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Tom had fought tooth and nail coming back. He had asked every professor, every friend, even the headmaster to do something to prevent him from returning to the orphanage. But, to his disappointment, no one helped him. He got back on the Hogwarts express knowing that he would be returning to a summer filled with the other orphans mocking him and harassing him as to where he had been all year, and whatever else their feeble minds could come up with.
Mrs. Cole came to pick him up, and said nothing to him as she took him back to the old building and locked the door behind them, almost as if she were locking him in instead of preventing anyone from breaking in. Who would steal a bunch of orphans after all?
As he walked to his room, he could already tell that something was off. He didn’t know if it was the air, or the way the other kids looked at him, but he knew that something had changed while he was gone. Something important.
His room was at the top of the stairs, closest to the attic. It was the coldest room in the winter and the hottest room in the summer, something that the other kids had no sympathy for. When he opened the door, he was taken aback at what he saw.
Usually, the other children would share rooms at the orphanage to save space. Sometimes up to three or four children would be shoved together in one small room. But, no one ever shared with Tom. They would have rather have been cramped in a small bedroom made for not even an adult, than live in the same room with him.
So, when he saw the extra bed, he became angry. Was this some prank by the other kids or a punishment by Mrs. Cole? Tom did not want to share a room with some muggle kid who didn’t know their place. He would have to go down and explain to the matron that he would not be having any of this nonsense.
He nearly threw his stuff down on the bed and turned to march out the door and give that woman a piece of her mind. As he grabbed the doorknob and was about to slam it behind him, a sound from under the bed gave him pause. It was the last thing he ever would have expected to come from his room.
It was the whimper of a small child.
Tom had felt fear in the orphanage before. The other kids did not know what kind of power he possessed and often bullied him for it. Still, he always did his best to never show weakness in front of them. Which is why the sound, almost a plea, was so surprising to him.
“You might as well come out, you aren’t staying there for long,” Tom told the unidentified kid under his bed. “Mrs. Cole probably put you in here as a punishment for whatever you did. Don’t worry, you’ll be back with your friends in no time.”
“Wait, please don’t make me leave,” A small head with messy black hair and bright green eyes shot out from under the bed and looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. “They don’t like me in their rooms.”
Tom sighed and stepped back into the room. “Who doesn’t like you in their rooms?”
“All of them. They don’t like me. They said that I am a freak and that I needed to be in here because this is where freaks live.” The little boy pulled himself a little further out from under the bed. “Did they make you stay in here too?”
“They didn’t make me do anything. Those idiots are beneath me and the sooner you learn to think the same the better off you will be.” Tom said proudly. The other kid looked at him with his wide terrified eyes and Tom knew that he couldn’t kick him out. Not to long ago, he was treated the same. Some days, he would either be too terrified of the other kids to leave his room, or to fed up with their taunts to even try to socialize with anyone. “What is your name?”
“Harry Potter,” The little boy stood up from under the bed and dusted himself off. “I used to live with my aunt and uncle, but they didn’t like my freakishness and dropped me off here a few months ago. The other kids don’t like it either.”
“Don’t like your…”
“Freakishness,” Harry stated as if it were a fact. “My aunt said my parents had it too, but I don’t really know what that means.”
Tom tilted his head. He had an idea that perhaps the boy in front of him was a young wizard as well. After all, Tom himself had been made fun of for his freakishness, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up.
Harry left Tom alone as he unpacked his things. His school stuff still tucked neatly in his trunk and safe away form prying eyes. He wouldn’t be able to do his homework until late that night when everyone was asleep, and nothing could have irritated Tom more. Why should he have to hide what he was like he was ashamed of it? If he could just find a place for the summer where he could be himself freely, then he might be able to survive the horrendous orphanage a few more months.
At dinner time, Harry followed Tom down stairs one step behind him at a time. It irritated Tom to no end, but he wasn’t going to start anything so soon after returning from school. Besides, Harry wasn’t doing it to irritate him, he was genuinely afraid to go alone and Tom couldn’t fault him for that.
The orphanage had a large dining room filled tightly with tables for the children to eat their meals. A woman stood by the door way with plates and another filled them with whatever food they had made that day. It was never something to be desired, but it was better than nothing. For dinner, they had something that could have resembled a pie, and to the children’s delight, there were rolls for everyone to have.
As Harry and Tom made their way to a couple of chairs, one of the other children knocked into Harry and stole his roll right off his plate. Instead of saying or doing anything, Harry just kept his head down as the other kid sneered “Freaks don’t get to eat the good stuff. Might as well go to someone to deserves it right?”
The kids around laughed openly at the scene. Harry sat down in his chair keeping his head down. “They used to do the same to me,” Tom told him as he sat down next to him.
“What did you do,” Harry asked curiously, picking up his fork and poking at his food.
“I got them back eventually. Just had to learn how not to get caught.” Tom smirked. “That, or scare them enough so that they wouldn’t go telling.”
Harry eyebrow raised in surprised, and then he looked at the kid who had stolen the best part of his dinner. His head tilted in thought as he watched the other children laughing and jeering at the prize. The child who had taunted him, was in the middle of the crowd had just finished telling some joke and pointing at him making a rude gesture.
Tom who had only known Harry for less than a day, did not understand the look that suddenly passed over Harry’s face. Before he could ask what he was doing, a loud explosion sounded from the crowd of children and food went everywhere. Silence fell over the room and the children in the middle of the mess were covered head to toe in their dinner.
“You… you freak!” The child yelled at Harry.
“How could he have done this? He is just a little kid and he is all the way over there,” one of the older children argued.
Tom looked at Harry in a whole new light.
“What happened in here?!” Mrs. Cole screeched as she stormed into the room.
“Mrs. Cole,” Tom stood up and looked shyly at her. “Those kids were all huddled around something that kid brought in here. I couldn’t see what it was, but then it exploded and made all of this mess. I hope no one is hurt miss. It was scary.” Tom always prided himself on his acting with good reason. After his performance, Mrs. Cole turned to the group of children that had been laughing at Harry and proceeded to yell at them for endangering the orphanage.
Harry and Tom hid their faces behind their hands and snickered as they tried to place blame on Harry, but Mrs. Cole wouldn’t believe them. It only fueled her rage at them and they were forced to clean up the entire dining room and wouldn’t get any more supper that night.
Back in their room, Harry and Tom were still laughing together at the looks on the other children’s faces. “You know, it will only make them worse in the end,” Tom informed Harry after their laughter had died down. They will want to know how you did it.”
“Did what? I’m still not even sure what happened,” Harry said confused.
“Does this sort of thing happen often?” Tom asked.
Harry put his head down in shame “Weird things like that would happen all of the time at my aunt and uncles house. They would always blame it on me and call me a freak. I… the last thing I did before I left, my cousin was chasing me on the playground and he was holding me down and hitting me. They all were, him and his friends. I blinked and the next thing I knew, I was on the roof of the school. My aunt said that it was it the last straw and sent me here.” Silent tears fell down his cheeks.
When Harry finished talking, Tom got up from his bed and went to sit down next to Harry. He grabbed Harry’s hands in his and said “You are not a freak. What you are doing, is something to be proud of, to honor. Not to be ashamed of. You’ll see. When the summer’s over, you and me are going somewhere amazing.”
“You mean to your school? The other kids talked about it.” Harry sniffed.
“Yes, my school. A place for people like us. You’ll be with me the whole time. I won’t let any of those worthless pieces of dirt bother you again, you understand?” Tom promised a look of determination in his eye.
Harry smiled softly. “That… that sounds great. But, how do you know that I will get in? Isn’t it supposed to be some fancy private school? I don’t have any money.”
“Neither do I,” Tom walked over to his trunk and pulled out a spell book with moving pictures, his wand and a few galleons. “But, you don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ll take care of you Harry, you and me are going to be something great.”
For the rest of the summer, Tom taught Harry everything he knew about magic. Together, they were able to get back at the children who had bullied them in the orphanage. When Dumbledore finally came to give Harry his acceptance letter, he had no idea what had already happened. The two boys were inseparable already and the wizarding world would not be prepared.