Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Diary of a Call Girl.

He and Severus hadn't really spoken since their disagreement, it wasn't even that bad of a fight, but Harry still felt put out by it. He hadn't been answering Severus' calls and when he did they barely said more than a few words to each other. He sort of felt like he was just a part of a plan and that Rita Skeeter was the bigger picture. The entire reason that they were trying to take her down was so that they could be together, but it felt like their relationship had taken a backseat to the situation. He just sort of felt tired of fighting with Severus over it and just decided to have some space instead.

Luckily, on Friday night Ron and Hermione had arrived and he had an immediate distraction to take his mind off of the man and their disagreement. Hermione came bearing a minor breakthrough with their efforts and Ron was grinning broadly because he had helped her reach her conclusion.

She had found a minor connection between Rita Skeeter and Tom Riddle. She had come across a series of articles in the Daily Mail that Rita had written. They were all about how she had gone undercover to expose one of Riddle's minor smuggling rings in Manchester. Loads of his upper ranking associates had been imprisoned for it, but they couldn't quite connect Riddle to the operation. It had been a rather large inconvenience and Hermione was puzzled about how she had managed to get away with it without consequences. Her only theory was since Riddle wasn't charged with anything, and they didn't have any evidence on him he had to let it go. If something had happened to Rita Skeeter then he would have definitely been a major suspect. She had been slinging his name through the mud for weeks without any proper proof that it was him. That would be enough to set someone like him off surely.

Tom Riddle was one of the most notorious criminals on the planet, but Hermione hadn't managed to find a single smudge on his record. He was clean, somehow he had managed to keep his name and fingerprints off of everything he touched. Loads of people that were known to be involved with him had gone done for him, but never the man in charge himself. It was rather impressive when Harry thought about it.

Harry was stood on the pavement, smoking and waiting for Draco to pick him up. They were meeting Ron and Hermione at the restaurant, but Draco was late as usual. Harry was surprised when a cab pulled up instead of Draco's usual slick, black Mercedes pulled up. Harry climbed in and looked at him questioningly.

"My driver is ill," Draco scowled. "This is positively barbaric."

"It's a cab, it's not the end of the world," Harry laughed.

"So says you," Draco answered pettily.

When they arrived Hermione and Ron were outside waiting on him. Ron grinned brightly and Hermione seemed stressed about their lateness. Harry quickly apologized and they headed inside and a waiter led them to their table.

"Happy Birthday, Mione," Harry smiled and handed her the gift bag with her book in it.

"Thank you, Harry," she said pushing aside the gift paper and revealing the book with a smile.

"There's one more thing. I saw this and immediately thought of you," he said fishing the necklace box out of his pocket and handing it to her.

"Oh, Harry it's lovely!" She exclaimed as she pulled the necklace out. "You shouldn't have!"

"I couldn't not get it. You're great Mione and you're helping me out with all of this, you deserve it."

"Thank you!" She said getting up to hug him.

"Happy Birthday, Granger," Draco said pulling an envelope out of his coat pocket and sliding it across the table.

Everyone looked to Harry in confusion and he just shrugged and motioned for her to open it. She gasped loudly as soon as she pulled out the contents. She laid the check down on the table for everyone to see. Draco had written her a check for a thousand pounds for her birthday.

"Draco that's too much. I can't accept this," She said earnestly offering the check back to him.

"Nonsense," he smirked waving her away. "You're my friend now and I take care of my friends. Besides, my family has more money than I know what to do with."

"You're definitely invited to my birthday," Ron grinned and Hermione smacked his arm playfully.

Dinner was going well until Hermione kicked him under the table and he looked up in surprise.

"It's him!" She hissed loudly to the rest of them.

"Who?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Tom Riddle!" She said impatiently as if they should all know.

"Where?" Harry asked confused.

"Over there," she said gesturing to a nearby table.

Harry had to admit that Tom Riddle was a stunning man, with his wavy, brown hair and stunning blue eyes. The man could definitely turn heads and his smile was charming to say the least. He had the small group of people that were eating with him wrapped around his finger. They hung off of every word that he said, and how could they not with that smile. There was a welcoming air about him, but Harry could sense something else, it's like under the welcoming nature there was something dangerous under it all. He caught the man's eye and a shiver ran down his spine.

The man sent one of his dazzling smiles Harry's way when he realized that Harry was staring at him. Harry blushed and quickly looked away, kicking himself for being caught staring.

Harry tried to turn his attention away from the man who was now staring back and onto his plate, but every time he chanced looking up the man was regarding him a look of interest. Every time he caught his eye he would send a small smile Harry's direction. He pushed the potatoes around on his plate and resolved not to look in the man's direction again.

"That bastard is flirting with you," Draco scowled looking between the pair of them.

"Well it's not working," Harry said shaking his head.

"Are you sure about that?" Ron teased.

"Excuse me, sir," one of the waiters interrupted them.

"Me?" Harry asked and the man nodded.

"Pardon the interruption, but the gentleman over there sent this bottle of champagne to you and your friends. He has also paid for your tables meals," the man said briefly and walked away.

Harry looked at the others in confusion and was met by a series of shrugs.

"There's a note. Read it," Draco urged.

Harry looked at the small note hanging off of the neck of the bottle and picked it off. He carefully unfolded it and read it aloud:

"You have the most exquisite eyes. Allow me to pay you a compliment and for your evening. Have a wonderful celebration and enjoy the champagne. -Tom," Harry read blushing.

"He's definitely flirting with you!," Draco said in disgust. "Don't try to deny it now we have definitive proof."

"Gross. As if," Harry said darkly.

"Don't put it completely out of your mind," Hermione said pensively as Ron poured everyone a glass of the champagne.

"Are you mad?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Think of him more as a means to an end," she said after a moment.

"Lest we forget that Harry here is in a relationship with my godfather," Draco threw in.

"Yes, we all know that," Hermione said dismissively. "I'm talking about stringing him along. If someone like Tom Riddle takes notices of you in a positive manor, it's an opportunity not to be missed. Especially because of your current predicament."

"He's not even interested in me," Harry protested. "He's just showing off."

"You don't just buy a bottle of champagne that costs 500 pounds to flirt," Draco said matter-of-factly and Ron choked on his drink.

"You're joking?" Harry asked eyeing the bottle with suspicion.

"I never joke about expensive gifts," Draco said inspecting his nails.

"No one mention this to Severus. It's stupid and I don't want to deal with this on top of everything else," Harry said sullenly and they all nodded.

Harry was distracted for the rest of the night. He had trouble following the conversation and couldn't say that he could be happier when they finally decided to call it a night. Tom Riddle had flirted with him mercilessly and he wasn't sure what this all meant.

He knew that he had a knack for attracting the wrong sort of attention with Rita and everything, but this was a whole different league. The man that Rita Skeeter was trying to bring down had flirted with him, someone who was in the way of her taking the man down. He wasn't sure what this meant, or if it was a sign, but he did his best to forget that it had happened.

Harry stood distracted as Draco helplessly tried to hail a cab. He looked up and someone caught his eye. It took him a minute to realize that Seamus was standing across the street in a half assed disguise watching him and Draco. The man had probably been tailing them all night and he felt the anger boil over inside of him. Severus had promised that the man wouldn't follow them and here he was tailing Harry in secret the entire night. Draco touched his arm to tell him that he had gotten them a cab. He climbed into the car and slammed the door behind him and the driver yelled at him, but he ignored the man's protests.

"What's eating you?" Draco prodded.

"Severus is a prick," he grumbled.

"What's he done?" Draco asked curiously.

"He promised. He fucking promised that Seamus wouldn't come out with us tonight and he was fucking standing across the street from us at the restaurant. He's just using him to keep tabs on me. I should have never agreed to him!" Harry ranted.

"So confront him about it," Draco suggested.

"I just confronted him about it, that's why I haven't been talking much with him to begin with. He's mad, I'm mad I don't know, but I'm tired of him watching over me like this," Harry huffed.

"Uncle Sev sounds a little too caught up in this mess," the blonde admitted and Harry nodded.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. Harry was pissed and Draco kept casting him worrying looks. When he got home he told Draco goodbye and stormed up to his flat. He slammed the door and locked it and then closed all of his blinds. The man could stand outside all fucking day if he wanted to but he wasn't going to be looking in on him.

He paced back and force in the sitting room before pulling out his phone and angrily dialing Severus' number.

"Hello?" Severus answered.

"You're a right bloody git, you know that?!" Harry started.

"What's this about?" Severus asked confused.

"Remember when you said that Seamus wouldn't be tailing me tonight? Well imagine my surprise when I was getting a cab home and who else but Seamus was standing across the street from me," Harry all but spat into the receiver. "You fucking promised. It was him in a shitty disguise and everything. You can't just keep tabs on me because you want to."

"I'm trying to keep you safe!" Severus insisted angrily.

"I don't need you to keep me safe! I don't need you to watch me like a hawk every hour of the day! I'm so sick of it Severus. I want you to back off," Harry demanded.

"Everything is in flux right now, Harry. I'm only doing what's best for you. I don't know what's going to happen and I want you to be safe!"

"I can look out for myself!" Harry insisted. "This is more than safety Severus. It's as though you don't trust me. We lived together for nearly the entirety of our relationship, and it's as if now you don't know how to handle me being on my own. I was on my own for three months without you, I think I can handle myself and if you think I'd ever stray you've got another damn thing coming! I might have been an escort Severus but I was open the entire fucking time about it. You knew every client that I had and when I stopped I stopped for good. I wouldn't sleep with anyone for personal gain or financial. I'd never cheat on you, do you think so little of me?"

"I'm doing this for your own good!" Severus insisted once more.

"No you're doing it for your own good and I'm doing this for mine, because I'm done Severus. I'm beyond done," Harry replied harshly and hung up the phone and threw it onto the couch.

Trying not to cry he went and got ready for a shower. When he had finished he got ready for bed and climbed into bed alone and the only thought that he had was that he would have to get used to always sleeping alone again. He couldn't believe that he had just ended things with Severus. Had he ended things had he meant to do it? He wasn't sure and sort of felt that part of him was in shock from the entire thing.

He just couldn't handle the way Severus had been acting. He had let all of this consume him and had been using Seamus as an excuse and Harry couldn't handle it anymore. If Severus wanted to fix things then he could come to him, but he wasn't the one in the wrong here, and wasn't going to cave. He was going to stand his ground and if Severus couldn't wake up and realize what he had done wrong, then so be it. Ashes to ashes and all of that.

A/N: Oooo Things are starting to really heat up. Haha. Hope you liked it, this one came to me pretty quickly. Thanks for reading and reviewing!