Before the Storm

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

That trip to Hogmead was one of the best Harry had ever had. The sun shone for most of the day, even if it never warmed the air around them or dried up the mud.

Things weren't vastly different from his own time. Some of the shops were gone and replaced with others he had never seen before. Honeydukes was still there though, and a specialty potion store that seemed to be a favorite among the students. Alphard wanted to hit those first, until Rossier said he needed more ink and every objection appeared to die on Alphard's tongue as he stared up and up into Rossier's face.

They ran into Tom after replenishing their ink and parchment supplies, whatever his meeting had been about seemed to have been quick and had gone well. It was as though he brought the warmth of the sun with him as he joined them. Though some of that might have been the arm he threw around Harry's shoulder, how he seemed intent of sticking as close to Harry's side as was physically possible. Which was not something that he was going to complain about. Tom's buoyant happiness was contagious.

Something he would never think to attribute to the one who would be the darkest lord of all time. He couldn't be sure that he had anything to do with it, but apprehension and then giddy acceptance from Alphard gave him hope that Tom was changing for the better. And that Harry was to blame.

Or, er...to thank. Harry was to thank.

They ate dinner at a little cafe that Harry had never seen before, It was a cozy place with warm polished woods and merry fires burning in two large hearths. There weren't many students still around, so for once they had dinner in peace. Discounting Alphard's nonstop commentary on their day, on what he wanted to get Orion and the rest of their family for Christmas, on how he thought he was doing in his own Defense class.

Harry found that he couldn't stop smiling through it all. And as he closed his eye for bed that night, only to open them a second later to Tom, to settle next to him , warm and utterly content in Tom's arm, he had to mark it down as one of the best days of his life.

One of the plus sides of sharing a class with Tom was that he told them whenever they were to have pop quizzes or physical exams. He never said exactly what they would in tale, but just having that extra heads up was no small blessing. So it was that Harry and the rest of the Slytherins were not phased when Professor Merrythought announced that they would be having a practical review in the form of an obstacle course the following evening.

It was the monday after their Hogmead trip and most of the students hadn't quite fallen back into the swing of their classes. But all around Harry, the snakes were calm, some almost giddy.

"Surly you know what's going to happen?" Abraxas wasn't even subtle as he prodded Tom, once again, for information. This time he had hardly waited for them to be out of the classroom do.

"Surly I do," Tom answered smoothly, not slowing his pace, Harry keeping up with his long legged stride mostly fore Tom's hand on his shoulder.

"I bet you've told him," Abraxas said in a low, snide, voice. Probably thinking that Tom would not hear him over the rush of sound around them.

But he had.

"Telling Harry what the trials will be would not allow him to utilize his skills in a way that would be helpful to their growth. Stunting ones development is hardly the way to show affection."

It was more of an admission than anyone was expecting. Or, at the very least, than what Harry was expecting. His face heated up, he tried to duck away, hide from the eyes could now feel on him from all the others, shocked at Tom's words. But he only managed to lean further in Tom.