It was my Willing Choice

Chapter IX: Everybody Deals with Emotions

Not necessarily fear exactly, but definitely shock.

He had tried so hard not to let Fenrir see his reactions before; to be able to come to sense how potentially scared, terrified and panicked he had been. And, now that he was alone...Harry was slowly letting all his emotions and actions out.

"Harry..." he voiced softly

The teen merely tensed to the sound of the familiar voice and stilled as a sound of slight sobbing came. He didn't turn around or even acknowledge that Tom was ever there. Tom walked to him and slowly lowered himself to sit beside him. Tom didn't know why this was affecting him so much; he had an idea of why, but his own past should have in some manner desensitized him.

He delicately reached out and put a hand to his shoulder and his crimson eyes widened with horrified realization as Harry shuddered violently and moved his body inch by inch more towards the fire and away from him.

"Don't." Harry sobbed quietly, "Don't touch me."

Tom's gaze was now bordering between enraged fury to those muggle relatives of his that had demeaned this wonderful young man to what he was seeing now in a reduced form; for he knew internally that part of this reaction was their fault and not solely Greyback's, and feeling the need to protect him from them as much as Harry from himself.

"How can you even want to see me now? To touch me like this?" Harry sobbed, "I couldn't protect myself from him and his advances. Just as I couldn't do anything to stop the treatment I received at the hands of my mother's sister's family."

"I didn't even sense him sneaking up on me." He cried, "And I should have."

Tom then ignored every instinct inside of him; the ones that screamed at him to leave Harry alone. He gathered him to his arms and clutched him to his body tightly and Harry's own eyes widened in surprised shock while tears sparkled in his green irises.

"None of that was ever your fault, Harry." He whispered gently, "If anything, I bear part of the blame for forcing you to live with those abominable creatures; since I took your parents from you."

Tom then eyed him as Harry gazed to him numbly, "And you couldn't have known that Fenrir would show up here like this. I have known him for many years now, and I was stunned to hear of how he showed himself to us."

Tom gently ghosted his hands over Harry's back; ensuring the young man knew Tom had caressed over the scars there as both their eyes met now.

"And you are beautiful Harry; even with all those scars to you, you are one of the most beautiful and exquisite human beings I have ever had the honor of knowing in my life. They prove you to be a survivor; a worthy partner and soul-mate for me, and I adore them as a part of you as much as any of the rest of you." Tom said softly, "I often feel I don't deserve you or the second chance I am getting by bringing you to me and into my life."

"You are the one person who always had any sort of sway over me and how I responded to anything. Even Albus never had as much of an impact to me and how I acted; though he certainly tried to be someone who did. Just in a more...teacher/mentor and or parental role than the one you have to me."

Harry coughed as he sobbed into the robes before him and Tom cradled him there as he rubbed his back calmly. Instinctively knowing somehow that this was what he should be doing for Harry, and smiling softer as Harry calmed some.

"Harry, Fenrir has rarely ever lost hold of his instincts like that. Even as a teenager and a young alpha; he has always had more control than most other alphas I have met. Though, that isn't to say that he hasn't ever lost control before; because I know he has. Those instances were, however, provoked more than just a blatant release of of the internal wolf." Tom spoke quietly, "And as the dark lord, I preside over the protection of the creatures that align to magic with dark orientations, so it unsettles me with how he showed up with his mind already lost to his drive to find you and force you to submit.