Chapter 50:
The door of the abandoned classroom closed behind them both, locking with a soft click.
Harry folded his arms, leaning back on one of the desks, waiting for Tom to speak. He didn't have to wait long. "What did Dumbledore want?" Tom demanded. He was silent, staring back. "Start talking!"
Harry pulled a hesitant face, before finally replying in a tone of utmost secrecy.
"You know I'm The Boy Who Lived and all that?" he said. Tom nodded, presumably in an encouraging manner. "Well, he wants me to endorse a new brand of lemon drops." The other's expression turned cold. Harry beamed, continuing: "It's so he can get 50% off. Of course, I get half of-"
Tom's wand pressed abruptly against the hollow of his throat, and his own hand closed simultaneously around his own holly and phoenix feather. He swallowed slightly, his body taut with tension.
He hadn't had time to draw his wand out, sure, he could curse Tom, but in this close proximity he wouldn't be able to do so without the other's spell hitting him first - and Tom knew some nasty magic. His reflexes were quite good, if he said so himself, so unlike most people he would be able to get his own hit in even in this rather compromising position, if it came down to that. Unfortunately, he just wouldn't be able to do it without taking a blow himself.
"I'm not amused, Harry. So do try and curb that wit of yours before I curb it for you, hmm?" Tom suggested dangerously. Harry tilted his head to look up at the other, (and why did Tom have to be taller than him!) uncomfortably aware of the wood digging into his jugular.
"Ah, sorry. Did you expect me to be intimidated at that?" he asked after a moment. "It's just you're not very frightening, but I can try and make an effort? Cower in my boots a bit …I don't actually have any boots, well, I have my dragon hide boots from last years care of magical creatures, but I'm not wearing-"
Tom's hand shot up, yanking his Gryffindor tie hard, causing it to constrict, choking. He spluttered to a halt, wondering absently what he would look like with blue lips.
"Do shut up," Tom hissed.
"But I thought you wanted me to talk," he mocked, albeit a bit breathlessly. Come to think of it, he did feel rather dizzy. Tom's jaw tightened. "You know, you're being very moody," he remarked. Seemingly praying for patience, the other let the red and gold material loosen. "That didn't really work, did it?" he asked in a pityingly concerned manner.
"I could just legilimise you," Tom stated. Harry felt his heart speed up a bit in unease, blithe remarks of Tom's intimidation techniques aside.
He started to try and figure out how to draw his wand without attracting attention to the fact he was doing so.
"Sure, you could," he replied cheerfully, before hardening his tone. "But to be honest, none of this is actually any of your business!"
"You said you'd tell me."
"No, I said I might tell you -" he wasn't going to. Not about horcruxes. "But now, well, I don't much like being dragged around without my own consent. It's not very nice. Nor is digging your wand into my throat," he finished pointedly.
As if to spite him, Tom pressed the yew harder in response. Ow. Second guessing the next reply, he turned his head away from Tom's gaze. Eye contact was important for legilimency, it could be done without it, but it was a lot more difficult. He also snapped his eyes shut. There was a minute of utter, strained, tension as he waited for Tom to forcibly enter his mind. Cavalier attitude aside, his Occlumency was crap, so if Tom wanted the information so desperately he could just take it. And he'd have to, break time was soon over. Lessons would be starting again in five minutes.
At the sound of that familiar, yet at this time unexpected, laughter, his eyes almost shot open again in nerves. Why was Tom laughing? And with such an undertone of sadistic delight?
"You know, that laughter is creepy," he commented offhandedly.
Then, he realised the cause of it, and almost groaned. He'd been so focussed on the fact that Tom was driven by a relentless thirst for information and power (and how to prevent Tom from finding out about the horcruxes) that he'd forgotten the other elements: Tom's absolute, genuine love of toying with people, especially him. The Young Dark Lord loved anything that could challenge him for longer than half an hour…and he'd just inadvertently offered such a challenge.
Bloody fantastic.
He'd made sure that Tom's interest in his conversation was well and truly piqued, because he'd gone to such lengths to hide it. How was he supposed to have the brain space for these conversational intricacies when he already had horcruxes and everything else clogging up his mind? Maybe he could still reverse the interest?
Taking the chance that Tom might go for the challenging route (until he ran out of patience) rather than simply reading his mind, he cautiously opened his eyes again. Tom was studying him intently, wand still angled at his throat.
"You're not going to let up now, are you?" he asked, resignedly. Tom's eyes shot to his, curious. "Fine, I'll tell you. No doubt, you'll find out anyway, but do you mind withdrawing the wand first, it's rather uncomfortable."
Tom didn't move. Right. Of course not, he had too much of a habit of 'evading questions' or 'running away.'
"Well, can you at least take it away from my throat," he said. "It's difficult to talk when I can't take a full breath - and god, I'm probably going to have bruises so thanks."
Tom flicked the wand down to across his heart instead. Like that was so much better. It probably wasn't meant to be.
"If you lie…" Tom left the threat hanging.
He resisted the urge to wince. Oh yeah, he was going to be lying through his teeth when he started speaking. He was quiet for a minute, for effect.
"He was giving me the guilt trip about leaving the light, trying to get me to come back to his side," he started, bitterly. "You know, saying how much of a disappointment I was being to those who cared about me, how you were dangerous and not to be trusted," Harry rolled his eyes. "As if I'd want to go back to being the 'light side's little lamb,' as you put it." He glanced up to gauge the other's expression. "I didn't want to tell you because you, being you, would completely freak out and go on a headmaster murdering rampage."
Judging by the shadows on Tom's countenance, that was currently still a likely outcome.
"And well, even though Dumbledore's a dick, I don't want him dead. And really, you shouldn't be bothered anyway, because ultimately nothing happened and he didn't try anything, so unless you're jealous that I spent time with him instead of you," he gave a short laugh. "Which would be ridiculous, it's nothing. Past. Finito…and yeah. That's the bell. I have transfiguration."
He straightened against the desk, only for the wand to press further into his chest to indicate he should make himself comfortable again. As if he could be comfortable with the Slytherin heir pointing a wand at him. Shit.
"Err, Tom…I need to go to Transfiguration. I've already missed a lesson today."
"Then it won't make a difference if you miss another. You've already taken your OWLs anyway."
"Under a different name of someone who until recently was widely believed to be dead," he pointed out.
"Sit."
"For god's sake Tom, I have a lesson. I've already told you what happened, what more do you want?"
"Are you okay?" He blinked at the unanticipated question. Oh.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, feeling slightly off kilter.
"I can tell when people lie to me. You haven't stopped lying since we entered," Tom replied flatly. Warning bells shrieked in his head at the other's tone. He was sure Dumbledore would understand…
"Okay, so I might have lied about him not trying anything…he locked me in when I wouldn't initially listen to what he had to say." Tom's grip tightened on his wand, white knuckled. "But you should have seen your expression, you already looked like you were going to go on killing spree! I wasn't going to fuel that."
"He'd deserve it," Tom replied, appraising him. "I wish I could trust you, Harry," he said after a while.
"You can trust me…" he replied cautiously. Tom's mouth twisted into the cruel imitation of a smile.
"Then show me the memory of your meeting with Dumbledore." Crap. "No?" Tom enquired, when he didn't speak. "I thought not."
"Trust is a two way street," Harry replied quietly, readying his magic in anticipation.
"Well," Tom replied softly. "Here's to one day being able to trust each other. Legilimens."
"Protego!"
A/N: Reviews =O Thank you so so so much. I feel so loved. You guys are the best audience a fanfiction writer could ever have! And oh my god, I have over 700 reviews. Aaaah. I never thought anything of mine would actually be so popular! I much appreciate your support. As a token of my appreciation - have a super quick update. And an uncommonly long one. Ah, my writing's so erratic. Hope you enjoyed it - The Fictionist.