When Tom said that he would find a way for the boy to abandon all that nonsense about Grindelwald, who is clearly Tom's inferior and actually Dumbledore's problem to deal with on Tom's opinion, he did mean it.
When he vowed to find the Chamber, to make things more interesting, that was also a promise.
Yes, he knew that there was a high chance for the school to close down with all the petrifications and possible deaths of the students... but he was willing to risk it.
He is suffocating, damn it. School is nice, his grades go swimmingly as usual and the Gryffindor, besides their meetings to review one Dark book or another, goes back to completely ignoring his existence. His housemates are quiet enough, pleasant too, in front of the other houses, but they do not compare to the boy.
Fact: Harry is the only known parselmouth in the school at the moment.
He accidentally revealed that gift of his in second year. But being the Chosen One and all, made people quickly forget about it. So if Tom were to open the Chamber... Harry would actually be blamed for it. Seems interesting.
Another fact: Harry himself knew that Tom was the second parselmouth.
He figured it out during their third year, when he found the older talking to a little snake in a corner of Downing street. His relatives had sent him there for grocerie shopping.
He will quickly connect the clues that lead to the conclusion of the Slytherin being the heir.
Oh well. That's the fun of it.
But what if the Gryffindor actually tells on him?
'Nah. He won't. We're talking about the same kid who faced Dementors, monsters and werewolves for four years and never ever asked a grown up for help. He won't say anything.
Will he complain about it? Sure. Will he try to solve the mystery? Yes. Will he rat me out? Hmm... I will make sure he doesn't even have a mouth for that."
___________________
So 'find and open the Chamber' he did.
And then chaos happened. People began freezing around the corridors. Girls, boys, even teachers.
Everyone is terrified.
______________
Harry, on the other hand, feels like taking a pencil and sticking it into a certain someone's eye. He knows very well who did this and why they did it.
He finds the older in the library, trying to focus on two subjects at the same time.
As if everything is normal. As if people don't just get petrified because someone has attention seeking issues.
He takes the parchment away from the Slytherin's grip, not caring if the writing is smudged from the unexpected movement. "Seriously?"
"What are you referring to this time?" Murmurs the older boy, eyes glancing up to take in his distress, head tilted to the side.
Harry puts a silencing charm on both of them, before giving the other a harsh glare. "The dead people!"
"They aren't dead. Didn't you hear the headmaster? There is an antidote of some sorts."
"Yeah, which will likely work out in the end of the fucking year!"
"I don't see any problem." Says Tom calmly, in contrast with the severity of the predicament they're in. "Don't most students wish to skip school anyway?"
Harry scowls. "That is so not funny."
"Never said it was."
"Then don't act like it!"
"Do you always have to yell?" Inquires Tom, eyes tired with seeing the other so frustrated over so insignificant, in his opinion, matters.
"I don't know. Do you always have to be an egotistical prick who totally ignores other people's feelings and gets high on their suffering?"
"Not always. Weekends are off."
"Your humor is awful, by the way." Says Harry, before pausing to think something over. Then he looks at the other boy again. "You love making things personal, right? Here's the deal. Give me two weeks."
"For what?"
"To find out where the Chamber is."
Tom laughs upon hearing such a brave declaration. "And what will you do once you have found it?"
"Close it, for good." Is the easy answer.
"And if you don't find it? I don't believe you are the type of person who gives up like that."
"Then I will just inform the staff of your 'gift' as well. Then you'd be expelled or thrown to Azkaban. I'm not allowing you terrorize our own school either way."
"You wouldn't."
"I definitely would!" Replies Harry. His body is unsubconciously leaning closer by the second. "So close it, before someone dies!"
"No." Says the older. It's clear that a change of mind is impossible.
The hero purses his lips and pushes his glasses further back to the bridge of his nose. "Then you will lose."
He throws the parchment he's been holding down the floor tiles, before turning around and leaving.
Tom watches him as he exits the library completely. He is not worried. Not ever.
The boy can be bright and inventing at times, but this... this is even bigger than him, slaying dragons and trolls aside.
_______________
Walburga can only throw severe glances at her 'best friend's' direction.
Thank goodness, none of her mates are harmed. That doesn't mean she likes being scared to go outside of their dorms.
"Wait." She tells him one afternoon, while they're picking books in the library. "Harry told you that he would find out where that thing is?"
"Please." Whispers Tom, while putting another book back to its spot in the shelf. "He will never discover the exact location. It took me four years to find it."
He is surprised when the girls tilts her head back and laughs.
"What's so funny?" He asks, nerves ready to explode.
The laughter is paused for a bit, before Burga looks at him, with a smile still on her lip corners.
"When Harry Potter tells you that a monster is going to be killed... then you can rest assured, a monster will be killed."
She pats his back, not in a way of comfort, that's for sure. "I'm glad I knew you before that big fiasco."
Upon hearing such words, he freezes on the spot.
Walburga walks away, to check out another library shelf.
________________
As promised, the Gryffindor spends the remainder of these two weeks searching for the damn Chamber.
(Maybe things aren't so bad.)
He knows that the monster is some kind of giant reptile, probably a basilisk and he is sure that, for a snake that massive to move around, the Chamber must be under the Hogwart's floors.
The problem is: how the hell does one get down there? By digging the marble tiles off?
(I'm kidding. They are. They are so bad.)
And he has heard more than four times that thing yearning for blood through the walls.
Wait a minute. The walls. The walls have pipes inside them.
Also, the sewers system that is below the school grounds. He had seen a detailed map on it inside one of his books.
He takes the first golden sword he sees off the metallic hands of a knight's armor and heads towards the girl's lavatory on the second floor.
He remembers seeing the shape of a silver snake in one of the sinks, one day that he had accompanied Hermione in there, after a potions accident.
Bingo. Salazar Slytherin couldn't be more obvious, if he tried.
He speeds his steps, almost ends up running. He has a snake to find - and kill, possibly.
Riddle will not believe his eyes.
YOU ARE READING
No Pain, No Glory | Tomarry
Fanfiction(An alternative universe where Harry was born in the 1920s and went in school with Tom Riddle. He is still the Chosen One from a prophesy with Grindelwald.) "Harry." "Tom. What the hell do you want now?" "To talk." "I have nothing to talk about with...
