The Darkening of Your Soul

Chapter 44

Many quiet moments later, Tom resurfaced, his face suddenly a few shades paler than before. "Yes, fine, she needs to go."

Dorus gave Tom a very knowing look while he obviously tried not to smirk. Barty seemed rather disappointed by Tom's decision, however.

"Can't we place her elsewhere?" Barty asked while wringing his hands and giving Tom a pleading look. "It's a 1000-year-old basilisk. She should be preserved and studied, not euthanised."

"And where would you put her, knowing that a single look from the beast would kill anyone around her?" Dorus said, not unreasonably. Barty frowned and then shrugged, not able to come up with an answer for that dilemma.

"How are we getting into Hogwarts?" Harry asked, sitting up again while giving Theo a comforting pat on his knee.

"We?" Tom asked with a tilt of his head. "You're not coming, Harry."

Harry puffed up with irritation. Tom was out of his mind if he thought he could keep Harry out of this. "Of course I'm coming. You're not doing this alone."

"She knows me," Tom tried to say in a reasonable tone, but his tight features betrayed his frustration with the entire situation. "She'll be calm when I wake her and she won't attack me. I cannot guarantee she won't try to hurt you."

"Then I'll hang back," Harry insisted as he got up from the sofa and glared at Tom. "But you should have someone with you in case she turns on you should she figure out you're there to kill her."

Tom's expression went from deeply thoughtful to carefully blank within a few moments. "Very well. I believe I might be able to apparate into the Chamber, since the last time I checked out the Chamber the wards that encompass Hogwarts didn't extend that far underground."

"Then we shall proceed to the apparition point," Dorus said while gesturing at his office door. The moment Tom agreed to get rid of the basilisk he'd calmed down and now seemed entirely agreeable again to whatever plans Tom came up with. It was interesting to see, though, that Dorus felt safe and confident enough to disagree with Tom in such an obvious and aggressive way. It probably meant that as far as Dorus was concerned Voldemort was truly dead and gone and Tom really was just his old classmate and friend.

Barty wasn't quite there yet to argue so freely with his former Lord, if his disappointed silence was any indication.

They all followed Dorus and Tom out of the Manor and onto the grounds to the apparition point as dusk fell around them.

"I will examine the wards," Tom said with a tight little nod at Harry.

"And then you'll come back for me," Harry insisted, but all Tom did was give him a tight little nod again right before apparating away. Harry inhaled a deep breath, not liking Tom's response one bit but unsure exactly what it meant. Yes, he knew his soulmate better than anyone, probably, but that didn't mean that he was suddenly a psychic who knew exactly what went on in Tom's mind at all times.

After they'd been standing around staring at each other for what must at least be ten minutes, Harry realized what was happening.

"That bastard," Harry grumbled while his eyes widened in disbelief. "He's not coming back for me, is he?"

Dorus released a very amused chuckle. "I'm surprised you thought for one second he actually would. Tom cares far too much about you to put you in such danger again."