A Deeper Connection: A New Beginning

A Deeper Connection - Part II

The first thing the Dark Lord felt when he arrived at Spinner's End were two strong arms pulling him closer to a warm body, "I missed you so much."

Burying his head deeper in his shoulder, his Equal slowly inhaled the comforting scent of the Dark Lord.

"I missed you, too," Tom said after a moment of silence, gently patting Harry's back.

Just then, the Potions Master arrived in a cloud of green flames. Stepping out of the fireplace, their eyes met for a fraction of a second. Despite Severus' impressive Occlumency Shields, it was more than obvious how uncomfortable the situation in front of him was making the Potions Masters. Mumbling something about overseeing the House Elves in the kitchen, the dour man fled. Rolling his eyes, the Dark Lord returned his attention to his equal.

"-cannot explain how happy I am that you are back. Do not ever leave me like that again, Tom," Harry mumbled, luckily oblivious to Severus' previous actions as his face was still firmly buried in his shoulder, "promise to me that you will never leave me, please."

Given the quite substantial amount of desperation in the words of his equal, the Dark Lord answered without thinking, "I promise."

Once the words had left his lips, Tom felt something tugging at his soul, although not unpleasant. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as his and Harry's soul were tied a bit closer together by the Dark Lord's promise. Given the primordial nature of the magic he had experienced, the promise must have been recognised by Magic herself, most likely due to the sincerity of the Dark Lord's words since he had never intended for his promise to be magical, and certainly not binding to begin with. Still, he was not upset with the situation. Tom rather welcomed it. It simply felt right. Deciding to not focus too much on the involvement of Magic herself for now, the Dark Lord pulled his Equal closer, every atom of his body enjoying the peaceful closeness between the two of them.

"Are you certain that you do not want to visit Diagon Alley tomorrow, my Lo... Thomas?" Severus asked much later, looking up from his plate, although carefully avoiding questioning the behaviour of the two wizards opposite him.

"Most certainly, Severus," Tom answered, trying to cut the piece of chicken with the fork in his left hand since his right hand was currently otherwise occupied, being held by his Equal who was shovelling a mixture of vegetables and rice into his mouth with his right hand. Since their reunion, Harry had made it quite clear that he would not let go of Tom any time soon. For now, this also seemed to apply to shared meals, too.

"You think that he will confront you so soon after the debacle at Gringotts?" the Potions Master enquired.

"I have known Dumbledore for longer than I like," the Dark Lord sighed, abandoning his attempt to cut the chicken into something bite-sized, "he will not just accept me getting off so easily at Gringotts today. Without question, he will spend the entire evening recapitalising the entire afternoon, obviously without finding any faults with the confirmation of my identity apart from the slight disruption in the Inheritance Ritual. Since the problem with the Adansonia Leave Extract is in fact not made-up and something the Goblins have been complaining about for quite some time, he will look for something else, leaving him with only two options. Investigating Thomas Prince's past is without doubt the most obvious, but also the most time-consuming option. Therefore, he will confront me directly. Knowing the old fool, he will visit me as soon as possible, probably under the excuse of enquiring about Thomas Prince's education. Maybe, I will even be invited to Hogwarts to have my supposed skills evaluated."

"Evaluating transfer students usually takes time," Severus objected, "tests have to be prepa-"

"You will be surprised how fast the dear old Headmaster can act if it suits his needs," Tom chuckled darkly, "how about next week?"