Chapter 13

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

Tom had sort of been an unexpected light in his life since he'd agreed to be the man's boyfriend. He did his best to distract Harry from Severus and the feelings that always wanted to surface. It had been nearly two weeks since the wedding and Christmas was looming over him like a dark cloud. All of the things that he'd expected to do with Severus were now to be done with Tom. Instead of staying up to give Severus a New Years kiss it'd be Tom. It was a rather big adjustment. Sometimes he'd wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning and feel an arm wrapped around him and roll over expecting to find Severus.

He had yet to sleep with Tom, he'd told the man that he just wasn't ready yet and Tom was surprisingly understanding. Tom was understanding and patient and entirely focused on him. It was a really strange feeling to have someone so invested in him and what he was doing. Severus had been invested, but he'd was nowhere near as attentive. He allowed Harry to have his own breathing room and he was still getting used to Tom's apparent over-interest in him.

"I have an early Christmas present for you," Tom said brightly one evening.

"Oh?" Harry asked, looking up from the magazine sat in front of him.

Tom smiled brightly at him and pulled his cellphone from his jacket pocket and pressed a few buttons and sat it down for Harry to read.

Tom had pulled up an article that had been written by Rita Skeeter. It was supposedly her farewell and that she was moving away to Pagford and would be resigning from her job. It was a lot of dribble about how great the last few years had been to her and how she would miss her job, but it was just time to move on. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at her sentimental bullshit. The only thing that she would miss is ruining other people's lives and extorting them for money or using them for her bigger picture, like she'd done to him and Severus.

"I've made it known to her that despite her move to the country, someone will still have an eye on her."

"So you just made her resign then?"

"Oh no, her bosses made her resign. She's been effectively ruined and disgraced out of the public eye, but if need be I will bring it to the attention of the public. She'll be lucky to get a job selling newspapers let alone writing in one."

"Thank you so much," Harry said throwing his arms around the man in a tight embrace.

"Any story she may have had on you won't get a second glance by anyone in the newspaper or news community. Too many of her stories have been proven to be fabricated. You won't have to worry about her again."

It was a relief, and he felt like he could finally let out a breath after holding it in forever. It was like he'd been held down in water and someone had finally let go and he was gasping in fresh air at the surface. He was relieved, but he should have been happy as well, but once again he found his mind wondering to Severus. It was a moment that he wished that he could share with the man. Everything was supposed to be better now, but he honestly didn't think that it would ever be better where Severus was involved. The man had effectively shut him out of his life, and from the look of things he didn't want to see him was a short lived sulk in the what ifs and what should have beens because soon Tom was tugging him back into the now.

"Are you happy?" Tom asked pocketing his phone.

"Very happy," Harry smiled weakly.

"You don't have to pretend for me you know that right? You can be sad about him."

"Sorry," Harry said lightly and got up to put on the kettle.

"Hey."

"Hm?"

"I love you."

"Oh um, thank you." Uh oh was all that Harry would manage to think in that moment.

"You don't have to say it now and I know it's a bit soon. I just don't think you should hold these things back and I understand that you're probably not anywhere near ready to reciprocate the sentiment."

"Sorry," was all that he could manage to get out. He'd nearly shit his pants when Tom had dropped the l word on him. The man didn't seem to be phased by him not saying it back, which made him feel better than it should have.

"He told me he loved me," Harry said interrupting Draco's tirade about Neville's complete lack of taste and skill when it came to wedding planning.

"Way to kill the moment," Draco scoffed. "What did you say back?"

"Thank you."

"Did you shake his hand too?"

"Fuck off."

"Well you do make it sound rather casual."

"What am I supposed to say back? I don't love you, because I'm still in love with my ex who likes to pretend that I don't exist."

"Or you could just dump him."

"He's a great guy, well to me anyway," Harry sighed.

"Good doesn't mean you have to date him. You should dump him."

"I'm supposed to have a rebound right? I mean if I'm ever supposed to get over Severus I need a rebound."

"Rebound...fair enough," Draco conceded.

"Speaking of Severus how is he?"

"Same as usual, he refuses to acknowledge your existence. Such a healthy way of dealing with your feelings," he retorted sarcastically and Harry couldn't help but grin.

Christmas was quickly approaching and it was the night before Draco had intended for them to go to his house in Cornwall for the holidays. Harry was still desperately searching for an excuse to get him out of it. He'd made the effort to be out of the house for the entire day by claiming that he needed to study, and he couldn't do that with Draco and Neville's lively sexcapades that were so prone to happen without warning. For such a large house sound carried remarkably well. Instead he'd finished up his christmas shopping and spent a few hours at a coffee shop trying to study.

When he had finally given up on studying he decided that now was the time to go pick up his other gifts from his flat. He hailed a taxi and headed off in the direction of his all but abandoned flat. He desperately needed to clean out the place and get rid of it. It just served as a reminder of when things had gotten better, when Severus had come back to him. It didn't look like that was going to happen again, and he was feeling the urge to let the place go. It just served as a reminder, and he was living with Draco and Neville now.

He felt bad that he had planned to blow his friends off for the holidays, he didn't want to be a spoil sport. He didn't want to be sulking and have them feel like they have to cheer them up. A milestone, kind of the milestone of his and Severus' relationship had been marked there. It wasn't just a weekend outing it was the proposal. The promise of a future together, a future that didn't seem so real now. It all felt like a dream, like none of it had actually happened, it wasn't that long ago, but at the same time it felt like almost a lifetime.

He sighed lightly when the car came to a stop in front of his building. He quickly collected his thinks and shoved 50 quid into the drivers hand and told the man to keep the change. After a brief moment he pulled himself together and headed inside. He hadn't been back alone since he couldn't remember when. Last time Tom had been with him and he hadn't really spared the attention to start dredging up old memories. He decided he would get in and out as quickly as possible and hopefully by the time he got home Draco and Neville would be out or asleep or just wouldn't notice he'd come in yet. The more he could avoid them the better. If they found out a moment before they were set to leave he wouldn't hear the end of it until he begrudgingly agreed to go. Sometimes he wondered why his friends were still friends with him when he could be so callous to them.

There was a thin layer of dust that had settled over everything in the apartment. It was as if life as had just stopped within these walls, while the world outside just kept moving on without it. That's a lot like how he imagined death.

He sat his bags down and headed off to the bedroom where he'd stashed the presents. He grabbed the bags and sat them on the bed checking that everything was there and hurried back through to the living room. Something near the door caught his eye and he looked up to see Rita Skeeter standing in front of him. She had a sadistic smile on her face and was holding a gun out in front of her and it was pointed straight at him. He stopped in his tracks and dropped the bags in his hands and slowly put them up in surprise. What the fuck was she doing here? She was meant to be in exiled to some part of the countryside. More importantly why was she pointing a gun at him?

"Surprised to see me?" She grinned wickedly. "You shouldn't be. You ruined my life, so now it's time that I have a little retribution."

"You ruined my life first you crazy bitch," Harry shot back before mentally kicking himself.

"Shut up!" She hissed at him. "You ruined everything! You and your stupid, nosy friends who cannot mind their own damn business!"

'I'm gonna die here,' was the only thing that he could manage to think. It was on a loop in his head, that this bitch had come here to kill him and no one even knew that he was here.

"What do you want?" Harry asked again, weighing any options he had of escaping.

"You gone," she answered bluntly. "I'd like to have a few of your pesky friends while I'm at it, but you my dear are by far my biggest prize."

"You started this! You started all of this! You could have just left us all alone, but you didn't!" Harry shouted angrily. Then trying not to kick himself for losing control of his temper. The last thing he needed was to set her off and give her a reason to kill him sooner. "You got greedy! You wanted to take down too many people and one of your plans finally backfired."

He wasn't sure what came over him, maybe it was his survival instinct kicking in or all of the frustration and pain she'd brought him in the past few months, but he ran towards her. His intent was to tackle him, but before he made contact the gun went off and a blinding pain ripped through his shoulder. She'd shot him. He came down on top of her like a ton of bricks and the gun went off again this time the bullet hit the wall. He continued to struggle with her and she pulled the trigger again and this time he felt the pain shoot through his leg and he almost blacked out, but he knew if he did he'd been dead for sure. So he kept fighting her. Finally, he managed to wrench the gun from her hands and he fell back off of her pointing it at her.

She made a move to come after him again, intending to take the gun. She came to jump him and suddenly the gun in his hand went off before he realized what had happened and she crumpled in a pile on the floor. He wasn't sure if she was dead or just injured, all he knew was that he had to get out of there. He scrambled to his feet and stumbled down the hallway knocking on any door that he could before finally collapsing in a pile on the landing. The last thing he remembered was an older lady opening his door before everything went black.

A/N: I hope you like it! Thanks for reading and reviewing!