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Harry woke up to an empty bed and immediately the alarm bells began to go off in his head. He rushed to his feet and looked around the room. Tom was nowhere in sight so he all but ran to the bathroom and found him in the bath tub with his head underneath the water. Harry instantly hurried forwards and launched himself into the bath tub before pulling Tom's head above the water. Tom gasped and sputtered, and Harry cried,

"Why, Tom?"

Tom rose from the water and Harry got up with him. Tom pushed his hair back from his face. His eyes were dark, wild and he spoke quietly,

"Leave me alone, Harry…"

Harry shoved him hard, but his feet were planted in place. He barely swayed. His arms hung heavily down at his sides,

"What the hell were you doing?"

Tom closed his eyes and ducked his head but didn't say anything. Harry grabbed him by the shoulder and finally asked,

"How can you be so selfish?"

Tom's jaw tightened,

"Selfish? I'm doing this for you, Harry. Whenever I'm around, you crack, you crumble, you begin to break apart."

Harry spoke hoarsely,

"But if you leave, all the pieces of me will blow away!"

Tom pointed towards the door,

"Leave."

Harry shook his head,

"No."

Tom grabbed his arm and wrenched him back, tugging him toward the bathroom door. This time he let Tom drag him along. He would let Tom take him anywhere.

Tom wrenched open the bathroom door and shoved him inside the bedroom. They both dripped water from their soaked clothing, their hair, their skin. Tom turned toward him, put his hands out to stop him, but he didn't let up. He pushed him backward into the wall. He tried to calm Tom, but he was transfixed, staring into his eyes, his jaw working, his fists clenched.

Harry's heart thrashed in his chest. Tom breathed deeply, once, put his hands over his face. Finally, he pulled his hand away from his face and pressed into him, shoving him backward until his back hit the wall. He stared up into his deep, soulful eyes. And those eyes glistened down at him.

Tom knuckles brushed his stomach gently. His hand moved higher, his knuckles dragging against the wet fabric of his shirt. He paused at his throat, reached under his shirt, and palmed his throat. He looked at him for a moment, cocking his head to the side.

"Why do you not hate me? I ravaged you…hurt you…caused you so much pain…"

Harry held his gaze resolutely and then spoke,

"You did no such thing. It was all Dumbledore…You…You've always been pure and innocent…You've always been beautiful."

Tom leaned forward and kissed him, slowly, deeply, languidly, as though every moment until the end of time belonged to him and he'd decided to share it with him. His tongue pressed inside his mouth. Hot, cool, wet. His body went limp and he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Tom's neck.

Not a moment later, Tom grabbed him by the shoulders, spun him and pushed him against the wall gently. His teeth clanked together. His cheek pressed against the cold stone. Tom crowded him, pressed his body against his so there wasn't a place they weren't touching. He pressed hot kisses to the side of his neck as he reached down and pulled the hem of his shirt over his head.

"Harry…"

Tom purred into his ear. His hands went for his pants. With one hand he pulled open the buttons on the fly. With his other he pushed his pants down to his knees, leaving him bare. Harry stepped out of his pants, and Tom instantly kicked them away.

Tom whispered his name into his hair. He ran his hand down his flank, his hips. He shivered and pressed his forehead against the wall. Tom kicked out his feet, forcing them apart with his own.

Tom leaned forward, bit down hard on the flesh where his neck met his shoulder. He hissed at the sting, squeezed his eyes shut and rut against him.

"Harry…"

Tom whispered again, his lips against his ear,

"You are absolutely irresistible."

He groaned when Tom reached around and grabbed the weight of him in his hand. He was hard already, painfully so, waiting for nothing but the coarse feel of his hand around him. Tom pumped him up and down, up and down. His breath exhaled hot against the back of his neck.

The feel of scales against his bare back startled him…

Hadn't the curse lifted…Why wasn't the snake gone?

Harry felt utterly distressed but Tom leaned forward and brushed his lips against his temple,

"Relax…Dumbledore is gone…He is gone, and the curse is broken."

Harry choked out,

"The…The snake…"

Tom laughed softly, and Harry swore that the sound was the most beautiful melody he'd ever heard,

"It's my soul…"

Harry relaxed, and the scales moved upwards. They did nothing to quell the thirst he had for Tom. If anything, it propelled him forward. The snake…Tom's soul, brushed against his skin. It was ice-cold and dry to the touch…so dissimilar to how it had felt before. He remembered how it had used to burn him and scorch his skin. It felt foreign and strange as it weaved around him until its head peered over his shoulder and then brushed against his throat. Tom whispered,

"Even my soul wants you…"

Harry breathed,

"Yes."

The snake coiled snuggly around his neck. It squeezed, pinched, enough to make him see a dark sky full of bursting speckles of light.

Behind him, he heard a bit of shuffling, rustling. He kept his open palms flat against the wall and his eyes squeezed shut.

He gasped quietly as Tom's cool, slick fingers pressed against him, and then into him. He murmured almost unintelligible words into his ear. Sweet promises, dirty things Tom wanted to do to him. Even dirtier things he wanted Harry to do to him.

Tom opened him for him carefully, unhurriedly. They were both gasping for air. It felt like time itself was about to fall over the edge of existence and all they had left were these shared moments together. His skin sparked everywhere he touched. It burned so hot, He could almost taste ash in his mouth.

Tom's fingers pressed far inside him. He could feel his knuckles against the tightness of his body. In, out. In, out. A slow tempo he set for them both. When he curled his fingers and pressed against the bundle of nerves he'd been searching for, Harry body quaked.

When Tom pulled his fingers back, he reached up and laced his fingers gently through his hair. Harry turned his head to the side to look at him. Tom's gaze was on his profile, his eyes still filled to the brim with emotions.

He was about to say something but swallowed the words the moment he felt the smooth head of Tom's cock press against him. The snake around his neck coiled tighter. Its tail flicked against his lower back, his hip bone. Harry bit his lip.

The coolness of the wall pressed against his chest, but Tom's warm skin against his back burned hot, even through the fabric of Tom's shirt. As Tom began to slowly shove inside him, he said,

"I shall never let anyone hurt you again, Harry."

Harry replied breathlessly,

"I know."

Tom licked up the back of his neck, pressed his lips to his ear,

"No one... not even me"

Harry closed his eyes and gasped,

"You can hurt me…I can take it…"

The second the last word left his lips, Tom thrust all the way inside. He cried out from the roughness of it, the fullness of it, the way it felt to have Tom buried deep inside.

They shared heavy breaths, pausing a moment. Tom pulled back and pushed back in again. The tight pressure, the friction, all of it set his heart aflutter.

He made a noise that made Tom chuckle, his lips pressed against the back of his neck. He set a leisurely rhythm between them. That easy push and pull. He couldn't move even if he'd wanted to. But he didn't want to. Every part of him wanted to stay right there with Tom as their bodies heated and their breathing grew hasty.

Nothing mattered then but Tom and him and the way they fit together. When Tom touched him, he didn't care about anything. He didn't need anything any longer.

He had Tom. He only wanted him.

"You're so gorgeous."

Tom reached around to the front, grabbed the backs of his hands with his palms, laced their fingers together, and pressed them hard against the wall,

"So gorgeous and so pure. Nothing matters now that I have you to light up my world."

Tom squeezed his fingers entwined with his own. When his name came out as a whisper on his lips, his pace quickened, his breathing rushed.

He shifted the way he stood, changing the angle somehow. The moment he had, with each sweet press inside him, He could feel the head of his cock rub against the place that stole his breath away. A small gasp escaped each time he pulled back.

Tom chanted his name, rested his forehead on his shoulder.

When he came, he immediately let go of his hands. Tom wrapped his arms around him, crushing him against himself like he couldn't fathom even an inch of their bodies not touching. He felt him pulsate inside him as he listened to the stark silence of his pleasure and then the ragged, uneven breaths that followed.

He shuddered once, then twice. Releasing him for a moment, before he spun him around so he was facing him. Tom crowded him, looked down into his eyes the moment his hands wrapped around his cock and squeezed.

His own breaking point was so close. He knew Tom could tell because he reached out one hand and tangled his fingers in his hair once again. The other, slick already, pumped him up and down, up and down. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back, hitting the wall.

There was nothing in this great universe, but the feel of Tom's warm body pressed so securely against his, and the way his thumb traced the small slit at the tip of his cock.

Tom said his name the moment before he broke apart. Harry stared up at him, into those gorgeous brown eyes of his. They glimmered with something that shone so damn bright, just in those moments when he needed to see it most.

He came all over his hand, and his bare stomach. Tom's hand slowed as he watched his face, his throat as he breathed heavily. When he'd finally fallen back down to earth, he did something so unexpected, an almost silent sob slipped out of his mouth.

Tom hugged him.

It was so simple. He wrapped his arms around him, pressed his entire body to his, and hugged him. Tom said nothing and didn't move for so long he might've thought he'd fallen asleep had it not been for the pounding of his heart he could feel at his collarbone.

That was how the volcano of them erupted. Hot, heavy, slow. And then wrapped in each other's arms, they told each other silent stories of understandings, thanks, and companionship with something as simple as a hug. Sweet words, gentle touches. Not-so-gentle touches. Promises they would always keep. Tom murmured into his hair,

"You saved me, Harry."

Harry closed his eyes and nestled his head into his chest,

"I love you, Tom…I will love you forever."

Tom kissed his lips softly and breathed softly,

"I love you too so much."

Harry sighed contentedly. Whoever had said that happily ever afters didn't exist had probably never suffered enough to attain it. Happiness demanded suffering. Love demanded sacrifice. There was no easy path to attain true joy.

And it seemed that all his suffering…all his sacrifice had finally won him his happily ever after. It was finally here, and it was all theirs.