A few days passed like a blur to Harry. He spent the days in classes, studying at half capacity and enjoying some time with his friends. And Ginny. Ginny was always there, either silently watching Harry from the shadows or mumbling nonsense as she stood near him. Despite being followed by the youngest Weasley, Harry's thoughts were never fully focused on his studies or what activities he and his friends were enjoying at the time. Instead, they were drifting back to the boy under his bed. What an interesting guy Tom was, and Harry wanted to spend more time with the boy he had a strange attraction to. The night they spent together wandering the Chamber was too brief for Harry's liking, and he wanted to so something else with him. But what activity could the pair do without being caught? Not much, he decided, and thought of it frequently as the days continued.

The weekend was here! The most wonderful time in all of times, according to Harry. Saturday was definitely the best day, because you wake up and realize you have no class, get sad because you have classes tomorrow, and then get happy again because you do not, in fact, have classes! Harry slept in quite late that morning, even skipping breakfast because Ron could not wake the sound sleeper. When the boy did awaken, around noon or so, he rolled out of bed, feeling refreshed and more cheerful than he had felt in a while. Tom, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. No other student was currently in the room, as they were all out and enjoying the day, so he emerged out from under the bed and frowned at the smaller boy in front of him.

"Harry," he said, arms crossed as he positioned himself on the bed. "I'm hungry. You've slept all morning, and now I have not eaten breakfast or lunch."

"Yes, yes," Harry said with a small sigh, waving the issue away and going over to his dresser to get some clothes for the day. "I will get you some food soon. Don't worry. And then we are going to do something exciting! I don't know what yet, but I'll figure something out. Or you can, and we can do your idea. Y'know, either or." Shrugging as he spoke, Harry took his armful of clothes and took a few steps towards the bathroom. "We can talk about it after I bring you something to eat."

"Fine." Tom didn't seem too happy. Oh well. He's just grumpy because he's hungry, Harry decided, and disappeared into the other room.

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About an hour or so later, Harry returned to the bedroom with an armful of stolen goods from the dining hall, all of which were laid out on a napkin on the bed. Tom rolled out moments later and sat on the bed with the food, then began to munch away, seeming content. By now, he had accepted that he was only going to get fed like this, so he had, gradually, stopped complaining as much about only getting crumpled snacks. As he ate, Harry began to pace the room, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What are you thinking about?" Tom asked curiously upon seeing the face of the other. As he ate, he had been watching Harry walk back and forth.

"Just about what we are going to do today." Harry turned to glance at Tom as he spoke to him, but didn't stop his walking. "Have you thought about it?"

"Oh yes." Tom was fast to answer. So fast, that his mouth was full. His food was swallowed before he continued. Manners and all. "I want to go into the forest."

"Why?" Harry stopped his facing and turned to look at him with a concerned frown. The forest was certain doom. Doom!

"I don't know. You want to do something exciting, so I want to go somewhere exciting." The way he said it was so nonchalant. Why was he so nonchalant about the Forest of Immediate Death?

"You guys can't go in there!" Of course, Ron was here. He had been here the whole time, but he wasn't really important enough to have attention brought unto him until now. "The forest is forbidden! And dangerous! And-" And he was cut off by an impatient Tom.

"I want to go. So I am going, with or without any of you."

"I wanna go," Harry said without thought. No, actually, he did not want to go. What he did want, however, was to be near Tom. Near him. So close, they could touch, really. He wanted to be touched by Tom in the forest. Not, like, sexually. That would be gross. Or maybe not.

"Are you coming or not, Weasley?" Tom asked, his impatience showing through once again.

"I'll go if Hermione is going, I guess." Ron let out a small sigh.

Great. The whole gang was going. Don't they know that Harry wanted alone time with his main man? Whatever.

"Who's that?" asked Tom as Ron stood up.

"Ron's girlfriend," Harry piped up, moving over to his bed to sit down. He was close to Tom here, even though they were sitting on opposite sides of the bed. Tom was sitting at the foot, while Harry was towards the top. But still, he was sitting on the same surface as Tom. Same surface!

"She is not," whined the ginger as he walked towards the doorway. "I'm going to go get her and see if she'll go. Do you want to meet us somewhere?"

After a brief moment of exchange, the group agreed to meet behind Hagrid's house, in the pumpkin patch. Close to the forest, yet in an easy place to meet. Solid idea. It was Harry's. Not to toot his own horn or anything.

Toot toot.

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When dusk settled on the castle grounds and the moon started its journey into the darkened skies, Harry found himself huddling under the invisibility cloak. A large, bumpy pumpkin was on his right, and a handsome, wonderful man was on his left. And, since they were sitting on the ground, a rock was up his butt, making this moment even more stressful for the poor boy. He was so close to Tom once again. He was right there. Their shoulders were pressed together, and their knees would occasionally brush against each other. It was a good thing it was dark outside, because Harry's face was more red than that pumpkin was orange.

Tom opened his mouth to say something, of which Harry was assuming would be to complain about how Hermione and Ron were late, but before he could say anything, they spotted the pair scrambling down the hillside in the direction of their hiding friends. Harry pulled the cloak out from over their heads and motioned for the other to come huddle with them. When they were all grouped together, Tom spoke up. He was in charge here, obviously. "You all ready?" When all three heads were nodding, he stood up, emerging in all his glory from under the cloak. "Let's go, then."

The cloak was folded up and put into the backpack Harry had brought along. The only thing currently in it was the cloak and some snacks and water. One must be well hydrated when running around with dangerous monsters.

Together, the group marched on, with Tom in the lead and Harry trying to think of something insightful to say. "What do you want to do in the forest?" he asked curiously, hoping that would be a good conversation starter. How did you start a proper conversation with your possible maybe hopefully soulmate?

"I don't really know. I just wanted to do something more exciting than sit under a bed all day." That answer wasn't mean or snarky or anything. Maybe this was getting somewhere!

Don't mess this up, Harry Potter.

"I'm exciting."

Tom's face turned to him with an unsure expression. Yup. Messed that one up. "Maybe you are a little bit." A small smile seemed to have crossed his face, if only for a moment.

Oh heck! Harry smiled happily as the other returned to looking towards the path to the woods. Tom answered that back and he wasn't unhappy or weirded out or awkward! Nice one, Harry.

Silent moments passed as they approached the edge of the forest. Tall, dark trees loomed over their heads, and the thick fog that seemed to permanently cover the area was dripping out into the grass at their feet. The group stopped as a collective and gazed into the unyielding darkness that lay before them.

This was his moment to shine, Harry decided. He was going to show Tom that he was strong and brave! The boy took a breath and exhaled, then took a step forward, being the first one to approach the forest.

"Come on, guys. Let's go!" He smiled brightly and took another step, into the actual trees. Harry took a glance at Tom's face and saw that there was an impressed expression there. Perfect. He was the next one to enter the forest, but he walked farther out than Harry, and continued to go, glancing behind him to make sure the others were following along. Harry turned immediately and followed like the lovesick puppy he was, and, begrudgingly, Ron and Hermione followed behind him.

"Woah, look at that," Tom said with a gleeful tone to his voice. He trotted ahead a few steps, and stooped down to look at something hidden at the base of an exceptionally large tree, behind a root. Harry stood behind him, and looked over his shoulder.

"It's a dead rabbit, Tom. It's not that cool."

"Yeah, but look how mutilated it is. Something really messed this thing up."

"I guess it does look kind of cool."

"Can we please talk about something other than a dead rodent?" Hermione was frowning, with her arms crossed. "I don't want to hang around it, anyways. What if the thing that killed it is still here? Watching us? Hunting us?"

"You're such a killjoy," Tom responded. He sighed and stood, almost bumping into Harry, who was still standing close behind.

"Y-Yeah, Hermione. Lighten up," Harry said, agreeing with Tom but also trying to act calm, even though they almost bumped into each other. Their heads. So close. It might have hurt if their heads whacked together, but their heads would be together, and that's the main point here.

The girl let out a grumble, but said nothing. She knew she was right, but she also knew that nothing she would say could change Harry's mind when Tom was the one he was agreeing with.

Each party member only took one step onwards when they heard a twig snap and some noise growing closer with each step. The group all swung around as one collective, fear placed on each face. But alas, it was only Ginny.

"Ginny! What are you doing! You shouldn't be here!" Ron's voice was full of concern, and he reached over and pulled her closer to the group.

"She just wanted to join us. We don't want to leave her out, Ron. She doesn't have many friends, so we need to fill in for her." Hermione gave the other girl a pat on the head.

Ginny liked the pat, as she stopped mumbling incoherently for a moment. Then she continued, but quieter. Harry decided that Ginny would have a purpose. He took the backpack off of his shoulders dn put it on hers instead. He had to push her arms through the straps, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Can we continue now? We're only a few feet into the woods," Tom complained. This was not exploration. This was stoppage.

"Yeah, let's go!" A wide smile appeared on Harry's face as he started to march onwards. He was now ahead of the group by a few steps, and the rest followed him. Unfortunately, they didn't get far.

They walked down a dirt path, to another unnecessarily large tree, when Harry stopped to point out a cool butterfly resting on the bark of the tree. He pointed, but he didn't get to say anything about it. Something with a strong grip held tight onto Harry's ankle, then pulled, causing the boy to plummet to the ground with a loud thump. He cried out in pain as his head hit the hard ground and his back was slammed into the tree root below, but his cry out was covered with his friends' shouts of his name. They lunged forward to grab onto him, but they were too late. As they moved forwards, the unknown creature pulled back, causing Harry to slide across the bumpy ground.