Chapter Text
Tom goes right to bed the night before his birthday, feeling a sort of misery that makes him feel horrid, or maybe it’s the fact he skipped dinner. He knows that he’s pushed his feelings about his birthday down under the surface for years, but this time, on his tenth birthday he feels lonely in a way that he knows no none should feel, especially on what is supposed to be such a special day. He lays underneath his cold sheet looking at the ugly brown it was and then at the clock—10 o'clock.
He decided to be the first to say Happy Birthday to himself, as no one seemed to be in a hurry to steal that from him, he looked at the clock, 2 hours before his birthday. The 31st. He sighs, the time feeling so slow. The room felt very cold.
He then lies there trying to think of things that correlate with his feelings. The sad feelings he always gets from being alone, when he’s by himself. He thinks hard about it. He had always been excluded from things unless it was to tease him or take from him.
He hated these kids who slept in the rooms nearby. He had been alone in his small room from the start, usually, they try to assign a child with at least one other, but he had never had that happen, even when they started adding three to a room. He stayed alone in his room; being strange to even the adults. Excluding him again, he tastes blood before he feels his teeth clamp down on his tongue. He curses.
He can’t even be mad without hurting himself. Tears begin to burn his eyes, he has to blink so they would stop hurting. After hours of stewing and crying he looks at the clock and it says 11:58. He sighs wipes his tears, sits up, and prepares to sing himself the Happy Birthday song. He closes his eyes.
“Happy Birthday to you,” He chortles, trying to sound happy. He wishes someone was there, someone to talk to, someone to care.
“Happy Birthday to you,” He continued, whispering it slightly. God he just wished someone cared, nobody ever had. Why was it always him who was weird, who needed to be excluded?
“Happy Birthday… Dear..Tom..” Tom begins to cry again and he tries to wipe his tears. He needed a moment. What had happened to his mom? His dad? All he had was a name and his looks, nothing else. Nobody else! How could he be happy? How could it be a Happy Birthday?
“Happy Birthday to you.” A new voice says, stealing his wish to himself. He quickly opens his eyes. Finding a strange older boy on his bed, twelve he could have guessed and he wore funny clothing, a large robe, and a school uniform under it.
“Who are you? What are you doing here? This is my bedroom!” Tom immediately gets defensive. Who was this boy?
The boy's eyebrows raise and he pauses seemingly trying to gently speak like he would break Tom easily. “My name is Harry. I am here to wish you a Happy Birthday.” This Harry character says.
“How did you know it was my birthday?” Tom asks him, Harry then pauses and seems to find an answer quickly. “A friend of mine told me, told me that you were sad and needed someone to wish you a happy birthday.”
If this was a lie, which it probably was, made Tom’s heart gently warm.
“...thank you. To whoever.. Um sent you.” Tom looks at him. “Do you like chocolates?”
Harry looked at him for a moment. “I do enjoy chocolate.” And that one question sprouts a full conversation.
-
A couple hours later, Tom and Harry are talking and Harry begins to look mournful.
“What’s wrong friend? You look sad?” Harry looks up at him and sighs. “I have to go, I loved talking to you, but I have to get home.”
“But-” Tom starts, the older boy then puts his finger up against his lips. “Shh. It’s okay, I will be back next year. Go to sleep, Tom.”
And it’s instant, it’s like he had been turned to stone. Harry bent his legs down so he would be lying down. “Good night, Tom.” He puts his hand over his eyes to draw them down. When he felt like he could move again, he immediately opened his eyes to try and find Harry. But he was gone. As he was and had never been.
-
And then Tom waited the next agonizing 365 days, mildly losing hope that Harry was real with each passing day until his next birthday. And he showed again. Hugging Tom tightly.
“Happy Birthday Tom!” The thirteen-year-old boy said, smiling happily.
And each year for years, it was the same. Tom would wake up the day of his birthday finding it that Harry had visited him, sometimes bringing gifts and aging alongside him.
Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen.
Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen.
-
And then on his 16th, Harry looks at Tom with tears sliding down his face as he says Happy Birthday to him.
“What’s wrong, Harry?” Tom asks, this time hugging the eighteen-year-old, as Harry had stayed on the other side of the bed rather than sitting right next to him.
“I- um- nothing, I’m sorry. Come here.” Harry says trying to wipe his tears away, Tom wipes them away for him. “Thank you.”
Harry digs through his pockets and he brings out 3 bars of chocolate and a couple of small books that had that strange feeling, like they weren’t meant to be there. “Here, your birthday gifts.” He says with a sad smile, he looked miserable.
“Harry, what is wrong?” Tom tries to ask, but Harry looks at him. “I cannot tell you, you are too young.” Tom felt exasperated.
Harry then pulls Tom a little closer, seemingly to whisper something in his ear. “Forgive me.” Harry then kisses him. Tom’s eyes widen and he doesn’t stop him, his body feeling a blossoming type of thing. It made him feel light, it made him feel like there was nothing else except Harry. His lips finally get left alone by Harry’s.
Harry looks at him with a long sigh. “I am… so sorry for…everything. You never deserved what happened, but what you did need to be reimbursed.” Harry then looks away. “Happy Birthday.”
Then he disappears in front of his eyes, he knew what magic was, but… this was not magic Tom knew. “...Harry- why did that feel like a goodbye?”
Then, for the rest of his.. life? He doesn’t see the boy again.
-
Then he was a Horcrux, for years he remembered the way Harry made him feel. He had no clue of what time passed. And then he was used, first by Ginny, then by Harry Potter. This was just part of his plan. He was going to meet the boy who somehow killed Voldemort.
He had gotten Ginny down into the Chamber and.. He waited. He was called such a hero, he must save this girl too. Then he hears it, the rock falling, The Chamber opening for this boy. And then he sees him. His Harry.
The same Harry who tore him away his tenth birthday from crying, the same boy who woke him up, the same who gifted him his only birthday presents, the same who put him to bed, the very same who kissed him the last birthday he saw him. But he was twelve. The same age he had been the year of his tenth birthday, it made no sense. Why was Harry his only friend here?
“Harry?”
“Is that you?”