The Odd Combination of Fate and Humor

Notes:

Disclaimer:

You know the drill already: I do not own Harry Potter in any way; those rights belong to J.K Rowling. The plot and any extra characters are my own though.

Warnings:

This story WILL contain slash! This means that this story will be purely male x male slash regarding the main characters. Please do not read if you find it offensive to read about two guys kissing…etc.

Everyone else… please enjoy

Key:

"speech"

"soft spoken or seemingly vague speech"

'thoughts'

- Parseltongue -

'Latin words'

Mental messages

Letters

Chapter 13: Life at Hogwarts

Harry felt a hand shake him insistently, but he didn't want to get up. He groaned and a chuckle caught his attention just as he was about to pull a pillow over his head. "You know, I'm starting to think that there are other ways to get you to wake up when you are with me…" Tom moved closer as he said that and Harry started to breathe a little harder as the idea stuck in his head.

Their tongues played as Tom kissed him and Harry moaned at the sensation. He rolled onto his back to give Tom better access and the man groaned above him as he pressed against him more insistently before playfully biting his lips and crushing him to him. He opened his eyes and looked at Tom as their lips parted.

"Shower and get dressed my love; I want to show you the rest of the castle." Harry didn't need extra prompting and he jumped up to do just that, even though he almost threw Tom off of the bed in his haste. Tom chuckled and took his hand once he was done. "Our first stop is the Great Hall." They entered a room that seemed mostly empty even though it showed signs of frequent use. "Here you get all your food at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, except if you go into the kitchens and find your food yourself."

Harry looked at Tom in confusion and the man grinned. "A lot of students don't know about the kitchen, so don't go spreading the 'rumor' too much, but if you order something in the kitchen they will always make what you want. The house elves love company and if you can befriend them, then they could be the most loyal beings ever."

The younger man nodded in understanding as he looked at the huge hall. "Why don't the four houses sit together? Wouldn't it actually promote too much competitiveness if the houses are not even able to mingle during dinner?" Tom seemed to think for a minute and he was about to answer when Severus walked into the room. He had a familiar snake in his hand.

"Yes, the divide in the houses causes a lot of fights. The houses were originally meant to act as a home away from home where students were placed with people who had the same passions and interests. This should have ensured that there would also be a little friendly competition during classes and sports in order to take the students' minds off of being homesick. But the friendly house rivalries turned into feuds that dragged everyone into the disputes and now it would be very hard to reverse the hate that certain houses have for each other."

Harry wondered what started the fights as Severus handed Sephra to him. "She was wandering the halls as I passed her and since it is strange that she didn't immediately try to attack me, I guessed that you probably made a new companion. Have you thought about what you were going to call you owl and your other snake?"

The young man nodded and smiled. "The owl's name is Hedwig and the snake's name is Omen. I still need to introduce them to Sephra here though. They will be able to keep each other company while I am at classes." Severus nodded, but Tom looked thoughtful.

"I think you should always try to keep either Omen or Sephra with you when you are walking around school and during classes. Hogwarts is safe, but there are cases where people can be forced to do something that they do not want to do. I know you also have the portkey, but it would be useless if you are knocked unconscious."

Harry nodded. He would definitely be following that suggestion. He felt his heart swell a little as he saw how worried the two men were about him. "I will do that and I will try to learn a few other ways to protect myself." Harry smiled as an idea occurred to him. "Can't we have extra defense classes? Or maybe have an extra non-compulsory class where students can learn and teach each other how to protect themselves with or without wands?"

Both Severus and Tom's brows rose in surprise and Severus immediately nodded. "Yes we can implement such a class, but it would have to be more of a club than a class. Otherwise, we would have to wait for the official creation of a new class, which could take a while considering the politicians that are involved with the school. We will also need to ask both the Head Boy and Girl to assist with supervision or we can divide it up between the prefects as an extra duty."

Tom smiled. "If you tell them that it is an activity where they can earn extra points for their houses with each shift they take then I am sure they wouldn't have a problem. We would just have to make it clear that they would be taken off the duty list if their academic work falls under question."

Severus nodded and excused himself. Both Tom and Harry could see that he was very eager to create the class since it would serve to help not only Harry but also a lot of other students. Tom turned to Harry as Severus disappeared from their sight. "Have you thought about when you want to train with your animagus form?" Harry shook his head.

He didn't want to do it alone, just in case something went wrong, but he also didn't know if someone would have enough time to teach him in between all the extra things that they had to do in the castle. Tom sighed as the words drifted over to him. He grabbed Harry's hand again and walked towards another part of the castle. "I would be able to teach you. But the timing would be tricky. Most people are still tired in the mornings and at night and this has an influence on whether or not you would be able to successfully meditate."

Harry nodded in understanding but spoke up. "I usually don't feel tired before I go to sleep so if it's alright with you, then doing it at night before bed would be perfect." The older man nodded and smiled. Tom then proceeded to show Harry the rest of the castle.

…a few hours later…

Harry felt exhausted as Tom finally promised him that they were at the last room. It was amazing to see everything, but the castle was huge and he was sure that he had blisters on his feet because of the tour. Tom declared that they had arrived, but Harry could only look at him strangely since they were standing in front of a blank wall.

Tom winked at him before walking up and down the corridor three times, seemingly deep in thought. To Harry's surprise, a big door formed where the wall had once been blank. Tom took his hand and guided him inside where a warm fire cast light upon a cozy couch. "This is the Room of Requirement. It only appears when a person is in need of it, but you can call it by walking up and down in this corridor and thinking clearly about what you need. The room can change to become almost anything that the caller desires."

Harry sat down in awe, absentmindedly rubbing his feet after kicking off his shoes. Tom came to sit beside him and Harry was surprised to see that he had some cream in his hands as he grabbed the foot that the younger man had been rubbing. Harry blushed as he realized that Tom intended to rub his sore feet and he shook his head in embarrassment while trying to take his foot out of Tom's hands.

Tom gave him a look and Harry reluctantly gave in. "Let me take care of you, Harry. You don't have to be embarrassed with me." Harry nodded and sank back into the chair. As embarrassed as he was, Harry couldn't believe how good Tom was with his hands. He could practically feel himself dozing off a while later as Tom finally released his other foot.

He felt boneless as Tom pulled him into his lap. He was so comfortable as he settled into the older man's lap that he almost forgot about his friends. 'Almost' being the operative word, but Tom calmed him down as soon as he felt the slight shift in Harry. "Your friends all know that you are spending some time with me and Sephra already volunteered to talk and communicate to Omen and Hedwig that you are safe. Don't worry about anything else, you need a little break once in a while."

Harry nodded sleepily and dozed off. He was somehow aware of what Tom was doing while he was asleep and so it didn't surprise him when he woke up from his nap to find Tom reading something that looked like an ancient tome. He was pretty sure that it was only magic that managed to hold the pages together.

Tom closed the book and set it down before looking at him. "Did you enjoy your nap?" Harry nodded. A part of him wondered how he had before so at ease around Tom so quickly. The man had a way of setting everyone at ease around him and Harry doubted that he would hurt someone out of anger… his thoughts were stopped as Tom looked at him with a frown. The man must have heard his thoughts again.

When Tom spoke, Harry found out that his thoughts had indeed been heard. "I'm not a saint Harry. Bad things happen when I am angry and that is why I always do everything I can to keep calm in bad situations. I do have a bad temper when it comes to certain things. I thought I told you this before."

Harry nodded. "You did tell me, I just can't seem to connect you with someone who loses their temper at any given moment. You have this way about you that makes it seem like you are always in control even when something unexpected happens. In a way, I am slightly jealous of that. Usually, my body acts before my mind can catch up and I have been in a lot of bad situations because of that."

Tom shifted into a better position on the couch before he pulled Harry back to lie against his chest. "What kind of bad situations?" Harry's eyes turned thoughtful before he answered. "Well, I once saw my cousin picking on this one little boy we had at school. The boy's parents didn't have a lot of money so they couldn't really buy him everything that he needed, so he had to wear old second-hand clothes. I didn't see what the problem was since I always got Dudley's old clothes and so I tried to stand up for the boy."

Tom's arms tightened around him before relaxing again, but Harry could feel that he was still tense as he continued his tale. "As you can guess, my cousin wasn't too happy about it and he said that I would get a double beating if I didn't move out of the way, but my body simply refused to move, not that I really tried. I ended up in hospital on that day and that was only because the boy ran to fetch the school nurse. But when I returned to school two days later, the boy ignored me as if he didn't know me at all and Dudley completely forgot that he had picked on the boy."

The sad tone in Harry's voice made Tom turn his face towards him so that he could look his young mate in the eyes. "I'm afraid to say this…" Harry could see fury boiling in Tom's eyes as he spoke and his breath hitched, not in fear but with something else. Tom looked breathtaking when he was angry and Harry couldn't stop himself from thinking that he would love to see the man losing his temper. "…but I think that Dumbledore might have interfered there. It is fairly easy to obliviate a person's memory so that they do not remember something. My guess is that the boy didn't remember you because he didn't remember that you saved him and your cousin had been placed under a compulsion to bully only you."

Harry thought for a moment as the words sunk in and then he nodded sadly. "You might be right about that, but I guess I preferred it that way. If the boy had been my friend then he would also have been beaten up on a daily basis and I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from trying to protect him. Things turned out better in that regard I guess."

Harry gasped as Tom's fury turned towards him, but he knew instinctively that Tom was angry at his mindset and not at him. "You will never say something like that again! Yes, the boy might have been beaten up a few times, but you would have had a friend and you would have had someone to care about you even if those worthless muggles didn't. I hate the thought of you being hurt, but you would have had someone you could possibly go to and count on when you had to get out of your relative's house."

The younger man nodded as a blush crept onto his face at the intense look in Tom's eyes, so he looked at this fingers. It would have been nice to have a friend in the past, but he wasn't done with his story yet. "That's true, but that was only the start of things. The beatings kept getting worse until I snapped one day and stabbed my cousin with a pencil in the leg just to get away before he smashed my face in with a rock. I ran and took a wrong turn into a dead-end, but before I could get out, my cousin and his friends cornered me. I closed my eyes and waited for death because I knew that it was coming, but my entire body and mind screamed to get away. I felt a strange sensation and wanted to throw up, but when I opened my eyes I found myself on the school-roof."

Harry looked up into Tom's face, but instead of just anger, he also saw surprise. "You mean to tell me that you apparated?" Harry nodded. "How old were you when this happened?" The younger man worried if he had done something wrong. He knew that children under 17 weren't allowed to apparate, but it had been an accident. "I was 7 years old when it happened. A while later I found out that I wasn't going to school anymore because the Dursley's had told everyone that I was a bully and that I had been kicked out of many other schools, so everyone agreed to keep quiet so that I could stay at home."

Tom was practically shaking at this point and Harry had no idea what to do. They had been relaxed all morning and now he had ruined it because he talked about the past. Harry tried to stand up to find a way to calm Tom down, but the man's arms tightened around him before he found himself being flipped onto his back with Tom on his hands and knees above him to keep him from escaping.

Harry watched as Tom abruptly leaned in and he moaned as their lips mashed together. The kiss was hot and angry before it became gentle until Tom pulled away. The older man lightly pressed his forehead against Harry's as they tried to catch their breath. "I would very much like to protect you from all of these memories Harry, but I know that I can't undo what has already been done. I only wish that we could have found you sooner."

Harry adamantly shook his head. "No Tom, I am pretty sure that we wouldn't have found each other in the same way if you had found me earlier. As much as I don't like the life I have led while I was with the Dursleys, I am sure that we would have missed each other through misguided thoughts."

Tom looked at him in confusion and Harry sighed. "Be honest with me, would you have been so open to a relationship if you had known me since I was little?" He could see that Tom wanted to say yes, but the man the man sadly shook his head before speaking.

"You're right. It probably would have taken us a lot longer to find each other, if even at all. We would have been stuck thinking of each other as siblings or you would have regarded me as somewhat of a father-figure. You also wouldn't have invoked the rune-circle and made the Goblins your allies against Dumbles." Tom sighed. Neither of them wanted to think of Harry's past as necessary, but the thought that they would have probably been living together as siblings instead of mates if it didn't happen was too weird to ignore.

Tom hugged Harry to his chest and settled down next to him before calling an elf. "Dobby." A rather energetic house-elf appeared and Harry couldn't help but blush as the elf started dancing around excitedly at the sight of him. Tom merely chuckled and instructed the elf to fetch them something to snack on. The elf disappeared with a crack and Harry looked at Tom for an explanation.

"The Malfoys found Dobby without a master and decided to take him in, but they didn't expect him to be so different though so they sent him to work here at Hogwarts instead." Harry frowned at this. "I don't like the idea of someone sending someone they helped away, just because he is different." Harry felt a little disappointed in his family, but Tom shook his head.

"They didn't send him away because they didn't like him, Harry. The house elves at their house have been around for many years and they were set in their ways. Lucius knew that he had to send Dobby elsewhere if he wanted the elf to be able to fit in otherwise he would have been rejected by the other house elves. Their magic made them loyal to their masters and when a house elf is around a certain manner of thinking for too long, then the elf will start to reject elves that are different even if their current master commands them not to. This would have forced the Malfoy elves to beat themselves up on a daily basis since they would be going against their current master's orders by rejecting the other elf and yet their magic would force them to uphold the Malfoy traditions and rules that had been set aside for them."

Harry looked at him with wide eyes. He didn't know that house elves were so strict on themselves or that their magic sometimes dictated their actions. "I would have liked to have him around. I barely saw him and I'm already thinking that he is interesting."

Tom nodded and smiled. "Well, magic has dictated that the Malfoys are your family so technically you can take Dobby as your personal elf. None of the Malfoys would mind and I think they would actually be glad if he was with you. It would be sensible to have a house elf with you since they can get into places that wizards and witches can't."

Harry looked confused so Tom motioned to the space around them. "You have to be very powerful to be able to apparate into Hogwarts or out of it and even then it creates a strain on your magic. House elves on the other hand come and go with apparition all the time. It is said that their master's order override almost any restrictions that are placed upon a building."

Harry frowned as he thought about it before he spoke. "Does that mean that a certain old man could use an elf to kidnap me or someone we know from Hogwarts?" Tom turned shocked eyes to Harry as he processed the information. He hadn't thought of that at all! Just then a pop sounded and Dobby reappeared with two plates that were piled high with all kinds of snacks.

The elf set them down and turned to Tom to await further orders. Tom didn't even bother hiding his shock as he started speaking to the elf. "Dobby, would it be possible for an elf outside Hogwarts to apparate in and take something?" The elf nodded frantically. "Yes Master Riddle sir, it is possible. There be no anti-elf wards on the castle since it be safe haven for all unwanted elves. But it be possible for masters to restrict elf apparition in masters' rooms to only some elves if masters be wanting to protect something."

Tom looked closely at the elf. "Would an elf be capable of putting up elf wards? Or would the master have to know how to do it?" The elf looked around the room before he answered. "The elves who are permitted to enter would be the ones putting up the wards so the signature be melding with elf magic, Master Riddle."

Tom looked satisfied and he looked at Harry. "So would you like to take ownership of the elf so that he could place elf wards in our rooms and at strategic places in the castle?" Harry started to nod, but then he looked at Dobby. "Dobby, my name is Harry Potter. Would you like to become my personal elf?" The elf turned a big smile towards him, but then the elf turned sad.

"Dobby be the property of the Malfoys, only Master Malfoy can free Dobby. They be the family that rescued Dobby. Dobby wanting to be Master Harry's personal elf, but Dobby me unable to." Harry smiled as he looked at the elf. He seemed to like the Malfoys a lot, but being a personal elf would heighten his status in the elf community, that much Harry knew and it seemed like Dobby really wanted to have a master that he could take orders from instead of just receiving orders from the general staff.

The elf seemed to turn even sadder as Harry thought about it so he rushed to reassure the elf. "The Malfoys are my family through a rune ritual Dobby, that means that your contract with them would not be broken if you don't want it to. You can be my elf while still being contracted to the Malfoys or I can ask Lucius if it would be okay if I made you my personal elf completely." The little elf started dancing up and down much to both Harry and Tom's amusement.

"Dobby be honored to be Master Harry's personal elf!" Harry smiled and nodded before something nudged at his mind and he looked from Tom to Dobby. "Dobby, Master Tom is my mate. If you become my personal elf then you will also become his personal elf as well. I will firecall Lucius as soon as we are done here."

The elf gave another excited hop before trying to seem more professional. Harry found it cute, to be honest. "It be Dobby's honor to also serve the great Master Riddle!" Tom smiled and dismissed the elf for now as they turned to their food. Dobby had apparently placed it under a stasis charm to ensure that each dish stays the temperature that it should.

They ate with an easy silence before calling Dobby back and firecalling Lucius from the fireplace that the room provided. Both Harry and Tom had been surprised when floo power appeared next to the fire and when the fire turned green just as they were on their way to go back to their rooms to make the call. They both vowed to keep it in mind just in case they ever had to escape the castle. Not that they wished that it would happen, but it was better to be prepared for any scenario rather than not.

Lucius had easily agreed to completely give Dobby to Harry and they had all been amused when the little elf actually made a backflip before remembering himself and stuttering out that it's not that he was unhappy to serve the Malfoys. Lucius only rose a brow and laughed before saying that he knew enough about elf-politics to know that being a personal elf is something akin to a big promotion.

The little elf had been crying at that point, saying that he can't believe that he had such good masters. Tom asked the elf to cast all the necessary protections and Dobby immediately got excited again before apparating away. Harry thought for a moment before turning to Tom. "Shouldn't Severus and Sirius at least be able to come into our lounge when there is an emergency?" Tom nodded then smiled down at him. "Severus automatically has access to the entire castle since he is the headmaster. The only time the wards would not open for him, would be if her was under the Imperius curse."

Harry nodded and looped his arm through Tom's as they made their way back to their rooms. He wasn't surprised to see Draco waiting for him there. Tom smiled and told Harry that he could spend some time with his friends if he wanted to since he had to work on the year-plan for his classes. Harry nodded and hugged him tightly before practically running off with Draco in the direction of their rooms.

Tom just shook his head at their enthusiasm and entered their rooms where Dobby seemed to be hard at work with the wards. He worked a while before allowing himself to grab a book and settle in on the sofa. He still needed to do some research on a few things to keep Harry away from Dumbledore and he knew that he might have to enlist the help of the Ministry as well.

Amelia Bones will definitely not be happy to hear that Harry was sent away to muggles, but he had to keep the news from the current minister in order to stop them from trying to cover up their mistakes. He also had to find out whether there was a loophole through which he could lose Harry since he wasn't 17 yet, but he knew that the rune circle would then come into play and since Harry was already adopted by his godfathers, they didn't have much to worry about, at least not yet anyway.

Hi, thank you for reading, I know I haven't updated in a while and unfortunately updates would be scarce at the moment since we currently have trouble brewing at home since the South African lifestyle seems to be going up in flames. I mean really, countries actually belong to no one and yet you get people who try to lay claim to everything. I might be a dreamer for thinking this, but wouldn't it be better if the plant just belonged to everyone? But no there has to be a few greedy jackasses who are thrown into the mix. Lol okay enough of my ranting. I will update again as soon as possible.