Thank you all so much for your kind words and enthusiastic comments. I'm glad you all seem to be enjoying reading this as much as I am enjoying writing it.

So, nothing happens in this chapter. It is all fluff. But if I'd kept going, it would have been ridiculously long and this seemed like a good place to stop. Hopefully you all enjoy it.

Also, since I forgot to mention it last chapter, fic title is from a line from Pablo Neruda's Sonnet XVII.

Getting Harry unpacked was pathetically easy, even with Harry forbidden from doing more than directing things. Tom spent the entire time eying his belongings with an air of distaste.

"I'll take you shopping later," was all he said in response to Harry's raised eyebrow. "What you do have is of surprisingly good quality, but there are several staple items you're missing that need to be acquired."

Harry shrugged, unconcerned. "It's fine. I've got enough."

Tom gave him an unimpressed glare.

Harry just stared back at him, unfazed.

"If I needed more, I would have bought it myself," Harry said with a shrug.

Tom's jaw twitched in a particular way Harry knew meant he was contemplating violence.

"Trust fund?" he asked politely.

Harry was suddenly very glad he'd listed the Weasley's address as his residence on all the school forms. It would slow Tom's locating of his relatives. Tom had seen enough of what life with the Dursley's was like to guess exactly what financial mismanagement had been going on before Harry finally had access to money that should have been used to support him from the start.

Harry let his gaze travel over to where Barty and Dolohov were putting away the last of his belongings instead of replying. Harry was willing to share just about anything with Tom, and the other boy was more than able to cajole the rest of it out of him if he truly wanted to, but Harry wasn't willing to extend that same trust to strangers, even if they were Tom's minions.

"Crouch, Dolohov," Tom said sharply, and Harry couldn't help the amusement he felt at watching the way they all but snapped to attention. "You're done here."

"Thank you for the help," Harry told them, determined to get his thanks out before they managed to scurry away. "I know Tom didn't give you much choice in the matter, but I wanted to let you know I appreciated it."

"It's no trouble," Barty muttered on his way towards the door where Dolohov had already fled after a quick nod of acknowledgment. "Any friend of Riddle's…" he trailed off and shrugged before giving a slightly sheepish smile. With a quick wave and a last considering look, he too was gone.

"Christ, Tom, what exactly did you do to them during hazing?" Harry couldn't keep from asking.

"Is that really what you want to spend the next half hour talking about?" Tom replied.

Harry conceded the point with a dip of his head and a shrug. Fair enough. Still, half an hour wasn't a lot of time, and they had more than a decade to cover.

"Come," Tom said, grabbing Harry's hand before making his way towards the door. "We don't have much time and I don't want us to be interrupted."

He pushed the door open, pulling an unresistant Harry behind him. They made their way into the hallway before pausing in front of Tom's door. Peering around his friend, it was easy to see why. Barty and Dolhov were hovering together a few feet down the hall, exchanging fervid whispers. Judging by the hand gestures and the looks on their faces it wasn't hard to guess what they were talking about.

Tom was clearly just planning on staring them into submission, but Harry had a better idea.

"My ears were burning," he said mildly, and was more amused than he should have been by the way they jumped. "Was there anything you wanted to ask?"

Tom was giving them both dark looks that made it clear that there was nothing they wanted to ask. Barty and Doholov made eye contact with each other before Dolohov turned his gaze to the floor. Barty made eye contact with Harry, and while Harry could see he was curious, he clearly wasn't willing to cross Tom.

"Not at all," Barty answered. "We were simply expressing how eager we were to get to know a friend of Riddle's."

A grin split across Harry's face. "I'm eager to get to know all of you too. I've been waiting for years to share embarrassing stories from Tom's misspent youth."

Tom let out a heavy sigh, and Harry knew that if they had been alone Tom would have been pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Barty's eyes lit up with interest, for all that a quick glance at Tom had it dimmed down to nothing. Dolohov glanced back and forth between Barty's face and Tom's perfectly blank expression and grabbed the other man by the elbow before dragging him towards the stairs with a hasty goodbye called over his shoulder.

Harry managed to pick out the hushed words "baby dark lord" just as the fire door closed, and he couldn't help himself. He burst into laughter.

Tom sighed, but Harry could see the smile at the corner of his mouth and the fondness in his eyes.

"You're going to cause me a great deal of grief, aren't you?" Tom asked him as he unlocked the door to his room.

Harry grinned back at him, unrepentant. "Always. That's what I'm here for, after all. Make sure that head of yours doesn't get too big. Besides," he continued as Tom tugged him across the threshold and into his room, "I'm more focused on tormenting your minions by defying all their expectations and purposefully fucking with them."

"A task you will no doubt excel at," Tom answered sardonically.

"Like you weren't trying to keep it together in the hallway earlier. You're having just as much fun with this as I am, if not more."

The door clicked shut behind him and Harry suddenly found himself wrapped in Tom's arms once again. Harry let out a small sigh of contentment before returning the embrace and nestling himself against Tom's side, reveling in his ability to do so. The warmth from Tom's arms around him and the steady rise and fall of his chest beneath Harry's ear were comforting. A reminder that this was real. That Tom was here.

"I think you would find that nothing could spoil my mood today," Tom remarked offhand as he began working his fingers through Harry's hair again in a caress that made Harry's hair stand on end even his shoulders fell.

Harry let his hands tighten in the fabric of Tom's shirt and took a deep breath in, trying to fix this moment in his memory permanently.

"Missed you," Harry said again. He didn't care that he was repeating himself. Tom's absence had been like a hole in his heart for the last decade, and if these words were as close as he could get to expressing just how happy he was to have it filled again, he would say them as many times as it took for his chest to stop aching. He pulled back just far enough to allow himself to see Tom's face, to see those familiar eyes staring down at him with enough warmth to have him melting. "God, I can't believe you're here. I can't believe I found you again."

"I would have found you," Tom said, reaching up and cupping Harry's face with one hand, his thumb tracing alone Harry's cheekbone and sending shivers down his spine. "I never planned on doing any of this without you."

The intensity in his eyes made it impossible to doubt his words, and Harry took a deep breath, attempting to fight off the burning in his throat. Tom was never good with tears, and the last thing Harry wanted to do was break this moment.

"Still, for you to run roughshod over my carefully crafted plans and find me instead is so infuriately in character I'm irritated at myself for not having taken it into account in the first place," Tom continued with a small smile, all the more breathtaking for its sincerity.

Plans. There were plans in place. Tom had been intending on finding him all along.

For someone who had been cast aside and called worthless for as long as he could remember, the evidence that he was valued so highly by the person who was his everything was enough to have his eyes burning.

Tom worked his thumb under the edge of Harry's glasses and smoothed gently over the corner of his eye, wiping away the tears that had only just begun to form.

"You can't be surprised by this," Tom said, the care in his voice taking any censure from his tone. "You were my only friend, the only good thing in my life. You know exactly what I am. There is no way I would allow anything of mine to slip from my grasp permanently, let alone the only person I cared for. The only person I care for."

The switch from past to present tense did nothing for Harry's control, and he buried his face in the front of Tom's shirt again, pulling his friend as close as he could. Tom's hand returned to Harry's hair again, running through it soothingly.

After a moment, Tom's weight shifted, for all that he didn't release his grip on Harry at all. Emotionally raw, Harry let Tom do as he pleased. After some coaxing and rearranging, Harry found them both perched on Tom's bed, backs propped up against the wall, Harry nestled against Tom's side as he had been in the car ride on the way over. The one that had taken far too little time for Harry's liking.

"How long do we have?" he asked reluctantly.

"Twenty minutes," Tom replied at once, knowing as ever exactly where Harry's thoughts were. "But the meeting itself shouldn't take long, and then orientation activities don't begin in ernest until four-thirty this afternoon."

Tom let out a heavy sigh before letting his head fall firmly against the wall. Harry looked up in concern, and saw that Tom's expression was a mask of frustration.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, sitting up some.

Tom just shook his head before tugging Harry close again.

"I find this part of being an RA an exercise in irritation on a normal basis. Having to placate all the freshman and play nice with the parents and answer inane questions all day long. Suffering through it while knowing I could be spending the time reconnecting with you instead..." Tom trailed off and shook his head, one hand curling into a fist even as the arm around Harry grew even tighter, "I'm not sure my control will be sufficient."

That had Harry sitting up and turning to face Tom fully. He'd seen Tom's control slip more than once when they were children, and it had never ended well. Over the course of their friendship, with Harry's help and timely intervention, he'd become much more adept at hiding what he was truly feeling or thinking until it suited him to do otherwise. Given what he'd seen that afternoon as students had greeted Tom on their way to fetch Harry's belongings, Tom's skills when it came to presenting only what he wanted to present had grown to the point where he was honestly almost terrifying charismatic. That control slipping was a serious concern.

"Hey," Harry said gently, smiling in satisfaction when Tom's grey gaze shifted from the far wall to Harry's face. "I'm not going anywhere. It sounds like we'll have at least an hour after the meeting before orientation starts, and even then, one of the freshmen you'll have to put up with asking inane questions will be me. Even if we won't have the chance to talk the way we might want to, we'll still be together."

Tom's eyes softened, for all that his expression stayed exactly the same. He tugged Harry back down, and Harry let himself nestle back against Tom's side, noting with satisfaction that his shoulders were much less tense than they had been.

The impromptu speech had been good for him as well. He hadn't realized how anxious he was about having to put off his conversation with Tom until he'd reminded himself that they weren't actually separating. In fact, if his impression about orientation was correct, he and Tom wouldn't apart for the next week. He couldn't exactly bring himself to mind.

Even the meeting would do him some good, Harry was coming to realize. Everything in his life had changed suddenly and drastically not even an hour ago. For the better, it was true, but taking some time to wrap his head around it could only help.

Harry suddenly let out a laugh.

"What?" Tom asked him, a small crease in his brow.

"I need a new major," Harry said, chuckling and shaking his head. "Christ, only an hour and you're already turning everything on its head all over again."

"Oh?" Tom asked, eyebrow arched. "And how, pray tell, have I managed to derail your major plans without us having had a conversation about the subject?"

"By being you," Harry answered easily. "I can't very well go into criminal justice if you're going to be a criminal mastermind, can I?"

The look Tom gave him in response was one Harry couldn't quite decipher, and before he had the chance to make sense of it he found himself once again wrapped in Tom's embrace. He wasn't quite sure what kept causing the spontaneous hugs, but he didn't mind.

"I keep forgetting," Tom offered by way of explanation, "how well you know me. Not just how well you know me, but that you have no qualms with who I am."

Harry didn't bother questioning Tom's doubt. He himself could barely believe how little had changed between them. He couldn't begrudge Tom that same uncertainty.

After a long moment, Tom pulled away again, though there was a tension in him that was more pronounced than before.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked him.

"Patience has never been one of my strong suits," Tom answered him in a distracted manner.

Harry snorted out a laugh. That was an understatement if there ever was one. Tom had been a nightmare as a child when force to wait for anything he wanted.

"Still," Tom said, clearly talking to himself, for all that his eyes were fixed unwaveringly on Harry, "I've waited ten years. I can stomach a few hours more."

Not tension, Harry realized suddenly. Anticipation. The look in his eyes had Harry's throat dry.

Harry tore his gaze away, knowing that his self control couldn't take much more of the way Tom's eyes seemed to be devouring him almost hungrily. There were only fifteen minutes before Tom had to leave for his meeting. Not enough time to address the elephant in the room. Besides, it couldn't be what Harry was thinking. Not really. He shouldn't get his hopes up. They would only be crushed. Being Tom's friend was more than enough.

For the first time, Harry took in his surroundings.

Tom, as an RA, was afforded the privilege of a single. The walls were not decorated with posters or anything so mundane, but rather with artwork reproductions Tom had even gone through the trouble of having framed. Pieces his friend no doubt planned on owning one day. Interspersed between them was the occasional certificate, the borders and gold foil distinctive enough to be easily recognized. There were no photos or anything else to indicate where Tom had come from or who he was close to. In addition to the university provided furniture, there was a shelf crammed with titles Harry couldn't quite make out from his position on the bed, a couch no doubt meant for entertaining, and a tank in one corner of the room.

Harry sat up at once, interest beyond piqued.

"You did it, didn't you?" Harry asked him.

"I did," Tom answered.

When they were younger, they'd spent a good portion of their time outdoors playing with snakes. Harry had found the reptiles interesting, it was true. There wasn't a great deal of company to be had in the garden, and the occasional garter snake had been more than welcome. Harry had always felt a strong kinship with the creatures. Unwanted, hated for no reason other than what they were. One of the last times he'd managed to cry (he'd learned early on that tears never did any good, and often only made things worse) was when Aunt Petunia had stumbled across him playing with one when he should have been weeding. Her scream had left his ears ringing, and while he was distracted, she'd snatched it, scratching him in the process. Before he had time to do anything about it, she'd chopped off the head of his friend with a spade.

Still, for all that Harry was at ease with snakes, Tom had an affinity with them that Harry had never seen since. He was a snake-whisperer, better than any snake charmer in any story Harry had ever read. Snakes had been one of the things they had bonded over early on in their friendship, Tom telling Harry all he had come to know about them from books while Harry played with whatever specimen they had managed to get their hands on that day. Tom had always said that when he got older, he would have a snake for real. One that no one could take away from them.

He shouldn't be surprised. Tom was always one to follow through, especially when it came to what he wanted.

"What did you end up naming it? What species? How old? How long have you had it? Does the dorm even allow snakes?" Harry asked, unable to keep his curiosity contained. The last question was tacked on as more of an afterthought than anything else. It wouldn't matter whether or not snakes were allowed, Tom would own one if he wanted to regardless.

Tom sighed, but he was smiling. He hopped off the bed before offering Harry a hand.

"Would you like to meet her?" Tom asked.

What kind of question was that?

"Yes, obviously," Harry said, placing his hand in Tom's. Some other day, he'd break his friend of the habit, but he was too excited about Tom's snake to bother now and too eager to indulge any moment of closeness he could get after all their time apart. Next week, perhaps.

Tom pulled him up from the bed with ease before guiding him to the corner of the room where the tank was. Harry examined it with interest. It was large, perhaps 40 gallons, with mulch in the bottom and at two hiding spots. One side of the tank was illuminated, likely with a heating lamp. Sprawled across the entire thing, looking quite comfortable, was a large black and brown snake, about two feet long.

"Harry, I would like you to meet Nagini, my ball python," Tom said, gesturing towards the tank with a smile on his face. "I bought her when she was fairly young, and she's a little over a year old. Would you like to touch her?"

Harry nodded eagerly.

Tom undid the top of the cage with the air of someone who'd repeated the motion countless times before, continuing to speak as he gently lifted his snake from her terrarium.

"Now, I doubt she'll let you hold her, so we won't try that. Not yet at any rate, though it would be ideal if you gave me a shirt or something else with your sent on it, so she can get used to you."

"Nagini," Tom all but crooned to her as he lifted her, and Harry felt his heart melt at the look he gifted the snake with as he brought her to his chest, "you're meeting someone very special today."

The snake's tongue flicked out and her little yellow eyes met Harry's own and he knew he was done for.

"This," Tom said completely serious as he guided her to perch across his shoulders, "is Harry Potter. You are to bite anyone who so much as look at him wrong."

"Tom," Harry said, with an eye-roll.

"If you were to aim for the jugular or any of the other major veins or arteries we've discussed, that would be ideal."

Harry ignored him and slowly reached out towards the snake's head, waiting for several flicks of her tongue.

"Behave," Tom told her sternly while Harry waited a moment for her to get used to his scent. "He is your master too, now."

"You're ridiculous," Harry told Tom.

Nagini hadn't reacted negatively, so Harry finally pressing his finger's against Nagini's smooth scales, being sure to pet several inches below her head. Nagini twitched a little under his fingers, but soon settled, and Harry couldn't help but smile.

"And you," he told her as he stroked , "you are adorable."

The silence that fell after that was comfortable. Harry found himself absolutely enchanted with Nagini. Tom had always been the one to find their childhood companions. Harry wasn't quite as adept without him. And even when he did manage to find one, it had been different. Without Tom in his life, interacting with snakes had always been bittersweet, but they had also reminded him of the time they spent together. Petting Tom's pet snake was everything he had been missing for so long. After several minutes, Nagini even began to lean into his touch somewhat and Harry looked up at Tom, thrilled.

Tom was looking down at him, a soft smile on his face. Harry's throat went dry, taken aback by just how…content Tom looked.

"You have a way with temperamental, dangerous creatures," Tom said when he noticed Harry's scrutiny.

"Nagini doesn't strike me as dangerous," Harry said, still absorbed in the look on Tom's face.

"Normally when she meets someone new, she bites. Or even someone she's familiar with. Anyone who isn't me, really. I knew she wouldn't bite you, though," Tom replied, seeing Harry's sharp look. "Even if she tried, I wouldn't let her."

"Why?" Harry asked, in too good a mood to make his voice as chastising as it should have been. "Why were you so sure she wouldn't bite me?"

"I'm comfortable with you, so she is too," Tom answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

A knock on the door interrupted them before Harry had the chance to figure out exactly what his chest was doing in response to Tom's statement, which was probably for the best. Tom cut a glare in it's direction before looking down at his watch and cursing.

"Time for the meeting?" Harry asked him.

Tom gave a curt nod, his mouth curling in distaste. Clearly frustrated, just like Harry himself was. They hadn't had nearly enough time together, hadn't had a chance to cover any of the things that had happened. As wonderful as just being with Tom was, there was so much they needed to talk about.

"I'm not going anywhere," Harry said, taking his hand from Nagini to rest it against Tom's arm instead. "I'll either be here or across the hall."

"Half an hour," Tom said, reaching up to wrap his fingers around Harry's wrist. "I'll be back here in half an hour, if not sooner. And then we'll talk."

Harry nodded.

Another knock, and Tom let out a frustrated huff before slowly loosening his grip. Harry reached out with his now free hand to give Nagini one last pat before Tom returned her to her tank. Tom shrugged her off his shoulders, handling her with the ease of someone who'd done it countless times before. As soon as she was settled in the tank and the top was firmly attached, Tom spun around and wrapping his arms tightly around Harry again.

"Half an hour," he murmured into Harry's hair. "You'll stay here, yes?"

Harry sighed. He'd planned on spending some time getting habituated to his new room, but he had a feeling Tom wouldn't leave unless the man knew Harry was somewhere Tom thought of as his territory.

"Yeah, if you want," Harry answered.

"You'll stay here," Tom said, a statement instead of a question.

Harry rolled his eyes, but there was a smile on his face. He tightened his arms around Tom briefly before pulling away.

"Yes, I'll stay here, you possessive dictator. Now go," Harry said, tilting his head towards the door. "And don't be too hard on Barty for interrupting."

A brief widening of his eyes was the only sign that he had caught Tom off-guard with that last comment, and Harry grinned up at him.

"I know you, remember?"

Tom's answering smile left Harry breathless.

"You do," he said. "And I'm beginning to."

Tom tugged Harry in tightly again for one last hug. Then there was pressure against the top of his head and Harry felt himself freeze in shock as he realized that Tom had just kissed his hair. Tom pulled away, took one look at the flustered expression on Harry's face, and the smile that crossed his lips only made everything much worse.

Tom leaned forward, eyes intent, and Harry's brain shut down, unable to process what was happening, breath frozen in his chest, eyes drawn by some inescapable force to Tom's eyes. They were full of heat, and it was only Harry's grip on Tom's and Tom's arms around Harry that kept him upright. Tom's face hovered over his own for a moment that felt like eternity before Tom's lips pressed against his forehead, and all the air that had been trapped in Harry's lungs escaped in an unsteady exhale.

Tom pulled away just far enough that his lips were no longer pressed against Harry's skin, but close enough that Harry could feel his breath against his skin as Tom whispered.

"Soon," he said, staring down at Harry with dark promise, sending shivers skating down Harry's spine.

Then Tom was gone, the door opening and closing before Harry had a chance to react.

Harry let out an unsteady breath, leaning back against the wall. He brought his hand up and pressed it against the the spot where Tom's lips had been a few seconds before.

"I'm in trouble," he said, staring up at the speckled ceiling.

I know nothing about snakes, and all information here is the result of a quick google search, so please don't take it too seriously.

Please let me know what you thought! I love hearing from all of you. And if you want to know what I'm up to in between chapters, feel free to follow me on tumblr. There you can find things like an outtake in the form of a small character exercise involving Tom's POV of his and Harry's reunion, some wonderful fanart, or me whining about my life and my various plot bunnies.