Note: Welcome to A Wizard's Past. This is the 3rd installment for my Wizard's series. If you happened to have stumbled across this, please refer to A Wizard's Lament first, than A Wizard's Redemption, than come back to this one. Thanks.
Warning: It's shonen ai. Harry Potter is dating Tom Riddle. Ron is dating Draco. This is a slash, yaoi, shonen ai, whatever you want to call it story. Don't like? Then don't go on.
Disclaimers: I DO NOT OWN the rights to Harry Potter or the characters or anything. I'm merely amusing myself writing a story out. That is all.
Chapter, 1: The Forgotten Meeting
Harry's eyes slowly slid opened with what he'd hoped to be the morning light streaming in through his window, not the blazing magic of his boyfriend's wand. He could tell it was going to be another one of those long nights where his boyfriend had been having nightmares and wouldn't be going back to sleep any time soon. Tom always had his "night light" that might as well have been an exploding star given the radiance it was giving off when his dreams turned ugly anymore.
"Tom," the Gryffindor muttered. He placed his hand gently on top of Tom's hand and slowly lowered it down so the light wasn't blinding him. The light dimmed instantly and Harry smiled slightly. "It took every bit of energy I had to fight McGonagall not to send you to St. Mungo's, don't make me regret it." He waited for some spark to register in his lover's eyes, but Tom merely sat next to him, his eyes empty and blinking.
Dumbledore's death had been too much for the heir, especially after he realized that the headmaster had gone to great lengths to not be brought back. The letter Dumbledore had left behind for his stepson laid hidden in Harry's trunk. His boyfriend had seemed to lose what little sanity he'd had left after reading that letter. Professor McGonagall had almost refused to let Tom come back to Privet drive. Even so, that same piece of maddening paper also explained to Tom how much Dumbledore had truly cared for the Slytherin, something Harry knew his boyfriend would need to be reminded of once he got his mind back.
"Lupin sent me that package yesterday. Since I know you won't be letting me go back to sleep, let's just get started." He barely made it an inch over the bed when Tom's hand shot out wrapping itself around Harry's wrist. "Watch it," Harry warned. He knew from experience getting mad wasn't going to help the situation, often made it worse, his boyfriend falling into a more defensive mode. Harry however had already earned enough bruises this summer from this exact same action. "You can hold my hand without cutting off my circulation you know."
Of course these words barely registered in his boyfriend's mind. What Harry wouldn't give to just open the bond a tiny bit to tell his boyfriend to relax. That drastic measure, and it was every bit drastic given the state of Tom's mind, was left for the most extreme measures. A good example being when Uncle Vernon had woken them up one night and Tom had almost burned the man into ashes.
Letting out a controlled breath Harry pulled his boyfriend forward gently.
"Listen to me." His free hand went to Tom's chin and he forced the Slytherin's eyes to his own. "This is because Dumbledore died. I know it's a shock and I know you're mad at me for letting it happen." At that he had to jerk Tom's head back up since he'd attempted to look away. "It's okay. I'm mad at myself. I hurt you and let Dumbledore die," he said doing his best to keep his voice from cracking. "If I had any way to take it back or had known what would happen, I'd do it. I would have went and got you so we could both have stopped him from getting that necklace, I would fix it."
The words were pointless Harry knew and was pretty sure his boyfriend did as well. He could scream he regretted his choices every day, but that didn't mean Dumbledore would be coming back.
The heir's gaze went to the floor again and this time Harry released his chin. He was getting worried that his boyfriend was never going to talk again. Worse, he was beginning to think Tom might break up with him the first time he did get his voice back.
With the heir's attention diverted, Harry was able to slip his wrist out of Tom's hold and go to his dresser. The heir didn't follow until Harry had begun removing the paper and he noticed the Gryffindor was no longer sitting next to him. Lupin had sent the package after many begging letters from Harry, he had almost began to think that Lupin would never send it, but here it was.
Now that the object was freed from the paper he sat it down on top of his bed, Tom looking down at it silently from behind Harry's shoulder.
"You won't talk to anyone, our bond is useless right now with how unstable you are." He turned around then to face the heir and took both of his hands in his own. "I know you're confused, so am I. Dumbledore wouldn't want to see you like this. I can't bring him back, but we can see him." For a second Harry was sure he saw a hint of understanding in his boyfriend's eyes before the emotion faded out. He hoped it wasn't merely desperation on his part to see some intelligence in Tom's eyes again. "So here's the deal." He let go of the heir's hands and removed a small wooden case from his trunk. Upon opening it he showed the contents to his boyfriend. "You want to see Dumbledore, I want my past back."
This time the heir did have a reaction, his hand came up so quickly had Harry not noticed it and moved back, all of the glass vials inside the box would have gone flying.
"Tom!" he put the box behind his back, his hands falling onto Tom's wand as he did. Without thinking he brought the wand up and aimed it at the heir's face. "You don't have to join me."
The glare was quite evident on Tom's face now, his eyes narrowed and his mouth contorted in anger. Despite how horrifying the situation was, Harry couldn't help feeling relived. This attack proved that on some level his boyfriend was still there and more so, that Tom wasn't as mad at Harry as he'd thought.
The heir eyed the wand and looked like he was about to scream then. His hands had gone to his pockets while he'd been looking at it and he seemed to have realized Harry was threatening him with his own wand.
"Please calm down," the Gryffindor pleaded. The last thing they needed was for any of the Dursleys to wake up. "I don't want to use this wand on you." A hiss was the only response Harry got from that. "I won't leave you, I love you," he said taking a step forward and holding the wand out so his boyfriend could take it. "I trust you to do whatever will make you feel better. If you need to kill me to get your sanity back, then do it."
Surprisingly enough the heir merely shoved his wand back into his pocket and pulled Harry back down onto the bed so they were both sitting. When he showed no other signs of attacking, Harry grabbed the first vial, they had all been numbered, and drained it into the pensive that was waiting on the bed to be used.
"Our past can be no worse than the life we're living in right now. Besides, I think me getting Dumbledore killed cancels out anything you could have possibly done during our fourth year." Harry of course didn't think this to be the case at all. He was sure his own actions were much worse than anything the heir could have done. Even so, Harry was far past self-pity. Yes, he had agreed to go and help Dumbledore and had even gone as far to promise the headmaster he would say nothing to Tom about their little adventure. That adventure had ended with Dumbledore getting sick, but it was Voldemort or whoever had been posing as Voldemort that had dealt the killing curse to the headmaster, not Harry. As far as the Gryffindor was concerned that didn't make him guilty, that meant Tom and him deserved some vengeance. That of course had not happened yet due to Tom's complete and utter mental break down.
"Are you going to come with?" he asked holding his hand to the heir.
The Slytherin didn't look at him, but his hand did close around Harry's.
This time the Gryffindor did smile. This was the first conversation they'd had since Dumbledore's death that Tom seemed to understand. Even if he wasn't talking, just that he was reacting in some way was enough for him.
He bent forward to kiss the heir on the cheek, but the Slytherin pushed him back with his other hand, the glare back on his face.
"Too soon?" While the heir had been holding onto Harry like some kind of life line and refused to even get on the bed unless Harry lied down first, Tom had not allowed Harry to kiss him once. In fact, besides a few times where Harry had been forced to pin the heir's arms down, they hadn't held each other either. If Harry tried to push the affection at all, the heir would slip back into his shadow form only to come out later completely disfigured. Harry had stopped pushing immediately.
"I'm sorry," he said keeping himself at the distance his boyfriend had shoved him to. "I'm used to you doing everything in your power to seduce me. To have you pushing me away..." he didn't want to really think about it. If his boyfriend had decided in his own mind to dump Harry and just couldn't get the words out yet to inform him, he was going to lose it himself. Yet, he couldn't blame Tom at all if this turned out to be the case given everything that had happened.
"You know if we aren't dating anymore shouldn't you be with Draco?" He asked with a small laugh, both to let Tom know he was joking while also trying to get some sort of clue from his boyfriend about the status of their relationship.
What he got however was a large bruise forming under his eye where Tom's fist had connected.
"Okay, bad joke," he said holding back a few tears, but refusing to touch the bruise. He didn't know what hurt worse, the actual punch or the lack of answer. "You know I can barely understand you right now. I know...forget it." Words wouldn't help. He knew that despite trying again and again. "I'm going back to my fourth year. If you stay here, don't burn the house down." He wished his last sentence was a joke as well, but the Slytherin had come close to burning the Dursley's house down a few times while he slept. It seemed he was casting nonverbal spells in his sleep while having nightmares. This had been a major problem until Hermione had suggested for Harry to switch wands on the heir after he'd gone to sleep. Harry's wand refused Tom so badly, sparks wouldn't even come out of it, so it had been the perfect solution.
He made for the pensive, Tom grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him away from it.
"You're not stopping me! You won't even talk to me, I'm going mad here. You tried stopping me the entire time during the school year, you're not going to now." He pulled his shoulder away from the heir and entered the pensive.
(X)
Harry didn't think five o'clock was ever going to arrive. He'd been promised by the Weasley family one of the greatest things ever, tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. He'd never been so thrilled, well maybe when he'd received his letter promising him an escape from the mundane world of his aunt and uncle.
He couldn't stand waiting though, it was not one of his strong points. He wanted to be at the Burrow already, or even better, at the World Cup. So as to pass some time he'd begun reading the letters he'd received over the past few weeks. He'd acquired a great deal of them, some from Sirius of course, who was currently in hiding. Harry believed his godfather was somewhere in the south based on the tropical birds that kept appearing with his letters. A few from Hagrid, one that promised Harry food any time he needed it, Dudley had been put on one of the strictest diets Harry had ever encountered due to his weight. The other wishing Harry a happy birthday, which had also included a long ago eaten birthday cake. The other letters were from Ron and Hermione, both of which contained food, sugar free snacks, two more birthday cakes, and numerous back and forths between them.
The letter he found most curious was the one that had arrived from Dumbledore earlier that morning. A school owl had dropped it off and flew away, meaning the headmaster didn't expect a reply.
Dear Harry;
I have heard you will be attending the World Cup with the rest of the wizarding world. Congratulations! It is amazing what a bit of tweaking can get you now and again. I shall be attending myself with the most amusing of guests. I hope to see you there so I may introduce you to them. I think you'll find it most entertaining. Until the match then!
Dumbledore
Harry just had no explanation for this letter. Dumbledore had never made him meet anyone besides teachers. Perhaps he'd be meeting the new defense against the dark arts professor? For Dumbledore to want to meet them, there had to be a reason. He just wished the headmaster had given him more clues.
He glanced down at his watch and quickly jumped off his bed to shove the letters into his trunk. The Weasleys would be there any minute and he didn't want to stay at privet drive any longer than he had to. So he was a bit disheartened when he looked at his watch again at a quarter to six with still no signs of the wizard family.
It'd be just my luck they forgot where I live, Harry thought bitterly. He truly didn't want to stay another minute in this house, not with the diet going on, with uncle Vernon's belittling, aunt Petunia's smugness, the constant attacks all three of the family members tried to lash out on Harry every chance they got.
He closed his eyes taking a breath and let it out slowly just as Lupin had taught him before he would cast a patronus. He needed that calm and happy thought right now just to get him through the day. His uncle Vernon had done nothing short of drag the Weasley name through a garbage dump while they were waiting. Harry had taken it upon himself to move onto the stairs so he wouldn't be forced to listen to it.
He was beginning to lose hope all together when he heard a loud crash instantly followed by a scream. Duddley came running from the living nearly bashing the kitchen door as he fled. Harry jumped off the stairs then running into the room and stopped trying to figure out what was going on.
"What is this?" Came a surprised yelp from inside the Dursley's fireplace. Harry knew at once what was going on and couldn't help, but grin.
"Hold on Mr. Weasley," Harry yelled into the fireplace. "The Dursley's have the fireplace boarded up."
(X)
Tim seemed to speed up then. Harry was introduced to Ron's other two brothers, both of whom he decided were cool. Bill being cooler than Charlie, but the later not far behind. To think that one was a treasure hunter and the other a dragon tamer just made it that much better. It seemed no sooner had introductions been exchanged, the twins screamed at for giving Duddley a ton tongue toffee, they were eating dinner and then being rushed straight to bed.
Harry didn't fall asleep immediately. Ron seemed to have slipped into the dream world within seconds, but Harry could hear the twins talking in hushed whispers. They were complaining about their mother and trying to think of some way to get their products to Hogwarts without their mother figuring it out.
The Gryffindor could see both sides of the argument so didn't want to get involved.
He turned onto his side so he was looking at Ron's wall to watch one of the Quidditch posters when he saw movement from the corner of his eye. He knew for him to see it with his glasses off it had to be close. His hand shot out for his glasses and he sat up, the twins also sitting up.
"Did you see that?" Harry asked looking around the room hurriedly. He didn't see anything then, but he could have sworn he'd seen a shadow of some sort.
"See...?" Fred asked.
"There!" George shouted.
Harry and Fred both turned to look where George was pointing. There standing in Ron's doorway was a shadow like figure with red glowing eyes. Harry got one good look before he let out a loud groan his hand going to his scar.
"Get dad," Fred instructed his brother getting up.
"NO," Harry shouted George stopping in his tracks. "I'm, I'm fine. This isn't the first time," he said closing his eyes.
"Harry?" Ron asked tiredly.
"What in the blazes is going on in here?!" Mrs. Weasley screamed. "You're all supposed to be, Harry dear are you alright?" For some reason the only thing Harry could think of was how fast Mrs. Weasley had gone from angry to worry. "Did you two do something?" She demanded turning on Fred and George.
"No, it wasn't them," Harry tried to assure her. "This happened the other night," he told her.
"My goodness…have you told Dumbledore?" She asked ushering Harry to his feet. "Up," she ordered him.
"Really, I'm fine." He couldn't deny enjoying the fuss just a bit. If he'd told his aunt his scar was hurting, she'd probably tell him to suck it up, his parents had caused it, he needed to deal with it.
"Nonsense dear, STAY IN THAT ROOM!" She roared at the other three boys and gently directed Harry down the stairs. When they were by her and Mr. Weasley's room she stopped and opened the door. "Arthur, get Errol and meet me in the kitchen."
"Do we really have to do this?" He asked suppressing a groan. "It's not that big a deal."
"I won't be taking any chances are neither should you," she told him pushing him into one of the kitchen chairs. Her wand was already at work bringing forth parchment, pen, and ink and to Harry's delight a glass of milk and chocolate chip cookies.
"Molly, what's going on?" Mr. Weasley asked as soon as he was in the kitchen. "What's going…Molly where's the healing ointment?"
"What?" She asked sounding somewhat irritated. She'd already begun writing a letter when she looked at Harry her eye's widening. "Oh dear!" She rushed off to Harry's surprise. She vanished into one of the other rooms while Harry bit down on a cookie. As always they were delicious.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Mr. Weasley asked taking a seat next to Harry.
"My scar? Yeah, but it's stopping now," he answered in all honesty. The fuss really had been over the top as far as he was concerned. So it had stung awhile, he'd contacted Sirius about. As soon as his godfather got back to him with an answer he could get it mended.
"Harry, you're bleeding."
The Gryffindor stopped in mid bite and looked over at the hand he'd had pressed against his scar in the bedroom. Sure enough it was covered in the crimson substance.
"That…didn't happen last time," he said slightly uneasy now. Had that thing they'd seen in the bedroom try to attack them? Maybe it was just one of the many things that roamed the Weasley house? "I still get to go to the World Cup, don't I?" He asked pleadingly. "This isn't a big deal."
"I wouldn't dream of stopping you. Besides, Dumbledore will be there, what safer place to be?" Mr. Weasley asked happily.
"Are you sure we should let him Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley asked. She reentered the room and began applying healing ointment onto Harry's scar. It stung for another few seconds before it stopped.
"See, all better," Mr. Weasley said standing up and patting his wife on the shoulder gently. "In fact, why don't we just forget all this," he said motioning to the letter. "I'll personally tell Dumbledore myself when we get to the cup tomorrow."
"I don't know Arthur…what if he's hurt? We can't just…" She seemed to be trying to come up with some way to get Harry to not go. Over his dead body. Harry thanked them both, grabbed the cookies and bolted up the stairs. He would sneak out under his invisibility cloak if he had to. He was not missing the world cup, because his scar had decided to bleed a little.
He tried to be quiet opening the door, but of course all three boys and both girls were in the room from all the commotion that'd gone on. Harry would bet his broomstick that the older Weasleys were up as well.
"Sorry about all that," he said his face turning red from embarrassment. He'd hoped to keep his scar problems under wraps until after the cup, no sense in ruining a good time right? Had he informed them ahead of them however, perhaps they'd all gotten a normal night's rest.
"What in the world happened?" Fred asked. "What was that thing by the door?"
"I don't know," Harry admitted. "That I've never seen before." He sat down on the bed and passed a cookie out to everyone, his feeble attempt at an apology. "I'm sorry I yelled, I just didn't want to make a big deal out of this. I don't want to miss the world cup."
"Harry if something's wrong," Hermione started, but Harry cut in instantly.
"Nothing is wrong. My scar just happened to hurt a bit," he said. "Besides, Ron's dad said it himself, Dumbledore will be at the world cup, isn't that the best place for me to be anyway? Beside Dumbledore?"
"I suppose," she said getting to her feet. "Let's get some sleep Ginny." The little girl didn't seem to want to leave, but she followed after Hermione when the older Gryffindor threatened to get Mrs. Weasley again.
"If it gets worse…tell me, alright?" Ron said. He looked worried and Harry didn't blame him. They last few times his scar had hurt had been when Voldemort was present.
"Hey, it's not like anyone is in your house," Harry said trying to play it off while get his point across with the twins present.
"I know," Ron said. "We're friends though. You're supposed to keep me informed."
"I do Ron," Harry assured him. It would have been easier to assure his friend if he could explain everything he knew, but with Fred and George present he couldn't risk it. Perhaps if they had time at the World Cup he could explain himself.
After the whole mess with his scar Harry managed to fall asleep. He was awoken what seemed minutes later, but was in reality hours. Mrs. Weasley was shaking them all awake and ordering them downstairs for breakfast. She did a double check of Harry's scar before he'd gotten out of bed and seemed satisfied that it wasn't bleeding before running off to wake up the girls.
The four boys staggered out of the room when Harry stopped grabbing Ron by the shoulder.
"Hey, help me find something in my trunk real quick. I ordered it for the world cup," he said walking back into the room. Ron didn't seem awake enough to care one way or another, but followed after his friend anyway. Harry shut the door and locked it, this getting the red head's attention. "I had a dream about Voldemort," he said causing the red head to shudder.
"Like…a nightmare?" He asked. The name seemed to have snapped Ron awake.
"No…it. Well it was," Harry tried to explain. "It was more like watching what he was doing. It was odd. When I woke up from the dream though, my scar was hurting real bad. It wasn't bleeding like it was last night, but it hurt a lot."
"Right…so you're going to tell Dumbledore right?"
"You sound like your mom," Harry grinned at him. "Yeah, I'm going to tell him. I already told Sirius," he said hoping to wipe the dark look off his friend's face. "I just didn't want you to think I was trying to hide anything. Just hard with all the ears in the house."
"I know, right?" Ron groaned getting to his feet. "We'll let Hermione know later. We need to eat before mum realizes we're not down there."
Harry agreed and off to breakfast they went. After a great deal of eating and bickering upon finding out they had to walk to get to the world cup, they grabbed what they needed, handed over their lists to Mrs. Weasley so she could purchase their items at Diagon Alley and they were off.
It didn't take nearly as long as Harry thought it would and before he knew it they were there and had a tent set up. The tents were amazing as far as Harry was concerned, even if half of them, or rather most, broke the rules of the wizarding world. Harry found he wasn't too worried though and just felt happy to take it all in.
He was strolling through the tents now, Hermione and Ron in front of him talking about something. He was too busy lost in what was going on around him to notice his friends. He saw a little wizard with a wand poking at a slug that was slowly getting bigger until his mother came out of the tent enraged. A bit farther ahead two little girl witches were flying on toy broomsticks, their toes just barely off the ground. He felt a twinge in his stomach as he watched them.
"How people take the simple things for granted."
Harry jerked back into reality at that looking around. He'd been so caught up his friends had lost him and he was now standing alone map less in the country of tents. Standing beside him was a boy his age, just a bit taller with midnight black hair, red piercing eyes, high cheek bones that reminded him of a muggle's verseion of an elf. He was wearing black slacks and a dark red sweater vest over a white t-shirt. He was watching Harry intently, but the Gryffindor had no idea why. He didn't think he'd ever met this boy and yet something about him seemed oddly familiar.
"Um yeah," he said after he'd gathered himself.
"So why exactly are you standing here unguarded?" the boy asked raising an eyebrow at him.
"Who are you?" Harry finally asked. He had dropped his arms to his sides so he could grab his wand with ease if need be. While he doubted the boy could do anything bad to him with all these other wizard's present, he wasn't going to push his luck.
"You were heading towards the water pump, right?" the boy asked completely ignoring Harry's question. "I'll take you there. I'm sure your friends have noticed you're missing by now."
"I think I'll find my own way, thanks," he said his mind going into warning mode.
"You think you're going to find your way anywhere without a map?" the boy asked holding a copy of said map.
"Well…not exactly," Harry admitted.
"Then stop being arrogant and let me help," the boy snorted. "Harry Potter thinking he's too good to accept help from another student." That said the boy started off pass some tents.
"Excuse me?" Harry asked worry setting in. Was the boy a student from Hogwarts? It was impossible for him to know everyone at the school, but this boy had to be his age. He was pretty sure he'd remember someone like this. "Are you telling me you're a student at Hogwarts?"
"Yes," the boy said offering the Gryffindor a quick glance. "You don't remember at all do you? We're in the same year."
"No…I don't. I'm sorry, what house are you in?" Harry asked feeling utterly horrible now.
"Don't worry about it. I wouldn't expect someone as famous as you to remember me," he said sounding quite arrogant himself now. "There are your friends." He motioned with his head towards Ron and Hermione who were both looking around and from what Harry could tell, were yelling at each other.
"Look I said I'm sorry. There are a lot of people at Hogwarts, I can't remember everyone!" He said now feeling both bad and slightly mad. "Look, I'm Harry, and you're?" Harry asked, but by the time he had looked back, the boy had already vanished. It took Harry a second then to get himself to walk over to his friends.
"HARRY!" The two Gryffindors shouted running up to him.
"We looked back and you were just gone," Hermione said worriedly. "What happened? How did you find us without a map? We were going to get Mr. Weasley and have him help—"
"Calm down," Harry said. "I ran into a student from Hogwarts who had a map. He showed me the way to the water pump."
"Oh, who was it?" Ron asked not seeming to care anymore now that Harry was safely back with them.
"I have no idea," Harry admitted getting odd looks from both of his friends. "I asked him twice," Harry said defensively. "He wouldn't tell me."
"Are you sure he was really a student?" Hermione asked nervously. "Maybe we should get back to the tent…"
Harry gave a small nod and filled the pan he was holding with water. It hadn't occurred to him that the boy was lying. Maybe he was just some weird kid whose friends had put him up to it? Regardless, it was safer if they were in numbers. Besides, Dumbledore was more likely to be around Mr. Weasley and that was exactly who he wanted to see right now.
(TBC)
Would have been done earlier, but I realized I had to redo a few things to make the chapter work. Ah well, onto chapter 2 now…For those who are curious, this story will be all of book 4. I kind of hurried through the first few parts, because it was more or less the same. Harry's altered memories started after those chapters as were seen. Enjoy.