A/N: My goal is usually to have each part to be around 5k, but this is quite dialogue heavy and therefore around 3,8k words instead. I'll try to get back to 5k with the next update.

Oh, when it comes to the vote, I'm fairly sure I'll combine the options.

Harry woke up to a weight on his chest. Somewhat used to it by now after the last few days, he opened his eyes and expected to see Nagini's blurry form looking back at him. Therefore, he visibly startled when he with squinted eyes made out the shape of a head instead.

"T-tom?" Harry spluttered as he wildly searched for his glasses on the floor. Tom slid them onto his face for him, and Harry blinked rapidly at their close proximity. Tom was sitting on the floor next to the bed, with his head placed on Harry's chest. Only a bit closer, and their lips would be touching.

"Good morning, darling." Tom chirped happily. Harry startled again, this time so violently that Tom was forced to move his head away and sit back straight. Harry sat up before Tom could rest his head on him again. Harry took the opportunity to get a good look of Tom for the first time that morning, and immediately froze.

"Is that… is that blood?" Harry questioned weakly. Tom grinned at him.

"It's not mine." Tom answered in a singsong voice. Harry had to wonder if he was on Muggle-drugs.

"Then who's?"

"Vlavior Uprix, a member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors."
Tom's grin widened, and Harry shivered at the resemblance to a predator.

"Why?"

"I am a murderer, darling, you shouldn't forget."

"But why?" Harry pressed. "You usually target Wizengamot members or Ministry workers."

Tom shrugged, his grin still in place.
"Nice to know that you follow my work, darling. I owed dear Lucy a favor for getting him to work as an owl. Speaking of, there's letters."

"Lucius Malfoy asked you to murder Uprix?" Harry repeated incredulously.

"I think the words he used were dispose of, but yes."

"But that happened yesterday! When did you have time to murder someone? Why already?"

"I woke up early, and I thought you might appreciate if this got turned into the Prophet's top story instead of your kidnapping."

"I- eh. Thanks?" Harry said awkwardly. He didn't know how to react. As he looked at Tom uncertainly, he got reminded of his first question. "Nothing of that explains why you're covered in Uprix' blood! Or why you were staring at me while I was sleeping!"

"You didn't actually ask that second question." Tom pointed out cheekily. "I'm covered in blood because using the killing curse gets pretty boring pretty soon."

"So why were you staring at me? And why are you so goddamn happy?"
Harry hated to admit it, but it was greatly unnerving.

"I thought it would be fun to make a habit out of it. I was staring at you yesterday too." Tom answered, his grin widening to show teeth. "As for your second question, it's the high after a murder. If you only had been interested, we could have had some amazing sex... "

Harry choked on his reply and his face flushed. It was definitely time to get up from the bed. Maybe take a cold shower.

"Just do something about that blood!" he snapped, and got up just to hurry into the bathroom and lock the door behind him.

"I can't if you're in the bathroom!" Tom called through the door with a singsong tone.

"Use fucking magic!" Harry called back. Yes, a cold shower would fit well right about now.

Harry left the bathroom 20 minutes later, embarrassed to be clutching a towel around his waist. He had been midways through his shower when he realized that he hadn't thought to bring any clean clothes with him. Tom had moved from the floor to sit on Harry's bed. He whistled appreciatively when he saw Harry.

"You're wearing even less than yesterday. I don't mind if you turn this into a habit."

"Shut up. I forgot to bring a change of clothes."

Tom hummed. Harry couldn't figure out what kind of response it was supposed to be, so he shot Tom a puzzled look.

"I'll bring you a change of clothes." Tom said and got up from the bed. Harry sighed in relief when he noticed that Tom had removed the blood from his clothes. He looked back up to see Tom watching him closely. Harry wrapped the towel tighter around him, and Tom smiled before going into the bedroom. Harry shook his head slightly and sat down on his bed.

"Pay me attention, hatchling." Nagini demanded and slithered up on the bed next to him. Harry turned his head slightly to look at her.

"Good morning, beautiful." he answered. Nagini gave a nod of her head in satisfaction.

"You wound me, darling. Don't I get any compliments?" Tom asked, as he came back with a change of clothes in his hands. Harry blinked owlishly at him.

"You're a right bastard, did you know that?" Harry asked rhetorically. Tom tutted at him.

"I'll have you know that my parents were married." Tom answered, and handed him the clothes. "You should know, parseltongue is quite the sexual language. Like french, or italian. You should perhaps think before you use it."

"Or you'll what? Molest me? Force your way?" Harry spat the words out. Tom blanched.

"Do not mistake me for someone that foul, Harry." Tom said, his words cutting. "I was trying to warn you from giving me false impressions, since you so stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the attraction you feel towards me."

"Oh…" Harry bit his lip. "I'm sorry." he said softly. Tom gave him a long look.

"Don't play with fire." Tom warned. "Now, I believe you should get dressed, then we can eat breakfast."

Harry nodded and fled into the bathroom for the second time that morning.

Tom had already prepared breakfast for the both of them when Harry came out, this time clothed. He had frowned when he had discovered the clothes to be a pair of tight dragonhide pants and a acromantula silk shirt with a modern wizarding cut that involved two rows of buttons and reminded him of an uniform, but he had to admit that they fit quite well.

"Finally, clothes that fit you!" Tom exclaimed happily upon seeing him. Harry bit his lip instead of responding. How long would Tom be on an after-murder high? It must have been over an hour since the murder took place by now…

"Do sit down, dear." Tom said and broke him from his thoughts. Harry sat down by the table and started to serve himself breakfast. He gave the eggs a wary glance, as he remembered what Tom had said yesterday. They were probably not for eating.

"Where's Nagini?" Harry asked. "I feel like she keeps disappearing."

Tom hummed thoughtfully.

"Maybe under the bed, or she found a way to go through the pipes again."

"She's very quick for her size." Harry commented. Nagini was a safe topic to talk about, especially as Tom was still acting out of sorts.

"Of course. I would only have the best familiar." Tom said cheekily. Harry had to bite his lip to not respond with a sarcastic of course and a roll of his eyes.

"Lucy had letters for you. I don't think you heard me when I told you the first time." Tom said after they had both ate quietly for a while. Harry looked up from his mug of tea.

"Letters? As in more than one letter?" he asked incredulous. Surely his parents wouldn't send him two separate letters, and who else would be able to send him one through Lucius? They could have contacted his godfather Sirius… yeah, that was actually likely.

Tom hummed again.
"I also got one, from your dear godfather Severus Snape."

"Snape?" Harry repeated, his tone even more incredulous now. "Professor Snape is my godfather? I wonder how they could miss telling me that detail."

"He was my Head of House. I can see why one would regret making him a godfather."

"I'm not sure if I should get upset because you're indirectly insulting professor Snape, who happen to be absolutely brilliant though unsocial, or if I should question how you knew that he's my godfather before I did."

"I do like it when you get upset. It was such a nice display yesterday, especially as you ended up in my embrace…"

Harry cleared his throat.
"That's not how I remember it. I believe it went more along the lines of me trying to attack you, and you stopping me."

"As I said, I like them fiery." Tom teased. Harry bristled.

"Back to the topic! How come you knew he's my godfather before I did?"

"He wrote so." Tom answered simply. Harry blinked. It was rather anti-climatic.

"What else did he write?"

Tom tutted at him. Harry held back a grimace. It was almost weirder that it happened again than it was that it happened at all.
"I do believe that the letter was addressed to me, darling, not you."

"Tell me anyway?" Harry asked with a nonchalant shrug.

"It really wasn't that interesting. Some colourful threats - which honestly were more like suggestion as to how I can bring more creativity into murdering, I can't believe he thought it intelligent to make detailed threats to someone who might use them - and a mention of going to Dumbledore for help if they have no other choice."

This time, Harry did grimace.
"Why would the go to Dumbledore? I told them, I'm fine!"

"Aren't parents supposed to care?" Tom asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They never do!" Harry protested. "I'm not what they want, so they don't care! They just want to keep appearing as the perfect family, even if they're never there for me! Yesterday was the first time I spent time doing something with my mother in I don't know how long! I'm lucky if I see her once a week!"
He distractedly noticed how their dishes started to shake on the table as he worked himself up.

"Harry." Tom got up from his chair. "Calm down."

"Why?! It takes me being kidnapped for them to care! James only talks to me to tell me I should become an auror, and I'm willing to bet that he didn't write me! My mother is at work all the time, it's like she's not living at home! I actually wrote them to tell them that I'm fine, and now they're worried about me?! I can't believe them!"

"Harry." Tom repeated warningly and approached him. Some of the plates had been smashed. The eggs were amazingly enough untouched by his wild magic.

"They never let me be just a kid! Always pressure to be the best, to be like them! Their fame has been suffocating me for as long as I can remember! Why can't they trust me to live my own life?! I've tried and tried and I'm so sick of trying when they'll never be happy with me! I just want to be me! I want to be just Harry for once in my fucking life!"

"Harry!" Tom repeated for a third time as their mugs exploded. Harry slumped over the table after his outbreak, exhausted by the use of magic. Tom sighed before lifting Harry up.

"I told you to calm down, my dear. So stubborn, so fiesty…" Tom sighed. He carried Harry to the bed and carefully placed him down. Tom sat down next to him and started playing with his hair.

"I know you're still awake." Tom said gently. "You should rest."

Harry obeyed.

Tom was still playing with his hair when Harry groggily woke up.

"For how long was I out?" he asked as he blinked blearily up at Tom. His glasses had been removed.

"Three hours." Tom responded calmly.

"You've been here the whole time?" Harry asked with badly hidden surprise.

"Yes. It seemed like you needed it."

"Thank you… and I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For getting worked up like that… and destroying your dishes…"

"It's fine. Nothing some magic couldn't fix. You're allowed to be yourself, Harry." Tom said softly.

"Thank you." Harry repeated breathlessly and gave Tom a weak smile. Tom's hand in his hair stilled for a moment before it continued.

"You can take the day off if you want to. Read your letters, maybe respond to them, read a book…" Tom suggested.

"No, I'll work on the potion. Will you help?"

"Of course." Tom promised. Neither of them made a move to actually start working.

It was first an hour later that they could be found by the kitchen table instead of on Harry's bed. Harry was bent down over his notes as Tom checked what he had already written. Except for low murmurs when one of them started to think out loud, no words were exchanged. Harry found it all surprisingly domesticated, yet nice. It was a welcomed change from the awkward morning. The letters that Tom had mentioned laid forgotten on the kitchen worktop. Harry didn't have the energy to read them, and really, they couldn't be that important. Working on the potion was a reasonable priority.

"You're not actually planning on using acromantula venom and moondew together, are you?" Tom asked incredulous. "They would cancel each other out and make the potion unstable."

Harry hummed under his breath.
"Which is why I'm using vinegar in between, it'll act as a stabilizer."

"You need to add three clockwise stirs and one counter-clockwise after the vinegar for that to work."

"Really? I thought waiting until the potion started to boil would be enough."

"No, see here…" Tom said, and pushed his notes towards Harry to look at. "If the potion boils, the vinegar will be unable to work as a stabilizer, and you need to add the moondew after the acromantula venom unless you want to change the whole order. The potion will work better if you add the stirs." he explained. Harry looked through the notes.

"You're right." Harry said, blinking as he looked at Tom. "I had forgotten. Thank you." he said and went to make the corrections in the recipe.

"You're welcome." Tom murmured as he looked at Harry. Harry glanced at him, but quickly got distracted by a new idea and hurried to write it down.

"What do you think works best, silverweed or goosegrass?" Harry mumbled as he read through what he had written.

"Silverweed, since goosegrass is better for healing of the skin. Silverweed has more of an internal use."

"Maybe I'll make a second potion for her scales." Harry suggested in a joking tone.

"You should." Tom answered. "It'll keep you here longer."

Harry pretended to not have heard, and started on calculations for the right amount of silverweed needed instead.

Tom had forced him to take a pause after two hours of working on the potion. Harry sat on his bed, staring on the two letters that he held in his hands. He had yet to open them. Tom was in the kitchen, making something for them to eat. Harry was almost inclined to ask about the eggs, just so he could avoid reading the letters. He didn't want to know what they said.

"Are you troubled, hatchling?" Nagini asked, and placed her head on his shoulder. Harry startled. He hadn't been aware that Nagini was behind him.

"Just lost in thoughts." Harry answered vaguely.

"What sort of thoughts?"

"Just… thoughts. About my family. About Tom."

"What about master?"

"Stockholm syndrome. The Muggles came up with it. It's when a hostage feels positive feelings for their captor."

"I asked about my master, hatchling, not about your family." Nagini answered, and hit him slightly with her tail. Harry smiled bitterly.

"I guess you're right." he sighed. "I don't know what I think about Tom. He scares me as much as he intrigues me. I don't understand him."

"If it helps, he doesn't understand you either." Nagini answered. Harry smiled weakly.

"It does help. Thank you." Harry said. He gave the letters a last glance before stuffing them underneath his pillow. Harry scratched Nagini's head to show his appreciation before he went over to see if he could help Tom with anything.

"I heard you talking with Nagini." Tom confessed as they sat down to eat. Harry glanced at him but didn't answer. "I might have heard all about you from Draco, but I don't know you, and you don't know me. I don't think either of us feel as familiar towards the other as we act, and I do realize that my behaviour only makes it worse for you. We can't start over, but I'll try to behave until we do know each other. Is it acceptable?"

"You wouldn't be you if you tried to change, even by just toning it down." Harry sighed. "I'll be okay tomorrow. I think the situation finally caught up to me today, and it doesn't help that I woke up to you staring at me while covered in blood."

Tom gave an ashamed smile.

"No, I don't believe that was one of my greater ideas."

"I forgive you." Harry said. Tom looked at him with obvious surprise.

"You're not what you seem, Harry Potter." he finally said. Harry didn't know what to answer.

"Are you not going to read the letters?" Tom asked. They were sat on Harry's bed in lack of a sofa. They could have transfigured the bed back to a sofa, but it would have been unnecessary. It was fairly late, but neither of them felt comfortable going to sleep after the frankly weird day they've had. Harry less so than Tom.

"I am… I just can't." Harry said with a small shake of his head. "It seemed brilliant yesterday when you let me write them, but now I'm worried about what they have to say. I know I'm irrational, they're my parents, I'm sure they love me for me, but I'd rather not have anything confirmed just yet."

"I can always kill them if they hurt you." Tom offered. It didn't sound like he was joking.

"That'll be unnecessary." Harry said sternly. "It's enough that you stunned my mother."

Tom held up his hands as a sign of surrender.
"I'm not going to do anything to your parents." he promised. "Unless they really deserve it."

"I guess I can live with the compromise." Harry sighed.

"You know, you should be happy that you have parents." Tom said. Harry looked at him questioningly. "I'm an orphan." he added as an explanation.

"Oh." Harry answered, not sure what else there was to say. Tom smiled bitterly.

"Oh indeed." he agreed.

"You're not your parents." Harry said after a moment of silence. Tom looked at him, puzzled.
"It's been my mantra for years." Harry explained. "Even if you don't know your parents, it's good to remember that you're your own person."

"Thank you." Tom said quietly. Harry gave him a weak smile.

"We really should speak of nicer things."

Tom grinned.

"We could speak of me and you, and this bed."

"I- Wha-" Harry spluttered as he understood what Tom was hinting at. "I'm still not interested!"

"I'm here if you ever change your mind, darling."

"You know what, you should go so I can sleep." Harry said. Tom didn't move.

"I promise to not flirt for the rest of the conversation." Tom offered. Harry sighed. He seemed to sigh a lot today, but it was definitely better than blushing all the time.

"What do we have to talk about?" Harry asked wearily.

"Everything. Nothing. I don't know. Tell me about you."

"You already seem to know everything about me."

"Just the facts, darling. I don't know you."

"There's nothing to know." Harry insisted.

"How do you expect people to know just Harry if you don't talk about yourself?" Tom asked with a raised eyebrow. Harry sat stunned and tried to not blush. He had never quite thought of it like that and he felt embarrassed because of the obvious miss he had made.

"I don't know… I don't like talking about myself." he mumbled. Tom sighed.

"You really are quite interesting. You should think over what you really want to do with yourself." Tom said and got up from the bed.

"Goodnight, dear." Tom said. He gave Harry a kiss on the cheek before disappearing into his bedroom. Harry looked after him with a blush on his cheeks.

Harry stared up at the ceiling as he thought over what Tom had said. What did he want to do with himself? He was happy working in the Magical Menagerie, he had always loved animals and magical creatures, but he could do better. He had the grades, he even had some contacts after his time in the pet shop. He didn't have to be content with working in Diagon Alley simply because he didn't want to become famous. He could specialize in one species, or in one field. He really enjoyed taking care of sick animals… Maybe he should become a veterinarian, as the Muggles called it? It was surely one idea to consider. Much better than becoming an Auror. Yes, the idea had some credit.

Content with his plan, Harry felt the day's exhaustion wash over him. Even if he had napped after his outburst that morning, he felt tired to his bones. He buried himself deeper in his covers and closed his eyes, ready to let sleep come over him. Harry moved his hand under the pillow to make sure his wand was safe when he felt the letters against his skin. He had completely pushed them out of his mind. They would have to wait until tomorrow… he was not in the emotional state needed to read them. If he could, he would likely ignored them for even longer, but something told him that Tom would force him to read them sooner or later.

Harry pushed away the thought. Tom couldn't force him to do anything. ...okay, Tom could likely manipulate him into doing something but that was not the same thing. Annoyed by his thoughts, Harry forced himself to think about something else.

When he finally fell asleep, it was to pleasant thoughts about a book he had wanted to read for a while, but hadn't been able to get his hands on.

A/N: I hope the characterizations are okay... I've been somewhat out of it this week, and it affects my writing.

My plan is to have the next part be in Tom's POV, so I hope you'll look forward to that.

For Tom's eventual political role, he'll use Lucius as a middle hand for the political scene, and it's not going to be an important plot point.

Please review, it makes my day x (and please, review in English, I don't trust Google Translate to do you justice)