"I wonder why Mrs. Cole had us stay here... what do you think Harry?"
"I... don't know," was the dull reply from the thin eleven year old boy, looking down through old bent round glasses at the blanket covering the bed he was sitting on.
"Oh, a man just walked into the orphanage."
The only response Harry gave was a noncommittal hum, which made the dark eyed boy standing in front of the only window in the room huff.
"Harry..." while his tone was void of the usual indications, it was full of the warning to stop pressing his luck, all in just one word. Harry had gotten very good at picking up signs of Tom's present and up coming moods.
"Sorry Tom," he responded quickly, his posture turning meek. Submissiveness almost always pacified Tom, in fact, most of the time it made him happy. Reliance, only to Tom mind you, also made the other boy pleased, and would sometimes land Harry with a reward. Showing weakness however, that turned him sour. There was a fine line between the two, so Harry didn't use it often.
"It's alright Harry. Just remember that when you ignore me, it makes me feel lonely." Harry paused for a moment before answering.
"Yes Tom."
Tom smiled to himself as he looked out over the smog of London. Things were so perfect as they were now that sometimes he thought he didn't know what he planned to do next. But he did know. As soon as he and Harry were old enough, Tom would take Harry out of the orphanage and they would go out together. What would come next was perfectly planned, right down to the most minute detail. The end result would be the two boys standing where they were always meant to.
Just then, the door opened, revealing Mrs. Cole and a man with graying auburn hair wearing a wool coat, and a polka dot scarf tied around his neck.
"Tom, Harry, you have a visitor," Mrs. Cole said, and the man slipped past her to step into the room.
"How do you do Tom," the man said, his tone firm and barely cautious. Harry studied the man from his vantage point of the bed silently, while Tom remained looking out the window. The man turned to Harry, and nodded his head. "Harry." It took a long time for the boy to reply, and when he did his voice was quiet. He was unwilling to fall from the thin line he was walking right now. He saw Tom's shoulders tense when the stranger addressed him. Tom didn't like it when other people talked to Harry.
"Hello sir," Harry responded politely, hoping it was a distant enough greeting that Tom wouldn't be too mad. The man walked closer to Harry, and the boy stiffened, his eyes darting to Tom's back.
"I have something to discuss with you boys." Again, Harry was silent for a few tense moments before he asked in an innocent tone.
"What could you have to talk to us about sir?" The man opened his mouth to reply, but Tom spoke first, not even turning around.
"You're a doctor, aren't you?" At Tom's accusation, Harry stiffened, his body itching to run to the other boy and grab onto him. It was alright to do that since Tom liked it, and Harry was the only one who could touch him. But if the man was a doctor, Harry couldn't do anything that might give them a reason to take him and Tom away. Or even worse, separate them.
"No, I'm a professor," the man stated, not exactly to reassure the boys, but more to correct them. A very un-doctor-like thing to do. At his answer Tom finally turned around. After scrutinizing the man, his eyes shifted to Harry and softened. He held out a hand, smiling gently, an expression he'd only ever show Harry.
"Come here Harry." Harry immediately got up and rushed the short distance to Tom's side, taking his offered hand and clinging to it. Tom smiled approvingly, and stroked his hair soothingly with his free hand, muttering calming words to him. It was only after a half a minute of watching them that the so-called professor spoke again.
"I didn't know I had frightened him so."
"He's just afraid of doctors," Tom replied calmly, leading Harry to the desk chair and sitting down, continuing to stroke the other boy's untamely hair as Harry stood as close as possible. It took a second for the man to speak again after that.
"You two are very close."
"Of course," Tom responded, as if it was natural for the other boy to be clinging to him. Which for them, it was. "We've been together since Harry first came here."/p
"I see. Then it's a good thing both of you can go." Tom's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Go where?"
"To Hogwarts, Tom."
"Is that some sort of asylum?" Tom asked accusingly, but the man only shook his head.
"Hogwarts is a school. A school for special children like you and Harry." That piqued Tom's interest, causing him to pause in soothing Harry. The bright eyed boy looked up, glancing between the other two in the room.
"Special?" Tom's tone emulated a halfhearted ignorance, his head tilting to the side slightly, dark eyes intently focused on the man. "I don't know what you mean." The man studied Tom for an instant, and Harry noticed that the self proclaimed professor's blue eyes had a dim twinkle in them, no matter what he was possibly thinking.
"I think you know what I mean Tom. Harry does as well, don't you Harry?" Twinkling blue eyes turned to the bespectacled boy.
"Don't talk to him." Tom pulled Harry closer, wrapping an arm around his waist, and Harry realized he had been about to answer the man. Almost black eyes narrowed at the man, glaring with the slightly hissed out warning. The older man paused for only a second before speaking in a suspiciously doctor-like tone as he went and sat down on the bed across from the boys.
"I'm sorry Tom, but this involves Harry as well."
"I don't care. You can just talk to me. He's listening." It didn't look like the teacher wanted to give in to Tom's suggestion, but he nodded slowly.
"Very well... Tom, you and Harry can do things other children can't, can't you?" When Tom didn't respond, he continued. "Hogwarts is a school for children that can do special things. For children who are different. It's a school for magic."
Tom's eyes widened before they narrowed again in suspicion. Harry stared silently at Tom, seeing his mind turn over the information and come to a decision of action like a well oiled machine. It was time to test this stranger, to see if he could be pushed to the edge.
"We can make things move without touching them," Tom offered with his always quiet voice, the air almost getting a little colder as he went on. "We can make animals do what we want without training them." Tom's mouth quirked up just slightly, only enough for Harry to see it. "We can make bad things happen to people who are mean to us. We can make them hurt. If I want." When the man just stared at Tom, expressionless, he finally asked; "Who are you?" The man answered easily, leaning forward slightly.
"Well, I'm like you Tom. I'm different." Tom's eyes sparked, but he tilted his head back in challenge.
"Prove it." A much shorter and direct version of Tom's careful disbelief in Harry so long ago. Harry turned his emerald gaze to the man, who stared at them both.
Then, suddenly, the boys' wardrobe burst into flames, causing Tom to startle and turn to stare, and Harry to cry out in surprise and alarm, clinging tighter to Tom. The dark eyed boy however, smiled just slightly, his eyes shinning with power hungry joy. He had never thought of something like that, remarkably. Harry was the one to be absent minded enough to notice the rattling coming from the wooden clothing compartment, and he tugged on Tom's clothes to get his attention.
"I think there's something in your wardrobe trying to get out Tom," the man stated, eyes never leaving the boys.
Tom slowly got up, eyes still locked on the tall flames, prying Harry's hands off of him, giving an absent minded order to stay there, and he walked over to the burning wood. Except it wasn't burning. Tom's mind went to the previously thought ridiculous story of Moses and the burning bush that he heard time and time again from the priest every fifth Sunday before he reached over for the knob on the door. Ignoring Harry's worried calling of his name, Tom grasped the knob and pulled the door open.
There, the only thing not in flames, was a little rectangular metal box on the bottom of the wardrobe. Tom glanced back at the man before he reached in, unafraid, and picked it up. The door closed on its own, and the flames disappeared like they were never there at all. He brought it over to the bed and wordlessly emptied the contents onto the blanket.
A harmonica, a yo-yo, and a half empty box of mints. Keepsakes, Tom called them. The harmonica was Dennis Bishop's, the box of mints was Amy Benson's, and the yo-yo was Billy's. Something deep, far inside Harry and hidden panged when Harry thought of Billy, but nothing outwardly showed his train of thought.
"Thievery will not be tolerated at Hogwarts Tom," the man warned, looking the eleven year old in the eye. "At Hogwarts, you will not only learn how to use magic, but how to control it. Do you understand?" Tom stared at him for a moment, his expression carefully controlled.
"Yes, I understand." The teacher nodded and sat Tom back down on the chair. Harry didn't clutch to Tom again, but he still stuck close. The professor then went on to explain about the school, how they were accepted to it, that they had been sent a letter (which Mrs. Cole had apparently kept from them), and that they would be starting on the first of September. He gave them both a list of books and supplies along with directions of where they could get them, and as Harry read the papers over, he started to get excited. It was so sudden he wasn't able to be so quick to believe it like Tom, but as he skimmed the strange list, it started to sink in.
"How are we going to pay for all of this?" Tom questioned. "We don't have any money." The 'and Mrs. Cole won't give us one single pence,' was implied between the two boys. The teacher hesitated before replying regretfully.
"The school can send you some money to cover the expenses, but I'm afraid you will have to make do."
More second hand things then, Harry thought to himself. While he was alright with the idea, Tom seemed more than a little put out. And Tom's version of "put out" was bordering more on anger than disappointment.
"I see." Keep it short, don't let the adults know you're mad. That was one of Tom's lessons for Harry, and one that he himself always followed. Because if they don't know you're mad, they won't know to suspect you'll get them back for it.
The teacher nodded, stood, and made his way out the attic door. But just before he left, Tom spoke up.
"We can talk to snakes too." The man froze, then turned to stare at them. Tom just kept going again, eyes locked on the professor. "They find us. Whisper things." Tom cocked his head to the side, quirking his lips up a little. "Is that normal, for people like us?"
"There was the longest moment of silence yet before their future teacher replied in a muted tone.
"No Tom, I'm afraid that isn't common. Excuse me." Just like that, he was gone from their sight. Harry was a little sorry to see him go.
"The two boys were silent, looking at each other. Tom slowly reached up and took Harry's hand.
"Well," Harry started, but he left it hanging, not sure what to say. Finally, Tom spoke, rubbing his thumb into Harry's hand gently.
"This is a wonderful birthday present, isn't it?" Harry laughed slightly, enjoying Tom's calm mood.
"Birthday? Mine's not in at least a week."
"Early birthday present, is what I mean."
"Alright, yes, it's a wonderful early birthday present. I don't even know what to think about it."
"I do."
"You always do."
"I know." Tom smirked, standing up. "This means that there are even more people who can do the things we can."
"Some of the things," Harry added. "That professor said it's not common to talk to snakes."
"Yes, yes, but there's enough people with... magic to make a school! That means we can learn lots of things! No, spells! They're called spells, aren't they? Things we've never been able to think of!" Tom paced as he spoke, the most excited Harry had ever seen him, and the other boy couldn't help but laugh. "And best of all, we'll be gone from this lowly place for the majority of the year!" Tom gripped onto Harry's forearms, his eyes ignited with such a liberated joy that Harry could only wish to make it last longer. "Harry, we're getting out! So much earlier than we had ever hoped for!"
"Yes, we are," Harry responded. He watched as Tom resumed pacing, already changing his long thought out plans accordingly, until Harry thought of something. "How are we going to convince Mrs. Cole to let us go?" That gave Tom pause, but he waved the question away dismissively.
"Even if she tries to stop us, we'll just run away. We already have directions to this 'Diagon Alley,' there should be an inn or something there."
"Well..." Harry offered, "that man probably already convinced Ms. Cole."
"He might have. We never got his name, did we?"
Harry blinked, dumbfounded.
"No, we didn't..."
AN: I'm sorry for the late update! I don't even know how long it's been... as usual, school got in the way. But I think I figured out that I've been having trouble getting inspired because I've been trying to use my laptop. So, I'm handwriting everything first from now on. I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!
