Bound To You

Chapter 4: Surprise!

Severus was a very observant man, to say the least. His eyes would scan the Great Hall at meal times, noting everything that seemed amiss. That morning seemed like another day, the Gryffindors were as rowdy as always, the Hufflepuffs were doing quiet chatter, the Ravenclaws eating quickly before grabbing their books to read, and the Slytherins... Well, since the whole 'Heir of Slytherin' thing, they seemed to be looking smug and yet curious, their eyes searching for who the Heir truly was.

He internally snorted. Of course, the Heir should be the one who's able to speak to snakes, which was the Dark Lord.

... Or Harry Potter.

His eyes zeroed in on said boy. The defeater of the Dark Lord, and the one he'd vowed to protect to honor Lily's death. And coincidentally the most insufferable brat he'd ever encountered in his whole life. He'd teach him a lesson or two in his upcoming detention, of course... He'd never forget the first duelling lesson with Lockheart, where it was Draco against Potter, where he'd commanded the snake Draco had conjured...

He could very well be the next Slytherin Heir, as far as he'd known, and the rest of the school seemed to be of the same mind. Standing up, Severus immediately headed for the Potion's classroom. It was another day of torture, or so it felt like it since the dunderheads he would be teaching that morning were first years Gryffindor and Slytherin...

Torture indeed.

For the past week, Harry had spent most of his nights writing in the diary, interrogating Tom as thoroughly as he could. The more he wrote, though, the more he became interested in this Tom-being. Whom would he be if were a real person? He'd be a great guy, he was sure, but right now he needed to know why he was in Ginny's hands.

"You want to know why I was with her?"

The elegant writing was something one would be envious of, but Harry didn't really care about that. He liked his messy handwriting no matter what, thank you very much. Growing up, he didn't have much chance to practice writing, so just being able to write eligibly was an achievement in his mind.

"Yes," he scrawled. "A charmed diary like you would be pretty high in demand, and I was wondering how you'd come into her hands as I've never heard of your kind before."

"Would you truly want to know?"

Harry pondered the question for a while. Did he really want to know?

"Yes. "

He'd decided to find out what was wrong with Ginny, as he'd never seen her without this book last year when he'd visited the Weasleys. Then again, if he'd remembered correctly, it was Malfoy's dad who put in the book in her cauldron. Wouldn't something like this become a very valuable and expensive thing, if it were to be publicized? Why did someone like Malfoy's father put something this precious into another's cauldron? Was it cursed or something?

Shaking his head, he focused back onto the page he was on, noticing Tom's reply to his previous writing.

"Very well, if you're that curious then I'll let you in here."

"Let me in there?" Harry's eyebrows climbed up into his hairline as he read that before they knitted together into a frown. "What do you mean by letting me in there?"

"Enter the book, silly."

Harry flushed, imagining the diary, personified, laughing at his question.

"How?"

"Close your eyes and focus your magic onto the book."

Harry looked at it doubtfully. Could he, really? How does one focus their magic onto an object anyway? Maybe it would be like Wingardium Leviosa, where one levitates an object. That's something like focusing one's magic onto an object... right?