Okay, here's chapter 2. Would have been up earlier, but my computer runs windows. If anyone has been paying attention (I sure as - haven't, I had no idea the newest update was bad for your computer. So it's fixed now after a panic and fast run down to a computer store.) Enjoy!

Notes: Shonen ai, slash, Tom/Harry

(X) is pov change and or time jump

Remember, updates are sporadic

Chapter 2

The next day Harry tried to keep up and failed miserably. He'd finished the letter -and no, nothing had fallen apart!- long before his parents returned. The inn actually had owls, so Harry had been able to send it and return to the room without any problems. He was awoken at eight sharp and dragged to a hair salon. There a very tall witch told him how soft and lovely his hair was. That she regretted having to cut even a smidge off and then cut a few inches off without so much as a sigh. When his father and him were finished there, his father had shown him mercy and taken him to a muggle diner. There they were at least able to get some eggs and sausage for breakfast.

Harry wanted to ask his father how bad things were, but James didn't seem up for much talking. He was keeping his sentences to the bare minimum, sometimes not even looking at Harry at all.

After two attempts to start a conversation, Harry had given up. He spent the rest of the day annoyed, only giving one-word answers to his parents and not in a nice tone either. They had lunch in silence in the inn's room, and then his mother left for her own hair appointment leaving the two males to pull out their dress robes and change. Harry didn't care much for the dress robes. They were nice looking but felt restricted compared to his everyday robes or the muggle clothing he sometimes wore.

His father still said nothing, which was fine with Harry. He stayed on the bed, his back to him, reading a book on Quidditch strategies. Maybe he should tell his parents he'd rather be a Quidditch player than an Auror. That might just send them running to their senses and make them leave him alone. An Auror was a far more stable career and a much better choice than attempting to be a famous Quidditch player.

"Let's go. Oh, both of you!" Lily had entered the inn room. When Harry actually bothered to look at her, she looked both beautiful and terrifying. Her hair had been done up, loose curls framing her face and resting passed her exposed shoulders. The dress robes were a light purple, the sleeves hugging her upper arms, the rest of the robes slim with no wrinkle in sight.

"You look gorgeous," James said climbing off the bed.

"Flattery is getting you nowhere. What were the two of you thinking lying in bed with your dress robes on? Come over here." She stalked towards James, her wand out. She tapped James' dress robes, the wrinkles he'd acquired over the past few hours straightening out. "Harry."

Harry approached his mother and was awarded with the same spell on his own dress robes.

His mother walked around the two of them, inspecting them for anything that might be considered sloppy, or inappropriate.

"No pranks in your pocket James?" She lifted an eyebrow at her husband. "Or anything else that will cause harm, confusion, or complete embarrassment for me?"

"Not a thing, I'm clean today," James said holding his hands up high into the air.

She turned to Harry who glared back at her.

"Harry—"

"No," he said, both of his parents looking at him in surprise.

"I was only asking—"

"I know what you were asking," Harry said his anger growing.

"Harry," James warned.

Harry turned to his father then.

"No," he said again, this time with more force. "I'm done with you two fighting, I'm done with the looks of disappointment, and I'm going to keep on track for getting a job as an Auror whether it's a respectable enough job or not!" He hadn't meant to scream the last sentence, but he had and when he was finished he stormed out the inn room door into the hallway. How were they supposed to enjoy a vacation in Switzerland if they couldn't even stand to be around one another for a day? Maybe I can go stay with Ron for the summer.

He'd been so excited to come home and see his family for the summer holiday too.

"Someone's in a foul mood today."

Harry jerked his head; his eyes narrowed, ready to lash out, and stopped. The teen from the bookstore was sitting in a chair next to the inn's front entrance, clothed in dress robes. The robes were exquisite, clinging to all the right spots, shimmering with hints of dark red, no doubt to accent his breathtaking eyes. He was reclining all too naturally within the chair and looked rather bored.

"I'm not in the mood," Harry said. He stomped passed the teen out the front doors and decided to wait for his parents there. He had no idea where the awards ceremony was being held or he'd go by himself.

One of the doors opened the older teen stepping out. Harry wished he'd just go away, but no. He came over to Harry looking somewhat curious.

"Are you always this angry?"

Harry glared at him once more. No, he wasn't always this angry. For some unknown reason, his life had decided to go completely mad since school let out. When he was at Hogwarts, even on the train, he'd had no problems. He'd been with his friends, they'd all been chatting happily about their summer plans, or at least things they wanted to do. Harry had gotten to say hi to Cho in passing. The Ravenclaw had finally deemed him worthy of saying hello to now that he was a star player on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He'd returned to his seat feeling light and grinning like a fool. And, while he wasn't confident in his actual exam results, the tests themselves hadn't seemed particularly difficult. Challenging yes, but he felt like he'd done a good job on most of them.

"I've been curious since yesterday. Let me see something." The teen didn't give Harry a chance to answer. Instead, he snatched the glasses off of Harry's face, the Gryffindor glaring at him. "Hmm…"

"Give those back!" He moved forward, the teen stepping back. Harry, however, kept moving, his chest colliding with the other teen's chest. The teen staggered back, the glasses dropping from his hand as he wrapped both arms tight around Harry. They fell back, the car behind them breaking their fall. "See what you've done!" If he could just die where he stood. His face was burning, actually, his entire body was burning, and he didn't want this arsehole to see it. He looked away, tried to pull himself out of the teen's embrace, and failed.

Why is he so strong? It irritated Harry that he couldn't break free of the teen's hold. Held in place he had no choice, but to admit that the teen was quite muscular beneath his dress robes and that a small part of Harry didn't want him to let go, which only angered him more.

"Are you okay?"

The words were a lot gentler than Harry had expected.

"I'm fine...you?"

"...I'm alright."

He was positive that all the blood in his body had rushed to his face. Perfect. Just what he needed.

No, what you need is a distraction! It didn't matter if the teen's embrace was welcoming, warm, and annoyingly comfortable. Right now, he could hardly see a thing and whom did he have that to thank for?

"You broke my glasses," Harry said looking towards what was left of his eyewear. He wasn't sure about the extent of the damage, but even with his current blurry eyesight, he could tell that the frames were twisted. The teen or Harry must have stepped on them when they'd fallen.

"That's easy enough to fix."

Neither of them made any more moves to separate though. Instead, they stood there, Harry's body relaxing against the teen's own. It was such a strange feeling.

And why isn't he letting go? Harry was used to some of the girls at Hogwarts flirting with him, especially after he'd been deemed one of the best Seekers in Hogwarts to date, okay, only because he'd been deemed as one of the best Seekers at Hogwarts to date. He'd realized it easily enough, having gone from just a good player to star, the girls in his school had suddenly decided he was someone interesting. Out of sheer stubbornness, he'd turned down all of them, partly because he didn't want to date someone who was only interested in him being a Quidditch player, and partly because the only girl he actually liked was Cho. Not that he knew her that well, at all. And if that were true…and judging by how the teen had been acting in the short total of ten minutes that Harry knew him….

Of course, you're an idiot, he seethed at himself. With a growl of frustration, he directed all the anger he'd been in within the past day and a half and shoved himself away. The teen looked genuinely surprised.

"I know what you're doing, but I'm not falling for it," Harry snarled. He grabbed his broken glasses from the ground.

"What are you talking about," the teen asked. "I—"

"I deal with your kind at school all the time. I'm not falling for it."

"W, wait!"

He stormed back into the hotel room, found an overstuffed chair in a corner and sat down. Examining the twisted frame of his glasses, one of them had definitely stepped on it. Worse, he couldn't fix them, because he was still underage, which meant having one of his parents do it, both of which he was still pissed at. Had the older teen been of age? He said he could fix them, but the thought of going back to him and asking for anything made his rage surface again. Of course someone like him wouldn't be attracted to someone as plain-looking with normal grades as Harry. Not that the teen had told him anything that even hinted at that line of thinking, but the way he'd been holding onto Harry….

It was only because we fell. He freaked out, we both freaked out. That's all that was. Harry knew the truth though. He'd enjoyed being held and he'd liked the way the other teen looked. The other teen was even better looking than Cho. He's an arrogant arse and you don't even know his name.

Harry's first plan was to wait for his parents to come out and meet them in the entrance hall so they could fix his glasses. After a minute or two of squinting to see if the people walking passed him were indeed his parents, he gave up and made his way to the front desk.

"May I help you?" The desk clerk looked down at Harry, eyebrow raised, and as if Harry's very existence was somehow an extreme annoyance to him.

"…I broke my glasses and I'm underage. Can you fix them please?"

The older wizard let out an exaggerated sigh. It seemed Harry's request was the last thing in the world he wanted to do. Something so hard, so inconvenient, that Harry must have been crazy to utter the words in the first place.

"Give them here." He rolled his eyes, holding his hand out when the glasses were pulled from Harry's hand again.

"He—" Harry was shoved against the counter.

"Don't let this arse take advantage of you. You're better than that."

"How dare you!" The wizard at the front desk gasped looking insulted.

The teen held Harry's glasses between the two of them and the desk so no one else could possibly see what he was doing. He looked at the glasses without a word and then handed them back to Harry. "Sorry I broke them."

Who is he kidding, he didn't even say the spell! Harry lifted his glasses up and to his amazement, saw that they were fixed. But how..? He slid the glasses back on and went to ask just that, but the teen was already gone. How had he vanished so fast? He gave the room a look over, but the teen was nowhere in sight.

"Is he staying here?"

"Mr.—"

"Harry." Harry turned, his father approaching him with what seemed to be caution. "You've really upset your mother."

"Yeah, well, she's made me upset too. I don't want to be a healer, or anything else. I want to be an Auror."

"I know and I'm sure she'll come around to the idea, but you need to understand Harry. She's not trying to stop you from becoming an Auror, because she looks down on them. She's worried you're going to get hurt."

"I could get hurt as a healer," he countered. Sometimes healers ended up in horrible places. Harry had read about the death count of over twenty healers in a single week in a highly-populated area of Dragons, not to mention if any kind of war broke out.

"Just, keep your options open. Stay on track to become an Auror, but for your mum's sake, remember there are other job opportunities out there." He placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Can you do that?"

"….Yeah."

"Okay. Once we get through this, I swear the real vacation will begin." He grinned at Harry. "You won't know what to do first in Switzerland."

"Are you two going to stop fighting now?"

James let out a loud laugh.

"We always fight."

"You do?" Harry wasn't sure he believed that, but he couldn't deny feeling a bit better from hearing those words.

"Of course, that's part of the fun! We fight about something, usually something dumb, at least once a week. I've had to sleep on the couch a few times for pranking her."

That did sound like something his father would do. Perhaps the situation wasn't nearly as bad as he'd thought.

If mum and dad fight all the time, does that mean that teen and I…? His face burned and he shook his head trying to dislodge the thoughts. He didn't know anything about the teen. After the awards ceremony, he'd never see him again. Draco and he would have a good laugh having found someone more arrogant than Draco pretended to be and life would go on.

"Are you still mad?" James' sounded surprised.

"N, no. I was just thinking about someone," he admitted. He didn't have to tell his father who he was thinking of.

"Cho?"

"No."

"Finally got tired of chasing her huh? Well, that just means you didn't like her as much as you thought." He threw an arm around Harry's shoulders as they headed back to the inn room. "You'll find someone who understands you, I promise. I mean, I have your mother. If I can find someone, you won't have any problems at all."

Except I went from crushing on a girl with a boyfriend who hardly acknowledges my existence to falling for a guy who's a complete arse and probably toying with my feelings for his own sheer amusement.

He was hopeless. Maybe he was one of those people who wanted what they couldn't have.

After apologizing to his mother, which resulted in a very tearful apology from her, the Potter family left for the awards ceremony. The venue was close enough for them to walk, which made Harry question the reason for them bringing the car yet again, but said nothing. For the moment, the three of them were on good terms again and he wanted to keep it that way.

The outside of the venue was a small looking business with a sign hanging across the display window reading, "Closed for Renovations".

Even as a wizard, Harry found this ploy unbelievable. Even muggles were going to start questioning all the people walking into this small shop wearing dress robes, especially with a sign like that. No one seemed worried about it and so, Harry kept his mouth shut once again. He was beginning to think things went a lot smoother when he kept his mouth shut.

They stepped into the shop and Harry felt his mouth drop open. Inside was a huge, glamorously decorated room with a plush red carpet, giant crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, round tables positioned under each of them, except for the largest one, which hung in the center of the room and not as low as the others. Every table was covered with white table cloths, a vase with flowers in the center. Each vase held different ones. In front of the tables and chairs was a large stage with long flowing cream-colored curtains.

"Lily!" A much older wizard that Harry recognized as another healer came over to them.

"Augustus!"

James leaned towards Harry.

"Let's go find a table."

Grinning Harry followed his father through the crowd. Every direction held a group of witches or wizards that Harry knew were a group beyond him, but he had his father.

James found an empty table towards the back of the room and sat down, Harry joining him.

"This is weird," Harry said looking around the room.

"We don't fit in here," James said still grinning. "So many possible victims…"

"You promised mum you wouldn't," Harry said trying not to laugh and failing. He should have known his father would do something.

"I promised not to prank anyone, not anything," he said. "And I intend to keep my word."

Maybe they do fight a lot.

Harry had never seen so many finely dressed wizards and witches held in a single location, not even during the Yule Ball. The attendees had taken a ridiculous amount of time to get dressed up for this event.

"….brilliant, but so strange. If he wasn't so brilliant, I'd say ditch the kid." A witch in a silver glittering dress robes walked passed their table.

"At least we don't have to share any of the prestige with him," a wizard said.

What arseholes.

"Oh yeah, Draco's supposed to be here." He knew it would pointless to try to spot his friend before he even attempted. The crowd was continuously growing, all the voices becoming a loud murmurer as the people talked with one another.

"There's Dumbledore," James said. He waved his hand in the air. A pleasant smile appeared on Dumbledore's face and the headmaster came their way. "Isn't this horrible?"

"Come now, the reason these awards are being given is a wonderful thing," Dumbledore said, but his eyes were twinkling. "Ah, by the way, my son is actually here with me tonight." He turned as if to introduce someone and stopped. "And he seems to have slipped away."

"He's probably at the dessert table. Didn't you say he's a sweet lover," James asked.

"I did indeed. He very much takes after me in that respect." He took a seat next to James. "Did you enjoy that cake, Harry?"

"Yes," Harry said. Even if it had only been a small piece, it had been good. Draco was still nowhere to be seen and Harry hoped the Slytherin would pop up soon. He wanted someone to talk to and he would need someone to back up his claim when he told Ron and Hermione he'd finally met Dumbledore's son.

"You had cake and didn't share any," James asked looking horrified.

"I did share it, with Draco," Harry said.

"Do you see what I have to deal with," James asked Dumbledore. "My own son, withholding cake from me!"

"I wish my son was as behaved as yours if only a sliver."

That was an odd comment for a father to make. Even James seemed unsettled by Dumbledore's words. Hadn't his son just helped discover some improved healing cream or something? He should be proud.

"This place is completely unprepared, look at this rubbish! Commoners sweets!"

Harry paled, his eyes widening in sync with the teen across from him. No, Dumbledore's son was supposed to be in his thirties, or fifties, or something, but not his teens! How could such an old wizard have such a young son? An arrogant, arsehole, of a son no less! He was nothing at all like Dumbledore. Harry would have never guessed that the two of them could be related.

The sweets no longer seemed an issue. He dropped the plate onto the table.

"You."

"Yeah, me," Harry said. He wanted to look away but felt like if he did, he'd losing. He didn't know exactly what he was losing, but his fighting instincts had sparked within him.

"You two know each other," Dumbledore asked, sounding surprised.

"….we ran into each other at the bookstore," the teen said hesitantly. "I warned him not to buy shoddy items and he went and did it anyway."

His eyes remained locked with Harry's. The Gryffindor realized he was actually asking for permission to sit down.

"Y, yeah and they worked just fine," Harry said giving a slight nod. "I wrote a very long three-page letter with no problem."

"Then you got lucky," he said the arrogance creeping back into his voice.

"Tom, please," Dumbledore said sounding tired. "Do not start any fights here."

"So I can start a fight outside of the building?" He smirked, Dumbledore letting out a long sigh.

"Eat your desserts." The headmaster spotted something across the room and stood up. "I'll be right back." The headmaster stood up and left the table, leaving the three alone.

Tom picked at the many desserts on his plate, his eyes focused on them.

"Be right back Harry, your mother's waving at me," James said. He gave Harry a wink and set off across the room.

"Great, now we're alone," Tom said sulking. He picked some more at a few of the desserts on his plate then let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm—"

"Thank you, for fixing my glasses," Harry said blurting the words out before Tom could run off. He owed the teen that much, even if he had been the one to destroy his glasses in the first place. "How did you even do that without a wand? Or saying the spell?"

"…Practice," Tom said eyeing Harry wearily.

"I'm Harry," he said awkwardly holding his hand out. "Harry Potter."

"….Tom Riddle." He took Harry's hand and instead of shaking it, held it.

"Riddle?"

"I'm adopted."

"Oh…" That explains a lot. Harry glanced down at their hands. Tom hadn't let go of his yet and he was beginning to feel the heat creep through his body. "I…" What? Even if Tom was Dumbledore's adopted son, that didn't mean he wasn't an arse. It didn't mean he wasn't trying to screw with Harry and his feelings. None of it convinced Harry to let go. Instead, he turned his hand over and wrapped his fingers around Tom's.

Tom seemed just as surprised as Harry felt. Harry even noted a small blush crossing his beautiful features.

"You're kind of cute…better without the glasses, but…" he trailed off and popped a brownie into his mouth.

Can I really trust what he's saying? Harry wanted to, badly. He wanted Tom to like him, not that a relationship between them would ever form. Tom went from private tutor to private tutor learning from the best. He didn't even stay in the same country long. Harry would return to Hogwarts come September and if he was honest, it wouldn't matter, because they'd never see each other after the award's ceremony let alone, because summer ended. Dumbledore had known their family Harry's entire life, but this was the first time he'd even met Tom.

"Dumbledore's coming," Tom whispered pulling his hand away from Harry's.

Harry retracted his hand. It felt cold now and he felt alone.

He doesn't even want Dumbledore to know we were holding hands. There's no way anything is happening between us. Not that Harry had expected anything, but in the darkest parts of his mind, he'd hoped. He could still fantasize about it at least. Tom couldn't take that away, not like he had his hand. And in those fantasies, Tom could be nice and even care about Harry.

"Oh good, you haven't harmed anyone." Dumbledore placed a small plate, also filled with desserts, onto the table and a glass of wine.

"You always expect the worse of me," Tom said, his attention once more focused on his desserts. He was destroying a bread pudding with a spoon.

"Where's James," Dumbledore asked.

"With my mum," Harry said. He managed to find them and he jumped to his feet, his heart mimicking the movement. "I'll be right back." He ignored the surprised looks on the other twos' faces and had to yell at himself not to run, but he couldn't stay at the table. Tom's withdrawal of his hand had hurt more than he wanted to admit and he needed to get away. "Draco, what a pleasant surprise."

Draco turned at his words, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

"Harry. You should have told me you'd be attending tonight."

They shook hands, their faces barely giving anything away.

Manners, he reminded himself of turning to Draco's father. He plastered a fake smile on his face and held his hand out.

"Mister Malfoy. I'm glad to see you're doing well. I believe the last I saw you in person was during the Christmas Holiday?"

"Indeed." Lucius took his hand with great effort and shook it as quickly as possible. He pulled away as if he'd touched something vile. "How is your family?"

"My mother is nominated for the Superiority in the Healing Arts Award," Harry said. The pride in his voice wasn't faked.

"So I heard. Good luck to her then."

"Draco, do you have time to talk about those new broomsticks you heard were being released this summer?"

"Of course," Draco said pleasantly. "Shall we get a drink?"

"If your father doesn't mind," Harry asked Lucius.

"Of course not." Lucius was gripping his cane tightly, his knuckles white.

The two teens didn't wait. They made their way to the back table where bunches of wine glasses were filled with various drinks. Harry was glad to see they were in groups and each group had an identifying label. He procured himself a glass of Gillywater.

Draco grabbed a wineglass from another bunch labeled Bordeaux, Louis Beaussinot.

"You live in a different world than me," Harry said.

"One glass of wine won't hurt anyone, maybe Weasley." He shrugged. "Where are you sitting anyway?" Harry motioned to the table where Dumbledore and Tom were sitting and Draco coughed on his drink. "There? With those two?" He sounded as horrified as Harry felt.

"There, with those two," he said glaring at the two. "And you wouldn't imagine the day I've been having thanks to the arrogant snob," Harry said. "He broke my glasses, fixed them, and I'm pretty sure he's trying to manipulate me to fall for him just so he can screw with me and laugh in my face." He downed the Gillywater in a single gulp and grabbed another one.

"I've seen Pansy do that," Draco said watching the two wizards. "When the guy doesn't realize what's going on, he's a disaster afterwards. A few know. They just go with it for fun."

Of course, people like Pansy and Tom would.

"Did you ever find out his name?"

"Yeah, it's Tom Riddle. Dumbledore's son," Harry said making sure to coat each word with venom.

Draco managed to swallow his drink this time, but Harry could see it'd taken a lot of energy.

"Well."

"I can't wait to leave," Harry muttered. He finished off the second glass, decided he no longer cared if his parents were around and grabbed the glass marked Louis Beaussinot. He sniffed it a few times before taking a small sip. It wasn't bad, sort of dry and to his dismay, nothing like the Fire Whiskey Sirius had allowed him a taste of over the last Christmas Holiday. What was the point in even drinking something like this?

"Me either," Draco said. "Half of the people here are only in it for the networking. The actual healers are over there," Draco said pointing to a small group of maybe twenty healers, Harry's mother among them. "The rest of these people just help run the hospitals or they helped fund things."

"Funding isn't always a bad thing," Harry said taking another sip of the wine. Still dry. "Without the funding, some cures would have never been found."

"Yeah, but it's still a slap to the healer who finds the cure only to have to name it after the funder."

"…Honestly, most of the healers I've met don't care. They're just glad a cure was found."

"Really," Draco asked raising an eyebrow. "I'd be furious."

Harry would be too, at least name the cure after both the healer and funder or a name the two could agree upon. "At least people are being helped in the end."

"Always looking on the bright side, aren't you Potter?"

"Trying to keep myself from cursing someone," Harry corrected Draco. If any more bad crept into his life right now, he was going to snap. So what if the people funding some of the healing researches going on were doing it for personal gains? It still saved someone in the long run. "Maybe they should be punished for saving arseholes though." Tom had just gotten up from the table and was walking back towards the dessert table. He watched him, making sure the teen did nothing weird. There was no telling with Tom's type. "What pisses Pansy off more? When someone knows they're being screwed with right away and turns her down, or when she tells them and then finds out they knew all along?"

"First one," Draco said immediately. "Her ego takes a huge hit when someone she thinks is below her turns her down." He looked at Harry. "Has he asked you out?"

"No," Harry said, perhaps a bit too fast. "No," he repeated, calmly. He hadn't and probably wouldn't. All Harry had to do was survive the Healers Awards and he'd be free. Switzerland was his reward for not hexing Tom or his parents at this point. He was still hoping Sirius would take pity on him and come save him for a few weeks.

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"You can be pretty dense when it comes to people hitting on you."

"I'm not dense, I just know the only reason a lot of girls ask me out now is, because I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. I'm not stupid."

Their conversation shifted to school then and how stupid a lot of the students were. Harry defended a few, but the majority of Draco's list was spot on, especially Crabbe and Goyle. When they'd exhausted that route they spoke about their plans for the summer holiday asking Draco what did one do in Switzerland for fun.

"I've been asked to retrieve you," Tom said coming towards the two students. "They're going to start soon and your parents want you back at the table." Harry couldn't see any hints of the emotions that had crossed the teen earlier that day. He looked bored, a bit annoyed at having to track Harry down.

"I should head back to my family then," Draco said looking torn. He leaned into Harry. "Don't kill him."

Harry smiled doing his best to hold back a laugh and nodded. Something flashed across Tom's eyes. It wasn't a happy emotion. Harry was all too glad for it and made a mental note to get Draco a souvenir from Switzerland.

He started back to the table, Tom walking beside him. They were almost to the table when Tom let out a frustrated sigh.

"Are you two a couple?"

Harry nearly walked into a chair a witch had just pushed out. He took a step back, apologizing, the witch doing the same and started around the table.

"Does it matter?"

"Not really, I've broken up my fair share of relationships, most of which weren't intended."

The confidence this guy has is sickening.

"No, we're not," Harry said. He wanted to say yes and Draco would have understood and gone along with it if he did, but he didn't want to drag Draco into this. On some level, Harry understood that Tom was dangerous. He wasn't sure how he knew, maybe Dumbledore's comments, but he didn't want to risk Draco's wellbeing just to annoy some guy he'd never see again after the awards ceremony ended.

"You act like it."

"We're friends," Harry said turning on the teen. "The only friend I have in this entire town. I've —" He stopped himself. Tom was listening intently and Harry really wanted to get all his frustration out, but telling Tom would probably only lead to more problems. Tom would use whatever he said against him, that's just how those kinds of people were. "It's not important." No, he would wait for Sirius and tell him, even though he'd told his godfather everything in his letter. He would repeat all the problems he'd mentioned, add all the new ones Tom had given him since the letter, and Sirius would tell him it was okay. That people like Tom were just arseholes, sometimes parents were too, and that was okay. Things would get better.

The words made him smile. Sirius was always telling him that things would get better and usually, his godfather was right. So what if he'd been forgotten by his own parents and gotten into a fight with them, had been tossed into Tom's line of fire? The awards ceremony was also being held in Draco's hometown and he'd had at least one friend to talk with during the chaos. He could handle a few more hours until he got to Switzerland.

Just pretend you're talking to Ron… Which was impossible. Ron was a complete idiot compared to Tom. Maybe talking with Draco? Draco wasn't the smartest person, but really, what was Tom more than a steroid-induced Draco and Hermione?

"He's all yours if you want him, but I'll warn you. He's a bit of an arsehole."

"I haven't even spoken with him," Tom said.

"Well, compared to your arrogance, you'd probably think he's nice." He could see the table, his parents, Dumbledore. The adults were talking happily and all of them had cake. Tom grabbed Harry by the shoulder and turned him.

"I don't care about your friend," Tom said narrowing his eyes. "I have no interest in him."

"Okay." Harry shrugged. "You were the one asking if we were dating."

"I wanted to know if you were single," Tom said. He scowled at a few witches who looked at them and ushered Harry to the dessert table. "I'm interested in you."

How Harry wished he could believe that. He would allow himself to think so in the safety of his own dreams, but reality was never that nice. He couldn't trust this teen anymore than he could trust Draco not to harm Ron or Hermione when they were at school or even trust that his parents' fighting was really over. What made it worse is, he could use someone he could talk to freely, but Tom wouldn't be there for him once this ceremony ended. He wouldn't be around at school or even the holidays. This run-in had happened by complete chance.

"Tom…" There wasn't any good way to put this. Wait, if I'm not going to see him after the awards ceremony anyway…It was a devious plan, but it would keep things from getting out of hand. A fight right before his mother received a prestigious award would be wrong. "We don't actually know each other…I'm not going to deny I think you're hot, but shouldn't we get to know each other first?"

Tom seemed to consider this.

"You're right; I suppose I'm taking this too fast." His face was turning red and he laughed. "I've never actually fallen for someone that way I have with you."

Harry found that hard to believe. How many times had Tom used that pickup line? Hundreds? Possibly thousands? A new lover in every country, hell maybe even every town he went to?

Just play along. Easier said than done, but this entire thing would be over within the next two hours tops. Then he could write Sirius another novel of a letter telling him all the stupid stuff he'd had to deal with.

"So…I heard you helped work on a cure…"

"I want to know about you," Tom said waving Harry's words off. "Everyone knows what I do." He took Harry's hand in his own, the Gryffindor blushing horribly.

"Th, there's nothing to know…." He tried to keep his stuttering to a minimum. "I'm just me." Just be honest, he'll get bored. "I think the only thing that stands out is I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and I'm considered a great Seeker."

"You actually enjoy that game," Tom asked with a laugh. "Why?"

"Because it's fun, and freeing," Harry said through gritted teeth. "I like flying."

"I guess," Tom said. He already seemed to be getting bored. At least it wouldn't take long to drive him away. "What's your favorite subject?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Harry said. "It's probably my best class. I'm not too great with the other ones."

"Why not? All you have to do is study." He seemed surprised at Harry.

Harry gaped at him. If only it were that easy, then no one would have to even attend school. Just study, you'll somehow remember everything and be able to do everything.

"I don't remember things that well," he said. He gave a small shrug when Tom sighed. "See. You know a bit more about me and you're already bored."

"I'm not exactly bored. I just can't believe I fell for a fool."

"I'm not a fool," Harry snapped. "I just think there are more important things out there than studying all the time!"

"Like getting your head bashed in with a high speeding ball," Tom asked laughing.

Harry felt his cheeks burn more.

"You're an arse." He tried to pull his hand away and failed. "Let go."

"You're going to need thicker skin if my comments have angered you that much." He pulled Harry forward until their bodies were touching. "Don't worry, I promise you'll get used to it."

All Harry could do was stare. He'd been so sure telling Tom he was nothing special would end this stupid charade. Tom could tell Harry right away that he was simply not dating material, not for someone like him, and they would go their separate ways.

"Or you could go find someone smarter and leave me out of this," Harry offered.

Tom tilted his head.

"Why would I do that? I can tutor you and that fixes the problem, doesn't it?"

Harry's world froze.

Tutor me?

"It'll be fun. I'll have you mastering every class you're signed up for. Then you can leave early and join me traveling for a while."

"Y, you're going way too fast again," Harry managed to get out.

"Right," Tom chuckled. "You want to take this slow. Well, as long as you're mine then the pace doesn't matter. We have all the time in the world." He started for the table, Harry following dumbly behind him.

What in the hell just happened?

No, this wasn't how Tom was supposed to react. He was supposed to get bored and angry. He was supposed to think Harry was pointless to go after, to ignore him for the rest of his life, not tutor him!

"W, wait! Aren't you leaving after this?" He was grasping at straws now as he stumbled after Tom. Dumbledore's son never stayed in one place long unless he was doing research or studying under someone.

"No, I talked it over with Dumbledore. I'm taking the next few months off for a vacation."

Harry could feel all the color drain from his face.

"But...my family and I are going to Switzerland after the ceremony is over," he said weakly.

"Really? I love Switzerland." He seemed genuinely pleased.

Harry felt himself blushing again.

Ugh, why am I happy? Of course, he already knew why he was happy. He wanted Tom to be pleased with him, even if his initial plan had been to make the older teen dislike him. No matter what he said or thought, he wanted to be with him. He wanted this to be real.

"Yeah?" It was all he could think of to say.

"They have amazing chocolate shops there."

Chocolate shops….? Was any of this real? Harry must have fallen asleep at some point. The wine! That had to be it. The little bit of wine he'd consumed had turned his reality upside down. Weird since he'd managed just fine after downing a Fire Whiskey.

"I see you managed to bring Harry back to us unharmed," Dumbledore said pleasantly. His eyes widened ever so slightly when he saw they were holding hands.

"Harry and I talked and I want to see him. I'll be using my vacation time to tutor him for now." He sat down, pulling Harry gently into the seat beside him.

"Really?!" Lily looked both surprised and pleased.

Maybe they'll stop fighting if I at least study. Besides this was a good opportunity. Even if Tom was mad, he was considered a genius. If Harry had managed to fail any of his classes, a summer of tutoring with Tom would give him the knowledge he needed to retake and pass any O.W.L.S. It might also be nice to understand half of what came out of Hermione's mouth anymore. She often went on long tangents about something they'd just learned or something she'd read and he and Ron were left staring at her, mouths hanging open as they tried to make some sense of what she was so animatedly going on about.

"Well, I was a little unsure about some of the questions on my O.W.L.S. If I need to retake any, I'll be prepared," Harry said.

"You really think you flunked an O.W.L. level test," Tom asked snorting. "You really do need my help." He leaned in towards Harry. "Be glad I'm willing to give you that help," he whispered.

Once again, Harry felt his face burning from embarrassment, anger, and if he was honest with himself, because he liked it.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea," Dumbledore asked.

"We could pay him," Lily said quickly.

"It's fine," Tom said glaring at his stepfather.

"It wasn't fine the last time you were asked to tutor someone."

"I want to tutor him."

They stared each other down. Neither one of them looked like they were going to stop. Dumbledore opened his mouth and the candles went out.

What?

Hundreds of pin-sized floating lights came to life all at once. The lights rushed together in one direction towards the stage. They collided together creating a massive globe of light behind a wizard standing on the stage. Some of the small lights spilled out to the side giving the illusion of a fountain of sparks raining out.

"Witches, Wizards, and most importantly, Healers! Welcome to this year's F.A.I.R.Y.!" His words were met with loud cheers from the crowd. "For any of you who've been missing from society for oh, the last 800 years!" He grinned, some of the crowd laughing. "That would make this the Fantastical and Ingenious Remedies Yearly!"

(TBC)

Enjoy