The Chamber of Desire [ Tomarry

Tom?

(Maniacal Laughter)
December 31st, 1992.

Harry woke up that morning to an empty bed for the first time in eight months. Confused, he looked over at the bathroom to see if Tom had gone to use it, but the light wasn't on and his side of the bed was already ice cold.

'What's the date?' Harry thought sluggishly, rubbing his eyes to try and wake up. 'Tom didn't tell me he had a meeting today or anything, right? Has he gone downstairs? Has he gone somewhere with Nagini? No, she went to visit her family for the holidays. Then where's Tom?'

Deciding to go check, Harry put on one of Tom's jumpers and a pair of skinny jeans before leaving the room and heading for the kitchen. Still he found nothing. When Harry checked the time, he saw that it was only 9:45 in the morning, and nearly no one would be awake yet.

"Why would he be up this early in the frigging morning?" Harry wondered aloud to himself, starting to lightly walk through the living room. "Is there a threat?"

Harry decided that the most common place to find Tom would be in his office, so the small boy wandered around the Manor until he came across the mahogany doors. He was about to open the door when he heard screams.

"I'm sorry— gah— I'm sorry, my Lord!"

"Don't talk back to me." That was Tom's voice. It seemed... deeper, and more dangerous than usual. It gave Harry the chills— and not in a good way, for once. It was so unlike Tom.

The screams continued. It must have been only Tom and that girl in there, or else the others were very silent. All Harry could think about was the time when he was the one in pain in Tom's office...it wasn't a pleasant feeling...

Harry was shaken from his thoughts when the screams pierced his eardrums. He quickly withdrew his hand from the doorknob. 'Give him some time to cool down,' Harry thought before turning away, 'I'll talk to him after class.'

~

Defence Against the Dark Arts was boring. They were working on Occlumency, and Harry had read so much about it he had learned it through time. He just had to sit there for six hours watching as Lucius tried to get into his thoughts. It was funny at first, but as time progressed it got sad.

"Mate!"

Harry turned around to see Ron grinning from ear to ear, displaying a game of Wizarding chess.

"I found this hidden in my closet the other day," Ron said proudly. "You wanna play?"

Harry was going to say something about participating in class, because Ron wasn't even close to being able to stop mental intruders, but when Harry looked over he saw that Lucius was already in a huge quarrel with Neville— and it didn't look like it was going to end soon. "Sure, mate," Harry smiled. "Set it up!"

The game must have been the shortest game ever. Although Harry was winning (he had almost double the amount of pieces left than Ron), a huge shake rattled the Manor, before an enraged yell echoed through the house. Suddenly attentive, Harry sat up slightly and soon realized the scream had definitely not been Lucius or Neville, because they both looked as confused as Harry felt.

'It must have been Tom," Harry realized, a wave of guilt overcoming him. 'I should have talked to him earlier.'

"I've..." Harry started, starting to stand up. "I've got to go... um... I'll be back as soon as I can?"

Lucius, looking frightened, simply gave him a small and barely noticeable nod before Harry whipped around and headed out of the door.