Sweet Revenge

Just the Tiniest Bit of Cheating

Slytherin Castle was the picture of imposing. The entrance hall loomed and even the tiles seemed treacherous. 

Harry gulped. 

          "T-Tom?" 

His voice was like the sound of a single drop of water dripping off a ledge into a still lake. 

Quiet, but so very loud. 

In the chair at the head of the table, the Dark Lord Voldemort reclined. He was bent forward a bit with his long, pale finger touching just in front of his blood red mouth. Rich brown hair as deep as the air around him fell in waves to cover his eyes. 

          "I-I'm sorry."

          "Of course, Mister Potter."

His voice was like honey and yet his words struck knives to Harry's heart. 

          "Tom? Please don't be mad."

The silence rang deafeningly around the pair. 

And then, he turned. The chair made no sound as he towered over Harry, shadow swathing the boy in darkness. 

          "So you say," he hissed, "that because you failed to return here last night and because you could have been harmed that I have no right to be furious?"

Harry, from his place on his knees in front of Tom, looked up. 

Tom's eyes were scarlet and his magic was lashing out at nothing. They burned into his eyes like the fires in Hell. 

Looking, Harry's gorgeous emerald eyes widened, his raven black lashes making them stand out and little crystalline tears gathered at the corners, just waiting to roll down. His plush bottom lip stuck out and his body language rearranged so that his slender, pale arms came up to warp loosely around Tom's leg. 

Tom looked, his lips parted in surprise, but his magic came forth to stroke Harry's own and his stormy emotions placated into that of a calm sea. 

           "Oh, Harry."

His hand, equally if not more pale than Harry's, came to rest on that unruly nest of hair in front of him, involuntarily stroking the locks. 

          "Let's go to the parlor, shall we?"

Harry shot him a smile as bright as the sun and Tom was positively certain that his knees went weak but he stayed standing and helped Harry up. 

He knew he'd have another existential crisis later, but that was for later. 

Later, after he'd sent Harry off to bed. 

Yes. 

----------

Tom kept Harry busy for the rest of the day after because he was in his office, poring over his notes and ignoring the image of Harry's eyes. 

Yes. 

He was succeeding. 

Uh huh. 

Harry was Portkeying back and forth from the Castle to Hogwarts. Why were the two this busy? Well, they needed to sabotage the Third Task, obviously. 

The basic idea was that they would deliberately make sure that Alex Potter touched the Triwizard Cup before anyone else that that he was transported to a graveyard. 

There, he would watch an unknown Death Eater (really Harry in Death Eater robes) pour stuff into a cauldron and voila, a twisted, snakey Tom would rise in a burst of dramatic smoke.