Diamonds in My Chest, Dotan

Like a stranger to myself

With his pockets empty

My head's a carousel

It's a long way down to never land

I left my soul on the shelf

Never cried for help In my blood

Now my bones are ready

Oh my love

You never left

Like diamonds in my chest

We will roam

To where our legs will carry

Your eyes like rising suns

The light is blinding

Like whispers from your tongue

It's a long way out and back again

It's a long way out and back again

The Dark Lord continued to push for answers about what the Djinn had wanted, and Harry continued to resist, amused himself with it throughout the remainder of Wednesday afternoon. Tom's anxiety sightly dampened the joy he got from making Voldemort's face contort every time he said, 'I don't know what you're talking about,' but he got his kicks where he could.

He was given the silent treatment after dinner until they were ready for bed, and Harry said, "Har said you're next," earning a string of expletives from Voldemort.

Thursday morning, Harry was awakened by once again being yanked to the floor and stripped naked, so he assumed the Dark Lord was less mad. Ultimately impossible to tell, always somewhat seething with rage.

After he'd bathed, he was made to read through the profiles of students he didn't care much about. Students who he'd be fighting soon, at least some of them, in front of an incredibly large crowd if the size of the new stadium was anything to go by.

Still, his eyes glazed over at the names and the garnered information, confident it scarcely mattered. He also knew that while his gaze was unfocused, Tom was paying attention.

Voldemort left the office several times through Wednesday and Thursday, each time preparing himself mentally as though he was about to cliff-dive. He would square his shoulders and remind Harry not to touch anything before he Disapparated.

He did touch things, and Nagini didn't care. Among the things he touched was the newest copy of the Daily Prophet, lamenting the (Allegedly accidental) death of Pius Thicknesse and announcing Corban Yaxley's campaign in the same breath. The side article on the front page held a smaller image of himself, walking behind the Dark Lord and looking constipated in the Ministry Atrium. He supposed it was better than looking insatiably horny and figured he had his Horcrux to thank for that, threatening him throughout the public walk-through.

By nightfall, Crux was in his head, ' Are you gonna talk with Reed and the others in the Chamber?'

He seemed to be trying to hide how interested he was, unsuccessful, and Harry rolled his eyes.

' Probably? I don't know. Don't really want you there?'

'I'll wait here.'

Harry scowled, and Crux waited in his mind, impatiently chattering until they descended to the dungeons; Nagini sent to collect Cassiopeia and the students. Bed Sheet remained in the Dark Lord's office because Nagini couldn't be trusted—at least that was what Harry had said when Voldemort demanded it. He'd forced him into promising the Lethifold a prisoner afterwards for his troubles.

Death Eaters were ordered to clear the halls and the Slytherin common room, and Voldemort opened the passage, pressing his thumb to the serpent's mouth.

As soon as the way closed behind them, Harry was pinned to the low, curved walls by his chest and subjected to Legilimency once again, sending Crux scrambling for the only hiding place in Harry's head and making his heart leap into his throat.

Each time he was increasingly violent with the search, leaving Harry to slide down the wall with a deep-fried skull and brain, secrets intact.

"Don't need to be such a dick about it," he muttered when he got a full enough inhale.

Voldemort laughed, sharp, echoing, and humourless as he walked away.

"… You know what would be fun?" Harry said, catching up, switching to Parseltongue and changing the subject, " Letting me fight Zabini."

'He won't do that now 'cause you asked,' Crux thought, bleeding amusement after crawling out of Harry's innermost secrets. ' Sweetheart, do you ever go in there? Just for fun? Bright? Eh? Nearly blinding. '

'…No,' Tom thought.

'No? Oh fuck that's hilarious. No?! Why not?'

'Stop it.'

Crux giggled, ringing between his ears nearly audibly, ' You know, you got right under his skin when you said the lies he tells himself get you off. You should do it again. That's a soft spot.'

Tom perked up but stalled in his head, like a tyre spinning in place, ' …How so?' his thoughts were gentle as though he feared Crux would blow away with them.

' Any indication that leg boy here is his equal makes him want to fucking die . Makes him think of the possibility that I'm his equal. Need to desensitise him to the idea.'

Harry frowned at the Dark Lord's back, breath hitching when he threw back his hood and ducked into the mouth of Salazar Slytherin.

'… I've been thinking a lot about what that Djinn said, have you?' Crux asked as Harry fell into the water below.

He dried himself with the Snakewood wand and watched the Dark Lord's eyes linger on it.

' Yes,' Tom thought.

' Bet it stings? Really cuts you up inside?'

'I knew it was a possibility.'

'Yeah, that's not what I asked,' Crux thought.

'…Yes, it does.'

'…Can I see?'

Harry could feel Tom fighting to keep it in, and he was again struck with an intense need to strangle his Horcrux, something that was impossible but viscerally desired nonetheless.

' Fine.' Tom's thought was as sharp as Harry felt, pulling Crux into what he could only assume was a mess—the last time he'd seen the inside of Tom's constructed mind felt like a lifetime ago, but he knew enough to know it was crammed to the metaphorical rafters with thoughts and feelings that shouldn't be there, in Harry's opinion.

While they were absent in his head the others arrived, Cassiopeia first through the giant statue—complaining again about the entry, to which the Dark Lord said, "Use another entrance," making her huff and cross her arms.

Lydia then Nagini behind her, followed by the students, Pollux leading.

Harry sat down on the stones and raised an eyebrow at the Dark Lord, who hadn't taken his eyes off him. No expression on his face, intense regardless.

"May, Zabini," Voldemort said.

He rolled his eyes and glanced at Ginny, who sat between Avalon and Eris, the entire group avoiding eye contact with him, apart from Reed, who gave him a tiny nod.

Cassiopeia, Nagini, and Lydia sat by Harry. The vampire was grinning like it was Christmas morning, wiggling her eyebrows at the Dark Lord. He wasn't looking at her or the duel that had begun. Even when Harry looked away, he felt Voldemort staring.

Lydia asked him if he needed more potions, to which he said, 'Probably,' because he wasn't keeping track of his stock.

He didn't think it was a good idea to enter Reed's head with his Horcrux while the Dark Lord was locked on him so intently, but moments where he wasn't doing that were increasingly rare.

Reed pulled all three of them into her mindscape, Ginny and Ruby with Reed. Crux was laughing, stopped semi-short by being yanked away from his head, giggling sporadically while he assessed the non-room.

Tom had his arms crossed, eyes on Harry, expression schooled. He could guess how he felt.

Harry's hands twitched as he looked between his Horcrux and Tom. An opportunity to strangle Crux had presented itself, and though he knew it wasn't productive in the sense that his Horcrux couldn't die—that he'd probably find it funny above all else—it was irresistible regardless. He aimed for Crux's middle first, tackling him—laughing then squawking on impact—to the ground.

' Aw, what are you so upset about? You're acting crazy,' Crux grinned, holding Harry's wrists while he squeezed his Horcrux's neck—not hard enough to stop him from talking no matter how hard he pressed.

And he decided he probably did look insane, eyes bulging, teeth bared, one knee on Crux's chest and two hands clenched around his throat. No one moved to stop him though, the fact that he had witnesses zipped in and out of his awareness. He'd seen Tom step to the side in his peripherals; arms crossed, eyebrows raised.

Crux didn't resist, his grip light on Harry's wrists, smiling so wide it disfigured his face. When he began chuckling, any satisfaction was gone. Harry didn't know what he'd hoped to get from it, but the way his Horcrux genuinely lit up when he was the subject of Harry's rage made him feel bizarre.

' What's wrong, Harry?' Crux thought when he let go, ' We're having fun?'

Harry scrunched up his face in disgust, tried not to scramble away from his Horcrux, and forced his mental legs steady to kick Crux in the thigh.

' Wow, nice one. Theatrics from you as regular as theatrics from Morty.' He stood up and brushed imaginary dirt off himself.

'…Why are you guys fighting?' Ruby wondered.

' That's an easy one: Because I make them dance like monkeys. Like puppets. Like puppet monkeys,' he mimed controlling a stringed puppet, ' They don't like it, but I didn't fucking ask them, so,' he shrugged, narrowed his eyes at Harry.

'Why are you manipulating them?' Ginny wondered, and Crux spun faster than a blink.

' Wouldn't you like to know?' He glared at her, ' Pretty sure that's my business.'

Reed was preoccupied with keeping them in her headspace, but she watched Harry, making him hyper-aware of how close he was standing to Tom. He didn't move, though he fought the urge to lean in closer.

' Zabini and May are done fighting. He called Eris and Avalon,' Ruby said, and Crux stepped rapidly forward to closely examine her face.

She didn't flinch away, watched him right back, almost serenely.

'… Bugger,' Ginny muttered.

' Bugger?' Harry repeated, not looking away from his Horcrux—behaving like a shark unsure if its target was prey.

' Eris and Avalon have been… Annoying. To each other, lately. I don't think a fight will help.'

Harry immediately lost interest, shrugging, ' Maybe it will.'

'I've seen what you do. Does it hurt to pull out your own blood?' Crux wondered.

' Yeah, stings. Sometimes gives me a headache or makes my chest feel funny,' Ruby thought.

' You aren't scared of me,' it wasn't a question.

' No?' She shrugged.

' Huh. Leg boy says he's not scared of me either, but I think I don't believe him.'

Ruby looked over Crux's shoulder at Harry and shrugged again, ' I don't think he's very scared of you.'

'You're right. He should be more afraid,' he turned his attention to Ginny, ' Are you rooting for Eris or Avalon?'

She didn't answer him, frowning and trying not to look away.

' I wanted to ask you, Harry,' Ginny thought, not breaking eye contact with Crux, '… If there's any word on Charlie?'

Harry flinched and frowned in response. He hadn't asked about Charlie in… He didn't recall how long.

Crux laughed, ' He's dead.'

'What?!' Harry grabbed him instinctively, searching his face.

'No , but if he were, would you know? Huh? Would you? He's not even asked,' Crux said the last part to Ginny, who clutched her chest like she was having a heart attack.

Harry let Crux go, scowling, ' I'm sorry Gin. I haven't… Asked. I don't know if he'd even tell me.'

'Probably not, princess, but that's not the point, is it?' Crux thought, chuckling, sharp teeth bared.

' …Shut up,' Harry told him.

'He's not dead?' Ginny asked Crux.

Harry swore his face softened for an instant, before he tilted his head and grinned, ' No different. A vegetable begging for 'Shelter'.'

'I'm working on it. I'm doing what I can,' Harry thought, exasperated and guilty.

' I can vouch for him there, actually. He really is working on it. Working on it so hard.' His Horcrux snorted theatrically into the back of his hand, and Harry took a step away.

Crux clicked his tongue and then stuck it out, rolling it slowly back into his mouth while grinning too wide.

'…What do you know about the dinner thing?' Ginny wondered, snapping his attention blessedly away from his Horcrux.

Harry blinked at her.

' Yeah, legs, what do you know about the dinner thing?' Crux laughed throughout his question.

' What dinner thing?' Harry looked at Tom, but he didn't know either.

' Oh. Draco mentioned it. Some political schmoozing event, but we're invited. Or, I mean, the potential champions are. Draco said it's plus-one, so.' She seemed relieved by Crux's answers, bizarrely, Harry thought.

He was then further taken aback by both hearing her casually say 'Draco' and the fact that he had no idea what she was talking about. ' When?'

'Sunday after next,' Crux answered, ' When we're done in Indonesia.'

'What? Indonesia?' Harry parroted.

' Yup. Indonesia.' His face said, 'Duh?' then he thought, ' Morty told you. At Castelobruxo?'

'About the dinner?' He frowned.

' No, what? No. Indonesia. God, I hate you.'

Harry struggled to recall being told anything about Indonesia when Tom thought:

' Nagini's family.'

'Oh. Oh! Right, yeah, that. He never tells me anything?' He spat the last part at Crux, still sneering at him.

' When he does, it's like your ears are decoration for your empty head, fuckh-'

Harry tackled him a second time—mainly to stop the word halfway out of his mouth, but also another nearly desperate attempt to soothe his confusion-fueled rage.

' You're so ungrateful; if I could feel this, I'd be so upset,' Crux thought loudly, then quietly, ' Not offended, really, princess,' breathing down his neck and once more sending him scrambling off.

' He wants us, Reed,' Ruby said, her face the only one not contorted by concerned bewilderment.

They were ejected from Reed's head, and his Horcrux laughed out of Harry's mind immediately afterwards.

' I can't stand him,' he thought.

' I know.'

' And you?'

' …He… It's not that simple.'

' Don't say 'He is me' again,' Harry warned.

' I wasn't going to. I don't hate him. He scares me.'

Harry didn't want to ask his next question; could feel Tom squirming out from under it before it came. He watched the Dark Lord watching him and thought, ' Do you wanna fuck him?'

'Do you?' Tom's rapid, biting response made him flinch, and he automatically shook his head, a motion that made Voldemort smirk.

' What the fuck kind of a question is that? No? I hate him. You're avoiding my question like an asshole, so I'm assuming the answer is yes.'

' It's not that simple. I won't lie to you, and I'm not about to… Jesus Christ, Harry.' Tom's exasperation became red-hot anger for an instant, reigned in before he thought, ' I would not betray you like that.'

' So you would fuck him if it wasn't for me?'

' What the hell is this?'

' Just asking questions,' Harry thought.

' I think the answers to your questions are obvious.'

'Let's pretend they're not obvious and say it.'

'… It's a race to insanity. This is just a race to fucking insanity. Yes, Harry, I would. I'd fucking fuck him. Is that what you want to hear? I'm not doing this again with you. I can't fucking do this with you. He is you. I'm not going to fuck him. Meanwhile, Harry, you are fucking Voldemort. Look at how intensely he watches you. I can tell you what he's thinking. Would you like me to tell you? He wants everyone gone so he can take you on the stone floor of the chamber, Harry, on the bricks where you punctured the diary with a basilisk fang; he's nothing if not morbidly poetic, don't you fucking think so?'

Harry ducked his head and bugged his eyes; the pressure of his heartbeat in his head fit to burst his skull. Tom felt like a storm that was just starting to brew so he dropped the issue. He knew it wasn't fair of him to throw his jealousy around; he couldn't help but feel it anyway. He couldn't honestly say he didn't understand being uncontrollably attracted to a nearly irredeemably awful person. A colossal prick that looked like Tom, sounded like Tom.

He swallowed around the lump in his throat and knew it wasn't Tom he was mad at. Knew deep down that he was telling the truth, that he wouldn't even if there was a way. Still, he didn't like knowing that Tom found his Horcrux attractive, and liked even less the insinuation that Harry would fuck him.

Which he wouldn't. That was insane.

'… Sorry.'

Tom inhaled to the point where it hurt and thought, ' I know. I am too.'

'Why would you ask… Why would you ask if I want to fuck him?'

Ruby and Reed were duelling with their wands and not their abilities, evenly matched and drawing the whole thing out.

' You can ignore I said that,' Tom thought, '… With my apologies.'

'What do you mean 'I can ignore it?''

'You can ignore it, or you can acknowledge it.'

Harry squawked indignantly, loud enough to draw every set of eyes to him, giving Ruby the opportunity she needed to stun Reed and win the duel.

"Alright, there?" Cassiopeia asked, wiggling her eyebrows. "He's really staring at you, huh?"

He frowned and shook his head, refusing to engage with Tom or the vampire.

'… I hate him?' He involuntarily thought when Pollux and Daphne moved to the runway.

' Harry,' Tom thought, closing his eyes and shaking his head, ' Is that relevant?'

The question winded him, and a weird panic grew. ' I don't want to fuck him, he's me? I mean, not really me, but… Me enough? I don't… I can understand where you're coming from, and that's it. I don't feel like that about him. At all. He makes me so fucking angry. '

'…Okay.'

'Stop?'

'I'm not doing anything,' Tom thought.

'You said 'Okay' with a tone,' he thought, 'You're being weird. Stop.'

'I have stopped.'

'He's like a goblin. I seriously don't understand why he has so much control over either of you. A literal goblin. The teeth and everything. If he sprouted pointed ears and his skin turned green, I wouldn't be surprised.'

Tom raised his eyebrows.

'…Not to mention he has no loyalty to anything, wildly unpredictable, and nothing he does or says makes sense. We don't know what he even wants, apart from fusion , and then what? If he succeeds?' Harry realised that if he was duelling, he'd be fighting with Draco again—not that it could be called that—and he was prematurely angry about that as well, glaring at the Dark Lord.

Voldemort tilted his head slightly, the ghost of a smile on his face, " Out. All of you." The Elder wand in hand as he absently twirled the dead Horcrux ring on his thumb, making Harry's stomach somersault.

Pollux hadn't won the duel yet; Harry assumed it was down to sheer boredom on his behalf, idly swatting Daphne's spells and growing the fury on her face. When the Dark Lord called the duels, the hemomancer dropped Greengrass screaming to the bricks and walked away, down the pipe-like walkway leading to the girl's bathroom.

Ruby and Reed followed him first, then Ginny, Avalon, and Eris. Zabini had lost to May Magnus and was still being rapidly seen to by Lydia and Hannah, dozens of bleeding gashes that they patched haphazardly, standing him up and half-dragging him out of the chamber after Nagini, Draco, Greengrass, Magnus, and Cassiopeia when the Dark Lord shot them a scalding look.

Harry was already on his feet, hand tight on the Snakewood wand in his pocket, waiting for a sign that Voldemort wanted a fight.

Because he wanted a fight.

He drew his wand when the Dark Lord stepped forward, watched his thumb and forefinger fidgeting the ring. Voldemort smiled wider when his eyes flickered to the Snakewood wand and back.

He looked to be about to draw on Harry, though there were no real outward signs, just something he felt was true, so he aimed first, shields up and feeling naked without Bed Sheet.

Voldemort didn't raise his wand in return. Instead, he went ram-rod straight and squared his shoulders as the smile was washed off his face. It was replaced with confusion and then with growing horror. He wasn't looking at Harry anymore, staring at the space beside him, then shooting to the other, like Harry had sprouted wings.

He glanced at either side of himself, rapidly, in case it was a trick. No spells hit him, so he turned on the spot. There was nothing behind or beside him. The Dark Lord's face had gone corpse-white, and two pink spots on his cheeks told Harry his blood pressure was through the roof.

"…What?" He asked, turning again.

He was frozen, didn't seem to hear or see Harry. Hands stalled on the ring and his wand.

"… How?" Voldemort asked.

Crux slammed into his head with enough ferocity to make him buckle in half and yell, a motion that the Dark Lord didn't register.

' Tell her I'm here! Tell her I'm HERE! Tell her to take me with her! Mum! Why can't you see- MUM! TELL HER I'M HERE! TELL—HER! TELL HER TO take me with… Why? What-' He clawed his way back out of Harry's head, and he watched the Dark Lord flinch.

It took him a second to comprehend that Crux desperately called for his mother. For Harry's mother.

The Dark Lord was touching his own cheek with bewilderment, looking down at nothing, then up and to the left at nothing, and Harry didn't know what to do.

Goosebumps rallied up his arms and legs, then engulfed him, unrelenting as it dawned on him that the ghost of his mother was looking the Dark Lord in the face. That he couldn't see her.

Crux shot back into his head, feral like an animal, ' WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOOD FOR? TELL HIS SLUT MOTHER TO GET OUT OF MY WAY, WHO—GIVES—A—FUCK ABOUT HER? TELL HER I'm here, Harry, tell her I'm here. I'm here. I'm here… I'm HERE,' then he was gone again, and Harry's legs were unsteady, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps.

Tom swallowed, heart rate bolting as they realised that it was both of them.

Lily and Merope.

They couldn't say a word, couldn't possibly know what he was seeing without giving themselves away, forced instead to watch Voldemort see them. Hear them.

The Dark Lord tried to sequester the emotions on his face, tearing his gaze from the ghost before him to sneer at the other, " Silence! Look at him. He already has." He flicked his eyes to Harry, rage and a wisp of uncontrolled confusion in them.

Voldemort Disapparated before Harry could get any words out.

He dropped to the stones with numb limbs, and neither he nor Tom said anything.