"Harry?"

Harry took a deep intake of breath, opening his eyes. Everything was dark. He hadn't the slightest memory of what had happened to him. He only remembered the vivid dreams that had haunted him for hours on end. There had been the Dark Mark looming above every scene, as well as a lot of running, fighting, and death. But as Harry lay in the darkness now none of this unnerved him. He felt safe at the sound of Tom's voice.

When Harry turned to look at Tom his felt his heart soar. Tom had arrived back here in time. They had unmistakeably won the fight against Grindelwald's Followers and Harry was sure that Tom was keeping them more protected than ever before with the aid of magic… But why, then, did Tom look so miserable?

"What happened?" Harry asked.

Tom didn't answer immediately, but memories of fighting with the Death Eaters were coming back to Harry now.

"Are the others alright?"

"A few of them were hurt, but no one is dead," Tom informed him. His voice was soft and this calmed Harry. "Against all odds, they succeeded in fighting off Grindelwald's followers… I would complement them more on their work, if it wasn't for the fact that it was a large group of them who brought Grindelwald's people here in the first place."

"Well at least they're all still alive," Harry said, knowing how annoyed Tom must be with his friends. He tried to sit up on his bed, but he found that this caused him a lot of discomfort. He winced and Tom made an involuntary movement to help him.

"You shouldn't move too much," Tom told him quickly.

Harry noticed the distress that Tom seemed to feel with the knowledge of his pain. He felt Tom's fingers interweave with his own. Feeling bad, he tried to find the least painful position to sit in before he asked weakly, "How long have I been unconscious for?"

"Only a day," Tom said. "It's been around eighteen hours since I got home, which was an hour after you fought Grindelwald's people."

Harry guessed that in that eighteen hours Tom had gotten very little sleep. His eyes were dark and his entire appearance was worn and drained. He appeared happy that Harry was awake – there was no denying that – but it was evident that the many problems they faced were worrying him deeply.

"I'm sorry everything got so out of hand," Harry said quietly. "Mulciber, Ransom, and everyone else with them left without any of us even realising it. We couldn't stop it before Mulciber managed to kill one of Grindelwald's followers. Everything was happening so quickly and–"

"It isn't your fault," Tom assured him. "You're the last person who can be blamed for what happened."

"Did the Healers you brought here notice?"

"No, they didn't see a thing."

"What happened in the end? Did more followers try to break in?"

"No," Tom said quietly. "They didn't dare send more people in, even before I arrived…"

Something in Tom's voice made Harry think that he was bothered by something more than the followers breaking in. After a moment of silence, Harry remembered something. "The Killing Curses…"

Tom waited for him to work it out.

"Mulciber killed more people, didn't he?"

Tom appeared apprehensive about answering this question. Harry couldn't understand this, since Tom had said that none of their friends were dead. Shifting a little in his chair, Tom watching Harry intently. "You must understand that Mulciber was drunk, and very deranged from his past experiences with death…"

"How many people did he kill?" Harry pressed.

Tom hesitated. After a moment he seemed to decide that dawdling would only make Harry more anxious. "Past the one wizard you saw dead, Mulciber managed to kill five more followers… later killing one of the Healers I brought here too."

Harry stared, unable to believe what he was hearing. His voice was weak. "He managed to murder seven people?"

"There was no one to stop him," Tom mentioned in haste. "Gonson doesn't have as much power over him as you and I do and by the time he killed six of Grindelwald's followers he was too enraged to realise that the Healer who I brought home was on our side… Fortunately I still have another, better, Healer to replace the one who died. None of our other guests saw his death…"

Harry felt uneasy with the casual tone that Tom used as he spoke about these murders. The only emotion he seemed to have towards the situation was anxiousness to explain everything properly mixed with pure anger… but maybe this was a rational response, Harry thought slowly. Tom had spent three tireless days hunting down the Healers who would have the best chance of fixing Harry. It had surely been very frustrating for him to find his friends so disordered, with six bodies to bury and a lot of evidence to hide. Mulciber killing a Healer just brought it to a point of absurdity…

"What happened when you were away?" Harry asked, hoping this would help him to discover the extent of Tom's exasperation. "Did you find who you were looking for?"

"Yes," Tom answered, appearing willing to share this information – perhaps to move on from angry reflections concerning his friends. "I travelled across much of Europe to search for the three sorcerers who I had the most confidence in for this job… The most easily convinced out of the three was Slughorn."

"Professor Slughorn?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Of course," Tom affirmed. He smiled shortly as he said, "I would have avoided contacting him at all costs had this been for anyone else but you. As you know, I severed my relation to anyone still at Hogwarts years ago – as you did – but I couldn't refrain from using my connection to Professor Slughorn at such an important time. He is a great Potions Master, and I would trust few others for this…"

Harry was somehow delighted to hear that Tom would risk going so close to Dumbledore and everyone else at Hogwarts just for him. He didn't know how to tell Tom what this meant to him. He wanted to ask Tom how he managed to get Slughorn here, but Tom answered this without encouragement.

"To no surprise, Slughorn was happy to be of assistance to us," Tom explained. "He'll be gone from Hogwarts for a weekend or so of the Christmas Holiday – and under my polite request no one at Hogwarts is to ever find out where he is, or what he's doing here. One meeting face-to-face was enough to convinced him that he should do this for free, as a favour to me and for old times' sake."

"Well it isn't exactly surprising that he would do this for you," Harry commented, smiling lightly. "Though I can't believe he isn't offended about the last two and a half years of not hearing from you."

"Slughorn never was one for being upset about such things," Tom assured him, smiling back softly.

"How long did it take you to persuade him into this?"

"Only a day, luckily. On the very night after meeting with him I disappeared off to Switzerland to convince a Healer there to help me. The day after that, I travelled to France to search for Madame Arouet. You've heard of her before, I assume?"

"Of course," Harry said, knowing that he had heard the name quite a few times in the past. He couldn't say he knew much about her, however. All he knew was that she was a famous Healer.

"She wasn't quite as easy to convince," Tom admitted. "I feared for a time that I would have to stay away for a fourth day just to get her help. However, Cygnus Black suggested – after a few hours of me worrying about Madame Arouet – that our best option by that point would likely be to bribe the old witch into leave her homely cottage in the centre of snowy northern France to heal you."

"She took a bribe?" Harry inquired, bewildered. As a respected Healer with a very large salary and a lot of reputation to keep up, it was surprising that she would do such a thing. "How much money did you offer her?"

"One hundred thousand Galleons," Tom answered.

In shock Harry laughed, unable to believe it. When the seriousness of this bribe settled in, the smile fell from his face. His heart sank. "We're never going to be able to pay that money back to Black."

"Oh, you needn't worry about that," Tom reassured him. "With such a rich family, Black doesn't feel that this is a large amount of money at all. He is very aware of the fact that he is the only friend of ours that I respect at the moment and he cherishes this thought… He also secretly believes that given a few years we will have more than enough money to repay him. With a powerful group of dedicated Dark Arts fanatics as well as a growing family of extraordinarily trained Dragons, Black thinks of this as a worthy investment, for later profit in both money and respect."

"That sounds exactly like the sort of thing Black would do," Harry remarked, thinking about Sirius's family. Cygnus Black was Bellatrix Lestrange's father, Harry knew…

Tom frowned, surprised. "I didn't think you knew about Black. He was a year above us at Hogwarts… Currently he's engaged to Rosier's older sister, Druella. Did Rosier mention him?"

"He must have," Harry lied.

Tom appeared satisfied with this explanation. "Rosier is quite happy to be closer to the Blacks. Cygnus's family has been renown amongst Purebloods for centuries. His great-Grandfather, Phineas Nigellus Black, was of course a Headmaster at Hogwarts for a time."

Harry nodded, but made no response to this. The more he thought about it, the more he disliked having to think about Sirius's family now. He decided to change the subject somewhat. "But back to the point, how did you get Slughorn and the two Healers here without trouble?"

"I assure you, there was much trouble involved with hiding everything from them when I got back here," Tom said darkly, the Black Family likely leaving his mind the second this question was asked. "If convincing Slughorn, Madame Arouet, and the second Healer to help us wasn't difficult, then setting up their arrival to Albania certainly was. They don't even know what country they're in, in full honesty."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "How did you pull that off?"

"I'm not quite sure," Tom admitted. "I believe excessive talking had a lot to do with it, perhaps as well as confusing explanations of where I had travelled to find the right Healers and Potion Masters for this job… If I am correct, both Slughorn and Madame Arouet believe we are currently is Southern Italy."

"Why do they think that?"

"The climate and views suggested it, it seems. We are lucky it's winter. Most of the herbs and plants around here – be them magical or not – have died, or else are hidden by snow and frost, so they shan't be recognised in a group as being strictly Albanian. With only a few days or weeks of their attention needed, I'm sure nothing will tell our guests where we really must be."

"None of this seems very safe," Harry observed slowly, trying not to offend Tom too much. "Slughorn especially is going to wonder why we're so far away from England with all of your friends."

"I've taken care of that too," Tom said confidently. "Slughorn is under the impression that I am running a small, nondescript company that hired a few of our old school friends recently. Most of our friends are staying as far away from Slughorn as they can under my request. I transformed one of their buildings into what appears to be offices and rooms used only in the day, for work. Their second building is invisible."

"And he believed that?"

"He has no reason to doubt me," Tom smiled. "As such a successful ex-pupil of his, he is inclined to think only the best of me."

Harry thought about this for a minute, not truly knowing what to say as he smiled lightly back. He was happy that Tom was being so careful, at any rate… The room was quiet as they paused their conversation for thought.

"The only thing I fear," Tom continued more quietly than before, "is that our friends might slip up when talking to the Professor or Healer. Even people like Gonson or Nott could ruin everything without us even realising it…"

"They won't mess anything up," Harry reassured Tom. "They never let Slughorn know what they were really up to at Hogwarts, after all."

Tom didn't respond to this directly. He was lost in thought. "If they were more serious about their jobs, it would save us a lot of trouble and pain… They've messed up far too much in the past. We shouldn't let it continue. They have to understand how important it is that they follow my orders and work the hardest they can…"

Tom was staring down at their interlinked fingers, contemplating his own words deeply, it seemed. Harry didn't fail to see the shadow of annoyance in Tom's expression.

"You can't blame them for what happened to me," Harry reminded him quietly.

Tom looked up. He seemed to think about Harry's words as though he was unwilling to agree with them, until a few moments passed. The anger gradually disappeared in his expression. His voice was quiet when he spoke. "Yet I often wish I could blame them…"

"Tom," Harry began in a hushed voice, "it wasn't your fault either."

Tom looked ready to contradict this, but something stopped him. Nott was standing at the door to Harry's bedroom. Harry wasn't sure how long he had been there for, but the moment they saw him, Tom slipped his hand away from Harry's. It was obvious that Nott had noticed this. His bright eyes moved from Tom to Harry and back again a few times while he thought about how he was supposed to react. He seemed to decide that pretending nothing had happened was his best option.

"I just wanted to tell you that Avery, Ransom, Lestrange, and Rosier are all improving," Nott said, directing his words at Tom.

"Thank you," Tom responded shortly.

"It's good to see Jonathan is awake."

"Yes, it is…"

No one spoke for a moment. Nott dropped his eyes from Tom, choosing to examine the floor. Harry wished he could see what Nott was thinking.

"How is Mulciber?" Tom asked.

"As bad as ever," Nott answered. He sounded uneasy.

"Is he staying away from Slughorn and Madame Arouet?"

"Yes," Nott confirmed, "he hasn't even been seen by either of them… He hasn't really left his room, in fact, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything in there. A few of us are a bit concern–"

"Don't waste your time worrying about Mulciber," Tom interrupted, "he'll be fine in a week or so."

Nott seemed close to mentioning that he only cared because he had to sleep in the same room as Mulciber. It wasn't exactly easy to forget that he had murdered seven people only last night… but Nott didn't say a word about it. "Of course," he responded.

His thoughts wandered to Harry and Tom again while he looked at them. Memories of walking into the Slytherin Dormitory to find them both looking embarrassed and (in Tom's case) annoyed in their seventh year came flooding back to him. He realised now that Tom probably hadn't been yelling at Harry after all…

Before anyone could say another word, Madame Arouet suddenly arrived behind Nott, contently making her way into the room. Saying "Bonjour" politely, she flicked her wand towards curtains, allowing the late wintery daylight to shine in from the now visible windows.

"Bonjour," Tom replied in response to the Healer's greeting. Harry and Nott said the same.

Madame Arouet was an elderly, surly witch who appeared to find her strength solely from dedication and passion for her profession. Her wrinkled face reverted back to a serious expression quickly when she smiled, but she didn't appear necessarily unkind. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing as she searched a large brown bag she had brought along with her, ready to work out what was wrong with Harry. It was no surprise that she was one of the only Healers that Tom would trust.

"So, how are you?" the aged Healer asked Harry. Her English was quite good, but she still had a strong French edge to her accent.

"I feel slightly better," Harry said truthfully.

"That will be the potions to manage pain," Madame Arouet informed him, smiling shortly. "What I mean is, where are you hurting?"

"Er, everywhere, I suppose," Harry said unconfidently, put off by the idea that he was still in this much pain while apparently aided by a number of potions.

"Nowhere hurts especially worse?" Madame Arouet pressed.

"No, the pain is pretty even."

"Pretty even, or exactly even?"

"Erm, exactly, I suppose…"

Madame Arouet frowned. His answer seemed to change something relating to her theories on why he was ill. She took a minute to dwell upon what this could mean. Then, quite suddenly, she turned around, saying, "I will have to do some more testing before we can know for sure what is wrong."

She turned to Nott.

"You have somewhere to be, I am sure?"

"Yes," Nott agreed. "Er, I should leave now…"

He turned to go without another word. Harry knew he was probably glad of the excuse.

"You should probably leave also," Madame Arouet suggested to Tom.

"Thank you, but I would much rather stay here," Tom said.

"Are you sure? There will be a lot of tests that I'm sure will bore you."

"You are mistaken," Tom insisted. "I find your work far from boring and I would really prefer to stay."

Madame Arouet seemed close to arguing, but instead she shrugged lightly, turning back to Harry. "As you wish…"

Harry and Tom watched in silence as she pulled Harry's left arm forwards, placing the tip of her wand to his palm as she began to mutter an odd incantation. Harry knew better than to ask her what spell she was using, because she appeared to be concentrating hard on the magic. When the magic ended, she frowned again, not saying a word.

When she started a second test, Harry glanced at Tom. Tom was watching Madame Arouet as though he was dreading something bad might happen. What he was dreading exactly, Harry didn't know, but he seemed very intent upon keeping an eye on the magic being used. When Harry turned back to Madame Arouet he was surprised to see her expression was confused and concerned. He couldn't refrain from asking, "What's wrong?"

"I think I have found the problem," Madame Arouet said slowly.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"I will have to do more testing, before I am sure," Madame Arouet explained, straightening up and turning towards her brown bag. "But it would appear as though it isn't only a series of recent injures that is hurting you. Your body is in fact mostly fine thanks to obvious healing magic… Most of the pain is – how do you say? An illusion."

"You think I'm faking it?" Harry asked incredulously.

"No, no," the Healer assured him. "Your mind simply believes you are in more pain than you really are. This is why such strong potions have so little affect on a lot of your discomfort."

"Is he struggling with a physical illness, or is magic the cause?" Tom inquired.

"This is what we must find out," Madame Arouet said. "We shall test if he is sick before we test for magic, of course…"

After this, Madame Arouet spent about an hour and a half examining Harry's head with the help of magic, asking him questions all the while and running through the main causes for his symptoms that she could think of. When she found nothing wrong relating to his brain, she appeared a little anxious. It didn't escape Harry's notice that Tom watched her even more closely at this.

Madame Arouet tested for magic next. She appeared more anxious with every negative test and after a while Harry could help but wonder if she was saving the worst possible cause for last. It was a long time after beginning her endeavour to find hurtful magic within Harry when Madame Arouet stopped working. She was pale and Harry feared the worst.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes," the aged Healer said, "I found the cause…"

She didn't elaborate.

"And?" Harry pressed.

Madame Arouet hesitated for a minute, apparently confused and worried about his condition. "You will live," she promised slowly, "but it is very odd, the curse that has been placed upon you. There is evidence that you have suffered a great deal of magical harm in the past, and you will need more potions and cures for that… but it would seem that someone never intended you to heal. They in fact hexed your body to repel most help with pain. The more time that passes, the more pain you are supposed to feel."

"But you can fix it, right?"

Madame Arouet smiled. "I don't see why not. Locating the problem was the hard part. It may take a few weeks or months for you to recover, but you will not be in so much suffering. You will, however, need someone to break the curse."

"I could be of assistance to that," Tom said softly.

Madame Arouet looked at him. "You have had experience with breaking such hexes?"

"I'm education on how it is done," Tom answered. Harry guessed that the Dark Arts books they owned probably had a lot to do with this. "I don't see the harm in at least trying to fix him. If I don't succeed, I can leave to find a better curse breaker by morning."

Harry couldn't stop himself from grinning. Tom would doubtlessly be able to find the right wizard for this if he couldn't break the curse himself. Tom smiled back at him softly, but his eyes didn't stay on Harry's for long. He was still watching Madame Arouet closely…

After a moment Madame Arouet remembered something. Harry wasn't sure if he imagined it or not, but she sounded a little more eager than strictly necessary when she said, "Of course, Professor Slughorn could be a lot of help with this! He is known for understanding such subjects… I'll go and get him now, so we can discuss treatments."

Before Harry knew it, Tom stood up.

"Oh, do allow me to accompany you," Tom insisted. His tone was lacking in kindness.

Madame Arouet faced Tom. For a reason Harry couldn't fathom, she appeared displeased and perhaps even fearful about this suggestion. "I don't think that is really necessary…"

"But I insist," Tom said, his eyes boring into hers. "I wouldn't want to waste time with not finding the Professor."

Madame Arouet was silent for a few moments. She then turned towards the door with a bothered expression on her face. "It is no problem either way…"

Tom cast Harry one blank glance before leaving. Harry spent the next few minutes in confusion, wondering why Tom had insisted upon joining Madame Arouet in a search for Slughorn instead of staying up here with him. Harry was too relieved that he wasn't dying to think about this very much, however. He was too thankful that he was going to get better, was going to feel no pain…

"Jonathan, m'boy!" Slughorn greeted him warmly when he entered the room minutes later. "It's good to see you awake!"

"It's nice to see you too, Professor," Harry smiled. He found himself in a good mood, and he couldn't understand why Tom looked so sullen when he sat down on a chair besides the bed.

"From what Madame Arouet describes, you should be perfectly healthy within a few weeks," Slughorn said. He chortled at his next words, "And with my potions mixed with Tom's ability to do well with any responsibility, you should be feeling better than ever when we're finished."

Tom smiled mechanically. "I do find it important to look after my friends…"

Harry continued looking at Tom even after he said this. Tom's eyes flickered between Madame Arouet and Slughorn every few seconds, as though he was uneasy about what the both of them were thinking. Slughorn began discussing the Potions he would have to make while Madame Arouet and Tom both joined in the conversation somewhat monotonically, despite Slughorn's merriness.

It was around half an hour later when Tom suggested that he should start trying to break the curse within Harry. Though he knew it might be hours – or even days – before Harry was free from this hex, Tom explained that he didn't want to waste a moment longer before trying his best to fix this. In confidence that Tom would succeed by tonight, Slughorn complemented him on his loyalty and suggested that he should leave to get started on brewing the correct potions for Harry.

Madame Arouet had talked through a long list of problems Harry was having from the harm that had been inflicted upon him. Although many of the problems could only be cured by Madame Arouet's magic or by medicine, Slughorn appeared as willing as Tom (likely because of Tom) to get to work with making Harry potions. It was, as Slughorn described it, 'a misfortunate condition that should be fixed as soon as can be'.

Slughorn got up, keen to read through some of the rare potions books that Tom had kindly given to him as a present for coming here on such short notice.

"I will, of course, have to teach you how to brew these potions," Slughorn reminded Tom, "but I can't say it will be very difficult for such a bright wizard like you to understand."

"Of course, sir," Tom said, forcing another smile. "I shall be more than happy to learn from you once more… The ingredients we have here will be enough for you to succeed in brewing these potions, I hope?"

"My dear boy, the ingredients here will far more than enough!" Slughorn beamed.

Tom smiled again, perhaps honestly this time. He had given Slughorn access to the large collection of potion-brewing materials that he had stored for emergencies like this. Tom knew how dangerous it was here, and he knew that many of his friends would get hurt as a result of the magic he experimented with, so he had collected enough ingredients to impress any Potions Master. His more illegal materials had been hidden, and he would only admit to having them if Slughorn directly mentioned needed one or two of them.

"If you do need any more ingredients," Tom continued, "I'll be happy to try and find them for you."

"No, no," Slughorn said jubilantly, "this will certainly do."

But after a moment or two Harry noticed the happiness slipping away from Slughorn's face. The Professor turned to look at Harry.

"But it is a curious thing… How was it that Jonathan got this curse, I wonder?"

"He could have had it for years," Tom answered smoothly, pretending he didn't know the actual cause. "There are a lot of odd people in this world. The curse could have been placed upon Jonathan by accident, even."

Madame Arouet appeared close to mentioning that the chance of Harry accidently falling victim to this hex was very slim, especially with the evidence of other harmful magic being used recently upon him, but one stare from Tom was enough to tell her that she should probably keep this information to herself.

"Of course, of course," Slughorn murmured, watching Harry whilst missing Tom's glare towards Madame Arouet. "There are a lot of wizards who would do something so cruel to someone they even don't know. It is a sad thing, the recent changes in the wizarding world…"

Slughorn took a long moment to reflect upon this, before he straightened up.

"But I best get started on repairing the damage," he said with a weak smile. "I'll be back within an hour or two, with ingredients and instructions at the ready."

"Thank you, professor," Harry smiled.

Slughorn smiled back and left. As soon as his footsteps faded away, Tom stood up.

Before Harry knew what he was doing, Tom shot a spell at Madame Arouet. When the spell hit her she flinched, and fell to the ground. She didn't make any noise, but after a few seconds her expression turned blank. She was Imperiused.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, shocked.

"She knows too much," Tom said.

"I thought you said she wouldn't find out anything?"

"Do excuse me if I didn't foresee her uncovering magic Grindelwald's followers placed upon you to kill you slowly," Tom barked. "If I had known you were cursed, I wouldn't have needed her."

"So you decided to decided to put the Imperius Curse on her?"

"We have to get her out of here," Tom muttered. He nonverbally commanded Madame Arouet to stand up again.

Harry stared, realising what Tom intended to do. He suddenly wished that he wasn't too ill to move properly. "Tom, you can't…"

"We have to kill her," Tom whispered.

Unable to stand this, Harry got out of bed. This caused great discomfort to both himself and Tom, who stared in perturbation. Ignoring the blinding pain, he said urgently, "There has to be another way."

"We can't let her tell people that you were tortured," Tom reminded him, his voice low even though Slughorn had left the house. "I already have to break the curse on you before Slughorn starts investigating."

"But," Harry began, thinking frantically, "but we can't just let such a well-known witch disappear! People will link this back to us – Slughorn will know immediately that this is the last place she was alive. You can't risk that. She probably told people where she is no matter what she promised to you!"

Tom was silent. Harry swayed on the spot a little, trying to keep his balance as his body ached. Tom understood that everything Harry said was true, but he didn't seem happy about it. Seeing his chance, Harry thought of a plan.

"We can modify her memory," he invented wildly. "We can make her forget she was ever even here. She – she won't remember a thing about any of us, and it's not like she knows where we are anyway. Memory charms worked with your uncle, didn't they? We'll be safe this way. We won't have to worry about covering up the disappearance of such a respected and famous witch."

Tom was still mute. He looked confused.

"Is there something wrong with the plan?" Harry asked.

"No," Tom responded quietly. "I'm just surprised… no, impressed that you thought of this before me."

Harry stopped himself from mentioning that this was probably because murder wasn't the first thing that popped to mind when he reached a problem. "So you'll do this instead?" he pressed.

Tom turned back to Madame Arouet, who was staring into space. "I don't see why not…"

Harry felt relieved, but a twinge of anger appeared inside him, rather than happiness. This surprised him.

"I'll modify her memory tomorrow," Tom stated, turning away from the blissful yet possessed Healer. "I think healing you is more important at the moment."

"Modify her memory here, won't you?" Harry asked. He found that he couldn't quite shake off his still unexpected annoyance.

"You don't trust me?" Tom asked, smirking.

"Of course I trust you," Harry said, somewhat impatiently. "I just don't trust what might happen by the time you bring her back to France."

Tom seemed to notice Harry's irritability, but he didn't comment on it. He likely thought that Harry's pain was to blame. Withdrawing his wand, Tom said, "You should probably sit down."

"I'd rather stand," Harry responded.

Tom paused, trying to read his expression. "If it hurts too much when you're standing–"

"Then I'll be sure to sit down."

Tom watched Harry for a minute. He was confused, but he seemed to decide that pressing the subject was a foolish idea if Harry was going to react so angrily. Without a word, he raised his wand to begin testing for likely hexes.

Harry wasn't sure where his anger was coming from, but he tried not looking at Tom, to calm himself. It didn't work very well, since Tom was standing so close to him. Harry tried to think about how he was going to get better soon – this had made him happy less than an hour ago, after all. He was going to be healthy and free from this torture when Tom found the problem… Except, Harry thought savagely, Madame Arouet would likely be neither healthy nor free if Tom got what he wanted…

Harry tried to push the thought away… but he found that he wouldn't quite ignore how Tom had so thoughtlessly plotted out the best way to murder Madame Arouet.

Harry had to try harder to fight the pure vexation within him. Tom had probably spent the last forty-five minutes thinking about how he could kill the famous Healer. He had probably thought of ten different ways to do it, making it look natural or like a suicide. Harry felt more ill, but tried to forget his pain. Tom probably still wished, Harry thought furiously, that he could bring Arouet back to France before modifying her memory. He probably believed that killing her was really the only option they had. He was careless enough to completely forget everything he had promised Harry…

Harry looked into Tom's eyes, and before he knew it his anger overpowered him. Taking a few steps away from Tom, he asked furiously, "How can you lie about not killing innocent people? You completely forgot about what you promised me months ago!"

Tom stared at Harry. He lowered his wand slowly, apparently still confused about why Harry had moved away at all. "I didn't kill her," Tom reminded him.

"But you wanted to kill her!" Harry pointed out.

"Does she look dead to you?" Tom asked incandescently, indicating to the vacant Madame Arouet. "If I wanted to kill her she wouldn't be here now."

"But," Harry stammered, "but all you seem to be able to think about is killing off everyone who gets in your way!"

"And who do you think I do all of that for?" Tom asked incredulously. "You cannot seriously suggest that I do any of this because I want to! You cannot honestly believe that I would risk so much – being sent to Azkaban, having all our friends captured, having our aspirations stolen from us – if I didn't have a perfectly good reason to risk it all!"

Harry struggled with finding a response to this. He wanted to say that Tom must enjoy murdering since he did it so often; he wanted to say that killing Madame Arouet would be purely out of pleasure and simplicity if Tom did it, but a lot of things did contradicted these ideas. Tom wouldn't have travelled across Europe to search for this one witch if it wasn't for Harry, and if it wasn't for the fact that he admired her Healing abilities. Tom wouldn't risk Slughorn discovering what he was really up to (thus ruining his chance to become the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts) if he didn't feel like he had any other options but to kill Arouet…

"Do you not understand how stressful the past weeks – the past months – have been for me?" Tom demanded furiously. "Did it not cross your mind for even a second that maybe after the fiasco with our friends last night I didn't have the energy left to think of a more logical plan relating to the problem of Madame Arouet? I haven't had a moment to rest in the past four solid days! I travelled halfway across Europe to find the right people to fix you, but it doesn't appear you realise or appreciate any of this!"

"But I do appreciate it," Harry said less angrily than before, feeling guilty when he was reminded of everything Tom had done for him. They stood facing each other wordlessly for a moment, before another thought crossed Harry's mind, and his voice became irked once more. "But don't you know that I realise how badly your friends messed up last night? I was the one who had to look after them even though I was ill – I was the one who had to fight with Grindelwald's people –"

"And I appreciate that," Tom assured him sharply. He was visibility frustrated, but after a moment he seemed to feel more concern for Harry. Neither of them did anything for a moment. Tom's voice was softer when he spoke again. "I was impressed by the bravery and strength that you showed even in your weak condition."

Harry made no response to this. He felt bad for starting this argument with Tom, but he also felt as though Tom had deserved it… and it appeared that Tom almost understood this. They stood for a minute in silence, before Harry couldn't stand it anymore. Quietly he said, "I'm sorry. I was just… I was worried about you lying to me. I was scared that you didn't care whether you were caught for her murder or not."

Tom didn't seem to know how to respond for a moment, before he began walking towards Harry, saying, "I'm sorry too… Please know that I wasn't thinking straight. I wouldn't have gotten away with murdering her and you know I would have realised this eventually. I'm in dire need of rest, even if I know this is perhaps a poor excuse. With clearing up all the damage our friends caused last night I believe my ability to improvise is wearing thin at this time…"

"I understand," Harry said honestly, feeling Tom's hand holding his face softly.

"I shouldn't have put such needless stress on you…"

They stood and stared at each other for a moment.

"I should continue trying to break that curse," Tom remarked in a hushed voice.

Before Tom could continue his magic, Harry kissed him softly on the lips, ignoring the Imperiused Madame Arouet. "I love you, Tom," he whispered.

"I love you too, Harry."

Tom smiled and brought his wand up to continue his magic. Harry was glad that they had resolved their bitter grudges, because he knew that Tom (like him) felt better now. Despite how suddenly their argument had begun, Harry understood that sometimes yelling and fighting about a problem was far better than holding onto resentment and waiting for the perfect planned moment of letting people how you truly feel…

–X–

By the end of the night, Tom managed to break the curse inside Harry. Slughorn never got the chance to see what magic had been used, so Tom lied easily to him about the nature and origin of the spell, reassuring his Professor with ease that it was northing to worry about. Harry would be as healthy as can be within a month or two, so Tom no longer needed the much-appreciated help of Slughorn and Madame Arouet.

Harry felt more alive than ever when the curse was lifted. Never before had he appreciated how glorious it was to feel no pain – and this was before he was even properly healed. He was glad that he was finally going to feel perfectly healthy again, but more than this he was relieved that Slughorn left the day after the curse was broken, leaving Tom to relax and rest for the first time in too long. It was a day later when Harry and Tom worked together calmly to modify Madame Arouet's memory.

With Gonson, Dolohov, and Black as protection, Tom left Albania for a few hours to bring Madame Arouet back to her home in France. Harry was of course still too sick to travel with Tom, but he didn't truly mind spending that day with a few of the Death Eaters, helping to heal Avery, Ransom, Lestrange, and Rosier, who were still ill from the incident with Grindelwald's people. When Tom returned home, Harry was satisfied to hear that he had run into no trouble in his travels.

The Death Eaters were doing well in the new training program that Tom had set up for them. They were learning more magic than ever before and it appeared as though this is exactly what they all wanted. Harry was impressed by how dedicated all of them were as he watched them in training, only having to join in once or twice in a day. They seemed eager to prove that they weren't completely useless when they were ready for a fight, but Tom couldn't refrain from reminding them all (as lightly as he could manage) that he needed them to be useful even when they weren't prepared for combat.

Tom was also training the Dragons more determinedly than ever before. The entire Dragon family was now adult-sized, so it was harder than ever to look after them. Tom worked with one Dragon at a time, requiring at least ten of his friends to help him as he preformed extraordinary magic to keep the creatures calm and willing to follow his commands. By the time January and February arrived and passed, everyone in Tom's land was successfully improving in measures of health and power, and spirits were higher than ever.

Harry found himself feeling heartfelt surprise and even admiration for the Death Eaters. They were loyal to Tom even with Grindelwald's people looming overt their heads like an ominous gathering of clouds. Harry felt guilty to reflect that some of them might die from this war. He didn't want to think about it, but he knew he had to face it one time or another. All he could hope for was that Tom's friends would be trained well enough by the time Grindelwald's people attacked – whenever that might be.

It was March when Harry felt his mood decline for the first time since getting healthy. A meeting was being held with most of Tom's friends present. Tom talked eagerly to everyone, but Harry couldn't bring himself to listen very closely. Over the last few weeks Tom had begun searching determinedly for the location of a few of Grindelwald's followers – and Harry hadn't minded this. Tom had sent groups of his friends to places in Germany often in the last few months, but this was the first time they had received any positive news relating to it…

The Death Eaters were as eager as Tom was to hear that they had found a follower at last (without the follower trying to find them first), but Harry felt uneasy. It had been about three hours since Tom heard about the success in Germany, and it would only be a few more hours at most before Dolohov, Ransom, Macnair, and Gibbon returned here. What they would do to the follower once he was here, Harry didn't know – and nor did he want to think about it too much.

Harry wasn't at all sure how he was supposed to feel. It was one thing to think about kidnapping a wizard for interrogation and another thing to actually do it. He had never doubted that this day would come, but he had certainty hoped it wouldn't be so soon. It appeared that Harry wasn't being very discreet about his displeasure at the idea of a follower of Grindelwald arriving here tonight either. Some of the Death Eaters seemed to notice his despondency, but they thought he was just hateful towards Grindelwald's people.

Their thoughts about Harry's blatant surliness caught Tom's attention after a while. Harry guessed that it was because of this when the meeting ending slightly abruptly. Tom reminded the Death Eaters that could be hours before the absent friends returned home, but the Death Eaters were too happy and concerned about the idea of something happening to really care about whether they had to leave this room or not.

After only a few minutes, Tom and Harry were the only remaining wizards here. Tom turned to Harry as soon as they were alone. He was unable to refrain from grinning as he said, "I'm so relieved that something vital is happening at last."

"I know," Harry said, attempting a smile weakly. "I can't believe we actually managed to find someone…"

Tom was watching Harry closely, his smile fading. Harry looked away from him, trying to overcome his worry, but it appeared that this made it more obvious. As he stared down at his hands on the table, he saw Tom's join his.

"Why are you so anxious?" Tom asked softly. "Our friends will succeed in getting here. There's barely a chance that anyone would stop them coming home today, not when they have succeeded in coming back to us countless times."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Harry told Tom firmly, looking up at him again.

"Then what's troubling you?"

"I…" but Harry didn't know where to begin.

"You can tell me," Tom reassured him. "I'm sure whatever it is we can fix it."

Harry squeezed Tom's hands a little, taking a deep breath. "I just… I don't want you to kill that wizard when he gets here."

"I won't kill him," Tom promised. "Mulciber will be more than happy to."

Harry tried not to dislike that Tom wasn't joking in the slightest. "No, I don't want anyone to kill him, no matter who he is."

Tom paused for a minute, as if he was trying to find another meaning in Harry's words. "They tortured you," Tom reminded him, appearing disbelieving. "They were going to kill you."

"And we'll be just as bad as them if we torture and kill this wizard."

Tom stared at Harry, unable to believe it. "How can you ask me to be kind to these people?"

"I'm not asking you to be kind," Harry said, becoming more confused and upset with every moment that passed. "But – but killing them would… would be…"

Tom was shaking his head, never looking away from Harry. His voice lacked anger. "Why do you reject the idea of death so profoundly?"

"Because it's wrong!" Harry exclaimed.

"What they did is wrong," Tom said. "What we're doing is nothing worse."

"But it's nothing better either!"

Tom didn't seem to know how to react to this any more than Harry did. He struggled for a minute, his hands still holding Harry's and his eyes still watching him closely in what could only be described as concern and confusion.

"There's no one here to judge us on what we do," Tom reminded him in little over a whisper. "There's no one to hold us back, to tell us to stop even when we are doing nothing wrong to the innocent. We shall suffer no punishments for any revenge we may seek, or any crime we may commit to survive… No one is watching."

Harry gazed into Tom's dark, detailed eyes, thinking about his dead friends and remembering Dumbledore… Should Harry, as Tom suggested, feel no pity at all for what went on here merely because there was no one to punish him? This made Harry question why he cared so much. The only answer he could find was that he felt instinctively inclined to detest crime and death… but what if that inclination had been him following the beliefs of his fellow Gryffindors, rather than him following an instinct?

"You don't feel pity for them, do you?" Tom asked, generally curious.

"No," Harry admitted before he gave it much thought.

Tom didn't use this answer against him. Instead, he squeezed Harry's hands a little more tightly in affection. "Don't worry about this so much," he pleaded, admiring Harry's face. "It's all for the better."

"I know," Harry whispered. He found Tom's words comforting, even if he was still confused about how he should feel about Grindelwald's followers.

Tom smiled softly, analyzing Harry. They watched each other for a time, before Tom kissed Harry softly. Harry accepted the kiss, enjoying it in this quiet, empty room. The sound of Tom's breath and the feeling of his hand slowly making its way up Harry's arm made them deepen the kiss eagerly. Harry knew they really shouldn't be doing this in here, but he just could help himself – and apparently Tom felt the same way. Harry's heart was beating quickly as his lips moved against Tom's, their desire deepening… But then, quite suddenly, the door to the meeting room burst open.

"They're back, final–"

Harry and Tom moved away from each other as quickly as they could, but as soon as they saw Lestrange and Nott standing at the door, they knew it was too late. Harry couldn't think straight as he looked away from the two Death Eaters, who were shocked and speechless. He didn't know what expression Tom was wearing but he didn't dare look. A few painful seconds passed in silence, before they heard Avery and a few more Death Eaters arriving. They were too jubilant to notice anything odd about the four mute wizards.

"They're here!" Avery informed Harry and Tom gleefully, barging his way past Nott and Lestrange blindly. "The wizard is well pissed, keeps shouting at us all in German."

More of the Death Eaters were entering the room, appearing eager to bring Tom to the captured wizard. Nott and Lestrange were now standing at the back of the group.

"Did Dolohov, Ransom, Macnair, and Gibbon meet any trouble on their way back here?" Tom asked.

"No, not that we know of," Gonson answered.

"Make sure to check they weren't followed."

"Rosier, my brother, and a few others are on that now," said Avery, still smiling.

Tom stood up and Harry did the same, glancing at Tom. His expression was blank and his eyes were averted.

"All of you, bring them in one of the spare halls and wait for me there," Tom instructed.

The ten or so Death Eaters in front of Harry and Tom all turned around, appearing pleased and animated about what might happen by the end of tonight. Before any of them could leave however, Tom said something more.

"Lestrange, Nott, a word please…"

Nott and Lestrange, who had been amongst those most eager to leave the room (for different reasons than Avery or Gonson might expect), both turned to look back at Tom, before giving each other a knowing, apprehensive glance. Harry was tempted to leave the room, but he was too worried about what Tom might be planning to do about the two now terrified Death Eaters. This was the worse day Harry had had in a while…


AN: Rushed update, excuse any typos. I had a rough few weeks…