Until the End of Time [Tomarry]

Chapter 3: Gods Go By Many Names (This One Goes By Harry)

Yoooo whatup guess who's baaaaaack with a new chapter!!! This one is super duper long, so have fun reading it. :D

I'm glad that so many people seem to like this trash, so yeah. Here's another chapter. (Also thanks for all the comments I've been gettting! They're really fun to read

Well, uh, have fun reading I suppose. I shan't keep you. (That's the first time I think I've ever said shan't.)

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"I'm surprised James and Sirius were able to let you out of their sight to go Christmas shopping," Lily mused, sinking into the soft couch.

"They were too shocked for it to sink in fully that I'm back. Tomorrow is going to be much worse." Harry explained, sipping his hot tea.

"Why'd you leave?"

Harry recognized her wavering confidence in the question, no matter how well she hid it. He smiled softly into his mug. "He promised to leave my family alone if I went with him. Voldy thought that I would teach him magic."

"... Did you?"

Harry shook his head. "No. He had no way to get information out of me, though his methods were pretty interesting to watch."

Lily's breath hitched, and she glanced nervously at her son.

"Don't worry," Harry grinned. "Tom can't hurt me. He just tried.. annoying information out of me. Called it 'tactical persuasion'. I had a lot of fun pranking him in return."

Harry saw the way her shoulders deflated. Obviously, that was a load off her shoulders, knowing her son hadn't been tortured continuously for two years.

"Voldemort," Lily shuddered, but still said the name, "You call him 'Tom'. You called him that the night you left, too."

"Tom Marvolo Riddle. Voldemort's name before he became, well, Voldemort."

"Before he became.. Voldemort?"

Harry sighed, trying to find out how to best word it. "Riddle dabbled in some very very bad magic when he was younger. He split his soul in half, and tethered it to a physical object. Once was already pretty bad, but he would've been fine, but Riddle made four more of them. Each time, splitting his soul further and further in half."

"Why?!"

"He grew up in a muggle orphanage during the bombing of WWII. He's scared-terrified-of dying. Anybody would be, if they were in his place. He did the only thing he could to secure his immortality, making sure he wouldn't die a pitiful death over the summer."

"Surely the teachers would let him stay at Hogwarts over the summer?"

"Riddle tried; he really did. He was the top student Hogwarts has literally ever had. He was a model student; every single teacher and student loved him. Except for Dumbledore, who was convinced that this little teenager was evil for being able to speak to snakes and being sorted into Slytherin. And of course, everybody thinks Dumbledore is the next Merlin, so they listened to him, and Tom was sent back to the orphanage every summer to die."

"You say muggle orphanage-Voldemort is a muggle-born?" Lily forgot to stutter while saying his name, too enraptured with Harry's story to notice.

"He's a half-blood, actually. Riddle is.. the heir of Slytherin." Harry shrugged, kicking his dangling feet back and forth.

"And you?" Lily almost whispered, gesturing to the small boy next to her. "What.. Who.. How.."