To Live is the Rarest Thing

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Tom licked his lips before pursing them. “I want answers, absolutely, but summoning Death seems like the kind of thing one should consider carefully.”

“So we’ll give it some thought,” Harry agreed easily. He was used to being the impulsive one in their relationship. While the Sorting Hat had put Harry in all four Hogwarts houses at least once in different lives, at heart Harry was and would always remain a Gryffindor. And Gryffindors were not known for their ability to plan everything carefully. No, they preferred to simply go full steam ahead right away.

Tom, ambitious and clever that he was, had the calculating nature of a Slytherin, no matter where the Sorting Hat put him (which had been all Houses save for Hufflepuff. Yes, the hat had once put Tom into Gryffindor just for fun in a life where Harry and Tom met on the Hogwarts express and the hat took great delight in sorting an actual former descendent of Slytherin into Gryffindor. That version of the Sorting Hat had been a troll, since it stuck Harry in Ravenclaw that life and Harry was many things, but a Ravenclaw wasn’t it). No matter the Hogwarts house Tom ended up in, he preferred to think things through, look at an option from all angles before making a decision.

“We’ll let it sink in for a few days,” Tom said while rubbing his hand across Harry’s thigh in a comforting gesture. “Let me see what else this book has to say about Death as an entity.”

And with that, Tom returned his focus to the book in his hands while Harry went back to looking at the telly where hopeful people were getting their household crap appraised, hoping to become rich overnight while assuring the whole world they weren’t there for the money. Harry loved seeing the disappointed looks on people’s faces when the expert told them their antique chamber pot they’d inherited from their nan was worth five quid and not the hundreds of thousands of pounds they were not so secretly hoping for.

Not that Harry was in a real position to judge, since in more than one life he and Tom had gotten their own crap appraised in whatever version of the Antiques Roadshow was available in the country they lived in. Hey, you never knew what something was really worth, all right?

Harry heated up two portions of his goat curry from the freezer cabinet he’d been saving especially for Tom’s return, and Tom gave him such a sappy look in gratitude, Harry was instantly disappointed smartphones with their built-in cameras weren’t invented yet. Still, it was worth it to buy a regular camera, with film rolls and everything, to at least take some pictures of Izzy and of each other.

They took Izzy for a walk after dinner, though it was already dark at that point, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying the countryside.

“I want answers,” Harry said, Izzy’s leash in one hand, Tom’s hand in the other as they strolled in the direction of Riddle Manor. “But on the other hand I’m worried summoning Death might change what we’ve got going on.”

“Exactly,” Tom said, giving Harry’s hand a soft squeeze in agreement. “It would be nice to know there is some purpose to all of this.”

“Yep. Why us?” Harry quickly looked up at Tom. “Don’t get me wrong, babe, I am beyond grateful that I get to do this with you.”

“I know, I know,” Tom was quick to assure Harry, offering him an agreeable smile. “Looking back on the lives we’ve lived together, on how far we’ve come as individuals and as a couple, I have no regrets.”