Before the Storm

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Harry was avoiding him.

It was rather hard to miss, even if Tom didn't suddenly find himself on constant alert for Harry's presence.

The night of their...confrontation, Tom wasn't really surprised by Harry's aloofness. He had sent Alphard to check on Harry when it was time for them to head to the Great Hall. Lacks, though he had been that afternoon in his Head Boy duties, Tom couldn't be late for dinner. Ten minutes after sitting down, two arguments, one at the Ravenclaw table and one from Griffindor had been quelled, and no fewer than five students had come over to ask menial questions of him, when Alphard had arrived. His feet dragging, refusing to meet Tom's eyes as he told him that Harry said he wasn't coming to dinner.

It was troubling...Tom was troubled. Which was not something he had been very often in his life. He told himself it was because Harry had not seemed to understand why Tom had been upset. That was why he was unsettled. It was obvious that Harry hadn't paid attention to the rules that first night. After all, wanting to go for a walk on one's own was one thing, but falling asleep in class! If anyone had seen it would have reflected poorly on the whole house. What if Kettleburn had noticed that one of his students had just decided to nap in the bushes? Losing house points would have been the least of their worries then!

No, Tom had been in the right, and Harry hadn't stayed around long enough to hear him out.

It couldn't last. One thing that Tom was quite certain of was that Harry was a forgiving and kind person. One so rarely saw such things in the pureblood crowd where every sentence had multiple meanings and no one spoke the truth to your face. Harry had been honest, at least on topics he had been comfortable in sharing with Tom. The topics he didn't wish to discuss would simply be met with silence. With Harry, it was the truth or nothing. Back stabbing and duplicity were not in his nature.

So, of course, he would soon forgive Tom their little spat, and perhaps not agree that the punishment was due, but accept it with the dignity befitting their house.

Still, by the time Tom was settling into his bed he couldn't help but feel that it hadn't been time enough. It had become his habit, after settling his mind and body, to reach within himself, to that place that lit up whenever he was near Harry, and follow it to the source. From there he would go to the meadow by the river, the chess set, the blankets, and Harry.

That night, try as he may, the connection would not form. Tom tried to rest after what left like the hundredth futile attempt to bring Harry into his dreams, going to the dark place where time and matter didn't exist. But rest never came. It was like those first few nights all over again. Something restless grated under his skin, prickled the back of his neck, raced through his mind on an endless loop.

He rose the next morning having gotten no rest at all.

No one would ever know it from looking at him. Tom Riddle would not let his appearance fall just because someone else was upset by something he had done.

He hadn't even done anything!

Other than save Harry from tearing his robes and give him a just detention for breaking house rules.

The image of Harry, crouching in the dark forest, struggling to free himself came unbidden to his mind. Along with it the sudden jump to his heart that had come with the view the first time around. Before Tom had seen that he was not injured, simply caught on a thorn bush. Relief, and yes, anger, had replaced the...he would not call it fear. Tom had never feared anything in his life, he certainly hadn't been afraid then. So, no, not fear. Concern, perhaps.

He banished the image from his mind as he combed his hair and left the dorm. It was a day as any other. He had students to guide and work to do. There were scuffles in the halls and professors to speak with about them. Fridays he had Defense Against the Dark Arts, where he informed Merrythought that Harry would be joining them on Sundays and Wednesdays for the foreseeable future.