Chapter Fourteen -- The Trouble with Tom Riddle

Harry checked himself in the mirror for the twentieth time that morning. The carriages were bound to pull up in front of Hogwarts at any moment with his classmates and he wanted to be prepared. He looked smart in his crisp black robes -- "Neatly put together," he thought. "And fairly attractive."

Then Tom Riddle walked out of the adjoining bathroom.

Ebony hair lazily falling into his face, smoky crimson eyes, aquiline nose. He was wearing a black robe similar to Harry's with a hunter green band tied around his waist and knotted at the side, falling down into two long strands trimmed with gold fringe. A green cloak was draped over his shoulders with a golden buckle holding it in place. Forget fairly attractive, Tom Riddle was positively beautiful -- A vision in Slytherin green.

"You look nice," Tom said, looking Harry up and down.

"Nice," Harry scoffed, somewhat disappointed. "You look positively radiant."

"Thanks," Tom smiled. He noticed Harry's downcast eyes. "You really do look nice, Harry. You just look a little too plain. But I can fix that."

Tom quickly walked over to the bureau.

"If it involves the color green, I don't want to know about it," Harry huffed. Hell would freeze over before the day Harry Potter would be seen in Slytherin colors. Tom picked a box up from the bottom of the wardrobe and handed it to Harry.

"I bought this for you a couple days ago," he stated, beaming in anticipation.

Harry quickly opened the box and found a red, full-length cloak with gold lining and a shiny gold buckle.

"I know how much you love clothing," Tom grinned. "Go ahead. Try it on."

Harry flung the robe over his shoulder, hastily buckling it. He walked over and looking in the mirror. It made what was before "neatly put together" and "fairly attractive" look positively elegant. The fabric swooshed around his feet and Harry twirled around delightedly.

"The way to a man's heart is through is wardrobe," Tom laughed, examining the beaming Harry. As if on cue, Harry ran over to Tom and kissed him, quickly but firmly, on the lips.

"My, have you warmed up to me!" Tom exclaimed, looking at the ecstatic Harry. "I'm sorry that this, once again, has to be a beautiful article of clothing for a grim occasion."

Harry frowned. His friends. Tom noticed Harry's glum expression and gave him a long, lasting kiss on his forehead. "Don't worry, Harry," he said, softly. "Everything will be just like it's always been . . . After a while, at least."

"You're so infinitely patient with me," Harry said, looking up wide- eyed at Tom. "I would never have guessed that you could be so sweet and kind and gentile and loving and . . ."

"Stop naming off my few good qualities," Tom said, rubbing Harry's cheek. "You'll run out of them soon enough. Don't forget: I'm the extremely evil Dark Lord who, behind this façade of beauty, charm, and grace, is nothing more than a snake-like monster who enjoys killing Muggles and torturing defiant wizards."

It was a hard snap back to reality for Harry but he still didn't pull away from Tom's gentile touch.

"I thought you wanted me to forget about that," Harry said harshly.

"I know," Tom said, pulling Harry into his arms.

Tom knew perfectly well what was happening. Harry Potter was beginning to fall in love with the charming, good-natured, attractive Tom Riddle. "Well, he can't do that," Tom thought to himself. Tom, while being extremely congenial and loving towards Harry, still felt a certain burden of guilt. The knowledge that, for sixteen years, Tom had made this boy's life a living hell haunted him. He couldn't be too happy in this relationship. It wasn't good for him. It wasn't good for the boy. They could talk. They could cuddle. They could certainly fuck. But they definitely couldn't love each other.

"Well, at least you can screw him," Tom thought pulling the boy a little bit closer.

"God Tom . . ." Harry said, resting his head on Tom's shoulder.

"So, if everything goes well," Tom whispered into the boy's ear. "Do you think that tonight could be the night?" Tom gently thrust his hips against Harry's, causing the boy to falter backwards a little.

"Um . . ." Harry hesitated. "Well," he thought to himself. "You're going to have to do it sometime." He looked up at Tom who was waiting expectantly. "But not tonight . . ."

"Give it a week," Harry said, smiling apologetically at Tom. "Today's going to be emotionally draining as it is. I don't think I'll have the strength in me to let you . . ." Harry trailed off, once again blushing deeply. Tom nodded in understanding.

"Fine then," he sighed. "We'll give it a week and see what happens."

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Harry and Tom rushed down the stairs together and heard plenty of noise coming from the Great Hall.

"Oh great," Harry moaned. "We've missed the Sorting Ceremony and Dumbledore's 'beginning of the year' speech!"

"Who missed them?" Tom murmured under his breath and Harry glared at him.

"Well, I guess it's now or never," Harry said nervously.

"Right," Tom said. "Do you want to go first or should I?"

"I'll go first," Harry said boldly.

"That's Gryffindor courage coming through," Tom said, smiling proudly at the young boy before him. "One of your more commendable traits."

Harry nodded and smiled in return and opened the large set of double doors.

Tom sighed. Harry needed to have his confidence built up now. He certainly was going to have it ripped apart within the next couple hours.

Harry and Tom both marched into the Great Hall and, in a few moments, the entire room fell silent. Tom felt extremely relieved when he realized that everyone was staring at Harry Potter. Everyone, that is, except for one girl with bright red hair sitting over at the Gryffindor table who looked oddly familiar to Tom. She stood up and threw her cup down on the table, causing water to spill all over the place.

"Ginny Weasley," Harry groaned.

"Do I know her?" Tom asked, completely puzzled as to where he knew this girl from.

"She found your diary a couple of years ago," Harry answered. Tom's eyes automatically became a little wider and he began nervously fidgeting with his cape.

"Oh," Tom said, shocked. "I had pretty much forgotten about that diary. I just . . ."

"Don't worry about it," Harry said. "I'll take care of Ginny." Then he added sarcastically, "She's probably just pleased to see you." That earned Harry a definite scowl from Tom.

Dumbledore stood up and raised his chalice.

"Oh no," Harry said under his breath. "Dumbledore's going to give one of his toasts. Well, if people didn't know who you were before, there's a ninety-nine percent chance that they're going to know after this one."

"I would like to propose a toast," Dumbledore said, brightly. "To Harry James Potter and Thomas Marvolo Riddle . . ."

Tom and Harry both shuddered at the whispers that went up around them. Harry noticed the Hermione and Ron's jaws quickly dropped open in blatant surprise.

"We are very lucky to have Tom with us at Hogwarts for the next two years," Dumbledore continued. "He is an exceptionally fine wizard and has specialized throughout the years in the Dark Arts."

"Severe understatement," Tom said, loudly enough so that everyone could hear. "Professor Dumbledore, can't you just get it out of the way? I don't want to have this gradually broken to people. Just tell them all now."

Harry was taken aback by this. "Maybe you should have been a Gryffindor," Harry said to Tom, "Because that's courage if I ever saw it."

"Tom, you would rather not have your past haunting you through your career here at Hogwarts?" Tom shook his head. "A reasonable and admirable request. I shall be straightforward and blunt with it then. Tom was once infamous throughout the world as the great Lord Voldemort."

Author's Note: Once again, my apologies for the cliffhanger ending -- It's 3:58 AM though and it's time for all good Slytherin girls to be going to bed . . . Good night everyone and I'll update tomorrow