for all of your letters—though I do wish that they would be a little more personal."

"There have been no strange behavior in Dumbledore at all," Harry said simply. "What more do you want me to write?"

"For example, how you are doing, how you are feeling, personal stuff that allows me a seat in your head," Grindelwald said.

"You can get to know me personally during the summer," Harry said. "That was why I called you. I wanted to accept your offer, I would love to spend the summer with you, Dark Wizard Grindelwald. As long as I get to bring Tom with me. We both are looking forward to learning everything you can teach us."

"Everything, huh?" Grindelwald said. He nodded, "I would love to," he finally smiled. "I will personally teach you everything I know Harry. I will send you a letter later in the year then, outlining how I will come and fetch you and your young friend. Until then, be a good boy for Daddy." He smiled and disappeared from the mirror.

Harry dropped it immediately and turned to Tom, frowning. "Master?" he mewled.

"Yes, pet?"

"We can't kill him, but can we please hurt him?" Harry asked. "Really hard."

Tom laughed and pulled Harry against him, kissing the boy roughly. "Of course my little snake," he whispered. "We will hurt and maim the man, squeeze the breath out of him before leaving him on the edge."

Harry smiled and pulled Tom into his bed, closing the covers around them. "Let's spend the night here," he whispered. "I don't feel like seeing the others."

Tom chuckled and agreed. The two spent the night kissing and slowly taking off each other's clothes until they were just in their underwear. Harry wanted more but Tom refused. Promising him that their first time together will be unforgettable, but now is not the time.

The week went by without any incidents. Professor Slughorn continued to praise Harry's work in Potions class and bring up the way he baffled even the Ministry goodheartedly and even made the boy promise to come to his Valentine's Party, "We'll find a pretty girl for you yet, eh Peverell?" the Potions Master said merrily.

"Of course, professor," Harry replied politely.

Tom told Harry and the others the time of the meeting, and how to get there the day of. It was to be held at eight at night, and in a room that is hidden on the seventh floor. "Walk around the corridor three times, thinking 'I want to attend the meeting' and the door will appear," Tom instructed. The boys all nodded and went off to find their guests.

Harry found Castor by the library studying with Gryffindors. He approached them good-naturedly and smile, "Castor, can we talk?"

"He doesn't want to talk with a slimy faggot like you, go away," the girl Castor was with said.

Harry felt his heartbeat and his shoulders suddenly were heavy as he looked at the girl's look of disgusting hatred. Castor looked afraid and sadden, but stood up. "Come on Harry," he said. Harry gave the girl one final glance before following Castor out of the library. "Look, I'm sorry, she's usually very nice," he said.

"And homophobic it seems," Harry muttered. "So I take it nobody knows?"

"About me? Of course not," Castor said. "I know how to keep secrets unlike the rest of my House, Harry."

Harry nodded and sighed, "I don't blame you personally," he said. "I just came here to make sure you're good on coming to the meeting tonight."

"Yeah I'm still interested," Castor nodded. "Do you have a time and place?"

"I do, it's going to be at eight tonight, we have a hidden room we'll be using. We can meet up in front of the Portrait of the Fat Lady and I'll bring you to it."

"Sounds like a plan," Castor nodded. "And Harry, uhm just know that I stand with you, even if I can't do it openly. My parents know and, well, they don't want my queerness to ruin my sister's career."

"How horrible," Harry said.

Castor shook his head. "It's to be expected, honestly," he admitted. "I'm just happy they're not forcing me to marry a woman."

"Me too," Harry nodded. "So I'll see you at eight?"

"At eight," Castor nodded. Harry surprised him by kissing his cheek, "Goodbye," he said.

"Beat me to it," Castor smirked. He kissed Harry's cheek. "Goodbye—and there better be more cuties like you," he said and went back to the library.

Harry felt rather happy and smug about himself as he left. His mood improved when he met up with Tom, and the two lounged in the Slytherin Common room until it was time for dinner, and soon afterwards the meeting.

They all left half an hour before the meeting, leaving one at a time to avoid suspicion. Harry left first and allowed his memory to lead him to the painting of the Fat Lady all the way up on the Seventh Floor, as far away from the Slytherin's Dungeon as he could get. The Portrait's occupant looked the same as ever. She gave Harry strange looks when she saw him, but he did not say anything as he waited for Castor to walk out. A few minutes later, he did, smiling broadly.

"Evening Harry," he said cheerfully, "shall we go?"

"Lead on, my friend," Castor said. Harry smiled and turned, leading Castor to the corridor of the Room of Requirement. Nobody was there when they arrived, which Harry honestly expected. "Where are we? I don't see a door," Castor said.

"It'll be here like I said, it's hidden," Harry said. "See that wall? We need to walk past it three times, thinking 'I want to attend the meeting,' Then the door will appear. Trust me."

Castor looked at Harry for a moment before shrugging, "Alright," he said. Harry led him as they walked through the corridor, circling three times around the long stretch of wall, the phrase repeating in their minds. After the third pass through, Harry stopped as he saw the door. "See," he smirked. "Come on!"

Harry held the door open for Castor and allowed the Gryffindor to walk into the room before him. They walked into a nicely sized and lit room. In the center was a large round table already filled with students. The table looked ornate and well-preserved with one chair higher and grander than all the others, which Tom was of course sitting in. The walls had banners of all four Houses, though Harry couldn't help but notice more Slytherin banners than Gryffindor, and as he looked around, he suddenly felt very, very worried as most of the other students were either fellow Slytherins or Ravenclaws. There wasn't a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor in sight. He looked at Castor, biting his bottom lip.

The Gryffindor stopped and looked around, noticing the same thing Harry noticed. He glanced at Harry and shrugged before continuing. Any tension or awkwardness of Castor being the only Gryffindor was pushed to the side, however, as Tom stood from his chair and smiled, "Harry Peverell! There you are, we were almost worried that you would not show. Come along," he pointed to the two empty chairs to his right.

Harry looked at Castor and started walking, the Gryffindor falling in line. Harry caught his friends' eyes as he made his way to Tom. Most were staring at him, shocked that he would bring a Gryffindor. Surprisingly, Abraxas wasn't staring at him with annoyance that he was used to. Harry and Castor sat down in the two remaining chairs and Harry was relieved to see that Castor was sitting next to Jasper. He leaned towards Castor and pointed to Jasper, "He's one of us," he whispered.

Castor looked at Jasper and smirked. "You were right, there are cute boys here," he whispered.

Tom cleared his throat, and everyone looked at him. Standing over all, Tom spread out his arms and said, "Welcome my friends! I am so honored and glad that you all have decided to join us today. Now, I am sure you all are curious as to why we have asked you to come. The reason, my friends is the future. We are living in a sorry state. Hidden, cut off from our true power. Our dream is for a brighter future, a future where there is no barrier! No barrier from wizards and true magic, no barrier between wizards and muggles! A world where we all live in harmonious equality. The Wizarding World and the Ministry of Magic are scared of Muggles where there should be no fear. However, those who wish to break down barriers go about it the wrong way. Grindelwald would rather kill and maim, holding supremacy overall. This is wrong. This is not what we want. I will not lie; we will have to do some underhanded actions to achieve our dreams. If the thought goes against your morality, speak now and we will listen, and see if we cannot quell your fears."

He ended and sat down. Immediately a Ravenclaw stood up. He looked to be a younger boy, around Fifth Year. "I have something to say," he said arrogantly. "This world you want? Is it going to help the poofs? Because I don't want that."

Tom's eyebrow ticked. His face remained emotionless as Harry, Castor, and Jasper all gotten too silent, watching the Ravenclaw cautiously. "Explain," Tom said simply.

"I don't want to help poofs, they're disgusting beasts—why even is he here? Peverell is the faggot of all poofs! You heard the rumors how he forced that Mulciber Slytherin into doing faggot things," the Ravenclaw said. "I'll help but only after you kick that faggot out!"

"Who brought you here?" Tom asked.

"Nott."

"I did not know about his… feelings, my lord," Nott said quickly. "I did not even assume to ask."

"We will deal with that later," Tom said. "For now, I open to all, do anyone here share the same opinion and feelings as our boisterous friend here?"

Nobody spoke up, they glanced at each other awkwardly, waiting for what will happen next. "No one? Very well." He took his wand and immediately shot a spell that was a deep purple at the Ravenclaw. It struck him before he could react and everyone held their breath, wondering what would happen. "You are free to go," Tom said, his wand slipping into his sleeve. "Just know, if you try to talk about today and what and who you saw, your tongue will fall out."

He sat down and stared at the Ravenclaw who looked at him in shock. "Well? Go on," Tom said, shooing him away. The Ravenclaw ran out, the door slamming behind him. Tom sighed and shook his head, "I am sorry, my friends. But my world holds no place for prejudices or hatred of any kind. We are about empowering our people—all wizarding kind—and return to the past glory that we have so long ago lost!

"Dark Magic, Light Magic, these distinctions are what separates us. There is no dark or light. There is simply magic, power, and those strong enough to use it. Yes obviously we want to bring equality to all of our fellow Wizarding kind, the fixation on blood, and the holidays that Muggleborns bring in only served to fracture us and make us divided, weaker. But if we can get past these manmade boundaries, break free from our own chains. My friends, my dear, loyal friends, we will together reach a new stage, a new era of Magic! We will not only bring the old ways to a new Generation—we will ascend overall, achieve a power that only gods can dream of! And together—together—We will change this world!"

A silence followed Tom's speech. He looked around, breathing deeply as his eyes. He looked both mad and enthusiastic. Harry did not know how to react. His first instinct was to clap; however, he didn't want to be the only one or the one to start it. Tom cleared his throat and looked around, "I'm sorry," he said. "The moment just caught me."

"It was a good speech," Abraxas Malfoy said, "Perhaps save it for when you're talking to more people?"

"Yes, quite. Anyway, why don't we all introduce ourselves?" Tom suggested. There was a murmur of agreement and everyone went around the room, introducing themselves and how they got there. When it was Castor's turn, Jasper interrupted with a small noise.

"Sorry," he said, "I just really like your sister's singing."

"It's alright," Castor chuckled. "Singing's in the family if you want I can sing some of her songs, though don't expect me to hit the high notes." The boys all chuckled at his little joke. "Anyway, I'm a sixth year, Gryffindor, and it looks like I'm the only Gryffindor here, not that it matters too much."

"It matters immensely," Tom said, "I want this to be a true Inter-House movement. Not to put pressure on you, but you will become an important member solely because you are our first, and currently only Gryffindor."

"Pleasure," Castor drew out. "Anyway, Harry is the one who brought me here."

Harry nodded and gave his introduction, telling the now perfected story of how he and his family ran away from Grindelwald's men and how he was the only survivor. With speeches and introductions done, Tom stood once more, holding a small stack of paper slips. "I've enchanted theses so that we can communicate with each other discreetly," he said. "So far only I can write on them and will be using this to tell you when the next meeting of the Knights will be. We are focusing on growing our ranks, obviously, but we are also concern about the outside world. If you have any interesting news or tidbits from your families about either the Ministry, the war, or the populous' attitude towards either, we would love to hear it."

Tom tapped his wand against the stack and the slips flew, landing in front of each of them. "That is all for tonight, good night to our new friends. The others, stay."

Castor and the others all stood up; Jasper stood up with Castor. "Umm if it's alright, I would seriously like to hear you sing," he said, with a small blush.

"Sounds like fun, how about tomorrow morning? I'll sing with the morning birds into your sweet ear," Castor smirked. He looked around then back at Harry, "Too many to say goodbye to," he said.

"Then just say goodbye to Jasper and me," Harry shrugged. Not caring if anyone saw, he stood up and said goodbye to his friend in his special way. Castor turned and kissed Jasper's cheeks, "Goodbye," he said and walked out.

Jasper was left standing, stunned. Harry smirked and said loudly, "That's just how his family says goodbye." He pulled Jasper down and whispered, "He's hot, yeah?"

"Y-Yeah…" Jasper nodded. "Harry…"

"Don't think about anything, just follow your instinct and feelings with him, alright?" Harry whispered. "We're changing the world—why not be a role model?"

Jasper smiled at that. "Boys, if you will," Tom said, earning the others' snickering.

"Sorry, my lord," Jasper muttered. The core members of the Knights were all still sitting, and Tom looked at them all, deeply disappointed. "Orion, I saw that you brought your cousin. Thank you for that. Nott, we will discuss your guest tomorrow. As for the rest of you… I asked that you branch out and recruit new members, however as I counted, including our Ravenclaw friend who left, there have been only three Ravenclaw students and one Gryffindor while the rest were from our house of Slytherin. We already have eight Slytherin members—all of us! And now there are twelve. Slytherin greatly outnumbers Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff obviously with not even one boy from there! I am excusing Orion for he brought family, but the rest of you, step forward."

Malfoy, Rosier, and Avery stepped forward like men walking to the gallows. The three knelt. "Boys, take out your wands," Tom said, looking at Harry and the others. Harry felt sick as he did so. "Do not show mercy," Voldemort commanded. Cruciatus Curses of various strengths hit the three boys. Their screams filled the room as they fell to the floor in pain. Harry squeezed his eyes as he kept his spell going, focusing only on the spell and not its target until Tom commanded them to stop.

"For the next meeting, the three of you will bring a member from Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff," Voldemort commanded. "Leave us, I want time with Harry."

Harry finally opened his eyes and pocketed his wand. "I'm sorry," he whispered to the three.

"Don't. It was our Lord's order," Rosier said, glancing at Tom. "I don't blame you."

Harry still felt terrible as he watched his friends leave, but it quickly evaporated as the room changed, becoming smaller and more intimate. The table and chairs were replaced by a bed and a loveseat, and a fireplace appeared with a roaring fire.

"Tom—" Harry's question was met with lips as Tom kissed him deeply. His words morphed into moans as Tom maneuvered Harry to the bed, both falling. "You did so well today my pet," Tom breathed. "So good, you're so good to you Master."

"You take good care of me, Master," Harry breathed. "Tom… what are you doing?"

His lover gave Harry a smirk as he sat upon Harry's lap, slowly unbuttoning his shirt. "Finally claiming my pet," he said.

A/N: Next time: No Plot only lemon.