Chapter 83:
"What the hell did you do to my godson?" Sirius snarled, moving forwards, more animal then man. Harry's eyes widened.
"Siri-" he began.
"-Get away from him!" Ron ordered, roughly, advancing also.
Tom's wand was in his hand so fast that it was nothing but a blur, but he was still kneeling next to Harry's half collapsed form, limiting his capacity to dodge
"Guys-" Harry started again, louder.
"How dare you hurt him?" Sirius again, a curse on his tongue when Harry automatically shoved Tom backwards out of the way.
"FOR GOD'S SAKE LISTEN TO ME FIRST!" He yelled, at the top of his voice. Everyone paused, staring at him. "Thank you," he snapped, with a level of sarcasm. "Tom isn't hurting me, or attacking me…so everybody just, you know, lower your wands, okay? It's Christmas. Good will to men and all that."
Sirius studied him for a moment, as if he trying to assess the truth of the statement, before dong so, and everyone else followed his lead.
"You too, Tom," Harry instructed quietly, though he couldn't quite bring himself to look at the other just yet. He just knew by Ron's expression that Tom hadn't unarmed himself yet.
"What is happening here, then?" Remus questioned, voice sounding a little hoarse.
Harry could feel Tom's eyes burning into the side of his face.
"I-" Harry bit his lip, cursing inwardly. "I have…um…nightmares, alright? Tom was trying to wake me up."
"Some nightmare," Fred - or was it George? - said flatly. Harry shrugged, awkwardly.
"Sorry," he muttered. "I normally have silencing charms."
"Which is really damaging," Tom added pointedly, voice still a fraction frosty from the wands pointed at him only moments before. Harry blinked, noting Hermione had said the exact same thing simultaneously. His lips twitched.
People were slowly settling into the room.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked worriedly. "Would you like to talk about it?"
Harry shook his head, vehemently, automatically, before forcing a smile.
"It's fine, really. Sorry for waking you all up…what time is it?" he asked.
"Six in the morning," Mrs Weasley mumbled, sounding shaken. Harry winced.
"Right, sorry about that. You guys can all just go back to sleep. Sorry."
"Nah…" Ron yawned, eyes lighting up. "Presents!"
Harry grinned despite himself, albeit weakly. Most people drifted downstairs with Ron to either open presents, now that they were up, or back to their beds to nurse their late night. Sirius shifted guiltily.
"I apologise for trying to attack you," his godfather told Tom. "It was…unfair of me to make that assumption."
Tom nodded stiffly, regarding the Black with an entirely neutral gaze, revealing nothing of his emotions. Sirius shifted again, uncomfortably, before glancing at Harry once more.
"I'll talk to you later, kiddo…" he mumbled, with a hint of forbidding in his tone, presumably because Harry had neglected to mention nightmares before this.
Harry swallowed slightly.
"Okay," he said softly. Sirius ruffled his hair affectionately, before backing out the room, seeming slightly mortified.
Harry heard him cursing to Remus as they walked down the corridor. Silence filled the room.
"So, um…Happy Christmas?" Harry offered, brightly, standing up, only for Tom to rise with him, stepping into his way, with a half warning half…something else (comforting?) grip on his arm.
"What did you see?" Tom demanded, voice low.
Harry's gaze flicked up involuntarily, and then latched, scouring the other's face for differences, zoning on the eyes.
The eyes were different, though both had that undeniable edge of danger and darkness…but Tom's had more to them that, they had life as well as death.
He must have been silent for too long, for Tom's grip tightened fractionally, fingers flexing against his skin.
"What do I normally see in nightmares?" he returned, smiling wryly, his masks slowly hardening around once more as he woke up.
"You weren't having a nightmare," Tom said, no question in his tone.
Harry barely caught himself from stiffening, or giving some other noticeable reaction. Did Tom know what had just happened?
"What do you mean?" he questioned, trying not to let his panic show, "of course I was!"
He shifted his arm out of Tom's grip, with a shake of his head, as if to dismiss Tom's words to absurdity.
His arm locked into place and Harry couldn't suppress the shiver that ran down his spine that time, the mental flashback.
"Tom…" his words were barely a murmur, before he forcefully bolstered them with some strength. "You really need to stop doing that."
"Perhaps I would if you'd stop making me chase you," Tom returned, walking around to stand in his line of sight once more. His arms were folded.
"What can I say, I've always been told to play hard to get. Be mean, keep 'em keen-" he began, rambling.
Tom placed a hand over his mouth, promptly shutting him up, before taking it away again.
"You seem to have picked up the annoying habit of doing that as well," Harry muttered, with a tinge of defiance.
"You weren't having a nightmare," Tom repeated, dangerously "When a person is dreaming or having a nightmare, they are in the fifth and deepest stage of sleep and, for all intents and purposes - paralysed. This occurs to stop the sleeper from acting upon what they are dreaming. Boy wonder or not, you are not exempt from this…and you mumble when you're having a nightmare. However, when you have a vision you are not still, you are in another state entirely and tend to thrash and toss as if someone was holding you under the cruciatus." Tom paused, staring at him intently. "So, what did you see?"
"You know," Harry replied slowly, looking away, "that implies you've watch me sleep…creep."
"Hero," Tom hissed, warningly.
Harry sighed, tugging his free hand through his hair. This wasn't going as planned.
"Death Eater meeting," he invented, on the spot. "They've screwed up on something and he's not happy. He tortures them. Here I am."
Tom's brow furrowed slightly, and the lock on his arm left, loosening in its pressure. The snake hissed soothingly as it melted back to crescent nail marks.
"Are you okay?" Tom asked, studying him. "I've got a pain relief potion if you need it due to…after affects."
Harry almost smiled, while simultaneously feeling inexplicably guilty that he was lying to the Slytherin Heir's face…but Tom couldn't do anything, and he couldn't run to the other every time he had a minor problem. Besides, this was between him and Voldemort.
"Pain relief comes with the domestic violence starter kit too?" he questioned instead.
Tom smirked, but didn't comment, merely raising his brows in a repeated enquiry.
"I'm fine," Harry said, softly, feeling oddly touched. "Thanks."
Tom waved it away, gruffly
."If I don't torture you, no one else gets to," he returned coolly.
"I feel loved," Harry snorted. Tom smiled, just about.
He could hear shouts of delight from downstairs, as gifts were opened. Tom's head tilted.
"Would you like your gift now or later?" the young Dark Lord asked, after a moment.
Harry blinked, convinced he'd misheard.
"You got me a Christmas present?" he asked. Tom bestowed him with that 'you're asking something stupid, the answer's obvious ' look, though he seemed marginally uncomfortable, as much as Tom ever looked uncomfortable.
"That is generally the custom, isn't it? You got me one."
"Well, yeah, but-" Harry trailed off, a warm feeling growing in his stomach. He hadn't expected Tom to return the favour.
No…Tom and Voldemort were definitely different, and he would cling to that…even if it was highly disconcerting to go from being tortured to be being given gifts…
Tom turned away from him, crossing the room to a cupboard next to the radiator, opening it and taking out a large cardboard box.
It wasn't wrapped in any festive or glitzy paper, and had small holes in it. A snake?
He took it when Tom handed it to him, watching him with an unreadable expression and a…nervous(?) touch in the deepest levels of his irises.
Harry smiled at him, a small smile, before opening the lid with a growing sense of curiosity.
When he saw what it was, his heart stopped.
Rat.
His eyes shot up to meet Tom's, who now looked more amused than anything else.
"T-This is Peter Pettigrew?" he said, disbelieving, inwardly cringing at the stammer in his voice.
"Yes," Tom said evenly. "Do what you want with him. Kill him, torture him, hand him over for trial and free your Godfather…"
Harry looked down at the stunned grey rat, before up at Tom again.
"Should I take your silence as an 'I like it' or…?"
"I…thank you," Harry murmured, absolutely speechless.
He could free Sirius. He could have a real family. A real family…that was what Tom was offering him.
He set the box down carefully, trusting Tom had secured the traitor strongly enough that he wouldn't escape.
Tom regarded him carefully for a moment, before shrugging with a careless debonair.
"Merry Christmas, Harry."
"Merry Christmas, Tom."
Tom wasn't Voldemort.
There was hope, and he would cling to that.
But he wasn't looking forward to the nights, nonetheless.
A/N: So…thanks for the reviews. I hope you enjoyed this update, and that it makes Monday's more bearable.. And that Tom's gift wasn't too OOC or lame, or whatever, nor Tom. Um, yeah. Back to Hogwarts soon…the reference to "Domestic Violence starter pack" refers to Eos9's Fighting Fate vignettes - I hope she doesn't mind me using them. I write my updates spur of the moment, and forgot to ask before. (I can revise it if you mind me bouncing off you in an obvious manner.)
PS: I got a Slytherin Pen from one of my friends =O It's totally awesome. Yup. You can clearly see that I am now a mature and responsible young adult….