Title: His Life’s Grace (Part I): Serpentine -> Chapter 11: Falling Apart at the Seams
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Tom/Harry
Warnings: slash, people being overly smart, sarcasm, and Tom being rubbish.
Summary: Harry gets the worst advice EVER, not once, not twice… not even three times. Why doesn’t he ever learn?
He woke suddenly, almost startled. As though someone had stolen his breath and only just given it back. He also woke to company and to the loud snoring of Orion Adonis Black, who was curled up in an armchair by the fireplace.
Rayn was chewing on a bar of chocolate, gazing at Harry thoughtfully. It was almost as though he didn’t realize Harry had woken. Aragog was nowhere to be seen, though from the cooing and twittering he heard coming from his room, he guessed Leo was doing some entertaining.
“Is there an actual reason for your presence in my rooms?” Harry finally asked, a little out of sorts after what he had seen and Rayn’s strange behavior.
The younger boy snapped out of his daze. He licked his lips, pointing at Harry with his half-eaten chocolate bar. “All better?”
Harry wrinkled his nose at the chocolate. “As better as I’ll be.” Rayn nodded, then stood, making his way out of the room. He stopped when he heard Harry call his name. “Rayn. Thanks.”
Rayn blinked, then smiled warmly. “You did good, Harry. I think you’ll be all right.” He paused, regarding the older boy. “Yes. You’ll be all right.” He left Harry blushing hotly from the scrutiny.
“What was that?” Adon snorted, shifting in the armchair so that he could look at Harry. “He came in here and cast some wonky spell on you. Then leaves as though he’s a bloody hero.”
Chuckling, Harry stood and knocked on his bedroom door. The cooing and twittering stopped suddenly, he shared a look with Adon and stood back as the door swung open. Leoned peered out at them, looking around for -Harry assumed- his brother. Aragog took the time to slide out of the room through the crack in the doorway and all but leaped at Harry, most obviously happy to see him awake.
“I guess everything went all right, then?” Leoned asked cautiously.
“I do believe so,” Harry replied, smiling brightly.
“What do you plan to do now?” wondered Adon, swinging his legs. The look he was giving Harry conveyed what he was thinking, “What do you plan to do about Tom Riddle?”
“Actually, I was thinking I might study for the OWLS,” Harry said.
“The OWLS?” Leo demanded, shocked but not disappointed.
Harry shrugged off-handedly. “I was thinking. If I’m around by the time of the OWLS, that I might try my hand at them. Again. It’s something to do, right? And it would be interesting.”
Leo blinked at his long winded explanation, nodding at the right intervals. “Of course. If that’s what you want to do. You might want to start studying then. Seeing how you’ve hardly attended classes as it is.”
Rolling his eyes, Harry agreed. “I was going to ask Raven to help me.”
Adon snickered, drawing a scowl from the two Potters. “That should go over well.”
It did go over well. Raven didn’t protest when all three Potters ganged up on her, asking her to tutor Harry- please? At least until he was caught up with classes and began attending again.
Harry was all for studying and learning new things, but at the moment…
Harry yawned. Raven continued lecturing. Harry yawned again. Raven’s eye twitched. Harry opened his mouth only to be smacked by a book on the head.
“Yawn one more time and I’ll sever your tongue!” Raven snapped angrily.
“Sorry,” Harry apologized sheepishly. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Insomnia?” Raven asked, not interested in the least as she tried to find where she left off.
“No, just a bad feeling.”
Raven hummed, looking thoughtful. “Perhaps you should speak to our Divination professor. Bad feelings should never be overlooked.”
Harry goggled her. “You believe in that?”
“Why not? There have been several True Seers in history,” said Raven scathingly. Eyes daring him to contradict her. “It may not be accurate but Divination has its uses. If done properly there’s no reason one can’t predict things.”
Harry took a moment to gape at her again. At first he had thought he’d found another Hermione Granger. But Raven had slowly been proving him wrong. She hated homework and whined about having to do it, she did not like to read and often stared at her book as though willing it to read itself, and she was not very girly. Even with all of that, she still somehow managed to be top of her class.
“Ready to continue?”
“Oh, yes,” Harry started. “We were going over the magical properties of numbers?”
And so continued the week. Harry wondered how Hermione managed to cram so much information into her brain. He found, however, that without Quidditch and other things to distract him, it wasn’t such a hard task as previously foreseen.
Adon, Orion, or whatever he was going by these days, proved to be a very welcome distraction. He had managed to draw Harry into a game that involved Walburga Black and Tom Riddle. The boy-man would publicly attempt to ‘woo’ Harry and his attempts always brought a smile to Harry’s face. It also provided entertainment for others, such as Runako, who had taken to calling Harry his ’sister-in-law’.
It had gotten to the point where Harry didn’t know whether Adon was playing or not. Until one day, out of the blue, Adon had leaned down to plant a gentle kiss on his own parted lips.
The game ended, when Adon had, in the privacy of Harry’s rooms, announced that the kiss had felt very wrong. “Like kissing my sister,” Adon had whined. To which Harry had stupidly replied, “You have a sister?” Afterwards, they had decided to nullify their ‘relationship’ and remain friends. A good laugh was had by all, mostly Adon and Harry as the others didn’t comprehend, and that had been the end of that.
Professor What’s-Her-Name had been excited at the prospect of helping him with his fortune. Harry could tell she was Professor Trelawny’s inspiration. Though she did not dress in the same fashion nor wear large glasses. She also did not predict his death in everything, for which he was extremely grateful. At least there were some miracles in life.
“Let us see here,” she mumbled to herself, tracing Harry’s palm. Harry fidgeted in his seat, attempting to hold back his giggles at the tickling sensation. “Hm. There are strange skips here, almost like altered time.”
Harry began laughing, pulling his hand away from her startled grasp. “Pardon me. That tickles.”
And hour later, Harry had found out three key things: One, someone was out to get him. Two, he was being deceived. Three, he was ticklish. Er, wait. Three, his time was short.
Harry thought number three meant he would be returning home soon, but then realized it probably meant he was going to die soon. Again.
“Did that help you?” asked Raven.
“Not particularly,” Harry admitted, though he didn’t want to disappoint her. “But apparently, I’m going to die soon.”
“Again?” The Ravenclaw shook her head and abandoned him. Harry scowled at her retreating back, having been completely serious despite having had the same thought. He had been very disappointed by Professor What’s-Her-Name. The way Raven had spoken about her, Harry had believed her to be a True Seer.
“There you are!” a familiar voice interrupted his musings. Adon wrapped an arm about his shoulders and pulled him bodily along. Though Harry was happy to see him, especially after the day he’d had, he wasn’t happy at being manhandled. “We’re supposed to go buy dress robes, remember?”
“I thought that was this weekend,” replied Harry in confusion. “I’m going with Leo.”
“Right,” Adon chirped. “And I’m going with you. Octavius got special permission for us four to go into Hogsmeade today! I just need to stop by my room first.”
“Right,” said Harry disbelievingly, crossing his arms and stepping aside. “I find it hard to believe that you don’t have any dress robes.”
Adon chuckled. “I have dress robes. I want to see which ones you buy so I can get something that matches, if need be.”
Harry blinked at him. “Why would you do that?”
The smile that was thrown his way was all predatory and not a bit sorry. “Because I’m your date to the ball!”
Adon had run off to get Leo while Harry waited patiently for them by the stairwell. He did not notice he had company until someone, very loudly, cleared their throat and he turned around to face Cirrus Lang.
“Hello,” Harry said, not particularly interested in the boy.
Cirrus flashed him a smile. “I haven’t seen you around lately.”
“I’ve been catching up with classes,” Harry replied, smiling back thinly. “I’m actually busy right now. Did you need something?”
The boy hesitated briefly then seemed to gather his resolve. “I wanted to ask you to the ball?”
Harry tried not to roll his eyes and hoped he’d succeeded. He shook his head gently, “I’ve already got a date. Sorry.”
“Oh,” Cirrus deflated. “Well, that’s… that’s great. Bloody brilliant.”
“Sorry,” Harry said again.
The venomous look he received threw him off. “I’m sure you are,” agreed Cirrus. Harry frowned, feeling something change in the air. The expression on Cirrus face changed as well, it was almost… cruel. Harry backed away, gripping the railing behind him as the boy advanced on him.
“Oi, what the bloody hell are you doing?” came a very familiar voice. Harry was shocked at how elated he was at hearing said voice, turning almost instantly to face Tom Riddle as he walked up the stairs to join them. “Is there something wrong?”
Cirrus and Tom glared at each other over Harry’s head. Not wanting to stand between them for all the aggression rolling off them, Harry moved away and ran down the stairs. “I’ve got to go buy dress robes in Hogsmeade!” He practically sprinted down to the first floor, almost flying through the air in his haste to get away from them.
He waited by the Great Hall for the other three, behind a pillar and peaking around it every now and then, in case either Tom or Cirrus showed up. Finally, they arrived and the four of them were off to Hogsmeade in a carriage. Thoughts of Tom and Cirrus were forgotten once Harry was made to parade, what felt like, the entire store. Adon sat in a corner, quietly laughing to himself while Leo turned Harry this way and that.
Finally, they all seemed to agree on one of the dress robes. Thankfully, it was one that Harry truly liked and even Octavius, who’d had errands to run, had gushed over how ‘handsome’ Harry looked.
It was almost time for supper when they arrived at the castle. There was a hushed murmur when they entered and Harry could easily see that people were staring at him. So, it wasn’t really a shock when Vincent suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began dragging him off.
“What did I do now?” Harry whined rather pathetically.
Vincent’s lips were pressed together into a tight, thin line. He did not spare Harry a glance as he replied, stiffly, “Riddle got into a fight. He won’t tell us why, but he attacked another student. Broke the bloke’s nose and I don’t even know what Riddle hexed him with.”
“You’re joking!” said Harry, bewildered. “Who?”
“Cirrus Lang,” Vincent said. He stopped in the middle of the hall, grasping Harry’s shoulders, a serious look on his face. “We know it takes a lot to rile Riddle up. He wont tell anyone what Cirrus said or did, but we do know your name came up quite a bit.”
“Bloody hell,” Harry groaned, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. “Where’s Tom right now?”
“At the infirmary,” replied Vincent, he hesitated before continuing. “He broke his hand.”
“He used physical force??”
“Shocking but true,” agreed Vincent. He continued leading Harry to the infirmary. “I thought you might want to know. Riddle will be expelled if he doesn’t talk. The Langs are a well off pure-blood family. Riddle has no power, no family-”
Harry laughed humorlessly, throwing Vincent a grim smile. “He has me.” The atmosphere in the infirmary was tense, Tom was sitting on one of the beds, glaring at Dumbledore as the man tried to coarse him into talking.
“Professor,” Harry called. “Could you give us a moment?” Dumbledore smiled and happily allowed Harry to take his seat, dragging a perturbed Vincent out of the room. “How are you?”
“Brilliant,” Tom muttered. “They brought you in as last resort?”
Crossing his arms, Harry glared at him. “You were provoked into physical violence. Whatever did he say to cause such a reaction?”
“It has nothing to do with you.”
“Obviously it does, since it happened after you intervened on my behalf.”
Tom simply shook his head. “Leave it alone.”
Harry furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the boy intently. “They’ll expel you, you know. Then who will stop Cirrus from harassing me?”
They stared at each other silently, until Harry moved to sit at the head of the bed beside Tom, leaning against him comfortably. “Fine, don’t tell me. But tell Dumbledore or the headmaster, please?”
“I want you to stay,” Tom blurted suddenly. Then abruptly began clearing his throat, face red, as he turned to face Harry, serious. “Are you still going to the dance with Black?”
Harry clucked his tongue. “You’re not off the hook, you know.”
“I’ll talk to the headmaster, if you promise to be my date,” said Tom, cocking an eyebrow inquiringly.
“Is it blackmail Harry Potter day?” mumbled Harry, though he was smiling brightly. “Very well. Since you asked so nicely.”
“Are you possessed?” Adon asked.
“Eh?” was Harry’s reply.
“You actually agreed to go to the ball with Tom Riddle?” Adon continued.
Harry paused what he’d been doing, studying, in order to look at the older boy properly. Adon actually looked angry and Harry wondered if maybe… no. “I did. Is that a problem?”
Adon expression darkened, if that was at all possible, then he turned and walked away. Harry made a small noise, dropping his book and running after him. He latched onto the taller boy’s arm, turning him back around. “What’s going on? Why are you angry?”
“How do you know he’s not playing with you, poppet?” Adon demanded suddenly, flinging his arms about in a crazy fashion. Harry stepped back in case he got clobbered.
“I really can look after myself,” Harry replied slowly, his good mood dampening. “Why does everyone seem to think otherwise?”
“Should I make a list?” Adon retorted.
“If you’re angry because I said I’d go with you-”
“That’s not it, poppet!” Adon hissed, ducking inside a classroom and dragging Harry in behind him. “Do you know what he did to Cirrus Lang?” He continued after Harry shook his head. “You don’t want to know, either. I know you can look after yourself, Harry. But not against Tom Riddle.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that when it comes to that boy, you always decide to turn a blind eye!” Adon snapped. He stopped to take a deep breath when Harry jumped at his voice. “Don’t even deny it, baby Potter. Even if you can’t do it for anyone else, you always decide to trust whatever goodness may lie inside Tom bloody Riddle.” Harry remained silent, knowing Adon was right but refusing to agree. “First sign that he’s going to hurt you, you let someone know. Please?”
Harry bit his lip. Then nodded firmly. “I promise that if he tries to do anything to hurt me, I’ll let someone know. Even though I can bloody well defend myself.”
“Good poppet!” Adon cooed mockingly, ruffling Harry’s hair. “I still don’t understand your unwavering trust in Tom Riddle, care to explain?”
“It’s not unwavering,” Harry argued. “I’d just like to give him a second chance. He’s been trying very hard, you know. Well, I guess you don’t know. Most people don’t. He really is a good person, people just don’t give him a chance to prove it.”
Adon rolled his eyes and Harry smiled, remembering that very afternoon;
“I don’t go around randomly killing people, Harry. Shocking as it may seem, I do have other things to do,” Tom mumbled as he idly flipped through pages.
“Why do you keep talking about killing someone?”
“From your reactions, I assumed I’d killed someone you cared about,” said Tom, slowly, unsure of approaching the topic.
Harry closed his eyes, willing himself to remain calm. “Why did you release the basilisk if you didn’t plan on killing anyone?”
“I was experimenting,” argued Tom, shifting uncomfortably in the chair. “That bloke getting petrified was an accident. What the bloody hell was he doing in the girl’s bathroom anyway?” The last was mumbled but Harry was amused by his pouting and the annoyed expression on his face. “I haven’t allowed the basilisk out since then, either, I’ll have you know.”
“Tom, the first time,” Harry said hesitantly. “Who was that girl?”
“Helga Weasley?” Tom said, he looked at Harry imploringly and a little earnestly. “I didn’t mean what I told her. Well, maybe a little at the time.”
Harry chuckled as Tom mumbled the last part once again. Then did an immediate double take. “Helga WEASLEY?”
Tom nodded distractedly. “She’s a Slytherin, seventh year.”
“And yet she thinks she’s your girlfriend?”
“I never pay her any mind, she’s so slow,” Tom shrugged.
“Tom, do you have any friends?”
Tom pressed his lips together into a thin line. “Friends aren’t necessary.” That said, he returned to perusing his book.
Harry gazed at him silently, then snuggled down under the blankets on his long sofa. “I’m your friend.” He proceeded to fall asleep, leaving Tom to gape at him in shock.
He was snapped back to the present by Adon pulling on a strand of his hair. “You’re so adorable when you go off to la-la land.”
Harry grimaced and smacked his hand away. “Thanks, I guess.”
“Probably thinking about Mr.Tom Riddle,” Adon muttered loudly. “I do hope he’s behaving himself.”
“Speak for yourself,” Harry frowned. “You do know you’re skipping class right now, do you not?”
Adon attempted to look innocent. “Am I?”
Harry rolled his eyes, following the older boy out of the classroom and down the hall. His step faltered as he caught sight of someone he hadn’t seen for a while.
Azure Delacour stood talking to Rayn at the top of the stairs. They both grew quiet as Adon bowled past them, flashing each a wide, toothy grin. He didn’t stop, however, continuing down the hall without looking back.
Rolling his eyes at Adon’s retreating form, Harry stopped beside them. “What’s going on?”
Azure scowled, eyeing him up and down with obvious dislike on his pale face. Rayn smiled at him brightly, looking impossibly well rested and happy. Harry could easily see why both Rudo and Runako were so taken with him.
“We’re leaving tomorrow,” replied Rayn, a small smile fleeting across his lips.
“You’re not even staying for the ball?” asked Harry, upset. Though he didn’t particularly care about Azure staying or leaving.
‘We should really be getting back,” murmured Rayn, throwing a questioning look at Azure who glared back archly. The corner of his lips turned down slightly as he turned to Harry, who wasn’t paying attention to him. Wide emerald eyes were gazing at Azure wonderingly.
“What?” Azure demanded, shifting uncomfortably in place.
Harry blinked at him slowly, “I thought you’d left already.” He ignored the scandalized expression on the boy’s face, turning back to Rayn with a grin. “Can I talk to you in private?”
“I guess,” Rayn shrugged, he ignored the look on Azure’s face and followed Harry down the hall. Once they were further down the hall, Harry slowed to his side. “Something wrong?”
“I have questions, that’s all,” Harry responded, grinning. Almost unable to stop himself from smiling. “Well, just one really. Will you tell me everything?”
Rayn hesitated. “Everything?”
“You know, about what you did,” Harry explained. He grabbed the younger boy’s hand, trying to look reassuring, though he probably managed to look like a lunatic instead. “I don’t blame you, I’ll have you know. You didn’t do it to hurt me. You saved me.”
“Did I now?” Rayn mumbled, looking anything but happy.
“Let’s go to my room, then!” exclaimed Harry happily, dragging the boy down the hall and up the stairs.
All of a sudden they were in his room and Harry blinked in confusion. He looked at Rayn questioningly but the younger boy just shook his head, hiding a smile.
I’ll explain everything then,” agreed Rayn. “Sit down, get comfortable. This might take a while… and please, no interruptions.”
“The headmaster and Professor Dumbledore cast a spell to send you back to your time. Its a very complex spell that requires a large amount of magic power. As far as I know, the spell was perfectly cast by two very powerful wizards. The problem was, of course, that the spell was meant for a person with a… a body.
“The magic attempted to send your corporal form through time. Without an outer shell, the magic seeped into your being. In order to counter the spell, I asked the headmaster to allow me to cast a blood transfusion spell. It would ground you to me so that you wouldn’t get torn across time.
“I didn’t foresee what would happen. I was the best choice to perform the spell. The veela in me would leach your soul. None of the others could, they’re wizards, only magic. My veela is mostly unaffected by magic, most logical choice at that moment.
“I didn’t know the time spell would suck the veela into you, but it did. Your soul tried to reject the veela, thus you died… sort of. It all happened so fast, we didn’t know what else to do. Didn’t really understand what had happened either.
“Then your anger. It wasn’t really your anger, it was the veela’s anger. He was angry at me, he thought I’d given him up on purpose. He felt out of place and so did you. Azure calls you a monster because he doesn’t understand what you are. Primal instinct tells him that you’re wrong. You’re an anomaly, different, something strange. He doesn’t know, but he will someday. So will you.
“Oh, I’m not finished just yet so don’t start asking questions. I think the veela needed to know everything would be all right. I put you into deep sleep so that you might confront each other. I was hoping things would be resolved if you just accepted this.
“I assume everything’s fine since you are no longer angry with me. Maybe its a bit over the top. Yes, the veela is amplifying your emotions, most likely to show that he forgives me, too.
“That’s all I have, I’m afraid. Anything else that might have happened is not my fault. I don’t know what anyone else has told you, since I wasn’t supposed to tell you anything at all.
“During the time returning spell? Yes. Its possible that you managed to leech magic off others close by. Raven’s ability, I know of. Others you’ll have to check yourself, I’m afraid. Why? Well, because I’ll be returning hom. I’ll not be around any longer. As happy as I am that you’d want me to stay, I can’t. I have to return to school, have a life…”
“So you won’t stay for the ball, at least?” Harry asked after a moment of silence. He looked at Rayn hopefully, not wanting the boy to leave when they’d finally began to connect.
“Its best if I give you some space,” replied Rayn, trying for a smile but failing miserably by the look on Harry’s face. “The veela. It couldn’t be divided in two, it doesn’t work that way.”
Harry gazed at him, already knowing what was coming but needing to hear it anyway. “You’re…?”
“No longer a veela?” Rayn finished, smiling humorlessly. “Its strange, you know. For as long as I could remember, I’ve always felt torn in two. Now I’m just me. Just… just Rayn.”
“How does that work?” Harry shook his head, feeling a headache coming on.
“Don’t worry about it, Harry,” said Rayn consolingly. “Its all done and over with. I just want to go home.”
“Because you’re afraid?” demanded Harry. “You said that people were only attracted to you because of the veela. Now you have the chance to see if that’s true and you’re running scared.”
Rayn frowned. He seemed to come to some kind of conclusion as he stood, looking Harry in the eye. “I’ll say no more about it.” He reached into his pocket and pulled something out, holding out his hand for Harry to take what was inside. He dropped a small hourglass onto Harry’s outstretched hand. “I found it. Good bye, Harry Potter. It was an honor to meet you.”
And with that, Rayn Loire walked out of Harry Potter’s life.
Tags: genre-angst, genre-romance, tom/harry
