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Chapter Text

Harry kept his eyes firmly shut to concentrate more clearly on the memory.

It wasn’t that hard to envision as the event he was trying to bring up at the forefront of his mind had happened just a few days ago.

Harry had managed a humungous-ly impossible task of convincing Tom Marvolo Riddle into playing a one-on-one game of Seekers against Harry. Seeing as Harry was the youngest Seeker ever to get into a Quidditch Team, no matter that it was only a House Team at Hogwarts, it was near impossible to defeat Harry and get the snitch before him. Even Charlie Weasley and Cedric Diggory – two of the best Seekers that Hogwarts had seen before Harry – had consented defeat after Harry had thoroughly trounced them in a one-on-one Seekers match.

So, it was almost a given that Tom – who absolutely loathed Quidditch and had a love-hate relationship with brooms – will never agree to play against Harry even though they were left alone to use the Quidditch pitch, courtesy of Tom’s murderous glare when anyone even so much as thought about entering the pitch while Harry had dragged the Slytherin there with him.

But Tom had agreed, albeit with a resigned sigh and had flown around trying to find the snitch while Harry zipped around the Slytherin, enjoying the wind in his hair.

They had played three matches of who would get the snitch first. Harry had won, of course, though Tom had cheated in the last match, somehow managing to remove the Anti-Summoning Charm on the snitch and Summoning it to himself wandlessly.

Harry had been beyond confused, wondering how had the snitch, which was zooming towards the ground, suddenly and abruptly changed its course and flown straight into Tom’s hand, but it hadn’t taken him more than a few seconds to realize that Tom had cheatcheated to win that match!

That had resulted in Harry blaming Tom for cheating, of course, but Tom had innocently denied, claiming that the snitch liked him for some apparent reason, and when Harry had refused to believe the guy, furious at the audacity of the man to cheat in a Seeker’s game, Tom had pointed out to Harry that it did not matter whether he had cheated or not since Harry was the one who had actually won the game and not him, and then proceeded to sulk for the whole day and the next about losing a stupid game.

Harry couldn’t help but fondly roll his eyes at his best friend’s dramatic antics as he opened his eyes and carefully withdrew the sparkling white strand of the memory from his mind using his Holly wand and deposited it into a glass vial with utmost care.

He kept the vial carefully upright beside a black album on his bed, before flipping the album open. His eyes softened and a small smile graced his lips as he scanned the looping photographs of memories carefully stuck singly in almost every page of the album.

The photos of the memories started from the one in which Harry and Tom had first met, when they were barely three years old. Harry’s relatives – whoever they were, they never gave their names to the caretakers of the orphanage – had dropped little Harry off, saying they did not have enough funds to take care of the boy when they already had their own child to take care of.

Harry’s parents, James and Lily Potter – he had found out their names when he and Tom had turned eleven and had finally been visited by Professor McGonagall who had introduced them to the magical world – had died, murdered by some fanatics who did not like a Pureblood marrying a muggleborn, leaving Harry orphaned and alone since he did not have any other blood-relatives who could take him in except those muggle relatives who had left him off at the orphanage.

The matron had taken Harry to one of the last rooms on the second floor of the orphanage where a pale, curly black-haired boy with curious brown eyes was concentrating-ly reading through a rather thick looking book, sitting on one of the two cots present in the room beside a small wardrobe and a desk with a chair.

After the matron had told him not to do anything stupid and be a good boy and left him there on the other cot, Harry had proceeded to stare at his roommate wondering whether the boy could actually even understand half of whatever he was reading.

“Stop it.”, the pale boy suddenly ordered, without even looking up from his book.

“What?”, Harry blinked, surprised at the command in the boy’s voice.

“Desist staring at me!”, the boy commanded again.

“De-sist?”, Harry said confusedly, his three-year-old mind not understanding the word.

The boy looked up from his book with a frown. His brown eyes narrowed. “It appears your vocabulary is lacking.”, he commented.

Harry blinked again, feeling stupider by the minute. “Voca-bury…”, he said slowly, his eyebrows furrowing in concentration and confusion. It looked like the boy could understand whatever he was reading in that book, alright, if he could speak such big words when he looked no older than Harry himself.

“Hmmm.”, the boy nodded, his eyes scanning Harry from top to bottom. “You would do.”, he muttered. “You are going to be my friend from today!”, he declared.

Harry blinked – he seemed to be doing that a lot today – before the words registered in his brain and a brilliant grin appeared on his face.

“Good. Your smile is beautiful too. Here.”, the boy remarked before pulling out a small and thick book from beside him and passing it to Harry. “Now that you are going to be my friend, you need to work on your abysmal knowledge of words.”

Harry looked at the book the boy had passed to him curiously before opening it and proceeding to squint at the tiny words written in it. The writing was so small! And the words were huge!

“What….what is this?”, he asked. “It only has words! And so long ones!”

“Cease your whining.”, the boy said, giving Harry a disappointed look. “That is a dictionary. It will help you in developing your vocabulary and words’ repertoire. I want you to learn at least twenty words and their meanings every day.”

“What?!”, Harry stared at the boy wide-eyed. “Twenty! That’s….that’s more than ten! And these words are so large! I can’t learn them in a day!”

The boy opened his mouth to retort before closing them and then tilted his head. “What is your name?”, he asked.

Harry pouted. “Harry.”, he mumbled. “I really can’t learn so many…”

The boy rolled his eyes. “My name is Tom Marvolo Riddle.”, he said smoothly. “No need to whine, Harry. I will help you, since as I said, you are going to be my and only my friend. Let me just..”, the boy, Tom, neatly closed his book before getting up off his cot. He put the book on the desk before coming over to sit beside Harry. “Now,” he took the dictionary and pointed at the first word, “let’s start.”

It was hilarious for Harry and infuriating for Tom that the, now seventeen-soon-to-be-eighteen-year-old, Prefect, perfect Head Boy Tom Riddle still hadn’t managed to drill all the words that could be found in a dictionary into Harry’s brain.

Every time that Tom had managed to stomp some outrageously long and hard words into Harry’s mind, Harry would forget the ones he had learnt before those.

It was entertaining to watch Tom try to keep his cool when Harry was sure the Slytherin only wanted to rip his and Harry’s hair out of their heads in sheer frustration at Harry’s lack of enthusiasm to keep his vocabulary on par with some rich, conceited arsehole’s.

The pictures following after that memory were the ones they spent together at the orphanage – reading together under a tree, having a small food fight with each other, then doing some chore because the matron had seen them wasting food and has assigned them punishments for a whole month.

There were photographs of the memories Harry had of them sneaking behind the bushes to find some garden snakes so that Tom could use his special gift to chat with them and translate whatever they said so Harry could understand them too; memories of them walking hand-in-hand when they went to a trip at a village in the countryside where they had seen the sea for the first time, discovering that huge cave together which had a giant lake in the middle with enormous, glittering crystals surrounding the whole perimeter of the magnificent lake.

Then, there were the photographs of them getting their Hogwarts letter when they’d turned eleven, the excitement they had felt on getting the confirmation that they were different, the awe when they had visited Diagon Alley for the first time with Professor McGonagall and the excitement when they had discovered that their wands were brothers to each other.

Photographs of seeing the Hogwarts Express, meeting more people and making friends and then, seeing the huge, magical castle of Hogwarts for the first time – there one and only home.

They had been sorted into two different Houses – Harry went to Gryffindor while Tom went to Slytherin – but there had been no gaps in their friendship. It was still going strong and just as amazing and wonderful.

Photographs of their times spent wandering around the castle to search for any hidden corridor or room, roaming around the Great Lake spending time together or meeting creatures in the Forbidden Forest. The time when Tom had finally discovered that he was the descendent of Salazar Slytherin himself, his happiness that he had such a rich history, such a famous ancestor, and the happiness Harry had felt when Tom had taken him into the Chamber of Secrets in their fifth-year, introducing him to the Founder’s familiar – a basilisk, when Tom had shared a part of himself that he considered important and cherished with Harry.

The photograph of every Yule they had celebrated together in the Room of Requirement, the promise that Tom had given Harry that they would be each other’s family forever no matter what and that they will celebrate every Yule together since the festival was for family.

The photograph of the first time they had spent their Yule by performing the ancient magical ritual to thank magic and to feel with the natural magic, and then the time they had spent decorating a Christmas tree that the Room of Requirement had so generously provided them with, with the Yule Log burning warmly behind them.

And the photograph of the memory during Harry’s fourth-year when he had realized for the first time that he was in love with his best friend, that he was in love with Tom Marvolo Riddle.

It had been the first Quidditch match of that year, Gryffindor versus Slytherin. And even though Tom hated the game, loathed the loud noise and the screaming students, he had still come to cheer for Harry, his eyes only fixed on Harry, not even caring that his House’s Team was being thoroughly defeated.

And when Harry had finally caught the snitch, his teammates cheering loudly beside him, when his eyes had locked with Tom’s, sitting straight and poised in the stands and giving him a small smile, then had Harry realized how fucked up he was, how fucked up his situation was as his heart skipped at the beautiful smile on Tom’s stupidly handsome face.

It was not really the problem that he was in love with his best friend. Quite the contrary actually. Harry was happy that of all people to fall in love with, he had fallen for someone he knew the longest, someone about whom he knew as much as any person could know about anyone.

No. The problem was that his love will forever remain unrequited, and that he will never even be able to confess his love to his best friend. Because as far as Harry knew about the Slytherin, Tom saw any feeling such as love a weakness – something unnecessary and beneath him.

Harry had seen and heard about Tom thoroughly and unflinchingly reducing those to tears who had dared to confess their crush to the Head Boy for the past several years, telling them bluntly how they will never become important enough for him to even care for them, let alone return their romantic feelings.

Tom has broken hearts at Hogwarts more than Harry has broken rules (which was saying something, considering Harry was a rule-breaker ranking just after the Weasley twins).

Aside from that, Harry was uncertain on what Tom’s preference even was. Did the guy like females or males or both or had some other preference? Did the Slytherin even think about this? What if he only liked females? What if he already liked someone but wasn’t telling Harry because of some reason?

They had never talked about their romantic interests – Harry because, obviously, he wouldn’t be able to tell Tom he loved him if the topic ever came up and lose the friendship he had with his best friend, and Tom because – Harry was sure – he was too focused on his academics and goals (and keeping Harry out of trouble and in line) to focus on such inane and plebeian topic such as crushes and feelings.

So, Harry, in a bout of geniusness (if he said so himself, though Hermione did beg to differ every time the topic came up), had decided never to tell Tom about his feelings for the Slytherin because! Priorities! Tom and his friendship were more important to Harry than his stupid feelings.

Shaking his head at the dramatic mess of his feelings, Harry flipped through more pages of the album, looking through more photographic memories looping through.

At last, he stopped at encountering a blank page, the bottom of which had the words ‘10 December, seventh year: I finally convinced Tom to play a one-on-one Seeker’s match with me, and the stupid idiot cheated (and then sulked; it was adorable!)’ in Harry’s slightly legible, looping writing.

Harry took the vial he had stored his memory in, took ahold of his wand and started creating the runic chain he had developed specially to create photographic memories just above the page. Once done, he carefully flicked his wand, letting the chain to slowly settle onto the page and get absorbed in, before he tipped the vial and let the memory spread around.

The runic circle glowed, absorbing the memory, and just after a moment, a rectangular photo was created, showing the looping memory of Harry and Tom playing in the Quidditch pitch, chasing after the snitch.

Done with that, Harry spelled preserving and protection spells onto the photo so that it wouldn’t get ruined or destroyed by time, before putting his wand aside and giving out a satisfied sigh. He had finally finished the album – that was the last memory he had that needed to be inscribed in the album. The remaining pages had other comments as well – like ‘24 December, seventh year: our last Yule at Hogwarts; hope we spend the future Yules together as well!’ followed by ‘14 February, seventh year: did Tom manage to break his previous record of getting Valentine presents and courtship offers – the smug bastard’ followed by ‘unknown date, definitely before NEWTs: Harry’s mental break down; I should not be surrounded by brilliant academics like Tom and Hermione; Ron save me!’.

Harry grimaced at his own prediction of a breakdown. He was hoping it wouldn’t happen, but as he had written, surrounded by two competitive, brilliant and studious friends like Tom and Hermione who spent most of their time studying and still fretting over not being ready for the exams, it will definitely result in a breakdown, no matter how much Harry wanted to avoid it.

Sighing at himself, Harry got up from his bed after putting down the album and pulled out his trunk from under his bed to ruffle through his already messy items in search for a green wrapping paper he had brought from Hogsmeade from their last weekend out.

The album was Harry’s gift to Tom for this Yule and Harry was extremely proud of himself for coming up with this idea, he was a genius if he wanted to be (Hermione must not beg to differ here, because Harry would get ginormously offended if she did). He had to put all of his knowledge of Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, spell-casting and Merlin-knows some other subjects he might have unknowingly employed to create the Runic circle he needed to put the memory as a photograph in the album.

It had taken up most of his time this month, making him miss spending time with Tom and his other friends.

But no matter, the gift was finally done now, and he could enjoy this holiday with Tom, since Ron and Hermione were going to their homes this holiday – Hermione because her parents wanted to spend this holiday together with their daughter and Ron because the Weasleys were going to Romania to visit their second eldest son, Charlie Weasley, where he worked in a dragon reserve.

It will be lonely at the Gryffindor common room during the holidays, but Harry was going to spend most of his time with Tom in the Room of Requirement so he wasn’t much worried about it.

Harry grunted when he couldn’t find the damn wrapping paper anywhere in his trunk. Sometimes he wondered whether his trunk had somehow become sentient and knowingly did not let him find his things when he really wanted them.

Cursing the trunk with the wonderful repertoire of curse words that Harry had (and which Tom detested with a passion), Harry slammed its lid shut, deciding to wrap his gift later. He carefully put the album in the drawer at his bedside table before applying a few locking charms on it.

Done with that, he stretched, groaning when some of his bones popped. It had really taken him such a long time and effort to prepare and complete this gift, but it would be worth it when Harry will get to see Tom’s face while the Slytherin opened the gift and looked at it.

Feeling a grin come over his face, Harry laughed softly before he picked up his bag which had his materials to start his homework and decided to go look for Tom or his other friends.

It was a Sunday, the nineteenth of December and the students will be returning to their homes tomorrow for Yule, so Harry wished to spend some of his time with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna as well, since all of them will be leaving the castle soon.

Harry was sure Luna and Ginny would be together somewhere doing their homework or talking about some strange creature Luna had heard about. Neville would definitely be in the greenhouses or maybe spending time with Hannah – both of them had taken a sudden liking to each other out of the blue – and Hermione and Ron would definitely be in the library – Hermione forcing Ron to complete his homework so that he could enjoy his trip in Romania with his family.

And Tom would most definitely be there, in the library as well – that absolute nerd, no matter how much he denied it – reading through some book for his research, only Merlin knowing the matter of the so-called research.

Harry was so lost in his thoughts that he did not realize the student walking in front of him had stopped suddenly and before Harry’s mind could process it, he went and crashed face-first into the back of said student.

“Ouch!”, Harry and the student, whom Harry realized even in his pain-filled daze to be that absolute jerk Malfoy, exclaimed together. Harry stumbled back while Malfoy turned around, his eyes burning with rage.

“How dare you – Potter!”, Malfoy screeched, patting his robe to smooth it and tugging at his hair to feel out how much his perfect, immaculate, ridiculous hair had been ruffled.

“Malfoy.”, Harry returned, thanking Merlin that no one was around to bear witness to their nonsensical inevitable fight with either their wands or their fists again. Even Tom wasn’t here to stop Harry from getting in a punch or ten on that stupid face of Malfoy.

“Do you not have eyes, Potter?!”, Malfoy sneered, his hand unmistakably making its way to his wand strapped on his left forearm. “Or are those hideous glasses not helping you to see clearly?”

“They are working perfectly fine, Malfoy.”, Harry returned, glaring at the blond pounce in front of him. “I should ask you whether your legs are working or not, stopping randomly in the middle of a corridor for no reason!”

“Oh, they are working, Potter.”, Malfoy replied, stepping closer to Harry to tower over him. Harry hated his small stature immensely at this very moment. Malfoy’s sneer twisted and then a very haughty and arrogant smirk came over his face. “Tell me, Potter,” Malfoy started, his eyes glowing with glee – which Harry did not like the look of, at all, “how does it feel to be abandoned by your dear best friend over a Ball, granted that it is the grandest Ball held anywhere in Britain?”

Harry’s face twisted into confusion. “What?”, he asked. “What are you talking about, Malfoy?”

Malfoy’s smirk widened. “Don’t tell me, Potter, that Riddle didn’t even deem to inform you about his change of plans.”

Harry frowned.

“Ah, you poor, poor Potter.”, Malfoy said gleefully. “Riddle really did not tell you!” Malfoy gave Harry a mockingly pitying look. “Dear Riddle has accepted my invitation to the Malfoy Yule Ball, Potter, and he will be going with me tomorrow through the Floo to the Malfoy manor.”

Harry’s heart sank. Was Malfoy making fun of him? Tom hadn’t told him he will be spending this Yule with the Malfoys.

“We will need to go shopping together since the Ball will host Britain’s most important guests – the Minister, several department heads and incredibly rich and powerful magical families.”, Malfoy continued. “The Slytherin’s Heir, Tom Riddle, will of course be welcomed with open arms in the Ball.”

Had Harry mentioned how huge a crush Malfoy had on Tom? He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment, but Harry had started noticing Malfoy trying to get closer to Tom, trying to give Tom suggestive looks and staring at Tom as if….as if Tom was a piece of meat waiting to be claimed by Malfoy’s greedy hands, no matter that Tom would crush and devour the idiot’s hand if it so much as got even an inch closer to Tom’s boundary of personal space (which was larger than an average person’s).

“Seriously, Potter, I do not understand why Tom has been declining my parents’ invitation to the Ball for the past two years when he could go there and easily make connections with the important and influential individuals with nary an effort.” Malfoy eyed Harry with distain. “But then again, there are some…elements in Riddle’s life keeping him away from his true potential, are there not?”

Harry’s heart clenched, but he glared at Malfoy. How dare the bastard suggest such a thing! Harry was not keeping Tom away from his true potential! Tom was already shining even though he was a student only, and he had already made connections without going out to any stupid party!

“Shut up, Malfoy.”, Harry said through gritted teeth.

Malfoy tutted. “Such a waste.”, he muttered. “But do not worry, Potter, I will be there to help Riddle gain his true potential. Once he realizes how worthy I am to have at his side, Riddle will surely discard you,” he sneered, “and take me as his lover.”

Harry gaped, utterly confounded with Malfoy’s gall to say ‘Tom’ and ‘lover’ in a same sentence. “Keep dreaming, Malfoy.”, Harry bit out, ready to kill the bastard after he came out of his momentary astonishment.

“Oh, I won’t be dreaming, Potter.”, Malfoy whispered. “I will be spending my days with Tom,” he took Tom’s name sensually, making Harry shiver with disgust, “in the grand rooms of the manor and the most beautiful gardens. Tom will forget you in just a single day. We will be spending almost two weeks together, and I could think of a dozen ways to pleasure him and make him enjoy-”

Harry couldn’t control the numbing rage coursing through him, trying valiantly not to imagine Tom and Malfoy, of all people, in a romantic relationship.

He punched Malfoy square in his face, breaking the bastard’s high and mighty nose, snarling as Malfoy stumbled back, clutching his nose.

“You d-dare, Potter!”

Harry punched the jerk again. “Don’t. You. Dare! Talk. About. Tom. Like. That.”, Harry punctuated his every word with a punch to the Slytherin’s body, breathing harshly.

“Potter! Oh, Merlin!”

Harry had not realized that Susan Bones and Anthony Goldstein, seventh-year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Prefects respectively, had seen them and were walking over to him and the now-sprawled-out Slytherin before he felt arms wrap around him and pull him away from making Malfoy a pulp.

“Let go!”, Harry shouted as he tried to get back to Malfoy.

Susan was crouching beside the boy who was whimpering and moaning in pain.

Serves him right, Harry thought savagely as Susan waved his wand over the Slytherin and muttered spells to stop the blood flowing from his broken nose and split lips.

“What was that, Potter?”, Anthony, who was still holding Harry back, asked him harshly.

Harry flinched slightly, before muttering, “He provoked me!”

“And what did he say that got you so angry that you beat the living shit out of him?”, Susan asked calmly as she Conjured up a stretcher and Levitated the uselessness that was Malfoy onto it.

“He..he..”, Harry floundered slightly, his brain still numb from all the shit Malfoy had told him, “he said very suggestive things about one of my friends.”

Anthony’s hold on Harry loosened and Susan’s brows furrowed. She looked at Malfoy who seemed to have passed out.

“He really said something like that?”, she asked.

Harry nodded furiously.

“Well…”, Susan trailed off as she looked from Malfoy to Harry to Anthony.

“I do not really like that pounce.”, Anthony helpfully supplied.

“Me neither.”, Susan said with a sigh. “Let’s take him to the infirmary and then inform Professor Flitwick or Professor Sprout. They will surely understand.”

“Yeah.”, Anthony nodded, letting Harry go.

“You, Potter!”, Susan gave Harry a sharp look. “Do not get into any more fight or we won’t be able to save you. Malfoy will surely tell Professor Snape about this.”, she muttered.

Harry winced. Snape will kill him.

“Twenty points from Gryffindor.”, Susan said, before Levitating the stretcher the bastard was lying upon and stalking towards what Harry hoped was the dumping ground for useless things at Hogwarts – like in the middle of the Great Lake.

Harry did not protest the point loss, knowing he would have had worse if Snape had found him showing Malfoy his place.

“Be careful, Harry.”, Anthony said as he stepped away from Harry. The Prefect gave him a pat on the shoulder, before following after Susan.

Harry sighed, running his hand through his hairs. He pulled out his wand to clean his hands off any blood and straightened his robes, before walking the remaining distance and entering the library.

The first people he spotted were Ron and Hermione, sitting on a table with Hermione surrounded by at least a dozen books and Ron grumbling beside her, his pout clearly visible, with a barely-written piece of parchment and a book in front of him.

The red-head visibly perked up when he saw Harry entering the library. “Hey, mate!”, he whisper-shouted, clearly already been threatened to be thrown out by Madam Pince for unnecessarily disturbing the peaceful atmosphere of the library with his unnecessary whining.

“Hey, Ron.”, Harry smiled, trying to bring his enthusiasm while not thinking about Tom accepting the Malfoy Yule Ball invitation. He sat down in front of his friends. “Hey, Hermione! Finishing your work?”

Ron groaned. “Don’t ask, mate.”, he said, clearly annoyed. “Mione’s killing me with her ‘you need to complete all your homework’!”

“Ronald!”, Hermione sighed, clearly as much annoyed as Ron. “How many times do I need to remind you?! You will be going on a vacation to Romania! Do you think you will have enough time to complete your work there?!”

Ron slumped down on the parchment in front of him, spreading the ink.

Harry snickered.

Hermione turned her glare on Harry. “Have you started your homework yet?”, she asked, her eyes narrowing as Harry gave her a sheepish smile.

“I told you, ‘Mione,” Harry started slowly, “I’ve been working on that album I’m gonna gift Tom.”

Hermione opened her mouth, clearly ready to berate Harry to death.

Harry raised his hands in a surrender, trying to calm her down. “It’s done now!”, he said quickly. “I’ve completed it. I’m gonna start my homework now, don’t worry!”

“You better!”, Hermione muttered, her eyes straying to Harry’s hand, before they narrowed again. Quick as lightning, she struck her hand out and grabbed Harry’s. She narrowly observed Harry’s hand, Harry feeling nervous, before slowly raising her head. “Why is there blood inside your nails, Harry?”, she asked slowly.

Harry blinked, his heart stuttering to a stop, before he snatched his hand back and narrowed his eyes at his nails. Sure enough, there were hints of blood stuck under his nails. “Errr….”, Harry stuttered, trying valiantly to come up with something, but drawing an utter blank. Would Hermione believe him if he said he was helping Snape disembowel some bats?

“Harry. James. Potter.”, Hermione began, Ron straightening up beside her in attention. “What were you up to?!”

“Um…..”, Harry hesitated, before slumping down. “It was Malfoy.”, he mumbled.

“What did you do?”, she asked.

“He provoked me.”, Harry said defensively, trying to hide himself behind the table. “So, I kind of…..you know, got angry….and …..uhm..beat him….”

Hermione sighed when Ron guffawed beside her.

“That’s bloody brilliant, mate.”, Ron said, snickering. “I say, he had it coming. He’s become more of a jerk for the past some months, if that’s even possible.”

Harry grumbled, agreeing with Ron.

“What did he say, Harry?”, Hermione asked, resigned.

“He….um…”, Harry hesitated, “..he was….saying some….provoking things….about..about Tom.”

Ron immediately sobered up. “Malfoy had the gall to say something like that about Riddle?”, he whispered.

Harry nodded, looking dejected.

“Well,” Ron and Hermione shared a look, “he’s been trying to make you jealous for a while.”

“You do know Riddle will never go into a romantic relationship with Malfoy of all people, right?”, Hermione asked, slowly, as if she couldn’t believe she had to ask Harry such a question.

“Yeah, mate.”, Ron nodded emphatically. “Riddle might be a pompous arsehole,” Harry glared at Ron, “but he’s got a very particular, very accurate type.”

Harry blinked, frowning at Ron. “You think Tom’s got a type?”, he asked confusedly. He didn’t know Tom had a type. How can Ron say that when Harry himself couldn’t figure that out?

Ron and Hermione exchanged another look. Harry found it both sweet and annoying.

Ron shrugged.

Hermione muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘obvious’.

What?

Harry looked at them with confusion, wondering how they could find Tom, of all people, obvious. “You guys know something and you aren’t telling me!”, he accused, pointing a finger at them.

“It’s nothing, Harry.”, Hermione said, clearly dismissing him in favour of her homework. “You can figure it out on your own if you use that ‘geniusness’ you claim you have somewhere in that mind of yours.”

“Hey!”, Harry was offended. “I am a genius!”

Hermione rolled her eyes.

Harry opened his mouth to prove his case when he was interrupted by none other than the Slytherin Head Boy.

“Harry, there you are.”

“Tom!”, Harry turned around, spotting Tom entering the library and making his way over. “Hey! How are you doing?”

“Fine.”, Tom answered, eyeing Ron and Hermione before turning back to look at Harry. He sighed minutely, a barely-there release of breath. “Did you had something to do with Malfoy lying in the hospital wing and claiming brutal assault by you?”

Harry furrowed his brows and tried to adopt as innocent an expression as he could. “What brutal assault?”, he asked innocently, subtly stuffing his hands in his robe pockets. “I’ve been here, chatting with Ron and Hermione for a while.”

Tom scanned his face, his face blank, before sighing. “Why did you had to go along and physically injure that boy, I do not understand.”, he probably muttered to himself, yet Harry heard him. He frowned slightly, now wondering whether there really were chances of Tom and Malfoy being in a relationship and felt himself get nauseous. Now that he thought about it, Tom really did protect Malfoy every time the git provoked Harry, by stopping Harry from hexing the blonde straight to the Hospital wing.

“Nevertheless,” Tom remarked, continuing, and Harry tried to concentrate more on his best friend than on the possible motives behind said best friend’s protectiveness over a certain blonde bastard, “just clean up your hands and make your expression more confused.”, he said. “I will take care of the rest.”

Harry smiled slightly at Tom, while Ron snorted and Hermione sighed yet again.

“I am thoroughly confused, Tom.”, Harry said smugly, pushing his thoughts away to contemplate on later.

“I can see that.”, Tom said back. He began walking deeper into the library.

Harry waved goodbye to Hermione and Ron, who waved back, before following after his best friend.

Tom had a very particular table at the very back of the library claimed as his, and only Harry was allowed to sit there with him.

Tom sat down on his chair, the table already filled with numerous books on Runes and Arithmancy.

Harry sat down in front of Tom as well, eyeing a parchment filled with Tom’s hand writing, his brows furrowing as he deciphered through the Runes Tom had weaved together. Was that Preservation Rune combined with Warming and Cooling Runes and Charms? What was Tom up to?

“What are you doing with these Runes?”, Harry asked curiously, looking up at Tom who was already opening two books in front of him, his brows furrowing in confusion.

“I cannot tell you that yet, Harry.”, Tom replied, flipping through one of the books.

“What about a hint?”, Harry asked.

“No.”

Harry groaned, before he frowned. “Does this have something to do with the invitation to the Malfoy Ball?”, he asked slowly, watching as Tom stiffened slightly. “Preparing your robes to make sure no one can find any flaw in it?”, Harry wiggled his eyebrows.

Tom frowned at Harry. “I haven’t yet told you about the Yule Ball.”, he said. “Who told you?”

Harry huffed. “Malfoy.”, he muttered.

“That upset you enough to send him into the hospital wing?”

“It wasn’t that.”, Harry crossed his hands across his chest, leaning back in his chair, his nose up in the air in annoyance at Tom’s protectiveness over Malfoy. What the fuck! “He was saying something I do not tolerate.”, he said vaguely. “And that is not the point. When were you going to tell me you are going to the Ball?”

Tom sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That insufferable idiot.”, he muttered under his breath, before looking at Harry who was trying to figure out whether there was genuine annoyance at Malfoy or actual fondness hidden in there somewhere. “I wished to tell you yesterday when I accepted the invitation but you did not get out of your dorms. And you were not present in the Great Hall either this morning, stuffed away in your dorm, Salazar-knows doing what.”

Harry huffed. “I was researching.”, he said.

Tom raised his eyebrow. “And what, pray tell, were you researching on?”, he asked, looking as if he was only humouring Harry.

“I can’t tell you that yet, Tom.”, Harry threw Tom’s words back at the guy.

Tom sighed. “You are being childish, Harry.”, he said.

Harry huffed yet again, not deigning that insult with any response. Was Malfoy actually important to Tom and Tom wasn’t telling Harry because he knew Harry did not like that git?

Well, Harry couldn’t really do anything if Tom actually….Harry felt bile rising through his throat as he thought about this. But couldn’t Tom had chosen someone better? Maybe Zabini, that guy wasn’t a jerk to others at least.

“That aside,” Tom continued when it became clear Harry wouldn’t be saying anything, “you do not mind me going to this Ball, right?” Tom hesitated. “It will be a wonderful opportunity to introduce myself to a wider circle of Wizengamot members, Ministry employees, the Minister and the head of Ministry Departments before I take the mantle of Lord Slytherin. And it will pave the way for me to create a good image of myself in front of all those attending the Ball.”

Harry sighed, biting his lips. He couldn’t just tell Tom he wanted to spend this last Yule with him, could he? It would be entirely selfish of him to ask Tom to stay at Hogwarts this last Yule, with Harry, when his best friend wanted to start working on his goals, and maybe spend time with Malfoy?

Harry’s heart clenched painfully.

Seriously he would have been fine with anyone except Malfoy!

Harry really wished they could celebrate Yule together. He didn’t know if they will even get a chance to meet once after they graduated from Hogwarts, what with Tom going to work either as a Wizengamot member or getting the job as the Undersecretary of the Minister.

Will Tom even want to meet Harry after graduation?

They might be friends, but Harry wasn’t useful to Tom in any way when concerning his ambitions.

Sure, Harry was thinking about getting a Mastery in Runes and Arithmancy or Defence, but that wouldn’t be useful in the field of politics. And Harry only had the claim to Potter Lordship, which did not have any seat in the Wizengamot since the Potters weren’t politically active for the last several centuries. And the Potter Lordship paled in front of the Slytherin Lordship, or say, Malfoy Lordship, and Malfoy was interested in politics and was a Slytherin.

“Harry?”, Tom called, pulling Harry out of his thoughts.

Harry shook his head, before giving Tom a smile. “Yeah, Tom?”, he asked.

“Do you have any problem with me going to the Yule Ball?”, Tom asked again.

Harry shook his head again. “Of course not.”, he replied. “Why would I have any problem?”

Tom briefly stared at Harry before nodding. “I will need to go with Malfoy tomorrow using the Floo.”, he told Harry. “I was thinking, why don’t you ask Weasley to take you to his home? I presume he is going, what with all the amount of work Granger is forcing him to complete.”

Harry chuckled half-heartedly, deciding not to tell Tom where exactly Ron was going with his family this year. “Yeah.”, he muttered, scratching his cheeks. “Yeah, I will ask him.”

This will be a very lonely Yule.

------------

Harry stood outside Hogwarts, waving goodbye to his friends who were getting into the thestral-drawn carriages to catch the Hogwarts Express.

Tom and Malfoy had already Floo’d away, barely fifteen minutes ago from Snape’s office – who hadn’t stopped glaring at Harry until he’d hastily ran out of said office after Tom and a smirking Malfoy had gone away.

This will really be a very boring Yule. Harry did not know what he would do except decorate in the Room of Requirement and then do his homework. He might go into the Forbidden Forest to explore, but it will be a completely different experience without Tom there to give his random speeches about anything and everything.

Harry sighed, turning around when the last of the carriages had gone out of sight, blinking when he came face-to-face with Luna, who was looking at him with a dreamy look on her face.

“Luna!”, Harry exclaimed, furrowing his brows. “Did you forget something? You need to get to the station fast or you might miss the train.”

“No, Harry.”, Luna said softly, her voice, as usual, dreamy. “I am not going to home this year.”

“Why?”, Harry asked, confused. Luna spent every Yule with her father in their home at Ottery St Catchpole, just a few miles away from the Burrow.

“Daddy went to search for Umgubular Slashkilter this year.”, she replied. “They are rather nasty creatures, cause unimaginary anger and pain, so daddy told me to stay at Hogwarts this year. Besides,” she smiled at Harry, “I think you need me more than daddy. You have a very large group of wrackspurts roaming around your head.”

Harry smiled slightly at Luna, shaking his head. “I am grateful for your company, Luna.”, he said. “Are you the only Ravenclaw staying over?”

“No.”, Luna answered, taking Harry’s hand and guiding him back into the castle. “There are several NEWT and OWL year students staying over.”

“Ah, of course.”, Harry laughed softly. “Crazy Ravenclaws and their studying.”

Luna smiled beside him.

They entered the Great Hall together. It was time for dinner, with the Ravenclaw table occupied the most and the Slytherin table occupied the least – no Slytherin student had stayed over this year.

Harry smiled sadly as he gazed at the Slytherin table. He sat with Tom every year during the holidays when almost all the Slytherins went home, Tom too proud to sit at any other table with any other student.

This really would have been the last year for their everything.

Harry was sure Tom and he will separate once they graduated.

Tom will find a perfect job, he will become the Minister of Magic one day, and marry someone perfect like him – maybe someone who will have some title at the Wizengamot or who would come from an old and prestigious pureblood family, like that bloody Malfoy. They will marry and have perfect kids – could males become pregnant? – a very perfectly valid question when he was living in a magical world – and love each other for the rest of their lives.

Will Tom invite Harry to the wedding? Will Harry get to be Tom’s best man? Will Tom choose him to be his child’s godfather?

Will Tom even remember him?

Harry’s heart squeezed tightly and he swallowed to get rid of the lump in his throat.

Harry really hoped he and Tom would at least be friends for the remainder of their lives.

“Harry?”

Harry blinked at Luna sitting beside him, before realizing they were sitting on the Hufflepuff table with Susan and Hannah sitting in front of them, looking at him with concern.

“Huh?”, he asked.

“I was asking what you will do after NEWTs, Harry?”, Susan asked, probably repeating her question a third or a fourth time.

“Umm…”, Harry tried to focus on the conversation instead of wallowing in self-pity, “well, I was thinking about applying for a Mastery in Defence or Runes and Arithmancy.”

“Oh, wow.”, Hannah muttered, exchanging an awed look with Susan. “I thought you will go into Ministry as an Auror or something.”

Harry shot her a confused look.

“It isn’t necessary for Harry to follow in his father’s footsteps.”, Luna said serenely, taking a spoonful of vegies.

“Right.”, Hannah gave Harry an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Harry.”

Harry waved it away. “It’s alright.”, he said. “What will you two do after the exams?”

“Well,” Hannah hesitated slightly before shrugging, “I was thinking about going into Healing, but Madam Pomphrey keeps on rejecting my pleas to take me in as her apprentice.”

“Oh.”, Harry nodded sagely. “Madam Pomphrey’s very stubborn.”

“You would know about her stubbornness, wouldn’t you?”, Susan teased, taking a second serving of roasted chicken with mashed potatoes. Harry jerked when Luna nudged his sides, nodding at his plate.

Harry mumbled some nonsensical gibberish under his breath, offended at his friends pointing out his unchallenged record of ending up in the hospital wing more than healthy, before starting to eat.

His companions laughed.

“I am going to apply for getting into the Auror program.”, Susan told them, eating mashed potatoes. “My parents wished for me to go into Mastery in Charms but I’m rather interested in Aunt Amelia’s work.”

“That’s nice.”, Harry nodded.

“What about you, Luna?”, Hannah asked.

Luna smiled. “Magizoology.”, she answered.

“I am so not surprised to hear which field you want to go in, Luna.”, Susan remarked with a smile.

Harry nodded. “It’s a nice field too.”, he said. “You get to travel around the whole world and meet so many unique and dangerous creatures.”, he raised his eyebrows at Luna. “I bet you will go looking for Nargles and Heliopaths once you complete your studies.”

Luna smiled. “There are more unidentified creatures than those, Harry.”, she said. “Have you heard about the Moon Frogs?”

“Um,” Harry looked at Susan and Hannah, both of whom looked equally confused, “no, Luna.”

“I imagined you wouldn’t.”, Luna said softly. “They are found on the Moon. They have this soft, glowing body, they can float, and they are believed to be able to remove obliviousness.”

Harry blinked when Susan and Hannah simultaneously snorted. He looked from Luna to them, unable to understand what she’d said that was so funny to those two.

“You want to find them then?”, he asked. “You will need to sign for muggle space program, Luna.”

“I would do anything for you, Harry.”

“Er, um, thanks?”, Harry tried, ignoring the silent laughing the other two of his companions were engaging in. He leaned towards Luna. “What is wrong with them?”

“Nothing, Harry.”, Luna smiled at him. “They’ve only got a small infestation of Nargles around them.”

“Oh.”, Harry muttered eyeing the still giggling girls, before shrugging and serving himself some treacle tart.

------

Harry spent the night of the twenty-first of December – the actual night when Yule rituals are done, mostly with family – in the Room of Requirement with Luna. They carved the runic circle for the ritual together, before engaging in the ritual itself, which required a drop of their blood dropped into the warmly burning Yule log, and a variety of food choices as an offering to Magic.

Harry had been sad, missing Tom immensely – they had spent their last five years doing this ritual together – and thinking how it might be almost impossible in the future for him and Tom to spend their Yules together.

Luna had been helpful, in her own way, to make Harry stop thinking such depressing thoughts, and they’d decorated the Christmas tree together as well, giggling like little girls as they decorated it with glittering balls, stars, fairy lights and strung-up popcorn, which Luna had somehow gotten from the elves by convincing them to pop corns.

On the twenty-third and twenty-fourth of December, Harry and Luna, joined by Susan and Hannah and several other remaining students, had started a snow-ball fight, in which a first-year Hufflepuff student had somehow thoroughly defeated everyone.

Harry and Luna had also gone into the Forbidden Forest and they’d met thestrals. Harry was undoubtedly confused on how he could see them, but then had thought that maybe his subconscious mind still remembered how his parents had been killed, right in front of him.

But try as he might, Harry could not get the hurt and loneliness that he felt when he would return back into the Gryffindor common room and into his dorm out of his mind. Most of his nights for the past few days were spent restlessly tossing and turning around, the nightmares of Tom leaving him behind not letting him sleep.

So, on the morning of the twenty-fifth of December, Harry woke up bleary eyed, with a headache pounding through his head and feeling like he had been awakened from the dead. He could really use a vial or ten of some Dreamless Sleep Potion right about now.

As Harry rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up his half-dead mind, he glanced around his empty dorm, shivering slightly at the cold breeze fluttering through the slightly open window.

He was just thinking about screwing eating his breakfast and just returning back to his no doubt future unsuccessful slumber, when his eyes landed on a miniature heap of what he thought were gifts waiting for him on the end of his bed. He blinked, realizing that he did had friends with whom he exchanged gifts.

Smiling softly, he picked up his glasses from his bedside table, before arranging his quilts around him in a burrito with only his hands and head poking out of it, and shuffled over to his wonderful pile of presents.

The first gift was from Hermione – a book, of course – that was an in-depth analysis of advanced runic designs and circles, along with a letter telling him to complete his remaining work. The next one was from Ron, a small heap of sweets, with Mrs. Weasley’s signature green sweater – which Harry immediately put on, sighing at the warmth it gave off – along with her home-made fudge.

The next gift was from Ginny – a bracelet that she’d found while browsing randomly in Hogsmeade. It had a silver chain with a green stone attached to it, which according to Ginny, went well with Harry’s emerald eyes and satisfied one particular git’s ego – the last statement in her letter making Harry more confused than anything.

Luna had given him a necklace made of some kind of pale stone, which she said were a substitute for the Moon Frogs until she could find them. Harry rolled his eyes at her antics, deciding to keep the necklace in his drawer for now. He will wear it once he got enough motivation to leave his bed.

Neville had given him a small plant with the instructions on how to take care of it and that it would bear one single flower every week, its colour depending on the plant’s mood. Harry was, of course, impressed at his friend’s ability to find out such type of plants.

The Weasley twins had also sent him their gifts, a box of their latest pranking items along with some vials of pale red liquid, stating that these gave the drinker very relaxed and loose mind, and that Harry should try it sometime, stating in braces that they will be really happy if he tried it with Tom in the Room of Requirement. Harry was not sure why they wanted him to relax with those vials around Tom when he was relaxed whenever Tom was with him or how much he could trust the twins, but he will give them a chance since they’d never actually lied to him about any of their items.

Granted, Harry had a share in their business, but still.

The last gift was from Tom, wrapped in a silver paper with Harry’s name written on it in Tom’s beautiful cursive.

Harry gulped down the lump that he felt forming in his throat, before carefully picking up the gift and running his hand through Tom’s words and the soft wrapping paper.

Tom hadn’t forgotten about Harry.

Harry smiled, a wet grin appearing on his face. He carefully began pulling the wrapper open, his eyes widening when a green scarf with an image of a snake wrapped around a lion on one of its side fell on his lap.

He carefully touched the scarf, feeling its softness along with Tom’s recognizable magic lacing through the whole fabric.

Harry looked through the scarf and eventually found the runes carefully and meticulously etched into every thread of the scarf. And they were the same runes Harry had seen Tom writing down in his parchment just a few days ago – the Warming and Cooling Runes, the Preservation Rune, along with some combination of runes which would keep the scarf soft as long as possible, detect the weather around Harry to keep either warm or cold and make the snake and the lion animated.

Harry scrunched his face, watching the snake and the lion hiss and roar respectively, before chasing after each other. He tried to blink back tears as he pulled the scarf close to his chest and sniffled. Tom must have spent so much of his time creating this scarf just for Harry! How much time had Tom wasted to make this when he could have used that time to do his studying or forged his connections with important people?

Harry sniffled again, and wrapped Tom’s gift around his neck, burrowing his face into the soft fabric, sighing contentedly. He would savour Tom’s gift as much as he physically could, and will thank Tom when he will return from that stupid Ball.

Deciding that he couldn’t do more emotional than this, Harry took out the vials the twins had gifted him. He could use a good sleep right about now, and he had already eaten several of the sweets and fudge the Weasleys had sent him.

Thus, he unstoppered one of the vials, sniffed it, smiling when he found it smelled like apple juice, before tossing it in one go.

Harry pulled out his glasses, keeping them on his table, along with the gifts and the wrapping papers, before shuffling around in his bed to get into a comfortable lying position.

Once settled, he felt the potion-slash-liquid taking effect and he yawned, snuggling into the warm scarf his Tom had made for him.

He still couldn’t believe Tom had actually spent his time knitting a scarf for him of all people, and Harry giggled as he imagined Tom sitting in one of the armchairs in the Slytherin common room with needles and a ball of yarn, calmly knitting a scarf, while glaring at anyone and anything which stared at him in astonishment for even a second.

Harry really loved his Tom very much.

Chapter Text

Tom seethed internally as he stormed through one of the corridors in the Malfoy manor, feeling like he will set anything on fire if it tried to stop him from reaching his temporary quarters in said manor, and Harry wouldn’t even be here to stop him from causing damage with said fire.

He couldn’t believe he had decided to spend his precious time, away from his Harry, at the time of Yule of all things, in this ridiculous Ball.

It was the morning of the twenty-fifth of December, and he was storming away from one of the extravagant breakfasts of the Malfoys, infuriatingly trying to forget what Lord Malfoy had tried to insinuate to him while at breakfast.

Tom really could not understand how this idiotic Lord had gotten the idea that Tom would have any kind of interest, let alone a romantic one, in Draco Malfoy of all people, when Tom would barely even glance at that idiot if not for the social, economic and political standing said idiot’s family had in the Wizarding World.

Tom would only, and only, love Harry James Potter – his best friend and adorable imp – and no one else!

How dare Lord Malfoy assume Tom might be interested in courting Malfoy Junior?!

Tom was now regretting stopping Harry every time from beating Malfoy Junior into a pulp – both magically and physically – when the blonde would unreasonably irritate Harry, thinking it wouldn’t look good for his character if he did not try to stop his best friend from killing the git right in front of him, initially simply as a responsible human, then as a Prefect and Head Boy.

And Merlin, he shouldn’t have left Harry and Hogwarts to come to this Ball, and waste this Yule of his. Most of the guests who had visited the Ball had been downright ridiculous, trying to get into his good graces and flirting with him as if he wasn’t two to three times younger than them.

And what’s worse, he had to dance with some of them – and not with his Harry – along with Malfoy Junior, which now that he thought about it might be the reason behind Lord Malfoy hinting at him to get him to court his son.

Which was so fucking infuriating!

Malfoy!

Tom stormed into his room, his magic slamming the door shut behind him, before he sat down on one of the armchairs and began taking deep breaths to calm himself down. It wouldn’t do if he destroyed the Malfoys’ manor, even if he was very much tempted to.

When Tom finally calmed down, he glanced at the ridiculously large pile of gifts resting beside the table in front of his armchair, waiting for him to open them all, most of which Tom was sure were chocolates or some such sweet, laced with his least favourite and most hated potion.

Tom ignored most of the gifts from the pile, taking out his wand and Summoning the gifts he had gotten from his Harry, along with Granger, Weasley and Lovegood.

Tom quickly moved to open the ones from his academic rival and the other two before he could concentrate on his Harry’s.

Lovegood had given him a necklace made of what seemed to be black pebbles lying around the Black Lake. Tom rolled his eyes in the privacy of the room before putting it back on to the table.

Weasley’s was a sweater, the one Mrs. Weasley always gifted him, along with fudge. He put them back on to the table as well.

Granger’s was a book, and Tom’s eyes narrowed when he read the book’s title – ‘How To Confess Your Undying Love To Your Oblivious Best Friend for Dummies’ – prompting Tom to go through every book he had read the title of whenever he had visited any book store or library. He was absolutely certain there were no such book anywhere in the muggle or the Wizarding World. How had Granger gotten one titled that then?

Tom could actually imagine Granger writing a book like this and getting only a single copy printed just to send it to him and infuriate him.

Tom knew how Granger had just up and figured out his, dare he say, romantic love for Harry three years ago, and then had the gall to confront him about it in their sixth year, stating that it was really becoming unbearable to see both him and Harry pinning for each other so pathetically yet not doing anything about it. She told him how Harry was also crushing on him, but thought that Tom had no interest in him, or anyone for that matter, whatsoever.

Tom, then completely unsure about his feelings regarding his best friend, had simply told Granger that he was not yet ready to confess and that he’d rather like it if Harry first realized that his feelings were returned.

But, of course, more than a year had passed, and Tom still hadn’t had the courage to go and confess it to Harry.

He knew Harry liked him back, maybe even loved him like Tom did, but he couldn’t figure out any way on how to tell this to Harry and he was unsure on whether he wanted to get into a relationship right now or not. He might be getting his Lordship just after graduating out of Hogwarts, but that did not mean he considered himself accomplished enough to start courting Harry.

Unsure in such a way seemed to make his mind shut down whenever he thought about him and Harry together and his feelings for his adorable best friend, so he had decided to let it be, and concentrated more on his studies and his friendship with Harry – those were a lot less hassle than all those confusing thoughts in his mind.

Coming out of his thinking daze, Tom picked up the letter his academic rival had sent to him, wondering whether she’d decided to finally issue some challenge to him.

Tom Riddle,

Merry Christmas or Happy Yule, as Harry had told me to wish you. I hope you and Harry are enjoying your last Yule at Hogwarts together, and if Harry is reading this letter over your shoulder, you need to complete your Potions’, Charms’ and Transfiguration’s homework and make sure to go through your Arithmantic calculations again, Harry (because, Merlin knows, telling this to you in your letter once wouldn’t do).

So, Tom, as you can see the book title (I’ve charmed it to look different to others; Harry, don’t ask him the title, it’s a rivalry related topic, you shouldn’t come between that), I want you to read that book page-by-page and then employ what is being advised in there because, god dammit, it is starting to become really, really irritating!

Also, I am challenging you, Riddle, that I’ll get better marks than you in at least one subject!

And please make sure Harry is completing his homework because I wouldn’t be there to force him to complete it, and Harry, Ron has completed his (well, almost) because he got a sudden inspiration to do so, so that he could actually enjoy watching dragons with his family (because I was saying something else for the past whole week in some other language).

Also, Riddle, keep Harry out of trouble please. It wouldn’t do if he got suspended from Hogwarts in his seventh year.

See you guys soon.

Hermione Granger

Tom slowly lowered the letter, his mind unbelievably blank for a second before it jump-started again.

Granger thought he and Harry were spending their time together at Hogwarts? Harry hadn’t told her Tom was going to the Malfoy Ball?

And what was this about Weasley watching dragons with his family? There weren’t any dragon reserves around Ottery St Catchpole, were there? And how come the Weasleys were able to visit a dragon reserve? There prices were extremely high, and it was better actually to go only if someone you knew worked there.

Wait!

Tom’s mind screeched to a halt.

Wasn’t one of the older Weasley siblings working in a dragon reserve? But, as far as Tom knew, the man did not work here in Britain. He worked at Romania, did he not?

Did that mean the Weasleys were in Romania this Yule?!

But Harry had told him he would be spending his time with them!

Hadn’t Tom asked Harry to go with the Weasleys and Harry had agreed that he would?!

Was Harry in Romania then?

But Granger hadn’t mentioned anything about that! She thought Harry and Tom were at Hogwarts! Together!

Tom paused, trying to organize his thoughts.

If Weasleys were going to visit Romania, then the male Weasley must have definitely told about his vacation to Harry and Granger way earlier than the holidays had started. And that meant that Harry already knew that Weasley was going to Romania. And Tom had told Harry about him deciding to come to the Malfoy Yule Ball at the very last moment, which meant Harry had thought that he would be spending his time with Tom.

And knowing Harry, once he must have realized that Tom wanted to come to the Ball, he must have decided to let Tom believe that he would be going with the Weasleys while in reality, Harry would be spending his Yule alone, at Hogwarts.

Tom’s chest clenched tightly, a strong feeling of guilt washing through his whole being.

He shouldn’t have accepted this stupid invitation! He should have stayed with Harry, performing the Yule ritual and then decorating that damn Christmas tree that Harry insisted on doing every single Yule!

Clenching his jaw at his own foolishness, Tom slowly picked up his Harry’s gift which was wrapped in a beautiful green, the green which reminded Tom of Harry’s beautiful eyes.

He carefully unwrapped the gift, then curiously stared at the black album which seemed to be drowning in Harry’s magic. He took the letter first which was attached to the album, written in Harry’s writing, with occasional blotches of ink spread across it (Tom still hadn’t succeeded in teaching Harry how to write with quill and ink properly; another thing he seemed to be failing at).

Happy Yule, Tom!

I hope you are enjoying your stay with the Malfoys (though I’d prefer if you stayed away from that bloody peacock, just saying) and the Yule Ball went well. Did you meet the Minister or some other important individual? I hope you succeeded in charming them, though I don’t doubt you would fail in anything like that :)

So, this is my gift to you! I hope you like it!

This was the thing I was working on for the last two months (that made me miss spending time with you), but I think you will like it! I really enjoyed making it and it took me almost blasting that one unused classroom in the fifth floor (the one you asked me about, about why it had burnt marks on it – yes, it was me and my experiments; apparently, Preservation and Memory Runes do not like each other).

And I am enjoying myself here! We decorated a huge Christmas tree together and then had a snow ball fight in which me and my team sadly lost. I wish you were here too, but I know how important that Yule Ball is for you and your future courier, so I understand, of course.

I’ll see you once the Yule holidays are over! Please take care of yourself!

Harry

P.S. – Can you punch Draco for me? And punch him too if he’s annoying you too much! I know that bastard does not know personal boundaries and thinks himself above everyone, bloody ponce!

P.P.S. – Is the rumour true that the Malfoys have a whole herd(?) of white peacocks strutting in their garden? If it is true, then the mystery of why Draco is such a bloody peacock is finally solved! That uselessness actually grew up with them! I can actually imagine him learning how to strut from those birds, hahaha!

Tom read the letter carefully, sighing when he realized Harry had not mentioned anywhere in the letter on where he was staying at. And Tom is sure his Harry is at Hogwarts, decorating the Christmas tree with someone else and playing snow ball fight with some other students as well.

An intense wave of jealousy passed through Tom, making him clench his jaw and hands in order to stomp on the feeling. It would be ungrateful of him if he got jealous of people who were actually with Harry, unlike him, keeping his Harry company.

He carefully folded the letter and slid it into one of his inner robe pockets. He then picked up the album Harry had gifted to him and opened it slowly.

Tom’s eyes blew wide, his jaw slackening in shock as he stared at the image of him and Harry meeting for the first time when they were three-years-old in the Orphanage.

Tom had been reading a story book about two boys who had met each other when they were little and how their friendship had progressed over the years, making them almost inseparable.

And when he’d felt eyes staring at him, he’d gotten annoyed and commanded his soon-to-be ex-roommate to stop staring at him.

But when he’d looked up and come face-to-face with glimmering, beautiful emerald eyes with black, shaggy hair on a tan face, staring at him in both awe and confusion, he had decided right then and there that, that boy would be his and only his friend.

Tom’s lips twitched slightly, a nostalgic smile stretching over them as he read what Harry had written below the memory of their first meeting – ‘Meeting the idiot for the first time – he hasn’t changed a bit; tried to teach me twenty words from a dictionary when we were barely four, and the idiot’s still trying to make me learn all those stupid words’.

Tom laughed. He was still trying to make Harry learn all those words, not that Harry was making even a slight effort to learn them.

Tom slowly started going through all the memories Harry had somehow managed to make into photographs, smiling and laughing at the comments Harry had written at the end of every single one of them.

At last, he came across some pages which did not have any photographs, yet still had Harry’s comments written below.

The one that caught Tom’s eyes read – ‘24 December, seventh year: our last Yule at Hogwarts; hope we spend the future Yules together as well!’. And Tom’s heart broke.

What had he done?! He should have stayed with Harry! Declined the ridiculous invitation, the way he had done the previous ones, because Harry mattered more to him than anything else!

Hell, he had promised Harry they would remain each other’s family forever and celebrate all the Yules together like family!

But what had he done? He had gone and accepted Malfoy’s invitation, deciding to let Harry spend his Yule with the Weasleys, not even enquiring whether the Weasleys had agreed to take Harry with them or not when he’d been departing away with Malfoy!

He was an idiot! Such a stupid, fucking idiot!

Harry must be spending his time at Hogwarts right now, maybe with the people with whom he’d decorated the Christmas tree and played snow ball fights with, trying to force himself to not think on why Tom wasn’t there with him when Tom had been the one to make that promise of spending all of their Yules together.

Had he hurt Harry with his thoughtlessness?

Tom knew how much understanding Harry could be. His best friend thought about others first instead of thinking first about himself, and tried to make others feel happy without thinking about his own happiness.

Even if Harry had really wanted to spend this Yule with Tom – and seeing from that comment, Tom knew that his Harry really wanted them to spend their holiday together – he would have decided to let Tom go to the Ball so that Tom could be happy about getting to meet prominent members of the Ministry and the Wizengamot, while he will be essentially spending his Yule alone.

Tom’s heart clenched yet again along with his jaw. Unable to bear the guilt anymore, he stood up, summoning the house-elf that had been assigned to him, his Harry’s album clutched close to his chest. “Dobby!”

With a pop, the small, green-eyed elf appeared beside him, giving him a formal bow. “What can Dobby be doing for Master Riddle-Slytherin, sir?”, the elf asked, his eyes wide in awe as he stared at Tom.

“Can you use your house-elf apparition to take me back to Hogwarts?”, Tom asked quickly.

Dobby blinked at him, obviously confused, before nodding. “Of course, Master Riddle-Slytherin. Dobby can do that.”, he answered.

“Take me to the entrance of the castle then.”, Tom ordered, holding out his hand for Dobby to take. “And inform Lord Malfoy after dropping me off that I had a very important matter come up that I couldn’t ignore, hence I had to leave.”

“Of course, Master Riddle-Slytherin, sir.”, Dobby nodded, and then Tom felt like he was being squeezed through a very rough narrow tube before he found himself standing in front of the entrance hall of Hogwarts, with none other than Luna Lovegood standing a few meters away from him, smiling dreamily as if she knew he would be popping right there out of thin air at that very moment.

“Thank you, Dobby.”, Tom turned to nod politely at the elf, who promptly burst into tears – making Tom grimace – before popping away, all the while mumbling about the greatness that was soon-to-be Lord Slytherin.

“Harry will be really happy when he learns how much you have been respecting the house-elves after his impromptu lecture on how you should treat them.”, Luna said softly, making Tom stiffen with surprise and caution.

“And why do you think he gave me a lecture on such a topic, Lovegood?”, Tom asked, narrowing his eyes at the blonde girl when she merely smiled at him. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“Keeping Harry company until you came, of course.”, Lovegood answered, her smile mischievous.

Tom seriously feared her sometimes more than he feared Granger on a rampage for equal creatures’ rights.

Tom eyed her warily, before deciding he did not have enough time to deal with mysterious younger years and that he needed to find his Harry.

“He’s in his dorms.”, Lovegood spoke up, making Tom pause from walking away. “I think you could use family to get past the Fat Lady and into the Gryffindor common room. I really hope you and Harry will finally clear up all of the misunderstandings the Nargles and Wrackspurts have created between you two. Bye!”

And with that Luna Lovegood was gone, no doubt hunting down one of the creatures she claimed she could see.

Knowing her uncanny ability to know things, Tom often wondered if she really could see things that others couldn’t.

Shaking his head slightly to dispel that thought for now, Tom marched through the entrance hall, and started climbing through the stairs, encountering some stray Ravenclaws or Gryffindors who did a double-take when they spotted him marching through the Hogwarts castle, no doubt wondering what he was doing here in the middle of the holidays when he’d left the castle.

Finally, he reached the entrance to the Gryffindor common room which had the portrait of the Fat Lady guarding it, said Lady eyeing him as if he was some sort of nuisance she had no idea how to get rid of.

“You are not a Gryffindor.”, she stated as she stared at him with suspicious, narrowed eyes.

Tom nodded his head once, wondering whether she actually recognized every Gryffindor or if he really gave off the Slytherin vibe too much, seeing as he was simply wearing a casual black robe with a white shirt and black pants. “I am not.”, he replied. “But I am the Head Boy and I need to meet Harry Potter. It’s quite urgent.”

The Fat Lady did not say anything for a while, simply observing him with her narrowed eyes, as if judging him on whether he was enough brave and impulsive and recklessly Gryffindorish or not to be granted access to the dorms.

Tom finally sighed, irritated at the portrait. “Family.”, he said, and the Fat Lady huffed, swinging open to admit him in.

Tom peered into the hole to find some half-asleep Gryffindors longing in armchairs and sofas with several wrappers and boxes of sweets scattered around them while some braved enough energy to lift their heads to stare at whoever had entered their room, their eyes widening and shooting towards the stairs that led to the dorms when they spotted Tom climbing through the ridiculous hole they called an entrance to their House’s common room.

Tom stalked through the room, not deigning it worthy enough to spare even a glance at the scattered Gryffindors, and climbed up the narrow stairs, finally stopping in front of the door which had a golden plaque marked with ‘5TH YEARS’ on it.

Tom hesitated slightly, wondering if his Harry would be angry with him for leaving him alone, before taking a deep breath. He needed to apologize to Harry, instead of fearing his Harry’s wrath – not that the Gryffindor would ever get angry with him, Tom thought with a sigh.

He knocked on the door.

There was no response.

Had Harry put up a Silencing Charm or something on the door, he thought, knocking once more.

There was no response this time either.

Frowning, Tom put his hand on the knob and twisted it, poking his head in to see what exactly was his Harry doing that he wasn’t even responding to his knocks.

And almost dropped to the ground when he spotted Harry snuggling inside his blanket with Tom’s gifted scarf wrapped around his neck, mumbling something in his sleep, and looking so bloody adorable and beautiful that Tom felt an unavoidable urge to kiss his Harry senseless.

Tom quickly got into the dorm room, closing the door softly behind him, as his Harry continued mumbling something under his breath, a slight frown appearing on his face that made Tom want to smooth it out. Harry’s wild hair were spread around his face, making a black halo, and the Gryffindor snuggled more into Tom’s scarf, his hands clutching them tightly as if someone would steal it away from him if he did not keep it under his hold.

Tom approached his Harry slowly, trying not to wake him up, watching his face carefully, committing the boy’s almost peaceful face to memory.

He paused just beside Harry, putting the album he still had clutched in hands on to Harry’s bed-side table before his hand automatically moved to caress the boy’s face, removing the wild strands of raven hair that were on Harry’s eyes and running them over the creases that were forming over Harry’s brows as he frowned in his sleep.

Tom continued running his hand through his Harry’s wild locks, looking as Harry’s frown smoothed out, yet the mumbling continued.

“Tom…..”, Harry mumbled.

Tom paused, staring curiously at Harry’s face to see whether he had woken up and spotted Tom standing there looking at him like a creep or whether Harry was dreaming about him.

Unfortunately, Harry’s emerald eyes were peering at him with half-sleepy, half-dazed look in them.

Tom smiled slightly, removing his hand from his Harry’s hair – noting how Harry whined slightly – before murmuring a soft, “Harry.”

Harry’s brows furrowed, his eyes showing his confusion, before he smiled and scooted over, looking as if he was making space for Tom to sit down. “I did not know dreams could be this real.”, Harry mumbled, before his hand came out of his blanket and took Tom’s hand, softly tugging him into his bed.

Tom gave Harry a confused look, letting himself be tugged onto the bed and laid down beside Harry who proceeded to unravel his blanket and drape it around Tom as well, before re-adjusting the scarf around his neck and then snuggling into Tom’s chest – literally draping himself over Tom, making Tom wrap his hand around Harry’s waist, surprised.

A warmth spread across Tom’s chest as Harry softly rubbed his nose into Tom’s robes before releasing a contented sigh.

“What are you doing, Harry?”, Tom asked softly as one of his hand began rubbing Harry’s back while the other went towards the raven’s hair, running through them.

“Cuddling with you, Dream Tom.”, Harry answered, his voice slightly slurred. One of Harry’s hand was now clutching Tom’s robes on his chest, while the other was still clutching the scarf wrapped around Harry’s neck.

“Dream Tom?”, Tom questioned, his voice sounding amused even to him.

Harry hummed, tilting his head to rest his left ear on Tom’s chest. “Real Tom’s at Malfoy manor.”, he replied, his voice sounding dejected and sad. Tom’s hand around his Harry tightened. “Maybe being impressed by that Malfoy git with all those connections and political bullshit and connection assholery.”

Tom raised his eyebrows, but Harry of course, did not see that.

“I mean,” Harry continued, now sounding annoyed, “I can understand it isn’t me that Tom likes, but does it really have to be that Malfoy? I would be even happy if Tom went with Zabini, you know? That guy’s not a jerk like Malfoy and he’s almost polite. And if your real version is bi, then I think Greengrass might do as well. She’s nice and she’s good looking. Reminds me of some ice princess, you know.”

Tom’s arms tightened possessively around his Harry, thinking whether he needed to do something about Greengrass. “Do you like Greengrass?”, Tom asked, trying not to grit his teeth in the process.

Harry huffed a laugh, his hand, which was clutching Tom’s robes, moved to pat Tom’s cheek. “No, you dumb idiot. I do not like Greengrass.”, he mumbled, his voice fond. “You are Dream Tom, shouldn’t you know who I like? Aren’t you created by my mind?”

“No.”, Tom answered, rolling his eyes when Harry’s hand continued patting his cheeks. “I do not know whom you like. And why would you think I have any interest in Draco Malfoy?”

“Not you, silly.”, Harry answered, giggling. “You are my imagination. You would…no, no! You should only like me! The real you might…might like a-anyone he wants to, but not you! You are mine!”

Tom frowned at Harry’s declaration where he thought Tom would like anyone not Harry. Maybe Granger wasn’t lying when she told him how oblivious Harry could be.

………alright, Tom enjoyed it when Harry couldn’t understand when he was being flirted with or when someone asked him out, but that was because it was advantageous to him when Harry would unknowingly reject them without knowing he was being asked out to a bloody date for the next Hogsmeade weekend.

But now, it seemed it wasn’t that advantageous.

“Alright, then.”, Tom sighed. “Why do you think the real me is interested in Malfoy?”

There was silence and Tom thought that Harry might have gone back to sleep but just after a minute, Harry mumbled, “He’s got peacocks.”

Tom blinked. “Pardon?”, he asked, bewildered. “What does Malfoy having peacocks has anything to do with me…the real me, having an interest in him?”

“Well….”, Harry trailed off, before shaking his head. “He’s got money! And a family! And he’s interested in politics! And he’s got several seats in the Wizengamot! And if you, I mean the real you, marries him, the real you would get a father-in-law and a mother-in-law as well. You know, parents, even though they are in-laws……..and do you think male pregnancy is possible?”

Tom frowned, trying to process the rapid-fire sentences Harry was spilling, before he froze. “Where did you read about male pregnancy?”, he almost whispered, a feeling of panic rising in his chest.

“Not read.”, Harry mumbled. “So, they are real?”

Tom hesitated. He had stumbled upon an ancient text about male pregnancies just a few months ago. It wasn’t overly detailed, but what Tom could understand was that very powerful wizards could perform a ritual that would give one of them a temporary magical womb with an ovum that would contain the DNA of the wizard who would go through the pregnancy.

Of course, the wizards would then have to have the intercourse right there, in the ritual circle, and the chances of conception were very low. And if the ovum got fertilized, the two expecting parents would need to be with each other as much as possible so that the magical womb wouldn’t drain the ‘mother’ of his magic by draining his whole magical core – as the womb would require magic to, well, continue being present and let the foetus grow inside it.

That’s why the ritual could only work for those same-sex couples who had very powerful magical cores and whose magic were very compatible with each other’s.

“Yes.”, Tom finally answered, his voice barely more than a whisper.

Harry seemed to freeze in Tom’s arms, before slumping completely. “The real you could even have babies with Malfoy!”, he exclaimed, before gagging. “Ugh! You need to Obliviate me, Dream Tom! I can’t get the image of Tom and Malfoy having a baby bloody together out of mind!”

“You need to Obliviate me too.”, Tom stated drily, trying to get the image of Malfoy with his baby out of his mind. He couldn’t understand how Harry could even come up with all of this ridiculousness.

Harry patted his chest this time. “I know, I know.”, he mumbled consolingly. “You won’t need to see that, I would be the one who might be tortured with that in the future. But…”, Harry whispered, “you would be with me forever, right? We could cuddle together, and I would tell you how my day went and then we’ll talk until we would fall asleep in my dreams! I would survive if you would be here, even if real Tom wouldn’t….he would be busy with his work, I think the real you would become the Minister one day, and then he might get busy with his husband or wife and then his children too…”

Tom was speechless, really wondering when exactly did Harry get the time to think up all this nonsense! Did Harry really think Tom would leave him behind or something to marry someone else?!

“Do you…”, Harry sniffled and Tom realized with dawning horror that Harry had started crying sometime during his rambling – his robes getting wet and Harry’s sniffling the only indication of how upset Harry was over thinking that Tom would leave his Harry behind, “do you think T-Tom would invite me to his w-wedding and…and maybe make me one of his..his child’s godfather?”

Tom was still trying to process what the fuck his Harry was speaking. “Harry…”, he whispered softly, clutching Harry closer and burying his nose into Harry’s soft locks.

“Y-you don’t think..?”, Harry mumbled, hiccupping. “I mean….I can understand the real you being busy and all… but..but, it would only take one call…even one letter to invite me, right? A-and….if not godfather, then..then I could at least meet his kids…and play with them only? I won’t even bother him while I’ll be there! I could even become a babysitter and take care of them..if Tom and his spouse are busy. I am good with children, you know, even the real you said that!”

Tom did not say anything, only tightening his hold on his Harry. He would retire into a bloody cottage and drag Harry with him if he had to, to make the dumb, oblivious, idiotic Gryffindor understand how much he loved him. Tom could never think of leaving the idiot behind, no matter what!

And he would only have children with Harry, or they could adopt. He would never willingly marry or have children with anyone else!

“Harry, Malfoy is a bloody git.”, Tom began, his voice soft. “Why would I even think of him in that way? I don’t even want to be friends with that idiot, let alone get in a romantic relationship with him.”

“B-but..”, Harry mumbled, sniffling, “the real you is always trying to protect him from me whenever I want to teach that git a lesson on why he shouldn’t irritate me with his nonsense. Y-you are protective of him!”

Tom blinked, wondering whether it really looked like him being protective of Malfoy whenever he tried to stop Harry from kicking the blonde’s arse.

“I apologize, Harry, if it appeared like I was trying to protect him from you.”, he began softly, rubbing Harry’s back with his hand. “I only did that so that you won’t get in any trouble and so that people wouldn’t think of me as someone who favours his best friend over a fellow classmate when I am the Head Boy. You do know I care more about you than anyone else?”

“Do you?”, Harry whispered, tilting his head and peering at him with dazed eyes.

Tom moved his hand to remove the bangs of Harry’s hair that were obscuring the Gryffindor’s eyes and nodded. “Of course.”, he answered. “You are the most important person in my life, Harry. Nobody can compare to you in my eyes.”

Harry’s eyes re-filled with tears and he smiled. “You – the real you and you both – are equally important to me as well, Tom.”, he whispered. “I love you both.”

Tom froze, his hands freezing in Harry’s hair and back, while Harry – the oblivious idiot – tilted his head and went back to resting it on Tom’s chest and re-starting his rant, oblivious to the chaos that he’d caused inside Tom’s mind.

Tom gulped down the lump forming in his throat as his hands tightened around Harry, his feelings for the boy jumping around in his mind.

He did love Harry, cared about him like he cared for himself and nobody else. But was he ready to confess his true feelings to his best friend, just before the time for one of their most important exams? Could this relationship be too distracting for them both that they might not be able to focus on their studies?

But Tom could never imagine a scenario where Harry would become a liability to him – exam or not. For all that Harry said and thought himself to be only average in studies, the boy was brilliant with practical and application-based work. That’s why he was the top student in the Defence class and could work wonders in practical Charms and Runes – the photographic album of his memories that he’d created a prime example of the brilliance of Harry’s mind.

So, as far as Tom could say, this shouldn’t cause any distractions and problems in their academic life, and if it did, surely Harry would understand if Tom told him about it.

Tom came out of his contemplation and back to the world of the living, trying to understand what Harry was ranting about now.

Had someone given something to Harry? The Gryffindor usually wasn’t this talkative and delirious.

“-and then the real you – you know, it’s really annoying to say real you and dream you, but anyways – the real you told me that we’ll spend all our Yules together, no matter what,” Tom pursued his lips, the guilt about not going through with his promise with Harry making his chest hurt, “and I felt so happy then! I couldn’t believe that Tom would want to remain with me for the rest of our lives, but it was such a good promise. Then, I forced him to decorate the whole Christmas tree with me, and he was pouting the whole time because there were red and gold balls, along with blues and yellows as well, while the git only wanted green and silver ones.”

Tom was starting to worry for Harry’s lungs. Were they getting enough oxygen? He had never thought Harry could talk this much while half-asleep. The guy was literally slouching all over Tom, looking like he could drop dead any second, yet continued ranting as if his life depended on it.

Tom peered at Harry’s face.

Yup, the eyes were half-closed, glazed over with sleep.

Someone has given something to Harry, alright!

“You know, the real you is really into House pride and shit.”, Harry continued. “But it’s really sweet when you come to the Quidditch match and do not even blink when Slytherin loses and my team wins. You just give me this nod and a small smile.”

Harry huffed. “I really realized how much I loved you when we were in the Quidditch pitch, you know.”, he told him, making Tom freeze yet again. Who had given Harry whatever the fuck this was?!

“You were just sitting there, all straight backed and looking like you owned the whole pitch, looking so bloody handsome.”, Harry sighed wistfully, while Tom blinked, preening when he realized Harry was actually praising his looks. So, Harry did notice how handsome Tom looked, Tom thought smugly, not that he wouldn’t ever not notice, no matter how much Harry denied ever admitting anything about his looks. Tom was starting to like this, whatever it was.

“And I realized how much I cared about you and loved you, honestly.”, Harry sighed sadly this time, making Tom furrow his brows in worry. “Of course, I can never tell this to the real you, you might get angry at me for these feelings. Do you know how many girls and boys Tom has rejected? I think Tom isn’t really interested in anyone right now.”

Harry seemed to be going into some sort of musing, thoughtful state. “I think he would think about this romantic thing once he achieves what he wants to.”, Harry continued. “Get into the Wizengamot, overhaul all the bullshit there, then become the Minister and overhaul the bullshit from there as well and then concentrate on relationships and marriage.”

Tom hummed, running his hands through Harry’s hair, thinking that Harry might have been right if Tom hadn’t met Harry. Of course, it was also completely possible that if he hadn’t met Harry, he might have gone a more, let’s say, vigilante-criminal way to overthrow the current magical government and establish his dictatorship over the British magical population.

“Though,” Harry said, bringing Tom out of his musings, “I wonder whether Tom is straight or bi or gay or what. I really do hope he isn’t interested in Malfoy. Like you said, that blonde’s a bloody arse. He’s not any good for somebody like you.”

Tom raised his eyebrow. “And who do you think is good for me then, Harry?”, Tom asked curiously.

Harry hummed, rubbing his cheeks over Tom’s chest. “Me, of course.”, he chirped, before slumping. “But I do not think you would be interested in me like that. I mean, I haven’t got anything to offer you – no Wizengamot seats, no bloody connections, I am a Gryffindor not a Slytherin, and I’m definitely not interested in politics. And, hell, I can’t even get you the love of a mother and a father as in-laws!”

Tom furrowed his eyebrows at Harry, wondering why Harry would think Tom would look for all those things when looking for a partner. Sure, he was ambitious and wanted to get on top of the Ministry as quickly as possible, but that did not mean he would want someone who wasn’t Harry just because they were more politically active.

“But you are an orphan too, Harry.”, Tom said slowly. “Why would I want in-laws when I’ve got you?”

“Duh, silly.”, Harry giggled, completely ignoring Tom’s question. “That’s why I can’t get you an in-law mother and a father.”

Tom’s heart sank when a sudden thought came to his mind. “Would you marry someone who would have parents, so that you can get parents?”, he asked, the thought horrifying him more than anything. Was there any magical ritual that could create him new parents? Should Tom go visit his muggle father and grandparents again? Beg them to only care for Harry so that he could marry the guy in the future. Would his father even agree after Tom had thrown such a tantrum after finding out what his mother had done to his father, traumatising the man so much that he was now afraid of women?

Harry giggled yet again. “No, you dumb Tomcat!”, he answered, taking a yawn. “I would only marry you and no one else. Hey! We can…I mean, I can dream that up, can’t I? You would, of course, be my Tom and we will marry in my dream and then go to travel somewhere! Where do you think we should go to?”, Harry asked, suppressing another yawn.

Tom smiled, his heart fluttering in his chest and feeling warm all over. Harry wanted to marry him! Oh, bloody Salazar! He needed to propose to Harry soon!

“Wherever you want to go, Harry.”, Tom answered softly, sighing when Harry yawned yet again. “Do tell, Harry, if you ate or drank something that you had no idea could make you feel delirious and loose tongued?”

“Mhmm?”, Harry slurred, his hands loosening their grip on Tom’s robes and his scarf. “I ate chocolate frogs and fudge and more chocolate…….and ooh, the twins gave me this….this vial..potions…”, Harry flapped his hands for some sort of emphasis, “they make you relax, you know. You should try them sometime.”

“Sure thing, Harry.”, Tom said drily, rolling his eyes and catching Harry’s head when it lolled to one side. “Because the twins are so trustworthy.”

And Harry was asleep.

Tom continued running his hand through Harry’s hairs, smiling and chuckling when Harry nuzzled his cheeks on his chest and sighed like a well-contented cat.

“You do not know how much I love you too, Harry.”, he murmured, his voice soft, before closing his eyes, happy to cuddle with his Harry.

Chapter Text

Harry came out of his deep nap slowly, immensely surprised that he did not wake up from any Tom-leaving-him-behind nightmare or some such shit. In fact, he had a dream in which Tom had come back to him, while Harry was trying to unsuccessfully sleep on his bed, and then they had cuddled together and talked about….something. Oh, it was such a nice dream! He wished he had dreams like these every day!

And what was more, his body felt like it had the best rest it could ever had had in the history of rests – all relaxed and warm and fuzzy. He was wrapped snugly in his blanket, Tom’s scarf wrapped comfortably around his neck while he was lying on his bed on his stomach, his face buried in his soft, warm pillow.

Harry moved one of his hands to hold the scarf again, feeling a warmth spread in his chest yet again when he thought about Tom taking time out of his busy schedule to make such a nice gift for him. He sighed contentedly, rubbing his cheeks against his soft pillow which was all warm and soft and was moving under his cheeks as if breathing and then grumbling something or the other about letting it sleep – wait, what?

“What?”, Harry squeaked when he felt an arm move around his waist while the other moved to swat at his cheek.

“Go back to sleep, Harry.”, the voice grumbled again – the unmistakable voice of his best friend. Was he still dreaming? “I couldn’t sleep in that manor because of that Ball and Malfoy being an utter git! And then I had to come here and you started rambling and then promptly fell asleep on me. Now, let me sleep!”

Harry blinked at the onslaught of information, before tilting his head – ignoring Tom’s groan – and peered at the face of his friend.

And yep, he definitely was not lying on his mattress but on top of Tom, who had one of his arms wrapped around Harry’s waist while the other was still resting on his cheeks, the Slytherin’s eyes closed as the guy tried to sleep.

“How?”, Harry muttered, completely astonished as he observed Tom’s face from so close. The boy’s hair seemed to be in a disarray, splayed all around him completely opposite to how they were always – neatly parted and combed – while his face seemed to be between half-relaxed and half-pinched, as if he couldn’t decide whether to sleep or confront Harry.

Was Harry still dreaming?

“Ouch!”, Harry exclaimed as he pinched himself rather harshly, jerking both himself and Tom, who groaned yet again.

“Harry!”, Tom chastised, making Harry give him a sheepish smile.

Tom rolled his beautiful, brown eyes at him, before shifting and tugging Harry along with him as he moved and leaned his back against the headboard of Harry’s bed, keeping Harry still in his arms.

“What was that?”, Tom asked, his eyes studying him intently, as if he was trying to see whether Harry was working properly or not.

“I..err..”, Harry stared at Tom wide-eyed, trying to understand how Tom had ended up lying on his mattress, not to mention when exactly the guy had come back to Hogwarts. His eyes blew wide in bewilderment. “Did I sleep away our whole holiday?”, he exclaimed, now trying to scramble out of Tom’s arms in blind panic – not that Tom let him jump out of his bed and break his neck with all that tangled blankets and robes and scarves. “Merlin, Tom! Let go! I need to finish my Potions, Charms and Transfigurations homework!”, Harry paused in his panic, trying to remember what else Hermione had told him to complete in her letter. “And re-check my Arithmatic calculations because Hermione says I always add or remove some factor that I needed to take care of!”

Tom, the bastard that he was, still did not let Harry rush off to bullshit his way through his homework, only rolled his eyes at him. “Relax, Harry.”, Tom drawled out, rubbing Harry’s back, making him slump down on Tom’s chest with a bloody purr. How dare Tom treat him like a bloody cat when Harry was not! And when did he began to purr again?

“It’s not the end of the holidays. It’s still the twenty-fifth of December,” Tom paused, waving his hand to wandlessly and non-verbally cast off a Tempus, Harry rolling his eyes at the show-off, “close to five in the evening. No need to worry about your homework. Yet.”

The bastard! Harry scowled at Tom who was giving him an amused look now, as if he knew all of Harry’s secrets and was just waiting for Harry to realize that he knew those said secrets. “If it’s the twenty-fifth, then what the hell are you doing here?”, Harry snarked, raising his eyebrows when Tom’s amused look faltered.

Tom sighed – making Harry worry for his best friend’s health because Tom never sighed – and nodded towards Harry’s bedside table.

Confused, Harry looked at his table and his eyebrows went up before a grin came over his face. “The album!”, he exclaimed, wiggling slightly to make Tom loosen his grip around him, before he stretched out to grab the album. He looked back at Tom. “You got my gift!”, he said happily. “How did you find it, huh? It really took so long to create this thing, I really hope you appreciate it with the appreciation it deserves!”

“I am so sorry, Harry.”, Tom whispered.

Harry blinked, looking into Tom’s eyes to find guilt of all things swimming in there, along with hesitance and fear. Harry’s heartbeat increased as he looked from the album and back to Tom. “What…”, he muttered before realization dawned on his face. Tom might not have liked his gift! Harry had made sure not to include any memories that could be too personal – not that there were any memories that could be described as that personal – or that might give the other Slytherins some ammunition against Tom, but he might not have been careful enough. Or it could have been his comments! He mentally berated himself! He must have written too much! Merlin, he was an idiot!

“Hey, it’s alright.”, Harry finally said, putting the album beside him to gently take Tom’s face in his hands. “It’s alright, I can figure something else out for you. Yule holidays aren’t over yet, right, so I can get you something else.”, Harry patted Tom’s cheeks when the Slytherin’s eyebrows furrowed. “There’s this book in the Potter vaults that you might like, and then there’s that locket I saw in that shop, I bet you would-”

“Harry!”, Tom interrupted Harry’s musings over plan B gifts, shaking his head when Harry tried to pat his cheeks again. “I wasn’t apologizing over that wonderful gift! Don’t you dare take it away from me!”

Harry blinked, confusion now clearly overtaking his face. “But you-”, he started, before rudely getting interrupted again.

“No! Listen to me!”, Tom demanded, staring down Harry’s frown. “I was apologizing about leaving you here, alone at Hogwarts and going to the Malfoy manor for that Ball, when I had promised you that we would spend all of our Yules together.”

“I…”, Harry gaped at Tom for a moment, speechless. He furrowed his brows when it finally registered that Tom was actually apologizing to him. “It’s alright, Tom.”, he told the Slytherin, shaking his head. “I know how important it is for you to get in contact with important Ministry folks, you’ll be taking the seat of Lord Slytherin just after graduation, after all. And we could spend Yule next year together, hopefully.”

“Didn’t appeared like you believed that just a few hours ago.”, Tom muttered, studying Harry’s face.

“What?”

“You were ranting rather a lot when I first came over here.”, Tom elaborated, raising his eyebrows at Harry when Harry only cocked his head in confusion.

What was Tom talking about?

“Something about me leaving you behind and going and marrying Malfoy of all people,” Tom drawled, Harry blinking before his eyes widened in horror, “and having babies with that insufferable idiot and whether I will invite you to our wedding or not, and whether you will be named my child’s godfather or not. Even talking about becoming their babysitter so that you could spend time with them.”

With each passing sentence, Harry felt his heart rate pick up and his face pale. What the fuck?! How did Tom know about all of this?! These were Harry’s most secret, most dark thoughts because Merlin’s saggy pants, it was disgustingly nauseating to even think about Malfoy and Tom being together, let alone being married and having babies!

Had he really blabbered all of this to Tom?

“Yes, you did.”, Tom answered, raising his eyebrows when Harry’s ears warmed, turning red.

Apparently, he couldn’t very well control his traitorous mouth.

“You gave a very long rant on things that are so utterly nonsensical that I do not understand when you even got the time to think about them.”, Tom continued, ignoring Harry’s pout. “You think I will leave you behind just because I want to get into politics, and will have no…..use of you since you are not into politics and the Potter House does not have any Wizengamot seats or that you cannot offer me in-law parents.”

Harry’s face would probably put a tomato to shame, what with how red it must be looking with the amount of embarrassment he was feeling. He was going to kill the twins! What the fuck had they given him to drink?! He had trusted them!

“Do you really believe all that nonsense?”, Tom asked, looking into Harry’s eyes.

Harry looked away, not willing to admit that in his loneliness – the times when he felt he was all alone even when he had such wonderful friends – he believed that he might not be good enough for all of them. Might not be enough to be whoever they wanted – be it a best friend or just a friend or just even an ear to listen to the problems his friends had.

“Harry.”, Tom whispered when Harry did not say anything. Harry felt a gentle hand touch his chin, before tilting and lifting it up to meet the sad brown eyes of his best friend. “I thought you knew how much important you are to me.”, he said softly, rubbing his thumb soothingly against Harry’s cheek. Harry stared into Tom’s eyes, his heart beating loudly in his chest when he saw how much genuine and heartfelt Tom was being.

“Sure, our moral compass and ideas clash against each other often, and we do not agree all the time, but that does not mean I do not value your presence in my life, Harry.”, Tom continued, his voice still uncharacteristically soft. “You keep me grounded, keep me sane and focused. You give me reason to be the best, so that I can keep us both safe and secure, and to be able enough in the future to provide us both a home that we never got during our childhood.”

Harry’s eyes were filling with tears while a lump the size of Tom’s ego (he had to make that jab, his heart couldn’t take more than what it was already taking) already forming in his throat.

>

“I…I care about you more than I should, Harry.”, Tom admitted, taking a deep breath as if preparing himself for something. “I want you to remain by my side for the rest of our lives, to be with me as whoever you prefer to be, be it my best friend or my boyfriend or……my future husband.”

Harry blinked, flabbergasted, wondering whether he had heard Tom right or whether his mind was playing tricks with him, probably due to the twins’ stupid potion (he will really kill them, he just needed to get out of this talk alive – because he was sure he would die of embarrassment due to his loose mouth, the reason behind which were again those twins!).

“I….”, Harry began slowly, as he looked Tom in the eyes who seemed to be waiting for Harry’s response with an eager look in his eyes, “..do not think I….heard….you….correctly…”

Tom smiled slightly before saying, “You heard it right, actually.”

Harry’s brows furrowed, not understanding why Tom would want Harry as his boyfriend or, Merlin, had he really heard….husband? “You….”, Harry hesitated, “….said something about husband..?”

Tom nodded, his expression completely serious. “You heard it right, Harry.”, he repeated again. “In a few years, I would really prefer it if you…married me.” Harry’s heart stopped along with his breath as Tom’s brown eyes locked with his green ones with utter sincerity and warmth. “As I said, I care about you more than I should, Harry, more than a best friend should.”

“I do not know,” he continued, “when exactly these feelings inside me changed about you. One day I am trying to drag you out of some stupid stunt that you are trying to pull and the next I know, I am thinking on how you make me smile, how you make me feel, how my heart skips when you laugh because of me, and how my stomach flutters when you smile at me.”

Harry stared open-mouthed at Tom as the guy gently put both of his hands on Harry’s cheeks, his thumbs still rubbing soothingly on Harry’s skin.

“I only realized that I had romantic feelings for you in my fifth year.”, Tom told him, smiling when Harry only continued his wide-eyed gaping. “And while it was slightly alarming that I fell for you regarding some feelings that I saw as…useless, I could not have been happier for having such feelings for you. But I was unsure about whether I should tell you about them or not, and they also kind of, sometimes….”, Tom hesitated, looking worried.

Harry, still wide-eyed, put one of his hands on Tom’s and gave it a soft squeeze.

Tom smiled. “My feelings sometimes made me afraid…..that maybe you might not reciprocate it, that it might cause problems in our friendship or that you might leave me forever.”, he confessed.

Harry vehemently shook his head. “Never.”, he whispered.

“I know.”, Tom replied. “I know that now, but then it was completely new to me. And then, in sixth year, Granger threatened me, saying that I should confess to you already because, and I quote ‘it is really becoming unbearable to see both you and Harry pinning for each other so pathetically yet not doing anything about it, Riddle!’, end quote.”, Tom made a very irritated face at that.

Harry couldn’t stop laughing at that, thinking that it was completely like Hermione to figure out how Harry was crushing on Tom while also realizing that, apparently, Tom returned his feelings!

“Of course,” Tom continued, “I was still hesitant then about confessing to you, thinking that it might affect our dynamic or cause problems between us, which again, I admit, is quite idiotic of me to think, because no matter what, you’ve been the most stable constant in my life, Harry.”

Harry smiled, another lump forming in his throat. Tom returned his feelings!

“The whole point of my rant is that I really, really like you, Harry,” Tom said finally, pulling Harry’s face closer and resting his forehead on Harry’s, “and I would really love it if you would consider being my…boyfriend.”

Harry stared at Tom’s face, so close to his own, as Tom’s eyes stared back at him. He really couldn’t believe that Tom returned his feelings, that Tom romantically liked him! He gazed into the brown eyes of his best friend, which were gazing back at him with hope.

“Did I….did I blabber about my feelings to you while I was…half-asleep?”, Harry asked finally, making Tom’s lips twitch upwards in amusement.

“You might have.”, Tom murmured evasively.

Harry felt his cheeks warm again in embarrassment, thinking on what he might have blabbered out while he was under that potion. But then, this might be the reason Tom was talking to him about this, about their relationship. “Merlin!”, Harry muttered, burying his face in Tom’s neck when he thought about his thoughts regarding Tom and his being in love with the guy. “I can’t even imagine what kind of idiotic things I might have told you while…like that!”

Tom chuckled as he buried his face in Harry’s wild hair while his hands wrapped around Harry securely. “Not much, really, Harry.”, he replied, amusement clear in his voice. “You just told me how much good-looking and handsome you think I am, and that my eyes make you swoon while my smile-”

Harry shut the bastard up with a quick and hesitant kiss to the stupid, blabbering mouth. As he pulled away, he could see Tom’s eyes wide with disbelief while his mouth seemed frozen in place. Harry smiled. “I love you, Tom.”, he whispered, using his left hand to touch Tom’s cheeks softly while the other hand clutched the boy’s robes. “And I would love to be your boyfriend.”

Before the words had even left his mouth, Tom had pulled Harry in for another kiss, this one completely dominated by Tom. Harry smiled in the kiss while Tom nibbled on his bottom lip.

Before long, they had to pull away to take very much lacking air into their lungs.

Tom put his forehead against Harry’s before murmuring, “I truly apologize for leaving you alone, Harry. I did not realize how stupid-”

Harry pecked Tom’s lips, stopping the boy again, before pulling away and murmuring, “It’s alright, Tom. Luna stayed with me because apparently her father went to look for some kind of creatures.”, he told him. “And Susan and Hannah were here too, along with several Ravenclaws. We had fun together here.”

“Who did you celebrate Yule with?”, Tom asked, wrapping his arms around Harry again.

“Luna.”, Harry answered, smiling softly. “She knows a lot about Yule rituals. And she somehow convinced the elves to cook popcorns for us! And the Christmas tree looks amazing! You wanna have a look at it later?”

“Of course.”, Tom murmured, pulling Harry closer, who smiled still unable to believe that Tom liked him and wanted to be with him romantically. “I would love to see the tree. And…and we can even decorate another one too, with all the colorful orbs representing the Hogwarts’ Houses and whatever other hideous decoration you want to put on them.”

“They are not hideous!”, Harry exclaimed, pouting as he looked at Tom. “They are all beautiful! And you cannot blame my artistic talent when you suck at it yourself!”

“I do not suck at it, darling.”, Tom smirked when Harry blushed at the endearment, kissing Harry’s forehead, before continuing. “But since you insist so much on creating those decorations yourself, I let you have a go at it.”

“Sure.”, Harry rolled his eyes at the blatant lie, before sighing in Tom’s arms. His Tom’s arms! He smiled giddily. “I missed you.”, he murmured softly into Tom’s robes.

“Missed you too, Harry.”, Tom murmured back. “I cannot believe I thought going to the Malfoy Yule Ball would be more fruitful than spending it with you here in the castle.”

Harry smiled softly, before asking curiously, “How was the Yule Ball, anyway? How many people did you meet there? Did that Malfoy git irritate you too much?”

“Do not even talk about that event, Harry!”, Tom groaned, slumping down and putting his head on Harry’s shoulder tiredly. “It was a headache personified. All the guests there were just gossiping about completely irrelevant things, or trying to get on my good side by simpering about nonsense, or trying to flirt with me when I could have passed off as their grandson, or just standing there with their egos waiting for me to simp to them! Disgusting!”

Harry giggled, laughing outright when Tom lifted his head just to glare at him. “That’s why I do not like politics.”, he said between laughs. “Serves you right for going with that Malfoy pounce.”

Tom grumbled. “Don’t talk about those Malfoys.”, he said, sounding indignant. “Lord Malfoy had the gall to suggest to me to court his son, just so that he could boast about having a connection to the Slytherin line.”

Harry stiffened, the things Malfoy had boasted to him before the Yule holidays echoing through his mind. He took Tom’s face into his hands, making Tom who was staring at him with worry frown, scanning Tom’s face carefully before looking down at the Slytherin’s whole body.

“What are you doing, Harry?”, Tom asked slowly.

“Making sure that git did not do anything to you.”, Harry answered absentmindedly as he continued his careful observation of Tom’s body. “That jerk was boasting about how he would be spending some….quality time with you in his beautiful, wonderful manor during these holidays.”, Harry gritted out, turning Tom’s head left and right, Tom letting him do so because he looked dubiously surprised. “Something about how he could be your deserved lover,” Harry spat viciously, “and could make you feel good in different ways.”

Tom’s face was turning blank.

“Why do you think I beat the absolute shit out of that git?”

“You should have told me.”, Tom said carefully.

“Didn’t I take care of it?”, Harry asked.

“He has more shit coming,” Tom said slowly, “if he thinks he can say nonsense like that to you and get out of it alive.”

“He wouldn’t have been alive if Susan and Anthony hadn’t interfered.”, Harry sniffed. “But that aside,” he stopped turning Tom’s head to stare into his eyes, “did that git try to do anything to you? I will kill him if he even so much as touched what is mine.”

“Territorial, are we?”, Tom smirked.

“Of course.”, Harry replied. “You are my boyfriend now,” oh, it felt wonderful saying that, “so, no one has any right to put their hands on you.”

“Indeed.”, Tom smirked, pulling Harry closer so that their noses touched. “And you are mine. Nobody other than me has any right to so much as glance at you.”

Harry chuckled, trying to will away the blush creeping up his neck. “It’s kinda impossible for people not to glance at me, Tom.”, he muttered. “Or do you want me to become invisible or something?”

“That will be better actually.”, Tom mused. “Why don’t you wear your Invisibility Cloak all the time?”

Harry stared at Tom’s frighteningly blank look, horrified when he realized he wasn’t sure whether Tom was joking or not. “I really hope for both our sakes,” Harry said slowly, “that you are joking, Tom.”

Tom raised his eyebrow at Harry, curious. “Why my sake?”, he asked.

“Because I might murder you for suggesting it to me to walk around everywhere like a bloody ghost, invisible to everyone!”

“You are mine, Harry!”, Tom said, rolling his eyes. “Shouldn’t I be possessive of you, the way you are?”

“You take possessiveness to a whole new level, you idiot.”

“And that is how it should be, my dear.”, Tom replied, looking smug for some reason.

“You-”, Harry turned red yet again, really not used to Tom, and anyone for that matter, calling him using those endearments.

“Oh, hush.”, Tom smiled, swooping down to do just that.

---------

The following evening, when Harry and Tom emerged out of the Gryffindor dorms both looking slightly disheveled – Harry’s hair more so – and their lips swollen, the students in the Great Hall who were just starting their dinner did a double take on seeing Tom, before, as one, they all peered at their joined hands and grinning, dopey faces, turned towards each other and began handing out coins.

Harry blinked at the lot of them, while Tom merely gave all of them an unimpressed stare.

“What the heck are they doing?”, he asked, waving at Luna, Susan and Hannah and dragging a mildly irritated Tom to the Hufflepuff table when the girls beckoned them over.

“Settling their long-drawn bets, no doubt.”, Tom answered quietly, sitting down all proper and Pureblood-y beside Harry when he sat down beside Luna who was smiling at them serenely.

“I knew those necklaces would work.”, Luna said, staring from Harry to Tom and back to Harry. “I did tell you the Moon Frogs help remove obliviousness, Harry.”

Susan and Hannah, who had been eyeing Harry and Tom with eager looks in their eyes, suddenly burst into laughter, while Harry gaped at his friend, finally understanding what she’d been saying to him that day.

“Luna!”, he exclaimed. “I can’t believe you were…”

“But you really were very oblivious, Harry.”, Susan said kindly, glancing at Tom. “The whole school has been betting since forever on when you two will finally get your priorities straight and get together already!”

Hannah nodded sagely. “Even some of the professors have been betting.”, she added, grinning.

Harry made a disturbed face, making a noise as he looked at Tom, who looked like he wasn’t bothered at the least with this betting pool in anyway and was serving himself and Harry their dinner.

“I’ve heard that Professor Snape had also made the bet.”, Luna spoke up calmly. “With the Weasley twins no less. Something about potions ingredients and helping with their experimental potions, the Nargles are slightly confused about it.”

Harry groaned, flopping his head on Tom’s shoulder who urged him to eat his dinner. “I can’t believe Snape’s betting on my love life!”, he blushed when Tom coughed beside him, shifting to wrap his hand around Harry’s shoulder. “Why didn’t I know about it?! And why aren’t you even surprised, Tom?”

“Some of my Slytherins informed me about this betting pool when it began, Harry.”, Tom replied while chewing through his vegetables.

“And why didn’t you tell me?”, Harry asked. “Or do anything about it?”

“Haven’t I done something about it now?”, Tom asked, smirking when Harry scowled. “Besides, I couldn’t have alone stopped the betting. It was beyond my control. Now, eat!”

Harry huffed, starting on his food.

“Well,” Susan smiled, “let me congratulate you two for finally getting together!”

“Yeah!”, Hannah nodded enthusiastically. “Congratulations! Neville’s been worried about you and your feeling suppressing methods.”

Harry frowned at her. “I do not suppress my feelings.”, he said.

“Oh, please, Harry.”, Susan rolled her eyes, smiling at him after to show she meant no offense. “Hermione’s been ranting about how she cannot take any more of your obliviousness and ignorance. I often felt afraid for you, and for Riddle,” she nodded at Tom, “whenever she got into that rant of hers with us.”

Tom merely rolled his eyes. “Granger should focus on her own business.”, he drawled. “Not mine or Harry’s.”

Harry patted Tom’s hand. “She’s a friend, Tom.”, he said quietly while the girls returned to their dinner. “That’s how she shows she cares.”

“Right.”, Tom replied back, quieter. “By sending me a book titled ‘How to Confess Your Undying Love to Your Oblivious Best Friend for Dummies’,” Harry choked on his food making Tom sympathetically pat his back, “and threatening me to read it and apply it. How did she even get that Slytherin damned book is beyond even my comprehension!”

“She is Hermione, alright.”, Harry said after chugging in a whole glass of water. “I bet she wrote the book down.”

“And how does she know what do to do in such a case?”, Tom asked, raising his eyebrow at Harry judgingly.

“Her and Ron, duh.”, Harry replied, rolling his eyes. “They’ve been pinning for each other since third year but got the guts to confess in sixth. It was irritating to watch them bicker like enemies one moment and then start acting like lovesick fools the next.”

“Do not, by any means,” Tom glared, “compare me to Granger. Or Merlin forbid, Weasley, Harry.”

“Oh, come on!”, Harry laughed. “Hermione’s smart, just like you.”

“I am very offended, Harry.”, Tom sniffed. “I’m smarter than Granger.”

“Whatever you say.”, Harry rolled his eyes. “Well, eat quickly! We gotta go, check the Christmas tree!”

-------

Once they had their dinner, Harry and Tom got up to spend their time in the Room of Requirement.

After bidding the girls a good night – while they gave them suggestive looks and winks – Harry and Tom got out of the Great Hall and promptly crashed into Dumbledore. Well, Harry crashed into Dumbledore while Tom stopped a step before, his hand that held Harry’s squeezing his tightly, while staring stoically at the headmaster.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, peered at them from above his half-moon glasses before beaming at them like a proud parent. “My boys!”, he said jovially. “I dare say I had been very much afraid whether I’d lose my bet I had placed on you two getting together on this fine time of the year. I must congratulate you two for finally uniting together and winning me my, hmm, let’s see,” he furrowed his white brows as he counted under his breath, “a set of potions that taste like some wonderful muggle sweets from dear Professor Snape, a pair of warm and brightly colored socks from Professor Trelawney and a total of six bags of lemon drops from the remining of my fellow staff members.”

Harry blinked at the Headmaster in confounded surprise while Tom, who looked like he was itching to either strangle the beaming Headmaster with his white beards or turn tail and run away as fast as he could, merely smiled at the old man, his smile looking strained. “Thank you, Professor Dumbledore.”, he said politely. “I am delighted that we could help you win so many packets of your favourite sweets.”

“Quite right, dear boy.”, Dumbledore nodded merrily. “I had been in severe need of some lemon drops, seeing as I was running out of them pretty fast.”

“I do not understand how you can run out of sweets so very fast, sir.”, Tom smiled, his right eye twitching. “Did you not order Professor Hagrid to get you a dozen bags just last week?”

“Ah, yes, I did, dear Tom.”, Dumbledore nodded solemnly. “But, you know, an old man’s craving. I just cannot control myself from gobbling them all up in just a week.”

“I do think they might cause your teeth some problems, Headmaster.”, Tom said sagely. “After all, it is unwise to eat so much sweets when one is at such an age where a small slip can cause lots of damage to one’s health.”

“Quite right, you are, dear boy.”, Dumbledore nodded sagely. “But, again-”

“W-wait…”, Harry, who had come out of his daze after accepting that even the Headmaster won’t leave his love life alone, stammered, feeling bewildered at hearing his boyfriend (ha!) and the Headmaster having a polite conversation on lemon drops when he knew with all his heart that both did not like each other with all of their beings, “why..why were you betting on our love life with the other professors, sir?”

Both Tom and Dumbledore had turn to look at Harry.

Tom sighed, pulling Harry closer to him while Dumbledore beamed yet again, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses.

“You see, dear boy,” Dumbledore began happily, “the life in castle often tends to get boring when you do not have the awesome company of the Weasley twins-”, Tom scrunched his nose in irritation, “-so we must find some other ways to entertain ourselves. And what better way than to find some drama to bet on the mutual affections of our two top seventh-year students, hmm?”

Harry frowned, but before he could say anything else the Headmaster shooed them away saying, “Well, I must be off to collect by betting prizes, of course. I must show dear Severus how wrong he was in assuming that one of his snakes would never be in a relationship with one of Minerva’s lions.” With that the man was gone.

Harry blinked once more in mild awe, confusion and irritation at his professors before he slumped down into Tom’s chest who merely patted his head, his other arm wrapping around Harry’s waist to pull them closer together.

“Do not fret, darling.”, Tom consoled. “This betting pool merely shows how much the Hogwarts’ students and staff ship us together. I am delighted they find myself worthy to be your future husband. I must say I am slightly miffed; I should have anonymously betted in it as well. It would have been easy money.”

“Not you too, Tom!”, Harry groaned, making Tom chuckle.

Chapter Text

Tom stared as his darling flitted around the bookshelves in the small book-shop they had decided to visit in Hogsmeade in one of their weekends off while Harry babbled something or the other about a new Rune combination he had been working on.

It was the fourteenth of February, the day of Saint Valentine’s and instead of going to the shops like Madam Pudifoot’s, which was famous among the Hogwarts’ couples, or even the Three Broomsticks, Harry had insisted on coming here so that they could browse through some books and Harry could search for some on Runes that he wanted for his ongoing research.

Don’t get Tom wrong, he absolutely loves this about Harry – the understanding that Tom despised places like Madam Pudifoot’s – but that did not mean that Tom wouldn’t ever make an exception for Harry.

Harry was, after all, Tom’s boyfriend, the love of his life, and if Harry asked Tom to burn the whole world down, Tom would happily oblige, even if it took Tom a while to make the world burnable.

It had been one month, nineteen days, sixteen hours – he cast a wandless and wordless Tempus – twenty-two minutes and thirty-five, six, seven, eight, well some seconds, till they had gotten together and Tom was enjoying every moment of being with his Harry.

He enjoyed waiting for Harry outside the Gryffindor common room – or sometimes, he could persuade the Fat Lady to let him in, where he did not have to wait for Harry – so that he could kiss him a good morning. He enjoyed holding hands with his Harry, laying a claim that Harry was his and his alone. He enjoyed sitting with Harry and sharing his meal with him. He enjoyed sneaking out with the Gryffindor to spend their time in the Room of Requirement or in the Chamber of Secrets or in the Forbidden Forest.

He especially enjoyed having debates with Harry on any particular research topic they could find while cuddling with Harry, while running his hands through Harry’s hair, while feeling Harry’s breath on his cheeks and neck, while he could make Harry lose his line of thoughts by merely breathing close to his ears or kissing him senseless.

Tom loved all those moments when he could see how much he affected Harry’s thoughts and dreams, how much Harry loved being with him and how much he could make Harry laugh and smile.

Tom was beginning to realize how much he loved Harry, how much he wished he could keep Harry for himself forever – how much he would love to make Harry his forever.

“-so, what do you think, Tom?”, Harry’s question, which Tom might mention he hadn’t heard a word of, brough him out of his distracting thoughts.

Had Tom mentioned how distracting Harry could be when he was talking passionately about something he was working on?

“Of course, Harry, darling.”, Tom replied, hoping he wasn’t giving the wrong reply. “I think it’s amazing.”

Harry tilted his head to glance at Tom from where he had been looking through some of the books, before turning completely to face Tom. “You weren’t listening to me, were you?”, Harry asked, raising his eyebrows.

Tom smiled sheepishly. “You are quite distracting, my dear.”, he admitted.

Harry smiled softly, a blush already making its way through his ears and neck. “You are such a sap.”, he accused as he walked over to where Tom was leaning lightly against a bookshelf. “Did you even listen to what Rune combination I was talking about?”

Tom captured Harry into his arms as he pulled the boy closer to him. “Something about creating a magical version of television.”, he answered.

Harry huffed as he lightly poked Tom on his chest with his fingers. “That’s the overall effect.”, he pouted. “I meant the Runes that might be required in creating something that complex.”

“Do you expect me to remember all of the Runes, darling?”, Tom asked.

“As a matter of fact, yes.”, Harry nodded. “You’ve got an eidetic memory, Tom. Don’t try to fool me.”

“I’m not, dear.”, Tom smiled, nuzzling Harry’s nose with his. “I was merely thinking about the past month that we have spent together, and how much I love spending my time with you.”

Harry smiled. “You do know how to change the topic of conversation very effectively, honey.”, he remarked.

“I am a Slytherin.”, Tom smirked, pecking Harry on his lips before pulling away. “Harry, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Harry stared curiously, “how much do you know about magical courting procedure?”

Harry’s eyes widened in surprise. “You..”, he stammered, “Y-you want to court me?”

“Of course.”, Tom nodded. “I will only want to get your hands in marriage properly. It would not do if I just went and asked you for marriage without showing you how much I appreciate your presence in my life and how much you mean to me.”

“B-but..”, Harry’s whole face had turned red, “you really don’t need to do that. A-and..aren’t we like..um..too young for marriage right now? Like, err…are you sure you want to start the courtship magic between us? What..what if we aren’t compatible for marriage?”

Tom pulled Harry closer, burying his face into the ridiculous boy’s wild locks. “You’ll always be an idiot.”, he told the Gryffindor fondly. “I don’t care whether we are too young for something like marriage or not. I am sure I want to spent the rest of my life with you. Unless you don’t want to?”

Harry shook his head in the negative vehemently.

“Thought so.”, Tom said smugly. “I want to spoil you with all of the things I can buy from all of the money that is rotting in the Slytherin vaults, and no-”, he ordered when Harry opened his mouth to say something, “-don’t say I do not need to waste my money on you. Harry,” Tom touched Harry’s forehead lightly with his, looking into those emerald green eyes, “I know you were the one who gave your trust vault’s money for me when you realized I’ll be getting the money from Hogwarts and that it wouldn’t be sufficient for me to get first hand materials.”

Harry blinked, looking surprised. “How did you-?”, Harry muttered.

“You really thought I won’t figure that out?”, Tom asked rolling his eyes. “Darling, I’ve seen some orphan students making do with the money that Hogwarts provides them. Don’t you think I’ll be able to see how they have only second-hand robes and almost third-hand books? Did you never really thought I will find out eventually?”

“Well, I…”, Harry, looking embarrassed, avoided Tom’s eyes.

“You are wonderful, my dear.”, Tom murmured. “Don’t take the chance away from me when I can show you that wonder I feel whenever I am with you.”

“You are wonderful as well, Tom.”, Harry murmured back. “You are amazing. I cannot still believe that you return my romantic feelings. I am happy just to have you in my life. I don’t need anything else.”

“Regardless.”, Tom smiled. “Let me please.”

Harry stared for a moment into Tom’s eyes before sighing playfully and smiling. “Oh, well.”, he smiled. “Do whatever you want to.”

“That will do.”, Tom smirked, capturing Harry’s lips into a toe-curling kiss.

-----------

“Tom! Where are you taking me?!”, Harry exclaimed as he stumbled upon one more stair while Tom kept a firm hold around his boy’s waist, leading him through the stairs in Aberforth Dumbledore’s house.

“Hush, darling.”, Tom whispered. “Just be patient and follow my lead.”

“How the hell am I supposed to follow your lead when you have my eyes shut tight with this stupid piece of cloth?!”, Harry demanded, cursing up a storm as he stumbled yet again around a couch.

Tom rolled his eyes at his soon-to-be fiancé’s foul mouth, giving Aberforth, who was watching their slow progression with an amused tilt to his lips, an apologetic smile.

Aberforth merely waved him away.

“That is why I am leading you, am I not?”, Tom asked patiently as the portrait of Ariana Dumbledore waved at him before opening to reveal a dark slanting passageway that led straight to the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts.

Tom muttered for Harry to climb before they clambered down into the passageway, Harry less gracefully so, and the portrait closed behind them, leaving them in darkness.

Wandlessly, Tom Conjured up a ball of light, ignoring another storm that Harry was cussing beside him.

It was the twenty-fourth of December, the day when Harry and he celebrated Yule together in the Room of Requirement. But since they had graduated from Hogwarts this May, Harry had been muttering about how they wouldn’t be able to celebrate their Yule together at Hogwarts. This had given Tom an idea to give Harry a surprise by taking him to Hogwarts via this secret passageway he and Harry had found in their sixth year.

But it was turning out that leading a blindfolded Harry through anywhere was a hassle in and of itself.

Tom rolled his eyes yet again when Harry demanded where they were going before he kissed Harry to shut him up and began leading him through the passageway.

After graduation, Harry had successfully gotten an apprenticeship under a famous Runes and Arithmancy Master in Great Britain, while Tom had entered the field of politics as the Lord of House Slytherin. He was thinking on applying for a job in the Ministry itself, but that might need to wait since he wanted to discuss about his options with Harry first.

Tom and Harry had brought a nice little cottage at the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole which had a very beautiful view of the mountains and forests, along with the added benefit of being close to the Lovegoods and the Weasleys (not that that was a benefit for Tom).

Tom often had to endure the Weasleys’ and Granger’s presence, while he could finally unravel the mystery that was Luna Lovegood. Turns out, the woman actually has a way to sense the future though she wasn’t much clear on how she did it.

Tom was slowly starting to gain the respect of several of the Lords of the Dark faction in the Wizengamot and with Dumbledore beaming at him from his high chair, he also had the support of some of the Lords belonging to the Light faction. Tom knew it wouldn’t be easy for him to start introducing bills that could help in reforming and changing the stagnant world of the magicals, but he knew he will succeed in his endeavour as long as he had Harry by his side.

Speaking of having Harry on his side, the young man was again cursing up a storm.

“Will you stop it, Harry?”, Tom asked as they finally came to the end of the passageway. He pushed the portrait that was the exit open and peered into the Room of Requirement he had been imagining for a while.

The room was average with a cosy fire burning in a hearth that had a Christmas tree standing tall beside it. There were two boxes full of glittering balls and stars and whatnot, waiting to be hung up on said tree. There were several cosy couches and armchairs around the room, with bookshelves and portraits decorating the walls.

At last, there was a ritualistic circle engraved with Runes drawn in the middle of the room.

Tom nodded, satisfied with the décor, before urging Harry to jump down.

“Are you kidding me, Tom?”, Harry demanded, his hands twitching as if he wanted to pull out his wand and hex Tom in to next week.

Good thing Tom had already confiscated Harry’s wand.

“You want me to bloody jump?!”, he screeched. “Where the fuck are we?!”

“Don’t you trust me, Harry?”, Tom asked, feeling slightly hurt.

“Of course, I trust you, Tom!”, Harry snapped, clutching Tom’s hand tightly. “I trust you with my bloody life! But sometimes, I do not know what your brain is concocting in that mind-space of yours! I have been watching you planning something for the past few weeks and believe me the smirks and complete maniacal looks you had scared me for life!”

Tom frowned slightly as he went back to the moments he had been planning this day in his mind and alright, he might have smirked overly much and might have, once or twice, cackled in his delight while planning how he will propose to his Harry.

Well, Harry’s hesitance was acceptable this once.

“That was because I was planning this gift for you, Harry.”, Tom sighed. He won’t verbally accept his loud cackling though. “Just trust me, alright? I won’t put your life in danger.”

Harry’s whole body twitched before he sighed in defeat and nodded. “You better not be making me jump into a tub full of something undesirable.”, he warned. “I swear, Tom, I won’t ever talk to you in my life if you pulled a prank on me like that.”

“I won’t ever pull a prank on you like that, darling.”, Tom assured, rubbing Harry’s back soothingly. “Not blindfolded, at least. If I wished to do something of that sort, I will straight up push you into a tub myself. I won’t request you to jump in it.”

“Har har.”, Harry deadpanned, before taking a deep breath and jumping down. It did not take long for him to land into a pile of quilts, blankets and pillows while Tom followed behind him.

While Tom got up to stand beside the pile, Harry pulled out his blindfold impatiently before proceeding to gape at the room he found himself in.

“Surprised, are we?”, Tom asked with a smug smile on his face. “Welcome back to the Room of Requirement, dear. We can celebrate another Yule here together and take this as my apology to you for not being with you the previous Yule.”

Harry’s wide-eyes turned to stare at Tom while they softened into a gentle smile. He rushed over and tackled Tom into a tight hug.

“Thank you.”, he murmured into Tom’s chest. “Thank you for everything, Tom.”

Tom chuckled before placing a soft kiss on Harry’s head, returning the hug equally tight. “You are welcome, love.”, he murmured into Harry’s head. “Now, come on. We should do the ritual so that you can decorate that tree hideously.”

Harry laughed, bright and beautiful and dragged Tom with him towards the ritual circle.

They performed the ritual together, happily immersing themselves into the festive, natural and powerful magic that engulfed them.

Once done with the rituals, they shared some food before moving to decorate the tree. Harry had already requested for a magical radio that was now happily filing the room with Celestina Warbeck’s ridiculous songs while Harry sang along to it, wiggling his body and decorating the tree as hideously bright as he could.

“Do you really have to use such bright colours, Harry?”, Tom asked, trying to shield his eyes away from the brightness intensely radiating from the tree.

“Of course, darling.”, Harry grinned as he hung up a neon yellow ball on the tree before picking up a neon pink. Tom, who was sitting cross-legged in front of the tree wondered why Harry wasn’t using the decorations he had asked from the room that was now sitting untouched in the corner. “It wouldn’t do if I did not decorate the tree as hideously as you had implied previously that I apparently do.”

“I am revolted with your ideas of revenge, Harry.”, Tom sniffed. “And very much hurt that you’d plan such a coup against your future husband.”

“Future husband, my arse.”, Harry muttered. “You’ve only been courting me for the past few months, Tom. I don’t think we are ever gonna reach the point where you’ll finally propose to me.”

Tom hummed. “Well,” he got up and walked over to stand in front of Harry, “let’s rectify that, shall we?”

Harry’s eyes widened.

Tom grinned. “Harry James Potter-”, he began.

“Oh, Merlin!”

“-you’ve been the most important presence in my entire life-”

“Shit, shit, shit! It’s bloody happening!”

“The first time we met, we were barely three years old. When I first saw you, I just knew I was going to keep you into my life as long as I lived, though I wasn’t sure in what way. I thought I’ll have you as my best friend, since I looked down on romantic relationships and thought them a waste of time.”, Tom continued. “But then I began developing feelings for you and I cannot describe how incredibly happy I am that I confessed to you the previous year.”

“I am happy too that you confessed.”, Harry muttered, actually looking teary-eyed now. Tom smiled fondly at his emotional idiot.

“I enjoy spending my time with you.”, Tom confessed. “I love making you smile, I love it when you laugh, I love it when we hug, when we kiss, when we do everything that we can do together. I love you, Harry.”

“I love you too.”, Harry whispered, sniffling.

Tom smiled as he lowered himself down on his knees.

Harry gasped.

Tom pulled out the black velvet box he had been carrying for the past few hours. It was a ring Tom had commissioned with his own money and designed it himself. He opened the box.

Harry gasped louder.

It was a silver band with a very small, fine line of emeralds in the middle, glittering in the reflected light of the fire crackling just beside them.

“Harry, love.”, Tom said. “Stop gasping so absurdly loudly.”

Harry pouted. “Ask already.”, he muttered.

Tom hummed and cleared his throat. “Harry James Potter, will you do the honour of becoming my husband? Will you marry me and become the Lord Consort of House Slytherin?”, he asked.

“Only you will make it sound like you were doing me a favour.”, Harry muttered, his eyes already watering with tears before he threw himself over Tom.

“Oof.”, Tom grunted as Harry wrapped his arms around him and crashed their lips together in between muttering, “Yes.”

Harry smiled sheepishly at him, pecking him on the cheek in a silent apology. “I couldn’t believe you finally proposed.”, he whispered.

Tom smiled, pulling out the ring and taking Harry’s left hand in his. He put the ring onto Harry’s ring finger before kissing them. “It took time because I custom ordered this ring.”, he answered softly. “They were being idiotic when I told them the ring’s design, hence it took time.”

“You designed it?”, Harry asked staring wonderingly at the ring now resting on his finger.

“Yes, I did.”, Tom answered, locking his fingers with Harry’s. “How do you find it? Is it likable?”

“I love it.”, Harry answered. “And I am astonished you took time to design this. I..”, Harry hesitated, before taking a deep breath and pulling out a small velvet bag from his robes, “I brought this for you. It reminded me of you as soon as my eyes fell on it. I did not design it, of course, but I did put some protection Runes and charms around it. I hope you’ll like it.”

Tom took the bag curiously and opened it. He pulled out his gift and raised his eyebrows as he stared at a silver bracelet. It was slim, made with an interlocking of small, curved chains with very tiny, minute rubies glittering around it.

“How is it?”, Harry asked, looking unsure.

“I love it, darling.”, Tom smiled, holding out the bracelet to Harry. “Mind putting it on my wrist?”

Harry smiled and nodded eagerly, taking the bracelet from Tom to put it on around his left wrist before kissing Tom’s hand softly. “This bracelet declares you to be mine, the way this ring does so for I to be yours.”, Harry whispered.

Tom hummed, wrapping his arms around his fiancé and pulling him closer. “There are more ways I can show you that will make you mine, darling.”, he whispered into Harry’s ear enjoying as Harry shivered, then promptly got shoved away from his love.

“Shut it, Tom.”, Harry said, getting up and dusting himself off. “We need to decorate this tree here and then return back. The Weasleys have invited us for a pre-Yule feast and we’ve also got to decorate the tree waiting in our own home.”

Tom pouted, having completely forgotten about the Weasleys’ invitation to their home. “That’s not fair, Harry!”, he whined childishly. He had been hoping to spend this night here, with Harry!

“It is so, darling.”, Harry returned, throwing a ball lightly at Tom. “Now, get up! We need to decorate this tree and then return back. I need to show this ring to Ginny and Luna. They’ll love to hear your grandiose declaration of love for me.”

Tom groaned, flopping down onto the rug face-first, smiling softly when Harry laughed.

This was the most wonderful, beautiful Yule he had so far and hoped that the future ones will be like this as well, with his dear by his side, laughing like that.