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“Fly with me?” A close, unfamiliar voice called out.
Tom whipped around only to be met with a boy he’d never seen before. Wild raven hair and vivid green eyes immediately assaulted his vision. The boy was shorter than Tom, and stood before him, uninvited, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Tom’s gaze hardened.
What was this boy doing here?
“Why are you in my dream?” Tom questioned, tone sharp.
The boy remained unbothered, continuing to gaze at Tom with his killing-curse green eyes.
“I am always here,” he said simply.
Unbidden, Tom raised a brow at the absurd declaration. What a strange, curious little creature his mind had created.
Not that it was of any importance.
Tom stepped forward, intent settling into something more defined. The space around them bent to the silent force of his will—the ground smoothing, the air thinning, the edges of the world drawing tight.
And yet—
The boy didn’t so much as flicker.
A feat which was as remarkable as it was infuriating.
“Are you done now?” The boy asked, now standing with his arms crossed and giving Tom a distinctly unimpressed look.
Within an instant Tom’s gaze had shifted to venomous.
How dare the boy stand there and mock him?
“Who are you?” Tom demanded.
The boy shifted then, his features sporting a look of a soft, almost pitying incredulity which Tom couldn’t stand.
“You already know me, Tom.” The boy murmured, stepping closer. The movement made a tight unfamiliar feeling curl in Tom’s chest. For a second it was as if Tom couldn’t breathe. “Just as well as I know you.”
The boy paused then, an expression which looked suspiciously close to fondness crossing his features.
“I’m sure you’ll remember soon.”
Before Tom could so much as digest the statement the landscape started disintegrating around them, fracturing and blurring into indistinct shapes. The last thing Tom could see against the encroaching darkness was the presence of two wide burning green eyes looking back at him.
…
…
“You always do.”
It was less than a week before the strange boy found his way into Tom’s dreams again.
”Who are you?” Tom questioned, more to the darkness than to the boy himself.
The boy was there, still sporting that irritatingly casual stance with a small, nearingly imperceptible smile tugging at the edge of his mouth. Something was, strangely, pleasing him.
”Wasn’t that for you to figure out?” the raven haired boy replied casually, eyes alight with something close to mischief.
Tom did not deign the boy with a response.
Within a moment the boy had straightened up and was looking at Tom with open curiosity.
”Coming?”
”To where?” Tom drawled.
The boy’s features twisted into a look of amusement mixed with exasperation, as if the answer were obvious.
”To fly.” He stated, gesturing ahead of them.
It was only then Tom noticed that their surroundings had changed, the shadow-like rocks tapering off into a cliffside a few handful of feet ahead of them.
Tom’s gaze fell flat on the boy, a look which seemingly conveyed his utter unamusement at the prospect if the responding eye-roll was anything to go from.
The boy walked past Tom as he came up to the cliffside, feet toeing the edge of the rock-like surface.
”You sure?” The boy called back, turning over his shoulder and piercing Tom with green eyes which seemed so impossibly alive.
“Positively.”
The boy disappeared then, his figure vanishing from Tom’s sight.
For a moment, Tom didn’t move, his eyes utterly transfixed on the place the boy stood just moments ago. He couldn't help but think the spot looked quite… empty.
Only an instant later the darkness started furling into itself, the landscape drawing Tom into its clutches and into the abyss beyond. It all felt rather surreal however, as Tom’s thoughts were still firmly fixed on the boy.
The boy in the shadows.
No…that wasn’t quite right.
…
Harry.
That’s what the boy was called.
The next dream brought them even closer to the cliffside.
“Come and fly with me,” the boy, no—Harry—said simply.
“Absolutely not. I am not falling into an abyss.” Tom stated, resolution firm.
“What?” Harry looked below them, seeming oddly perplexed. “No see, look over there, you can see the moon.”
Tom stepped closer to the edge and peered over, squinting into the smokey, velvety depths before sending an unimpressed look at the raven haired boy. Did Harry take him for a common fool? There was clearly no moon in the void they shared and Tom had had enough of this foolish game.
“Suit yourself,” Harry replied with a shrug before launching himself into the void, smile bright but eyes impossibly brighter as he fell.
Tom couldn’t help but be transfixed as he fell, the boy’s descent seeming implausibly slower as the chasmous void surrounded him. His figure was gradually becoming smaller, a stark contrast to the black depths against him.
He was the only thing Tom could see.
Something flickered and Tom couldn’t help the way he stilled. For a moment—a brief and tangible moment—the sight shifted. It was Harry, distant, small and impossibly brighter. The sight was tinged in a glow which was undeniably… gold. A soft ethereal glow against those fathomless depths.
Perhaps it was Harry who was the fool.
As there, stark as a summer's rise, burned a sun.
“Fly with me.”
The request was phrased simply, as it always had been.
Tom wondered when it had stopped becoming a surprise.
He exhaled slowly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
“You are not flying.”
Harry only continued to watch him, his expression caught somewhere between fondness and exasperation.
Waiting. Harry was waiting for him.
Tom stepped closer to him.
“Fall with me then,” he said simply.
As if there was ever a difference.
And how could there be? Not when Tom had fallen long before he had left the ground.