Jonquils And Lightning

A Visit in Wisdom

"Where are you going?" Tom's voice was pleasant, but his strides lengthened until he was right beside Harry, and his hand was out as if he was going to grip his arm and restrain him.

Harry gave him a faint smile. "I'm going to talk to someone who can tell me what she thinks I should do—someone I trust more than anyone else. Dorea loves me, but she doesn't know me very well. Jonquil would only advise me to do what would benefit her. And I know that you would also try to give me advice that would benefit you."

"I'd like to come with you and meet your most trusted source of advice."

Harry turned around and faced him. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Tom. That would be a horrible idea."

"Why?"

"Because they would recognize you. They knew the shards of soul that your alternate self hid in his Horcruxes. They wouldn't listen to a word you said and they would spend all their time glaring at you instead of telling me the truth."

Tom's eyes widened. "You're talking about stepping back through the portal that you held open to your original world."

"Yes."

"But how can this woman, whoever she is, advise you? You won't be able to tell her that I'm a variation of Tom Riddle, either, or she'll spend all her time arguing. But how can she give you honest advice if she doesn't know the whole truth?"

Harry looked at Tom with admiration. "Honestly, I'm sorry that I can't introduce you to Hermione. If she could understand you the way I do, then you would get along so well."

"I don't want anyone else to understand me the way you do," Tom purred, and moved close enough to trail a single warm finger down Harry's arm to his wrist.

Harry shivered. Tom was a lot more seductive when he wasn't trying with the same focused intensity he'd used at first. Harry shook his head. "No one will," he said, and backed away a step. "I have to go and talk to her, Tom, even if she won't understand why I'm attracted to you. I just need—a few days away from here. Someone who doesn't love Jonquil to tell me about her."

"I don't love Jonquil," Tom said helpfully.

"You hate her," Harry said, narrowing his eyes. He was sure that Tom hadn't at first, and probably it still wasn't the emotion that Tom could bring to bear on Dumbledore, but Harry didn't want to encourage that emotion to get any stronger. "I've got to step away from here, Tom. From the situation here. To think about a lot of things."

Tom was quiet for a moment, but then nodded. "Are you going to tell your friends that you've met someone?"

"Given that you're part of the reason that I want to see them in the first place?" Harry smirked at him as he stepped away from the back gate of Dorea's house and began the walk towards his world's portal. "Of course."

"That you've met someone exclusive?"

"Both of them know me well enough to know that if I've met someone, it has to be exclusive," Harry said, and gently placed his hand on Tom's arm. Tom was walking along beside him again. "Stay here, please. I'm not going to ask you to soothe Jonquil or the rest of my family, but I am going to ask you to let me go alone."

"Even to your portal? I can't walk you there? What if Dumbledore is lurking in the hills?"

Harry could have said that he was much better equipped to handle Dumbledore than Tom was, but a glance at Tom's face showed him the real reason that Tom wanted to come. His face softening, he nodded. "Then come with me that far. No farther."

*

Despite how difficult it was, Tom held to his word and watched Harry disappear into the sparkling portal that hung above the hills before he turned around to walk back to Godric's Hollow.