What if He had a Choice?

38

The realization that Draco was becoming more and more fond of him, and protective, was information Tom could easily use to his advantage, but there was something more this time...and that was that he was not going to likely be able to overthrow Draco as the Prince of Slytherin, like had managed with Abraxas. When he had overthrown, or at least come extremely close to overthrowing, Abraxas, it had been a long work in progress, but it had been managed nonetheless. However, these Slytherins had a sense of, care, trust, and loyalty to Draco that Abraxas had missed. Draco had clearly done quite a lot to prove himself, and though he was not entirely sure what exactly it was that Draco had done, he was sure that he would be able to obtain that information quite easily, and he fully intended to as well.

It was hard to gain the trust of Slytherins, much harder to keep it, and the fact that nobody questioned that Draco would likely get together with a male was yet another interesting thing to consider. Prior to that, he had not thought much of Draco's flustered behavior when Tom did something, and chalked it up to him idolizing him as a magic user, and he knew well how to fluster other people, but now he was wondering how much of that was merely because Draco saw him...attractive. Actively attracted to him at least, as he knew that he was attractive, and even other men that were not into men could admit when another male was attractive. Tom knew that it definitely opened doors that had not previously been open. He coudl definitely use this to his advantage, though how much and how easily would have to be a somewhat delicate process. After all, it was not usually so well received when a pureblood takes a male lover, even if they agree to have a child with a woman.

Despite all of these things, the Slytherins still respected him, and there was not much fear in their eyes when he told them to leave, at least, not until he glared at them. They had been quite curious, though, and as such it was quite obvious that Draco had cultivated quite the friendship with these people. It was impressive, as even Abraxas had not quite managed that, and he wondered just what it was...though he knew that should he be patient and wait he would have his answer in no time.

"This...uncle of yours, the same that came to aid us in escaping those muggles and wondered why your father did not take the normal route to school?" Tom wished to clarify, as he could not help but admit that he was not exactly overly fond of this man. Draco nodded simple, and Tom could not help but sigh heavily. He would, it would seem, have to deal with this man for a bit longer, particularly since Draco did seem fond of them somewhat. He could not drive Draco away so soon, after all, that would hardly be conductive to his efforts so far.

"Don't worry, I shall not say anything to him about who you are." Draco said softly, his blue eyes staring down at him. Tom huffed, not too fond of the current state of things, and pulled himself from the Malfoy heir, instead dragging the blonde into his lap, letting his head rest against his thigh. The boy yelped softly, too quiet for anyone else to hear, but loud enough that Tom had managed to catch it, but did not fight him despite it, allowing himself to be settled against Tom's lap, letting his head rest against the other's leg easily and without complaint.

"I see," Tom said gently. He had asked for the young malfoy heir to stay silent about this multiple times, and yet it would seem as though he himself was still somewhat worried about it. He knew that Draco would not go against him, the boy was much to loyal to disobey something like this. His attempts at cultivating the other's trust was definitely working in his favor.

"I just...I do not exactly like the thought of Uncle Sev not knowing, but you do not really seem all that sure of him, from what I managed to gather, which is understandable My Lord," Draco hastily added as Tom turned thoughtful towards him. "I just wanted you to know that I would not say who you where if you did not want Uncle Severus to know. I suppose it would make sense that you wanted to get to know him before you put trust in him, I understand." Tom sighed, but did not say anything more. He was grateful, he supposed. The blonde had done much for him since Tom had run into him, and his family had done much for him as well. Either way, it was something to consider. For now, he would wait until the man entered the common room to do his speech.

"When exactly is he supposed to be coming in?" Tom hummed out, Draco did not have time to answer the question, as the question answered itself in the way of the doorway swinging open silently. The Slytherins, the ones who had still hidden up the stairs a bit too wary of Draco at the moment to come down, slowly began to slink down to the common area to listen to Severus' beginning of the year speech. Tom wondered if this was normal amongst other houses, as he knew that it was normal among Slytherins, but Slytherins had always been a bit different to the norm. 

"I am Severus Snape, I shall be your head of house." Tom peered up at the man at that, his black eyes distant, not quite looking at any of them. A half blood? He had known that there were halfboods in slytherin, of course, they were just not overly common, and in those cases they tended to hold the wizarding names, not the muggle ones. Halfbloods in slytherin alone was not common at all, but despite Tom knowing that Draco's family was friends with halfbloods, and hearing it said personally by said male was a bit different than hearing it from other people.