It was a perfect summer day. The sun was shining brightly in a bright blue sky bespectacled with beautiful, full white clouds.
And under that sky two eleven year old boys sat together on the vast perfectly trimmed backyard of the grand Malfoy Manor. Despite the lovely day the boys had matching expressions of disappointment on their faces.
One of the boys was the young Draco Malfoy, the son of the people who owned the manor, and the person sitting next to him was his best friend Tomas Snape.
"I still don't understand why you can't come to Hogwarts with me," Draco said, sticking his bottom lip out into his infamous pout.
"Father says that it will be safer for me to go to Beauxabatons instead," Tomas said.
"What does he mean by 'safer'?" Draco asked.
"I don't know," Tomas shrugged. "I tried asking him but he wouldn't tell me."
Draco let out an aggravated sigh. "This isn't fair," He said. "We had been looking forward to going to school together since we were five."
"I know," Tomas said. "I'll come home during the holidays and visit you though. And I'll write to you all the time."
"You better," Draco grinned, knocking Tomas playfully on the arm. His face sobered as Tomas laughed.
"What's wrong?" Tomas frowned noticing his friend's change in expression.
Draco bit his lip and glanced warily at Tomas. "Do you promise that you won't make new friends at Beauxabatons," He said, "and forget all about me?"
Tomas blinked at him surprise before for a few moments before breaking out in a huge grin. "I could never forget about you, Draco!" He said, throwing his arm over the smaller boy's shoulders.
"But what if you did?" Draco said. "What if you meet someone better than me? I don't want to lose you."
"You'll never lose me," Tomas said. "I promise."
He was surprised to feel soft lips brush against his cheek.
"Thank you," Draco whispered.
Tomas was laying on something extremely soft and his head was muzzy. He tried to remember what had happened. Wasn't he supposed to be packing his suitcase? Yes, he was going to go to Grimmauld Place so that Voldemort couldn't find him. But then Draco…
His eyes snapped open and he shot up only to clutch his head as a sudden pain ripped through it.
"Your finally awake I see."
Tomas forced his eyes open through the pain and his mouth fell open in shock at the person he saw standing by his bedside.
Lord Voldemort.
Voldemort ignored Tomas's stunned face and took a goblet from the nightstand "The pain your feeling is the aftereffect of the spell Draco cast on you," He said. "This will rid you of the discomfort."
He held the goblet out to Tomas but he knocked it away, making its contents spill out onto the silken black sheets. "I'll stick with the pain thanks," He growled.
Voldemort raised his eyebrows. "You inherited your mother's defiance I see," He said. Tomas glared at him and said nothing. "Oh, honestly now," Voldemort sighed, "I'm not going to hurt you. You'd be chained up in the dungeons by now if that was the case."
"I'd rather be there then with you!" Tomas spat.
"Now, now," Voldemort smirked, "is that anyway to talk to your father?"
"You're not my father," Tomas said.
"I beg to differ," Voldemort said. "You like I know that it's my blood that flows in your veins. And you look very much like how I use to look. Although…" He seized Tomas's chin, forcing him to look up at him. "You have your mother's eyes."
He released Tomas's chin as he began to struggle and sat down on the bed. "Dumbledore did a very good job of hiding you from me," He said. "I almost thought that he killed you like he did your mother."
"Dumbledore didn't kill my mother," Tomas said. "She died in childbirth with me."
"Ah," Voldemort said turning to Tomas, "has he been telling you that your mother was a woman?"
Dumbledore sat behind his desk watching the person pacing furiously infront of his desk sympathetically as they raged at him.
"You swore that you'd keep him safe! You took an Unbreakable Oath to! But instead of putting him into hiding like I told you to do when Voldemort rose up again you had to bring him here! To Hogwarts! You must have known how quickly he'd be found! I mean what place is more obvious! And now he's been swept away into his waiting arms!"
"There is nothing I can say to you," Dumbledore said, "but that I'm sorry. I never meant for this to happen."
The person sighed and collapsed into an armchair. "I know," He said wearily, "but now he's with him and I can't think of anyway to get him back."
"I can think of a way," Dumbledore said, "but it would require a great sacrifice on your end."
"I don't care," The person said immediately. "I'll do anything."
Dumbledore sighed, closing his eyes. "You'll have to reveal yourself."
"What are you talking about?" Tomas gaped. "My mother's a woman! Her name was Gabrielle Clark."
"No, that women is your mother's sister," Voldemort said. "She was his identical twin. She committed suicide after finding out the truth of her brother's death."
"What are you talking about?" Tomas snapped.
"Haven't you ever heard of male wizards being pregnant?" Voldemort asked.
"Of course I have," Tomas said. "They use some kind of spell. But my mother—"
"That's the spell your mother used," Voldemort said. He held up a hand to silence Tomas's quick rebuttal. "If you want to understand just listen."
Tomas glared at him but remained silent.
Voldemort inclined his head in gratitude and began his story.
"Contrary to what you've been told your mother's name was Gabriel Clark. He was a Gryffindor student and was every inch of the qualities his house was suppose to possess. I fell for him the instant I saw him and pursued him despite our house rivalries and his constant rejections.
"Finally in our sixth year he accepted me and the feelings we shared were beyond anything I had ever experienced. I thought it was true love.
"Once we left school and were living together in sturdy enough conditions Gabriel expressed his wish to have a child with me and I who could deny him nothing quickly agreed. It didn't take long for Gabriel to conceive with you and we were overjoyed. I couldn't wait for you to be born. In my eyes you were a cementation of our love.
"But then Gabriel discovered what I was trying so hard to keep from him."
"You were becoming Lord Voldemort," Tomas said.
"Yes," Voldemort said, "and as you can imagine your mother was horrified when he discovered the truth. He was desperate to protect you from the evil thing he thought I was becoming and tried to flee from me. It broke my heart.
"I tried to plead with him, to show how I was going to change our world into a better place. A wonderful place for our child to live in. But he refused to listen and in the end I had to lock him up.
"And then on a night very close to your due date I went to go take care of Harry Potter. But as you know I failed and at that very moment your mother went into labor only to be killed by Dumbledore after giving birth."
"Why are you so sure that Dumbledore killed him?" Tomas asked.
"Because I saw it through your eyes," Voldemort said.
Tomas frowned confused. "How could you see through my eyes?" He asked.
"The same way you've been seeing through mine in your dreams," Voldemort said. "Yes, I know all about that," He smiled at Tomas's shocked look. "You see when you were still in the womb I made your mother drink a potion—although not of his own will I must admit—that made you bonded completely to me." He tapped a long finger against Tomas's forehead. "We are not as different as you think. You have always been the other half of me and there is no escaping that."
Before Tomas knew what was happening Voldemort had wound his arms around him and was pulling him to his chest. Tomas struggled in his arms trying to break free but eventually settled against him when he found that there was no escaping.
Voldemort nestled his face in Tomas's hair with a contented sigh. "I won't let you be taken from me again," He said.
Then with a quick kiss to Tomas's head he released his son and rose from the bed. "That's enough for today," He said. "I'll be sending in a friend of yours to keep you company."
"Who?" Tomas asked.
"Oh, I'm sure you can guess," Voldemort said. "I'll come visit you tomorrow. Try not to cause too much trouble."
Then he turned and strode out of the room with his black cloak bellowing out after him.
As soon as he was gone Tomas flopped back onto the bed. He didn't know what to make of what Voldemort had told him. Was his father really a man? And did Dumbledore really kill him?
"Are you alright?"
Tomas recognized the voice instantly and glared at its owner. "What are you doing here Draco?" He demanded.
"I'm here to keep you company," Draco said.
"Because your 'Lord' ordered it," Tomas said. "Whatever happened to not betraying me huh?"
Draco flushed. "You don't know what he threatened to do!" He said. "He would have killed my mother!"
"I understand, Draco," Tomas said.
As soon as Tomas said this it was like a huge weight was lifted from Draco's shoulders. "Thank Merlin," He said. "I thought I lost you."
"You could never lose me," Tomas said with a small smile. "I made you a promise didn't I?"
"You remember that?" Draco said surprised.
"Just dreamed about it actually," Tomas said. He frowned slightly. "You know I've always wondered something about that day."
"You have?" Draco said.
"Mm-hm," Tomas said. "I want to know why you kissed me."
Draco's pale cheeks turned bright pink. "Do you really have to know that?" He asked.
"Well I'd like to," Tomas said. "Why are you so embarrassed about it?"
"It's nothing," Draco said. "Let's just forget about it okay?"
"Okay," Tomas said raising his eyebrows. He couldn't really understand why Draco was so touchy about the kiss. "So, is there anything to do around here?" He asked trying to break the awkward silence that had descended.
"Not really I'm afraid," Draco said, sitting down on the bed next to Tomas. "It really is quite a boring old place he's picked for a hideout."
"Damnit," Tomas groaned. "I suppose we'll just have to content ourselves with gossiping like little schoolgirls."
"Right," Draco laughed. "We should paint our nails and gab about boys well we're at it."
"Ah but of course we shall!" Tomas grinned. He grabbed Draco's arm and pulled him back down onto the bed with him.
He still hated the thought of being trapped in Voldemort's hideaway but being with Draco definitely lightened the mood.
