That trip to Hogmead was one of the best Harry had ever had. The sun shone for most of the day, even if it never warmed the air around them or dried up the mud.
Things weren't vastly different from his own time. Some of the shops were gone and replaced with others he had never seen before. Honeydukes was still there though, and a specialty potion store that seemed to be a favorite among the students. Alphard wanted to hit those first, until Rossier said he needed more ink and every objection appeared to die on Alphard's tongue as he stared up and up into Rossier's face.
They ran into Tom after replenishing their ink and parchment supplies, whatever his meeting had been about seemed to have been quick and had gone well. It was as though he brought the warmth of the sun with him as he joined them. Though some of that might have been the arm he threw around Harry's shoulder, how he seemed intent of sticking as close to Harry's side as was physically possible. Which was not something that he was going to complain about. Tom's buoyant happiness was contagious.
Something he would never think to attribute to the one who would be the darkest lord of all time. He couldn't be sure that he had anything to do with it, but apprehension and then giddy acceptance from Alphard gave him hope that Tom was changing for the better. And that Harry was to blame.
Or, er...to thank. Harry was to thank.
They ate dinner at a little cafe that Harry had never seen before, It was a cozy place with warm polished woods and merry fires burning in two large hearths. There weren't many students still around, so for once they had dinner in peace. Discounting Alphard's nonstop commentary on their day, on what he wanted to get Orion and the rest of their family for Christmas, on how he thought he was doing in his own Defense class.
Harry found that he couldn't stop smiling through it all. And as he closed his eye for bed that night, only to open them a second later to Tom, to settle next to him , warm and utterly content in Tom's arm, he had to mark it down as one of the best days of his life.
One of the plus sides of sharing a class with Tom was that he told them whenever they were to have pop quizzes or physical exams. He never said exactly what they would in tale, but just having that extra heads up was no small blessing. So it was that Harry and the rest of the Slytherins were not phased when Professor Merrythought announced that they would be having a practical review in the form of an obstacle course the following evening.
It was the monday after their Hogmead trip and most of the students hadn't quite fallen back into the swing of their classes. But all around Harry, the snakes were calm, some almost giddy.
"Surly you know what's going to happen?" Abraxas wasn't even subtle as he prodded Tom, once again, for information. This time he had hardly waited for them to be out of the classroom do.
"Surly I do," Tom answered smoothly, not slowing his pace, Harry keeping up with his long legged stride mostly fore Tom's hand on his shoulder.
"I bet you've told him," Abraxas said in a low, snide, voice. Probably thinking that Tom would not hear him over the rush of sound around them.
But he had.
"Telling Harry what the trials will be would not allow him to utilize his skills in a way that would be helpful to their growth. Stunting ones development is hardly the way to show affection."
It was more of an admission than anyone was expecting. Or, at the very least, than what Harry was expecting. His face heated up, he tried to duck away, hide from the eyes could now feel on him from all the others, shocked at Tom's words. But he only managed to lean further in Tom.
"Tom," he tried to hiss out, but it came out much weaker.
"Please don't be upset at not getting the answers, I have only your wellbeing in mind."
Harry couldn't help it, he laughed so hard it nearly sent him careening into Tom. "You're an idiot," though he said it playfully, there was a collective intake of breath around them. He spared a quick glance at the shocked faces of their housemates, before turning to Tom.
Tom smiled back down at Harry, dark eyes shining with amusement, he pulled Harry a little closer to his side, held on a little tighter, "only for you, dear."
~~~
Rage. It was all Abraxas could feel aside from the disgust. That such a nobody. A nameless war orphan, had wormed their way into Tom's good graces. He was their leader, their hope for a better, brighter future. This boy was not worth the air he breathed, let alone the heir's affections.
Yet Tom held onto him the whole way to the Great Hall, and didn't let go until Harry took his seat.
Abraxas' rightful seat!
Abraxas took a seat next to Rossier, and began to plan. He wasn't without his own talents. Tom would see very soon that he, not Evans, was the one worthy to stand next to him.
All he needed was a little time before their exam to prepare. Then he could show Tom how worthless Evans truly was.
~~~
The night was cold. Made worse by the fine, clinging mist that pulled and distorted the lights of the torches around them. They had gathered on the Quidditch pitch for their trial...exam. It was an exam. But Harry couldn't shake the foreboding, couldn't stop thinking of another night spent, wracked with nerves and excitement, standing on this very night dark pitch.
The scent of grave dirt, a toxic, shimming cauldron, and the tast of fear, thick and acid, kept invading his mind.
Warmth at his side, something tall blocking out the surrounding torchlight, Tom's worried face, these things brought him back once more. He was on the same pitch but this was not the Triwizard Tournament. There was nothing within the shrouded enclosure Tom and Merrythought had set up that would hurt him.
There was no Voldemort. No Death Eaters. No one in this time that wished him bodily harm.
Harry took a deep breath, and the world became a little bright and his head a fair bit clearer.
"There's no reason to be nervous, Harry." Tom said softly, worry still creasing his brow.
"I'm not-" Harry cut himself off. What could he tell Tom? The he was not worried about a test. That he feared Tom's future self would step out of a shadow and try to kill him again. Harry sighed, pulling a hand through his tangled wet hair, "It's nothing. I'm fine, really."
"If you're sure," Tom didn't look convinced, but also didn't press. Instead he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, squeezing gently, "you will be fine, I promise. Someone with your knowledge," he said with a smirk, "I dare say you'll find it far too easy."
Harry nodded, that was the mostly likely outcome. He hadn't been brought low by an in class demonstration since the Bogart, and he had worked hard to get that under control. All he had to do was keep his head about him until his name was called to go through.
Merrythought made her slow, toddling way to the entrance, her voice magicked to make it across the pitch and through the foggy mist.
"Each of you will have a chance to walk through, using the spells and tactical skills you should have gained in this class to get through. There is no time limit, however, you will be deducted for lagging behind, and should you take longer than fifteen minutes to get through, you will lose one point per minute afterward."
She fixed them each with a hard look, or, all of the ones she could still see through the mist, making sure they understood her pending disappointment if they should fail. "You'll pick your numbers from this hat," she took the hat from her head and gave it a quick shake, little parchment pieces jumping up above the rim for just a second.
They filed up, took a number, and then melded back into the shadows. Well, all except Tom, who drifted to stand next to Merrythought as she continued once every number from the hat been taken.
"Once you have completed your task you can either go back inside, or sit in the stands and watch your fellow classmates as they complete the course. You will not be allowed back through this side of the gate. Don't even try it. Nor will your classmates be able to hear you from the stands, so trying to warn them of the exam ahead of time is pointless. Do you understand?"
At the scattering murmurs of, "yes," she nodded and turned to Tom, "Tom will go first, then we start the count at number two. Be prepared." Without further ado she waded through the soggy grass and disappeared into the stands. Tom waited until he was sure she was in her place to begin.
With the confidence of a king going to war, Tom caught Harry's eye, gave a swift nod, turned to the entrance, and disappeared.
There was no reason to feel more nervous because he was gone. there was certainly nothing in there that could harm Tom. He was...he was the most powerful wizard of Harry's time. And he had help set up this course. He was going to be beyond fine.
Harry looked to his number, sixteen, somewhere in the middle. A pretty good number. Not first, not last, no added pressure. The hardest part now was the waiting.
For the most part it was very boring. They clustered together in threes or fours, trying to keep warm in the ever present chill.
Harry kept an eye on the those going into the course. Making sure he didn't miss his turn. Orion went third, and Abraxas right after him. Followed by a long string of students from the other house whom Harry did not know well enough to even remember names.
When a tall Ravenclaw went in, number fifteen, he made his way to the front to stand before the entrance. Everything was darkness beyond that point. Some spell overlaid the arch in the hedgerow to keep sight and sound from escaping until it was his time for the next student to walk through. Then, like the rippling of a still pond, the void before him opened, and Harry stepped through to the other side.
It was so similar to the third Triwizard trial that he had to wonder if someone on the committee hadn't had Merrythought as a teacher. The course, which had been too dark to see from the castle, was a maze. Twists and turns that all looked the same. Dizzying. If one were to only focus on them alone.
Harry took a breath, and relaxed. There was a slight breeze off to his right, so that was where he turned. Following it until he needed to turn once more, this time his left. He was several turns in before he got to the first obstacle, a patch of Devil's Snare had woven it's way across his path. Harry gave a little flick of his wand, sending up enough fire towards it to get the stuff to pull away from the centre so he could walk through.
First task down, and he had barely batted an eye.
Another turn led him into a room of mannequins, not unlike Jean-Loup's, only instead of wearing fancy robes these held wands and they were pointing them at Harry. He dodged before his mind could fully understand what his feet were doing, while nearly as one all the dummy wizards shot spells where he had been standing.
This seemed a little extreme of a jump from Devil's Snare. But Harry didn't have time to think about why, only to figure out how he was going to best this. There were five mannequins, they stood close together though, sending the same spell at the same time.
With a sharp grin Harry cast his pratonus, instead of sending it crashing through his attackers though, he used the large stag to race around them, corralling them closer and closer together. He doged another spell, this one leaving a gust of green, smoldering flames behind, and he sent out a knot of thick, snakelike ropes towards the mannequins.
They wiggled together on the ground for a while, too tangled to get up and attack again, but Harry couldn't just stay there and watch, or think too heavily on oddness of this task. Now that they were down he needed to move on. He didn't want to lose point for tardiness.
His patronus didn't dissipate right away, instead it followed close at his heels as he took another turn, and then the next. On the third turn it raced ahead, knocking...something to the ground....oh!
Harry laughed soft, raised his wand and said loud and boldly, "Ridiculous!" The bogart slunk back into the little chest it had popped out of. Leaving Harry completely alone, his patronus leaving him once it's task was completed.
He couldn't be that far from the centre...It hadn't taken that Ravenclaw girl long to get through, and harry already felt like he had been walking for ages.
Surprisingly he had found very few obstacles.... had he gone the wrong way?
One turn lead him to a group of Peskies he taunted with flashing lights so he could slip past them, another was filled with bubbling ooze the exact color of bile. Harry neutralized it as well as he could, the spell they had learned, that Tom had helped him with himself, didn't seem to last as long as it should. He had to keep casting it, clearing spots of clean earth for him to walk on. He wasn't sure he made it through without scorching his robes.
He wound up on the other side of the goo panting for breath. That...that was definitely not what they had learned about in class. That was something much stronger.
With the hope that he would be through soon Harry pitched himself forward off the hedge. He still followed the breeze through the twists, the fresh scent of wet grass grew stronger, and Harry couldn't help but relax a little in the hope that it was done.
This had certainly not been what he thought it would. An odd mix of things a child could accomplish next to truly dangerous trials. And a lot of nothing in between.
It was only a long ingrained instinct, that thing in the back of his mind that payed far more attention to his surroundings than Harry ever did, that had him dodging and rolling away from another blast, this one from behind. The whole area before him lit in horrible relief from hot blue flames. But he could still make out five shapes gliding towards him.
Their movements were stiff, cut short and jerking. Five wands in five hands, all pointed at him.
The dummies from before, they had gotten out of his ropes and followed him...he wanted to protest that he had already fought these things! But Merrythought hadn't said that the obstacles wouldn't also be walking the maze. He had just assumed...
Harry pushed himself up, grasping his wand tight, ready to employ a move similar to his last one. Ignoring the part of him that was disappointed that these mannequins were powerful, but not that interesting. Then, they moved.
Two split off on either side, leaving one in the middle directly in front of Harry, and the other's surrounding him.
Not good....
Their movements were still jerky, but they no longer acted as one. Each threw separate curses and spells his way. Forcing Harry to move quick, rolling dodging, and tossing off spells when he could.
There was nothing to hid behind, and no point in using a shield when it would only cover one side.
It wasn't long before he was tired, out of breath and yet still he couldn't stop. One of the dummies had managed to hit him with something on his right arm, it burned. Throbbing from the point it had struck all the way down to his finger tips and over his shoulder. He couldn't see what it had done, couldn't stop or slow down.
But he was slower, had been forced to move his wand to his left hand. His mind working on auto. He cast every spell he knew. Dangerous, wild magic he had never wanted to use. He took one down with the cutting curse. He had needed to use it several times to get through whatever the dummy was made of, but it now lay in useless, twitching pieces. Another was scorched to nothing with strongest spell Harry knew right after fiend fire.
He wouldn't use that...this was supposed to be a school exam, not a life or death mission!
He was still out numbered, exhausted and injured. In a fit of desperation Harry had thrown himself through an opening in the hedge and onto a path he knew did not lead to the exit. He just had to get time to catch his breath, then he could go back in and finish them off.
And oh god he hoped that this was the last thing he'd have to do. He needed to go to the Hospital wing...and have a talk with Tom about what constituted an easy task.
Something snapped right next to the entrance leading back to the dummies, and Harry was moving before he could even think, wand up, he gasped a deep breath and yelled, "Expecto Patronum," with all his might, at the exact time another voice, low and familiar yelled, "protego!" Then everything slowed.
Through a molasses like flow he watched as neither his, nor Tom's spells coalesced, instead a thin strand of pure white light connected their wands, cancelling out the spells. Their wands refusing to harm to each other.
This was old news for Harry, who was tired, who's vision was fogging over. Who could feel nothing but relief that Tom was there.
the pheonix song began, and the last of the adrenaline that had been keeping Harry up fled. He fell, nerveless, to the ground. Tom's name on his lips.
Before the darkness closed in he was aware of being lifted off the cold ground, cradled next to a broad chest, in arms that made him feel at home.
~~~
Tom took up a spot in the stands after his exam. He would have done so even if Merrythought hadn't asked.
Before, it would have been out of curiosity, seeing who the better fighters were. Who could hold their heads. Who used strategy to get out and who simply barreled through. They were good things to know, for the future, should he need fighters, as he one day feared it would.
It was always a good idea to be to prepared.
When Orion finished he joined Tom, sitting next to him, not complaining about the damp or the chill. He was good like that. Abraxas returned to the castle when was finished, disappointing, but Tom hadn't actually expected better.
The tasks that had been chosen weren't terrible in nature, other than the roving mannequins stashed here and there, there was nothing in there that a fifth or sixth year couldn't take down. The exam was as much about facing an unknown challenge and fear as it was on practical knowledge.
There were a few who would make great fighters one day. Those who held steady until the very end.
Then Harry walked up to the entrance, and Tom's focus sharpened on him alone. He didn't even watch the Ravenclaw girl as she passed swiftly through the test. All he saw was Harry, back straight, shoulders squared, awaiting his turn.
He looked so much smaller than the others, and even knowing that he was skilled and capable didn't stop the painful uptick of his heart as Harry stepped through.
He passed through the starting point, then, in the blink of an eye, the entire course before them was pitched into total darkness.
Tom was on his feet in a instance. "Professor!?" He yelled at almost the exact time Merrythought was bellowing for him.
"Get down there! I don't know what's wrong...I'll sort it out from this end." She said as she moved down closer to the pitch, all the while mumbling disgruntedly at having the course mess up with a sixth year in it.
Tom didn't stick around to argue on Harry's behalf, he was capable, damn it. Tom had seen it! He wouldn't be in their class if the ministry didn't agree. Instead with a growled out, "Orion," to get his knight to follow, Tom raced down the stands to the exit line.
Getting in was trouble. Merrythought sealed it so that one had nowhere else to go but forward, off the course. Even Tom didn't know the spell she had used to block it off. He might be her assistant but he was also her student and the rules still applied to him. As she liked to point out continuously.
Together he and Orion figured it out, precious minutes in which Tom's palms sweated and his heart would not follow his orders to slow back down. But once they were on the pitch they still had to go back into the course...another spell more time than they had.
"This one is different," Orion panted, pushing damp hair out of his eyes. The mist was still coming strong and both of them were soaked, "it feels..."
"I know," Tom had felt it too. There was something oily about this spell. The way it kept sliding back into place. It wasn't something Merrythought would do. Not something anyone on Hogwarts ground would do lest they risk expulsion...or worse.
This was dark magic, and it was deliberately keeping him from getting to Harry. "Cover me," Tom said flatly, he didn't even have to elaborate, Orion wove his wand around them, shrouding them from sight. It was possible that no one noticed. There hadn't been many besides himself and Orion who stayed behind, and Merrythought would be busy. Still, he felt better for the darkness.
Tom lifted his arm, pointing at the entrance, "Avada Kadavra," he didn't yell it, simply pushed his anger, his intent. the area before him exploded, a wall of green sparks and smoke. But for all the light there was no sound.
Tom led the way, wand held high as he and Orion traversed the course in reverse . It wasn't long before the sounds of fightings, actual, full force fighting, reached them.
Harry!
"Com on!" Tom sped forward, fully intent to kill whoever was attacking his Harry. Only to pull up short. It was...the mannequins. Only instead of there only being one sending off Merrythought approved seventh level spells, all five of them were there. Three standing, two laying either broken or smoldering on the ground. The one's still standing were casting dark, killing force spells at Harry.
Before his eyes Harry doged something that looked like a crusiatus, just making it out of the way and into another passage. It had been too swift for Tom to see more, to see if Harry was okay.
He took out the one that had just aimed at Harry with another killing curse, then went right to the next. the last one was taken down with a blast of green light from Orion. Tom gave him a somber nod, he had done well.
"Harry!" Tom called, wand still at ready in case something else popped out or he had to help Harry with another part of the course gone wrong. He wasn't too surprised when Harry, desperate and obviously injured attacked him with his off hand. His eye's were wide, the pupils nearly gone completely, he was moving on instinct alone. Tom cast a simple shield to keep from being bulldozed by Harry's very impressive patronus. But it never came.
Of all the things Tom expected it hadn't been this. For a string of light to flow through his wand instead of the shield. For it to connect to Harry's wand. They canceled each other out somehow.
Then, the music started.
Pure and sweet. He had never heard it for himself, but he'd read descriptions of the pheonix song before.
Oh, how they didn't even compare.
Across from him Harry's expression of fear and determination melted into something far more serene. He lowered his wand and the connection snapped. Then he fell, a smile on his face, and didn't move again.
Tom pulled him up from from the ground, holding him close. He couldn't even remember crossing the distance.
Harry was frozen, his whole right side a deathly white with stark black veins. No time to waste, Tom stood with Harry, small and still in his arms and ran for the Hospital wing. Ignore Orion's questions and Merrythought's shouts as he raced across the misty grounds and biting wind.
It wasn't until later, with Harry sleeping soundly in a bed, the color returning slowly to his face and the black lines marring his skin receding, that Tom had a chance to stop and wonder about what he'd just seen. At what it could mean that his and Harry's wands reacted in such a way.
There was one place he was sure to get a swift and accurate answer.
The next time the nurse made her rounds Tom was ready. She checked Harry's pulse and temperature, tutting a bit at how cool his body was still. "Dark magic on school grounds," she said, part scolding, part horrified, "I just can't believe it."
"He'll be alright, won't he?" Tom asked, he looked at her through his lashes, knowing how helpless he must sound. He was still so disheveled, not even taking the time to wash the dirt and soot from himself yet.
"Yes, dear, he'll make a full recovery in a few days, now that the curse is gone, he just needs rest."
Tom knew that already, he had done his own sort of test, one he had no words, by touching Harry's hand he could feel the curse leeching back to the puncture site and fading away. He still gave the nurse a relieved smile. "Thank Merlin, I was so worried," Tom took up Harry's hand, holding it between both of his. The nurse gave him another fond smile then turned to leave, before she had gone far Tom called after her.
"Excuse, Madam Caraway? Do you think you could bring me some parchment and ink?" It was not her job to do so, but she buckled under Tom's small, unsure smile.
In no time he was writing, hunched over the side table by Harry's bed. Soon he would have his answers.
Soon, he would know a little more about his and Harry's mysterious connection.