Custodarium by Tina48

Chapter 14

The aftermath was... not what Tom had expected.

Harry had been growing distant in the days following the Christmas Eve.

Why? Was the sex bad? It certainly didn't seem or feel so, but maybe Tom was just too distracted to notice... Or had he done or said something wrong? Or did Harry finally realise he didn't want to have anything to do with the murderer of his parents? Tom still had trouble wrapping his mind around it, so how must it feel to Harry?

It started with him "going for a fly". That would have been all well and good, but he'd been gone for hours on end, and again the next day, and the day after. When Tom ran out of patience the fourth day it happened and went to check the broom storage, none of the school broomsticks was missing and neither were the broomsticks of anyone Harry was friends with and could have borrowed one from. He knew for a fact that Harry didn't own one, and he wouldn't borrow anyone else's without permission, which meant...

He hadn't gone flying at all.

To add to that, there was also this new glass ceiling in their sex life. After what Tom had thought was a solid step forward came a sudden fall – Harry would still do intimate stuff with him, but he would hit the brake whenever the situation took turn towards penetrative sex.

Why?! What changed? Why would Harry lie to him again?

It made Tom's chest tighten almost to a point of physical pain... Anxiety, unlike any he'd known before Harry.

He concluded he had to confront Harry once he returned. He waited in the dormitory; by the time the door handle clicked, the winter sun had long since set and the dinner had already started.

"Where have you been?"

The other wizard froze at the door.

"Er, flying? I told you I was going for a fly, remember?" His voice was a little too defensive. How'd he manage to keep Tom in the dark for so long if he was this bad a liar?

"Don't take me for an idiot, Harry. Where have you really been?" Anger and betrayal were bubbling in his stomach. He hated this – this was why he never let anyone close in the first place.

But the time traveler just sighed, he wasn't as affected as Tom had expected him to be once he'd learned his lie had been discovered. He didn't even appear annoyed, there was resignation on his face, but he also a smile.

"Okay, you caught me," he raised his hands in mock-surrender, "I have something to show you, and I promise to explain everything, but I'm starving, so can we please do that after dinner?"

What the hell is going on? "... Fine."

The dinner was a silent event, Tom was still lost in thought and rather mad at Harry. It didn't help that Harry was in an infuriatingly good mood. He stood up right after he'd finished his first plate, the dessert hadn't even appeared yet – it was very unlike him to skip it.

"Well, come on," he nodded to Tom. It was also unlike him to order people around, but Tom was too strung up about the whole thing to protest.

He followed Harry to the second floor and into... the girls' loos?

"There's something special about the interior of these loos; can you spot it? Take your time, I give you," he cast a Tempus charm, "five minutes to look around."

Tom gave him an odd look, but he stepped up to the challenge, examining the ceiling, the stalls, the windows, the floor, until he finally concentrated on the the central sink and noticed the snake engraving on one of the taps.

"Is this about the snake?"

Harry was grinning so widely it was threatening to split his face.

"Congratulations, you found it! Now, they say no one knows the Hogwarts castle quite like you, but could there be a place that remains... secret to even you?"