HP one shots

Please. Stay. // Tomarry

Summary:

Tom and Harry are given a second chance, but Tom might have hidden feelings Harry has yet to understand.
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1948
"You know, it's strange."

"What is?"

"Being back in Diagon Alley after all these years."

Harry Potter looked around at the shops lining the strip, all in a row yet all differently shaped in a myriad of mismatched colors that only worked because of the magic in the air. Witches and wizards stood around, some buying some browsing some advertising or bantering about competing prices and stock, plenty of life plain to see at even a half glance. Something so natural it was taken for granted, up until they'd lost everything.

"You never visited Diagon during the war?" Harry asked, looking back at his companion.

Tom Riddle strolled at his side, looking out at the peaceful atmosphere with a tiny smile. It looked good on his young face. His soft brown waves a little tousled by the wind, his light hazel eyes looked almost gold in the afternoon sun. Tom's pale skin had a healthy flush that had never been present in their previous life - the one he'd lived to become a twisted monster inside and out.

"No, I spent most of my time traveling a bit aimlessly with Nagini." Tom told him, "I miss her sometimes, though I suppose that makes sense considering she became my closest confidant those years I spent in Albania, as well as the many years that followed."

"Could you not find her again?" Harry inquired, "She's surely still there."

"No, I'd like to keep everything from our previous life in the past where it belongs." Tom shook his head. "This is my second chance. I'm not going to waste it."

"Good." Harry smiled, "You deserve to have peace after all you endured." Tom gave him an oddly searching look.

"As do you." He said after a pause, "You suffered as well, through no one's fault but mine."

"That's not true." Harry said, "A lot of what I went through stemmed from my own stupidity."

"It could be argued everything I went through was because of my own hubris." Tom raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "It's about perspective, Harry, nothing more. Suffering is suffering, no matter what brand or kind it was."

"I suppose." Harry shrugged delicately.

Gringotts Wizarding Bank loomed above them as they reached it, and Harry waited patiently as Tom hesitated. Two goblins in ornate red outfits were stationed on either side of the open bronze doors, scowling or perhaps sneering out at the world. It was a long moment before Tom approached the marble steps, and he climbed them slowly as he warily made his way in through the doors to the little Hall inside.

The second set of doors, silver with a heavy warning etched into the shining metal, opened upon their approach, allowing them to enter the main section of the Bank. It was large and round, the arched ceiling running far above their heads, doors on every side with goblins at work along the far counter curving along the far wall. Tom headed towards it to approach a goblin, and Harry trailed after him with his hands shoved into his pockets casually.

It was odd being back at Gringotts. Harry's last trip had ended with every goblin spitting mad at him for breaking into a high security vault and stealing a dragon, along with smashing half the Bank into smithereens upon his unruly exit. Ron and Hermione had been with him then, and now Harry was waltzing in with Tom Riddle, the goblins completely ignoring him because they did not know him anymore enough to despise him.

"Pardon." Tom said lightly, catching the attention of a goblin along the counter that had been measuring gems and lumps of metal on an odd looking silver scale. "I'm Tom Riddle. I'd like to access my Vault, number 704."