Chapter 26 (Lestrange's POV):
He cowered slightly, a sick feeling growing in the pit of his stomach under the hard scrutiny of those old blue eyes.
"You were supposed to dissuade him from joining the dark side Cygnus," the old man stated softly.
"H-he's not on the dark side, sir!" he offered quickly.
"He's not on the light, is he?" Dumbledore sounded sad. "You've disappointed me. Surely you understand that this is for the greater good? Do you want Tom to simply…neglect you? Because that's what he's doing!"
"No," he said. "I -I just…I don't think this is a good idea! I want out! Tom will kill me if he finds out!"
"Then it would be a great pity if he were to receive an anonymous tip off, wouldn't it? If Voldemort wins, the world as we know it will be destroyed…your comfortable pure blood life would be gone. I need Harry to end it, he's the only one who can. He must kill Voldemort."
He was going to throw up, fear worming into his heart.
"I'm doing what I can, sir! They just…they're closer than I imagined!"
"What exactly are you doing, Cygnus m'boy? Because it doesn't seem to be working…"
"I - I spilled coffee on him."
"You spilled coffee on him? And how exactly is that beneficial to our plan? I thought I could trust you…" the old man twirled his wand, almost idly.
"You can trust me!" he panicked. "Of course you can! I'll get it done! Harry will return to the light…and then…then you'll let us go and let history run its path?"
"Of course. It is a dangerous thing to meddle with time." Yes, it was. Harry should never have come! He was doing this for the greater good! He was saving Tom from his own weakness - then once the boy was gone, he, Cygnus Lestrange, would be his lord's favourite once more. Harrison Evans, Potter…he was just messing everything up! He was merely trying to let history run its natural course. He had been chosen.
"Now that we've got rid of business…would you like a lemon drop? You still have much to learn so you might as well get comfortable."
Knowledge was power…and he wanted power. If Tom Riddle refused to fall in place…well, they'd soon see who would be calling the other my lord, wouldn't they?
(Harry's POV)
He sat up with a jerk, dark thoughts of dark mysterious corridors lingering in his mind. Voldemort was looking for something…something behind that door? But what was it.
Tom's eyes flicked to him. He must have dozed off in the common room. He was more tired than he thought…he must have been. That, or the connection was growing. He now stayed at the Slytherin common room…it wasn't official…it had just sort of come about as true to Ginny's declaration, he was no longer welcome in Gryffindor. Of course, it wasn't everyone. Hermione, the Weasleys (barring Ginny) Neville, Dean, the Quidditch team…they still supported him.
The other's, led by Ginny and Mclaggan most noticeably didn't. Nonetheless, it was easy to say he didn't really want to go and be cursed. It wasn't like he spent every waking hour in the snake's common room…but he slept there…after Tom had threatened him bodily harm if he didn't comply. Then Tom found out about the nightmares and how they hadn't stopped…which hadn't been pretty. Things were still a little tense between them, but okay generally.
"Alright?" the Slytherin heir questioned. He shook his head.
"I'm fine," he said automatically, flashing Tom a smile. Tom's eyes narrowed.
"Vision or nightmare?" he asked simply. Harry paused, he wasn't sure if he loved Tom for being the only one to see him crying behind his smiles, or hate him. They stared at each other for a moment. His head was throbbing something awful, like someone was ramming a sledgehammer across his mind.
"Vision, I think," he replied finally. Tom's head tilted in thought.
"Corridor with a door at the end?"
Harry started, just slightly, his brow furrowing.
"That's the one…?"
"Snap," Tom smiled grimly. "Must have been some vision if I'm getting the backlash of it."
Harry made a noise of agreement, his eyes flicking over Tom.
"What's the book?" he asked instead. He really didn't want to talk about it, it was probably nothing…which sounded lame even to himself. But he wasn't on the light, but he wasn't on the dark either so it wouldn't be right to discuss it.
"Rise and Fall of the dark arts."
"Seriously?" he arched his brows. Tom rolled his eyes.
"Just because you happily walk across a different time period with only a vague knowledge of current events and no proper cover story, that doesn't mean I would do the same."
Fair does…Harry shrugged it off, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He couldn't help but notice that Tom hadn't gone back to his book yet, which could only mean one thing:
"Okay, what do you want?" he asked.
"What?" Tom questioned, seeming to snap out of his thoughts. "What makes you think I want anything? You wound me."
"Your middle name is want and desire…and you have that expression on your face."
"My middle name is Marvolo - surely you should know that, Harry?" Tom smirked. He narrowed his eyes.
"It's a figure of speech," he huffed. Tom favoured him with a slightly amused, unreadable look.
"Come here."
"I-what?" he asked. Whatever he was expecting, that wasn't it.
"Come here," Tom repeated calmly, making a gesture at the sofa seat next to him.
"Why?"
"Do you always question every single order or instruction you are given, or am I just a special occasion?"
"You're special. I'm keeping your huge ego from inflating further," he replied promptly, without thought. "You should know that by now." He could have sworn that Tom almost smiled. In the end though, he simply inclined his head at the seat.
Warily, Harry rose and walked over and sat down. "I hope you're not going to have some deep mushy conversation here…are you under polyjuice?" he asked suddenly. This time, Tom went a step further then smiling and almost started to laugh.
"Not that I'm aware of," he remarked dryly. A hand shifted to rest on his shoulder, causing him to jerk at the sudden movement. Tom paused, but then let his hand rest there.
"What are you -" he began, before falling silent as the pain his head coalesced before fading completely. "What are you doing?"
"Paradox Potter," Tom said shortly, looking down at his book once more. He waited for further explanation, but the Slytherin heir simply continued reading calmly.
"Care to elaborate on that?" he questioned. Tom sighed, sounding long suffering.
"I'm shall we say the…original soul out of both of us (my future self and I) so I've got something of an advantage, shall we say. Seeing as we have the same soul though, it creates a paradox, and because I'm the 'dominant soul' that means he can't come anywhere where I am."
"You're in my head?" he demanded, alarmed.
"Is that the only part you got?" Tom answered, somewhat exasperated. He shook his head, not speaking for a moment.
"Why?"
"You need sleep…without nightmares or visions."
"Why do you care?" he elaborated.
"Because your magic is straining from exhaustion and liable to lash out if you don't give it some rest. It's irritating to sit next to."
Okay…well hell, never look a gift horse in the mouth.
"I hope you enjoy being a pillow then," he said smartly, abruptly shifting away from the hand and putting his head to rest across Tom's lap instead. Riddle went completely still.
He grinned.
"Disrespectful twit."
"But I thought you loved me…"
"Just shut up and go to sleep."
(Tom's POV
)He regarded the sleeping boy in bemusement. He hadn't expected Harry to actually take him up on that. Oh well, it worked for him. The more points, the more trust Harry had in him, the easier this whole thing would be. Not to mention…the link was open. It wasn't taking advantage, Harry hadn't asked about what effects deliberately causing that paradox would have, had he? That, and the magic really was irritating. It made him skittish and jumpy as his own aura reacted to it. Presides, he wouldn't wake up for a while and he needed to have a private conversation with his followers. Harry did need the sleep, so he wasn't exactly doing anything wrong, was he? The idiot didn't even question what he said about souls. He smiled, tucking the corner of his page in the book. He had disquised it as the rise and fall of the dark arts, but it wasn't. This book was rare - Secrets of the darkest art.
Afterall, with all this talk of timetravel, his own time had been flittering in his head.
And that was when he dicovered horcruxes.
The door opened as the figures walked in.
AN: I'm SORRY! That was…actually I'm not going to say that, despite it being the truth, because certain people will flame my self confidence issues. Eek. Anyway, have an update. I was going to do PP, but it's on the over computer. Expect it soon anyway, as I'm about 3 quarters through the next update. Well, thanks for all the reviews. Enjoy?