In Which Harry Is A Powerful Darling, And Tom Is An Obsessed And Smitten Psycho, Just How We Like Him.

"...You are the heir of slytherin, after all." chapter 10

fanart for draw me after you by @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger on ao3

i like the idea that the horcrux in harry's scar was a jealous son of a bitch and got way too happy when his other counterparts (horcruxes) got destroyed. you can't change my mind. imagine harry feeling gleeful after destroying a horcrux.

Harry: I feel warm and fuzzy. Is that normal?

Ron and Hermione: No.

Scarcrux: [cheering like a madman in Harry's mind & soul]

Tom: Do you know why I summoned you here, Harry?

Harry, sighing: Because I accidentally sent you an unfinished copy of Ron’s insanely sexual love confession to Hermione?

Tom, stopping himself from pouring a second glass of wine: What? Weasley wrote that?

Harry, finally noticing the wine, candlelit table, and dinner for two: Uhh, yeah. Wait, what did you think it was?

Based on the idea that Malfoy could not get the vanishing cabinet to work effectively, and decided to mention, instead, that Hogwarts was taking the Great Hall wards down for a six-fucking-week course on Apparation. This is what wouldn't happen. But it's where my mind went, first. Warning: Graphic Violence

A loud crack signified the first successful Apparition. 

Harry’s eyes, closed in preparation for his own attempt, snapped open and his head turned. It wasn't a student standing at the other end of the Great Hall, though. Harry jolted for his wand as other students began to turn to the cloaked figure, but before he could take aim there were four more sharp cracks. 

Dark-robed, masked Death Eater’s were apparating directly into the Great Hall, the only place the castle wards were down for Hogwarts students to learn how to do the same. 

Bellatrix LeStrange was the first to appear sans mask, having no need for discretion. She took in the scene with a cackle, batting away Harry’s immediate curse effortlessly as she cooed, “Aww, look at the wittle student's trying to learn!” 

In his periphery Harry saw Neville lift his own wand, and they cast simultaneously. This time, Bellatrix twisted out of the way. “Do the wittle babies wanna play?”

“Sectumsempra,” Harry hissed with malice, fully aware of the spell's effects, now. Bellatrix’s eyes widened a bit even as she turned out of the way, quick as a dancer. The Death Eater behind her fell to their knees as their body was pulled apart by deep, horrible gashes. 

More cracks sounded; Harry began to send out indiscriminate stunners, hoping to catch the intruders before they realised they were being cast at. They all came prepared for battle to have begun, shield charms springing around them immediately. 

“Bombarda!” Ron called grimly. 

“Expulso!” shouted Neville. 

“Protego Maxima,” murmured Hermione. “Accio Susan Bones. Protego. Stupefy—students to the teacher's entrance!”

The frozen bodies of some of their yearmates seemed to jolt, realisation settling. Many students turned tail and ran. 

Susan Bones, having narrowly been pulled out of the way of a powerful cutting curse that had gouged into stone walls by Hermione, was casting stunners, petrification hexes, and disarming charms. Harry was not nearly so restrained, once he realised the stunners were ineffective. Sectumsempra broke through shields like a battering drill and Death Eaters were falling, ripped apart by his fury. Curses flew from Harry's wand as fast as he could think of them: conjunctivitis, blasting, jelly-fingers, reductors, even slug-vomiting. He conjured six venomous snakes that shot off without instruction, knowing his will. Yet again and again, Harry came back to the Half-Blood Prince’s spell, the most devastatingly effective of them all. People were dying from its effectiveness, but Harry didn’t care, because they had dared step foot in Hogwarts—  

A horrible pressure was building in Harry’s head as half the hall emptied. A wand prodded Harry’s spine, and he stilled, shaking with rage and adrenaline. “Call—call off the snakes, Potter,” a somewhat familiar voice demanded shakily.

“I’d rather they bite your father, Nott,” said Harry coldly. “Drop your wand before I have to make you regret it.” 

The wand trembled, for a moment, against his spine. “C-Cruci—”

Harry drove his elbow back, hard, and slammed down one foot on Nott's. The taller boy stumbled back in pain, and it was no great difficulty to stun him. He hit the floor, hard, and Malfoy’s grey eyes were large and frightened as he stared at Harry, still as prey. 

At once, Harry realised what he had done “You,” he said, scar pulsing horribly. “You did this. You brought war to a school filled with literal children, you stupid, useless brat. You're scared of what Voldemort will do to you? Just wait, Malfoy. His punishment would be bliss compared to what you deserve for this.”

“Such a temper, Harry Potter,” came Lord Voldemort’s cold voice. He had made no sound as he apparated, not like his followers, but Harry’s viciously prickling scar had made his imminent arrival clear. “You have done well, Draco. You will be… rewarded.”

Malfoy’s eyes darted in fright from Harry to the Dark Lord, and Voldemort was barely in time to hiss “Stop,” to the snake that had snuck up on the boy. 

“You don't obey him,” Harry hissed, “you’re mine. Do what you’re made for, dear one.”

Draco turned just in time to see the snake strike out at his neck. It vanished before its fangs could load the boy with venom, and Harry turned his hateful scowl to Voldemort, who’s gaze already rested upon him, intent, heavy and fascinated. 

“Deal with it, Hermione,” he snapped. 

“Harry—” came Hermione’s warning voice, but Harry couldn’t listen, had to dodge out of the way of Voldemort’s spell. The Dark Lord tilted his head, stare thoughtful, and then turned his yew wand… away. 

Harry watched him with a wariness not misplaced: Romilda Vane, nearly out of the Great Hall via the Professor’s entrance, fell to the cruciatus curse with a cry of pain. 

“Drop your wands, children,” the Dark Lord said, red eyes still locked on Harry as his soft, cold voice echoed through all corners of the room, carried by wandless magic. 

Harry grit his teeth at the seeming opportunity, well aware of Voldemort's objective. And yet, truly, he could not have picked a worse target to try and bring Harry under his control than the girl who had nearly raped him. He cast a wordless sonorous on himself to refute the order: “Don't give an inch. There are First Years in these walls. Do to them what you would to Umbridge. They're twice her threat. Any student who raised a wand to help Voldemort’s sect will be treated as hostile. See how I handle my enemies, Goyle, and ask yourself if that cheap shot is worth your life.”

Even as he spoke, Harry turned from Voldemort, dismissive, and focused on thinning the herd. Thirteen Death Eater’s still stood, including Bellatrix, who was engaged with Neville and Ron. Harry used every spell that came to his mind, even those from the Half-Blood Prince’s book he had not tested before. One man was effectively eviscerated, much to Harry’s disgust. He only used that spell once.  

When he saw one of his snakes change course he pulled the magic from them, an effective banishment, cold eyes finding Voldemort again. He had not heard the man speak parseltongue, and indeed he was still holding the crucio, face twisted strangely as he watched Harry. 

“My, my,” said Voldemort, immediate once he had regained Harry’s attention, two more of his people fallen, “so vicious, little snake. Does Dumbledore know you have venom?”

“I don't give a fuck what he knows,” Harry said harshly. “This is a school.” This is my home. “Focus on the bloody Ministry, and leave children out of it.”

Voldemort had the gall to laugh, high and cold. “This is not merely a school, Harry Potter,” he said. “There is a reason you children stand your ground and fight. This is where Dumbledore trains his small, young army to go to war and die, as their parents did before them.” 

Wrath bubbles in Harry, heavy and explosive, and he must look as unhinged and inhuman as the man watching him as he cages it behind his teeth. He flicks a shield charm around Bones and Abbott before a reductor hits, and a disarming charm hits the perpetrators back. He breaks the dark-wooded wand into two pieces the moment he catches it. 

“You truly think Dumbledore has taught us anything? Even my ‘private lessons’ with the man are just memories of your life, as if I care that you got away with murder when you were still sixteen.” Hermione pulls Vane’s still writhing body from the room, and Voldemort’s cruciatus ends, but he does not seem to notice or care, eyes locked on Harry. “The only reason I fight is because I do not believe in the world you are trying to create. Because you say things like ‘magic is night' and still try to subjugate witches and wizards, as if the fresh magic in their veins is poisoned by the muggles they're born to. I defy you, Lord Voldemort, because you decided your best course was killing a baby over a half-heard prophecy, and still try to kill me to this day. I am not going to stand here and let you. I don't believe ‘magic is might’. I've already killed many of your people tonight… but that—that wasn’t over ideology. That is because I will kill as many as it takes to keep your grasping, greedy fucking hands out of my school.”

This is heartbreaking 💔

i don’t want to live in a world like this

Or drop a chandelier on his head 😂

I'll see my favourite character happy and smiling just once and be like omg I never want him to get hurt or feel pain ever again, give him peace 🥺🥺 and then the very next day be like, okay, back to pushing him down the stairs

Everyone knows Tom Riddle is an odd child. Some may even say disturbed. Mrs. Cole warned Albus profoundly of the strange things the boy says and does. She seemed especially scared of the "voice" that young Tom hears. Albus is prepared for a monster, he in not prepared for a little boy to tell him that he's in love with the ghost in his room. He is even less prepared to see that said ghost is an unknown Potter. Well.....this is strange.

Aka Harry goes to the past after being killed in the Battle of Hogwarts, unhappy he's not corporeal anymore, and the muggles can't see him. Also, he's apparently haunting Tom Riddle against his will. Said Tom Riddle is convinced they're soul mates and won't hear anything otherwise.

Ghost!Harry: god I wish I was still corporeal

Young!Tom: I will make you an indestructible body so we can be together properly forever and ever

Ghost!Harry: oh…oh no thank you

But in all seriousness - this is a brilliant idea! You could twist it in a MOD way - that Harry might be the master of death but that only applies to his soul being everlasting. His body is still mortal and could be destroyed. In a way, it even mirrors what happened to Voldemort, turning into a wraith, only Harry remains sane and whole.

He’s yeeted back in time and, just out of curiosity, wanders by Wool’s Orphanage one day. No one can see him - he’s tried - and his ability to interact with the corporeal world is…spotty at best.

But then little Tom Riddle sees him, and Harry. Well. Harry is desperate to just talk to someone by this point. It’s been weeks, months, since he’s had a conversation and he can feel himself slipping into something else the longer he goes without human contact.

If Tom Riddle is his only link to humanity (the fucking irony chokes him sometimes), then so be it.

He sticks to the kid, trying to act as a kind of conscious. Trying to impart some good qualities, some restraint, to the future Dark Lord.

His efforts are - well, they’re not not working, so that’s got to count for something?

On Tom’s part, his obsession with keeping his ‘imaginary friend’ with him forever grows steadily by the day.

Meet the boy who survived🌞🤲

Harry: You killed my parents.

Voldemort: Yes, but didn’t you hear what they said to me?

Harry: I was 15 months old-

Voldemort: They said, “What are you going to do? Kill us?”