Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

The next day was rather difficult. Tom was finding small ways to be rebellious without actively speaking out against Harry and Harry was growing sick and tired of it. It was just after lunch when he had finally had enough.

"That's it, I've had it with you today. I've been nice, I've even warned you multiple times but that was the last straw." Tom's eyes went wide when he realized just how pissed off Harry was. He could see the regret Tom was beginning to feel at slamming his cup down for the umpteenth time.

"Get over here. Now." Tom slowly made his way next to Harry, reluctant to find out just how badly he screwed up. Harry turned him over his knees and spanked him, one for each time he had warned him of his behaviour.

Poor Tom didn't realize just how many times Harry had warned him before being forced to take action. Harry had told him to count and he could tell that Tom was beginning to realize the point Harry was making. Before each spank, Harry led with what he had warned him for to try to get the lesson to really sink in the first time.

He felt terrible by the end when he saw the absolute mess Tom's face was from all the crying.

"Are you quite done acting the part of a recalcitrant child?" Tom nodded and whimpered as Harry caressed his bottom through his trousers. Harry silently cast a mild healing charm, enough to ensure that Tom could sit but he held back just enough that Tom would feel the sting each time he sat down or walked to remind him not to misbehave again. He helped him get cleaned up and didn't have any trouble with Tom for the rest of the afternoon.

In fact, Tom had been downright angelic after the spanking. He sat on his plump cushion next to Harry's chair in the library without complaining about the muggle book Harry was letting him read. He didn't even comment on how Harry expected him to sit on a cushion on the floor like a common dog. He just sat and read quietly, only asking once if he could go to the bathroom.

It was a point of contention between them that Harry refused to let Tom shut the bathroom door and would stand in the doorway. Granted Harry always faced away and put up a silencing charm, but Tom still didn't like how open it left him. It was one of the reasons Tom was slamming teacups into their saucers during lunch, he just knew it.

But Tom didn't even complain after his punishment, just accepted that Harry would be standing there. When they got back to the library, Harry let him choose between picking out a book to read until dinner or sitting on the couch instead of the floor. Tom went to pick out a different book, settling for a muggle classic rather than another biography.

When Harry noticed the sun starting to sink, he stood and told Tom to follow him. He was surprised when Tom obeyed and let him choose either pizza or fish and chips for dinner. Tom decided on the pizza, to Harry's surprise.

They were eating in tentative silence when Harry noticed that Tom kept glancing at him in between bites.

"What is it that you want to say?"

"Why'd you let me pick what we ate?"

"You behaved yourself this afternoon. You didn't fight back on the bathroom issue, you sat and read quietly and you followed me to the kitchen without question when I told you to."

"But you were mad at me at lunch…"

"That's true. But I punished you for your infractions. Once you're punished for something, then it's behind us. You won't be punished for this morning again." Tom's eyes widened in disbelief, but he didn't say anything further.

It took two weeks until Tom could go an entire day without snapping at Harry for one thing or another, and another week on top of that before he went two days without any punishments at all. Harry had to sit and calm Tom down after his first punishment in two days for almost an hour. Tom was convinced that Harry would hate him for talking back again and would take away the nice fluffy blanket on his mattress or his cushion in the library. Harry just shushed him and carded his fingers through Tom's hair until he calmed down.

"You backtalked me. I spanked you for it. That's it, it's done. I won't be taking anything away from you for this." Tom relaxed in his arms and thanked him.

"Whatever for?"

"For keeping your word."

Another week after that was when it happened. Harry had just asked if Tom had a preference for dinner and Tom's answer surprised him.

"Can I cook for you tonight?" Harry managed to nod through his shock and smiled the entire time Tom moved around the kitchen, every now and again asking what to do or how to do it. Even with Harry's instruction, he had managed to over cook the spaghetti noodles a bit and had added too much pepper but Harry was too proud of him to care.

He had been at his highest all those weeks ago at the graveyard, beaten down to nothing and was just starting to show signs of someone who wanted to try to balance out their existence. The fact that he has resigned himself to doing everything the muggle way without even attempting to use magic on top of it all showed that he was willing to move past losing his magic.

"Thank you for cooking dinner Tom." Tom's head jerked up to look at him, confusion evident in his facial expression.

"Why are you thanking me?"

"Because you didn't have to and yet you offered. I was content to allow you to spend the rest of your days reading if you so wished as long as you behaved, and yet you're offering to learn a skill completely unknown to you. I'm not sure if I should be impressed with you or disappointed in myself that I would doubt you wanting to keep busy somehow."

"I just wanted to do something for you since you've been doing your best to take care of me. I realize I could have had it much worse, and I'm sorry for testing you so much. I don't want you to give me away, I'll be killed if that happens." It was the most Tom had spoken since they arrived at the manor.

"I take care of what's mine. That includes you." Tom blushed and went back to eating his dinner.

Harry replied to another one of Ron's letters begging to come and have a go at Tom and Hermione wanting to see the manor. He had to turn them down once again, and explicitly told Hermione that until Ron could handle the idea of not laying so much as a finger on Tom then he couldn't risk them coming. She understood, whereas Ron was having a hard time grasping the concept of playing nice.

Tom walked out of the loo-he had been upgraded to only having to leave the door open, Harry no longer needed to stand at the door-and asked Harry if he'd teach him how to make his favourite dinner. They'd gone over the basics last week and Tom was really starting to get good at it. He agreed and helped Tom through the process of making French onion soup. It would be ready later that night, so they settled for some snacks in the meantime.

The Tom everyone else knew was long gone by now. He only talked back if he was particularly crabby and he didn't throw temper tantrums any longer. After he stopped throwing the tantrums, he had gone quiet and hardly talked unless directly spoken to or if he needed the loo. More recently, he'd been asking to do things and started coming out of his shell a bit. He was still quiet, but he was making an effort to be more pleasant company than moving furniture.

Harry liked that he was making an effort to be more than an obedient slave, and rewarded him every time he made progress in the right direction.

Harry was beyond upset. Tom had spent the entire day nearly silent and hadn't so much as looked at him, preferring to stare at the floor. He had cooked silently, read silently and didn't respond to Harry unless he was directly told to answer-even then, preferring to only nod or shake his head if he was asked a yes or no question.

They had gone to bed long enough ago that Harry figured Tom would have been asleep when he felt Tom's face against the hand that had been just over the edge of his bed. He turned to see the outline of Tom from the light from the diminishing coals and wondered what he was doing out of his bed, on his knees and putting his face in Harry's hand.

On a hunch, he scooted away from the side of the bed and patted the mattress. Tom, getting the hint, climbed into bed and curled up before falling asleep against Harry's chest. He smiled, knowing this was just one step forward, even if earlier in the day had been a bit of a step back.

The next day, Tom went back to talking to Harry the way they had been and Harry enjoyed it immensely. He took to touching Tom whenever he could-he noticed it was one of Tom's favourite rewards. That and praise.

That night the same thing happened. Tom grew very quiet before bed and after an hour or so of laying in his mattress, he crawled over to Harry's hand and silently asked to be let up. Smiling, Harry moved over and allowed him to get into bed with him, wrapped an arm around his waist and fell asleep.

It was a week later when Harry stood quietly. He left Tom sitting on his cushion-he'd been given couch privileges but he preferred the fluffy blue thing on the floor by Harry's chair. He went to vanish the mattress on the floor and moved the fluffy pillow and blanket to the side of the bed closest to the bathroom. Tom only noticed Harry had left when he reentered the library.

It was the first time the two of them had been in separate rooms since Harry had fetched him from Azkaban, and the significance wasn't lost on him. He gave a small smile and went back to his book while a blush crept onto his cheeks.