Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
After the decorating, Tom showered and changed into his best muggle attire-dress pants, nice black shoes, a deep sapphire button down shirt and a black blazer. It simply wouldn't do to show up smelling of dust and looking like he just walked out of a crumbling building. He really needed to get those house elves to start cleaning properly again. Why he ever told them to leave the place a disaster was beyond him.
He apparated to the street Harry lived on and walked down the road towards his destination. He had brought his lock-picking tools, unwilling to break the wards in the house unless absolutely necessary.
It was easy to pick the lock to the front door, he had already done it once before, and not too long ago either. Searching in his mind for the boy, he realized he was sleeping. It wasn't a sound sleep, but much more restful than usual. The locks on his door took much longer-it seemed a few more were added since the last time he did this.
The first thing he saw was Harry, curled up on the floor. His face was scrunched up, no doubt due to whatever dream he was having. Tom walked to him quietly, and kneeled down next to him.
"Harry," he whispered. "Harry, it's time to go." Ever so gently, he touched the hand that wasn't under his head. Harry jerked away, his eyes flying open in panic. "Harry it's alright, you're sa-" He was cut off as Harry flung himself into his arms, violently shaking. He wrapped his hands around the young teen, not putting any pressure to show that he could leave his arms at any point. "You're safe Harry. It's time to go. Come on now, you must tell me where your things are." Harry hiccuped, wiping the tears from his face. He turned to grab his journal, the box and a photo album from beneath the floor behind him. Cradling them to his chest, he lowered his head.
"This is all I could sneak to my room. The rest is in my cupboard. They lock it all up every year." Harry was keeping his eyes on the ground, studiously ignoring Tom's face.
"Come, let's get your things." He led Harry out of the room and re-locked all the locks. It was more time consuming than opening them, but it was best he leave this place the way it was when he got here.
Opening the locks on the cupboard door went much faster than he could have believed. There was only the sliding lock and an old keyhole that came undone quite easily.
Four years of school supplies were stuffed into the small space, haphazardly strewn about. It was obvious that they had dumped everything out of the trunk after he got home just to show some form of disrespect to the magic flowing through harry's veins. Tom got to work, neatly folding robes so they would fit along with all the books and other supplies. He barely managed to get it all to fit, and even then he had to stand on the trunk while Harry sat by his feet to get it to lock shut.
Tom relocked the cupboard, leading Harry out the front door. He then relocked that shut and gently guided Harry to the middle of the street.
"Harry, have you ever been side-along apparated?" He shook his head. "Alright, grab my arm. The first time is always the worst. When I say three, take a deep breath in and try to exhale. I'll catch you if you fall." Harry nodded, wondering why the breathing was so important.
"One...two...three."
Harry inhaled and upon trying to exhale found that he was surrounded by intense pressure. His head swam with the feeling, but he managed to remember to let his breath out. When the pressure was gone, his knees crumpled beneath him.
The ground never came to meet his knees, however. Strong arms wrapped around his torso quickly, the trunk all but forgotten. Harry struggled to open his eyes, a sudden bout of nausea overcoming him. Suddenly the breathing made more sense.
"Here Harry, drink this. It will help." A vial was pressed to his lips and he opened his mouth, swallowing obediently. The nausea and vertigo dissipated almost immediately.
"Tom?" His voice was small, hesitant but he had regained some of his footing. "Where are we?" The arms were barely touching him now, a subtle reminder that he was safe but he could leave the embrace anytime he wanted.
"This, Harry, is my manor. It's a little...decrepit right now but I've done everything in my power to ensure that it will be brought to its former glory soon." He looked up at the building they were standing in front of.
It was...old for lack of a better term. The outside of the manor needed to be redone, the garden was little more than twigs and the occasional weed, the cobblestone path leading up to the house was half buried, and the doors looked like they would poof into dust if you touched them too roughly. He was being led to the manor now, all contact between them was gone. Tom was levitating his trunk in front of them and led him inside.
The inside was much of the same. Cobwebs, dark everything, too many shadows to be natural. He avoided looking anywhere but at Tom. He didn't want to know what sort of nightmares could be hiding beyond the darkness. It wasn't until Tom stopped that he looked up again.
He was face-to-face with a set of french doors. They were a soft white with gold delicate filigree designs that created a large rose in the middle of each of the doors. He looked up at Tom, wondering why they had stopped there.
Tom smiled down at his questioning gaze. "Happy fifteenth birthday Harry." The doors opened with a soft click, and Harry turned his attention to what lay beyond.
Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't this. Light colors contrasted with the dark wood trim and flooring. He looked around, letting his gaze roam over every detail. When his eyes caught sight of the bed, he gulped. He was suddenly bombarded with thoughts of this being Tom's room and him being expected to share a bed with him...and not innocently either.
"Harry, this is your new room. I'll be fixing up your bathroom this afternoon, I didn't have time to get to it yet. I was too anxious to see you out of that abhorred house." Harry's jaw dropped at the mention of it being his room. Tom merely laughed.
"Yes, your room." His trunk now lay on the floor in front of the bed. "You can put your things away later." Harry was being led to another door, one he hadn't noticed before by the reading nook. "This door leads to my room. You can enter if you wish, although I would appreciate it if you would knock first. I will not enter your room without your consent unless you are in pain and unable to respond. The balcony is yours to do with as you like, although please do keep in mind it does have access to my rooms as well so no wandering around naked out there." Harry nodded, too overwhelmed to say anything. Without warning, tears began streaming down his face.
"Th-thank you. You don't-I mean…" A sob wrenched its way out of his chest and he was suddenly enveloped in warmth as Tom pulled him to his chest.
"Hush now, you don't need to thank me." Tom stayed there, holding him and softly running his hands up and down his back until he calmed down. "Why don't you unpack? I can stay and help or I can lea-"
"NO!" The sudden outburst startled them both. "No, please. Stay. Please." He looked down, ashamed at himself for practically begging for company. "I don't want to be alone anymore…" He was surprised when Tom heard the last bit.
"I shall stay then, Harry. Let's get your things unpacked."
Tom levitated the trunk onto the foot of the bed before he started unpacking it. Clothes went in one pile, books in another. Loose sheets of parchment, quills and ink went to the lid of the trunk to prevent ink from soiling the new duvet. He handed Harry his wand back, politely telling him that he still couldn't use it outside of school for another two years but that no young wizard should be so thoroughly separated from their wand.
The clothes were next. All the muggle clothing was promptly vanished, followed by all the robes that wouldn't fit Harry anymore. Really there was no need to have robes around from your first year, it was a wonder Harry had kept them. Upon seeing the state of the longer robes, Tom realized that Harry really didn't have any sort of robes that were suitable for him. They were all incredibly unflattering cuts, and much too large. He was going to have to have Severus's tailor come by the manor sometime. He was a touch mad, but his eye for timeless fashion was immaculate.
Tom had Harry putting away the books in the reading corner, and grabbed the quills from the lid of the trunk. Every single one of them had broken nibs, most likely from being used for far too long and then being dumped all over the floor. He only left the best one of the bunch for Harry to use until he could have Mr. Jenkins bring him a selection from Amanuensis Quills. More ink too, as it looked like he was running low.
He jumped when Harry appeared by his side to start organizing the pile of parchments into a more manageable stack.
"Harry? Are you hungry?" He watched as Harry shrugged and gently, so gently that his fingers were a hair's width away from his skin, pulled his face up and looked into those pools of emerald. "You're allowed anything you want here. Including food. Anytime you want it. Just say the word." The response was so quiet, he almost missed it.
"Toast...or fruit please." Tom nodded and asked if he would like a drink too. "Just water, I can't…" The remainder of his sentence was unspoken but the implication was clear. His stomach wouldn't be able to do more. He nodded and left to fetch him some lunch with the promise of being right back.
When he returned, Harry was sitting on the floor and reading Magical Theory with The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) open next to him. Tom made a mental note to ask him why he was reading first year books when he was about to enter his fifth year at Hogwarts.
Conjuring a second chair to match the first and a dark spruce side table to put their lunch on, he had Harry sit in the chair. The boy would have to get used to using chairs rather than the floor.
Harry sat down and cautiously took a strawberry before taking a small bite. He seemed to be painfully aware that he couldn't eat too fast and was taking every precaution to make sure he didn't throw it all up.
Tom was busy making two cups of tea before scooting one to Harry. "Don't drink it if you can't stomach tea yet but smelling it should help your body relax. I don't want to give you too many potions all at once." At the mention of potions, he procured a nutrience potion and tipped it into an empty glass. "Here, drink this. I'll get you water once that's gone." A few minutes later and some more fruit was missing from the bowl as well as the potion being gone.
Tom poured him a glass of water in the same cup the potion had been in, determined not to waste a drop of it. He then sliced a strawberry in half before squeezing its juice into the water and did the same with a few blueberries. He passed the cup back so Harry could drink before picking up a piece of toast for himself.
If he was being honest with himself, he could get used to this-eating with someone. He didn't eat with others unless absolutely necessary, preferring to take his meals alone or with Nagini. The great beast would usually end up stealing half his plate anyway, providing more amusement than company when food was involved.
"Tom?" He looked up, pausing to put his teacup down.
"Yes Harry?" The internal struggle going on in his companion was hard to watch. Too many emotions flickered behind his eyes, too fast for him to get an accurate reading on any of them before they finally settled on nervousness and anticipation of being disappointed?
"Why did you rescue me? Is it just because I'm a horcrux?" Understanding flooded Tom's nerves. The boy was worried that the only reason he was helping was because of the horcrux.
"Listen to me very carefully Harry. I will always treasure you as a bearer of my horcrux. But rest assured, I would not have offered you a place in my home if I did not come to care about the person you are, about the man I hope you grow to be. If it were just because of the horcrux, I would have placed you in a dungeon somewhere and ensured you were given food and be done with it. But I like you, you've seen a part of me not even I've seen and with time I'd like to be able to see who you are too. Once you figure that part out, of course." Harry nodded, his eyes going back to the food. He had started at such a slow pace that he was able to finish most of the fruit and the cup of water.
"Thank you Tom.