Chapter 75:
They sat in silence for a bit, before Tom abruptly rose to his feet, effectively breaking the moment.
Harry looked up at him, expressionless.
"You going back to Hogwarts now?" he asked, trying to sound unconcerned.
"Do you want me to?" Tom raised an eyebrow.
Harry shrugged, unwilling to see the smirk that would follow a no.
"Do you want to?" he returned. "Surely my opinion doesn't come into consideration, oh great Dark Lord…" he added mockingly.
Tom smirked, shrugging back in an annoyingly elegant manner, offering a hand to pull him up.
"I haven't raided top secret cupboards yet," he said in way of answer. "Coming?"
Sirius, Remus, Hermione and the Weasleys were outside of the door when he and Tom walked out, trying to look casual, as if they had coincidently just happened to congregate outside of his room.
"Hey," he greeted, awkwardly, uncomfortably aware of the fact he had pretty much refused to communicate to any of them in the last couple of days.
To be fair, he had thought it was for their own good! And he still wasn't sure that the Horcrux wouldn't do anything.
They all replied, voices falsely bright, as if pretending none of it ever happened.
"You okay?" Sirius and Remus both asked, softly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, resisting the urge to cough into his sleeve or something equally self-conscious, smiling.
"I see you're talking again," Ron noted. Harry paused, wary and hopeful at the same time.
"Yeah," he said, not knowing what else to say.
Ron nodded, twisting his hands, not saying anything else either. The silence continued, but Harry grinned at the red head, in a conciliatory fashion, knowing he was trying to make amends.
Ron grinned back, sheepishly, sadly.
"Awww, the kiddliwinkas are friends again!" Fred and George chorused suddenly, hugging each other over enthusiastically, wiping 'tears' from their eyes.
"Shut up," Ron grumbled, becoming animated again.
Tom looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, strolling past, snagging Harry's arm as he went to tug him along. Harry's gaze snapped to the other's face; unreadable.
The rest of the Grimmauld Household seemed to stumble after them, the Order members watching Tom with hawk eyes.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked, detachedly bemused.
"I need tea," Tom stated. "And I presume this place has a kitchen."
"Third door to the right on your first floor," Hermione offered, hurrying to catch up with them. "Are you sure you're okay, Harry? Do you want to talk about it?"
"I'm fine," Harry repeated, smiling, exchanging a brief knowing expression with Ron. "And thanks, but no thanks."
They all arrived at the kitchen, Tom 'oblivious' to the way everyone stared at him as he opened cupboards. Every time he slammed one shut, somoene flinched.
Harry couldn't help but feel a terrible sense of amusement building in his chest.
"So…" Remus began, smiling widely at Tom, "Harry's told us a lot about you."
Harry automatically felt the urge to cringe at the opening lines, even as Tom's eyes gleamed.
"Oh?" The Slytherin Heir questioned. "All bad I presume?"
Remus looked even more uncomfortable.
"Er…"
"Thanks for saving my life," Sirius began instead. "Back at-"
"I didn't do it for you," Tom interrupted, flatly, his grin sharp. "Thank your godson, he's the one that cut the deal."
"Deal?" Sirius demanded, voice suddenly gone croaky, head swinging to Harry. "What deal? Harry-"
Harry forced a laugh.
"It's just a figure of speech, Tom's messing with you."
He shot the young Dark Lord in question a pointed glare, silently urging him to play nicely. Tom merely blinked back at him, putting the kettle to boil.
Harry couldn't help but pause at the bizzareness of this.
"You actually know how to make your own tea?" he questioned, distracted, not sure why that surprised him. Tom merely sneered at him in response, as if ridiculing the question. Mrs Weasley bustled over, flustered.
"Here, let me do it dear, you're a guest…how are you and Harry friends again?"
"We tried to kill each other, ended up comatose and well, you know what they say," Tom mused, stepping back as Mrs Weasley fussed over the tea, watching her with critical, glittering eyes, "the rest is history."
Harry almost closed his eyes in despair. The silence dragged on for a moment, oddly familiar, before Mrs Weasley laughed, a strained laugh. When Tom didn't chuckle and smile, she looked uncertainly at Harry along with everyone else, as if seeking translation.
"That one," Harry admitted feebly, at Tom's raised eyebrow "actually did happen."
They all gaped.
"Start of a beautiful new friendship," Tom stated cheerfully, content to dismiss the way he appeared to be steadily creeping everyone in the room out, and frankly, probably completely aware of the effect he was having despite his assumed carelessness, and gaining some sick sense of entertainment value from it.
Harry resisted the urge to face palm.
He could only imagine Sirius and Remus' reactions if he actually had been dating the psychopath….
He was torn between hilarity and horror.
From the fact Tom hadn't left yet, largely putting up with his friends, though he switched between the type of likeable charm that no one could resist and downright psychopathic behaviour seemingly on the flick of a switch, Harry presumed he was staying.
Harry would have to talk to him about it, the behaviour, not the staying - it was clear Tom was trying to unnerve the order members around him, playing up it much like he played up to the gossip of their rumoured couple-ness.
The real question was why? Why was he playing up to it?
Testing? Most likely.
He knew Tom perfectly well, and knew that he could have just used full out charm if he wanted to, but instead he chose to waver masks, reality and games into an indistinguishable blur. There was a reason behind it, Tom was above all not irrational.
Sirius pulled Harry aside later that night, much like Harry had been expecting, a serious 'godfather' like expression on his face.
Harry waited for the inevitable.
"Tom seems…" Sirius paused for a moment, searching for a word, "interesting."
"He is," Harry said quietly, knowing that much at least was true, and thanking whatever deity looked out for him (because it certainly wasn't Fate!) that Sirius hadn't said something like 'nice' or 'friendly,' for Tom was neither.
"You seem close," Sirius persisted.
"I suppose we are," Harry said, largely non-committal, eyeing the older man for any signs of his intentions.
There was just concern, worry, relief and something else…love? But he didn't know it too truly recognise it. It was a reassuring notion though. Sirius was quiet, leaning against the wall, struggling for the right articulations.
"I'm worried for you," Sirius said finally, with a blunt Gryffindor-ness that Harry couldn't help but smile at, a rush of fondness flooding his insides. It was nice that Sirius cared.
He didn't reply though. Sirius was studying him with an intensity Harry was unfamiliar with from the ex-convict, as Sirius was generally so lighthearted.
Harry wasn't sure this new solemnity suited him, or maybe it was just different and new.
"You…you're very dependent on him," Sirius murmured, his tone even softer now. Harry felt a flicker of shock, but Sirius continued before he could respond. "And honestly, kid, it can be slightly, well, alarming," his Godfather huffed a weak smile, as if to ease the growing tension. "I've never seen anything like it…you kind of orbit each other..."
Sirius was treading carefully now, studying Harry's features for expression. It was the first time it really hit Harry that Sirius had been raised in the Black, traditionally Slytherin, way, the pureblood way.
Harry returned the gaze squarely.
"Orbit?" he asked, neutrally.
"You can't keep your eyes off each other," Sirius said flatly. "When he's in the room you…position yourself around him, and he around you…you're completely absorbed. It's, a little intense to witness."
"And that's why you're worried?" Harry said, pretty sure that he should be feeling something more than apathy regarding this conversation, this topic.
He was just exhausted from hearing it a million times before, and simply exhausted.
Sirius definitely seemed pained now, uneasy and unfamiliar with this role of…parent? Was it a parental role? Harry couldn't tell, he had nothing to compare to, except…him, and it was too painful to think about him right now, too raw.
"It's not exactly normal," Sirius muttered, appearing as if it quite killed him to say such a thing.
"Yeah, well," Harry tried to dismiss it, nonchalant, "neither am I. Boy-who-lived and all that jazz…"
"Be careful." Sirius' tone had turned pleading, and that caught a hook in Harry's chest more than anything, sparking strong emotion, something.
He swallowed, hard, as Sirius released him back into the bustle of readying-for-bed activity.
Ginny stalked past him, even paler than she seemed before, somehow drained and lifeless. Harry headed for his room - he was now sharing with Tom, because most of the other's had blanched at the thought of being asleep and vulnerable in the same area as the Slytherin.
"Goodnight Padfoot…"
The way everyone was warning him off Tom was startiing to get a bit repetitive; in an ominous way.
A/N: Meh, on this chapter. I wouldn't say it's my best…I suppose liking my work was too good to last ;) Ah well, I suppose I have to slip in a self deprecating comment in here somewhere - so you know that it's me ;)Thank you for all the reviews. Next chapter is more interesting (in my head…) so at least you have something to look forward to if this was a disappointment. I'll quit while I'm ahead…
HYPED FOR MERLIN! AND DOCTOR WHO! Woooo.