Chapter Thirteen
- Are you a time traveler, Harry?
Riddle's pupils looked almost snakelike. Potter was trapped by that stare, as if young Voldemort would turn into a serpent and swallow him whole.
- A-are you quite mad? - Harry tried to appear taken aback, but he knew he was losing the moment he heard his own quavering voice.
- Mr. Granger! - it was the librarian, Mrs. Burgos, hissing, - By Merlin, what is all this clamor?! This is a library, not a tavern!
- I'm sorry, Mrs. Burgos...
- Mind your voice or I will ban you from entering this place forever!
- Yes, Mrs. Burgos...
- Mr. Riddle, Mr. Granger is your responsibility! Keep him quiet.
- I will, Mrs. Burgos.
The librarian walked away, and Harry turned back to face Riddle's predatory stare.
- Harry, I know I'm right this time. There is no point denying this. You've broken the Hour-Reversal Charm.
- I didn't break anything! - Harry hissed, checking to see if Mrs. Burgos was close.
- Don't lie to me.
- I'm not lying! I didn't break anything!
- Imperio!
Everything turned blurry, and Harry felt his own thoughts abandon him. He tried to concentrate on the present, but with every passing second he felt less and less willing to fight back.
- Walk, - he heard a command echoing in his head, and that felt like the only right thing to do.
Yes, he must walk. He must walk.
Tom told Granger to sit, and the boy dropped butt-first on the cold stone floor. Riddle kneeled beside him, studying his green vacant eyes. It was the first time he could do everything he wanted with Harry, so he didn't hurry to break the Imperius Curse just yet.
Riddle moved Granger's bangs away from his forehead with the tip of his wand, to get a proper view of that weird scar he sometimes noticed on his face. It looked like a lightning bolt. It was surely of magical origin, probably even the remnant of a dark curse.
Tom reached for Harry's face, taking the glasses off and putting them away. He touched the scar with his finger, tracing the thin zigzag from the boy's hairline down to his eyebrow. He felt a weird pulsation coming from it. Riddle put his fingers on Harry's wrist to make sure it wasn't the blood pressure, but the scar itself.
Yes, it was the scar. What a curious sensation. It felt as if that pulsation was echoing inside of Tom.
He should get that story out of the boy tonight.
Tom moved on to Harry's wrist, finally pulling that sleeve away and examining the words "I must not tell lies" written in scar tissue across his hand. This one must have had an interesting story too.
Riddle continued his inspection, pulling the school robe over the boy's head, checking his neck, his other arm, until he started unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off too, revealing more scars. Tom probably looked like one of those gormless kids ripping off the wrapping paper from their presents and turning them over in excitement.
He finally caught him. There was no way Granger could slip out of this one.
Tom reached for the buttons on Harry's pants, but stopped, catching those absent eyes again. He waved his wand, ending the spell, and started watching as Harry blinked, his eyes trying to focus.
Harry suddenly pulled his arms out, searching around.
- Where am I?! Where are my glasses?!
Tom snorted and put them into Granger's hand. The boy hastily put them on and jumped up, dashing away from Riddle, looking around the place.
- Why did you bring me to the Chamber of Secrets?!
- We're not in the Chamber of Secrets. We're in a magical room. I can't exactly walk in the girl's lavatory now that Myrtle's squatting there, can I?
Harry turned back to Riddle.
- So what is this room and why does it look exactly like your stupid Chamber?!
Tom ignored the insult and continued, not unkindly.
- This is the Room of Requirement. It takes the shape of whatever you need.
The boy didn't seem too surprised. More evidence Granger was much more familiar with Hogwarts than any of them thought.
- Why does it look like your Chamber then? Are you really that full of yourself?
Tom fought an urge to curse Granger.
- You should stop insulting me, - he warned, - My patience is wearing thin.
Harry looked with caution at Riddle's wand and started groping for his own, tapping his back pockets at first and then finally noticing he didn't have clothes on top.
- Why am I not wearing a shirt? - he asked, this time truly befuddled.
- I took it off you to examine your scars. Do you have any others? On your… other regions?
Harry blushed and picked up his shirt, putting it on and fumbling with the buttons.
- I don't exactly keep track of them.
- You fought a lot. Why?
- I'm not discussing this with you.
Granger started walking around the place, continuing his search for his wand.
- You obviously know me in the future. That's where your hate must stem from. Tell me more.
- I don't know what you are talking about.
- Stop lying.
- I have absolutely no idea why you are so sure I'm from the future!
Harry's clumsy attempts at a defense angered Tom. It was time for harsher measures. Riddle breathed in and out, slowly, focusing on Harry's mind. The boy felt it and tried to block out Riddle, but this time Tom was prepared. He pushed harder in, slowly tearing through Harry's resistance, watching him grab his head in pain.
Thoughts started slipping out slowly, flashing in Tom's head. At first they were blurry, but the more Riddle pushed, the more focused they became.
Tom had to hand it to Harry, he tried his best. The first memories that slipped through were useless, meant to stall him for a moment or two. Harry playing Quidditch, Harry writing essays, Harry and a red-haired boy. Harry riding a hippogriff. However, Tom could see it was a Hogwarts he did not know. Little cues of it were scattered here and there: clothes that seemed too odd, music he didn't hear before, and finally - the date on the essay. September Thirteenth, nineteen ninety-six.
He was right, of course he was right - the boy was from the future.
Tom pushed harder, ignoring with all he had the pain pulsating in his temples and the bile rising in his throat. A graveyard. A boy with unseeing eyes - the kind of eyes only death could give you. A horrible, ugly man, more of a snake than a man.
- NO!
Harry screamed and pushed Riddle out of his mind so hard that Tom stumbled. It didn't matter. Riddle was set on getting information out of the boy one way or another.
- So, Harry? What is your next excuse? Are you planning to continue denying you are from the future?
Granger just stood there, sulking like a kitten after being thrown in the water.
- Even if so, I can't tell you, can I? I'm sure you know of the dangers that can happen when you mess with time.
- Good. You moved past denial. Looks like we have some progress.
Harry turned away, the look of defeat flashing across his pale face.
- I would like to hear your story, Harry. You went fifty-three years back, as far as I've seen. Your presence here either leads to the future you know or... You've changed everything already. So, it's too late to worry about the dangers time meddling can cause. Besides making sure your parents are born and still happen to have you, of course.
The boy folded his arms on his chest.
- Thanks for making things better... I'm hoping to get back before making any crucial changes still.
- Oh, you can never go back.
It was very satisfying to watch Harry get more and more pissed.
- How do you know?!
- Have you heard of Eloise Mintumble? No? She traveled five hundred years back and returned, ending up as a five-hundred-year-old, decaying body. You will end up sixty-nine if you succeed in traveling back this year. Seventy - if that happens next year. And what if you have to wait more? Ten, twenty years? Didn't you know this? It's only logical.
- Dumbledore is helping me.
Riddle snorted.
- Oh Dumbledore, alright then.
- What's so funny?!
- Dumbledore surely cares about magical law and he might even get you back, but even if that happens - you will still lose an enormous number of years. Are you ready for that? Because Dumbledore doesn't care. What's a life of some boy if it stands between Dumbledore and his idea of what is right?
Harry paced the room nervously for some minutes, before turning back to Tom.
- So, you're saying I should stay here? Leave everything that was dear to me behind? All my friends? And stay with those who you decide I should or shouldn't be friends with?
So, that's what he was angry about in the library. Damian Shacklebolt. Riddle almost forgot.
- How dare you meddle with my relationships?! Do you have nothing else to do?! Myrtle's ghost is back, and you worry about this?!
- Myrtle doesn't know who killed her.
- I know who killed her!
- And you will stay silent.
Harry stopped dead, seething.
- No, I won't! That's it! I'm done with you! I told you not to mess with me! We had a deal and you broke it! Where is my wand?!
Tom rolled his eyes and took Harry's wand out of his school robe pocket.
- This one, you mean?
- Give it to me!
- Where did you get that scar, Harry? The one that's on your forehead.
Granger turned away, again, and stood in silence, probably searching for a way out of this. But there wasn't a way out. Tom would make sure of that.
Granger turned back to Tom. Something changed in his eyes, as if he had finally accepted the rules of the game.
- Oh, you want to know that one, do you? The story of my weird, lightning bolt shaped scar, - Harry shook his head, - Fine, have it your way, you bastard! You gave it to me!
Tom did not expect to hear this.
What was the story Harry told him that time at the Chamber? A dark wizard tried to kill him and died in the process, leaving the boy with parselmouth abilities. So that is why he called Riddle a monster the first time they met. That is why he hated Tom from the start. They were enemies in the future.
This opened too many new questions.
- I know who you are, Riddle! I know so much about you, you won't believe it! I see behind all your lies, your scheming!
The words started erupting from Granger like pus from a bad wound.
- What a parasite you are, sucking up to those who you will use for benefits! I know how rotten your soul is, I know the monster you will become!
Tom didn't like what he heard. Those where serious accusations and they did not resemble the glorious future Riddle planned for himself.
- How dare you.., - he started, raising his wand, but was interrupted again.
- YOU MURDERED MY PARENTS! YOU TOOK AWAY MY GODFATHER FROM ME! I HATE YOU!
Harry rushed towards Tom, but Tom hit him back with a spell, making him stumble. That didn't stop the boy, and he jumped back up and tried to attack again, failing again and falling again.
- Impedimenta! - Tom hit him with the spell and watched as Harry moved in slow motion, rage distorting his face, ready to fight without a wand, even if it was hopeless.
The spell wore out, and Granger hit the ground by Tom's feet, catching air and watching Riddle with eyes full of hatred.
Tom straightened out, looming over Harry.
- Do not accuse me of things I haven't done yet.
- But you will... You killed Myrtle... You killed your father, your grandparents! You are that monster, even if you don't look like it yet!
- You don't make that choice for me!
Harry looked at him from under his matted, messed up hair.
- You made that choice already.
- You don't know anything about my plans!
- Yes, I do. I know about your Death Eaters. I remember some of their names. Avery. Rosier. Malfoy. And especially Lestrange.
So, there will be an army. They will follow him.
- And I know the name you chose for yourself!
Tom focused back on the boy.
- Voldemort!
Riddle felt his whole being vibrate with excitement. He used to say that name over and over again in his head. He saw it in the headlines in newspapers, heard it in the screams of his enemies, felt the terror it spread.
But this was the first time his future name sounded out loud. Real. Complete.
He couldn't stop the smile from spreading on his face.
- Look at you! - Harry yelled, - You are sick! You monster!
Riddle's patience came to an end. He took out Harry's wand again and handed it to him.
- Let's see how big of a monster I am, Harry.
Tom took ten steps back, turned to Harry and gave him a perfunctory bow without breaking eye contact. Then he took his dueling position.
- Well, don't be like Malfoy, Harry. Where are your manners?
Granger scowled at him, but gave him something that must have resembled a bow and took his dueling position in turn.
- What will it be, Harry? Your favorite? The Disarmament spell?
Granger's emotions were hampering his concentration, so his wand flew out of his hand before he could take proper action, made an arc towards the ceiling and landed back into Tom's hand.
- I recommend you start learning non-verbal spells. Here, take your wand and have another try.
Riddle threw it back to him and then disarmed him just as easily a second later.
- Oh, Harry! Not again! Do you need more time?
Tom threw the boy's wand back to him again, watching as Harry grew angrier by the second.
- Expecto Patronum! - Harry yelled, and Riddle saw a stream of white light erupt from the boy's wand, instead of the stag he expected.
- What, Harry, too angry for light magic?
- EXPECTO PATRONUM!
This time the stag appeared and galloped full charge towards Tom, but he swished his wand summoning a swath of devilish fire in the shape of a serpent. The giant snake opened its mouth, swallowing the white stag whole.
- Sorry I ate your deer, Harry. I do have a soft spot for venison. Have another try.
Harry flicked his wand sending bursts and blows of all colors to Tom's direction, and Riddle concentrated to block them.
- That's better, Harry, I can't even hear your yelling.
It looked like the boy was getting the hang of it. His attacks were getting quicker and harder to block. Tom was breathing harder, moving faster, and it finally felt like a good fight.
- I was almost disappointed in you! And look at you now! I could use a Death Eater like that.
Another stag of light came galloping Tom's way, and he slashed it in pieces with a quick Diffindo, causing a burst of light to break out and blind him for several seconds. As he tried to get his vision back, he felt a sharp pain in his ribs.
- Obliviate! - Harry yelled, and Tom had to block the spell half-blindly.
- Erase my memories, Harry? Was that your brave plan all along? Are you sure you know what you're doing?
Tom regained his vision and started his attack. A dozen serpents from the ground, fire from the top, vicious slashes in between, just like the one that hit him.
Harry moved quick, ducking and diving, hitting back spells. He was very good at it.
- Attack your master! - Granger hissed to the snakes in parseltongue, just like last time with Malfoy.
- Oh, no, you do not command my snakes! - Riddle hissed back, and his creatures continued dashing forward, biting at Harry's legs.
Harry tripped and fell hard on his knees, the snakes finally reaching his higher parts and biting into the flesh on his shoulders, chest and neck. Riddle swished them away and started approaching Harry, not even bothering to properly block his weakening cutting spells anymore. He was used to the pain.
- You look tired, Harry, - he cooed, watching the boy struggle for breath, - Do you surrender?
Harry made another attempt to hit Riddle, but Tom disarmed him and kicked his wand away. He kneeled in, leveling his eyes with Granger.
- Do you surrender, Harry?
Granger leapt forward and pushed Tom onto the floor. He got on top of Riddle and started punching him hard, laying into it, giving Tom all he had.
- I HATE YOU! - Granger screamed, - I FUCKING HATE YOU!
Tom could taste blood in his mouth, but somehow it only made him laugh. Sure, it hurt, but Granger's punches next to Avery's were quite bearable.
Tom's laugh angered the boy even more, and he pelted Tom with more and more punches, until Tom got tired of it and rolled Harry over, getting on top.
- You are going to need a lot more hate to defeat a monster like me, Harry! - Tom growled as he watched Granger's face cover in drops of his own blood.
Tom kneeled down and bit Harry in the bloody bite mark left from one of the serpents on the boy's neck. The room filled with Granger's scream, which only fueled Tom more. He kept on biting, pressing the boy down to the floor, his mouth filling with Harry's blood, being the monster Harry called him, feeling finally free and complete, until the boy got silent.
- Kill me already...
Tom pulled away, swallowing the blood and wiping his mouth. Harry's eyes were wet from pain, blood streaming out of his neck.
He looked a mess. His clothes ripped, bites, burns and cuts covering all of his body. As Riddle examined him, calming down, as if awakened from a dream, the blood from Granger's neck formed a big puddle on the floor. The boy was paling, lips losing color by the second.
Riddle grabbed his wand and hastily sutured the bite.
- What the hell was that, Tom? - Granger asked in a hoarse voice.
What was he doing? He never bit anyone before.
- You are the one who got physical, - he fired back and stood up.
This was getting embarrassing.
Riddle walked to the flooded area next to Salazar Slytherin's statue and looked at his messed up face.
- What happens next? - Tom heard Granger's weak voice behind.
- You surrendered. You may leave now. The exit is that way, - Riddle pointed to one of the arches.
- You don't care if I tell Dumbledore? I have nothing left to lose now that you know who I am and what you will become.
- Tell Dumbledore whatever you want.
- What?
Riddle turned to face the concerned-looking Harry. He was scraping himself up.
- If I am to become a monster, why not start today?
- But that's not how things happened in the future...
- Fuck your future. I make my own future.
Riddle turned back to his reflection and started healing his wounds. Harry kept silent behind for a couple of minutes, then Tom heard him shuffling out of the Room of Requirement.
Voldemort. Death Eaters. Monster. That mark on Harry's forehead.
Riddle felt a rush of goosebumps run over his body. This was possible. But now that he knew this...
Did he really want it?
Harry was limping his way through the dark corridors. He felt like a sick animal that would be ripped into pieces if he stumbles into a predator. He needed shelter, somewhere to hide, heal his wounds and get his thoughts straight.
It was night time already, so the corridors were empty, and he knew the school well enough to get from point A to point B without the need of light.
He got out of the castle and was slowly moving to the Quidditch pitch to take a shower in the team's changing room, where no one would see him at this hour. There was supposed to be Quidditch practice earlier, but Potter missed that, of course, somewhere around the time of waking up in the Room of Requirement. Fortunately, this meant he could clean up without any unnecessary attention.
Unfortunately, as soon as he walked into the changing room, he stumbled into Lucas Avery.
- Harry, what the fuck happened to you?!
Avery dropped his bag and ran up, taking in all of Harry's wounds.
Potter didn't know what to say. He dueled Riddle? Riddle attacked him? He was nearly killed? Riddle knows he will kill Harry's parents? Riddle knows Harry knows who Voldemort and the Death Eaters are?
- Did Riddle do this?
- We dueled.
- Fuck! Are you alright?!
- I don't know. I came here to clean up.
- Do you know how to heal wounds?
- I'm not very good at it.
- I'll help you. Go shower. I'll get you my Quidditch uniform, your school clothes need some elf magic... Let's just leave it to them. I have just the right thing for you somewhere here...
Luke squatted on the floor and started digging in his school bag, laying aside all sorts of different objects: books, quills, broken and intact, assorted snacks, a quaffle, a bat, a jar of something scary, another quaffle...
Harry stumbled into the shower and started undressing, throwing his ruined clothes over the door.
What a fucked up day.
Should he tell Dumbledore he screwed everything up? Should he tell him Riddle killed Myrtle? Should he let the professor know what Riddle really is?
But what will Dumbledore do to Harry if he learns he broke the rules of time magic? What if he puts him away in some prison to prevent him from making any more mistakes? It wouldn't be the first time the professor would isolate Potter. Harry remembered well the hot summer after Voldemort's return.
Or worse? Could Dumbledore come up with something worse?
Potter turned on hot water and started washing his face and body. He had serpent bites all over him, and several cuts and burns from curses.
This was the toughest one-on-one he's ever had in his life. He wanted to hurt Riddle so bad he lost control of himself and couldn't even remember now half of what exactly he did. He could only remember Riddle's sharp eyes and mockery seeping from his tongue, word by word, his expert wandwork, swish after swish, Harry's loss after loss.
Riddle was right. Harry's emotions were getting in the way.
Potter slammed the tile wall of the shower.
He hated admitting Riddle was right at anything. Yes, Harry was making a mistake he never allowed himself before - he got too overcome with emotions, something that never happened when he fought Voldemort.
Sure, he always felt afraid to face his monstrous version, he was always full of hate, but these two feelings balanced out each other, and he could concentrate on the fight. Now... It's as if he didn't feel Tom was Voldemort. As if he was another person, someone, who Harry knew much better. Someone with a separate from Voldemort history with Harry.
His logic screamed, begging him not to forget who Tom is, but he couldn't feel it anymore. For Merlin's sake, Harry even confronted Tom, called him Voldemort in his face, saw his hungry reaction. His eyes, the same eyes he saw so many times in previous fights.
It still didn't feel anymore that they were the same man.
And what on earth was Harry supposed to do with all of it?
He tried to obliviate Tom. Take away his memories, change everything back, make him forget everything he knows about Harry.
He did try. And fail, unfortunately. He overestimated his own strength and underestimated Riddle. It almost seemed Tom was stronger than the Voldemort Harry knew.
And then that weird painful bite, what was that? Why? Does he do this with all of his opponents? Voldemort never bit Potter.
Harry found the roughly healed place of the bite on his neck. The hot water didn't stop goosebumps from covering all of his body. He remembered the heat of Riddle's mouth biting into Harry's flesh, Tom's lips pressing into his skin and his tongue searching the wound as Harry lost all resistance, giving in.
Harry pressed his forehead into the cool shower wall fighting away the wave of excitement rushing inside of him.
- What the fuck?! This is Voldemort! VOLDEMORT!
Potter turned the water cold and clenched his teeth as icy water washed over him, helping him switch his mind off and leaving that unnatural excitement behind. He was nearly killed. How was this exciting?
- Harry, are you alright? - Luke banged on the door of the shower, and Potter switched the water off and opened the door.
- Did Riddle ever bite you?
Avery's eyebrows flew up.
- Bite me? Well... no. He beats the shit out of me on a regular basis, he used to test the Cruciatus Curse on me... That is a secret, by the way! But he never bit me. Did he bite you?
- Yeah, over here, - Harry pointed at his neck, and Luke looked uncomfortably on the bite.
- I don't know, Harry, it's a bit weird.
- Tell me about it!
Harry grabbed a towel and wiped the water off, still shaking from exhaustion. The crisp-white towel came off stained with blood. Luke handed him a small bottle of something black and thick.
- What is this?
- One of the not very many helpful things Dumbledore came up with. Dragonblood potion, it will help with the blood loss.
Potter bit open the cap and poured out the bittersweet substance in his mouth.
Lucas took out his wand.
- You probably know the spell, it's Episkey. The trick is knowing the anatomy of the human body. You must understand the way tissues grow, and concentrate on how the wounded part of the body should look. You say, or think, the spell, and it patches you up. Here, look. Episkey!
Luke swished his wand over some of the wounds, and they squeezed shut, fading out of existence.
- I'll sound like Riddle, but it's better to leaf through some books on anatomy before you start, or the healing will mostly look like this messy neck bite you have.
- Can you fix it?
- I can try, but if it's healed that way... It'll probably be like that until you cut the skin and flesh back to re-heal it properly. Let me do your other wounds first.
Avery continued healing, and Harry slowly felt the pain leave his body.
- So, you two had a fight because of the Hufflepuff seeker? - Avery asked timidly.
- Did you really set Riddle up on this?
Lucas kept silent for a bit, and Harry felt guilt pouring out of his captain. Good.
- Well... Harry, I don't like this bond you two have. And it's not like we haven't talked about this!
- And you asked Riddle to help?
- Riddle saw you kiss Daphne, and it spiraled out of control after that.
The kiss provoked Riddle? Harry's heart skipped a beat.
- You mean...he got jealous?
Avery kept silently healing Harry's wounds.
- Luke, do you know something?
- I don't know anything, Harry! He's acting weird about you, yeah. He's interested in you. Not like in others. He never bit anyone, as far as I know. Not me, not Freddy and not Ed.
Harry reached his hand up again to touch the bite mark. Of course Tom was interested in Harry, he knew that. But what were the reasons for his jealousy?
Avery got to the bite mark, and Potter hurried to shoo away the unwanted thoughts from his head.
- Looks like I can't do much about this one... Next time don't heal yourself if you don't know how to do it properly, leave it to the grownups.
- Riddle healed this one.
- Really? - Avery gave Harry a doubting look, - That's not like him either. Listen, Harry, I'm sorry I didn't stop him, I'm sorry he hurt you...
- Oh, I've hurt him too!
- Sure.., - Luke cast Potter a patronizing smile, - But you have to understand I am not okay with you bonding with our opponents. At least not until the match with Hufflepuff.
Harry sighed, but nodded his head. This was the least of his problems now.
Avery got his spare uniform out of his bag and threw it to Harry.
- Put that on, and I'm waiting for you in the dorm. Try not to get hurt on the way back.
He walked out of the changing room leaving Harry to the abyss of his thoughts.
How was he to act next? What would Tom do? "I make my own future" he said. Did that mean the familiar to Harry Voldemort wouldn't exist now?
What will that reflect on?
"Don't mess up your parents having you, or you'll seize to exist". Harry is still alive, so they should still be having him at this point.
"You will end up sixty-nine if you make it back". Was this true? It did seem logical... Why didn't Dumbledore tell him anything about this?
How could he trust Dumbledore now?
Who, if not Dumbledore, could he trust?
Tom Riddle?
Tom tied a note to an owl's leg and sent it flying. He sat on the windowsill of the Owlery and looked at the dark night castle, with only a couple of windows lit. The school was sleeping.
He didn't feel like sleeping at all.
All his life he was hungry to prove himself. He wanted to build a wall of fear and obedience between him and the others, so that no one would dare to think that he was just like them.
He wasn't like them. He was always different.
Tom had big plans for his future. First, he would form a close circle of followers. Tell them something reassuring about some goal they shared. "Clean the world of mudbloods", "enslave barbaric muggles" or any of the other nonsense power-hungry pure-bloods would gladly buy.
He never cared if it was muggles, mudbloods or purebloods, they were all vermin to him. He only cared about himself.
Second, he would find a source of immortality. Horcruxes were the answer to that. He had two at the moment and he planned to make more. This would give him guaranties that if he loses a battle, he still had a certain chance of resurrection. Something that made him different from anyone else as well.
Third, he would bend the world until it formed into what he wanted it to be. He would finally take his own place in it, shed his pretend skin, show them all who he really was. An Emperor. And then his glorious rule would begin.
That seemed like his destiny for a very long time.
"Rotten", "parasite". "Sick monster". The words pulsated in Tom's head, poisoning him from the inside, ravaging him. He understood from the start he would be getting them, he got them from the day he understood what people around him were saying.
Will all Tom's work be for nothing? Will he forever be the sick monster who terrorized orphan kids and withered matrons?
Lots of great leaders did things that can be considered cruel, violent and horrible. It doesn't detract from their greatness. So why should it detract from Tom's?
Why do this boy's words make everything Tom wanted shrink from world-defining power of will to the pettiness of a bully?
Tom had to make Harry understand.
The owl returned with his note fastened back to its leg. Tom took it off and unfolded it. Under his question there was an answer: "You can come".
Augustina opened the door, and Tom walked into the girl's dormitory. She didn't say a word, and he didn't want to say anything either. He pulled her in, and she answered back to his kiss, as if there was no fight. Tom pulled the shoulder straps away, letting her nightgown fall around her bare feet. He pushed Tina down on her bed and put his head between her legs, giving her what she longed for, until she came. He stood up, pulling off his shirt and unbuttoning his pants, waiting for her to get up.
- Tom, I want you to do it. I'm ready.
Riddle stopped and looked her in the eyes. She looked determined.
- Are you sure?
- I'm done with keeping myself for Abraxas. He will never deserve it. Do it.
She got up, took Tom's hand and pulled him onto herself, letting him in.
It was a first time for both of them. Tom watched her face closely, as she shut her eyes and grimaced, biting her lip. She never said a word; he only heard her rapid breath as her body got more and more tense.
- You need to relax, - he said.
- You need to stop telling me what to do! - she hissed at him, and he decided he didn't care what she felt anymore.
Tom closed his eyes and let his thoughts carry him somewhere else, somewhere where this was not the girl's dormitory, he was not breaking school rules to take the tension off, and this was not Augustina at all.
He was on a cold stone floor, and it was Harry under him, memory of the scent of his neck filling everything in Riddle's head. He pushed harder, feeling hands gripping his shoulders, listening to the sound of harsh breath, pushed again and again, until he came collapsing into the person below, legs gripping his waist and bringing him in closer.
Everything perfect in his head. If only it could stay that way.
Tom rolled over, catching his breath and opening his eyes to see the dreaded bed curtains in the girl's dormitory, and not the high ceiling of his Chamber. Tina lay silent close by.
- Did you expect something else? - he asked her quietly.
- No.
- Good.
- Tom?
He turned to look into her eyes, devoid of all the passion they were filled with before. Just as empty as Tom felt looking at her.
- This was our last time together. We're ending this, - she said calmly, without a sign of any emotion, and Tom knew she was being honest.
- Fine.
He got up, cleaned himself and got dressed.
- Goodnight, - she wished him, opening the door for him to leave.
- Goodnight, - he answered stepping out and not looking back.
Author's note.
So, this came out a lot later than intended (: First, my laptop had tea and ginger beer dumped on it, then I went away for my vacay, then my Editor did the same, and then we finally got our shit together and had things done.
At least, Tom got laid, am I right?
Thanks for each and every follow, review and comment - I'm truly grateful for keeping you entertained!
My Editor rocks, even though we often fight on what to keep and what to change or erase, and end up spilling drinks on the keyboard.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.