Lord Of Time

18

Chapter 18

Tom watched Hadrian's face, taking in every single facial change, not that there were many admittedly, but there were enough to see he was deeply conflicted, cautious and a little bit wary. It was as if whatever he knew was something that wasn't meant to be shared, which put Tom decidedly on edge.

There was quite a lot he didn't understand about what Hadrian had spoken about, especially DNA but he could guess what he meant by it, although why he would call it that was a complete mystery.

His mother had died giving birth to him, that wasn't sacrificial magic...and if she had why had everyone lied to him? And more importantly how did Hadrian know? It was beginning to do his head in, quite literally as he felt as though his mind was about to explode with all this information.

"Do you want the truth, Tom? I mean really want it? The genie cannot be put back in the bottle." Harry said slowly, unable to believe that Death was encouraging him to tell Tom.

It was madness, he shouldn't be doing this, it would come back to bite him in the arse, probably in the form of being killed by Tom. Of course, he didn't like thinking that way, Tom was just a fourteen year old teen he wasn't Dumbledore and wasn't about to prejudge someone or manipulate someone into doing the same.

Tom arched an eyebrow at the very Muggle phrase, there was no denying that Hadrian had spent a lot of his time in the Muggle world, he was sure he had been truthful about that. In fact Hadrian had never outright lied to him; at least he didn't like to think so.

Did he really want to know? Whatever it was, it was obviously serious from the way he was talking. He was too curious to say no, but he'd always been one for desiring as much information as possible from the world around him. "Yes," he stated calmly, before he actually thought about saying it.

"I'm not from this time," Harry confessed, keeping a close eye on Tom and his reaction.

Tom immediately frowned, as if he was trying to decipher the true hidden meaning behind Hadrian's words. Time-travel? Was it even possible? Nothing he had read so far in the magical world indicated that it could be done. In fact the only 'time-travel' that was written about was the time-turners and they only went back hours at a time. Could he be from the past?

It would explain why he was so wary of this time, going from somewhere then into the future and finding out the Muggle world was at war...would be confusing. He'd never had trouble getting around Hogwarts either, so he'd obviously attended the school before being here.

"How far forward did you accidentally come?" Tom asked, and how was his story able to be verified? Surely they wouldn't have let Hadrian remain at Hogwarts if they figured out he lied? Unless they knew the truth and the students were left to draw their own conclusions? Didn't anyone recognize him? He obviously knew his mother and well judging by the fact he was familiar enough with her magic.

"I didn't come forward, Tom, I came back," Harry replied, "Sixty years in fact." well actually more than sixty years, but he wasn't going to get into every little detail, what did it matter if he was off by a few years?

"You don't sound German," Tom stiffened completely, sixty years? It was mind boggling, he'd assumed a few years not bloody sixty. Sixty years made him seventy four in that time, it was seriously weird to think of it that way albeit if he survived at any rate.

Harry laughed a little, "That's because I'm not, they don't win, neither of them."

"If you're from the future, how do you know about my mother?" Tom said his eyes narrowing again. What reason would a boy sixty years in the future have with knowledge on the Gaunt family?