To Kill You With a Kiss

Chapter 13

Tom had forgotten to light the fire, and the room was growing chilly now. Harry wound the silver sheets and blankets around them both, spinning a shimmering cocoon of warmth around the two of them. He wrapped himself around Tom inside the silky layers that protected them from the frosty evening air. Through the tall arched windows, Harry could see the flaming sun setting over the Hogwarts grounds, but there was no heat in the last deep golden rays of the dying sun as they slanted through the old leaded window panes. Tom drew closer to the warmth of Harry's limbs.

"What do you have to tell me, Harry?"

Harry looked into Tom's silver eyes and felt a strange shiver in his heart. Oh, Tom, how can I tell you of the horrors of the future? How can I speak of what you will become? He placed a soft kiss against Tom's lips. I want to keep you like this, warm and close, untouched by autumn's chill, unaware of the icy darkness gathering around you in the future. I will not speak of Voldemort, for that cold-hearted shadowy wizard of tomorrow is not yet here, although I can sense his frosty breath in the air, descending on me like a kiss...

"Why aren't you speaking? Is it so terrible, what you have to tell me?" Tom asked the question lightly, but Harry could sense the cold, black fear that was rising in him now. Tom was so close that Harry couldn't tell if he knew of Tom's foreboding from reading the thoughts that whispered through his mind or from feeling the slight trembling that ran through his limbs.

"I'm afraid of telling you, Tom."

He sensed Tom's fear washing over him in dark pulsing waves, flooding his mind and his thoughts. Harry whispered, in response to all the frantic questions Tom didn't have to utter: "No. It's not that I don't love you, Tom. How could you even think that? I love you with all my heart, and always will. Only you. No matter what."

"Good." Tom's arms wound even more tightly around his body. "Except for the "no matter what" part... I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

Harry rested his cheek against Tom's. How do I tell you of the murders you will commit? How will I speak of your terrible transformation? Perhaps I don't have to tell you. I wouldn't have to tell you the truth if I could just stay here in this time with you forever and watch over you. I would make sure you never commit another murder or make another horcrux. I could take you away from the wizarding world and live with you in a cottage by the sea. Perhaps we will bury our wands in the garden there, and they will take root and become a holly tree and a yew tree. And we will sit under the trees we planted and look out over the sea, and both Voldemort and Harry Potter will be forgotten. There will just be two men living by the sea together until they grow old and die.

"Harry?" Tom's voice was calm, but Harry felt the frantic rhythm of Tom's heart against his chest. "Tell me what's on your mind. Whatever it is, I need to know. I can't bear for there to be any secrets between us."

Harry closed his eyes. You. The warmth of your skin against mine. The two of us so closely intertwined that it feels like we are just one being. Our minds so entwined that I no longer know which thoughts are yours and which are mine.

"No secrets, Tom." He breathed deeply. "A few hours ago, in your office, I told you the name of the dark wizard who killed my parents. Voldemort..." Harry swallowed thickly and tried to look at Tom. "Tom, that name can't have been entirely unfamiliar to you. You have heard it before, haven't you?"

After all, it was your memory who showed me, in the Chamber of Secrets, how you had created that name.

"So you know about that?" said Tom softly. "I must admit it was a surprise, hearing that name again, in such a different context, but I had more pressing things on my mind a few hours ago than thinking about long-forgotten names and bizarre coincidences. Things like getting you into my bed. Which reminds me..."