To Kill You With a Kiss

Chapter 20

"Ah. We are about to have company, Harry." Voldemort withdrew his touch rapidly. "He is near; I can feel it. Tom Riddle is coming. How very strange it feels, to wait for the person I once was to walk through the door!"

Harry could sense it as well now: Tom, his Tom, was close by. A moment after, the heavy oak door creaked open, and Tom entered, wand outstretched. Tom's eyes widened when he saw Voldemort by Harry's side.

"You?" Tom's voice was a hoarse whisper, and the yew wand shook slightly in his hand. "Harry's guardian is... you? No, this can't be. This must be a nightmare of some sort."

Tom and Voldemort stood motionless for a moment, staring at each other. Then they began to walk slowly towards each other, as if some magnetic force pulled them irresistibly together. They paused mere inches apart and stood gazing at each other in silence. Tom reached out and touched Voldemort's pallid features with a trembling hand. Harry felt two simultaneous waves of sensations flood his mind at the touch: He sensed Tom's hesitant wonder at the smooth coolness of Voldemort's face, and Voldemort's awareness of the warmth of Tom's hand. Then Tom pulled his hand back, and a slight blush spread over his cheeks.

Harry gazed mesmerized at the two figures, Tom from the past and Tom from the future, and marveled at how curiously similar they were. Their appearances were different, of course: Tom's face was flushed, beautiful, full of life, while Voldemort's pale features were cold, distorted, lifeless. But underneath the blush of life and the pallor of death, Harry saw a strange likeness in the contours of the bones under their skin, in the almost graceful curves of their limbs, and in the shapes of their dark silhouettes against the flickering candles.

"Tom." It was Voldemort who spoke first, so softly that Harry wasn't quite sure at first that he had actually said the name out loud. "What a pleasure it is to see you! You are quite different from what I expected." He traced the lines of Tom's face with a long, pale finger and smiled slightly when Tom winced. "You are far more beautiful than I remembered, even from our all too brief encounter this afternoon. I must admit that I was rather startled to learn that Harry is your lover - and willingly, at that - but now I think I can see how such a thing can be possible. Why, your face is almost as lovely as his!" There was a faint note of wonder in Voldemort's voice.

"What... What are you doing here?" Tom took a step back. His voice was cold. "You have no business here; this is my time, not yours."

An almost imperceptible smile ghosted over Voldemort's face. "Oh, just visiting an old friend of mine." He walked calmly over to Harry and brushed his hand lightly through his hair. "We have known each other for a long time, you see, Harry and I. I received a message that Harry wanted to speak to me, and I was more than happy to oblige."

"Don't touch his hair!" Tom's wand was trembling in his hand. "I don't understand how you came to be here, in this time, but I'm telling you right now: Leave Harry alone, or I will blast you out of time altogether."

"Really?" Voldemort sounded amused. "I never thought of you as self-destructive, Tom. I remember you as being rather keen on self-preservation, actually. And yet, here you are, threatening to kill...yourself."

"You are not me." Tom's face was flushed with anger. "You are someone I will never become, born of choices I will never make. You are just a monster from the future."

Voldemort leaned his head to one side and regarded Tom thoughtfully. "Ah, but we are still connected to each other, aren't we Tom? Surely, you can feel it, too? We may no longer be precisely the same person, but we are still closely related to one another. Sort of like twin brothers, perhaps, or like... father and son?"

"Like father and son?" A harsh little laugh escaped Tom's lips. He glared at Voldemort. "You know, that's not a bad way of putting it. I think I do feel the same way about you as I did about my father, now that you mention it. And I am perfectly happy to let our relationship end the way his and mine did." He pointed his wand at Voldemort's chest. "Avada Ked-"