A/N: Okay people, I feel I must apologize in advance. This chapter is gonna hurt you in the feels; I do not normally react while reading and/or writing, but I cried writing this. I am talking genuine and unforced waterworks here, not crocodile tears.
So, you have been warned!
Tom was panicking inside this small boy; welling with fear and anxiety, and not because he knew that if Harry died...his fragment would die as well. He was afraid; of course he was, but he had more than one soul-container, so he was relatively secure. Harry, however, was not and his fear was that he may die.
Because this little mate of his...extraordinary as he was, he wasn't invulnerable and he didn't deserve this fate. Never had, and his death meant that he would never have the chance to grow older and to learn of the world of magic.
Never be able to witness its wonders or to bask in all its splendors.
He would never have the chance to know Tom after he returned to the physical world; to allow the man he was to be able to hold him and place the boy in his arms. To comfort him when he became upset or overwhelmed, nor to dry the tears he might have shed because of the pain he experienced.
He would never be able to see him really smile; at him, to his family, and at the world. He would not be able to make him laugh and to share in his mirth. He would not be able to ever know if Harry could ever forgive him for what he had caused and to possibly accept him in his life.
If he could...possibly come to love him back.
It was in this moment; when everything seemed to be spiraling downwards, that time seemed to stand still for merely another moment. In this one moment, Tom knew; knew that for all that he hated emotions, this boy had changed him. For the better, and he saw so clearly of how much he loved his mate...even if he knew he had to wait years for Harry.
Provided he survived this ordeal; Harry was so very weak right now that it hurt him to sense.
'T-T' Harry called softly out to his mental conscious
Tom's eyes snapped up to this and closed them as both literal and figurative tears fell; the wetness not really there physically, but he still felt it. Harry; he sounded so tired and exhausted.
'Sl'py' Harry spoke to him mentally
Tom's crimson irises shined as his emotions were a wreck. Mostly because the situation was something beyond his own control; he could not do anything about it. But also, he did not know how to control all of what he felt right now. He did not want to risk harming Harry with his backlash.
'Rest little one. Rest, but do not leave me. Please...do not leave me here alone. I don't want to be alone anymore.' He spoke to him internally
His answer was silence. Tom was unsure now of what the silence meant; he would have felt it if Harry died, right? Tom was fortunate that he could also hear the healers outside of this to know what was going on.
It was only several hours later that Harry was resting peacefully within a room of his own in a ward of the hospital; isolated from all other toddlers and infants. The child was alive, but only barely for the moment. The healers had done all they could to save him, but most of them were at a loss as to what to do further going forward. His situation was unique; not one they hadn't ever encountered before.
Adriana was finally allowed in to see him and left alone in the room with Harry; her eyes puffy and red from crying.
"I am so sorry, Little Prongs." She whispered softly, "I will never be able to forgive myself for this. I am supposed to protect you; but my vows as a healer...they prevent me from fighting. I should be glad that Lucius was there tonight; despite my inner fears."
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The Shadows Solace Book I: The Growing Years Prequel
Fiksi PenggemarWhat if Petunia had done things differently? What if she put her foot down as soon as Harry was left upon her door? How would that have changed the young wizard? Especially since someone else was changing too beside him unintentionally at first, but...
