Harry Potter and the Time Fluke

Forgiveness

Harry just stared at Tom with a look of disbelief on his face. "Fear might be able to breed obedience, but it also fosters dissent. Those who aren't afraid of you, those who don't want to be ruled–and muggles hate being ruled in the way I know you're thinking; complete tyranny, a dictatorship. Come on, Tom," he begged. "We lived through the second Great War. Don't tell me you don't realize how powerful muggles can be, how powerful they've become. Maybe if you wanted to rule over them a century ago, half a century ago, it would have been possible but..." He shook his head. "You'll need to take a different route if you want to conquer the world."

Tom's lips hardened into a thin line as Harry continued to speak, and when the younger boy seemingly finished, he opened his mouth to retort, but was cut-off as Harry started up again.

"Your displeasure of muggles, I can understand. Your biological muggle family is crap, and those at the orphanage weren't much better. But I don't understand why you seem to despise the muggle-borns as well. They have magic, same as us." He stared condescendingly down at his friend. "And what about me? There's a good chance I might be a muggle-born; do you want to rule over me too? Make me a slave, no better than a house elf at your beck and call. To do your bidding without question or face harsh, unjust punishment?"

They both stayed there, glaring the other down until Harry sighed and ran a hand down his face. "I don't want to fight with you anymore, Tom. That's why I chased after you, why I forced you into this conversation. I do agree that muggle-borns and muggle-raised children who know nothing of the wizarding world need to be better integrated into our society, but I don't think they should be made into lower-class citizens. They should have the same rights as purebloods and half-bloods–they weren't made to be dominated."

Tom didn't answer. He continued to watch Harry with narrowed eyes and flared nostrils. "If you don't want to fight with me, why are you challenging everything I say?" he asked coldly.

Harry growled in frustration and threw up his hands in aggravation. "In case it escaped your notice, this entire conversation was instigated by a problem I have with your attitude!"

"So this wasn't a round-about way of you coming to apologize for how you've been acting?" Tom asked with a calm sense of superiority. Harry could only gape, open-mouthed and completely flabbergasted. Tom merely crossed his legs and laced his fingers together, cocking his head to the side and looking at Harry expectantly.

"I-what-NO!" Harry spluttered. "Where did you come up with that idea? If I were here to apologize, it would have been the first thing out of my mouth. In fact, the one who should be apologizing is you." He said, pointing a finger at Tom. The accused boy only raised an eyebrow at the exaggerated gesture.

"For what? Excluding you from my plans? Last time I checked, I hadn't signed an agreement to keep you in the loop with all I do. Actually, going back to what we were discussing earlier, this need for an apology from me you feel you deserve is just a continuation of your huffy mood from the past month."

Harry felt his cheeks burn at the admonishment. "That may be so, but yours is too! And at least no one was ever hurt by my actions." And it was true. No one had come to be harmed by his "tantrum."

"I was."

It was quiet, a mumbled whisper to his ears. His heart sped up as the words processed fully in his brain. His furiously annoyed gaze softened at the poorly masked expression of sadness on Tom's face.

"I was hurt," the older boy said again, louder this time. "You might not have allowed a basilisk to use the school halls as its playground–a danger, I'll admit, to staff and students alike–but the pain and the damage you caused was worse, in my opinion at least."