Everything is Going to be Ok

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Tom returned to the hospital wing sooner than Poppy thought he would. He told her the headmaster had the three boys detained and were waiting upon ministry officials to take them away from Hogwarts. They had all been expelled and were to be tried for their crimes against Harry. Poppy sighed in relief. Tom went to go sit beside Harry but Poppy stopped him. She could not allow Tom to see Harry right now, after such a brutal ordeal Harry would surely wish to be left alone. Tom refused to leave the hospital wing though so Poppy finally conceded to him staying the night in the bed next to Harry's.

Poppy checked on Harry one last time, putting a charm on him to let her know when he woke up and another one preventing anyone but her from stepped inside the curtains. She told Tom that he was not to try to sneak past the curtains and that he was lucky she was allowing him to stay in the hospital wing at all.

A few hours later she woke up to screams coming from Harry's bed. She ran out quickly to see what was wrong. Harry was screaming at the top of his lungs, Tom standing at the edge of the curtain looking frantic unable to move past her barrier. All of a sudden she realized that Harry's screams were not just screams of agony he was calling Tom's name, pleading with him to save Harry. She glanced at Tom again realizing that for the second time today tears were streaming down his face at his inability to help his best friend.

She took down the barriers immediately and Tom rushed to Harry's side. As soon as Tom touched Harry, Harry stopped screaming, instead leaning into the touch. Poppy quickly ran a few tests to make sure that Harry was still healing properly. Everything looked fine, she looked back at Tom starting slightly to see that he had climbed into the bed with Harry and wrapped his arm around the younger boy gently. Harry's face was pressed close to Tom's neck and Tom was rubbing his back soothingly. Poppy decided that they were in safe hands; placing the protection charms up again, she left the room.

The next morning when she went to check on the boys she found them both sound asleep wrapped in each other's arms. She decided not to wake them, checking Harry silently and pleased that he was healing nicely. The headmaster came down just before breakfast to check on the boy and was slightly surprised that Tom Riddle was sharing the boy's bed. Poppy explained about the night before and updated the headmaster on Harry's condition. The headmaster seemed pleased and left again informing Poppy that Tom was excused from classes until Harry was better seeing as they were basically inseparable. Poppy thanked the headmaster and watched him leave.

She ordered breakfast for the two boys and then went back to her office to wait for them to wake up.

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Harry was the first to wake up. He felt warm and happy, so different from what he felt before. He nuzzled into the warmth next to him suddenly realizing it was a body. Tom and he had stopped sharing a bed ages ago as Harry's nightmares had all but disappeared. Harry slowly stretched and then realized they were in the hospital wing. All of a sudden everything came rushing back to him and he started to hyperventilate. It was true, he was a whore, the boys proved that last night.

Just as Harry was about to pass out from the lack of air Toms arms found their way around him again. Tom was there, Tom was safe, Tom had found him, and Tom had saved him. Tom was murmuring comforting words into Harry's ear, calming him down. Then he sat up carefully, trying not to jostle Harry too much and pulled Harry up into his lap, gently rocking him back and forth. Somewhere in the back of Harry's mind he thought that he should not be ok with this, another person, especially a boy, holding him so tightly after what he had just gone through. But Harry did not care, Tom made everything better, and Tom had not left Harry.

Madame Pomfrey came in and checked up on Harry. Harry spent most of the check up hiding in Tom's arms. She brought in breakfast and Tom coaxed Harry into eating a bit. They spent the rest of the day talking about school and other safe topics. It was only when the headmaster came in and Harry gave a frightened squeak and practically clung to Tom that they realized that they should probably talk about what had happened.

Harry slowly told Tom what the Gryffindors had done to him. It made it easier knowing that Tom had already seen his injuries. However, when Harry got to the part about the cone being shoved into him he realized that Tom must have seen him like that. He curled in on himself and Tom rubbed his back and spoke soothingly until Harry could look up at him again. Tom said that Harry did not need to tell him about that part as he had already seen what it had done to Harry. That night Harry had nightmares and every time he woke up Tom was there to calm him back down and soothe his worries away.

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Tom made sure to tell Harry that he was not a freak or a whore. That what those boys had said was not true and that Harry was perfect. Harry mumbled into Tom's chest at that.

"What was that Harry?"

"They weren't wrong about everything..."

"What do you mean Harry?"

"Tom, I-I'm...I...I like b-boys" Harry managed to get out quietly

Tom sat stunned for a moment. He never thought that Harry was gay. He had often fantasized about it but never actually thought those fantasies could come true. "Harry, liking boys is fine. What those boys did to you though was wrong! They had no right to call you names and harm you in any way. I just wish the headmaster had let me deal with them. At least they can never hurt you again. And Harry, I think I should tell you that I like boys too. So if you think that what those boys said is true about you then they must be true about me too." Tom said, hoping that Harry would understand that those boys were wrong about him.

"Y-you like boys too?" Harry asked incredulously. He had been dreaming about Tom for years but had never thought that Tom would even consider dating a boy.

"Yeah" said Tom softly. And then they both drifted off to sleep for the night.

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It was a week after Harry's attack and he was finally allowed back into the castle. No one knew for certain what had happened. They just knew that Harry had been attacked and that three Gryffindors had been expelled. Tom stuck close to Harry's side, not wanting to leave him alone. Unfortunately, Harry and Tom were in separate years so they did not attend the same classes. But surprisingly the other Slytherins took up the slack. You did not harm one of their own. Harry was never left alone, something he was mostly grateful for.

Harry had some difficulty adjusting to people surrounding him again. There were a few instances where Tom had to be called to calm Harry down. But those lasted only for the first two weeks. Finally Harry was getting back to normal.