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Harry didn't know a life that wasn't filled with noises he couldn't make a sense of.
He learned at an early age that if the woman who looked like a giraffe made shrilly sounds he had to go to her immediately and try to understand from her frantic waving what she wanted of him.
If the huge man that looked like a whale opened his mouth and let out a booming sound he had to run and hide.
And if the young boy that seemed to be similar to himself and whom Harry thought how to communicate with him smiled very, very widely it was better to lock himself in a place where he slept, get under the covers and hope the dunding from above soon stopped.
It took a while for the small boy to understand he was different from people around him. He was lucky he could sneakily watch TV sometimes, what helped him understand much of the world around him the most were picture books Dudley left laying around all the time. The yellow signs at the bottom were a great help too, with them Harry had begun identifying some objects and giving them names.
It also told him that the people he lived with were supposed to be his 'family', somehow Harry doubted that. He didn't look anything like them, which as far as he understood was a requirement to be family, they didn't treat him the same as they did the other boy, who must be their son and always seemed to be filled with anger, like those bad guys in cartoons the other boy watched.
Everything became clear when Harry first came to what he had come to know as 'school'. The woman he guessed was their teacher moved her mouth and let out a lot of strange noises in different tones that Harry couldn't place.
At the end when other children started to wait for their parents to pick them up the woman came to Harry and started letting the noises again, the little boy just furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her sadly, he had no idea what she wanted from him.
The woman continued with series of hand signs that Harry couldn't understand, the teacher seemed to more and more upset as she tried more signs. Then she gathered bunch of sheets with different images and started showing them to him.
It took quite a while, but Harry finally understood, she had showed him all images and then one with man, woman and a child and another with a woman and a child with a book then she showed him two images: one with a green tick and one with a red cross, she wanted him to confirm if his 'family' taught him anything.
Little Harry picked the green tick and chose a couple of images of a woman gardening, mopping the floor, doing the dishes and folding laundry. The teacher furrowed her brows and showed the first two images, but also added a image of a man moving his mouth. This time Harry picked the red cross.
The pictures and choosing tick or cross continued for a very long time, such long that the giraffe looking woman came looking for him. When she came in, the teacher had jumped from her seat very suddenly and started making angry noises and the woman. It was quite a sight.
That day Harry didn't go home, some weird people came and took him to a place with many children. Some seemed to be very similar to him, they seemed to talk not with their mouths, but hands, in one evening he managed to learn a few signs that named thing around him.
Day after day different people came to him, they showed him different images, asking him question, then people who taught him came, they showed him hand moves that meant actions, places, things.
It seemed al Harry ever needed was people to tell him how to call things, he took it all up with eagerness. The children he now lived with also taught him every day and it was becoming easier and easier each day.
************
By the age of ten Harry had caught up with other children his age, if not a bit ahead of them. The years of neglect from his relatives and not understanding things around him made Harry very eager to know everything and curious about the world around him.
Thus he was once again aware he had abilities no one around him had, he was different. Sometimes things happened to Harry, things he couldn't explain, but he knew he had made happen. Like the time he was bullied by an older year and a branch of a tree fell right next to them making the bully jump and release him.
Or the time Harry was really late to a bus going on excursion and he knew that if he was late they were going to leave him here with those that decided not to go and he suddenly appeared right next to the bus, when he was still supposed to be by the orphanage.
There was also other different stuff, but what really made him fear for himself and those around him was when a man they called an 'inspector'. The man was slightly on the obese side and was wearing a black, a bit washed suit.
The caretakers were nervous and a bit angry, Harry could clearly see the way Mrs Belsomp's shoulders tensed as the man took out a couple sheets of paper and a fountain pen. He said something but from the balcony of the second floor where Harry was peeking down he couldn't see the man's lips clearly and understand what he was saying.
When the man started walking around Harry quickly ran back to the bedroom he share with two other kids similar to his age. “He seems to be bad news.” He signs to them. “Should we go to down to ask the caretakers if there's anything we can do?”
Joshua, a boy year older than him shook his head. “They would have said anything if we could do anything...”
Awkwardness rose in the room as the three of them looked around for what to do. Harry ended up reading a book about geography, one of his biggest dreams at the moment where to travel and see at least the continent nearest him and maybe more if his possibilities let him.
An hour or so later the door to the room opened and Mrs Belsomp signed them to stay put. The 'inspector' came to the doorway and looked around, he wrote some things in his papers as Harry signed to ask her what was happening.
“The government wants to close out orphanage,” she quickly signed glancing at the inspector as she did so, “there are two others at London and apparently we do not have enough residents to have extra money to be given. They decided to see the rooms and what they could do with them, we're going to be closed in a couple of months and everyone will be sent to other places.”
Harry's green eyes widened with horror, they were going to be kicked out to some other place? Because there were not enough of them? Did the government want more children who were deaf, mute or blind?! And they were already planning to do something else here? The building they lived in wasn't even that big, there were four rooms where children lived, a play room, a classroom, big communal bathroom, kitchen, an office a room for caretakers to rest and a pantry and all of that through two floors!
A feeling of churning hotness spread through Harry's chest and stomach. He wanted to do something, maybe to punch something, maybe to scream in frustration.
Instead something un-winded deep inside of him and came out of him in a barely there green thread that only Harry seemed to see. It floated to the 'inspector's' chest and plunged inside.
Suddenly the inspector started coughing, his papers and pen fell to the ground as he clutched his chest. His coughs sounded really bad, like when Joy had really bad lung sickness and had to take special medicine.
After some more hard coughs blood appeared in the corner of his mouth, one of the caretakers had given the 'inspector' a handkerchief and the man freaked when he saw blood on it.
Harry was still sitting on his bed, a book in his lap, eyes wide as he observed what was happening in front of him, what the green thread from his chest was doing. The anger from his chest quickly dissipated and was replaced by horror.
He did that, he had to stop it! Harry tried to think of the green thread and pull it back inside of him, to coil him into wherever it had been before. The thread snapped out of 'inspector's' chest and went back into his chest like a whip. The 'inspector' stopped coughing immediately and Harry grabbed his chest as a flash of pain hit it. The boy curled into a ball, eyes wide, mouth open, but not releasing a sound so not gather attention. What had he done?! Was this going to happen every time he got angry?
As Harry silently panicked the man and caretakers left the room, Harry hid under the covers and ignored anything happening in the room, he was dangerous, he didn't want to hurt his room-mates!
Harry must have fallen asleep because he woke up in the early hours of the morning, the sky was still black but the horizon in the east was a bit bluish although sun was still no where to be seen, it was late summer and Harry was glad for that, it made it much easier to do what he was planning.
He sneaked out of bed and found a backpack, he put some warmer clothes, extra pairs of socks and underwear. A quick trip to the kitchen for a couple water bottles and packs of cookies later Harry was unlocking front door (the children were not supposed to know where the key for the door was kept, but Harry had been curious and sneaked glances when caretakers kept it) and sneaking out.
Harry ran down the street, away from the best place he ever been to, he didn't want to hurt anyone else, he doubted that anyone would believe him if he told and he could never do that agin just to prove the wrong, the young boy wasn't sure he could control it.
He didn't just run without a plan though, he couldn't be alone like this, like he wasn't alone in not being able to hear, he was sure there were places with such tendrils to learn how to use or stop them, just like his school for deaf.
London was huge, there must be at least one place for people like him!
**************
It took Harry two days to realize that yes, London was huge, and that was the problem. He visited a couple of magic shops where the cashiers glared ta him suspiciously as he flipped through books looking for something that might hint at same things, but nothing like that was there. Harry had run out of food and water, he had no money and felt incredibly dirty, his glasses were cracked from when he fell of a bench he slept on.
It was terrible and Harry was utterly lost, he was walking through a street, quite late at night, almost no people around him, some rushed by him, wrapped in long coats. Soon he saw a perfect alley he could sleep, it didn't have any trash bins, wasn't very vide and had only one metal door at teh beginningat it.
Harry sat in the corner, took out his winter jacket, put his bag underhimself and teh jacket on himself as he tried to fall asleep.
A loud crack woke Harry up and made him jump in place. A bald man wrapped in long coat stood a few feat from him, his back turned to Harry, he didn't seem to notice the boy and took out a stick and waved it, numbers appeared in the air and disappeared with anotehr wave.
Harry's eye buldged, the man continued to wave the think stick and his appearance changed, his bald head suddenly had a neat mop of hair and he seemed to shrink in size. He must have let out a gasp, because the man suddenly turned around.
Ruby red eyes turned at him and the stick waved towards him, the man said some words Harry didn't know. Harry started signing quickly, but immediately stopped and shouted „Wait!“. His fingers started signing again, but Harry stopped again, he was so used to signing it was hard to talk instead. At least the man stopped doing whatever he was doing, eyes bearing into him with interest.
“I, I.. do you ever have energy come from your chest?”
Harry wanted to look down and not meet the strange eyes, but he had to look at the man to lip read, but instead of talking like the boy expected the red eyed man started signing. “What can you do child?”
“I sometimes make things fall, I had teleported once and a couple of days ago” Harry stops signing and looks up at the man who seems to be watching him with eager interest, for a second he debated if he should tell him. Nothing could happen if he did, the 'inspector' didn't die. “I was really angry and made someone cough till the started coughing blood.”
The man's seemed deep in thought. “Accidental magic tends to be quite unexpected. You mentioned tendrils, you saw them? What colour were they?”
The man's sign language was a bit old, but Harry knows three different ones so it wasn't hard for him to understand what the red eye was saying. “It was green like my eyes.”
The man's lips moved slightly in what appeared to be words 'green eyes'. The man crouched to Harry's eye level and brushed aside the fringe he kept to hide his weird scar.
As he saw it his eyes glinted and a smirk appeared on his lips. “My name is Tom, what is yours?”
Harry started spelling his name letter by letter when he finished the man nodded. “Figures.” He probably sadi to himself as he had been doing nothing but sign at Harry. “Do you want to come with me so I can explain everything to you?”
“First tell me what it is, the thing that I did, that you did.”
Tom took out the stick again and waved it while saying some weird words. A gold light came from it and as the man continued moving the stick the lines that formed from the light stayed in the air. “What we can do is called magic, we're wizards Harry.”
Harry blinked owlishly at the man repeating the word over and over in his mind. He mindlessly took the hand Tom offered him and was pulled to his feet. As soon as he was standing a pulling sensation distracted him from his thoughts, when it ended he stumbled feeling a bit sick in the stomach.
A huge house stood in front of him and Tom who still held Harry's hand had to release it to sign to Harry. “This is where I live, you can stay here for as long as you wish, right now let's get you clean, rested and I will explain everything in detail.”
Harry nodded not really knowing what to say, soon he was sitting in the most comfortable bed in the whole world, a book about Wizarding world (where wizards and witches live) on his bedside table if he woke up early and wanted to read.
The next day is full of wonders and discoveries for Harry, in the end he decides to stay at Tom's place until he gets his letter for attending Hogwarts.
****************
Life with Tom is weird, sometimes he's bald and ugly, sometimes normal, excluding the red eyes, his appearance isn't the only change, with his appearance his personality changed. When he was bald he was full of anger, short tempered and for some reason always looked bitter when looking at Harry. When he was with hair, he was nice and helpful, if a bit quick tempered and mysterious.
Harry quickly started learning about wizard culture and world, all the differences, more than half a year in his stay Tom finally spoke about why he sometimes was so weird about Harry.
Harry's parents used to be wizards, they were dead now and Tom had killed them, tried to kill Harry too, but had not succeeded, instead becoming a ghost and gathering energy for eight years before getting a body again.
The young wizard didn't really know how to react, he was quite confused, Tom had said he no longer wanted to kill Harry and was sorry to be the one to make him orphan, but there had been war and both sides had killed leaving behind grief and thirst for revenge.
He also said there was a prophesy about them too, but he only knew half of if and decided to know it all than tell Harry half. He did make Harry an orphan and himself a spirit because he knew only half, doing rash things didn't seem to work out for Tom.
After that Harry really didn't know what to feel or think about Tom for a while. Tom was a pretty decent person to him, he taught him about magic, never lied or hid anything, he seemed be really passionate about making changes in Wizarding world and taking care of his snake, although sometime seemed a bit bloodthirsty.
Even though Harry now had magic his hearing couldn't be fixed, the damage was already old and impossible to fix, there were spells that could sharpen what he did hear and Harry was planning to use them once he went to Hogwarts to make it easier to communicate with people who were bound not to know any sign language.
What is more it turned out Harry was special even among wizards (go figure) because he had a very rare ability that was taught to run only in Tom's family: parseltongue – and ability to speak and understand snake language.
Unfortunately it was quite useless as Harry could only speak it and could not hear the hisses, it was quite hard for him to realize he was talking it because a snake that brought the ability up always was around him forcing it to pop up. Luckily Tom understood it and it didn't affect his signing.
Even though Harry could not fathom why Tom took him in instead of killing him in revenge or just to finish his job the boy realized a lot of things from it.
People were complicated beings and couldn't be forced into 'evil' or 'good' sides, everyone did both, because what for one person is a good action might seem like a bad one to another and no body had the right to judge what was right and what was wrong.
This realization that a nice person could do harm and vice versa made Harry not to take Tom's actions as personal. It didn't matter now, Tom wasn't about to kill him and getting revenge on Tom would do nothing.
*****************
The year with Tom flew by too soon for Harry, there were still many thing he wanted to know and understand, his only consolation was that Hogwarts was school he will be attending and there were so much knowledge in there!
After getting the letter and answering it Tom disguised himself and they went shopping in the Diagon Alley, it was fun, it was different and Tom spoiled him by buying anything he wanted and then showed that he had a bank vault and could always buy everything for himself from now on.
Separating from Tom, the first magical person he knows and trusts, for such a long time was a bit disheartening, but Harry made Tom promise to write him and that he will come back for the holidays.
The trip itself wasn't that memorable, Harry hid at the end of the train with a book and was only disturbed once by a girl that asked him if he had seen a toad. Harry shook his head and took a minute to wonder if she had really said toad or was it road? They were on atrain so it couldn't have been road, so toad it was. It took him another minute to remember that toads were on the list of pets they could bring.
The trip through the lake in magical boats was another thing entirely, he almost fell off the boat when the giant man shouted something, but luckily Harry realised it must have been 'duck' as everyone suddenly ducked.
Because he couldn't see the old woman's lips when they reached teh door he was left to speculate about why they were just standing there. When several ghoast floated by it was quite funny to see some children flinch.
Soon tehy were led to a giant hall with a sceiling that looked like night sky, there were many what Harry assumed was gasp of awes and then the difficult part began. People were being called to the fron of teh room, being sat down on a stool and a strange, moving hat being put down on them.
Harry had to follow the old woman's lips very closely trying to understand what she was saying and when he will be called. From what he understood last names were said first and first names, so he needed to be very aware of the children being called and not to miss it or it will be awkward.
The children who had the hat being put on then then walked to one of the four tables that represented Hogwarts houses (Tom had been quite informative about those). When it was finally Harry's turn the hall had quieted and Harry awkwardly came to the stool hopping he read it right and it was really him that was called.
(Tom had told him he was a celebrity because he survived a killing curse (and how people were aware of that was a mistery to everyone) and made the Dark Lord disappear).
The sorting hat was a strange object that 'spoke to one's mind and no, it doesn't matter that you never hear words being spoken, this is magic child, it doesn't matter!'
It was quite weird, but in the end Harry was sorted to Rawenclaw, no big surprise there as he had been spending a lot of his time with books and learning because he wished to expand his knowledge.
After dinner and loads of talking from the headmaster that Harry couldn't lip read because of the distance the raven haired boy didn't wait any longer and once the perfects (or Harry assumed they were called like that from lip reading) brought them to their tower he asked one where he could find their head of the house.
Luckily instead of giving directions the boy took him to the half goblin's office.
“Mr Potter?” His new head of the house greeted him questioningly. “Is there anything of problem?”
Harry nodded and opened his mouth cleaning his throat so his voice wouldn't squeak, it had been a while since he last used his voice. “Yes, I think I need help from you and other professors sir, you see, I am deaf.”
The small blinked owlishly, then he furrowed his brows. “Deaf? How? Well, that doesn't matter now. This would hinder your learning process immensely! You can lip read, correct?”
Harry nodded. “Yes, I'm quite good at it, I wish to ask you to talk with other professors and ask them to let me sit in front of classrooms and never ask me questions when I can't see them, I am quite proficient in self study and believe can easily keep up with hearing people.”
The professor seemed to go deep in thought. “We could help you by using a spell that would write most instructions on a chalkboard, I will have to inform everyone of this development and your special needs... hmmm, we had never had such a student, this is really quite unfortunate.”
Harry stood there for a while as the man took out a parchment and started scribbling on it while mumbling something under his nose. Only after about five minutes did he rose his head and realized Harry was still standing there. “You can go Mr Potter, I believe I will be able to fulfil your requests, maybe we can even some charms that would help you for classroom learning.”
Learning at Hogwarts was nothing like learning with Tom, Harry was used to gathering information like sponge and immediately apply it, he was used to learning one subject a day and with depth in every detail. Which is why he found learning at Hogwarts tiring and lacking in certain aspects.
Fortunately the library made it up for all of it.
Every day after lessons Harry would go to library and do some extensive reading on few of the subject in the library. He couldn't do it on all of them as it was way too much for him, so he chose those that seemed the most interesting and hoped the others will come up again and he will be able to do his research then.
**************
The day of Halloween fell to the middle of the week. The great hall looked fantastic, the atmosphere was fantastic.
That is until a piece of parchment appeared in front of him.
The headmaster had 'invited' to visit him after the feast, more likely politely demanded his time, Harry couldn't help but wonder what the headmaster wanted from him.
At eight o'clock Harry was standing in front of the gargoyles muttering the password supplied by the parchment he got earlier. The moving staircase moved him to old door which opened as soon as he was in front of it, someone was eager...
Harry muttered a greeting looking around the messy room. What caught his attention the most were stacks of books which most seemed to be journals and a perch where a chicken sized bird with golden and red feathers was ruffling it's feathers.
The old man motioned for him to sit down and to Harry's surprise started signing. “How are you Harry? Is Hogwarts to your liking? Are you experiencing any disturbances because of your disability?”
“No, everything is good, professor Flitwick took care of telling all teachers and teaching me some spells that help me out in class, my favourite is the one that writes down everything said in a certain distance, I get to read some gossip too.”
“That's good, that's good. What do you know about your parents, Harry?”
Harry didn't like the familiarity the man showed to him, this was the first time Harry was speaking to the man! He also probably wasn't going to like where this conversation was going. “My parents died in the war with Voldemort, he also tried to kill me, but for some reason was unable. Then there's family from my mother's side of the family, they neglected me and are the reason I am deaf, I was taken away from them at age of six.”
Dumbledore nodded. “I see.” He muttered, he seemed to be deep in thoughts, his eyes blazed as he seemed miles away.
Harry started tapping his foot impatiently. “Tell me, Harry, are you adapting to your classes properly?”
The black haired boy shrugs. “I believe I am, I find the subjects interesting and my housemates often research together with me which is pretty fun.”
The white haired man asked several more unimportant questions until he finally seemed satisfied and let Harry go on his way.
In no time at all Christmas vacation came, Harry eagerly came back home to Tom.
“DADA is absolute awful Tom! The teacher seems to be specialised only in one aspect! I really hope I won't have him next year, or I won't learn anything!”
“Well, I did curse the spot so there will definitely be a new teacher next year.”
“You did? I'm not sure to be happy or sad.”
“Be neither and tell me what you learned.”
*******************
Yea after year went by with Dumbledore sometimes summoning him and asking questions and Harry continuing living with Tom.
After Harry finished the first year with praises Tom took him travelling for summer. They visited many countries in south and middle Europe and their magical locations. Tom even took him to see how another wizarding school looks when they were visiting France.
They made this a tradition by travelling somewhere each summer.
In school not much changed, people didn't really know how to approach him so not many tried, those that did usually made do with Harry lip reading and few even got interested in sign language and started learning it (both of those people were his housemates in Ravenclaw, one of the older students also knew it which was truly helpful for Harry in some situations).
By the end of Harry's fifth year not many students associated his name with the one who supposedly defeated the Dark Lord. They knew him as that one deaf Ravenclaw that studied a lot and always was a model student.
The summer before sixth year came with surprise. “I am going to start gathering my forces once again.” Tom said conversationally as they were sitting in the dinning room eating their first dinner together.
“Oh, um, and, what are your plans; after you gather them? When will you start it? Am I going to be a problem? Will I have to move?”
Harry blinked owlishly at Tom who gazed at him with what seemed fond amusement, the emotion in the other man's eyes confused the teen quite a lot. It had been years since he last seen Tom in his Voldemort form with hate filled eyes bearing into him, but even Tom's red eyes never really held any emotion besides annoyance, amusement and contentment.
“I will call my followers once the school year starts, I managed to recreate an event that had been long since discarded to open up the borders so travel to east Europe would be easier. I will leave a book about the event in your room, read about it, you will be in the age group able to participate, see if you want to test your abilities.“
Tom took a bite of the chicken roast and then continued signing. “You don't need to go anywhere even if you do not want to be involved in any side of the war, this is my home, not the headquarters, none of my followers will be allowed here. I will also make sure that they know you are not to be touched or threatened.”
The teen nodded and turned his eyes to his meal lost in thoughts. “What you will be trying to achieve this time?”
Tom put down his fork. “I want to take over the ministry and rework it, right now it's neither efficient nor progressive, I will redo it's working and make sure changes are set in the Wizarding world, we haven't changed in the last couple hundred years, no new inventions that could improve our lives had been announced in decades.”
“There is also the issue of muggleborns.” Tom frowned, “Rarely do they seem to understand magic and how it works, they find it hard to accept how different the world is from what muggles taught them. Thus they often push away what the Wizarding world gives them and instead try to make it more similar to the one they grew up in.”
Harry frowned. “But don't they bring innovations that way?”
“Sometimes they do, but here we come to the first problem – our world is stagnant and refuses to improve. What I am planning to do it when a child first accidental magic happens a missive goes to them, explains who they are and where they will go and then enrol them into a primary school with other magical children where they would get the basic of how this world works.”
“I understand.” Harry looks down to his plate and then back to Tom. “I want to think about what you just told me and I will give you my decision on what I want to do by the end of the summer, alright?”
It doesn't take Harry that long to make up his mind. A week later finds the black haired teen knocking on Tom's office door early in morning, right before breakfast. The door magically opens and he walks in.
“Is something wrong, Harry?” Tom signs to him with surprise.
“No, I just made up my mind. I want to be on your side of the war.”
“Don't you want to know what the other side fight for, why they resist so much, what they believe in?” The older man asks him.
Harry shakes head. “I get the basic idea of what they want, but I feel like I agree with you more, I am aware of what kind of laws the Ministry has been putting out the last few years and I don't believe we could change it the peaceful way. So taking over it is, and if you become a bit too power hungry again I will be there to stop you.”
Tom smirked and let out a soft noise, Harry assumed it was a chuckle as he hear Tom sigh before and it didn't look like it was a laugh. “So I assume you won't take my mark?”
“I do not want to be a follower, I am your supporter, following you as a lord feels wrong when I grew up with you. I will support you, but still maintain independence.”
“As you wish, was this all?”
“Yea, let's get breakfast.”
********************
When Harry gets to school for his sixth year a week into the studies he's called to the headmaster's office. It's the first time he's called so early in the year, usually Dumbledore called him once or twice the year, usually before he went home for Christmas or summer vacation.
“Harry, my boy, sit down.”
Harry eyed the tired looking man, Dumbledore always looked old, but his spirit never seemed to match his age, now though it seemed like his age had caught up with him.
The old man sighed and Harry raised an eyebrow. “What is it headmaster?”
“I am afraid I have to tell you grave news, my boy. Voldemort seems to have returned, whispers going around that he's gathering up his followers once again.”
Harry nods. “Yes, I am aware.”
Dumbledore sighs like he's sad to tell this news, but then perks up confused. “You know? How?”
Harry can't help but let a strange sound come from his mouth, it feels like a giggle. “Well, I have been living with Tom for the past six years, he did mention this summer that he was going to resume the war soon.”
The white haired male blinked owlishly. “You've been living with him for the past six years?”
Harry couldn't help but grin. This is why always studied, he wanted to know everything, to never be in the dark about anything ever again. To never feel lost or helpless, knowledge is power and Harry felt full of this wonderful feeling of the headmaster never even suspecting this.
“I ran away from the orphanage when I was ten, my accidental magic lashed out and I didn't want to hurt anyone with it. I decided to look for people like me. Tom found me, took me in, he taught me of Wizarding world and of magic, he gave me root knowledge and I continued to expand it.”
Harry shrugged. “I always knew who he was, he never hid that, he told me what he did and why, I decided to let bygones be bygones, he wasn't going to hurt me.”
The elderly wizard frowned. “And had he told you of why he came after you and your parents? Did you tell you of the prophecy?”
The teen nodded. “He did, he admitted he acted rashly the first time and that he was going to ignore the prophecy now, he only knows half and what's the point of basing his whole life on something he only knows half of?”
Dumbledore looked dumbfounded. “And... do you agree with his views, will you be one of his followers?”
Harry shook his head, his headmaster was asking all the wrong questions so Harry was going to give him all the wrong answers. “I do agree with his goals, but I am not going to be his follower. Is this all headmaster?”
The white haired wizard nodded, so Harry stood up, said his goodbye and left the office, he hoped to never get called there again.
****************
Soon the news of a competition between three European Wizarding schools were spread to the school and everyone eagerly waited for the guests to arrive as the Triwizard tournament was going to be held at Hogwarts.
Harry didn't find their new guest enchanting and mysterious, most Beauxbatons students were staying in Rawenclaw tower so Harry saw them before they magicked themselves into beings of perfection.
The age line was sixteen and Harry was going to enter. Tom was right, this would be the perfect chance to see what he could do, how much he learned and how powerful he truly is.
Needless to say he became Hogwarts champion, the other two champions were a blond girl from the academy and a bulky guy from Durmstrang institute. They were like embodiment of their schools images.
The first task fell on a Sunday in late autumn. Harry wasn't sure how he should prepare and didn't want to cheat so all he did was brush up his magical knowledge in all areas he ever took interest in and hoped for the best.
Facing a dragon was something he should have expected, wizards were always a bit of an extremists.
Harry goes first, his dragon is Swedish Short-Snout, a dragon that likes to live in cold and high places. Harry snorted, took out his wand and started chanting. Learning spell was quite difficult as they spoken as usual English language and Harry couldn't just read the spell and know how it was pronounced, he had to practise it until he got it. Usually by that time he would master the spell as well so it wasn't that bad.
Harry summoned a couple pebbles from the ground and carved a couple of runes into them and put some enchanments, then he pitched them into the dragon. The pebbles became thunderbirds that started pelting lightning to the dragon. The Short-Snout started to walk backwards away from the nest where the golden egg Harry had to take laid.
With an speed enchant spell Harry was by the nest in seconds, he grabbe dthe egg, made sure the dragon was still distracted and ran back to where he started. When he was safely out of teh dragon's range he cancelled his spells.
As Bagman announced him successful (or well, Harry assumed the man did, he did do what he was asked) the crowd went wild, loud noises came from everyone in the stands and they looked like they were cheering. Harry had finished his task in less than five minutes and without injuries, there was nothing the jusges could take points from. So Harry went back with his perfect score.
************
When Harry came back for Christmas vacation home he was literally swept of his feet.
Tom had grabbed him in a hug (the man was freakishly tall and Harry was quite short for his age), he was soon let go off and Tom had started signing feverishly. “I'm so proud of you! The way you dealt with that dragon! You will be a brilliant wizard once you're done with your studies! So powerful!”
Tom's red eyes were shinning with what Harry could only identify as happiness, the green eyed teen blinked owlishly at the older man, a strange feeling rising in his chest. Tom had never praised him like this. Sure, there had been praise here and there when he took to a spell particularly fast, but nothing like this.
“There's something I want to show you.”
Tom's nodded with interest and followed Harry to his office where the teen put his wand to his temple and took out the memory of the confrontation between him and Dumbledore in early September. He had not told Tom about it as he felt it was best to be showed and he also wanted to be near Tom when he saw it so he could see the red eyed man's reaction.
When Tom came out of the memory he looked a bit dazed, his eyes were a bit glazed, but as they cleared up a grins stretched across his lips.”That was brilliant.” His lips formed words and Harry felt pride swell up in his chest. “You played him so good, he never expected that, all those meetings with you and he had no idea where did you really go for vacation!”
Tom let out a laugh, with a quick stride he was next to Harry, his hands on the teenager's cheeks. His red eyes bore deep into Harry's green ones through his glass lenses, a brilliant smile stretched across his lips. “You're brilliant.”
Then the Dark Lord leaned down and kissed the boy he once tried to kill.
Harry melted into the touch. It was amazing, the firm pair of lips moving against his, all Harry wanted was to get lost in the movement, to never not feel such wonderful feeling.
When Tom broke the kiss and Harry let out a small noise from his throat the man looked smug. “Harry, do you want this? We can have this if you want it.”
Harry exhaled and closed his eyes for short moment. “Exclusive? Only me, always me?” He whispered, or well, assumed he did, he had gotten the voice volumes quite well as far as other people had told him.
Tom nodded and Harry leaned in asking for another kiss.
And it went like this: the Dark Lord took a lover, a brilliant sixteen year old, the boy who already lived with said man, and the two had brought their plans to fruition, they drove resistance into hiding, Dumbledore to an early deathbed (well, a cursed object the man had been not careful with did so, but Tom took the credit as he created the object) and took over the Ministry.
Now, it couldn't have gone better, could it?