The Not so Dark Hours (Tomarry)

CHAPTER 5

"So... Who is this Tom?"

I choke on my spit and cough a whole five minutes before I can think clearly. Tears are running down my face as I look at Ron incredulously.

"I mean... the only two Toms that I know you know are the one at the Leaky Cauldron and... You're not... You don't...?" Ron suggests and my heartbeat quickens. "But you said he's a muggle, so none of that then. How did you meet him?" I exhale slowly and decide to stick as close to the truth as possible.

"Well...", great start Harry, really coming off honest, "I met him for the first time very early on in my life, but I didn't really connect the name and the face until first year."

"You've known him that long? Bloody hell! Why didn't you tell me mate? Or even 'Mione?" Ron asks inquisitively and I pretend to shrink in my seat.

"Well..." oh my Salazar, I have got to stop being so ineloquent, "he wasn't really that important I guess. I just saw him around, you know? To make this short: During all our years I've been seeing more and more of him. He's become a prominent figure of my life. Whenever Dudley and his friends chase me, or I see Cedric die before my eyes the guilt comes back hard. In those moments he helps me find myself and I feel like I have to be strong for him..." I drift off. I realise that it is actually true he is what kept me on this cliff, not letting myself fall, for years. I've had to be strong to face him and I have to become even stronger to defeat him. At least I thought that, but who am I to judge his views, when I've never really heard his ideas from him or his followers. I've just heard the light's side of things and that might have been a mistake. Even children are taught that there is always more than one part or view to a story.

"Bloody hell. You're falling hard Hazzah..." Ron states, shocked by this new revelation. I blush. Me, falling for the dark lord? Oh what a field day Skeeter would have if that ever came out, but no. I can't. It's a phase. I'm probably just confused and hormonal especially after finding out what I like. What was it muggle women in telly shows always say? 'To get over a man you have to get under another?' Bit harsh, but maybe I should try that.

--

"Now you can't ask your dumb friends for help, can you Potter?" Malfoy smirked evilly and I sigh. Maybe going on a cute little walk in the dungeons wasn't the best idea, but how would I know, that Malfoy would jump around a corner, use a petrificus totalus on me, and tie me to a post of his bed? Technically I could have reacted faster or use wandless magic to get out of the situation, but A: I wanted to have some tricks up my sleep for my favourite dark lord, and B: I'm a bit curious as to what Malfoy junior has got planned for me. The situation seems awfully suggestive, but maybe that's my key to get over whatever weird thing is making me lust after Tom Riddle.

"Potter! Are you even listening? Although..." suddenly Blaise Zabini bursts into the room calling 'Draco!' and both of us freeze. Zabini's eyebrows rise and he looks at Malfoy, who gets an irrate look on his face.

"It's not what it looks like!" Malfoy defends himself. Zabini's eyebrows remain raised.

"It is absolutely what it looks like!" I say, smirking at the problems I just caused Malfoy. He gives me a death glare and does something I wouldn't have imagined him doing at sixteen years old: he turns tails and runs out of the room, leaving me with a smirking Zabini. I stare off to the point where Malfoy had just stood mere seconds ago and rethink all my life choices.

Harriet's sudden hissing at Zabini, who's unbeknownst to me, has come very close, rips me out of my teenage crisis.

"Potter... Do you have a snake beneath your robes?" Zabini asks incredulously.

"More than just your everyday garden snake, enemy of my master! Watch me dissect you into tiny little pieces and feed you to my kind while-" Harriet rants and I tell her to shut up if she doesn't want to get me into more trouble. Too late.

"Oh right, I completely forgot that you are a parselmouth after second year. Now then, what do I do with you Potter?" Zabini circles me, grin animalistic and I shudder. Nope, no! No dirty thoughts about him, he's Ron's! "How about I let you go," Zabini starts and I'm starting to thank the heavens above for what little humanity he's showing, when he continues, "if you do me a little favour." He caresses his crotch and I cringe. He's just joking. He can't be serious. He can't. Apparently he can because he starts disrobing and I swallow nervously. "What Potter, cat got your tongue? And if not, something else surely will soon enough keep that little pink tongue occupied." This is nothing like what I imagined my evening to turn out as. Has he just completely forgotten the basilisk underneath my robes that would just love to kill him in the most gruesome ways? Then again, he hasn't known or seen Harriet. Not like this and not in her true form.

"We can't!" I shout, suddenly having regained the ability to speak. Zabini asks 'why not?' and I'm about to give him an honest piece of both my mind and newly acquired skills, when an idea makes its way to the forefront of my head. "My friend likes you!" I burst out. I'm sorry Ron, but I don't want to pull out the big guns yet, nor do I want to be raped.

"Oh? Who is this friends of yours? Do I know them?" Zabini asks, trying to look like he doesn't really care, but I'm seeing the hope in his eyes.

"You know him, but that's all I'm going to say until you free me." I insist, proud of myself, when I see that I hooked him.

"Fine, but I'll only let you go if you tell me his name." I say 'deal' and he frees me carefully. Then I karate chop the side of his neck, making him faint, and flee the Slytherin dorms through a portrait of Salazar. Sorry Zabini ~

A/N Sorry for the long wait. I had already written the whole chapter, but I hated it so I had to rewrite it 😭

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