Sweet Revenge

Advice and Regulus Black

Tom was bad at giving advice. 

Harry had found that out the hard way, as he had been sitting on the floor at Tom's feet in the parlor for over an hour now. Tom was good at ordering people around, he was good at doing thing solitarily, he was great at the charisma thing, and he was excellent in the looks department, but he terrible with Life Advice. 

Lucky there wasn't an NEWT subject on giving advice. Tom would never have achieved perfect NEWT scores. 

Come to think of it, Tom Riddle was listed as the student with the highest and best scores in the Ministry's handbook of scores. Yet, he also had the most NEWTs. How was that possible? There weren't enough classes at Hogwarts...

Harry poked Tom's thigh, causing said man to jolt.

          "Y-yes, Harry?"

It came out a little breathless.

          "Tom? How can you have so many NEWTs? I mean, I don't think there are that many classes at Hogwarts."

Tom looked visibly relieved at not having to give Harry advice on matching his friends together, especially since their fathers were his followers. 

He went into lecture mode instead. 

          "NEWTs, or Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, are offered in every core class, elective course, and nearly every extracurricular. I got Outstandings in all the core classes offered during my time at Hogwarts. Back then, they had an added Dark Arts class, so I had one more core class than you do currently. They removed Dark Arts as a class from Hogwarts the moment Dumbledore became Headmaster. So, I got top scores in Astronomy, Charms, Dark Arts, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, and Transfiguration. As electives, I took Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes, Alchemy, and Magical Theory. Those are all the electives that offered NEWTs in my time, and I thought Divination was a waste of time, so I skipped that one. Essentially, I took 14 NEWTs and got O's on all of them, making me the top student in over six centuries."

         "Can you get a NEWT in Apparition?"

         "No."

         "Damn."

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Harry had gone to cause catastrophe with his friend's "chemistry," as he called it. 

Tom was still sitting on the chaise lounge, staring into space. 

Harry had long since taken to leaning his head on Tom's legs whenever the two were alone. When the boy was younger, it used to not be a problem because his fluffy head would be just around Tom's knee. Now, as Harry was taller (and bloody gorgeous), his head often came to rest on Tom's inner thigh, which...bothered him very much. 

He had accepted that he was very much in love with Harry because he was the sort of person who took a hint when he experienced multiple existential crises in a short period of time. However, Harry deserved to live a little before Tom went and hoarded his boy away. So, Tom was valiantly attempting to resist (he also wasn't certain whether Harry returned his feelings or not, but he wasn't one to admit that) his urges and was not succeeding. 

All he could picture now in his mind was Harry looking up at Tom with his big, beautiful green eyes and plump sangria lips and porcelain skin and... A blush coated Tom's high cheekbones as he tried to will his thing down. 

He did not succeed, so he got up and -rather uncomfortably, might I add- walked to the bathroom. 

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