Can't Break the Silence

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"Where is that boy?" Tom muttered darkly to himself as he slammed Harry's door shut behind him. The portraits on the wall grumbled at the vibration of the door slamming and sent him dirty looks.

"Bloody Half-blood, dirty blood..." they sneered at his back. Tom just grinned to himself as he swaggered down to the lower level of the house.

"Have you seen Harry?" He didn't like asking House Elves anything of importance, but the boy was gone. The brief thought of Harry running back to Dumbledore brushed across his mind before he placed it away and behind his shields. The boy wouldn't go back to the old man. Wasn't it just yesterday afternoon where Tom had held the boy to his wet chest, embracing him?

He repressed a shudder at the memory. Casual sex was one thing, but comforting was another. Tom couldn't remember ever comforting another like he had Harry. There were times, when he was courting wizards and witches to his side in which he had to pat their shoulder comfortingly as they told their dark tales of the Ministry and their wishes for revenge, but he had never held a body so close and reassuringly like he had his Gem.

Which, he understood, was expected. He told himself beforehand that he would have to do more... intimate things with Harry in order to sway the boy fully to the Dark side. He would have to open himself up and he would have to do things he would never have imagined. Like sharing his memories and holding. It was all part of his plan to secure Harry. His other followers, although lustful of his attention, would never hold a flame to Harry.

"Swimming, Mister Riddle," the House Elf shook as he bowed his ears in submission. "Would Mister Riddle like Tippy to make Lunch for Mister Riddle?"

Tom was out the door before the Elf got the chance to finish its question.

Swimming... the boy had better not be doing a relapse of a suicide mission. Tom had thought the boy vanished his thoughts of suicide the day he found out about the Ministry.

But his worries were for naught as he stumbled across the boy pushing himself up on the deck from the water. Water cascaded down the lithe body as the boy... young man... climbed gracefully to his feet. Unwillingly, Tom watched the droplets trail down the curve of the elegant neck and wound its way across the bony shoulders and down the delectable arch of the boy's lower back. The young man's body was always lithe, with a few muscles from Quidditch, but otherwise, he was average height, almost appearing petite.

Tom swallowed past the blockage in his throat, his eyes greedily drinking in his students exposed body. It was wrong of him, oh, most certainly, but when did he ever stick to morals? He was a Dark Lord and Harry James Potter had the most delectable body.

The black hair had grown out, fitting the boy's sense of fragile beauty. Despite the lithe body, Harry had a face full of sharp and almost delicate angles. Tom had never really paid attention to the boy's appearance, always seeing the student and not the whole package.

But Merlin's beard, Tom couldn't find it in himself to shy away from the sharp green eyes as they turned to him. One thing was for certain, he had never been oblivious of the stunning eyes. He remembered, watching the small eleven year old being sorted. Those eyes were the first thing he took notice of.

"Riddle," Harry frowned and nonchalantly dried his hair with his towel. "No matter what you think, I wasn't trying to kill myself."

"I wasn't thinking as much," Tom replied coolly. He took a few steps forward in advance, his eyes not shy. Let the boy see him looking. He enjoyed it when Harry shifted, seemingly uncomfortable. Tom was sure the boy wasn't a virgin, not after months of being a successful Quidditch star. But Tom found himself wondering if the boy favored men. Probably not... but that didn't mean Tom couldn't try.