Thomas Potter-Love is a Different Dimension

Hold Me Close

Grimmauld Place, August 1995

Remus POV:

Sirius was laughing, eyes crinkling, clapping his hands in cheer by the end of Tom's story. "Kid, you are just one crazy blighter. I thought I pegged you for a proper self-preserving Slytherin, but you got me there. Following us into the portal at the last second, who would have thought?"

None of them. Because this was not supposed to happen.

Tom Riddle was sitting on the couch, magically dried (from standing in the rain) with freshly combed hair, holding hands, with similarly dried but haphazard black hair and shiny-eyed Harry Potter.

Sirius had shouted through the torrent rain, voice hoarse, telling them to get their kissy faces inside the house, worried someone had seen them. Especially since Tom had performed underage magic. Set fire to a few trees in an empty park to make a signaling blaze as tall as a small house. The muggle firemen were called. It was lucky no one was hurt.

Godric almighty.

Remus couldn't help crossing and uncrossing his arms, pacing back and forth in the middle of the room, while Sirius was wiping the last remnants of his laughing tears. He couldn't help the feeling of disarray and anxiety spiraling out from him. "Merlin's saggy bollocks, we are in so much trouble." Tom and Harry both stiffened at his words. "I mean, I'm happy for you boys but, Merlin's fucking wand, we are in deep deep shit of trouble."

This made Sirius break into the second round of laughs. Wheezing and holding his stomach he says, "Oh Morgana's hair, if Remus is swearing then we know we are in a bit of a stick, but nothing like breaking the rules eh, Harry? Just like your dad."

Harry smiled warily, unsure if that was actually a compliment or not, hands still clasped with Tom's. "Err, how much trouble are we really in?"

Remus exhales, trying not to make it sound like he had a list. Because the amount of trouble they were now in, was a long long list. "Well, for starters, your magical core." He stares pointedly at Tom.

"I feel fine," Tom says immediately, straightening his shoulders. "I'm not stupid enough to think there aren't any risks but we'll find a way, if Harry manages to survive seven years, I'm sure within the same time period I can figure out a way to strengthen my core, to find some way to make sure it won't deteriorate."

"Tom, I explained this in 1942, each of us is a part of our specific universe- our magic is separate and comes from different sources!"

"Maybe there is a way to tap this universe's magic, find a source, we can find a way ," Tom says stubbornly.

"I have a Healer and an Unspeakable who treats me," Harry pipes in anxiously, "They can help Tom right? Figure out something for him?"

Remus groans, the Unspeakable. She would flip for sure when she finds out. "Not to burst your bubble charms boys, but the Unspeakable in question explicitly forbade us to do this type of thing. Oh Godric, Sirius! She is going to tear us a new one!" Pulling the sandy brown hair on his head. "She's going to kill us!"

Sirius didn't look bothered. Rolling his silver eyes. "How can she pin the blame on us? Not like we forced the kid to follow, you heard him, he decided to jump in after us."

"It was our responsibility to protect the timeline!" Remus' voice was high-pitched borderline a hysterical scream.

"Our responsibility was to get Harry home, safely. So the timeline is going to change a bit." Sirius shrugs, unfazed, palms up on each side of his shoulder. "What's a wizard supposed to do?"