Could've Been Saved ⇢ 𝒕𝒎𝒓 & 𝒉𝒋𝒑

7

You can come out now,' Tom said gently, sitting down on the spot where Dumbledore just sat without taking his eyes off the tin box. When Harry stepped out of the stuffy wardrobe into the room he noticed the box was empty inside, but from Tom's expression he knew it must've been full at one point.

Then Harry remembered; In the memory, he had taken toys out from it and placed on his bed. There had been a red yo-yo, a harmonica and a silver thimble. Dumbledore must've taken them with him to give them back to the kids Tom had stolen them from.

When Harry looked up from the box he noticed that Tom was eyeing him curiously, but there was a new sadness in his eyes presumably from the fresh loss of toys.

'For what reason had you been hiding from this man, anyway? He didn't seem particularly scary to me,'

Harry shrugged. 'Long story—Hey, do you need new toys to occupy that nice box?' He didn't even know why he was suggesting that, probably because he wanted to steer the attention away from himself as it had gotten towards a dangerous territory.

'Oh, no thanks,' Tom said, aggravated, with a long sigh following it up. 'There's no point in looking for toys when you will need to turn in money for it instead of your skill in stealing them.'

'I don't doubt that, but what if they'll be paid from my hand...?'

Tom's eyes widened. 'You would buy them for me? Wait, that would be another form of stealing, wouldn't it? Because I've influenced you to spent your money unlike you've originally planned to, yes?'

When Harry reluctantly said yes the biggest grin spread on Tom's face and in the next moment the lost toys were completely forgotten. 'Then what are we still dwelling here for any longer than needed to? Where do people with money purchase toys?'

Apparently Tom liked doing things that were wrong, bad and socially unacceptable. This theory led to believe that if you told him something good was indeed bad he would be burning to do just that.

So just for the sake of an amusing little experiment, as Harry was walking alongside Tom towards town he tested out telling him that saying Hello to strangers was revolting and impolite, so he better not do it.

Towards the end of their journey Tom had greeted approximately the entire population of London, and some foreigners as well.

'Hello, sir!' Tom said brightly right as they entered the nearest toy shop which was fifteen minutes away from the orphanage. Harry didn't even have to ask Mrs Cole for permission to take Tom, they walked right past them and they didn't even bother stopping them for inquiries.

The man, which Tom had just greeted with an endless smug look, just flashed a smile before he went back to the cash register.

'People seem to like being disrespected,' Tom pointed out to Harry, arching a brow.

'Indeed.' said Harry simply, leading him over to a shelf full of action figures and gesturing with his arm towards it with a sweeping motion. But Tom didn't even give it a glance, he continued walking, pushing past Harry's arm which he still held outstretched and only retraced back to himself once Tom had stopped in front of a throw-basket with gummy snakes in it.

'You really like snakes, huh?' Harry said, stepping next to him.

'—The only thing I like,' Tom glared up briefly to Harry from under his hooded eyelids, giving him that same deadly look he had given Dumbledore, before he continued searching for the snake with most appealing colour; they were all shades of grey, and a few black and white ones. 'They aren't even live, what am I supposed to do with them?'

'Well, those toys you stole didn't seem much more interesting...?'

'I never play with them,' Tom muttered. 'It's just nice to have something in your collection, reminding you of the pain it gave others when they found it gone.'

'That makes perfect sense,' Harry nodded, earning a rare smile from Tom which he was quick to reciprocate, but once Tom looked back at the snakes Harry's face scrunched up into a frankly, weirded out, expression, shaking his head faintly.