The Darkening of Your Soul

Chapter 18

Tom’s expression was stuck somewhere between delight and bewilderment. “Harry? What are you saying exactly?”

“It’s just...” Harry trailed off, mind going in circles as the only thing he could come up with to say was that he liked the way Tom looked and he didn’t want Tom to look differently, but he sure as hell couldn’t tell the man that. “It’s just...you’ve only just got your face back, right?” Harry finally rambled, struggling to find the right words. “So you shouldn’t have to look different.”

“I’m not going to look that differently,” Tom assured him. “It’s just going to be a few small changes. Hair and eye colour, the shape of my jaw, that sort of thing. I’ll still look like me, just with a few small differences.” Tom looked at Harry intently, yet his smile was gentle. “I can’t look exactly the same if I’m to be my own son.”

“Ah.” Harry swallowed against his suddenly dry mouth. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He tried to smile back but his heart wasn’t in it.

“It’ll be fine, I promise. You’ll see tomorrow evening.” Tom and his stupid, handsome face observed Harry for a few moments as though Harry knew a secret Tom desperately wanted to find out. “Didn’t you have your first Quidditch game tomorrow, my dear?”

Harry recognized a distraction when he heard one, but he went along with it since he was in need of a change in topics if his warm cheeks were any indication. “Yep, Terence Higgs is going to have a very convenient case of explosive diarrhoea right before the game so I can step in to save the day. He’s brewed the triple strength laxative potion himself. Said it was great practice for his Potions NEWT, to adjust the recipe to strengthen the brew. Without you there to curse my broom I expect it to be a boring game, though.”

Tom looked so incredibly fond while Harry babbled that it threw Harry off a little, so he desperately tried to think of a new subject. There was always the shared dreams...but no, Harry was not ready to bring that up. Just when the silence between them was getting a little awkward, Harry remembered something that happened during the Halloween feast.

“Hey! I almost forgot,” Harry said as he sat up a little. “What was that about Quirrell breaking that Defence curse?”

Tom laughed, eyes closed and head thrown back, and yet again seeing him this human took Harry’s breath away. What was that, and why did it keep happening every time he looked at the man?

“You told me Quirrell was a good enough teacher,” Tom finally said as he caught his breath. “That curse needed to go and I figured Quirrell had deserved a reward, so he gets to take the credit for breaking the curse while keeping a job he enjoys. Meanwhile I have a spy in the castle that’s a little more trustworthy than dear Severus.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed with a brief nod. “Quirrell’s fine as a teacher. Not the best I’ve had, but certainly not the worst.” Then Harry realized something and his face split open with a huge grin. “And that means we won’t have Lockhart next year. Thank fuck! Seriously, you have no idea how happy that makes me.”

Tom was back to looking impossibly fond. “I have some idea, I believe.”

“Oh, and if you want to make more of a name for yourself, you could always expose Lockhart as the fraud he is,” Harry rambled on, on a roll now that he realized Lockhart needed taking down and him accidentally obliviating himself on the way to the Chamber of Secrets was off the table. “Lockhart is ridiculously popular still, and exposing him would put your name on everyone’s map for sure.”