Half-Dimension

Different Toms

Draco watched as Lucius just nodded quietly, and Severus simply stood there, unwilling to really say anything to the person who stood before him. It would seem that the Dark Lord had a reputation even as a younger self, and even in two different dimensions. Though, this was the Dark Lord they were talking about. It would be odd if he did not. Draco inhaled sharply as Tom lightly tugged on him to get him to walk with him. He may have been terrified of his universes' Tom, but he had to realize that this universe's Tom was different from his own. Even if there were some startling similarities, there were also many differences. The biggest one being that this person seemed like he was able to even think clearly. Then again, the Voldermort that he had known had split his soul seven ways and that was bound to drive anyone to the utter edge of insanity. 

This Tom clearly had all of his mental faculties, for now at least, while the other one was quite literally absolutely insane. Draco was not certain if he had already created a horcrux, though it was possible and definitely not something that he was going to ask about. He rather enjoyed having his head attached to his shoulders. He could not really tell all of the differences, or if there were any similarities between his world's Tom Riddle/Voldermort and this one. Then again, he gave himself some slack. He had only known this Tom for about three minutes. Definitely not long enough to really draw any conclusions that was for certain. 

"Are you sure about..." Draco held a hand up, stopping Severus' undoubtedly rant of worry. He could not have Severus challenging Tom's choice, hat would not bode well for anyone. Somethings simply did not change, and his godfather/not godfather/friend person or whatever it was that Severus was to him at the moment...either way his worry over Draco had not changed. He supposed that there had to be certain similarities between the people that he was among, despite all of the changes, how could he possibly think that everything would have changed, that was simply unrealistic. 

"I will be fine, do not worry about me." Draco said soothingly. He turned his gaze onto Lucius and Severus, wrist still wrapped in Tom's grasp.

"But..."

"Sev," Draco cut in sharply. "I promise, I will be perfectly fine. You are worrying over nothing." Which was of course, not something that he could necessarily promise, but either way he was a Slytherin, though he was lying he was good at it. It would seem Severus did not pick up on it either.

"Fine," Severus agreed, finally, and Draco turned to Tom and nodded once. 

Tom smiled. He had to admit that the boy before him was rather interesting. It was not everyday that he found people interesting, given his general disregard for them. Though, there was something different about this boy, something that caused him to be intrigued with him, though he could not really place a word on exactly what it was that caused the interest, it was certainly there.

So, gently tugging the boy, he brought him into the back room. His...office of sorts. He was curious more so than anything, about this boy, and he really rather wanted to get to know him just a little bit. Interest was not something that he was particularly used to, and so he was uncertain really how he should continue. How would he manage? Well, Tom did what he had read about so long ago in the orphanage books. He asked basic dull questions. Hopefully those dull questions would lead to more interesting questions, but the plus side to dealing with the dull and boring questions, Tom knew from experience, was that the answering person almost always gave more than they intended to.

"So, Draco, how are you liking your new, living arrangement?" Tom asked curiously, relinquishing the boy's wrist, and allowing him to take a seat opposite to his own. Draco hummed, as though contemplating, before he answered weighin his answer against what he should say. 

"It is...different, most certainly but not bad." Tom startled, it was a rather interesting way to answer that question. First time to hear such an answer. It made Tom more curious rather than less. 

"How is Hogwarts treating you?" Draco scoffed at that, finding it funny, for whatever reason.

"It is pathetic." Draco hissed darkly, eyes flashing dangerously. Tom leaned back in his seat, looking at Draco, simply staring at him, not really doing anything, not saying anything more, just watching him for a little bit trying to get a read on the other. It was rather difficult but not impossible. The boy had been brought up well by whoever it was who had taught him such things at the very least.

"What about it is pathetic?" Tom asked. It was strange. He found himself actually wanting to know the answer. Something that he most certainly was not used to. 

"Many things, but I think I shall settle for the simple fact that half of the teachers are utterly incompetent and refuse to answer any interesting questions." Tom laughed a little bit, eyes sparkling.

"It seems you and I have similar thoughts." Draco shrugged.

"Hard not to. I can best probably half of the teachers, it is not that hard. The curriculum is ridiculously easy. Though I suppose a school that caters to mudbloods would be easy for pure bloods, or half bloods. Even if I did not learn anything when younger, it would be pathetically easy to pass through the classes. Basically everything is book and academic based. Barring some of the classes which require you to produce spells in order to learn properly, such as Charms or transfiguration but then half of the class is not actually doing wandwork. It is writing reports on different spells and researching them. What use is that?" Draco huffed annoyed, crossing his arms and glaring at the floor. "It is utterly ridiculous." 

"You are an interesting person." Draco jerked his eyes up to Tom's own at that. 

"What do you mean?" He whispered softly, voice tentatively questioning. 

"I mean, I find myself intrigued by you. It does not happen often that a person interests me, but you have managed to do so." 

Draco cold not help but feel a rush of pride at that. He was not exactly exceptional, his father had made sure to beat that into him at a rather young age, but it was nice to hear from Tom Riddle that he was interesting, whether it was his world's Voldermort, or this world's Tom Riddle, even with the differences, he had always tried to gain the attention of the Dark Lord, but always failed. Unless it was in a bad way. He could not help but feel...proud...that he had finally managed to do what he had always desperately hoped that he could.