Triumvirate

by Author_Person

Summary:

Harry dies and then lives again. Shit only gets weirder from there.

Notes:

Disclaimer
Don’t own the characters, not making money.

Content Warning
Contains: Underage Sex (technically,) and naughty language.

~~~~~~

Triumvirate : A group of three powerful people, especially people in charge of something.

Chapter 1

Harry rolls over in his sleep, trying to get comfortable. He’s so uncomfortable he dreams he’s back, lying in the cupboard under the stairs. He switches position again.

Still uncomfortable, he begins to wake. He rolls onto his back and looks up at the grate on the cupboard door. Thinks, oh great, it’s one of those dreams. Waits for something to happen that will snap him out of this segment of the dream so that he’ll wake up again, for real this time. Nothing happens. And continues happening. What the fuck?

“What is this?” He can’t help but grumble aloud. Annoyed at being stuck back in this place, dream or not. 

There’s a quiet huff of a laugh, which no matter that it’s only a whisper of sound, also somehow moves through him like the rumble of thunder when it rattles the windows with its reverberations. His skin turns to goose flesh as a chill snakes it way down his spine. He’s not sure he wants to know what this is anymore. He feels fear for the first time in...he’s not sure how long. 

“Hello, little master.”

“Master?” The question slips out before he can stop himself. That is not a title he has ever been given or even wanted. He is no man’s master. He pushes aside the fact that the voice echoes seemingly through his soul, that it sounds like what he thinks of when he hears the phrase ‘the wrath of god.’

“Mm, you are my master now.”

“Now?” 

“Now that you have died.”

No. No, he can’t have. He remembers the night before. He had a quiet night at home with Ginny, they had sex, they went to sleep. He, was? only nineteen how could he have died in his sleep? Well, he has a feeling he knows who the voice belongs to now and if anyone would know...

“How did I die?” He’s not really sure he wants to know though. He hopes Ginny survived whatever it was. 

“Poison.”

“Who?” His mind is racing. A Death Eater they didn’t manage to catch perhaps?

“Ginevra Potter née Weasley.”

No. Why would she? She loved him, had done since they were children. 

“Why?”

“She did not wish to be married to you, but wanted your money and the prestige of having been your wife. Don’t worry little master. Your poisoning was badly executed. She was, or will be, or is being, depending on your perspective, given the kiss for it.”

Harry’s not sure how he feels about that. He loves, or, well he did love her, and now that he thinks about it, why does he feel nothing for her? He felt only mild concern when he thought she might have died with him. She didn’t..?

“Did she, did she dose me with a love potion?”

“Mm, yes, that on the other hand was very well done. Subtle enough that your behavior toward her changed slowly. No one noticed. It did take her months to get the right dose though. She hadn’t accounted for your being uninterested in the opposite sex.”

“I, she, what?”

There’s another earth shaking chuckle that’s somehow just on the cusp of hearing. Harry thinks he must’ve gone mad. It’s the only logical explanation. 

“How am I your master?” There, a distraction. He’s going to think about other things for now. He’ll deal with the other shit later. 

“You collected my hallows.”

“But I don’t have them anymore!”

“Nevertheless. Once collected they stay collected. I exist in all places and times at once. Time is not a river, it is an ocean. You have collected, you will collect, you are collecting, my hallows. Therefore, you are my master.”

“I don’t understand. What if someone else were to...?”

“Then they would also be my master.”

“My brain hurts.”

Another bone breaking chuckle. Harry gives up trying to process that as well. Next question. 

“If I died, then why am I here, wherever here is?”

“You know well where you are little master. The question you should be asking is when you are.”

He starts to open his mouth to speak, but there’s a sound like a rumble of thunder and he thinks Death is laughing again, but no. No he’d know that sound anywhere. Vernon Dursley is stomping downstairs. He gives Death a betrayed look. What did he do to deserve this? And what happened to him being Death’s master? Shouldn’t Death be doing what he wants him to? He grabs his glasses off the little shelf he always used to keep them on and tries to put them on his face only to stop, stunned. What. The. Fuck. 

“How old am I?”

Another laugh. He’s starting to think Death resents having a master or he’s just a sadistic fucker. 

“Ten.”

He’s ten years old. In body at least. God, he’s just supposed to live through the next nine years all over again? Why?

“Why am I here? Why ten? What am I supposed to do?”

“You are here because this is where you wanted to be, or will want to be, perspective remember.”

So he would’ve asked Death for this if Death hadn’t gone and done it anyway? Why? Why here or when he supposes is the real question.

“How does my being the Master of Death or whatever work? What can I do with it?”

“You can come back from death little master, no one else can do so.”

“Without a horcrux you mean?”

There’s a quick vicious laugh this time.

“Even with one. A person who has a soul anchor does not come back from death, they simply fail to die at all. At least until their soul anchors are destroyed. You’ve no idea how many poor souls there are, anchored to this realm and begging for death after centuries spent bodiless. There is a reason they are called soul anchors. A ship is moored in place by an anchor, not pulled back by one.”

“I see. So I’m here when I am, because I will want this, just as soon as I figure out why I want this? I have a headache.”

“I suppose I shall be merciful just this once.”

Death ends the sentence with a quiet sigh and Harry gets the impression he’s ruining Death’s fun. 

“You could have come back to your life at any time between your birth and death.”

Holy shit, he could’ve just said that. Harry narrows his eyes at Death. That only explains his decision somewhat. He decides he’s done dealing with Death for now. He reaches out to the cupboard door with his magic and twists the bolt in the lock. Freedom. If only he’d been able to do that the first time he was ten. Things would’ve gone so differently. Oh. That’s why now. He hasn’t got his Hogwarts letter yet. He has everything ahead of him. No one has to die, he can save every...wait, can he save everyone?

“Death?”

“Yes, little master?”

“Can I save Tom?”

“You will need to collect his soul anchors once again, but yes, that is a part of why you are here now. There is a ritual hidden within a book in the Black library.”

“Thank you.”

He can’t believe he’s going to do this. Or at least, he’s going to try. He stands in the hallway of Number Four Privet Drive squares his shoulders and immediately realizes he’s going to need cash to get to the Leaky. 

He sneaks some from Petunia’s purse and then grabs his ratty shoes and leaves for good. But not before using his magic to start a fire in the living room. He hides behind the neighbors’ bushes and watches for the Dursley’s to run onto the lawn. Once they’re out he conjures a tiny spark of fire within the gas main and watches the house be destroyed. He wonders if Dumbledore will know immediately or if he has a few days. Either way it will have been worth it, just to see this. Dudley is bawling over his things being ruined. It’s beautiful. 

~~~~~~

He gets to the Leaky with no problems. Goes to Gringotts and withdraws about half his trust fund. He’s not sure when he’ll be able to come back. He needs to keep out of Dumbledore’s clutches if he wants to help Tom. 

He gets himself a wand. A bit surprised when it’s different from his last. Cedar and dragon heartstring, fourteen inches. Feels weird in his hand, but right with his magic. He supposes he has changed in the past nine years. 

He goes to Madam Malkin’s and gets about two dozen robes in different sizes so he doesn’t have to worry about outgrowing them for a few years. Along with all the other essentials. She’s very confused but she complies easily enough. 

At the trunk store he picks up a bottomless bag and then goes looking for a trunk. He’s just planning to get one with different compartments, but he wanders around looking while the shopkeep is busy with another customer, and finds the most amazing thing. Trunks with entire flats in them. Perfect. He buys a three bedroom one. He’ll make the extra bedrooms into an office and potions lab. He’s going to need to get better at brewing. He makes a mental note to sneak into the potions classroom when he fetches the diadem and collect Snape’s old copy of Advanced Potion Making. He’s excited at the very idea of having it in his hands again. He’s missed his Prince. 

He heads for Flourish and Blotts, buying enough books to make Hermione proud. He feels a pang at the thought of her. Wonders what she’ll be like without him at Hogwarts. Worries she’ll be killed by the troll on Halloween. He makes a mental note to do something about that as well. 

He considers buying Hedwig again, but decides she’s safer with someone else. It’d be almost impossible to take her with him anyway. 

He stops at the grocer’s and buys enough nonperishable, and perishable but spelled to last an ungodly amount of time, groceries. Which he then packs into his flat’s kitchen. He hopes it’s enough to last him. He’s had enough of trying to scrounge food from the countryside. 

He’s about to leave when he realizes he might need linens for his new flat and has to hunt up and down the alley for a store selling them. He buys a plentiful supply and then wanders around collecting other essentials he’d overlooked like the blundering idiot he apparently still is.  

He decides he’s purchased everything he can for today, places his purchases in his new flat and then heads for Hogwarts immediately. He thinks Dumbledore might just be busy looking for him in the neighborhood of Privet Drive, assuming he knows about the fire already. This might be his best chance at getting in and out unseen. 

He apparates to an alleyway in Hogsmeade. Makes his way into Honeydukes, and sneaks into the passageway under the cellar, under a disillusionment spell. Breathes a sigh of relief at having got this far undiscovered. 

Once in Hogwarts he heads for the diadem first. Much as he wants his book back, the diadem is essential. He gets it with no issues and places it in his flat and then goes furniture hunting while he’s here. The flat is very sparsely furnished after all. He ends up spending an hour shrinking anything that looks useful or just rather nice. He’s never furnished a house before and finds he’s enjoying the process. The last place he lived was a pre-furnished apartment. He’s very happy now that he didn’t waste any time making a proper home with Ginny. The gold-digging bitch. 

He heads to the potions classroom. Assuming it’ll be empty he waltzes in, still disillusioned, but that doesn’t do him much good when he bumps straight into Severus goddamn Snape. 

~~~~~~

Fuck. Fuck fuck, motherfucking fuck. How is this his life? He’s going to be cursed into next century. He goes still by instinct. As if Severus won’t see him if he doesn’t move. He can’t see him anyway at the moment, but his disillusionment spell is about to be torn off him by an irate potions master, and Harry is panicking. 

“Severus, please, don’t kill me.”

Severus goes very still. Probably confused as to why a child is breaking into his classroom mid-summer. He tears off his disillusionment spell. They stare at each other. 

“Mr. Potter, you will explain this.”

Harry knows he should be more careful but he’s having a hard time controlling his emotions. The last time he looked the man in the eye he watched him die. 

“Of course, sir. I was just borrowing a book.”

“A book, Mr. Potter?”

The man sounds as disbelieving as he knew he would.

“Yeah, I need it very badly. Always been pants at potions and your book was the only thing that helped.”

He can’t believe he’s telling him the truth but the man’s legilimency doesn’t leave him much choice. At least he knows the man’s on his side, for the most part. He can’t exactly trust him not to report back to Dumbledore, though. 

Severus looks at him like he’s mad. He’s about to explain further when he hears the sound of footsteps and his mind immediately screams Dumbledore. His eyes go wide in panic. 

“He can’t know I’m here, Severus, please.”

Severus shoves him through a door and closes it behind him. He’s in the man’s private potions store. He puts his ear to the door and strains to catch every word. 

“Severus, Harry has gone missing, his home destroyed by magic, have you heard anything? Anything at all?”

“Nothing, Albus, I would’ve told you if I had. Are you certain it wasn’t the brat himself? He’s still young enough for accidental magic to be a concern.”

“While that is true, this was far from accidental. A fire was started in the living room, and then after the family had been flushed out, the gas main was used to cause an explosion, destroying the house.”

“I see, then I shall begin putting out feelers and, if I hear anything, I shall inform you at once. Good day, Albus.”

Harry waits anxiously for Severus to return. The door opens and he’s standing there holding the book. Harry smiles.

“You will explain this Mr. Potter.” 

He holds out the book and Harry takes it reverently in his hands. And then looks up at Severus, more fondly than he probably should, and says. 

“My prince.”

Chapter 2

The man doesn’t believe a word he’s saying he can tell. They’re sitting in his new flat talking while Harry sorts through his new furniture, cleaning the pieces up and deciding which ones he wants where, Severus looking at him like he’s something unpleasant he stepped in. It shouldn’t make him feel fuzzy and warm inside, but it does. He’s so glad to have the man back. Is determined to keep him safe and by his side this time around. 

“Mr. Potter...”

“Call me Harry, please, you aren’t going to be my professor this time around anyway.”

“Do you have any proof that you aren’t simply mad?”

Harry thinks about having the man use legilimency but decides against it. Severus is a spy, he relies on information to survive, he’d want to root through all his memories and he really doesn’t want the man to witness his own death. Death. Just the thing, er individual? Anyway. 

“Death? If you’ll come here for a moment?”

“I’m always here little master. I am everywhere and everywhen.”

Harry looks at Severus, who has gone pale and wide eyed. Oops. Maybe not the best plan. Looks like he believes him now though. 

“That was all I needed, Death. Thank you.”

“Of course, little master.”

It takes a few moments for Severus to speak after that. Too busy turning over plans in his mind no doubt. 

“How do you plan to stay hidden?”

“Haven’t the foggiest, really. I was thinking I’d just keep moving. Every day. At night I could place my trunk on an overnight train and sleep in my flat as it rattled along the countryside. Should prevent tracking spells from working, right?”

“You would prefer that to being under Albus’ thumb?”

Shit. Severus isn’t going to buy anything less than the complete truth. Fuck. If this doesn’t work he can just have Death bring him back and try again right?

“I want to bring Tom back. I can’t have Dumbledore plucking that out of my head now, can I?”

“You what? He killed your parents!”

“The man was driven mad by the creation of soul anchors. I can bring him back whole and sane. If he hadn’t been mad at the time then yes, I could and would blame him for their deaths, but he was. You can’t blame a rabid dog for biting you. In my last life I put him down like the rabid dog he was and is, but this time I know he can be helped, and I want to help him. I want to see him become the man he was always meant to be. I want to see what future we can create for the magical world together. He was extraordinary once. You saw only the ghost of who he’d been and you still wanted to follow him. Please, Severus, I know how much you hate him for killing your best friend, but for my sake, help me. He did ask her to step aside several times. I mean he could’ve just stupefied her, but like I said he was a madman at the time, I doubt that even occurred to him.”

“You, how do you know..?”

Harry finds himself unable to meet his gaze. 

“You gave me your memories, right before you died in my arms.”

He realizes he’s crying and feels the man gently touch his shoulder. He throws himself into his arms and holds him as tight as he can. Presses his ear against his chest. Needing the reassurance that he’s here, he’s alive, his heart is still beating strongly, and he still smells like potion ingredients. 

After a few minutes he pulls away. 

“Sorry. I just. It’s been months since the war, but, so many died. I, I’m still having trouble dealing with it. And now you’re all alive again and it feels so stupid to cry for the living. But you died, you died and I loved you. I didn’t even realize it till just now. I was drowning in love potions before, but, under it all, I loved, I love you. Fuck. My life is so fucked up.”

The man looks thunderstruck, which seems fitting ‘cause so is he. He’s stuck in the body of a ten year old and in love with a grown man. Even if Severus were interested which, hah unlikely, how would they even work?

“Do you know any potions that’ll make me grow older faster? Or maybe I could just take polyjuice for the next few years so I’m not stuck in a ten year old body.”

Severus just blinks at him and then laughs. Actually laughs. 

“No, neither of those are options. Taking polyjuice for an extended period whilst a child and therefore still growing would do untold damage to your body. And there is no known potion, or spell for that matter, to make you age faster.” 

“Fuck.”

“Indeed.”

~~~~~~

Severus looks mildly impressed when he sees how thoroughly he’d prepared to go into hiding. So he can’t help but inform the man that he only did so well this time because of the disaster it was in his last life. He tells him all about the camping trip from hell. He should be annoyed at how amused Severus is, but he’s, fuck, he’s smitten with the man. Instead he’s just delighted to have amused him at all. Shit, this is going to complicate things.

“So you plan to resurrect the Dark Lord?”

“He won’t be the Dark Lord anymore, Severus. That’s the whole point.”

“Nevertheless...”

“Yeah. I’ll have to collect all of his soul anchors. I’ve already got one. Lucius Malfoy has another. You could fetch that for me easily enough. You can pretend to be investigating my disappearance.”

Harry’s enjoying ruining Dumbledore’s plans, can’t believe the man made him go to his death like that. Bastard. 

“I can...”

“But?”

“You’ll be moving by that point. How will we remain in contact with one another?”

“Hm, maybe charmed mirrors or journals or something? Patronus messages won’t work because they aren’t private enough...”

“You can cast a fully corporeal Patronus?”

Severus looks stunned at that. Ooh, this is gonna be fun. 

“Mmhm. I learned when I was thirteen.”

Harry finds himself laughing at the man’s expression. It’s delightful. 

“Expecto Patronum.”

He’s expecting a stag, like it’s always been, but, it’s a panther. It’s beautiful and it takes his breath away. He gazes up into the face of the man he has no doubt is responsible for its current form. Severus is staring almost sadly at it, and he doesn’t understand, does it bother the man that much that he loves him?

“It’s beautiful.”

“Why, Severus, why does it bother you? I can’t help how I feel.” He whispers, sounding just as devastated as he feels. 

Harry banishes the panther and strides out of the room. He sits on his new bed, in his new flat, buries his head in his hands, and tries not to cry for the second time that day. He feels the bed dip beside him but doesn’t move. 

“It bothers me for several reasons. Because I am not the man you fell in love with, unless you’d have me believe you fell in love when you were eleven. Because I do not know you and therefore I cannot, at the moment, return your feelings and I know that that must hurt. And also because even if I get to know and love you, you are stuck in a child’s body for the next few years. As far as I can see whatever path we take from here will be a long uncomfortable path to tread.”

“But it’s possible that you might..?”

“Yes. Eventually.”

“I thought maybe you were straight and I was even more of an idiot than I’d thought.”

 “You are not an idiot.”

 “And you are definitely not my Severus. He’d have cut out his own tongue rather than say that to me.”

Harry finds himself grinning mischievously up at this Severus. Looking forward to getting to know him better. 

They go back to the living room and the chaos of supplies strewn about it, Severus helping him to get everything sorted. They work surprisingly well together. His Severus would have had an aneurysm at the sight. While they work they plan. 

“So you think we should have both mirrors and journals?”

“Redundancies are always essential with something like this. The last thing we need in an emergency is for you to be cut off from one method of communication, and have no choice but to send a Patronus, risking it being seen by a third party, when it could’ve been avoided if we had simply planned ahead.”

“You always talk like a professor don’t you? It’s cute.”

“I am not cute.”

“You’re being cute right now.”

“You’re an odd child-man Harry.”

“Oh ew, don’t call me that.”

Severus just gives him a look. Message received.

“Fine, back to planning. So, there’s a soul anchor outside Little Hangleton, which had a nasty curse on it before Dumbledore found it and put it on for stupid reasons that don’t matter. You saved his life but his hand was all blackened like it was rotting away and he was going to die from it eventually.”

“Was?”

“The man made that Severus murder him. For stupid reasons. Don’t ask, it’d take too long to explain right now. I’ll give you the whole shitty story later. Promise.

“Anyway. There’s one in Grimmauld Place, I need to go there anyway. The book with the ritual I need is in the Black library. And I should really visit Kreacher. See if I can convince him to come with. The poor old elf has been alone and going mad from it for years.

“The real difficult one, the one I’m not actually sure I can obtain, I mean I did last time but it was sheer dumb luck more than anything. It’s in Gringotts and I really don’t want to piss off the goblins by breaking in and out with it again. They know how to hold a grudge let me tell you.”

“You broke into Gringotts.”

Harry smirks. He’s channeling Draco right now, he knows he is, but he can’t help it. 

“And rode out on the back of a dragon.”

It sounds so much more impressive than it actually was. 

“Somehow I doubt that was the plan.”

“It was not. The plan went to shit and we almost got caught. Several times. It was awful. We were covered in burns from the stupid spells they have on that vault. We fled on a dragon and then found ourselves in a full fledged battle. The Battle of Hogwarts. We tried to get the younger years out of the castle before the Death Eaters could arrive but a few snuck back in to help. All told, over fifty dead.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

He and Severus share a long look, each remembering the battles they had been through, and then Severus shakes his head gently. 

“So, Gringotts. What are you thinking of doing this time?”

“I don’t know. Do you think they’d be willing to negotiate? Like, if the ritual doesn’t destroy the items I could just borrow it, do the ritual and then return it seemingly unchanged?”

“I doubt it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. It might be a moot point anyway.”

~~~~~~

The next day Harry climbs out of his trunk into a train traveling through France. He opens his journal and checks it for messages. 

- I have obtained the diary. -

He breathes a sigh of relief. He knew he needn’t worry, but, he always does. 

- Perfect. Let me know when you have the ring and be careful, please. -

He heads back inside his trunk after a while of watching the countryside flow by. It makes him nostalgic, like he’s on the Hogwarts express again. 

~~~~~~

It takes two days before he hears from Severus again. 

- Got the ring. That was a lovely little curse it had on it. Actually has no counter. I used a mouse to set it off. Meet you in Grimmauld tomorrow? -

- Yeah. Earliest I can get there will be eleven am. Glad you’re safe. That was one powerful curse. -

Chapter 3

He knocks on the door of Grimmauld and is shocked when Kreacher opens it. He’s skin and bones. What the hell? Has he not been eating or has he had no way of getting food? If he finds out he’s been stuck in this house slowly starving for lack of food he’s going to go and create his own version of the society for the promotion of elvish welfare. And he can’t believe he remembers the name. 

“Kreacher? Are you alright?”

Kreacher looks at him very suspiciously and begins muttering insults under his breath. 

“Look, Kreacher, I’m here to help you fulfill Regulus’ last order. And also I could really use some help and I think you’d be perfect for the job, what do you say?”

“Help Kreacher finish Regulus’ last task?”

“Yes. I’m planning to destroy the locket.” 

I mean technically that’s accurate. Regulus didn’t want it to be a horcrux anymore and when he’s done, it won’t be. 

“Then Kreacher will help kind master.”

“Just Harry will do, Kreacher. I don’t like being called master, alright?”

“Kreacher will do as kind ma-Harry asks.”

“Thanks Kreacher. Now let’s fetch that locket, shall we? And there’s a book I need from the library. I have a good friend who will be arriving soon, by the way.”

~~~~~~

Harry is in a dark corner of the library fighting with an infestation of, he’s not even sure what, when he hears a huff of amusement. And Severus promptly clears out the little bastards with a single wand wave. 

“My hero.”

“Harry, I thought you were a fully qualified wizard, but if you can’t even handle...”

The tone of his voice says he’s only joking but it sets him off on a tirade anyway. 

“Oh, shut it you. I’ll have you know half my defense professors were utter shite. First year we had Quirrell who put on a fake stutter. Not completely useless but since he had Tom riding around on the back of his head the whole year. Yeah. Not an ideal teacher. Second we had Lockhart. Completely useless ponce. Tried to obliviate Ron and I at the end of the year, don’t ask, ended up in the Janus Thickey ward at St Mungos. And fifth year was the worst. Umbridge. Taught using the literal worst defense book ever written, wouldn’t allow practical work at all, and tortured us whenever we had detention by making us write with a blood quill for hours at a time. She gave me a weeks worth of detention once and I ended up losing so much blood I was lightheaded for days. Fun times.”

“Damn, I, sorry.”

“No, no, fuck. I’m sorry, Severus. I just, it still infuriates me that Dumbledore let an entire generation of us flail around teaching ourselves and each other. The old fool. We did have you in sixth year. You were an amazing teacher right up until you were forced to kill Dumbledore and go on the run.”

There’s a moment where they just stare at each other. Severus seems to be realizing all over again that what looks like a little boy in front of him is actually a man with a lifetime of traumatic experiences under his belt. Harry decides they can’t stay here like this all day. Time for a distraction. 

“We always have such delightful conversations, don’t we, Severus? Let’s look around and see if we can’t find anything useful.”

“Let’s.”

~~~~~~

Five hours later they’re covered in dust and Severus spent more time protecting him from the dangers of the library, who keeps cursed books lying around with no warning?, than looking himself. Harry can’t believe he’s known this version of the man for less than a week and he’s already saved his life. Only one of the curses would’ve actually killed him. The other he’d rather not think about, ever again. 

They have not discovered the book they need yet and Harry is getting desperate. He can only spend about ten hours in one location, max, before he risks being found. He already feels like he’s pushing it having stayed this long. 

It’s Kreacher who helps them in the end. He’d asked Kreacher when he first arrived, but he didn’t know of the book they were looking for. They’re just wondering aloud if they shouldn’t wait a few days, for Harry to ride the rails and put Dumbledore off the scent, before coming back and searching again, when Kreacher comes in the room carrying a load of books from Regulus’ room. Harry feels like an idiot for not thinking to look there. But mostly he’s just grateful they now have the damned thing. 

They set it down on a table and flip gently through the delicate pages. The ritual turns out to be a bit complicated, and uses a few ingredients that will be difficult to source, but the soul anchors don’t have to be destroyed. 

Severus doesn’t understand why he’s so relieved about that. 

“Well, the man will probably already be pissed off by my undoing his horcruxes in the first place without also having destroyed precious artifacts in the process.”

“Precious artifacts?”

“Yeah. He used the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, the locket of Salazar Slytherin, and the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw to make three of them. I hated having to destroy them the first time around.”

“How did he even acquire them?”

“Murder and thievery mostly.”

“Of course.”

“I need to go walkabout again. We can talk more through the mirrors or journals of course. I’ll try to come up with a way to get the cup out of Gringotts. Do you mind trying to source some of these ingredients? The ones that won’t spoil quickly at least. I have no idea where to even begin with that.”

Severus agrees easily enough and Harry forces himself to walk away, not exactly eager to leave the man’s company but he really does need to leave.

~~~~~~

Before he can leave though he has one last thing he needs to do. 

“Kreacher, I’d like you to come with me. I’m currently living in a flat in a trunk. It’s not much but you’ll have company and your own bedroom.”

He’ll just have to use the living room as an office. 

“A bedroom? But Kreacher is a house elf.”

“Yeah, and I used to be treated just the same Kreacher. I had no bedroom, I was starved, I was beaten, and for a few years there, I had no name. Sometimes I still feel like I don’t deserve the luxury I have now. But I do. And so do you. Your bedroom isn’t furnished at the moment. I mean I have a bunch of furniture but you’ll have to pick out the pieces you want. How does that sound?”

“Kreacher doesn’t understand, kind Harry wants me to be..?”

“A friend Kreacher, not a servant. Us former slaves have to stick together.”

Harry feels like he’s going to cry at the look on Kreacher’s face. So much happiness for not much of anything at all. It feels invasive just witnessing it. He turns away and stares straight into the eyes of Severus. He’d thought he’d left. 

“How much did you..?”

“Enough.”

They seem to be having a lot of wordless conversations. They stare at each other. A lifetime of past pain and the empathy it has generated in them both swimming in their eyes. Harry breathes in sharply, turns away. 

“If there’s anything you want to bring with you, Kreacher, feel free. I want you to be comfortable in our flat. It’s going to be your home too. But don’t worry about trying to bring all the heirlooms eh? They should be safe enough here even without you keeping an eye on things. When I can later I’ll put the most valuable ones in the Black family vault. I can’t access it till I’m of age though.”

Again, so much happiness. He closes his eyes and wonders if that’s what he looked like when Hagrid bought him Hedwig. Or when he had gifts that first Christmas at Hogwarts. He hates abusers so fucking much. 

He feels a hand on his shoulder and rubs his tears away. Looks up at Severus, not bothering to try to hide. He’d see through his bluster anyway. Severus wraps his arms around him and they stand like that the entire time Kreacher is wandering around collecting those few items he’s bringing. 

~~~~~~

Back in the flat he sits Kreacher down in the middle of his new bedroom and begins going through the various furniture items. He makes sure Kreacher knows he can do so alone if he’d rather, Harry just thought the man might like some company. He’s spent enough time alone himself to know how painful loneliness can be after a while. 

It starts off awkward and stilted between them but soon Kreacher is at least smiling at his jokes. It takes almost two hours to make Kreacher’s room look nice and homey and warm. Kreacher even made a point to pick out two chairs so if he wants to he can spend time in Kreacher’s room with him. He’s been missing his surly old house elf friend. He’s glad to have him back. 

He takes and shows Kreacher the kitchen. Kreacher’s eyes widen at the sight of the veritable mountain of food and Harry remembers his earlier suspicions but doesn’t voice them just yet. Doesn’t want to ruin the mood. Instead he asks Kreacher what he’d like for dinner. Kreacher insists on doing the cooking for them and he argues back a bit. They compromise, they’ll be taking turns. Kreacher won on the argument about who would cook dinner tonight, though. So he makes dessert while Kreacher makes dinner and when, half-way through, Kreacher realizes he’s making blueberry pie, Kreacher’s favorite, he pretends not to see the painfully sincere gratitude once again. 

~~~~~~

That night in the privacy of his room he contacts Severus using the mirrors and tells him, while crying, all about a brave house elf named Dobby. About his own shite childhood. About Kreacher and the fact he only ever needed a bit of kindness to begin letting go of his bitterness and anger. He talks about blueberry pie and the fact that it shouldn’t make a person want to cry. He talks for hours. Trying to get the feelings out before he gets so angry his magic slips and derails the train he’s traveling on. 

And Severus listens. He listens to every word and his eyes shine at times too while Harry rants and raves about the cruelty of humans in general. 

~~~~~~

When he gets up in the morning it’s to the scent of pancakes and he goes to scold Kreacher, gently, for making breakfast when it was his day to cook. But then he remembers his suspicion regarding whether the man had access to food. He stands in the kitchen doorway and watches him momentarily. He’s humming while he flips pancakes. Which is something he’s never seen his Kreacher do. He never got to spend much time with the elf though. Busy on the run and then Ginny, the bitch, didn’t like having him around. So he could only sneak in a few minutes a day unless she was busy elsewhere. 

He finally announces his presence and decides to scold Kreacher anyway just very gently. He doesn’t want the man going hungry, waiting for him to wake up, but he also doesn’t want him to think the argument yesterday was for show. He will do his half of the cooking, and all the rest of the chores, too. He considers Kreacher a friend. He’ll learn that eventually. 

Chapter 4

A few days later he’s trudging through an alley on his way to his next train station when he stumbles to a stop, stunned still by a sudden thought. He resumes walking and hurriedly sneaks his trunk onto the train and climbs inside. 

“Death?”

“Master.”

“What will happen with the horcrux in my scar? Will the ritual remove it or..?”

“It can be removed, or it can be left alone.”

Harry looks at Death penetratingly. He has a feeling there’s something he’s missing. 

“Why wouldn’t I remove it?”

“Because you will not want to have done so.”

“Perspective again?”

“Mm.”

“I’m starting to hate that word. And you won’t tell me why will you?”

“Where would the fun be in that?”

Harry glares at Death and wonders why the being is so determined to both help him and piss him off. 

“Then how do I make sure it remains unchanged during the ritual?”

“By performing the ritual as dictated. You would need to modify it slightly to remove it. The ritual was made to remove soul anchors from inanimate objects only.”

“Thank you for the information.”

There’s a whisper of a laugh that shakes him to his core and then he’s alone. He shakes his head and goes in search of Kreacher. He feels the need for a less frustrating conversation. 

~~~~~~

Harry wakes, for a moment he has no idea what woke him, then he spots the mirror on his bedside table glowing softly. He reaches for it and his glasses and sits up. 

“Severus?”

“Harry, we have a problem. Albus kept a sample of your blood from when you were an infant. He’s going to be using it in a ritual that will give him your location in a few days time.”

“He told you this? Why? He never tells people anything.”

“He needs my help. The ritual alone would give him your location unless you were behind strong wards. Which he assumes you are since his other methods have failed. He needs the connection of my Vow to give the ritual the added boost. Showing him your location no matter what wards you hide behind.”

“Shit. How do we? What do I do?”

“This ritual won’t just give him your location at the moment that he uses it. It will continue giving him your location for as long as he performs it. If you are on a train speeding through the country he will see that and continue the ritual until he has discovered what train line you are on. He will find you. Unless...”

“Yeah?”

“If you were to board a plane before he starts the ritual. He can only keep the ritual going for seven hours at maximum. If you take a plane and remain on it for at least that long he will be unable to locate you. It wasn’t designed with planes in mind in the first place. I’m not sure what effect traveling at that speed will have. It might show you as being nowhere at all thereby convincing him you’re dead.”

“Thank fuck there is an option. My occlumency is shit, if he found me before I managed to bring Tom back...Thank you Severus. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“It’s nothing Harry. Sorry for disturbing your sleep, but I couldn’t rest without informing you.”

“And I am grateful, Severus. Sleep well.”

~~~~~~

A few days later Harry finds himself boarding a plane for the first time. Hidden under a disillusionment charm he weaves his way through the airport, nervous about this plan but trusting Severus’ judgement. He stows his trunk in a corner of the cargo hold and climbs inside. 

~~~~~~

He’s been in the air for hours. At first pacing restlessly fingering his wand. Prepared to duel Dumbledore if he has to. Then he tried to distract himself talking to Kreacher but only managed to annoy the cranky old elf and was banished from his room. Which made him smile. A month ago Kreacher would never have dared treat someone he considers his master that way. Eventually he found himself baking biscuits. Now he’s surrounded by about five dozen biscuits of different types and a batch of muffins. It’s getting a bit ridiculous. He has to stop. 

He starts cleaning up the mess he’s made in the kitchen. Kreacher wanders in and widens his eyes at the sight. He shrugs. 

Finally, the mirror he’s kept beside him all day glows. 

“Severus!”

He’s staring at the man’s image, beyond horrified. He looks half dead.

“What the fuck did that bastard do?!”

“The ritual.” 

Severus sounds exhausted and about done in. Harry is going to kill the old man. He’s not sure how, but he’s going to. 

“And the ritual almost killed you? Did you know it would? Is that the real reason I’m stuck in a goddamn plane?”

“I’m fine. Just suffering from blood loss. I took a blood replenisher and will be completely recovered in an hour at most. Yes. I knew what the ritual required. But no, that is not why you are on that plane. You’ll be happy to know that the ritual failed to find even a trace of you. He thinks you are dead and he no doubt will continue believing that right up until the quill addresses your Hogwarts letter. I still do not know how to prevent that from occurring.”

“One crisis at a time. If I’d known what you were going to be putting yourself through...”

“You would have had no choice. You cannot help Tom without staying free from Albus. I didn’t have to do this. I want to help you, Harry. I wanted to do this, and it was not as large of a burden as you are imagining. Do not blame yourself.”

“Still. Next time tell me, okay?”

“Alright.”

“As far as the quill goes...we could complete the ritual restoring Tom before then and then it wouldn’t be half so dangerous for me to be near Dumbledore, but that would require the cup. I still don’t know how to get it.”

“Whose vault is it in?”

“Bellatrix Lestrange.”

“Has it not occurred to you to ask Corvus to retrieve it?”

“He’s still alive? Of course he is. Damn it. I just assumed. Last time he was already long dead but that’s more than six years from now. I’m an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot. But if you’re going to visit Corvus I will be going with you. The man might’ve considered Tom his friend once but that was before his sons were sentenced to life in Azkaban.”

“Yeah, I can see how he might hold that against him. Thank you again, Severus. I’d be lost without you.”

He gives Severus a grateful smile. They say their goodbyes. And then he puts his head in his hands and curses himself for not being able to protect Severus. Yet again the man is suffering for his sake. Fuck. He hates Dumbledore so much. 

~~~~~~

He hops the next flight back to Heathrow and heads immediately for Grimmauld. The sooner Severus can take him to meet Corvus Lestrange the better. He’s still pissed that he never even thought about the man being alive at this time. Time travel sucks in a lot of ways. If he hadn’t lost so many people he might not have considered it worth the annoyance. 

Severus is already waiting when he arrives, reading a very dark, dark arts tome. 

“Find any good curses to use on Dumbledore?”

Severus merely gives him a look. 

“Don’t look at me like that. Not only does the man make you suffer all the time for his convenience, but he also had me walk to my own death. I didn’t die, but that’s beside the point. I think I’m allowed to hold a grudge against the man who drove me to my death.”

“He what?”

“Needed me to stand in front of Tom and let him cast the killing curse at me. I did. It was the only way to kill him. Luckily that won’t be necessary to keep him alive.”

“One of these days we are going to sit down and you will give me a complete narration of your past life.”

“Promise. I’ll even leave in the embarrassing bits, if only because I’ve suddenly discovered a fondness for your exasperated looks. Shall we go visit Mr. Lestrange?”

“Mm.”

~~~~~~

They make their way up the drive of a stately old manor home. Harry likes the look of it. It’s not as showy as Malfoy Manor. He remembers with fondness the last time he saw Draco he needled him about how ridiculously opulent the manor is. He misses him a bit, he’d become a good friend in the end. 

They’re greeted by a house elf girl, really just a girl, he didn’t know they could be that small, and led into a sitting room. He’s a bit shocked when he sees Corvus, he always forgets that seventy is only middle-age to a wizard. He looks so much younger than he expected. He wonders how it is the man dies, or would have died maybe, in just a few years. 

“Severus.”

“Corvus, may I present Mr. Harry Potter.”

“The boy who is missing?”

“Please tell me they aren’t calling me that.” He looks to Severus, who laughs at the disgusted look on his face.

“Indeed, they are.”

“Gross. Anyway. We’re here about Tom.”

Corvus looks sharply, suspiciously, at them both. 

“He went mad a long time ago Mr. Lestrange. I can see that you might blame him for what happened to your sons, but can you really blame a madman for his actions? I’m trying to bring him back. I can do so and I can make sure he’s sane when he returns. Even if I did nothing he would still be returning, but he wouldn’t be sane.”

Corvus looks shocked by the end. Considering he’s a Slytherin and they never show their emotions if they can help it...Well, he must really be off kilter. Harry waits for him to regain his bearings. 

“And you have come to me..?”

“For help. There is an item I require. It’s currently stored in Bellatrix’s vault.”

“I see.”

Corvus gives them both a long hard look. 

“You are not a normal ten year old boy.”

“I’m nineteen mentally. Back from the dead and trying to do things better.”

He’s not sure that was wise, but...He just has a feeling about Corvus. He has a feeling nothing but the complete unvarnished truth would win him the man’s trust. He’s been burned too many times before. It must be killing him what happened to his sons. 

The man blinks, startled, by his honesty or his story, who knows. 

“What item do you require?”

“The cup of Helga Hufflepuff. A horcrux.”

Corvus breathes in sharply and then closes his eyes slowly, looking pained. Perhaps by the fact his old friend had harmed himself so. 

“I will have it for you within the hour. If you will excuse me?”

~~~~~~

They sit and wait while Harry chats with the house elf. She came back to bring them refreshments while they waited and he pounced. Her name is Nebby and he convinces her to play exploding snap with him. She’s nervous at first but by the time Corvus comes back she seems to be delighted by the game. 

He sees Corvus walk into the room and stop stunned at the sight of him sitting on the floor playing games with an elf. He ignores the man, who has a quick conversation with Severus with his eyes alone. Corvus clears his throat. 

“I have the cup.”

Harry gives him a nod in response and apologizes to Nebby for needing to cut their fun short. He gifts her the cards and tells her to make sure she teaches her friends to play. She cries and hugs him and he finds himself crying too, tears of anger on his part. She’s only a child. He glares up at Corvus before he can stop himself. Severus touches his arm and he forces his magic down. He hadn’t even realized everything was starting to shake. 

“I apologize. I often have trouble controlling my magic. Thank you for your assistance Mr. Lestrange.”

“Call me Corvus, please.”

“Then you must call me, Harry.”

They make small talk for a few more minutes, then say their farewells, Harry making a point to say goodbye to Nebby. 

As they’re walking away from the manor Severus says thoughtfully. 

“I never saw it. All these years living in a castle full of them, and I never once saw that they are just as human as we are for all that they are not human at all.”

Harry looks up at him and gives him a fond smile.

“But you, at least, are willing to admit, to yourself, to me, that you have seen it. Unlike so many others. They prefer to pretend even to themselves that house elves are somehow lesser. It’s disgusting.”

“Indeed.”

Chapter 5

They’re forced to wait to perform the ritual until after Harry goes on another train jaunt because Dumbledore is not convinced he’s dead or at least not enough to stop looking for him. And by then his birthday will have come and gone. Which means they need a plan for that crisis now. 

They’re sitting in the living room of his trunk, currently stored in the sitting room of Grimmauld, discussing it. Magic is weird, Harry thinks, as he tries cajoling Severus into trying some of his biscuits. The man seems bewildered by the amount of baking he did yesterday and honestly Harry is too. He needs to find a better outlet for his nervous energy. 

“I’ve been thinking about it since you mentioned it, Severus. I don’t actually understand how the quill works.”

“In what way?”

“Well the first letter I got was addressed to my cupboard. But the Dursley’s wouldn’t let me open it. So I kept getting more and they ended up dragging me across the country to try and escape the flood of letters. It was stupid. The point is, when I finally got my letter it was delivered by Hagrid in person and it was addressed something like...Harry Potter, the floor, the hut, rock-on-the-sea. And I’m not sure if that was just as specific as it could be. I mean I assume that little hut didn’t have a name which would explain it being called that but maybe, maybe it goes by what I know and in my mind it was a hut on a rock in the sea, does that makes sense?”

“So you’re saying?”

“If I sit in my flat and we have either you or Kreacher move it to a new location would the letter be addressed as, Harry Potter, bedroom, flat, his trunk?”

“I don’t know. It might, but it also might not. I don’t know of a person we could ask who received their letter while not knowing the location of their home. There’s a risk it will know exactly where you are even if you do not.”

“Yeah.”

They sit and stare into the distance for a while, trying to come up with a solution. 

“Perhaps we shouldn’t attempt to hide your location. We could instead make sure he knows where you are, but is unwilling to try and collect you from there.”

“Where could I go that he would even hesitate?”

“Malfoy Manor.”

Oh, now there’s an idea. 

“And it would only need to be for a few days. We could perform the ritual there while he scrambles about trying to find a way to ‘rescue’ me and then I could go walkabout again.”

“Precisely.”

“Brilliant.”

~~~~~~

Harry finds himself almost buzzing with excitement. He’s going to get to meet little eleven year old Draco again. Which should go better this time. He’s going to confuse the hell out of Lucius, which should be fun. He’s about to royally piss off Dumbledore when he sees his location on the letter. And he’ll be resurrecting Tom soon. As soon as Severus can manage to abduct Quirrell, that is.

He strides up to the manor with Severus by his side. Who didn’t trust Lucius not to curse him on sight. Which, yeah, distinct possibility that. When he pointed out he could just have Death resurrect him, scaring the shit out of Lucius in the process, Severus wasn’t amused. Sigh. It would’ve been fun. Oh well. Maybe later. 

The door opens and Harry’s mind goes blank. 

“Dobby.”

“How can’s Dobby be helping sir?”

He’s going to fall apart. He’s going to...

“Harry, breathe.”

He finds himself wrapped up in the man’s arms again. Past life Harry would be so shocked at the man’s gentleness. 

“I’m fine. Or not yet, but I will be. We’re here to see Lucius, Dobby. If you could lead us to him, that would be great.”

He smiles softly at the young man, who died for him. He tells himself he won’t cry. He won’t. Not right now. Later. Later. When he’s alone. 

Dobby looks stunned at being treated like a person and Harry hates abusers. He hates them. He is going to give Lucius such a piece of his mind. 

They’re led into a study and Harry makes sure to thank Dobby before he can pop away. Dobby’s eyes go impossibly wide before he’s gone. 

“Severus, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Lucius is looking at them with curiosity and suspicion. 

“Lucius, Harry Potter and I were hoping you could do us a favor.”

“Oh?”

“I’m currently on the run from Dumbledore, and trying to bring back your former master.”

Lucius pales dramatically and looks like he would fall if he were standing. The man looks to Severus, seemingly horrified. 

“Hah, I knew you didn’t want him back last time. Don’t worry he’ll be sane. No more evil Dark Lord. Just slightly psychopathic politician probably. We’ll need the use of your ritual room as soon as Severus can fetch the last ingredient.”

Harry decides he likes his newfound ability to leave people gaping. 

~~~~~~

They end up going over way too many details, in Harry’s opinion, with Lucius before the man finally agrees to the plan. He looks both reluctant and slightly gleeful. 

After, they head to the dining room to have dinner together and Harry gets to meet this Draco. He’d forgotten how smug and superior he acted at this age. The little prat is going to drive him crazy. 

Narcissa is still as lovely and kind as he remembers. When she hears how he’s been living she’s horrified and he has to quickly assure her he’s not actually ten. She gives him a sharp look like he’s bullshitting her and Severus has to come to his rescue and clarify that he’s actually mentally nineteen. Lucius promises to explain later and they move onto other subjects. Harry breathes a sigh of relief. The last thing he needs is for Narcissa to decide he needs her to take care of him permanently. He loves the woman, but he’s too independent to tolerate having a guardian. 

~~~~~~

The next day will be his birthday. He’s both impatient for it to be over already and never wants it to happen at all. He finds himself worrying again but there’s so many biscuits already he doesn’t feel like he can possibly comfort bake. He decides to go flying and hunts down Draco before it gets too dark. 

They play a seeker’s game and Draco even manages to beat him once. Draco doesn’t seem satisfied by that but he reminds him he’s actually nineteen and has six years of playing quidditch behind him. It makes Draco feel better. 

It gets too dark and he heads inside. He spends what’s left of his evening hanging out with Kreacher in his flat but then goes to sleep in his guest room at the manor. No point letting Dumbledore know about the flat if he doesn’t need to. 

~~~~~~

In the morning he wanders down to the kitchen and visits the house elves. They’re astonished when he helps them make breakfast. He quickly makes friends with all of them. 

Once breakfast is made he goes and joins the Malfoys in the dining room. He stops and blinks a few times at the sight of gifts on the table. He looks at Lucius who throws Narcissa a fond look. Harry shakes his head gently at her letting her know she really didn’t have to. 

They eat breakfast and Narcissa insists he open his gifts before touching his letter. He opens them to find various useful but well made items. A buttery soft scarf the same green as his eyes, a set of leather journals with the Potter crest stamped on them, an assortment of very finely made quills and ink in various colours. He thanks them profusely, he still can’t help but feel like he doesn’t deserve such kindness. He only met them the night before. Narcissa looks so happy that he liked them it almost makes him laugh. She loves giving gifts more than just about anything. 

He reaches for the letter and finds it addressed to...Harry Potter, the blue guest room, Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire. He shakes his head ruefully. He had no idea the room was called that. It’s a good thing they went with this plan. He opens the letter and the tableware starts vibrating gently. The fucking manipulative old man. 

By the time he snaps out of it, it’s to find Lucius holding his wand, a shield surrounding him and Narcissa both. Damn it. 

“I apologize. I wasn’t expecting the old fool to include a letter of his own, much less one of this nature.”

He passes the letter to Lucius and watches his face slowly morph into a dangerous mask of coldness. Lucius looks at him over the letter and gives a nod of understanding.

He places the gifts in his flat and goes flying again. Needs the wind streaming over him to clear his head. Plus he’s been cooped up too much lately. He should really go for a run or something. If he wasn’t stuck in the body of a malnourished child he’d have been itching for some proper exercise by now. 

He’s just walking back inside when Severus comes stalking into the manor dragging Quirrell. Harry breaks out in a grin. 

“You brought me a present.”

~~~~~~

Harry follows Severus as he drags a bewildered Quirrell into the ritual room. The second he sees the inside of the room he begins panicking and Severus stuns him. They levitate his unconscious body to one side and begin preparations for the first part of the ritual. 

Preparations complete, Severus nods at him decisively, letting him know he’s up. He begins the stupidly long chant that will remove the parasite from Quirrell without harming him. Quirrell begins convulsing half-way through and the parasite begins screaming profanities. Harry struggles to continue the chant while trying not to laugh at the man’s furious tirade. 

Once complete the parasite is ejected and then contained within the inclusion of a piece of quartz. Part one was a success. Harry sighs in relief. 

They remove the various implements used for the first part and begin setting up the second. Harry places the last ingredient into place within the ritual circle and begins intoning the next chant. 

At once a scream of heart wrenching agony begins echoing throughout the room from within the quartz as the various soul anchors rejoin the main soul piece. Harry can’t even hear the chant as he carefully intones each syllable. His heart hurts, but he hardens himself and continues. 

When it ends the silence is deafening. He worries that Tom won’t survive this or will be driven more insane by the process. It isn’t supposed to hurt like this. But it’s never been done for someone with so many soul anchors before. 

They clean up again and ready the third part. 

Harry stands before the cauldron and steels himself. This will work. It has to. He begins chanting while adding the ingredients in the proper order. 

A thestral’s heart, for death. 

Phoenix tears, for life. 

And ashes from a phoenix’s rebirth as the bridge between the two. 

Then, finally, he drops in the quartz as the very last syllable rings out. 

They wait. Just when he’s convinced they failed a hand grips the side of the cauldron. He rushes forward and then stands awkwardly because he’s much too small in stature to help the man up. He holds out a robe and keeps his eyes averted. Tom takes the robe from his hand, wraps it around himself, and steps out of the cauldron. 

Harry sees Severus to his left holding his wand aimed right at Tom and he rolls his eyes at him. The man doesn’t even have a wand yet.   

“Tom?”

Tom turns to look at him, his eyes narrowed dangerously. 

“Well I’m not calling you Voldemort. That’s a terrible, stupid sounding name. I could call you Marvolo if you’d prefer?”

“No.”

“So Tom then, excellent. How are you feeling? The book didn’t say if there were any after effects.”

“I feel mortal. Why? How?”

Tom’s eyeing him like he’s about two seconds from carving his eyes out and Severus is tensing further. Harry figures he has to derail this argument before it can start. 

“I’m your horcrux.”

“What?!”

Ah, he should probably have warned Severus about that. Oops. 

“Uh, yeah sorry, Severus, I may have forgotten to mention, but that’s why Dumbledore wants me dead. Anyway. You, Tom, tore your soul to shreds and made yourself go insane in an attempt to make yourself immortal. I put you back together again. But you aren’t mortal because there’s still a tiny sliver in me and I’m immortal as well, I think, because of stupidity, don’t ask. The point is you don’t need to freak out about possibly dying, yeah?”

“You are an odd child. What is your name?”

“Oh, uh, Harry, my name’s Harry Potter. Nice to see you again, Tom.”

“You? Why would you? Help me?”

“It’s a long story and while I don’t imagine you need it, with your brand new body, you’d still probably like to have a nice long soak in a bath, right? Then maybe a meal? We’ll discuss it later today.”

Tom looks at him like he’s insane. That happens so often Harry’s starting to wonder. But then he nods reluctantly and Severus puts his wand away. 

Chapter 6

After lunch Harry drags the two men back to his flat and begins telling the both of them his life story. Complete with embarrassing bits, a rather embarrassingly large number of those. It takes hours and they keep interrupting. How could a twelve year old kill a giant basilisk? Who keeps dementors at a school? The worst moment is tied between do you mean to tell me Severus betrayed me? And you killed me?! Both times he thought someone was gonna die. Fun times. 

He finishes the narration and fills Tom in on what his most recent life has been like. 

“You keep befriending house elves, why?”

“You’re one to talk. You don’t understand having friends in the first place.”

“But they’re house elves.”

“They’re people, goddamn it. People. And werewolves are people. And vampires are people. Same with centaurs, goblins, and merpeople. Hell, it’s in their fucking name. People. If they have a fucking language that they speak they are people and deserving of respect. They deserve to have the same rights as everyone else. They didn’t choose to be born elves any more than a person chooses their skin colour. Are you going to tell me you’re racist next?”

He’s shaking a bit with rage by the end of his rant and he swears Tom’s gone pale and he doesn’t think it’s with anger. Is Tom afraid of him? What the fuck? He looks to Severus for an explanation. Severus glances meaningfully at the table covered in teacups between them. Oh, again?

“Sorry, about the,” He waves his hand around. “I, ah, can’t control it when I get emotional.”

Tom gives him a piercing look and seems to accept his word. They’re just about to move onto other, hopefully safer, subjects, when there’s a knock on the ceiling above them. Harry climbs out of his flat to find a frantic Dobby. 

“Dobby is being told to fetch Mr. Harry Potter, sir. A visitor is wanting to be seeing you.”

“Dumbledore.” He growls out the name and Dobby nods his head. He thanks Dobby and sticks his head back in the trunk, making sure they heard the exchange before leaving them alone in the room. He hopes they behave while he’s gone. 

~~~~~~

Harry walks into the room to find Lucius wielding politeness like a weapon. Dumbledore looks as genial as ever, for the most part, but there’s a slight hardness to his eyes that gives him away. Harry makes sure to stare at the bridge of his nose to keep the bastard out of his head. 

“Mr. Potter, you’ve had us all very worried.”

“Us?”

“Oh yes, my boy many people have been looking for you night and day.”

“Oh. Well, I didn’t know that. I didn’t think anyone cared. I mean the Dursley’s sure didn’t. They starved me, beat me, and kept me locked in a cupboard. I suppose I shouldn’t have started the fire but it seemed like the best distraction so I could get away.”

“You started the fire, my boy?”

Dumbledore is visibly shocked. He’s looking at him like he’s Tom Riddle back from the grave. Harry wants to laugh. 

“Yeah, I made sure they got out before I blew up the house though. I didn’t want to hurt them even if they do hurt me.”

“That’s very good, my boy, I’m glad to hear it. Now why don’t we get you back home to your family, hm?”

Harry can tell Lucius is about to abandon his politeness in favor of cursing the man. Having brought his Lord back sane has earned him a great deal of respect and loyalty from the man. He needs to cut in before Lucius does something foolish. 

“They don’t want me, and I don’t want them. Here I get three meals a day, no one hurts me, no one calls me names, I’m not locked in a cupboard. I’m not going back.”

“Now Harry, I understand you and your family have some problems but your parents...”

And there it is again. Just like in the letter, you can trust me because I knew your parents, just conveniently forget the part where I failed to protect them. The bastard didn’t even agree to try to protect them until he’d coerced Severus into spying!

Harry decides he’s had enough of playing around. He loosens his hold on his magic on purpose this time. Dumbledore stops mid word as his magic leaches into the air around him. It fills the room, first looking like heat haze, a shimmery barely there cloud surrounding them. But it thickens and the room grows milky with it. They’re sitting in a room filled with what looks vaguely like smoke. Harry wonders in that moment if he’s more powerful than Dumbledore, the man looks terrified enough. 

“I will never be in the same room as those abusers again, unless it is to kill them, I was merciful once, I’ll not be again. If you attempt to force me back there I will not be responsible for my actions. You have been warned, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Leave.”

And Dumbledore does. He doesn’t even say a single word before fleeing. Harry pulls his magic back into himself and turns to see Lucius looking at him wonderingly. 

“What?”

“That, that should not be possible, Mr. Potter. We need to speak to my Lord at once.”

~~~~~~

Lucius sends for Severus and Tom and then recounts the meeting to them. Tom looks disbelieving. 

“That is not possible, it has to have been a trick. Non-verbal confundus charm perhaps.”

“I don’t understand. I just released my magic. It happens all the time by accident, you’ve seen it happen, it just usually doesn’t happen to that extent.”

Tom’s eyebrows rise, then lower in a pensive expression. 

“Then show me.”

So Harry concentrates on that feeling of rage at Dumbledore’s manipulations and relaxes his hold on his magic. 

It fills the room and soon they’re surrounded by a cloud of what looks like thick pearlescent smoke. Tom responds by pushing his own magic out. Harry can feel it, he realizes with wonder. It’s a bit like feeling someone’s body heat without actually touching their skin. A vague barely there sensation. He looks at Severus when he feels him add his own, his feels familiar and welcoming whereas Tom’s feels new and exciting. He looks to Lucius, wondering why the man isn’t joining in. He looks overwhelmed, like he has no idea how to process what’s happening. 

Harry pulls his magic back. It feels like it takes more effort this time. Like it doesn’t want to be contained. 

“So, why did you say that wasn’t possible?”

He looks to Tom for an explanation of everyone’s disbelief. 

“Because of the amount, Mr. Potter. No one has that much magic at their fingertips. You pulled yours back and for a few seconds Severus’ and my own were still filling the room. Did you notice how vague and insubstantial ours was in comparison to your own? And I was thought to be one of the most powerful wizards alive, on a level with Dumbledore, yet you have many times more power than the both of us combined.”

“That, that can’t be right. I’m nothing special. I’d have known by now if I was, right?”

“You learned to cast the Patronus charm at thirteen, Harry, it doesn’t get much more special than that.”

Harry looks at Severus, shocked that he’s agreeing with this. He decides to put that aside for the moment. Distraction. That’s what he needs. 

“I need to go walkabout again now that Dumbledore knows...”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do, Severus. I’m not attending Hogwarts again. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking you just sent Albus running without lifting a finger. There’s no need for you to flee. Lucius can try for custody and will most likely get it but if not at least you can stay in the meantime. Why live on the run if you don’t have to? Besides, I for one would feel much better if you had someone training you to wield that power.”

Tom nods his head in agreement and Harry realizes he’s outnumbered. He’s not really sure he wanted to continue arguing anyway. He doesn’t mind the idea of staying in the manor, at least for now.

~~~~~~

The next day Harry finds himself in a field outside the manor being given instruction by Tom. It isn’t going well. 

“How is it that you can fill a room with your magic but can’t channel your magic properly? Nineteen years old and you still can’t cast non-verbally?”

“If someone didn’t try to kill me all the time...”

“If you expect me to apologize for the actions of another versio...”

“Of course not, Tom, I’m just saying, I had a lot on my mind. The surprising thing is that I survived at all. Now do you know how to explain casting non-verbally or are you just gonna scold me in the hope that that will help?”

“You’re rather testy, aren’t you?”

Harry laughs. 

“That’s rich coming from you. Mr. I curse everyone who even looks at me wrong.”

Tom snarls at him and hits him with a nasty stinging hex and next thing he knows they’re dueling. About half-way through Severus comes walking up and crosses his arms across his chest. Harry sees him out of the corner of his eye and feels like he’s being judged. So he begins putting everything into the duel. He loses but it takes longer than he thought it would, which is mostly because he has such a high pain tolerance. He’s lost so much blood from the multiple cutting curses he failed to block or dodge that Severus gives Tom a disappointed look. 

Harry laughs it off and they return to the manor, but apparently Severus is unwilling to brush his injuries aside. He follows him into his guest room and makes him endure a thorough inspection. 

“You know if you wanted me naked all you had to do was ask.”

He gets a disgusted look in reply from Severus and Tom chuckles.

Severus begins healing the various lacerations, getting more and more grim as he works. 

“What’s wrong, Severus?”

“You said they had abused you, I didn’t realize it was this bad. Nineteen or not these injuries should have you in agony. The fact you can brush them off as nothing...”

“It’s fine. They won’t be hurting me again.”

“I failed in my Vow...”

“No! Dumbledore failed. He put me there, he knew I was being abused. This isn’t on you, Severus.”

“But if I hadn’t told...”

“You had no way of knowing what would happen when you gave Tom the prophecy, I do not blame you and I don’t believe my mum would either.”

“How can you possibly..?”

“Forgive you? Love you? As easy as breathing. I love you Severus Tobias Snape, my Prince. I love you.”

The look on Severus’ face is so raw that Harry automatically glances away to the only other person in the room and blinks. Tom looks jealous. He, he looks jealous. What is that about? He shakes his head, who knows with him. 

Severus finishes healing him and he gratefully puts his shirt back on. He’d rather hoped the first time Severus saw him shirtless he would be post-pubescent at least. 

Chapter 7

Later that evening Harry decides it’s past time that he and the former Dark Lord had a talk. He sits him down and gives him a piece of his mind. 

“The defense position. You need to remove the curse.”

He’s expecting the man to refuse or at least take offense at being ordered around. He’s not expecting the little sigh followed by. 

“I know.”   

He blinks. Okay then. That was easy. 

“Why did you put it on it in the first place?”

“You’re asking me to rationalize the actions of my past, insane, self?”

“Fair point. What’s happening with Quirrell? He teaching it this year still? If he is please tell me he won’t be affecting a stutter this time.”

“He will be teaching, yes. No stutter.”

“Thank god. Not only was it ridiculous trying to learn from the guy when he was stuttering every other word but that’s just rude to people who have a stutter. It’s not something to mock.”

“Again. I was insane. It seemed like a good plan at the time.”

The man looks so crestfallen that Harry can’t help but feel for him. He can’t imagine what that must be like. To lose that many decades of your life to madness. And then the man looks at him with a mischievous glint in his beautiful grey eyes and Harry blinks, wondering what it is he’s planning. 

“So, you and Severus?”

“Oh, please, I’m stuck in the body of an eleven year old. You can joke about us when there’s at least a chance of there being something there.”

Tom laughs and Harry wonders at the differences between Tom and Voldemort. Physical and otherwise. Tom is young and handsome, he looks to be in his forties at most, he has actual warmth in his expression sometimes. He’ll never forget the unvarnished joy on the man’s face when he heard Corvus had helped with his resurrection. But Voldemort. He was none of those things. If Voldemort had laughed at him it would probably have been after a round of the cruciatus curse. It certainly wouldn’t have filled his stomach with butterflies. 

“There’s always polyjuice.”

“I already thought of that back when this all started, Severus shot me down, something about it causing damage if you use it all the time while you’re still growing.”

“I never said anything about using it all the time. Perhaps once a week? It would give you a chance to pursue the man. You can’t be thinking of waiting, what, at least four years?”

“That’s brilliant! This is why I needed to bring you back. You’re a genius. Now I just need to buy the ingredients and probably fail to brew it right. I wonder if the Prince has a modified recipe.”

“The Prince?”

Ah, he never mentioned that Severus used to call himself that when he was telling his life story. Tom looks so cute, all confused and intrigued, that Harry can’t refuse him. He shows him his book and watches him become more and more impressed and also more and more annoyed. 

“Why hasn’t he published his improved recipes?”

“No idea. We’ll have to ask him when he comes by tomorrow.”

He observes Tom quietly while he continues perusing the book and wonders what it was he saw in his eyes earlier. It couldn’t have been jealousy. Tom wouldn’t be trying to set him up with Severus if he wanted the man for himself. 

~~~~~~

The next day Severus shows up again during his lesson. He’s repeatedly attempting to cast spells non-verbally to no avail. Which is ridiculous. Just as Tom looks like he’s going to call him incompetent again he tosses his wand aside and casts the spell wandlessly. Tom’s eyes widen a bit and he gives him a bit of a bewildered look. Like he can’t understand how he can do one and not the other. Harry shrugs. 

Severus walks up while they’re having this exchange and he attempts to walk Harry through it in his words. Harry listens closely hoping another perspective will help but, not so far. He growls with frustration and Tom gives him an unreadable look. 

“I think that’s enough for today, there’s no point trying to force it. We’ll have to find another way of explaining it. In the meantime, Severus, I have a question for you.”

Severus gives him a look but he doesn’t elaborate, they walk back into the manor and Tom retrieves the Prince’s book. He holds it out and demands. 

“Why haven’t you published this?”

Severus swallows nervously. 

“My Lord?” 

“You are holding back the entire field of potions by hoarding your knowledge and you do not understand why that angers me?”

“But, my Lord, these are things every potions master knows. I wrote all of those notes before my sixth year. I’m not hoarding knowledge.”

“Idiocy. Severus, you are a genius, but you are also a fool. How much would you like to bet that I could bring dozens of other potions masters in and ask them to describe their own versions of these potions and they would all be less potent than yours? Shall I do so? Is that what it would take for you to see your own worth?

“You will speak to a publisher about getting this published. You may consider it an order if you must.”

“Of course, my Lord.”

Tom turns to Harry and gives him a smirk and then says. 

“Oh, and I need a batch of polyjuice.”

“My Lord?”

“Mm, Harry here would like to have a supply of it, he wants to use it to take you out on a date each week.”

Severus stares at him with his eyes wide and Harry can’t resist poking fun at Tom. 

“Yeah, the former Dark Lord is a match-maker now.”

Tom hits him with another stinging hex. 

~~~~~~

Harry soon finds all his time taken up with learning new magic, failing to learn non-verbal magic or spending time with Severus and Tom. 

Already this life feels about a hundred times better than his last. There won’t be a war, he’ll never have to see the Dursleys again. Tom is quickly turning out to be a fantastic friend, witty, insightful, funny, a bit too free with his stinging hexes but nobody’s perfect. And best of all Severus will be going on a date with him in a few weeks once the polyjuice has finished brewing. Things are amazing right now. Not that that stops him from trying to make things even better. 

“But Tom, you can’t marginalize an entire group of people just because they’re a danger to others one night a month. I mean anyone with a wand can curse you in a way that would leave you permanently injured or dead at any time, yet you don’t feel the need to persecute every magical person. Do you?”

“That isn’t the same thing and you know it.”

“Bullshit. Would we be having this argument if I was infected, or you? Would you want to be treated that way if you were a werewolf?”

Tom just glares at him and he gives him a nice smug smile in return. Take that former Dark Lord. 

“And don’t even get me started on the treatment of house elves. They need to be enslaved, they can’t survive without us, bullshite. Bull-fucking-shite.”

“I can’t argue with you there. House elves do deserve better.”

“Wait, what? But you, that old lady you stole the cup from, you framed her house elf for poisoning her..?”

“I also did the same to humans at that time, how does that imply that I think less of house elves?”

“Well, I just, it’s pretty awful to blame a slave for something like that.”

“Worse than blaming an innocent person who is not a slave?”

“Huh, you may have a point there. I never expected you to see house elves as your equals though.”

“I see no one as my equal. But you weren’t the only one with a shitty childhood...”

“The orphanage, I know.”

“I forget sometimes how much you know about me, I don’t like it.”

“Tom, everyone else who knew you before you went mad left you to rot after you supposedly died. Has it not occurred to you that the only person who tried to help you is the one who knew you best? You went to Hogwarts and you were so determined to prove you were better than everyone else that you wore a mask, at all times, with everyone. Your best friends never knew the real you. They saw nothing but the mask you wore and they didn’t think that person worth saving. I saw the real you, and I did. Being seen is not always a terrible thing.”

Harry gives Tom a long look and then wanders off to go find Kreacher and make sure he doesn’t make dinner, since it’s his turn tonight. 

~~~~~~

It takes almost two weeks for Dumbledore to recover enough to make his first move in their little war. He sends aurors. Forcing Harry to portray himself as the poor little abused boy. Lucius is beside him playing upstanding and concerned citizen. It’s scary how good he is at it. 

“I’m not going anywhere. That man wants me to go back to my abusive relatives. I won’t.”

He doesn’t recognize one of the aurors and he’s already forgotten the guy’s name, but the other is Kingsley Shacklebolt, and while he’s not sure how loyal the man is to Dumbledore, he’s always liked the man well enough. He thinks he’ll be willing to listen to reason. He focuses on him. 

“That is a very serious charge, Mr. Potter.”

“You got any truth serum on you? I’ll take it. I have nothing to hide. They abused me in almost every way. Mentally, emotionally, physically, through neglect as well as more traditional beatings. They’re lucky I let them leave that building before I blew it to pieces.”

 “So it’s true you...”

He ignores the other auror and continues staring Kingsley down. 

“Mr. Shacklebolt, I want to press charges, against the Dursleys for all the wrongs they’ve done me, and also against Dumbledore for knowing and allowing it.”

 Kingsley looks him in the eye for a long moment and Harry realizes the man might very well be a legilimens so he focuses on his memories of the Dursleys and makes sure they’re at the forefront of his mind. Just in case. 

“Very well, Mr. Potter, I will open the investigation myself.”

Your move Dumbledore. 

~~~~~~

After the aurors leave he sits down and gives Lucius a look. 

“Knowing Dumbledore his next move will be playing the concerned grandfatherly type. At first it will mean talking about how awful it is what happened to me and how of course he never suspected or he would have done something. Then he’ll pivot to questioning whether this is the best place for me, whether you are truly trustworthy enough, etc. We need to get out in front of it. One of the things we’ll need to do, that I’ve been avoiding, is see a healer and get a better idea of how bad the damage is from the malnourishment and begin getting it healed.”

“Is it truly that bad?”

Lucius looks a mix of disgusted and horrified. Not used to seeing children abused is he?

“In my last life I kept being sent back every summer so it had time to get even worse but the damage was extensive. I can’t remember all of it but the gist was, it could never be fully rectified and I’d need daily pain potions by the time I was seventy to manage the symptoms.”

 “Fuck. Are you sure I can’t just murder them?”

Harry laughs. Because that’s the exact same reaction first life Lucius had when he learned of it. 

Chapter 8

Two days later Kingsley comes back, alone this time, and looking distinctly grim. He’d visited the Dursleys and did not like what they had to say. Harry doesn’t want to make him feel worse, but hands him the healer’s report anyway. Kingsley’s face twists into a look of disgust as he reads it. 

“The good news, Mr. Potter, is that they will definitely be getting prison time with the evidence already gathered.”

“The bad news?”

“You may end up having charges pressed against you for arson.”

“I’ll just refuse the use of Veritaserum, and claim I was scared and so I lied about the fire to try and avoid going back to my abusers.”

“And did you lie Mr. Potter?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny...”

Kingsley chuckles and they begin going over the details of the case against his relatives and hopefully Dumbledore.

“You say that Dumbledore had knowledge of your abuse, do you have proof of that?”

“No, but I found out recently the lady my relatives sometimes left me with is a squib and it seems pretty unlikely that the only babysitter I ever had would just so happen to be a squib. I don’t have proof she knew either but I usually had bruises and sometimes broken bones when I was at her house. She had to have suspected.”

“Her name?”

“Arabella Figg.”

~~~~~~

That night he finds himself sitting with Lucius, Severus, and Tom, discussing Tom’s future plans. 

“I don’t think you should try to enter politics until after Dumbledore’s dead. As long as he’s alive he’ll make things difficult. Once he’s dead no one else will dare oppose you. You’ve always been too charming by half.”

“You expect me to sit around waiting on the old fool to die?”

“I never said that. I’m saying we should orchestrate his death, after we tear his grandfatherly persona to shreds. We don’t want him to end up looking like a martyr.”

“You have a plan to kill him?”

“I told you about the ring didn’t I, how he couldn’t resist it? We can’t use the actual ring, he’s already in possession of two hallows, the thought of him getting all three, no, but you could make a convincing fake and spring the trap a few years early. He fell for it once.”

He looks around at the three of them, they all nod thoughtfully, seeming to like the idea. 

“So for the next few months I will continue focusing on your training. It shouldn’t take long for your plan to either succeed or fail. I can’t see him having left evidence of his knowledge of your abuse. That would be exceedingly sloppy.”

Harry nods his head to concede that it’s a long shot. 

“It is possible, if unlikely, the man is old and may have grown complacent.” Severus decides to input. 

“Also in the meantime I plan to keep needling you about your ideals. Such as, for instance muggleborns, we need to accept them into the magical world. You worry about exposure, but if we exclude them we put ourselves at even greater risk of exposure. The only other alternative and the one you’ve advocated in the past is to kill them, but that is far too extreme for any reasonable person to agree to, it isn’t something you can sell to the magical public as a whole. If you want us to be protected from the muggles we have to accept the muggleborns. I do believe we should look into a method of identifying them at birth so they can be brought into our world as soon as possible. It would increase understanding and reduce tensions between the purebloods and everyone else.”

“I only advocated pureblood supremacy before because they are where the most power is concentrated. I’ve never believed in it.”

“Yes, but not believing in it didn’t stop you before. I know you were mad at the time, still, I’d like clarification. Are you going to advocate for or against muggleborns, or have you not decided yet?”

“For. We do need them. The inbreeding is getting out of hand, and they are a security risk if excluded.”

 “I’m happy to hear that.”

Harry is surprised when Tom smiles at him in response. 

~~~~~~

A few days later Harry is once again trying to learn non-verbal magic, and failing. 

“I do not understand why you can’t do this. There’s no logical reason. It has to be a mental block.”

Harry blinks at him, confused.

“You think you can’t, therefore you can’t.” 

“Oh.”

“Try again.”

Harry tries while telling himself that he can do this. He can. And nothing happens. 

“Hm. Perhaps.”

“What’re you doing?”

“Cast a spell, any spell.”

Harry looks at Tom over his shoulder where the man is standing behind him and gently clasping his hand where he grips his wand. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. 

“Lumos.”

His wand lights up and he turns to see Tom smiling. As if he’s just figured something out. He looks at him quizzically, but gets no response to his unasked question. 

“Now cancel the spell non-verbally.”

Harry wants to argue but knows there’s no point. He tries. And it works. 

“What the hell? How?”

Tom still doesn’t explain. Instead he releases his wrist and steps back. 

“And again. Cast the spell.”

Harry does so. Non-verbally. And Tom laughs. 

“You did it.”

“Well yeah but I did it a moment ago too.”

“No. You didn’t. I merely directed my magic through your wand and made you think you did.”

Harry can’t believe he tricked him so easily. He wants to be annoyed but...He turns his wand on Tom and sends a stinging hex his way. Non-verbally. Tom laughs in response and they begin dueling. On a much more even footing this time with both casting silently. 

~~~~~~

The days began to fly by faster than Harry liked and suddenly it was the first of September. Dumbledore would soon be shocked by his failure to arrive at Hogwarts. Severus had let them know the old fool is convinced he’ll be there. So he’s looking forward to that and he also can’t wait for Draco to be out of the manor ‘cause he’s been driving him a bit mad. But neither of those things makes up for the fact that Severus is stuck teaching for one more year. Stupid contract. He hates that he not only won’t see him everyday, but he also won’t be able to talk to him using the mirrors everyday either. Severus simply won’t have the time. The only thing making up for it is the fact the polyjuice will be done soon. He’s counting down the days. 

~~~~~~

It didn’t take long after that before they had a fresh batch of polyjuice potion. Harry had no idea what he was going to do about finding someone to collect some hair from. Who would he use? Would he use the same man each time or someone different? Which would be weirder in the long run? This is such a ridiculous situation even for him. 

His dilemma is solved by Tom of course. He brings him a jar of hair, but doesn’t explain anything about it. He glares at the man, but lacking better options decides to use the mystery hair. 

It’s damn near perfect. Similar hair, but blue eyes, not too hot so he feels like Severus will be disappointed later when he has his own body again. The height is off by quite a bit, he’s always been so stupidly short. But still so fucking close and it makes him wonder because Tom hasn’t seen his memories so how would he know...oh holy shit. He based it off his dad. God, that’s a bit weird. No wonder he wouldn’t explain. Harry’s just gonna forget all about that. He has a date to worry about anyway. Shit, he hopes he doesn’t screw up today.   

~~~~~~

Severus arrives wearing his usual robes and Harry beams at the man. He’s glad the man didn’t feel the need to dress up for him. He’d love the man in anything. He’s so fucking sexy. He needs to stop thinking those thoughts while he’s in a post-pubescent body. 

They have an awkward moment where neither of them knows how to act. Then they simply wander outside for a walk. They talk about anything and everything. It’s quiet and peaceful, feels natural, Harry hopes Severus thinks so too. They spend hours just enjoying each other’s company. They eventually head inside to eat lunch with the others, Tom giving them smug looks, Narcissa looking starry eyed at them occasionally. Lucius, Harry’s confused to note Lucius does not look pleased by this development. At all. He decides to worry about that later. 

After lunch they head back out and settle on a bench, Harry turns to Severus, opens his mouth to speak, and finds himself being kissed senseless. He gasps, having not expected that, and finds his mouth being ruthlessly plundered. He kisses back with the whole of his being. By the time they pull apart he finds himself straddling Severus’ thighs with no recollection of how he got there. He doesn’t exactly mind. He lifts himself up a little and kisses Severus again. This time slowly and sweetly. He pulls back. 

“I have been wanting to do that all day.”

He stares at Severus. 

“Then why didn’t you?”

“In spite of what you said before...I wanted to be sure you actually wanted this. Instead of merely thinking you did.”

“I love you, Severus.”

“I can see that now, and while I do not yet feel the same level of affection for you. I do feel affection for you. I only wish I could assure you I am attracted to you as well. But since this body isn’t your own...”

“Tell me about it. Being this tall is weird.”

Severus laughs and they disentangle themselves. Neither willing to go farther at the moment despite the desire coursing through Harry’s veins at least. They spend another hour talking before Severus has to return to Hogwarts. 

Harry floats inside the manor and straight into sight of a furious Lucius Malfoy. 

~~~~~~

“Lucius, why are you angry?”

Lucius just fumes for a moment and then gives him a look and heads for his study. Harry rolls his eyes and follows. Best get whatever this is over with. 

“Sit.”

He does. 

“What do you think you are doing?”

“I went on a date, how is that a problem for you? Wait, are you attracted to Severus? Is that what this is?”

Lucius looks bewildered for a moment. 

“No, of course not. This isn’t about...Damn it Potter, my Lord wants you. How can you not see that?”

Harry is so fucking confused right now. 

“You think Tom is attracted to me?”

“I don’t think, I know. I, unlike some people, am not a blind idiot.”

“If you’re so certain about that, maybe you can explain why he would’ve suggested I do this then?”

“He what?”

“This whole date was his idea! Severus and I were going to wait until I grew a bit. He intervened. Why would he do that if he wanted either of us for himself? I thought at first he was attracted to Severus but then he suggested this so maybe he’s just weird like that. Gives off strange signals, yeah?”

Lucius gives him a long hard look and then laughs. Harry is so done. 

“What the hell, Lucius?”

“I think we’re both right. I am certain my Lord is attracted to you and you were certain he is attracted to Severus.”

Harry tries to process this. No. That’s not. He wouldn’t. What?

“You think he wants us both?”

Lucius smirks. 

Harry tells himself it doesn’t matter. Tom can get over it. He has Severus now and he’ll not risk losing him. But. Damn. He’s attracted to him too. How do these things happen to him? It doesn’t change things, he loves Severus and he isn’t risking that for anything. He’ll tell Tom it isn’t going to happen first chance he gets. 

Chapter 9

First chance he gets isn’t until that evening. He drags the man off to the gardens where he knows they won’t be disturbed. 

“Lucius is under the impression you want Severus and I, as lovers.”

Tom just stares calmly back. True then. Great. 

“It isn’t going to happen, I’m sorry for disappointing you but...”

“I’m not disappointed”

Harry narrows his eyes at him. He has a feeling he won’t like what’s coming next. 

“Because..?”

Tom smirks at him and Harry goes cold. 

“Because it is inevitable. I will have you both.”

He glares at him, absolutely incensed that Tom seems to think he can dictate his future. As if he has no say in it. He growls and turns away. He cannot deal with this right now. 

“Harry...”

He ignores him and keeps walking. 

~~~~~~

He heads back to his flat and locks himself away in his room. He’s not going to be training with Tom tomorrow. He refuses. He doubts he will again. He can’t believe he was starting to like him. He’s such an idiot. 

He grits his teeth, he will not agonize over the man’s bullshit. 

He heads to bed and fails to sleep for a long time. 

~~~~~~

In the morning there’s a knock on the outside of his trunk, he’s confused for a moment until he realizes how late he slept. Must be Tom. He ignores him. He gets up and goes to make himself some breakfast. Ignores the subsequent knocks. 

Later, he’s sitting in his living room reading and taking notes when he notices his mirror light up. He blinks for a moment before snatching it up and activating it. 

“Harry, where are you?”

“In my flat. Why?”

Severus looks annoyed. 

“Why aren’t you answering when someone knocks?”

Harry sneers, he can’t help it. 

“Because it’s Tom and I’m not dealing with him right now.”

“What did he do?”

Harry closes his eyes and wonders what to say. 

“He wants something I can’t give him. He was an ass about it. I’m not going to go out there and pretend I’m not pissed at him.”

Severus scrutinizes him closely. But seems to brush it off for now. 

“I will pass along the message that you are well but not accepting visitors at the moment.”

“Thank you. Sorry for their bothering you.”

“It’s nothing. Let me know if there is anything I can do.”

He nods and Severus deactivates his mirror. Harry sets his own aside and leans back on the couch. He stares up at the ceiling. He knows what will happen if he stays. He’ll fold, because Tom is charming and will make all the right noises about how much he didn’t mean it, but he’ll find out in the end that Tom did mean it. The man is too fucking controlling. He needs to put distance between them for a while. It’s the only possible way forward. Decision made, he gets up. 

~~~~~~

He exits his trunk and finds Tom waiting. He ignores him, shrinks his trunk, and walks calmly from the room. Tom follows. 

“Harry, where are you going?”

He keeps walking. 

“You can’t ignore me forever, Harry.”

The man is starting to sound nervous. Good. 

“Please.”

He keeps walking. When he reaches the edge of the wards he turns and looks at Tom. Simply looks with no expression on his face. 

“I’ll not be coming back for a while, Tom. I need space and you need time to realize why your behavior is a problem. Goodbye.”

He disapparates before Tom can respond and no doubt dig himself in deeper.

~~~~~~

Later that evening he’s sitting in his trunk on yet another overnight train reading a book on obscure curses when his mirror lights up. He activates it, happy that Severus has time to talk tonight. 

“Harry, why did you leave?”

Or maybe not. He’d hoped to avoid this particular conversation for a while longer. 

“Tom wants both of us.”

Severus stares at him uncomprehendingly for a moment. Then his eyes widen. And then he looks confused. 

“So you fled?”

“I didn’t flee. I needed space. The man was acting as if he would have us whether we want him back or not. He’s infuriating.”

“He’s a Dark Lord, he isn’t used to asking for things. Not that I blame you for your anger. Considering I bear his mark I doubt he considers that I might refuse.”

“Would you? If he wasn’t being an ass about it?”

Severus hesitates and Harry sighs.

“I don’t know either, Severus. This is a ridiculous situation. I don’t know how this could possibly work.”

“It won’t have a chance of working if you keep avoiding him.”

“That you saying you want to try?”

Severus hesitates again but this time Harry waits. Severus closes his eyes and whispers. 

“Yes.”

Harry nods. 

“Then we’ll try, but I’m not going back for a bit. The man needs the kick in the arse or he’ll never stop being an idiot. I’ll give him three weeks.”

Severus nods, they talk a little about random things and then he has to go grade essays.

Harry puts the mirror aside, stares into space, and wonders when exactly he went mad. This is never going to work, but he’s going to try anyway. 

~~~~~~

Two weeks later he’s walking from yet another train platform. He stops when he comes across a park. Sits down on a bench and pulls out his journal to write to Severus again. 

-Hey, still alive here. You doing alright?-

He waits to see if Severus will be writing back immediately. It’s the weekend so it’s possible. He doesn’t. Ah well. 

He sits and enjoys the late morning sun for a bit before sighing and getting up again. Only to stop in his tracks. Fuck. How?

“Harry, please, I’m sorry.”

He narrows his eyes at Tom. Waits to see if he even knows what he did wrong. 

“For acting as if you were going to be mine whether you would or no. I never meant to imply that you wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. I only meant that I was, am, determined to win you.”

“Me?”

“The both of you. Can you truly blame me for wanting you?”

Harry grits his teeth. 

“It isn’t about you wanting me. It’s about you realizing I need to want you back.”

Tom nods seriously. 

“I know. I made a mistake in the way I spoke to you. I didn’t mean it that way, truly.”

“Tom, I know you better than most. I know how easily you manipulate others. I can’t help wondering if you truly do mean it. I don’t know how to trust you and that needs to change for this to go anywhere.”

Tom looks thoughtful. 

“If I were to take Veritaserum...”

“What does that say about us that that is a possible solution we turn to?”

Tom’s face shutters. Harry doesn’t want to feel guilty, but he does.

“What would you have me do, Harry?”

Harry closes his eyes. The man sounds desperate. Perhaps. 

“Buy a set of charmed mirrors, we’ll communicate that way for a while and we’ll see if you can’t find your way to where I need you to be.”

Tom nods jerkily. 

“Yes, I will, but how will I get one to you?”

“Pass it along to Severus. He’ll make sure I get it. Did he tell you where to find me?”

Tom looks slightly guilty. 

“Tom, this is what I’m talking about, don’t spy on him again.”

“I am sorry, I was desperate. It won’t happen again.”

He sounds sincere but Harry knows very well how good he is at that. But he nods and then turns to leave. Before he can he feels a hand wrap around his arm. Just barely touching as if Tom is afraid of angering him by touching without permission. 

“Yes, Tom?”

“I truly am sorry, for the way I treated you. I don’t know how to do this. I spent decades as a madman and I’ve never...”

He turns to look at the man. Who seems to be a little more broken than he thought. 

“I’ve never done this before. I want you, I want you both, but, I’ve never...”

He should have seen this coming. He pulls the man in, Tom goes willingly enough, which is good ‘cause he’s still in the body of an eleven year old. He holds him for a moment and then pulls back. 

“In case you’ve forgotten, I haven’t either. My wife drugged me before I ever could have a real relationship. We’re both stumbling along blind here.”

Tom nods and steps back. 

“I think if this is going to have a chance of working we need to take it slowly. For now I’ll continue traveling and we’ll talk, alright?”

Tom nods, seemingly grateful to be given a chance at all. Harry thinks this might just work. If the man can wrap his head around the fact he can’t control them. Not a thought he ever expected to have. The three of them are each broken in their own way. He has a feeling they’re all going to end up hurt. It’ll be a miracle if they can make this work. But looking at the man before him, with his stupidly handsome face and his inability to understand other people, he thinks it might just be worth the risk. 

They say their farewells, and Harry walks away. 

~~~~~~

It takes a few days for Severus to have time to drop by Grimmauld and leave his new mirror. Then a few more days for him to get back into the country since he’d ridden the rails so far away. 

He gets there at last and finds two mirrors. Or technically one but it folds in half? He has no idea. He activates it and finds himself instantly looking at Tom. 

“Have you been waiting since this was left here? And why are there two mirrors?”

“The other connects to Severus. So we can speak together.”

“And have you been waiting?”

Tom closes his eyes.

“Yes. For two days. I wasn’t sure when exactly you’d be back.”

“When you say two days..?”

“I mean it, I’ve been taking potions to stay awake.”

Harry just blinks dazedly at him. What the shit? 

“Why would you do that?”

Tom glances away. 

“Tom, you can’t, you can’t let this become an obsession. You have to focus on other things. I need you to be my lover not a stalker.”

Tom closes his eyes and breathes deeply for a moment. 

“It isn’t like that, I just...had something I needed to say and I didn’t want to wait any longer than I had to to say it.”

He waits while the man gathers his thoughts. 

“You were right to leave before. I didn’t lie when I spoke to you the other day. I truly did only mean that I am determined to win you. But I do have a tendency to think of this as a game. Something I can win or lose. I spoke to Severus and he was most displeased with me when he learned why exactly you’d left. He gave me quite the lecture.”

“He gave his Lord a lecture?”

“I released him from his service. He no longer bears the mark. How would this work if I was his Lord?”

Harry nods. He’s a bit shocked Tom realized that on his own if he’s being honest. 

“I am trying to see this for what it is. A partnership between equals.”

“I thought you had no equals?”

Tom gives him an intense look. 

“I do not truly feel you are my equal. You are so far above what I could ever be. And I don’t mean the strength of your magic. You are an extraordinary individual, Harry. I don’t feel we are equals, no. But nevertheless the only way this works is if we treat each other as if we are. I understand that now.”

“Severus is very good at cramming knowledge into your head isn’t he?”

Tom nods and they sit in companionable silence for a moment. Then Tom changes the subject.  

“You may be interested to know that Dumbledore is in fact going to be put on trial for knowing of your abuse.”

“What? He left evidence?”

“Yes, in the form of Arabella Figg. She’s agreed to testify against him, with the use of Veritaserum.”

“Why didn’t he obliviate her after I left the area or at least after I chased him from the manor?”

“He was probably too busy panicking or he really is getting overconfident. She agreed to turn evidence to save herself and the ministry has her hidden.”

“You’re sure he won’t find her?”

Tom nods but doesn’t elaborate. 

“If he ends up in Azkaban we’ll need a new plan to get rid of him.”

“He won’t.”

“But he allowed a child to be abused. Why wouldn’t he..?”

“Because he has too many friends on the wizengamot. They’ll let him off with a slap on the wrist. Which will just make him look worse in the eyes of the public. They do so love watching someone powerful fall and if the wizengamot won’t make it happen, they will.”

“Hm, should be fun to watch.”

“Quite.”

~~~~~~

Harry goes back to traveling, but now instead of spending his days hoping Severus will have time to chat, and driving Kreacher a bit mad, he finds himself constantly talking to Tom. The man wants his opinion on everything. 

“Yes, of course the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department needs to be expanded. You know as well as I do how important it is to keep the muggles ignorant of our existence. The department if you can even call it that has only two workers. It’s ridiculous.”

“Did you work for the ministry in your last life? If so you never mentioned.”

“No. I was friends with Ron Weasley, remember?”

“Youngest son of Arthur Weasley, one of those two employees, I see. I had forgotten.”

“You thought I didn’t know anything about it and still asked my opinion?”

“You have an interesting perspective, Harry.”

“In other words you wanted to chat and this happened to be the thing you were currently thinking about.”

Tom merely glares halfheartedly at him. Harry decides to change the subject. 

“So what’s happening with the plan to steal the stone? Considering I’m not at Hogwarts the protections on it won’t be the same as they were so I can’t be much help.”

“The old fool still believes Severus to be faithful to him. He’s told him enough that Severus should be able to acquire it when an opportunity arises.”

“Good. You and I may have some protection against dying but he doesn’t.”

“Mm. Unacceptable, I know. I’m tempted to have him make a horcrux and be done with it, but after what I went through...”

“Yeah.”

They share a long look. 

“Well, if we don’t get the stone we’ll find a way. I mean you’re a fantastic legilimens you could always abduct Flamel and take the information of how to make one out of his mind.”

“Potentially destroying his mind in the process. You aren’t usually one for such barbaric measures.”

Tom gives him a piercing look. 

“Yeah, but in my original life after you failed to steal the stone Dumbledore supposedly destroyed it and he died. If he’s dying soon anyway...”

“You have a point and the man has certainly had a long enough life.”

Chapter 10

Harry is in the kitchen cooking dinner and having the most frustrating conversation he’s had in quite a while. 

“Honestly the two of you are both idiots.”

He glances over at the two idiots in question. He can’t believe they’re being this way. 

“Well if Severus would simply acknowledge my point...”

“You don’t have a point. You are trying to obfuscate...”

“Shut it. Both of you. This argument is stupid.”

They both glare at him from their mirrors and Harry snorts. He has a feeling he’d have received two stinging hexes if they were in the same room. For once he’s glad he isn’t. 

“Seriously, you both need to stop worrying about who’s right for a moment and then you’ll see that it doesn’t matter. It’s a pointless argument. You don’t usually behave like this. What’s really going on?”

He watches as they switch from glaring at him to glaring at the other half of their mirrors. What the hell happened between the two? They were fine just yesterday. He looks to Tom. 

“Today’s Sunday, if we don’t get this worked out we likely won’t be able to for a week. You really want to leave it like this?”

Tom looks guilty. 

“No. I do not.”

He watches them for a moment but when neither says anything else he goes back to chopping vegetables, shaking his head at the men’s stubbornness. He looks up when he hears Severus’ hesitant voice. 

“I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt you the other day. I spoke without thinking.”

“No, I’m sorry. You did nothing wrong. What you said wasn’t exactly inaccurate. I just, don’t like to be reminded of that time. Usually I can just brush it off and ignore it but when it comes to this...how can you, either of you, possibly ignore what I’ve done?”

“It wasn’t you, Tom. Harry and I both know that.”

Tom doesn’t look like he believes it and Harry wonders what happened to bring this on. The man had been doing so well before, had seemed to be dealing with the past better than this. He doesn’t know what to say to reassure the man. 

“Severus, what was it you said anyway?”

Severus gives him a panicked look, like he thinks repeating it will make the situation worse, but he complies. 

“We were talking about the plan for dealing with magical criminals. While I agree that Azkaban is pointlessly cruel, I may have said something about their being those that deserve it, Bellatrix for example.”

Harry blinks. He didn’t..?

“Did you imply that Tom was one of those that deserved it? ‘Cause we both know he wasn’t in his right mind.”

“No, I did not.”

“He did not need to.”

“Tom...”

“No, you will listen. He did not need to. We all know the crimes I committed. Right mind or not...”

Harry changes his mind. He wishes he was in the same room so he could hit the man with a stinging hex. The idiot. 

“Tom!”

The man looks bewildered at his shout but shuts up, which is the main thing. 

“Tom Marvolo Riddle you listen to me. You are not responsible. I told you about Ginny Weasley and her writing in your old diary. If the basilisk had managed to kill someone would you think her deserving of Azkaban?”

The man glares at him, already seeing where this is going and not liking it. 

“No.”

“Well then, I suppose you’ll just have to accept that you don’t either. She wasn’t in control of her actions and neither were you. Are you seriously telling me you’d do the same things you used to do again?”

“No.”

“Doesn’t that prove that you aren’t deserving of Azkaban?”

The man doesn’t look like he believes it. 

“Tom, Harry is right. You know he is. I never meant to imply that you deserve punishment for past actions that you didn’t do. You know you aren’t that man so why should you be punished for his actions?”

Tom seems to become a bit more thoughtful at Severus’ words, and this is one of the things he loves most about Severus, he always knows just how to phrase something. He wishes he could kiss the man right now. And then hug Tom. He looks like he needs one right now. 

“I will think on what you have said.”

“And you’ll both stop fighting over stupid things?”

They both glare at him and Harry laughs. Well it was worth a shot. 

~~~~~~

A few days later he’s back in London for a change and he finds himself hesitating before getting on another train. He knows if he goes back to the manor he’s unlikely to leave again and he isn’t sure if he and Tom are ready to be in close contact again. He doesn’t want to screw this up by moving too quickly, but the temptation is so great. He looks down at his tiny child body and decides that’ll be enough to stop them from doing anything foolish. It’s not like he’ll be using polyjuice all the time. He heads for the nearest deserted alley and disapparates. 

~~~~~~

He strides up the drive and into the manor. Nods at Lucius when he passes the man’s study. Lucius giving him a smug look. The bastard. He’s going to be a pain in the arse over the fact he was right. 

He drops his trunk off in his room and lets Kreacher know of the change in plans. The man looks pleased about it. Probably tired of being cooped up in the trunk. At least Harry’s been able to spend some time out in the muggle. It must be annoying being a non-human he thinks. There’s so few areas they can roam freely. They really need larger wizarding only areas. Something to mention to Tom later. 

He heads downstairs and out into the gardens. He has a feeling...of course. He walks quietly up to the man. 

“Hey.”

Tom startles and then turns, already smiling, toward him. 

“Harry. Are you staying?”

He nods and the smile widens. 

“Good.”

He smiles back and sits down next to him. For a long while they don’t bother speaking at all. Harry breaks the silence. 

“So what’s been happening with Dumbledore? You said you had news but then I distracted you and we both forgot about it.”

“Severus happened upon Dumbledore having quite the argument with Minerva the day before yesterday. Apparently he was trying to excuse your relatives’ actions on the basis of their fear of your magic.”

“How does that help his own defense? He still knew and did nothing.”

“Knowing the old man he’ll make the argument that he didn’t want to separate you from your family.”

“Probably. The bastard. I take it McGonagall didn’t approve.”

Tom laughs quietly. 

“That’s putting it mildly. Severus had to intervene, by the time he did so she was already pulling her wand.”

Harry laughs as well at that. He would’ve loved to have seen that duel.

“Where was I when you were having this conversation? I don’t usually miss any.”

“We only spoke for a moment. You were in Berlin at the time getting on a train headed back this way.”

Harry nods. He’s surprised Tom remembers exactly where he was. He himself would probably have forgotten. He’d just been wondering if he’d slept through it or something. He notices Tom giving him a look but he can’t decipher it. 

“What?”

The man quickly looks away. 

“Now that you are back I take it you’ll be returning to spending time with Severus while using polyjuice...”

“And you what? Didn’t think you’d be a part of that?”

He takes the man’s hand and gently runs his fingers along the palm. Ignoring for the moment that he’s stuck in a child’s body, making the gesture a bit weird. Tom turns back toward him. 

“I wasn’t sure...after you left the way you did...”

“Tom, you idiot. I came back because I’m ready to try this properly. We will be taking it slow. But we will be taking it.”

Tom gives him a soft look and then looks worried. 

“What if Severus..?”

Harry snorts. 

“He wants this too you dork. What happened to your boundless confidence?”

Tom gives him a look. 

“Hey, that’s not fair. You were being an ass.”

Tom’s just opening his mouth to retort, no doubt to say something rude in return, when they’re interrupted by a young house elf running up. 

“Nebby? What’re you doing here?”

“Nebby is visiting her friends, sir! I am so happy to be seeing you again!”

“I’m happy to see you too, Nebby.”

He looks to Tom, bewildered. 

“I spoke with Corvus. You know I agree with you when it comes to the treatment of house elves and after spending time with Dobby it occurred to me that he might make a good friend for the girl. All of Corvus’ other elves are older, except for her parents.”

“And you never mentioned this...”

“I didn’t want you to think I had done this as a favor to you.”

Somehow Harry’s getting that impression anyway. He gives Tom a fond look, shakes his head at him, and then wanders off with Nebby to go play some exploding snap. 

~~~~~~

That Saturday Severus had to spend the day brewing potions for the hospital wing so they ended up delaying their date till Sunday. They decide to go out to a restaurant, nothing fancy though, Harry wouldn’t allow it. Not about to be stuck wearing a suit. 

Harry and Tom make their way to the entrance hall to wait for Severus’ arrival. It doesn’t take long for it to become a bit awkward so Harry moves close to him and whispers. 

“You know he’s probably going to kiss me in greeting. I feel like we should start the date that way too.”

Tom’s eyes widen dramatically and he just stares at him. Harry laughs, pulls the man in, and kisses him sweetly. He hears a pop just as he pulls back. 

“Starting without me?”

He turns and gives Severus a grin, who pulls him in and kisses him just as he thought he would. He watches as the man then turns to Tom, gives him a fond look when Tom merely stands there awkwardly, and then kisses him as well. 

“Shall we be going then?”

Harry nods, grabs Tom’s hand, who’s still looking a bit thunderstruck, and then takes Severus’ hand so he can apparate them. 

~~~~~~

They eat lunch together. It’s at times awkward and at times perfectly natural. Severus and Tom get into an almost heated discussion over the proper preparation of a particular potions ingredient, it goes over Harry’s head completely, but it makes him think they really ought to make dinner together sometime. Because while Severus undoubtedly has some skill in the kitchen, he has a feeling Tom would be practically helpless. It would be nice to see him be less than perfect at something, for once. Maybe next weekend. 

They eat dessert, Tom surprisingly is the one who insisted, Harry had had no idea the man had a sweet tooth. He’ll have to bake him something later. They each get something different and then share. About half way through dessert Tom seems to finally regain his confidence, pulling Severus in and kissing him when the man to tries to turn the conversation back toward the earlier almost-argument. Harry smiles and rubs his foot along the man’s calf in response, glad to see him returning to normal. He gets pulled in and kissed as well. 

~~~~~~

They head back to the manor after dessert and wander through the gardens, Harry ignoring the afternoon rain, Severus and Tom using charms to keep themselves dry. Harry glances at Tom out of the corner of his eye. 

“So what do you think, Severus, shall we keep him?”

Tom stops walking and turns toward them both, his face blank. 

“Mm, I’m not sure...perhaps if he admits I am right...”

Harry laughs, leans in and kisses Severus till he’s breathless and then turns to Tom to give him the same treatment, only to be shoved none-too-gently toward a nearby tree. He finds himself backed against it with Tom staring into his eyes, an intense expression on his face. Then Tom kisses him till he’s panting from it, having to force himself not to rut against the man. It’s too soon for that he reminds himself. This is a first date, not that it feels like one. It feels like they’ve been building up to this for a long time. 

He watches, still panting, as the man rounds on Severus, pulls him in, and kisses him gently. Severus melts into him and Tom begins kissing him more passionately, possessively. They break apart after a fairly long moment and Tom asks. 

“So, will you keep me?”

Tom gives them both a challenging look, which isn’t at all dampened by his own panting breaths. Harry meets Severus’ eyes and they exchange a meaningful look. It’s Severus who replies. 

“Indeed.”

Chapter 11

Seven weeks later Harry finds himself sitting in a courtroom in the ministry beside Lucius, trying to keep his face blank while seething. How dare the old man try to excuse his actions. The bastard. He doesn’t know why he’s so furious when he knew this was coming, but he can’t seem to calm down. He feels a subtle touch to his thigh and tries to rein in his magic, worrying for a moment that he won’t be able to, he’s so fucking furious right now, damn near shaking with it, but he gets it under control before anyone else notices. He gives Lucius a nod, thanking him for letting him know. Hadn’t noticed he’d been losing control, too busy being pissed. He watches as Dumbledore’s solicitor sits back down, wondering how long this is going to take. 

~~~~~~

Five hours later he follows Lucius through the floo in the ministry atrium. Tom is waiting in the entrance hall and he gives him a vicious smirk. 

“You owe me ten galleons.”

Tom raises his eyebrows at him. 

“They sent him to Azkaban?”

“Yeah, only six months but still. It’s better than nothing. Mind you it’s probably only ‘cause I was the victim, but maybe they aren’t all complete arseholes. At any rate this changes things. You think you could convince a dementor to give him a little kiss?”

Tom laughs. 

“With ease. And pleasure.”

Harry nods. He feels like he should feel guilty, but if they let the man live he’d only prevent their changing the wizarding world for the better. Harry laughs mentally. It’s for the greater good. He puts the bastard out of his head. Now onto other matters. 

“We’ll have to wait a few weeks for that so it doesn’t look too suspicious. In the meantime I think it’s time for Severus to acquire a certain rat. Sirius has suffered long enough.”

“Mm, he’ll be calling on the mirror tonight to hear the verdict, we’ll let him know then. How would you like to celebrate this victory?”

Harry glances at Lucius out of the corner of his eye. He smiles, the man deserves this for the way he’s been acting. Smug bastard. 

“I’m thinking threesome.”

Lucius stiffens and looks very uncomfortable before making his excuses and vacating the room. Tom laughs. 

“Now was that really necessary?”

“You asked the question. I wasn’t lying. I know it’s not ideal with my using polyjuice, but I don’t want to wait a few years. I want this.”

“What happened to taking this slow?”

“Well if the two of you weren’t so fucking sexy...”

Tom’s face morphs from amusement to something almost predatory. Harry has a feeling he’d be being ravished already if he was under polyjuice at the moment. 

“Then we’ll just have to convince Severus, won’t we?”

“Somehow I don’t think that’ll take much effort. While we wait for him to call let’s go duel. I’ve been sitting for hours. I need to work off some restless energy.”

~~~~~~

Severus shows up that Saturday carrying a rat in a cage. Harry wonders how many times he’s going to end up having the man abduct people for him. 

“You brought me another present.”

“Mm, too bad we can’t use this one in an obscure ritual. Perhaps one requiring a human sacrifice.”

Harry laughs and pulls the man into a kiss, whispering into his mouth as he pulls away. 

“Tom and I want you.”

He watches the man’s expression closely, happy to see lust, and eagerness, with no sign of hesitation. 

“Then I suppose we should drop this off with Lucius and retire to a bedroom.”

Harry smiles mischievously at the man and pulls him along to Lucius’ study. They hand him the cage, Lucius looking disgusted at the sight of it, and then he announces. 

“Sorry Lucius, gotta run, threesome time.”

He laughs at the expression on the man’s face. He looks uncomfortable, intrigued and also terrified at his own lustful thoughts. Worried his Lord will kill him out of jealousy probably. 

Harry guides Severus to the room Tom’s been using. Opens the door and pushes him gently inside. Watches eagerly as Tom takes charge. 

“Did he agree?”

“Oh he agreed with no argument. He wants this as much as we do, Tom.”

Tom nods and pulls Severus into a heated kiss and Harry walks up behind Severus and begins undoing his buttons while licking and sucking on his neck. He makes eye contact with Tom for a second, who nods, giving him the go ahead. Harry whispers in Severus’ ear. 

“We hadn’t discussed how this would work, with the three of us at once, or even which of us would be interested in bottoming. I asked Tom last night and...”

He nibbles on the man’s earlobe while dragging out the suspense. 

“He wants you to fuck him.”

“Fuck.”

Harry smiles at the way Severus groaned out the word. He thought he’d like that. He can’t wait to see it, too. 

He continues stripping Severus while Tom steps back and strips out of his own clothes, the two of them watching appreciatively. Harry unbuttons Severus’ trousers while continuing to whisper in his ear. 

“Look at him. He’s never even bottomed before. You’ll be his first.”

Severus releases a quiet groan. He ghosts his fingers along the man’s cock before dragging his trousers and pants off him. Bends down to remove the man’s shoes and admires his prick as he does so. He can’t wait for his own turn with it inside him. Once bare Severus drags him to his feet and kisses him before pulling back and asking.

“What about you?”

Harry gives him a long, slow, smile.

“I’ll just be watching for now. That’ll be enjoyable enough, don’t worry. Tomorrow morning, or maybe even later today, you’re going to be fucking me as well. You’ll be my first too.”

Severus growls appreciatively and drags him in for another kiss. They pull apart, and turn to face Tom as he nears, having divested himself of the rest of his clothing. 

“Severus, Harry, if the two of you would join me?”

And he drags them to the bed. Harry strokes his cock teasingly as he watches Severus prepare Tom lovingly. He wants to kiss the both of them, but they’re focused entirely on one another, and he doesn’t want to intrude at the moment. The decision is taken from him a moment later though when Tom turns to him and gives him a look, silently demanding he kiss him. Harry huffs at the man’s attitude but kisses him anyway. He pulls away only to be grabbed by the neck and hauled into a kiss with Severus as well. Both of them apparently determined to include him. 

“I’m not going to get jealous, I’m too busy enjoying the show.”

They give him a look but go back to focusing on each other for the moment. Severus finishes stretching Tom and lines himself up. 

“You’re sure?”

Tom laughs at him and doesn’t bother answering. Just wraps his legs around the man and pulls him in. Severus presses in steadily till he’s in all the way and they lie there for a moment and just breathe. Harry finds his free hand being gripped first by Tom and then Severus as well. He watches raptly as Severus pulls out and then thrusts back in. Tom makes a small sound of encouragement and Severus begins moving faster, rhythmically, pulling gasps from the man. Harry gently strokes his fingers across the hands gripping his own while speeding his strokes along his prick to match the tempo of Severus’ thrusts. Severus begins thrusting faster and harsher and Tom moans aloud, panting from the pleasure coursing through him. Severus is soon pounding into the man and Harry watches, wide eyed, as Tom keens from the repeated battering of his prostate. Severus wraps his hand around the man’s cock and begins stroking it in time with his thrusts. It only takes him doing so twice for the man to throw back his head and climax with Severus following a moment later. Harry strokes his own cock a few more times and cums himself. Severus rolls off Tom onto his other side and they lie there panting for a long moment. Harry breaks the silence. 

“Well, that was better than I thought it would be, and that’s saying something. Fuck, that was hot.”

“I may never walk again. How have I never done this before?”

“Better than fucking a woman I take it?”

“You have no idea.”

No and he can’t wait to find out. Harry leans up to look over at Severus wondering why he’s being so quiet only to snort when he finds him sleeping. 

“Aw, you tuckered him out.”

“You’re lucky he’s not awake to hear you. Now hush.”

Harry watches with amusement as Tom closes his eyes, intent on sleeping as well. He shrugs and snuggles into the man’s side. He doesn’t have anywhere he’d rather be anyway. He falls asleep half-draped over the man, with his head pressed against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. 

~~~~~~

Harry yawns, half-asleep still, wondering why he’s being nudged awake. He remembers where he is and why and smiles. He lifts himself off Tom’s chest and looks up at his amused expression. 

“You might want to take a sip of polyjuice before Severus wakes. He might not take it well waking up naked in bed with a child.”

Oh, yeah. That would not be ideal. He scrambles off the bed to the sound of Tom’s quiet laugh, hurriedly digs through the pile of discarded clothing till he finds his trousers, drinks a sip from his flask, and turns to find Tom waking Severus with a kiss. Severus responds immediately, pulling Tom in and kissing back before he’s even fully awake as far as Harry can tell anyway. He rejoins them on the bed. 

“I don’t suppose you’re up for round two?”

“Why don’t we eat lunch first, brat? Then we’ll see about satisfying your other hunger.”

Severus does have a point. They did work up an appetite earlier and this way they can embarrass Lucius some more. Which should be even more enjoyable with Narcissa helping. 

Harry straddles Tom’s waist and collects his own kiss then leans over and kisses Severus as well, then slips back off the bed and begins trying to sort out the mess of clothes. He throws the two a fond look when they don’t even notice, too busy whispering about how they’re going to spoil him later when it’s his turn. He pretends not to hear. He’s almost done getting dressed when they break apart and join him. 

They get down to the dining room just after Lucius and Narcissa. Lucius glances at them and then quickly away. Narcissa looks confused for a moment about his behavior and then a wicked gleam enters her eyes. 

“Did you have an enjoyable date today?”

“Oh, yes.”

He makes sure to say it in a lascivious tone of voice. Harry laughs at the betrayed look Lucius’ throws Narcissa. This is why he loves her. She’s an excellent partner in crime. He gives her a wink and she laughs delightedly. 

“You’ll have to give me all the details later.”

Harry glances at Severus, to find him looking resigned, and Tom, to find him looking amused. He chivies them towards the table and takes pity on Lucius and changes the subject. For now. 

~~~~~~

After lunch Harry drags his lovers out to the gardens for a walk. They both give him surprised looks. 

“It’s a nice day. We can fuck again later. Right now I’d really like to know how things are going at Hogwarts with McGonagall as Headteacher.”

“Considering what happened with you in your last life I had a long talk with her about screening for victims of child abuse. She was so disgusted by Albus’ actions in your case she agreed with all of my recommendations. We should be able to find and protect any who pass through the Hogwarts halls now.”

“Brilliant. I was worried she’d be all talk and not actually do anything to protect the students.”

“She is reconsidering many of her past decisions right now.”

“I barely remember her from my own school days. But she seemed like a very rule abiding person. I imagine she’ll make a decent Head and if not she can always be persuaded to retire. What I’d like to know is what is happening with the stone?”

“Once it was announced Dumbledore would be put on trial I was rather concerned he would move it, but he reassured me it was safer to keep it where it is for now. I doubt he considered that he might be sent to Azkaban. The stone is still there, ready to be collected. I was thinking I’d try for it tomorrow.”

“I don’t like the idea of you attempting it alone. Harry and I both have a level of protection that you do not. If the old man lied...”

Harry feels the need to cut in. 

“Why don’t we collect it together. Tom, you can cast the actual spells, Severus can stand back and guide you, and I’ll stand there and worry till it’s over. We’ll make a great team.”

They both laugh and agree to the compromise. None of them eager to see the others in a potentially dangerous situation. At least if they’re together they can try to protect each other. Harry congratulates himself on his quick thinking, then he takes Tom’s hand, who takes Severus’, and they continue walking hand in hand, discussing whatever random thoughts pop into their heads. 

Chapter 12

They’ve been wandering in the gardens for almost two hours, Tom and Severus exchanging glances occasionally, obviously getting impatient. Harry is too, can’t wait to go back inside and finally find out what he’s been missing, but he also feels like they need to spend some time today outside of the bedroom. He has a feeling they won’t be leaving it again once they go back. So he keeps distracting them. 

“So how are things going with Neville now that you paired him with Hermione? No more explosions?”

“Not so far, but there have been some close calls. I don’t know how that boy does it. I swear he’s some kind of prodigy when it comes to ruining potions.”

Harry laughs. That is very true, it’s honestly kind of impressive how bad he is. He’s just opening his mouth to reply when he feels a hand slide down his arm and wrap around his hand. He turns to Tom. 

“Yes..?”

“Bed. Now.”

He snorts at the man’s demanding attitude and pulls him into a kiss, which starts out intense and quickly becomes vicious. He pulls away having bitten the man’s lip so hard it will undoubtedly bruise. 

“Careful what you ask for, Tom.”

He drags him off to bed with Severus chuckling quietly at his side. 

~~~~~~

Once they’re back in the room he takes another sip of polyjuice, he can’t wait till he no longer has to drink the stuff, and tries to strip, only to have his hands batted away. He finds Tom’s hands on his front, the man plastered to his back. He raises his eyebrows at Severus, who walks forward and begins stripping him while kissing him breathless, Tom running his hands over his skin as it’s exposed. He feels a breath on his ear. 

“You’re going to love having him inside you, Harry. It’s like nothing you’ve ever felt before. Like being whole for the first time.”

The man sucks a mark onto his neck while pinching his nipples and he doesn’t see how this can get any better. Fuck. They work together stripping him and lavishing him with attention. Harry can’t believe how good it feels already. He groans when Severus bites his earlobe while Tom is licking a stripe up the small of his back. 

He feels himself being pushed toward the bed and he’s a bit shocked to realize they somehow found time to strip themselves. They’d kept him so distracted he hadn’t even noticed. He climbs on the bed and lays down on his back, spreads his legs wide, and welcomes Severus between them, locking his ankles behind the man’s back. He glances aside to Tom, who’s holding out the jar of lube for Severus to take. Tom stares into his eyes and smiles softly, then lays down on his side to watch. He holds out his hand for Tom to take and focuses back on Severus, who is rubbing his hole gently. He feels the first finger press inside and when it isn’t joined by a second he wriggles a bit impatiently. 

“Behave, brat.”

He grins but obediently stills. It takes a long time before Severus finally decides he’s stretched enough. By then he’s begging for the man to get on with it already. He stares into Severus’ eyes as he feels the man’s cock entering him, squeezing Tom’s hand to let him know he hasn’t been forgotten. Severus kisses him gently while pressing deeper and then deeper still. Holy shit, his cock didn’t seem this huge before it was inside him. He finally bottoms out and Harry lays there overwhelmed, unsure how to describe what he’s feeling. He understands what Tom meant now. He feels like he might cry. He pulls Severus in and kisses him hungrily and then as Severus begins to pull out he turns to Tom and kisses him as well. Tom strokes the side of his face. 

“I know. There’s nothing else like it.”

He smiles at him and then jerks his gaze back toward Severus, gasping, as the man drives his cock back into him. The man smirks at him and then does so again and then again and on the fourth thrust he hits his prostate. Harry throws his head back and groans. Before he can even recover Severus has hit his prostate again. He sets up a punishing rhythm, constantly battering his prostate. Harry begins panting, his head thrown back. He’s not aware of anything but Severus’ cock and what it’s doing to him, but then he feels a bite to his shoulder and jerks his head over to see a smirking Tom. Who begins licking the bite he’d just given him, then leans up and kisses him. Severus groans at the sight, pounding into him faster. Harry realizes he’s getting close and pulls Severus down and kisses him. He stares into Severus eyes and says. 

“I love you.”

Turns to look into Tom’s eyes and clarifies. 

“Both of you.”

He finds himself being kissed breathless by Tom while Severus stills as he climaxes and clenches around his cock. A moment later Severus resumes thrusting but only for a moment before he reaches his own peak. Harry glances down at Tom’s cock planning to help him finish only to realize he climaxed as well without him noticing. They lie there recovering for a long moment and then Harry hears Tom whisper. 

“I love you too.”

He turns and beams at him. His smile quickly turns mischievous though. 

“And Severus too?”

He’s expecting a flippant answer and he gets one but in a tone of voice that marks it as unmistakably heartfelt. 

“How could I not?”

He nods back seriously. The man, for all that he is cantankerous and difficult to deal with most times, is somehow irresistible. He glances over at the man in question to find him giving them a look, like he can’t believe they’re both foolish enough to love him. Harry runs his hand down the man’s side. 

“So I was wondering...are there potions that’ll give you extra stamina? Because I have to say now that I’ve tried it I can’t see my self not bottoming. What about you, Tom?”

“I prefer it as well.”

“Yeah, you’re gonna need some kind of help keeping us both satisfied. Actually, we never asked you what you preferred...”

“I prefer to top.”

“Oh thank god. That simplifies things. I was a bit worried we’d have to make a rota or something if it turned out we all wanted to bottom. So potions?”

“While there are potions that have that effect they are inconvenient for many reasons. We’re better off making do with other means.”

“Like..?”

“Such as rimming. I assure you I can make you climax using nothing but my tongue.”

“Fuck. That’s hot.”

“Indeed.”

~~~~~~

The next day Harry wakes up next to Severus, who’s wrapped around Tom. He pulls back and just grins for a moment and then wanders off to shower. Alone. He used up his weekly allowance of polyjuice yesterday, Severus making sure to keep track so he doesn’t end up harming himself by using it too often, so he knows that Severus at least won’t want to shower with him. Tom would probably just laugh off the weirdness but there’s no way he could extract him from the bed without waking Severus. So he showers while remembering the night before fondly. He can’t believe rimming is that amazing. How did he never know this? He shakes his head. He somehow lived a very sheltered life in spite of sharing a dorm with a bunch of teenage boys. He huffs a laugh when he remembers that they mostly waxed poetic about blowjobs they almost certainly never received. He shakes his head again and focuses on showering. He needs to finish before Severus wakes. It was awkward enough having him see him in this body before they began sleeping together. 

~~~~~~

Later that morning, after a breakfast where Lucius wouldn’t even look at them, they head to Hogwarts. They land at the edge of the wards, Harry and Severus watching Tom as he simply stares at the castle for a long moment. Then they begin walking, ignoring the curious students. Harry glances at Tom in his, honestly a bit disturbing, blonde glamour. He almost looks like a Malfoy and it’s weirding him out a bit. He’s glad he doesn’t have to wear one himself. 

They head toward the third floor corridor but before they can get there they run into none other than Ron Weasley. He’s with Dean and Seamus but Harry only has eyes for him. He knew this would happen eventually, but he still isn’t prepared for it. He’s just glad they didn’t run into Fred. He doesn’t think he could run into one of those who died without making a scene. He blanks his face as best he can and keeps walking. Ron barely spares him a glance, too busy staring at Severus and the fact he has company. They turn down another hallway and Harry breathes a sigh of relief. He doesn’t know how he’s going to handle it if he ever becomes friends with these versions of people he once knew. How could he ever sit and chat with this Ron without worrying about accidentally referencing something that never happened from his perspective? He really is starting to hate that word. 

They reach the stupid corridor and it goes about like Harry said it would. Severus stands back and guides Tom through it while Harry watches. He may be powerful but he doesn’t have their years, or in Tom’s case decades, of experience to draw upon. He watches them work their magic, figuratively and literally, trying not to worry about something going wrong and breathing a sigh of relief when it’s done.

~~~~~~

Once back in the manor Harry watches as they examine the stone. 

“You don’t even know how to use it, do you?”

Tom glares halfheartedly. 

“I will soon enough.”

He has a feeling that’s true but...

“Why don’t you just abduct Flamel anyway? He’s not going to live very long without the stone and it couldn’t hurt to know how to make another.”

Tom goes thoughtful. While Severus looks a bit shocked about him encouraging Tom’s more psychopathic tendencies. He shrugs. The man is going to die either way. He really doesn’t see the problem. 

“I will have Lucius make inquiries but the man must be well guarded.”

He shrugs again.

“I’m sure you’re right but it’s still worth looking into.”

Harry watches as they continue discussing the stone’s properties, vaguely bored since most of it goes over his head. They’re interrupted a few minutes later by Lucius who is all business. 

“Sirius Black’s trial will take place in a fortnight. Ms. Bones was most concerned when she received the rat.”

Harry smiles a little bit sadly. He can’t wait to see the man again, but he knows Sirius will not be happy with his current accommodations. And he has no idea how he’ll deal with him potentially catching him on one of his dates. This is going to be a pain in the arse. He decides to put off worrying for the moment. He has two weeks to figure this shit out. 

~~~~~~

Two weeks later he has a rudimentary plan in place which mostly consists of Narcissa distracting her cousin for them. She was thrilled at the chance and can’t wait to do her part. She had a glint in her eyes as they discussed it that made him grateful she’s on their side. The woman is a little terrifying, understandable since she’s a Black though, and much of the reason he loves her so much.

He heads into the courtroom with Lucius once again, hoping this trial doesn’t take as long as Dumbledore’s did, and the first thing he sees is Sirius looking more dead than alive. He grits his teeth, trying not to let himself get angry. He’s going to have a talk with Tom about reforming Azkaban. No one should be treated this way. Sirius blinks when he sees who he’s with and Harry gives him a shy smile, hating that he has to pretend not to know him. He wants to hug the man. He wills away the memory of him falling through the veil. He’s been reliving that moment more than he usually does these past few days and now is not the time for it. He already wants to cry just seeing how emancipated Sirius is right now and he doesn’t know how they’d explain that.

~~~~~~

Less than two hours later they emerge from the floo in the manor’s entrance hall, Sirius looking bewildered to be here. Harry smiles mischievously up at him as Narcissa exclaims over his appearance and begins mothering the quickly overwhelmed man. He has a feeling this is going to go very wrong very quickly, but he’s so happy to have the man back. 

Tom walks in the room and is introduced as Tom Gaunt. The man was not happy about playing his own son. Mostly because he would never saddle a child with the name Tom. Harry found the whole argument hilarious. It was Severus, as usual, who eventually talked the man into it. He doesn’t know what they’d do without Severus. 

Tom’s presence is explained by telling Sirius that he’s his personal tutor. It’s essentially true. Tom’s still been giving him lessons almost every day. Sirius isn’t happy with the fact he isn’t and won’t be attending Hogwarts, but they distract him by telling him about Harry’s abusive relatives and the fact Dumbledore knew. Once he hears that he’s much more understanding of the fact that Harry doesn’t want to go to the man’s school even if he’s no longer there. And Harry points out that Dumbledore only got six months in Azkaban and might very well be given his job back.

Thinking of which...He wonders when Tom’s going to have the man kissed. He’d been looking forward to having the man permanently out of the way, but now he finds himself grumbling about the fact Sirius will once again expect him to go to Hogwarts. Why does everything have to be so annoying?

Chapter 13

Saturday morning he walks into the dining room and finds Narcissa waiting for him. She gives him an enquiring look and he nods. 

“As fas as I know Severus will be coming by after lunch. If you could keep Sirius distracted until just before dinner that would be great.”

She gives him a wicked smile. 

“I was thinking of taking him shopping, that man needs an entire wardrobe, it should take hours. If not there’s a few other things I can convince him I need to shop for.”

“If you make him too miserable you’ll have a harder time distracting him next weekend.”

“He won’t mind at all, he’s been making noises about reconnecting with his old friend Remus Lupin, he’ll love the idea.”

He gives her a look, wondering what she isn’t saying. Why would he care what he looks like when he sees Remus again...unless.

“When you say friend..?”

She raises her eyebrows at him and Harry can’t help grumbling.

“How did I never know that before? No one tells me anything.”

Narcissa laughs. While he wonders if this means Teddy won’t be born. Maybe Remus won’t want Sirius, they didn’t end up together in his last life. He shrugs mentally. It doesn’t really matter anyway. But it feels wrong, Teddy not existing in this life. He can’t help wondering how many other people will never exist because of the changes he’s making. In the case of everyone else he doesn’t regret it, but with Teddy...He decides not to worry about it for now. Not like he can do anything about it.

~~~~~~

That evening, after a brilliant day of amazing sex and enjoyable conversation with his lovers, he wanders into the dining room to find Sirius and Narcissa and a whole pile of packages. 

“Well someone had fun.”

“Pup! I may have bought you a present, or ten, here, open it.”

He rolls his eyes heavenward. He can’t believe the man’s started already. He’d hoped he would wait till the holidays at least. He gives Narcissa an unimpressed look and she gives him a look right back, apparently amused by his annoyance.

“I’m glad to see you think so highly of me that you think I could actually stop him from spoiling you.”

She has a point there. He opens the package Sirius has thrust into his hands, smiling when he sees it’s a Gryffindor scarf. He smiles mischievously at his godfather. 

“You know, I have a feeling I’d have been in Slytherin actually.”

The man clasps his chest and gasps dramatically. 

“The son of James and Lily, a snake, impossible!”

He laughs. 

“Wanna bet?”

Sirius gives him a look at his tone. Then nods. 

“I’ll take that bet, but how will we know who’s won?”

“Severus Snape works there as the Potions Master and head of Slytherin. He’s a good friend. I’m sure he could smuggle the hat out if I asked him to.”

He knows he’s taking a risk telling the man even that much, but he’d rather not try and hide everything from him for the next few years. It hasn’t even been a week and he’s already exhausted. He needs to begin easing him into things. Sirius surprises him by not saying anything rude about Severus, merely looks thoughtful for a moment before nodding. 

“And what are the terms of this bet?”

“If I win you only buy me gifts for my birthday or for major holidays.”

“You may just be right about your placement. Fine. If I win you’ll tell me exactly how you met the man since you never went to Hogwarts.”

Sirius gives him a suspicious look before reaching down beneath the table and pulling up a cage. Harry blinks, then reaches out with shaking hands. He opens the cage and waits for Hedwig to climb onto his arm. He runs his fingers through her feathers and whispers to her. 

“Hey girl, I’m so sorry I didn’t come for you. I didn’t want to risk you getting hurt again. But I guess that isn’t really a risk anymore is it?”

He looks up at Sirius and Narcissa, trying not to cry. He’s going to have a hard time explaining it if he does. Sirius looks like he sees through his act anyway. 

“I take it you like her?”

He nods jerkily, not quite trusting himself to speak. Sirius gives him a moment before foisting another gift on him. 

~~~~~~

The first two weeks of Sirius being in the manor go more or less fine. But then during the third week he walks outside and catches him and Tom dueling. Harry hadn’t even worried about that. They’ve been focusing on other things for a while, they weren’t planning to duel anytime soon. But he had needed to let off some steam and convinced Tom to duel him, by hitting him with a stinging hex when he wasn’t expecting it. 

So here they are, Harry with two gashes on his left arm, Tom in the process of sending a dozen daggers at him that he’d conjured, when Sirius walks within sight of them. And he’d been worried about him walking in on them having sex. He conjures a shield just in time before trying to calm Sirius. 

“Sirius, it’s fine. I’m fine. We were only having a friendly duel.”

“Friendly? Pup, you’re soaked in blood! How is this a friendly duel?!”

Fuck. He’s glad Sirius hasn’t drawn his wand yet. He glances at Tom to let him know he needs to make himself scarce for a bit. Tom looks reluctant but he leaves without an argument.

“We duel like this all the time, Sirius. I know it might look bad, but if I can’t handle a little pain in a duel I won’t survive. This is important. He’s my tutor, teaching me to duel is a part of that.”

“A little pain?”

Harry shrugs. He’d barely noticed. Sirius blinks at him before his face crumples. 

“Oh Pup, what’d those bastards do to you?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past. I won’t be seeing them again.”

He finds himself wrapped in Sirius’ arms, who growls. 

“Tell me their address so I can kill them.”

He laughs. 

“I can tell you where they used to live, but I blew up the house. No idea where they’re living now.”

Sirius laughs too.

“I’m glad to see you do have some marauder in you. Come on, let’s go get you healed.”

~~~~~~

The next morning the headlines announce that the long awaited event has occurred. Harry stares at the paper for a long moment. Then gives Tom and Lucius a look. They nod and then go back to their conversation with Sirius, who is happy the man can no longer threaten Harry but worried over how it happened. The last thing they need is to lose control of the dementors.

After breakfast they head for Lucius’s study. As soon as the door closes Harry starts right in. 

“I don’t like the conditions at Azkaban. It’s inhumane and serves no purpose. We should be trying to rehabilitate our criminals. It’s pretty fucking sad that the muggles are doing better at this than we are. This is the perfect opportunity to institute changes. Lucius you can express outrage over what happened and call for Azkaban to be reformed. The fact you always hated the man will only bolster your argument. If even someone who hated him disagrees with what happened...”

He looks to Tom to gauge his opinion. 

“We have discussed this before, but briefly. I don’t like it any more than you do. It is an excellent idea to use this moment to engender support for the idea of reform. It has always astonished me how few magicals believe Azkaban to be needlessly cruel. Between this and Black’s innocence...”

“A perfect storm, yes. I will see to it at once my lords.”

Lucius strides over to his desk to begin drafting the new legislation and Harry blinks after him. 

“Did he just?!”

Tom laughs. 

“Of course he did. The man isn’t blind, Harry. Unlike someone I could name.”

He aims a wandless stinging hex at Tom, who deflects it, also wandlessly. Tom surprises him with a hungry look.

“You know, you haven’t reached your weekly limit of polyjuice this weekend...”

He hadn’t even thought of that. 

“We haven’t discussed this, having sex without Severus here with us. I don’t imagine he’d have a problem with it, but I’d rather ask first.”

“That is a very good point, but that is why we have the mirrors is it not? Let’s see if we can’t get a hold of him.”

~~~~~~

They manage to catch him in between breakfast and his first class. 

“I only have a moment. Breakfast ran late with everyone exclaiming over the news. I have class in just five minutes. What did you need?”

They explain very quickly, while trying to ensure he understands that they do not want him to tell them he’s fine with it if he isn’t. The man cuts them off with a growl of idiots. 

“You’re both being ridiculous, this is a stupid thing to worry about. Harry, would it bother you if I did the same with Tom..? Exactly. Tom, would it bother you if it was Harry and I..? Good. I’m glad we’ve established that none of us are possessive, territorial, idiots. I’m going to go try and cram knowledge into my first class of the little fools, you, both of you, enjoy yourselves. Love you.”

And the mirror cuts out. 

“Do you think he’s realized what he just said yet?”

“If not he will soon enough, only he would avoid saying it consciously but then let it slip when he’s in too much of a hurry to notice.”

Harry nods, then shakes his head, the man is something else. He strips quickly before gulping down a sip of polyjuice, grimacing at the taste and then glaring at Tom. 

“Why are you still dressed? We can only use this for two hours today and I for one want to enjoy every last second.”

He pushes the man onto the bed and begins stripping him himself. 

~~~~~~

It takes a few days before Severus can come by and when he does he doesn’t just bring the hat. Harry blinks at the sight of McGonagall. They get the introductions over with and then Severus explains her presence. 

“I wasn’t going to try smuggling the hat out for an evening when I could just ask. When I did she expressed a desire to come with, to try and convince you it’s safe for you to attend Hogwarts now.”

McGonagall cuts in.

“When I heard what that man did! I told him they were the worst sort of muggles, I had thought they would spoil you terribly, not...I cannot believe that man left you there knowing what they were doing. I wish that he had not been kissed, I know a few nasty curses I’d have loved to use on the man, not that he’s the only one to blame. I am so sorry I did not check on you myself. He assured me you were being cared for. Not that that excuses my own actions. I am sorry, Mr. Potter, truly.”

He tilts his head slightly at her. He feels like he should reinforce the importance of the changes she’s been making just to be sure.

“I can’t help but wonder if anyone would have caught it if I had gone to Hogwarts.”

Her face twists into a look of disgust. 

“No, we would not have, not while Albus was still in charge. Now that I am headmistress I will be implementing changes. I will ensure every student attending Hogwarts now and in future shall be given a thorough evaluation so that none of them remain in abusive situations.”

He nods. At least something good came out of his having to play the abused little boy. 

“So I hear there’s a bet about which house you would be sorted into...”

She holds up the hat and he summons Dobby and has him fetch Sirius. As soon as Sirius arrives, and has finished greeting his old head of house, he takes the hat and puts it on. 

“Interesting. Very interesting. I do believe you’re the first to ever be sorted twice.”

“I have a feeling I wouldn’t have had an opportunity to if I hadn’t argued the first time.”

The hat chuckles quietly.

“Indeed, then I suppose you won’t pretend that you don’t belong in.”

SLYTHERIN

McGonagall pulls the hat off his head with her eyes very wide. He smiles faux innocently at her and then focuses on Sirius. He smirks smugly at the man. 

“No more presents?”

“Did you argue with the hat?”

He snorts at that.

“No.”

Sirius sighs like he’s ruining his fun.

“Fine. No more presents except during holidays. Although...you said only during major holidays but you never said only British major holidays. I already bought a book on holidays celebrated in other cultures.”

Harry groans loud and long. He glares at the laughing man. 

“You’re supposed to be a Gryffindor, but that is a Slytherin move.”

“You take that back!”

He dodges the hex Sirius sends at him, if he’s not mistaken it would’ve turned his hair some hideous colour, while sending his own back. He snorts when he hears McGonagall ask Severus. 

“Are they always like this?”

He sees Severus shake his head out of the corner of his eye as he deflects another prank hex. 

“Worse. Last time I was here Lucius spent twenty minutes whining about the fact someone had hexed his albino peacocks to be rainbow coloured.”

McGonagall laughs, it shocks Harry so much he fails to dodge or deflect the next hex, and he finds himself with bright green skin. 

“Damn it.”

Chapter 14

Harry spends the next few days dodging questions from Sirius about his friendship with Severus. While he doesn’t want to have to hide forever, as soon as he turns fifteen he wants to be open about his relationship, he doesn’t know how to go about having this particular discussion. He needs to ease Sirius into the idea, he just doesn’t know how to, aside from telling him the truth, and since that would include the fact Tom is the former Dark Lord...yeah, he can’t see that happening. Ugh. His life is so stupid sometimes. 

He decides to go flying. He’s only in the air for about ten minutes when he’s joined by Sirius, though. 

“Hey, Pup, you’re a natural. It’s too bad you aren’t going to be attending Hogwarts next year, you would definitely be picked for the team. And you could spend more time with your friend.” 

He almost sounded like he was being suggestive there. He shakes his head, he must be imagining things. 

“Not gonna happen, Sirius. I’m happy right where I am.”

He takes off toward the ground with Sirius right behind him. 

“If you won’t tell me how you met the man, I’ll just have to ask him. I assume he’ll be visiting once the Yule break starts?”

Dammit. He closes his eyes, sighing defeatedly. He can’t let the man interrogate Severus. He’ll have to give him some kind of explanation. He’s going to regret this he just knows it. But he can leave out the part where Tom’s a former Dark Lord, right? He drags Sirius off to a nearby bench and makes him sit. 

“You won’t like this. Not one word until I finish, Sirius. I mean it.”

Sirius nods. Harry looks away as he explains, partly because seeing Sirius’ reaction would only distract him, but mostly because he’s not sure he wants to know what Sirius thinks of his relationship with his lovers. 

“I died. I lived until I was almost twenty and then I died. Then I came back. I’m not going to Hogwarts because I’m not interested in pretending to be eleven all the time, or in redoing my Hogwarts education, not that the first time was particularly effective. I know Severus from my first life when I did go to Hogwarts, but we aren’t friends, we’re lovers. Him, Tom, and I are in a relationship together.”

“I know, Harry.”

“I, you...what?”

“You haven’t been as subtle as you seem to think, Pup. I knew you were hiding something so I poked around. You know using polyjuice while you’re growing is bad for your health, right?”

Harry almost laughs at that being his first concern but he’s still too confused.

“Severus makes sure I never use it for too long. You seem to be taking this well. Too well. You didn’t even freak out about my having died.”

“I’m still busy wrapping my head around you dating the Dark Lord.”

“You, how?”

“I overheard Lucius calling the two of you his lords. Wasn’t hard to figure out after that. Tom Gaunt. Why not just change his first name as well?”

“If you knew how hard it was to get him to agree to let me call him Tom...I wasn’t about to call him Voldemort. Stupid fucking name.”

Sirius barks out a laugh and he can’t help but join him. He can’t believe how well he’s taking this though. He gives Sirius a long look. 

“I’m not happy about this, Pup. Not your relationship. I don’t have a problem with that so long as they treat you right. I’m not happy about what you’ve gone through, the way you reacted when you saw the owl I got you, you knew her in your first life?”

“Hedwig was my first friend. Hagrid bought her for me as my first birthday present, when I was eleven. She died and it...felt like a part of me died too that day.”

“That, that’s what I’m not happy about, Harry. There are times when you look as if you’ve seen horrors I couldn’t imagine. And I spent ten years in Azkaban. I wish you had had a happier life. You’re happy now though?”

“You have no idea. I love them, Sirius, and they love me. And I’ve been able to change so much since I’ve been back. There won’t be a second war with Voldemort. No battle at Hogwarts leaving dozens dead. You’re alive, Remus is alive, Dobby is alive, and Severus. Severus is alive. He died in my arms, Sirius.”

He blinks away the tears but not quick enough. Sirius pulls him into his arms. 

“Oh, Harry. I wish you hadn’t had to experience any of that.”

They stay like that for a long moment. Then. 

“But how did you come back from the dead?”

He laughs and begins to explain the bullshit that was his first life. About two thirds of the way through, Tom comes walking up and gives him a bewildered look. It’s such an unexpected sight that he finds himself laughing again. He pulls Tom onto the bench next to them. 

“Sirius, I’d like you to meet Tom Riddle, former Dark Lord and currently my lover.”

Tom blinks for a moment then glares at him.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. He figured it out on his own. He knows everything, or pretty much, I’m not done giving him all the details yet.”

“Is he going to be attempting anything foolish?”

Sirius laughs and Harry snorts. 

“Only multiple times a day. He’s always doing foolish things, but he won’t be attempting to murder you or Severus. He knows I wouldn’t forgive him if he did.”

“Yes you would, you’re much too forgiving or you wouldn’t be dating the men you are.”

“Shush you or I’ll leave out the name of the woman Remus married after you died.”

Sirius’ eyes gleam.

“You had better not. I need to know who my competition is, and whether she’s hot. You think she’d be up for a threesome?”

Harry rolls his eyes but goes back to his tale. Although he wonders if Teddy will be born after all. 

~~~~~~

The Yule break starts and Harry finds himself waiting impatiently in the entrance hall. He wishes it was the weekend and he could be under polyjuice right now, but at least he’ll get to spend time with both his lovers. Severus apparates in, grumbling about nosy old biddies, and Harry grins at him. 

“And you, Tom tells me you told someone everything.”

He shrugs. 

“He figured out enough on his own. At least this way we don’t have to sneak around anymore.”

“No, now we just have to spend more time with the mutt.”

“If he doesn’t behave himself I’ll deal with him, you know that.”

Severus sighs. 

“I know, but I still don’t like it.”

He gives the man a fond look, then drags him off to go find Tom.

~~~~~~

The next day he’s heading back from a trip to the kitchens, having spent the morning helping the elves bake biscuits, when he runs into Sirius and Narcissa.

“What are you two up to?”

Sirius drags him in and shushes him dramatically, then whispers in his ear. 

“Spying on your lovers, now shush.”

He starts to argue but then shrugs and peers around the doorjamb as well. Severus and Tom are sitting on a couch together and he feels a stab of jealousy. If only it was the weekend. Damn it. He brushes it off. Then registers what they’re saying. 

“I’m still no closer to making the effect permanent. I’ve gotten it to last for a week but I’ve no idea why it only lasts a week. I’m not sure it can be done, Tom.”

“If anyone can design it you can. You heard what the publishers said, I was right about your recipes being the best.”

“You put too much stock in being right.”

“Mm, perhaps. Or perhaps it is simply that you do not value it enough. You don’t seem to even notice when you are right.”

“You’re never going to let that go are you?”

“Never.”

Harry watches, smiling, as Severus pulls the infuriating man in and kisses him soundly. He wonders what kind of potion he wants to make. 

“I knew I was right, I simply didn’t know everyone else was wrong.”

“Yet you complain continuously about teaching little idiots.”

“Yes, well, I would’ve thought potion masters would be less idiotic. It would seem that for once I overestimated people’s intelligence. Perhaps a potion isn’t the answer, a spell might be able to...”

“You’re very determined to fix his eyesight, is it because of the resemblance to his father?”

“While that certainly contributes, mostly they’ll just get in the way once he’s no longer using polyjuice.”

“Mm, true enough. Perhaps you’re looking at it the wrong way. You’re attempting to design a healing potion but if it’s a genetic defect you might be better off attempting to modify his eyes rather than heal them.”

Severus goes thoughtful. 

“There is no such potion in existence, I would have to start from scratch, but perhaps...”

Tom kisses him on the cheek. 

“You’re welcome, love.”

Severus growls and pushes the man onto his back and lays down on top of him. 

“You are pushing your luck, Tom.”

Tom laughs and Harry nudges their audience away. He’s not sure how far Severus is going to take Tom’s punishment, but doubts he’d want an audience for it. They follow him to a room down the hall. The moment the door closes Sirius begins cooing. 

“They’re so cute together, Harry. Are they like that all the time? I can see why you’d want to be with them if they are.”

Narcissa nods for him and he blinks. 

“When have you seen us together?”

She smiles, her eyes gleaming.

“Oh once or twice. You seem to think you’re the only one who spends time in the gardens.”

“You never spend time in the gardens! You’ve only been doing so to spy on us. Why am I even arguing? I don’t really care if you watch, it’s not like we’ve been having sex outside anyway.”

She and Sirius both laugh and Harry has a feeling Sirius is going to be spending more time in the gardens as well. He rolls his eyes at them. 

~~~~~~

That weekend he takes Tom and Severus out into the muggle, rather than into the gardens. They don’t seem to suspect anything, which is good, ‘cause he has a feeling Severus wouldn’t appreciate being spied on. 

He takes them to a bookstore, they give him a questioning look till he leads them to a section on the human body. He pulls out a book on eyesight and hands it to Severus. Tom laughs. Severus looks annoyed for a moment before beginning to browse for more books on the subject. Tom walks up behind him, wraps his arms around him, and rests his chin on his shoulder. 

“How much did you see the other day?”

He tilts his head to the side.

“Not that much, why?”

“Pity. Severus here felt the need to spank me for my attitude.”

“Oh fuck. I’m tempted to ask for the memory but I think I’d rather just watch him do it again.”

Tom chuckles and breathes into his ear. 

“I don’t think that will be a problem.”

Severus rejoins them, giving them a look at their whispered conversation, and they begin browsing the bookstore together. They spend about an hour picking out various books, then head to a restaurant for lunch. Harry has a difficult time trying to distract himself from Tom’s earlier words. Especially since Tom keeps giving him looks. Severus ignores it at first but finally reaches the end of his tether.

“What are the looks about?”

Harry finds himself getting hard again at the sound of Severus’ growling voice. Probably the same tone of voice he used while he was disciplining Tom. Fuck. Tom replies for him.  

“Oh nothing much. Only Harry’s rather disappointed he missed my punishment. He’s hoping there’ll be a repeat this afternoon.”

Severus gives them both a look. 

“It would seem he isn’t the only one.”

Tom shrugs. 

“I enjoyed it.”

Severus shakes his head and changes the subject. They finish their meal and head back to the manor. Once in their room Harry gives Severus a hopeful look. Severus rolls his eyes up to the ceiling before nodding his agreement, as if he isn’t going to enjoy this as much as they will. Harry stops Tom before he can begin stripping and strips him himself, kissing him as he does so. He pulls back and whispers against his lips. 

“Fuck, I can’t wait to see you bent over his lap.”

Tom smirks at him and Harry feels Severus’ hands on his hips and then finds his jumper being pulled over his head, Severus taking the opportunity to ghost his hands over his torso as he drags it up his chest. Severus leans forward and sucks a mark onto his shoulder once it’s exposed and Harry moans, quickly working the rest of Tom’s clothes off while Severus does the same to him. It isn’t long before they’re both naked, Severus still fully dressed, which somehow makes this even better.

Severus sits on the edge of the bed and Tom dutifully bends over his lap. Harry’s already harder than he’s ever been before. He can’t believe he never thought about this before today and he’s equally surprised that Tom would enjoy it at all, much less as much as he obviously does.

Severus’ hand comes down in a sharp smack and Tom moans, grinding against his thigh. He gets an extra hard smack for that and a growled warning to stay still. Harry bites his lip, wanting so badly to touch himself and knowing he’d cum almost at once if he did. He watches raptly as Severus smacks Tom’s arse again and again, Tom moaning every time, but staying obediently still. It only takes thirteen smacks for Tom to climax, and by then Harry has succumbed to temptation and begun slowly wanking and has to grip his cock to stave off his own climax at the sight. Severus gives him a look at that. 

“He has seven more to go, somehow I doubt you’ll be able to last that long. Why don’t you have him suck your cock while I finish?”

“Fuck, yeah, I’ll do that.”

He moves around to Tom’s front and places his cock at his lips. Tom sucks him in at once, laving the tip of his cock, chasing down every last trace of his pre before he begins sucking him properly. Harry groans and nearly climaxes at the first harsh suck, but just manages to hold it back, desperate to cum and wanting to make this last at the same time. He watches, enraptured, as Severus smacks Tom’s arse again and then again. Severus smirks at him and smacks Tom’s arse harder than ever causing Tom to yelp around his cock. He climaxes instantly, filling Tom’s mouth with his cum, while Severus smacks Tom four more times in quick succession. 

He pulls his spent cock free and stumbles back a step, falling heavily onto the bed. He watches disbelievingly as Severus strips and then begins preparing Tom’s arse. Severus catches his eye and smirks. 

“He deserves a reward for taking his punishment so well, don’t you think?”

He nods jerkily, still panting. He finds it hard to believe Tom would want to be fucked after that, but considering the eager look in his eyes, apparently he does. He drags himself up the bed and kisses Tom while Severus finishes stretching him, then pulls back so Severus can kiss him as he enters him. Severus is rougher even than usual, pounding into him forcefully, Tom moaning each time he connects with his reddened arse. It doesn’t take long before Tom climaxes, keening, across his stomach, Severus following immediately after. Harry leans forward and licks a stripe up Tom’s stomach. 

“Fuck, Harry. Keep doing that and I might just have to fuck you next.”

He smirks at Severus and does just that, slowly licking Tom clean while staring into Severus’ eyes.

“You’re both incorrigible.”

“Mmhm, you might need to spank me too.”

Tom laughs and Severus groans. 

Chapter 15

The next few days everything is a bit chaotic. He keeps catching Sirius and Tom deep in conversation, which is weirding him out. He also keeps seeing the pile of gifts under the tree grow, which is annoying him rather. Sirius has behaved himself up to now, didn’t get him gifts on major holidays from other cultures in spite of his earlier sort of threat, and he’d hoped the man would continue being reasonable about this. He doesn’t want to be given gifts all the time. Is that really so much to ask? He also doesn’t want to receive a Dudley worthy mountain of gifts. He actually thinks it’s grown past that now. He hopes he’s not about to receive more gifts than Dudley. That’s a horrifying thought. A lot of those had better be for other people. Which makes him think of Sirius giving Severus gifts and he can’t help snorting.

The most jarring change to the status quo is the addition of Remus and Tonks. He can’t believe how quickly Sirius moved on that. He knows the man had seen Remus a few times, but now Remus is here every day, with Tonks, and the way he’s seen the three of them acting...he gives it a year before they’ve moved in together. He thinks of how quickly his own relationship progressed and yeah, he can’t really talk, can he? He just hopes things work out for them in the end. Sirius deserves a bit of happiness after everything he went through.

He shakes off his thoughts and goes in search of Draco. He should rope him into playing some quidditch. 

~~~~~~

Except Draco ropes him into going to Diagon instead. Some last minute gift shopping. Why did he agree to this? He follows him from shop to shop not really paying attention to much of anything. Until. Holy shit. He watches the familiar head of hair move through the crowd with her parents trailing along after her and snorts when he realizes which storefront she’s just entered. 

“Draco, I need to go to the bookstore real quick. Come on.”

Draco grumbles a bit but follows willingly enough. Harry moves through the crowd fairly easily, with his hair charmed to look red no one recognizes him. He doesn’t know why he never did that before. He catches up to the Grangers inside the store and hovers nearby. Waiting for an opportunity. Hermione picks a book off the shelf and he sees that it’s a later book in a fictional series. 

“Hey, would you recommend those? I haven’t had much time lately for pleasure reading, my tutor keeps me very busy.”

“Tutor? You don’t go to Hogwarts?”

He smiles and lifts his fringe. 

“Ignore the red hair, it’s my disguise.”

Her eyes widen and she smiles at his conspiratorial tone. 

“Oh, well. I would definitely recommend them. They’re an enjoyable read but also fascinating trying to figure out what spells and potions are real and which ones are fictional. I love them. I’d also recommend this series...”

He smiles as he drinks in her enthusiastic chatter. He soon has a stack of a dozen books in his, luckily weightless, basket. He follows her around the store recommending books himself. Some of which he hasn’t even read, but which he remembers past life Hermione enjoyed. His heart hurts a little at the realization that she’ll never be that Hermione. She’ll never spend months starving in a tent. Never fight in a war. But at the same time. She’ll never experience those things and that’s a very good thing. He has a feeling his Hermione wouldn’t have seen it that way. She’d have argued that her experiencing those things was worth it because it meant they were friends. But this Hermione can get the good without the evil. She can be his best friend without having to fight in his battles. He smiles so wide it hurts and insists they come by the manor and have dinner with them. Hermione looks so pleased at the prospect of a new friend, and one who likes books at that, that her parents agree with little argument. 

He’s so glad he let Draco talk him into going shopping.

~~~~~~

It isn’t till he’s opening his twelfth? gift, he’s already lost count, that he realizes something is wrong. He pulls out a silky green negligee and blinks at it for a long moment, then glances up into the grinning face of his godfather. 

“Sirius, I’ll have you know I prefer my lingerie in black.”

Sirius’ grins widens. Oh god, he probably got him something black as well, the little pest. Harry glares halfheartedly at his godfather, who only smiles wider in response, and then hears a deep heartfelt groan and turns to see Severus shove a box aside while attempting to pull his wand, Tom preventing him from doing so. He doesn’t know if he’s going to curse Sirius or vanish whatever it is and he can’t bear the thought of not knowing what pissed him off so much. He snatches up the box. He catches sight of it’s contents and laughs for so long he has to wipe away tears. Fuck. He can’t believe Sirius bought him a leather harness. Fuck, that’s kind of hot. He manages to stop laughing long enough to say. 

“At least it’s black?”

But at Severus’ glare finds himself laughing again. 

The rest of the gifts go much the same. They unwrap dildos, nipple clamps, corsets, and stockings. It’s an entire sex shop’s worth of kinky shit. He himself is more horrified than amused when Tom pulls out a French maid outfit. Tom seems to find it funny, though. For a moment he’d worried someone was going to be cursed. He does in fact receive some black lingerie in the form of a cat outfit. 

“Holy fuck, Sirius, what is wrong with you? You couldn’t find me something deer themed?”

Sirius’ eyes gleam. Shit. He’s has no doubt the man will now. He feels like he should be annoyed but can’t help laughing at the man’s antics. He catches sight of Lucius’ half horrified, half intrigued, countenance and laughs harder. 

~~~~~~

In the afternoon Harry collects the last of his gifts and heads down to the kitchens. He finds Tom already there. 

“Harry, I was just getting a cup of tea. I should go back and help Severus brew.”

Tom holds up the cup as proof, but Harry knows better, he always summons a house elf, he never visits the kitchens. He lets it go for the moment. Tom kisses him then wanders out as if this is all perfectly normal. Harry narrows his eyes at Kreacher as soon as the man is out of earshot.

“What was he doing?”

“Lord Tom be giving us gifts, Harry.”

He blinks, then grins broadly. 

“Do you mind showing me what he got you?”

It turns out to be mostly books, with the occasional piece of jewelry or in the case of Nebby, who’s visiting for the day, several different toys. He exclaims over all their new things and then brings out his own stash of gifts and begins handing them out. He got them several books as well for those whom he knows have a fondness for them, he made sure to get a few books about elves who aren’t enslaved, they need to start getting used to the idea before they can be freed. He also got toys for the younger ones, various games, and a few small instruments. Probably too much, they seem rather overwhelmed, but he couldn’t deny himself. Someone has to make up for all the time they’ve gone without.

He spends the next two hours first playing with them and then helping them work. He enjoys himself immensely. 

~~~~~~

That evening Harry’s sitting on their bed watching Tom put away all of their new kinky things. He refused to throw out a single item and the look he gave him while he said it, Harry’s fairly certain he’s going to end up wearing that maid outfit at least once. Damn it. 

Severus sits down next to him and Harry turns to find him looking grim. 

“Something wrong?”

Severus shakes his head and hands him a box. 

“I didn’t want to give you this in front of the others.”

He merely holds the box for a moment, wondering at Severus’ somber mood, then slowly opens it, making a small sound when he sees what it contains. He pulls out the top photo and grins down at the picture of his mum and Severus. 

“God, you were just as handsome when you were a teen, or well, maybe not quite as handsome as you are now, but damn.”

Severus shakes his head disbelievingly and Harry runs his fingers down his cheek. 

“Severus, you are the most handsome man I have ever known. Those arseholes who claim different are blind fools. You know this. You only rail about their idiocy about a dozen times a day. I don’t love you in spite of your looks, I love you as well as, and if I’m being honest, because of your looks. You’re a sexy fucking man. Tom, help me out here.”

Tom walks up behind Severus and wraps his arms around him. 

“While I agree with everything Harry here said. You could be even more appealing if you would only agree to wear that leather harness...”

Severus’ eyes narrow.

“You helped the mutt with that stunt he pulled, didn’t you?”

Tom laughs and kisses Severus’ cheek. 

“Only a little. I may have picked out the harness and that little green number. You will be at least trying that on, Harry. I bet you ten galleons you’ll love it.”

Harry shrugs and begins stripping. 

“I’ll not take that bet but hand me the polyjuice and the lingerie. I’ve still got an hour left of polyjuice for the week.”

Tom grins victoriously, while Severus just looks amused. 

“You should probably wait to drink it till after we’ve stripped, brat, since we’re on a timer.”

He blinks at the fact he hadn’t thought of that, he’s usually the one jealously guarding their polyjuice time. Too distracted with how sexy his lovers are he supposes. He waits patiently for them to strip and then has Tom transfigure a mirror so he can see what he looks like after he changes. He takes a sip of polyjuice, goes through the horrible process of transforming, then slips the negligee over his head. He feels a bit ridiculous. He tilts his head as he consider it, not really seeing the appeal. Tom comes up behind him and adjusts the hang of it while whispering in his ear. 

“You look so fucking sexy in it, yet you can’t see it, can you?”

He shakes his head. Severus comes to stand beside him and the look he gives him in the mirror, damn. He might not be able to see it but they obviously can. Severus growls out the word. 

“Bed.”

And he quickly finds himself laid out upon it. Tom lays down beside him and rubs his fingers sensually over his silk covered body, while Severus begins prepping him slightly quicker than is entirely comfortable. He knows it’s only because Severus is so impatient to be inside him so he doesn’t complain, merely gives them both an eager look. Tom leans in and kisses him. 

“So did I win the bet?”

“I refused it if you recall.”

“But if you hadn’t?”

“I do feel sexy in it but only because of the way you both look at me. I categorically refuse to even try on the cat or maid outfits though. It’s not happening, Tom.”

Tom just smirks at him. He has a feeling he’ll regret this but...

“I’ll consider it only if you wear them first.”

Tom smirks even wider. Fuck. He knew he’d end up wearing them. Damn it.

Severus presses inside while he’s distracted and oh fuck it might be better when he hasn’t been prepped as thoroughly. He rather likes the slight burn. He’ll have to mention it sometime when he isn’t busy moaning. Severus is ramming into his prostate already and Tom’s begun teasing his nipples. Shit, he’s not going to last very long if they don’t slow down, not that that’s a problem exactly. Maybe they’ll have time for another round. Severus finally releases his hip and he begins meeting his thrusts as best he can with the both of them driving him mad. Severus begins pounding into his prostate even harder than before and he falls over the edge faster than he ever has before. He goes boneless and Severus continues thrusting into him until he too climaxes. Tom surprises him by taking Severus’ place after he moves aside. 

“I thought you preferred bottoming?”

“Prefer yes, but I don’t hate topping and you are too delectable to resist.”

Tom enters him in one quick, brutal thrust. He gasps and then groans a little as Tom’s battering of his prostate causes his cock to harden again too soon. Fuck, it’s worth it though. Tom’s looking at him like he’s the most desirable thing on the planet. He really will be wearing whatever stupid outfit Tom wants him to if it makes him this passionate. Severus finally recovers enough to do more than pant. He begins raking his fingers through his hair. 

“You do look particularly delicious in lingerie, Harry.”

He grins mischievously up at the man.

“Since you admit Tom was right about this, that mean you’re going to try on the harness?”

Severus blinks at him then pinches his nipple with his free hand. 

“Brat. You are both impossible. Are you going to wear the cat outfit?”

“Yeah, if Tom really wants me to, yeah, I’ll wear the damn thing. I might feel foolish doing it but if he likes it...although we do need to find something for him to wear. I’m thinking maybe one of the corsets. What do you think?”

Severus goes from horrified at the idea of him dressed as a cat to intrigued. 

“Yes...I think a corset might just suit.”

Tom had begun pounding into him harder the moment he agreed to dress as a cat. At the suggestion of his wearing a corset he slows his thrusts and leans down, kissing him hungrily and then sucking a mark into his neck. He pulls back and begins thrusting faster again. 

“I don’t mind wearing whatever you want me to. Unless it’s yellow. I look terrible in yellow.”

Harry laughs and then moans at a particularly brutal thrust. Tom continues pounding into him for another long moment before climaxing. He stays snug inside him for a long moment before pulling out and starting to suck his cock. Harry throws back his head and groans loudly. It doesn’t take long before he’s filling Tom’s mouth, who crawls up his body and kisses him, sharing his cum between them. Then Tom flops down on his other side and they fall asleep tangled together.

Chapter 16: Epilogue

Harry wakes up and stares at the ceiling, trying to figure out what woke him. He doesn’t need to be up this early does he? Fuck. He dives out of bed when he remembers what day it is. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he can’t believe he forgot to set an alarm. Or he did but turned it off in his sleep? He shakes his head. It doesn’t matter. What’s important is showering very fucking quickly. He tears out of his boxers, glad he didn’t wear more last night, and turns the water on while tossing them aside. He scrubs himself clean as quickly as he possibly can. Then dries himself, also as fast as possible. Then he stares at his reflection. Fuck it. His hair is never going to be tamed. Maybe he should grow it out? He shakes his head. Focus. He has to focus. He sprints for the damned closet and begins struggling into his dress robes. He’s almost done when Severus storms into the room. 

“Why aren’t you ready? We have fifteen minutes at most, if you make us late Tom will never let us live this down.”

“Well, if Tom hadn’t insisted on having this thing in the morning...damn it, don’t just stand there, Sev, help me.”

Severus tuts at the use of his nickname but dutifully helps him with his fucking evil ass corsage thing, whatever the hell it is. 

“Why do I have to wear goddamn flowers anyway?”

“They’re traditional. It’s hardly going to hurt you to wear a single flower in your buttonhole, now stop fidgeting. Why were you not dressed earlier?”

“Because I was sleeping. I, unlike some people I could name, get up at a reasonable hour.”

Severus snorts at his idea of reasonable and Lucius sticks his head in the door, with his eyes averted so he can’t possibly see something he shouldn’t.

“My Lords, we really must be leaving now if we’re to arrive on time.”

“Lucius, if you call me that one more time...I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

“Sorry, Severus. Habit.”

“Yes, well, it shouldn’t be.”

Harry grins at the old argument. Then straightens his shoulders. 

“Let’s go before Tom comes looking next.”

Severus nods sharply and they head downstairs to the entrance hall. Harry takes Narcissa’s arm, who clucks over his hair. While Severus, still glaring at the man, takes Lucius’ arm. And they apparate to just outside the stupid fucking church. 

“Why did it have to be a church?”

“You know very well I insisted because of all those times I was accused of being possessed as a child. I find it amusing, Harry, getting married in a church like a respectable person.”

“Which we all know you aren’t, Tom.”

Tom grins wider than is seemly and takes both of them by an arm, walking them through the doors with the same vicious smile on his face, thoroughly enjoying himself apparently.

“Now who made you almost late, hm?”

“That was Harry’s doing. I’m fairly certain he’s been awake less than half an hour.”

Tom laughs delightedly. 

“If only someone had set an alarm.”

Harry stops dead, dragging them to a stop as well. 

“You didn’t.”

Tom gives him a look of innocent confusion and Severus begins grumbling about awful mutts and their terrible influence. 

“You did!”

He points a finger in Tom’s face.

“What the hell, Tom. You insisted on this whole production and then you try to make me late. Why?”

Tom shrugs while smirking. 

“I thought it amusing. I rented the church for the whole day, it’s not like you’d have missed it, it merely would’ve happened later than originally planned.”

“You’re so fucking ridiculous, and I’m banning Sirius from the house for at least a month. He is a terrible influence. God, he even managed to corrupt a Dark Lord.”

“I tried telling you, Harry. If you’ll remember.”

“Oh don’t start, Sev. Let’s just get this over with before Teddy starts crying. You know he hates being held for long periods of time, but I swear Tom, any more pranks today...and I won’t be having sex today after all.”

Tom goes pale at that threat. It was his idea to wait till today for their first polyjuice-free fuck. The romantic sap.

“I haven’t anything else planned for today, but I can’t guarantee that Sirius won’t...”

Harry throws his head back and stares at the ceiling. He knows Sirius will definitely be at his worst today of all days. He throws up his hands in surrender.

“Fine, Fine. Just, you behave yourself. He’s bound to be annoying enough on his own. Honestly the man’s a menace.”

“Again, I have been saying this for years.”

Harry laughs at Severus’ tone. He sounds so funereal. He grabs Tom’s hand again and lets himself be led down the aisle. Everyone watching their antics, seemingly amused. Not that anyone would dare be otherwise with their Lords involved. He catches Hermione’s eye and winks at her. She shakes her head back at him. 

They get to the front and stand before the minister and she begins with the usual spiel. Harry tunes it out. Too distracted by the kaleidoscope of colours that is Teddy’s hair. He must be very excited today. He wonders what his parents told him, knowing Sirius it’ll be what he told his son. Tonks and Remus wouldn’t have told him anything that would have him that ecstatic. He focuses back on the minister as she begins their specific vows, the woman looking very confused at them. Harry can’t believe Tom wouldn’t let them use a magical for this. They’re going to have to obliviate her after anyway.

“Now repeat after me, each of you by turn.”

She already looks a bit uncertain over the fact she’s marrying three people. 

“I take the two of you as my own, and give of myself in turn. Magic, life, and love, the works of my hands, and the whole of my days, my happiest of moments and the saddest of the same, and all the others likewise.”

They each recite the vow while staring at the others. Then she hands them each a ring which they slide on their fingers themselves, Harry snorts mentally when he sees that Tom chose ones in the shape of an ouroboros. For them forever is a little more literal than usual. She recites a Latin phrase and instructs them to repeat it. Harry blinks and turns to Tom at the same time Severus does. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“You can always come back to before we did so if it turns out to be a mistake.”

He stretches his arms out to either side. 

“And...you didn’t. Apparently we’re good to go.”

Severus grumbles under his breath about terrible influences and Harry shares a look with him. They both shrug and then at the same time the three of them recite the bonding vow, including the bit which will split their magic between them. Harry feels his magic escape his body, filling half of the, quite large, room. It pools thicker than ever before in the air around them, so thick he can barely see his, not lovers, husbands now. Fuck, that’s gonna take some getting used to. Husbands. He blinks at the pearlescent smoke surrounding them. It swirls into strange patterns for a moment before seemingly evaporating. Harry expects to have to pull it back in, it never seems to want to be caged, but, he doesn’t. It settles in like it’s perfectly content. Or at least his share of it does. 

“How does it feel?”

He stares worriedly at Tom and Severus. 

“Like home.”

“Like that first day after you brought me back.”

He grins lopsidedly at them both, but still wonders. 

“It didn’t fight being pulled inside? It didn’t for me and it always does.”

They shake their heads. Severus speculates. 

“Perhaps...it’s because it was always meant to be shared?”

Harry does snort at that. Severus glares. There’s a chuckle that reverberates through their bones and every single person watching gasps. Seriously?! Harry glares up at Death. 

“Sorry little master, but your husband is correct.”

He continues glaring at Death, but now it’s more bewildered than annoyed.

“What, but, how does that make any sense? Wouldn’t most people have a stupidly large amount of power before they got married then?”

Death chuckles again and Harry catches sight of Teddy giggling with his hair turned black, Remus looking horrified at his son. He huffs a laugh. He’d known the moment Tom suggested this that it would probably go sideways but he hadn’t thought it would be Death crashes the wedding levels of chaos. 

“Ah, but how many weddings are between a soul anchor and his maker. You are his last soul anchor, little master, you carried within you the bulk of his power as well as your own.”

Harry looks to Tom, who looks equally shocked. 

“That would mean that in my youth I was much more powerful than Dumbledore.”

Damn it. Now he understands that stupid memory. About damn time it makes sense. 

“That’s why Dumbledore was so scared of you in the orphanage. It had nothing to do with your parseltongue, it’s ‘cause you had so much more power than him, and your being a little psycho probably didn’t help. But wait, you insisted that I’d want to keep his soul shard in me, why? I still don’t understand that.”

“Because of your bond, little master. You now share between you three protections, that of the soul anchor, your mastery of the hallows, and the elixir of life. Three, as you well know, is a very powerful number.”

“Oh, well that makes sense. And I guess you couldn’t have told me back then. I would never have believed that this would happen.”

Death nods and then fades out of the room again, everyone breathing a collective sigh of relief, except for Teddy who makes a sad sound. 

“Well, at least we got our answer, I guess?”

Tom nods thoughtfully, then grins maniacally. Harry finds himself being kissed in a wholly indecent manner. Tom pulls back and bestows a kiss just like it on Severus. Then he pulls back again and gives them a well get on with it look. Harry grins, and before Severus can object, kisses him himself, making sure to make it even more indecent than Tom had. 

“Show off.”

He pulls back eventually and then says brightly.

“Bed?”

He hears Hermione whisper harshly from the front row. 

“Oh, Harry, you can’t just skip out on your own reception.”

He looks out at all his friends, human, house elf, and incorrigible dogfather alike, and gives them a winning smile as Tom takes his and Severus’ arms, and they do just that.

Chapter 17: Postscript

Notes:

Someone, who shall remain nameless because I don’t know that they’d want to take the blame for this, asked for Teddy/Death. I have a feeling this is not what they had in mind but my brain wouldn’t rest until I figured out how that would even work and this is the result. Can be read as part of the official story of Triumvirate or can be ignored if you prefer.

It doesn’t precisely matter, but for those who feel the need for specificity each scene takes place about three years apart, starting when Teddy is two.

“Def, def, def, def.”

Harry can’t help snickering as Teddy chants Death’s name over and over again, lisping a bit with his new teeth getting in the way.

Sirius and Tonks seem to find Teddy’s obsession with Death just as amusing as he does but Remus looks more worried by the day.

“I’m not certain we should continue humoring him.”

Harry shrugs.

“Up to you. We can tell him Death is busy if you like. Just maybe avoid telling him what he’s busy doing I suppose.”

Teddy falls silent, staring around, obviously waiting for Death to show up. Apparently he’s starting to figure out the being only shows up when Harry says his name. Harry frowns at him and Remus confirms.

“He knows Death is connected to you. Hasn’t asked for him once this week until you arrived.”

Which means it’ll be on him to upset the boy by telling him he can’t visit with his friend anymore. Harry can’t help grimacing and Remus sighs, granting.

“Can’t hurt to let him say goodbye I suppose.”

He has a feeling it won’t make this any easier but he’s not about to argue.

“Death?”

The being is there before he can even finish speaking, a looming figure, dark as the abyss and still as the grave, a figure which should give pause to anyone and yet Teddy squeals with excitement and rushes over to Death, tugging at his robe and demanding to be picked up.

Death doesn’t move for a moment, seems almost as disquieted by the boy’s enthusiasm as Remus is, and then he slowly reaches down and scoops the boy up in his skeletal hands.

Death turns to him, firmly ignoring the way Teddy slides a finger in one of his eye sockets, trying to reach the glow within. There’s a hint of reproach in his voice as he murmurs.

“A being such as I does not generally play nursemaid.”

Harry shrugs easily.

“Maybe your next master will be a more demanding sort but this is all I need from you right now.”

Death sighs, long and dramatically, windows shaking from the being’s quiet exhale, and Teddy giggles happily.

~~~~~~

It becomes such a routine thing Death no longer waits for him to summon him for Teddy. A fact which Remus finds very hard to accept.

“I found them whispering together in Teddy’s bedroom last night. It was three in the bloody morning, Harry. This has to stop.”

He probably shouldn’t find it so funny but he can’t help laughing. He sobers quickly at Remus’ tired look.

“What were they whispering about?”

Remus sighs before admitting.

“Apparently Teddy was worried Death was lonely. I don’t know where he thinks the being goes when he isn’t playing companion to a five year old but Teddy insisted on giving him a bracelet he made so he’d remember him.”

He frowns at the man and Remus grimaces, looking almost shamed.

“I think he might’ve overheard Tonks and I talking. I know you think I’m overprotective but it’s hardly a normal friendship and I worry he’ll scare off his other friends if he doesn’t grow out of this soon. I wasn’t suggesting barring Death from visiting...but Teddy took it that way.”

“I get it. I really do. Friends are important and no matter how close they might be Teddy needs more than one friend.”

“But chasing his closest friend away would be worse than doing nothing. I know. I hadn’t meant for him to overhear.”

Harry nods easily and then smiles when he catches sight of Teddy in the garden out back, Death following the boy down one of the paths, arms full of a pile of sticks.

“Looks like they’re building something.”

Remus follows his line of sight and shakes his head, smiling rather fondly.

“I shouldn’t complain, should I? Odd as it is he is a good friend to the boy. He could do far worse.”

“And it doesn’t hurt knowing he has Death watching out for him either.”

“There is that. I still worry, but I imagine I’d worry far more if he didn’t have such a powerful friend always a breath away.”

~~~~~~

Harry leans back against his husband, well, one of them, and watches with amusement as Teddy drags Death around by the hand, intent on introducing him to the few people in attendance who haven’t yet met his friend.

Most of them look like they wish he wouldn’t and Harry finds it far more amusing than he really should.

“You know I thought he’d grow out of it by now, or that Death would stop humoring him.”

Severus snorts, nodding toward the pair as Death conjures a black rose to hand to Hermione’s latest girlfriend. The woman looks like she doesn’t know whether to accept it or flee.

“I do believe he’s enjoying himself.”

Teddy begins explaining, too far away for them to hear but it’s always obvious when he’s talking about Death. His hair changes from a mousy brown to pitch black as the boy gestures enthusiastically, no doubt telling her about last weekend, him and Death spending all day playing with the kittens he’d found huddled in the garden shed. The kittens he’s now begging to keep.

It’s endearing the way Teddy’s so convinced everyone else will love his friend too if they just take the time to get to know him, and a bit disheartening the way almost no one is willing to give Death a chance. Not that Harry can blame them exactly. Even he finds the being unnerving sometimes and he doesn’t exactly have to worry about Death showing up for him. Still, it’s obvious how much it bothers Teddy, the boy offended on behalf of his friend, and Harry feels for him. Not like he doesn’t know what it’s like, everyone flinching away from someone you care about.

“Thinking about Tom, where has he got to?”

Severus nods toward the far end of the garden and Harry laughs when he sees the problem, Arthur having cornered the man again to ask about some muggle object. As always Tom looks like he isn’t sure whether to be annoyed or flattered at being seen as an expert on muggles.

~~~~~~

He’s just settling onto Tom’s lap when Severus comes striding into Tom’s office, stealing a quick kiss from them both before murmuring.

“Minerva would like a word again.”

Harry groans as he takes the letter from Severus, scanning over it and sighing.

“I told the boy not to summon Death during class time. Three times. I told him three times to try and make sure he listened.”

Tom tugs the letter from his hand and tosses it aside.

“Maybe try telling Death next time. For now if we could return to what we’d been doing...”

~~~~~~

Teddy isn’t sure why he’s so nervous. He always loves it when he has something new to share with Death. At least when it’s good news. And he thinks this is good. It felt good earlier anyway. But the longer he sits here in the Great Hall, waiting impatiently for dinner to be over so he can go for a walk and summon his friend, the more hesitant he feels about telling him at all.

By the time dinner’s over he’s half convinced he shouldn’t say anything, but he’s never kept anything from his friend before and the very idea of keeping it secret feels wrong, like it’s something shameful. Still, when he finally makes his way outside he waits until he’s well away from the castle before asking Death to join him, and he doesn’t bring it up right away.

They walk in silence for a bit, Death always perfectly happy keeping quiet. One of the many things he loves about him. Mostly because it means he can chatter on without worrying about annoying the being but also...everyone else always takes the opportunity to tease him in those rare times when he’s quiet, only Death lets him be both his usual talkative self and quiet without feeling the need to chide him for either. Well, only Death and...

“There’s a girl. In Ravenclaw. We met a few days ago while I was studying for that Herbology essay that was giving me so much grief.”

Death nods slowly, saying nothing as usual, letting him speak at his own pace. For once Teddy wishes he wouldn’t. Right now he’d love an interruption or two. Or ten.

“We’ve been studying together ever since. She said her friends talk too much while she’s trying to study and she likes my company better. Which makes no sense. You know me, I can never stop myself commenting every little random thought that pops into my head. But she said she likes my chatter. And she...”

He hesitates, the words feeling wrong somehow. The moment still feels right in a way but also wrong now too. Although he doesn’t know how or why.

“She said she likes me. And she kissed me.”

He stops in the middle of the path, staring up at Death’s glowing eyes, looking for...he doesn’t know what.

Death stares back evenly, saying nothing for a long moment and then murmuring.

“You aren’t too young for such things?”

His face goes hot and Teddy knows he’s gone mousy brown again, the embarrassment washing over him like a tide and sending his features back to default in the process. He forces his hair black again while grumbling.

“It was just a kiss. And I’m almost fourteen.”

Death hums, the sound felt more than heard, a rumbling deep in his chest that never fails to make him smile.

“Then I do not see why you are asking me for permission.”

“I wasn’t...”

He trails off, suddenly unsure. Maybe he was at that. At least if Death didn’t want him spending time with her he wouldn’t even hesitate to listen to the being. Death knows him better than anyone. He trusts Death more than he trusts himself about this and everything else.

“I...I know you said you won’t tell me about the future but...”

Death cuts across him, a trace of amusement in his voice.

“But you’re going to ask me anyway.”

“Yeah. Sorry. I just...it feels wrong to spend time with someone without asking if it’s going to last. It’d be kinder to stop it now if it has to end, right?”

“The future is changeable, Teddy. And just because something ends, even if it ends far sooner than one might prefer, doesn’t make it worth any less.”

There’s something almost somber in Death’s tone and Teddy frowns up at the being in question. Death says nothing but the glow of his eyes shines brighter for a moment, the being amused somehow. Death changes the subject before he can ask about it.

~~~~~~

It isn’t until his graduation that Teddy realizes why he’s been feeling the way he has. Months of steadily growing disquiet finally resolve into a shape he can see in his mind and he feels like a damned fool. For feeling the way he is, for worrying about it, he’s not sure. Both maybe.

He stares out at the crowd of parents and loved ones, seeing none of them. He knows well his own parents are in the crowd. His fathers, his mum, but he can’t tear his eyes away from the being standing at the very edge of the room, all but hidden in shadow.

The rest of the ceremony passes in a blur and he makes his way down into the crowd without really thinking about what he’s doing. His mum tugs him into a hug as he gets close, both his fathers joining in, and for one awful moment he loses sight of Death. He’s half convinced the being will have disappeared once he has a clear line of sight again but he’s still there, still standing perfectly still, glowing eyes unreadable from this distance. They seem brighter than usual but it’s probably just the fact the being is standing in shadow.

Teddy does his best to hide his distraction, smiling and nodding as his parents alternately tease and congratulate him, but it doesn’t take long before they realize his mind is elsewhere. His mum pulls him into another quick hug before nudging him toward the doors.

“Go on. Go visit with your friends. We’ll see you when you get home. But don’t stay too late, we’ve got a whole celebration planned.”

He doesn't argue, slipping into the crowd and making his way toward Death. He’s not sure what he’s expecting really but Death holds out his hand without a word, letting himself be pulled toward the doors.

There’s a crowd in the entry hall as well by now, no one wanting to head out into the rain, so Teddy pulls Death down the hall and away from everyone.

They end up in an abandoned classroom, sitting on desks near a window. It’s gloomy enough that for once Death doesn’t look out of place, the impossible blackness of his cloak just another shadow in the dim room.

Teddy can’t speak at first, and he knows he doesn’t need to. He slides his fingers between the smooth bone of Death’s own and stares up at the being, silently asking if he’s being a fool.

Death hums an odd note, not quite pleased, more thoughtful.

“You realize what I am.”

A breath shudders out of him, almost a laugh. And then he does laugh, because yeah, the longer he thinks about it the madder it seems. And at the same time it feels nothing but right in a way he can’t quite define.

“Old as the universe and young as a newly lit flame. That’s how you described it once, when I was little.”

“Mm, because for me all times are as one.”

Which is Death’s way of saying he always knew this was coming. And suddenly all those past moments make a lot more sense.

“You never tried to push me away because you knew it wouldn’t work, you knew this would happen...”

Death cuts across him, voice somehow lower than normal.

“Did happen, is happening, would happen, yes. All times are one.”

He nods jerkily, trying and mostly failing to understand how that’s even possible. How could someone hold that much time in their mind without going mad? He shakes that off, actually shaking his head, as if he can force away all the reasons why this is a terrible idea.

“Doesn’t matter. I just meant...you always seemed like you were holding yourself apart. Like you were...not hoping I’d forget about you but like you’d accept it if I did. Like you wanted to be sure I knew it was my choice, our friendship, all of it. I always knew if I wanted I could simply stop calling for you and I’d never see you again. It terrified me when I was little, always half convinced I’d never see you again each time you left.”

“I never left. I’m always here.”

“I know that now but I didn’t then.”

He stops, thinking about that for a moment, the fact Death is always here, even when he doesn’t seem to be.

“You must find it so annoying, me always narrating the events of the day when you were here for it all.”

“Not at all. I enjoy seeing how you describe things, find it endlessly interesting which things you decide worth sharing.”

Teddy nods slowly, unable to argue. Not like he doesn’t know what that’s like. Some people are just like that, even when you know the story by heart you still want to hear them tell it again.

He turns their joined hands over, fingers stroking the delicate bones.

“Why do you appear this way?”

A question he’s asked before but not one he’s ever gotten a satisfying answer for. Death doesn’t answer at first, lifting his free hand and curling a finger around a lock of his hair, pulling it down far enough for him to see it. Teddy blushes a bit when he realizes he’s let it go black again.

“I could ask you the same.”

“I, it...It just kind of happens. And you know why. Because I like you.”

And the words are out, hanging in the air between them, waiting for a response.

Death hums again, an edge of what might be happiness to it or might just as easily be amusement.

“Perhaps I do it for the same reason.”

He frowns and Death chuckles, adding.

“Difficult to hold a conversation with something without form. And a skeleton is simply the closest I can come to an honest portrayal of what I am.”

He can’t argue with that and he doesn’t really want to. Odd as he knows it is he doesn’t want Death to look or feel different. If he made himself look human, or more alive rather, he wouldn’t look like himself.

There’s a tension in the air that’s never been there before when he’s with Death, or not tension but rather a sense of expectation. He knows what’s going to happen next as if he himself was the one who knew the future as readily as he knows the present. He realizes only now that this moment has been a long time coming, an inevitability ever since he met the being. And at the same time he has a choice, has always had a choice.

“The future is changeable. You told me that a few different times, when I kept asking you what would happen.”

And then tried to explain but all the explanation did was confuse him more. I mean how can you know the future, experience it at the same time as the present and the past, if it can and does change? He’s never going to understand that.

Death hums a question, as if he doesn’t already know what he means, as if he hasn’t already heard the answer in the future, and Teddy smiles.

“I can’t tell if you do that for my sake or if it’s simply the way this has to work. You can’t know what I’m about to say if I never actually say it after all. Still, it feels like you do it for me, pretending to be more human than you are. And I was trying to ask if you really want this too. Because it won’t last, not from your perspective.”

“And I told you once that just because something ends far sooner than we’d prefer doesn’t make it worth any less.”

He makes a small sound, having all but forgotten that conversation. He remembers all at once, that first kiss and how nervous it made him, both in the moment and then later, half convinced Death would be annoyed at him for liking someone else.

“I think I liked you even then, but didn’t notice. Too used to you always being here. I sort of took you for granted.”

He doesn’t apologize, knowing it isn’t needed, knowing well Death would never hold it against him, instead he finally gives in to the inevitable and rises, settling onto the desk beside Death, leaning into his side.

Death slides an arm around his waist and laces their fingers together, humming a pleased note, and the two of them sit together in silence, perfectly content.

~~~~~~

“Death?”

He could swear the being had been right beside him not half a moment ago. Teddy frowns at the place he’d just been and then smiles when he catches sight of him down by the hedge at the far end of the garden.

He’s crouched low, hand outstretched toward something hidden under the bushes. Teddy smiles when he gets near enough to see what it is.

“Always making new friends.”

Death hesitates, which is odd enough in itself, and then he turns to him with eyes uncharacteristically dim. Teddy makes a small sound of understanding as he kneels next to Death.

“They’re dying.”

Death nods slowly, finger bones carding through the cat’s hair, smoothing it back from its small face, the cat leaning into the touch.

“She’ll live a few minutes longer.”

He hums his understanding, taking Death’s free hand and holding it tight, as if trying to comfort the being. He knows Death hardly needs it. If anyone would know death isn’t something to be feared it would be Death himself. But still, just at this moment he can’t help wanting to comfort all three of them, the cat, Death, and himself.

The cat is obviously old, has more grey than black on her face and neck, but even so it’s never easy seeing someone slip away into darkness, and he can’t help wondering what it must be, to be this for everyone all of the time. Every death, no matter how small and unremarked upon. An existence of nothing but endings.

Death hums, as if he said the words aloud.

“A thing with no ending can have no beginning.”

Teddy nods easily, as if he understands that, knowing well the explanation would only confuse him more, and Death chuckles.

“You asked me once if I could choose, who lives, who dies, and when those deaths occur.”

“And you said you couldn’t.”

“Mm. But I didn’t explain why, or rather how I could not. I am a powerful being, Teddy. I could change things if I wanted, if I dared. But life springs from death. The living die to make way for others, generations without ending, and to prevent that would be...”

Death shrugs rather than elaborate further and Teddy nods, thinking he understands now, somewhat at least, but he can’t resist pointing out.

“You’ve changed things in the past. You helped Uncle Harry.”

Death laughs, nodding easily.

“What use are rules if we don’t break them occasionally?”

Teddy smiles, even as he shakes his head at the being, and they both go still as the cat twitches violently.

Teddy reaches for his wand, giving Death a look. Death nods easily, skeletal hand pointing to a place just below the cat’s ribcage.

“Just here.”

He casts a quick numbing charm and his chest loosens as the cat relaxes once more.

“How much longer?”

“About half a minute.”

He nods silently and neither of them say anything else as they watch the cat take her last few breaths. Each breath comes slower and slower and it takes a moment before he realizes it’s over, that that last breath had been the last.

And suddenly he realizes just what’s been bothering him this whole time.

“You didn’t say anything. You slipped away, obviously wanting me to come see this, but you didn’t just ask?”

Death would’ve been here either way, he only came here in the flesh, or bone as it were, because he wanted him to come here too.

Death shrugs.

“I knew you’d come find me and this way you were able to finish your conversation with your mother.”

He can’t really argue with that, but he still doesn’t understand why he wanted him here for this. Death’s eyes glow brighter for a moment and he adds, hand smoothing over the cat’s fur one last time.

“She gave birth to your cats.”

He makes a small sound of understanding, although he isn’t sure how to feel about that. He’s glad he was here and able to soothe her pain in those final moments but now he’s even more sad that she’s dead.

He shakes that off, picking up the poor thing and cradling her body in his arms.

“We should bury her. And I think I’m always going to hate death.”

“I am death.”

Death sounds so disgruntled he can’t help laughing.

“And I love you anyway.”

Notes:

I won’t be able to reply to comments for the foreseeable future. Sorry for the inconvenience.