Harry Potter and the Bucket List

Year 5 - 15

I was very happy for him—hobbies did wonders for mental health, something I knew Tom needed to work on. His disdain for Voldemort bordered on obsessive hatred. Helpful for my plans to defeat Voldemort, but concerning for Tom's self-image.

One evening I hopped out of my chest to find that Tom had taken over the dining room table. The living room had become a cluttered mess of paperwork, floating chalk boards, and odd arcane runes scratched into the floors. Worst of all some furniture had been ripped to shreds.

Yeesh, I thought to myself as I stared at Tom. He was sitting cross-legged on the dining room table, his eyes closed as he concentrated on... something.

"Tom?" I probed. "You okay?"

When he did not respond, I reached out a tentative hand to place on his shoulder. His cool magic curled into mine, and he opened his eyes.

He said, "Apologies, I was doing some tracking."

"I see a tornado hit the living room."

"I... was a little frustrated," he admitted, his cheeks tinged pink. "I'll fix it in a moment."

"Anything I can do?" I asked.

"N—Yes," he said. "Maybe?"

"What do you need?"

He hesitated. "Harry's been doing very well in his Occlumency."

"Uh-huh?"

"That—" Tom shifted his weight uneasily, a disdainful expression crossing over him. "—thing has recently figured out there was a connection between him and Harry."

"There shouldn't be anymore," I said with a narrowed gaze. "Harry's Occlumency has been top-notch. He hasn't had any special nightmares for months. Why is this a recent connection and how do you know about it?"

Tom glanced away from me. "I may have been impersonating the soul fragment in your brother's skull and feeding false memories to it."

"You—I'm sorry, what?" I hadn't meant to shout but what he said completely floored me.

"Well," Tom said testily, "as long as a fragment is active the connection is there. Harry locked his up nicely, and he did it before that thing even realized it was there. I could keep myself hidden as I am an excellent Occlumency user myself, but why miss such an opportunity? It can't keep itself nearly as well hidden as it thinks it can."

"So—what? Vold—" Tom glared at me, and I hastily corrected myself, "—that thing thinks you're Harry?"

"Yes," said Tom.

"Okay," I said slowly. "And it only made this connection recently?"

"Today," said Tom, his lips curled back in a sneer. "After months of probing it, it only noticed today."

"And that's bad?"

"It's depressing," Tom flatly said.

"Ah," I said, as I realized what may have caused my darling's temper tantrum. "Er—were you able to find anything useful?"

"Its mind is a bloody mess," he said reproachfully. "Its thoughts are garbled at best, and incomprehensible most of the time. It behaves more akin to a wild beast with emotional flare ups more than anything. I'll need to keep it properly contained for a prolonged period of time in order to extract the knowledge it has amassed."

"Any ideas on that front?" I asked him, curious.

"Some," he said. "As insane as it is, it's still dangerous. The biggest issue is extracting the soul without further damaging it and finding a way to contain it."