The right path

Eleven

Weeks turned into a month, and now it was the middle of October. The autumn chill getting stronger, and the leafs turning to their beautiful orange color. During this time, Harry and Tom had developed an unspoken agreement, it seemed. Every time Harry was free of quidditch practice, he would head to the library to study or research about broomsticks, and sit down in the same table as Riddle, who would mind his own business. The routine they never agreed to establish. They weren't friends per se, as they barely talked, but their relationship had indeed morphed into another thing.

Riddle didn't stare at Potter that much during classes, and instead did that sometimes in the library. Creepy as it might be. And he started having polite conversations with the boy on their way to the common room after their library sessions. Sometimes he felt so at ease that he considered trying to talk to the boy more often, he really enjoyed how complex their chats could get, never needing to explain anything to the other boy. But he never started those desired conversations, he was set on observing Potter until he could determine the best course of action, as he wouldn't let that great asset to go to waste. Potter had a brilliant mind, there was no way it was going to waste.

As for the rest of the world they were rivals of some sort, always betting on who would manage to do the classwork first. Not for Tom though, for him they were polite acquaintances, with different goals and perspectives as of now. He frankly couldn't understand most of the things the boy did, and that was frustrating. There was not an established path, strategy or anything that would help him read the boy, and he discovered he couldn't enter the boy's mind, smashing instead into a powerful occlumency shield. It was infuriating. His ways were so opposite too, as Potter had friends in the rival house, Gryffindor, and was always friendly towards anybody, without distinction. Unless they said something that pissed him, that would grant you a cold stare and a turned back.

Abraxas Malfoy learned that the hard way, just a week ago. He had disobeyed Tom's direct order of leaving Potter alone, and decided to confront Harry about his 'traitor ways'. Harry had been pissed, but restrained himself from doing anything drastic. It was not time to resume petty fights with Malfoy, even if it was not the same Malfoy as before. He just told him to mind his own business and tried to walk away from the situation.

Of course, Malfoy just continued nagging him, until he said that word. Harry had lost all sense of self-restriction when Malfoy uttered the word mudblood. He had accused Harry of loving muggleborns or something like that, Harry didn't really pay attention. But when he heard the foul word, fury started burning in his green eyes. Since he learned the meaning behind that expression, it always infuriated him to hear it. Hermione always managed to get Ron and Harry to stay calm, therefore preventing any further problems. Yet, Hermione's calming hand was not there at the moment, and Harry's anger got the best of him. In a flash, Harry had hexed Malfoy, immobilized him and proceeded to explain in a very calm voice how 'every drop of magical blood should be cherished' and how 'there was no such thing as dirty blood, unless he was considering his dirty Malfoy ways in there'. Tom was really amused by that last phrase, and was fighting the urge to laugh out loud. That Malfoy brat deserved what he got, in his opinion, more so because he disobeyed his rule to leave Potter alone. If there was someone who would confront Potter, it would be him.

After that incident, there was no other attempt to change Potter's mind about his friend elections. Not even when said boy had started talking to the 'filthy half-breed' Hagrid. They were not happy, at all, about that fact, but they accepted it, as they knew Potter was not exactly at the bottom of the hierarchy. He was not at the top either, but Tom had declared him off limits, and disobeying that order would sink them to the bottom of the hierarchy, just as it happened with Abraxas.

As for Harry, he stopped thinking of Riddle as Voldemort at some point too, he couldn't really associate the monster with the polite yet cold boy he had met now. And with that acceptance, he stopped having the nightmares he had had since his encounter with the diary Riddle in the chamber of secrets.

For once, he could concentrate on school properly, knowing there was not a lunatic wanting his head on a spike waiting for the right moment to attack. An average year, at last.

He had to admit, it was not as exciting, but at least he was able to actually learn something. He discovered his full potential, and started accepting the fact that he was powerful, which was helping him a lot to understand the changes he had sustained since his magic was returned to him. He could finally get the theory of magic since he could literally feel it flowing now.

In fact, he was almost positive he had achieved something big with his broomstick project. Basing himself on the cleansweep he had, he could decipher how the breaks worked, and how he could improve them in order for them to get smoother. He had worked hard, and finally, he could tweak the current mechanism to fit his desired effect. It worked perfectly.

However, reminiscing the speed and balance of his nimbus 2000 in the future, he knew he wanted to accomplish a better acceleration system than what the cleansweep had, so he would definitely not base his investigations in the current mechanism. There would need to be a design and creation subproject, which would require more work and intellect.

Talking about the broomstick project, Harry was now trying to pinpoint the better course of action towards developing a new acceleration system, with multiple books sprawled across the library table. Tom was sitting there, listening to the soft mumbles the other boy was uttering, but pretending to read a book on ancient runes. It was a mystery for him why Potter had taken an interest in broomsticks out of all things. For him, those brooms were inefficient and unimportant, and quidditch was not even a good thing to watch.

However, he did find interesting the way the other boy thought. When Harry was so deep in thought, he started mumbling all of his critical thinking process, and Tom had his oh so desired opportunity to have a peak inside the other boy's mind. It was fascinating the way Harry could sew things together and create new stuff out of mainly just theory. For just that tiny period of time he could find himself thinking how to solve those same theoretical problems, and he felt like he belonged. Merlin knows Tom had learned more about broomsticks in this two weeks than in all the three years he had been in Hogwarts.

As of now, Potter was trying to get his speed enhanced while maintaining the necessary control to maneuver the broom. Tom thought Harry was taking it the wrong way, but was hesitant to actually tell him. He would need to confess he had been hearing Harry all this time, and he was not looking forward to doing that. But he wanted to tell him. He wanted to be part of it, to discuss the details with Potter and be smug about the fact he got the upper hand again.

"Potter?"

At first Harry thought he had imagined that. Tom would never start a conversation, that just never happened. But decided to answer and see if he was wrong.

"Yeah?"

"I think you are focusing on something you shouldn't. Instead of trying to get your broom to maintain maneuverability while in high speed, you should try to find a way to diminish the wind resistance. That way you should be able to manipulate the grip without fear of losing control."

That... actually made a lot of sense. Harry was baffled. Why hadn't he thought of that? It was way easier than what he wanted to accomplish, and it would also improve the quality of the movement while in low speed. The real question was, how had Riddle known? Or even better, why did he care?

Once again, Tom watched the other boy's emotionless mask crack. Surprise and admiration present in Potter's features before the mask was set into place again. And the smugness was present, just as he predicted.

"I...see where you come from. It is a great idea, thanks. I will be sure to investigate it tomorrow."

Just like that, the silence returned. Harry didn't ask Riddle how he had known about his dilemma, and Tom didn't talk to Potter until they returned to their common room. The words he said surprised, not only Harry and himself, but James, who had been watching their interactions for a while now.

"See you tomorrow Potter, be sure to be on time."

And just like that, he left for the dorm, leaving once again a gaping Harry behind.