A/N: And another part for all you wonderful readers!
Tom stood in Harry's room, watching the boy sleep. He actually came back. Matthew came up from behind him. "You know, he'd probably bring out his wand if he saw you standing there."
"Old habits die hard." Tom said with a chuckle. He looked as Harry again. "Why do you think he came back?" Matthew grew silent.
"I think he trusts us." Matthew motioned Tom out into the hallway. "When we were in Diagon Alley, I managed to get him talking about life at Hogwarts. While he enjoys it there, he also feels pressure from the rest of the wizarding world. He dislikes his fame, but feels obligated to rise to the reputation that the rest of the wizarding community holds for him."
Tom started walking down the hall, Matthew joining him. "So, according to the information you've gathered from him, your professional opinion would be."
"He is tired of being what everyone else wants him to be." Tom nodded. "I think that's one of the reasons he is back. That and I think that he trusts you." Tom looked up. "You've always, even when you were Voldemort, told him the truth. Dumbledore often would give him half truths, an act Harry finds extremely annoying." Tom chuckled.
"Ah, Dr. Matthew, what would I do without my favorite psychologist?" Matthew appeared to be thinking.
"You would be the most confused Dark Lord in the world." Tom laughed aloud, nodding, admitting that that was true. Had it not been for Matthew, things could have turned out so differently.
The next morning, Harry woke to see a very upset Tom sitting next to his bed. "Uh-oh," he thought, sitting up and smiling at Tom.
"Harry, what were you thinking?" Tom asked quietly. "You just disappeared from here, never mind the fact that we didn't know where you had gone. You didn't even leave a note!" Harry stared at Tom in surprise. He had expected a lot worse. Tom stopped. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Harry shrugged. He didn't know what to say. "Thought so." Tom moved over to the window.
"Professor Dumbledore and Snape think I'm under some sort of coercion spell mixed with a potion." Harry said to Tom's back. "They're looking for an antidote." Tom nodded.
"Strange that Dumbledore does not think that you would be doing anything against his wishes." Harry smiled and shook his head.
"I have a certain disregard for school rules." Harry told him, smiling at the words that Dumbledore had said in his second year.
"Well, I suppose that you must have felt punished enough staying at Hogwarts for two whole days." Harry thought back to the chess games, conversations, and glares from Snape. "But, you are not allowed to leave the grounds for the next week."
"You're grounding me?" Harry asked, incredulous at the idea of the Dark Lord grounding Harry Potter.
"If that's what you call it." Tom said. "I'll leave you to get dressed and have breakfast. I hope that you didn't forget all of your studies while you were gone. I thought we might go over the charms needed to properly run a large household today, and then move on to healing potions." Tom shut the door behind him. Harry tossed a pillow at the door. Grounded! Harry stopped and thought about it.
Had Harry done something like this with the Dursleys, he would have been locked in his room with minimal food. At Hogwarts, detention for a whole month, lines, and a letter home. Perhaps even expulsion. Sirius. Harry's thoughts stopped at that. Sirius would have killed him. If he were still alive. Remus would probably step into that role now, though the calm werewolf would be very unlikely to do any such thing to one of his former students. Right? Harry thought about Sirius. He missed him, but it didn't hurt as much as it had done the spring before. The hurt was fading. Just like it always did. He shook his head and looked into getting dressed.
"How is he?" Matthew asked as Tom came back into the drawing room.
"He is awake and doesn't appear to remember anything of his nightmare last night." Tom took up his favorite chair and sighed. "Those screams." He closed his eyes, as though trying to block out the sound. "He is grounded, by the way, for the next week." Matthew looked up. "I felt that he needed some kind of deterrent of ever doing that again." Matthew nodded.
"Did he put up much of a fight?" Matthew asked, looking over at Tom. Tom shook his head. "Good. That means that he accepts your authority and feels that his punishment is justified. In other words, he knows what he did is wrong, and he's glad that he got off so easy."
"What are we going to do about his nightmares?" Tom asked.
"I'll talk to him. He might be waking up long enough to reassure himself that it was nothing more than a dream, and fall back asleep, forgetting what happened." Tom nodded, gazing into the fire. He had sat next to Harry's bed all of last night, worried that the boy might wander off again. Instead, he had witnessed thrashing, moaning, screaming, and sweating. Harry had lived through some horrific things in his dreams last night, and Matthew had told him around midnight that these looked like common occurrences. "Don't worry, Tom. I'll talk to him and find out what is bothering him so much that he is having trouble sleeping. Dr. Matthew is on the case."
Matthew found Harry in the library, studying his herbology book. "Hi, Harry. How's it going?" Harry smiled up at him.
"It's okay. Herbology." He said, holding up the book. Matthew smiled and sat down across from him.
"Important subject. It works across almost all the other subjects in magic." Harry watched Matthew. "It can work in DADA, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, and even history, believe it or not." Harry shut the book.
"I'd never thought about it like that before." Harry told him.
"Harry, Tom told me something that surprised me. A pretty violent one." Harry cocked his head to the side. "He told me you had a nightmare last night." Matthew watched as Harry drew in on himself. "Damn." Matthew reached out and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Don't do that. You're allowed to have feelings here, you know." Harry shut his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Voldemort's the cause of all of them." Harry said quietly. "The things I saw." Harry shut his eyes tighter and clenched his fists. "The voices are still there, and the dead. I can't get them out of my mind." Matthew sat back and watched as Harry ran through the usual calming techniques that he must have picked up from somewhere.
"Harry, do you know what I do for a living?" Harry shook his head and opened his eyes to look at Matthew. "I'm a psychologist and licensed therapist. I can help you, if you want it." Harry looked at him.
"A shrink?" Matthew smiled.
"Yeah, I've been called that. Tom uses me after what happened earlier this summer." Harry glanced up. "You don't know what happened to him?" Harry shook his head. "Why he is the way he is now?"
"No. I just thought that he decided to change what he had been doing, though that's really far-fetched." Matthew nodded.
"You're right, that is really far-fetched, which makes what I am about to say sound strange. Have you ever heard of split personalities?" Harry nodded.
"Are you saying that Voldemort and Tom are two different people in the same body?" Matthew smiled. The boy was quick.
"Yes, that's it exactly. There are two types of split personalities illnesses. One is where the personalities trade off, where you would see personality A one minute, and personality B the five minutes later. In Tom's case, however, he has the less common one. He has two personalities. One is Voldemort, and the other is Tom. The last time Tom was in control, he was in Hogwarts. Voldemort took over sometime between his sixth and seventh year, growing from a bitter young man to the monster that Voldemort was. Voldemort stayed in power for a while, Harry. Decades." Harry stared at Matthew, taking in this strange news. "After you defeated Voldemort a few months ago, something happened. He was extremely weak. One day, he just woke up and was very disoriented. Because of my years in medical school, another Death Eater called me to take a look. After talking to Tom for a while, I was able to figure out what might have happened, though it took almost another month for a full diagnosis. As soon as I figured out what had happened, Tom was firmly established back in the body. He remembered everything that he had done as Voldemort and has faced opposition from the truly dangerous Death Eaters. Right now, Tom has done his best to make amends where he could, especially after seeing your parents." Harry sat back in his chair, book forgotten, as he tried to figure out what that meant.
"Will Voldemort be back?" He whispered.
"We don't know. Tom swears that he won't be, that he likes being here more than Voldemort ever could. I know that he would fight Voldemort to stay. In my professional opinion, Voldemort is mad and couldn't possibly wage a war against Tom at the moment." Harry nodded.
"So Tom is helping me for something he didn't even do?" Matthew nodded.
"He remembers you, from Voldemort's time. Said you were a cute little baby. Tom hadn't wanted to harm you, but he couldn't stop Voldemort that night. He felt responsible for you being an orphan and subjected to those Muggles." Harry chuckled at the expression on Matthew's face.
"Why didn't you just tell me all of this that night?" Harry asked.
"Would you have believed me?" Harry shook his head.
"No, I wouldn't have. I would have hexed you." Matthew laughed. "Well, what would you have done if one of things you associated with danger just happened to show up and claim that no danger was present."
"Most likely have reacted in the same way, Harry. No doubt about it." Matthew looked at Harry's eyes. "If you ever need to talk, or just vent, you can come to me. Because of my wonderful training, I can act like I hadn't even heard you. It might help." Harry nodded.
"I'm not ready to yet, but thanks. I might take you up on that." Matthew smiled and stood up. "There is something that you can help me with though." Matthew looked down at Harry. "It's about why I left the other day." Matthew sat back down and motioned for Harry to continue.
"I went to Diagon Alley to see some business associates." Matthew smiled at Harry.
"Business associates, Harry?" Harry nodded and explained about Fred and George and the Triwizard Tournament winnings.
"Their business has really taken off. They and I have kept this secret from their mother. She would make them give the money back to me, but I don't feel I have earned it. They can at least do something with it." Matthew nodded in understanding. "I went to them for help in developing some sort of disguise for me, the kind of thing that is easily done, but not easily reversible or detected. They promised to see what they could do, but because of all the kidnapping stuff going on, they are only giving me a week before they tell anyone that they saw me. And, I'm grounded." Matthew's smile turned into full out laughter. "Yeah, I know, pretty funny, being grounded by my worse enemy." Matthew curbed his mirth.
"In other words, you are saying that you need some help getting to Diagon Alley by the end of the week deadline you were given and back without Tom catching you." Harry smiled and nodded. "I can help you with that. But, you need to do something for me."
"What?" Harry asked, turning serious about the condition.
"Next time you need to talk, you come to either me or Tom about it. Let us know what you're feeling. Emotions are not forbidden here, Harry. This is not your relatives." Harry sighed.
"Okay." Harry agreed. Matthew had said "need to talk" to him. Harry didn't really need to talk to anyone about his dreams or if anything bothered him. He hadn't needed it before, and he doubted that he would need it now. He preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.
Tom stood in Harry's room, watching the boy sleep. He actually came back. Matthew came up from behind him. "You know, he'd probably bring out his wand if he saw you standing there."
"Old habits die hard." Tom said with a chuckle. He looked as Harry again. "Why do you think he came back?" Matthew grew silent.
"I think he trusts us." Matthew motioned Tom out into the hallway. "When we were in Diagon Alley, I managed to get him talking about life at Hogwarts. While he enjoys it there, he also feels pressure from the rest of the wizarding world. He dislikes his fame, but feels obligated to rise to the reputation that the rest of the wizarding community holds for him."
Tom started walking down the hall, Matthew joining him. "So, according to the information you've gathered from him, your professional opinion would be."
"He is tired of being what everyone else wants him to be." Tom nodded. "I think that's one of the reasons he is back. That and I think that he trusts you." Tom looked up. "You've always, even when you were Voldemort, told him the truth. Dumbledore often would give him half truths, an act Harry finds extremely annoying." Tom chuckled.
"Ah, Dr. Matthew, what would I do without my favorite psychologist?" Matthew appeared to be thinking.
"You would be the most confused Dark Lord in the world." Tom laughed aloud, nodding, admitting that that was true. Had it not been for Matthew, things could have turned out so differently.
The next morning, Harry woke to see a very upset Tom sitting next to his bed. "Uh-oh," he thought, sitting up and smiling at Tom.
"Harry, what were you thinking?" Tom asked quietly. "You just disappeared from here, never mind the fact that we didn't know where you had gone. You didn't even leave a note!" Harry stared at Tom in surprise. He had expected a lot worse. Tom stopped. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Harry shrugged. He didn't know what to say. "Thought so." Tom moved over to the window.
"Professor Dumbledore and Snape think I'm under some sort of coercion spell mixed with a potion." Harry said to Tom's back. "They're looking for an antidote." Tom nodded.
"Strange that Dumbledore does not think that you would be doing anything against his wishes." Harry smiled and shook his head.
"I have a certain disregard for school rules." Harry told him, smiling at the words that Dumbledore had said in his second year.
"Well, I suppose that you must have felt punished enough staying at Hogwarts for two whole days." Harry thought back to the chess games, conversations, and glares from Snape. "But, you are not allowed to leave the grounds for the next week."
"You're grounding me?" Harry asked, incredulous at the idea of the Dark Lord grounding Harry Potter.
"If that's what you call it." Tom said. "I'll leave you to get dressed and have breakfast. I hope that you didn't forget all of your studies while you were gone. I thought we might go over the charms needed to properly run a large household today, and then move on to healing potions." Tom shut the door behind him. Harry tossed a pillow at the door. Grounded! Harry stopped and thought about it.
Had Harry done something like this with the Dursleys, he would have been locked in his room with minimal food. At Hogwarts, detention for a whole month, lines, and a letter home. Perhaps even expulsion. Sirius. Harry's thoughts stopped at that. Sirius would have killed him. If he were still alive. Remus would probably step into that role now, though the calm werewolf would be very unlikely to do any such thing to one of his former students. Right? Harry thought about Sirius. He missed him, but it didn't hurt as much as it had done the spring before. The hurt was fading. Just like it always did. He shook his head and looked into getting dressed.
"How is he?" Matthew asked as Tom came back into the drawing room.
"He is awake and doesn't appear to remember anything of his nightmare last night." Tom took up his favorite chair and sighed. "Those screams." He closed his eyes, as though trying to block out the sound. "He is grounded, by the way, for the next week." Matthew looked up. "I felt that he needed some kind of deterrent of ever doing that again." Matthew nodded.
"Did he put up much of a fight?" Matthew asked, looking over at Tom. Tom shook his head. "Good. That means that he accepts your authority and feels that his punishment is justified. In other words, he knows what he did is wrong, and he's glad that he got off so easy."
"What are we going to do about his nightmares?" Tom asked.
"I'll talk to him. He might be waking up long enough to reassure himself that it was nothing more than a dream, and fall back asleep, forgetting what happened." Tom nodded, gazing into the fire. He had sat next to Harry's bed all of last night, worried that the boy might wander off again. Instead, he had witnessed thrashing, moaning, screaming, and sweating. Harry had lived through some horrific things in his dreams last night, and Matthew had told him around midnight that these looked like common occurrences. "Don't worry, Tom. I'll talk to him and find out what is bothering him so much that he is having trouble sleeping. Dr. Matthew is on the case."
Matthew found Harry in the library, studying his herbology book. "Hi, Harry. How's it going?" Harry smiled up at him.
"It's okay. Herbology." He said, holding up the book. Matthew smiled and sat down across from him.
"Important subject. It works across almost all the other subjects in magic." Harry watched Matthew. "It can work in DADA, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, and even history, believe it or not." Harry shut the book.
"I'd never thought about it like that before." Harry told him.
"Harry, Tom told me something that surprised me. A pretty violent one." Harry cocked his head to the side. "He told me you had a nightmare last night." Matthew watched as Harry drew in on himself. "Damn." Matthew reached out and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Don't do that. You're allowed to have feelings here, you know." Harry shut his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Voldemort's the cause of all of them." Harry said quietly. "The things I saw." Harry shut his eyes tighter and clenched his fists. "The voices are still there, and the dead. I can't get them out of my mind." Matthew sat back and watched as Harry ran through the usual calming techniques that he must have picked up from somewhere.
"Harry, do you know what I do for a living?" Harry shook his head and opened his eyes to look at Matthew. "I'm a psychologist and licensed therapist. I can help you, if you want it." Harry looked at him.
"A shrink?" Matthew smiled.
"Yeah, I've been called that. Tom uses me after what happened earlier this summer." Harry glanced up. "You don't know what happened to him?" Harry shook his head. "Why he is the way he is now?"
"No. I just thought that he decided to change what he had been doing, though that's really far-fetched." Matthew nodded.
"You're right, that is really far-fetched, which makes what I am about to say sound strange. Have you ever heard of split personalities?" Harry nodded.
"Are you saying that Voldemort and Tom are two different people in the same body?" Matthew smiled. The boy was quick.
"Yes, that's it exactly. There are two types of split personalities illnesses. One is where the personalities trade off, where you would see personality A one minute, and personality B the five minutes later. In Tom's case, however, he has the less common one. He has two personalities. One is Voldemort, and the other is Tom. The last time Tom was in control, he was in Hogwarts. Voldemort took over sometime between his sixth and seventh year, growing from a bitter young man to the monster that Voldemort was. Voldemort stayed in power for a while, Harry. Decades." Harry stared at Matthew, taking in this strange news. "After you defeated Voldemort a few months ago, something happened. He was extremely weak. One day, he just woke up and was very disoriented. Because of my years in medical school, another Death Eater called me to take a look. After talking to Tom for a while, I was able to figure out what might have happened, though it took almost another month for a full diagnosis. As soon as I figured out what had happened, Tom was firmly established back in the body. He remembered everything that he had done as Voldemort and has faced opposition from the truly dangerous Death Eaters. Right now, Tom has done his best to make amends where he could, especially after seeing your parents." Harry sat back in his chair, book forgotten, as he tried to figure out what that meant.
"Will Voldemort be back?" He whispered.
"We don't know. Tom swears that he won't be, that he likes being here more than Voldemort ever could. I know that he would fight Voldemort to stay. In my professional opinion, Voldemort is mad and couldn't possibly wage a war against Tom at the moment." Harry nodded.
"So Tom is helping me for something he didn't even do?" Matthew nodded.
"He remembers you, from Voldemort's time. Said you were a cute little baby. Tom hadn't wanted to harm you, but he couldn't stop Voldemort that night. He felt responsible for you being an orphan and subjected to those Muggles." Harry chuckled at the expression on Matthew's face.
"Why didn't you just tell me all of this that night?" Harry asked.
"Would you have believed me?" Harry shook his head.
"No, I wouldn't have. I would have hexed you." Matthew laughed. "Well, what would you have done if one of things you associated with danger just happened to show up and claim that no danger was present."
"Most likely have reacted in the same way, Harry. No doubt about it." Matthew looked at Harry's eyes. "If you ever need to talk, or just vent, you can come to me. Because of my wonderful training, I can act like I hadn't even heard you. It might help." Harry nodded.
"I'm not ready to yet, but thanks. I might take you up on that." Matthew smiled and stood up. "There is something that you can help me with though." Matthew looked down at Harry. "It's about why I left the other day." Matthew sat back down and motioned for Harry to continue.
"I went to Diagon Alley to see some business associates." Matthew smiled at Harry.
"Business associates, Harry?" Harry nodded and explained about Fred and George and the Triwizard Tournament winnings.
"Their business has really taken off. They and I have kept this secret from their mother. She would make them give the money back to me, but I don't feel I have earned it. They can at least do something with it." Matthew nodded in understanding. "I went to them for help in developing some sort of disguise for me, the kind of thing that is easily done, but not easily reversible or detected. They promised to see what they could do, but because of all the kidnapping stuff going on, they are only giving me a week before they tell anyone that they saw me. And, I'm grounded." Matthew's smile turned into full out laughter. "Yeah, I know, pretty funny, being grounded by my worse enemy." Matthew curbed his mirth.
"In other words, you are saying that you need some help getting to Diagon Alley by the end of the week deadline you were given and back without Tom catching you." Harry smiled and nodded. "I can help you with that. But, you need to do something for me."
"What?" Harry asked, turning serious about the condition.
"Next time you need to talk, you come to either me or Tom about it. Let us know what you're feeling. Emotions are not forbidden here, Harry. This is not your relatives." Harry sighed.
"Okay." Harry agreed. Matthew had said "need to talk" to him. Harry didn't really need to talk to anyone about his dreams or if anything bothered him. He hadn't needed it before, and he doubted that he would need it now. He preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.