Death Never Stopped Me Before

|Chapter 2|

|1992|
Even now, as he fought so desperately to undo everything Tom had worked so hard for, he was magnificent.

Tom couldn't tear his eyes away from the boy as he dodged spells and threw punches left and right. It was rather regrettable, Tom supposed, that Harry had shown up when he did. This was certainly not the plan. The plan was to drain Ginerva of her magic, retain a physical form, abduct Harry and take him away where the two could be together in freedom. He knew from the moment Ginerva put her hands on Harry that Harry wasn't just another person that held his diary. Harry was different.

Harry was his.

Tom had no intention of letting Harry slip through his fingers, and he knew in time, Harry would understand that. He just needed the boy to stop fighting and corporate, or this was going to make Tom's life so much harder. He stepped to the right just as Harry threw a piece of stone rubble at his face and sighed.

"You should really stop this pointless fighting, love," Tom said, shooting another stunner in Harry's direction, only for the boy to throw himself to the ground and dodge. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"Don't you dare call me that!" Harry spit, his face drawn together with rage. Tom fought back the desire to smile fondly at him. Harry was just so...

"Adorable."

"What did you just call me?!" Harry cried, his breaths coming out in sharp pants, clearly exhausted. That was good, Tom could work with exhaustion. The more tired he was, the less of a fight he'd put up. Harry's mesmerizing emerald eyes trailed up to meet Tom's, and whatever expression was currently on his face scared him, as Harry blanched drastically and stumbled back. "You're... You're crazy!"

Tom clicked the back of his teeth. "That's not nice Harry," he said with a pout. "Come on, love, you're hurting my feelings here."

"Tom, please," Harry said, his voice softening. Oh. He thought he could reason with Tom. Tom's smile widened. Harry really was adorable, wasn't he? And smart, too. He thought that he could reason with Tom because they had an emotional connection. While it was clever, it wouldn't work, but Tom would give him credit for trying. "Please. I know you. This isn't you. You're just desperate, right?"

"You're so smart, love," Tom said, his grin firmly planted on his face. "I am desperate, do you know why?"

Harry frowned. "Y-You want to get out of the diary, don't you?"

"I do, but do you know why I want to get out of the diary?" Tom asked, leaning forward in anticipation. Tom had high hopes for his Harry, and he could only hope that he would be clever enough to catch on.

"I... I don't know! Because it's a diary and you're miserable?!" Harry cried, a hand coming up to nervously tug at his inky black hair.

"Oh, Harry, I'm disappointed," Tom said with a sigh, raising the wand that he'd lowered slightly during their conversation. Harry tensed. "But you are rather distracted, so I think I'll give you a pass just this once."

"Tom—"

"I want out of this diary for you, Harry." Tom said, watching with satisfaction and Harry froze, his jaw dropping as he stared at Tom with shock.

"W-What?"

"Don't you remember? Our cottage. We can do that now," Tom said, stepping forward, his free hand reaching out towards the trembling boy. "Aren't you excited? It will just be you and me... and a chicken, I suppose. Though, I'm not sure what we'd do with one of those."

"Y-You're serious?" Harry asked, his voice coming out in an incredulous whisper. "The c-cottage? That's what this is all about?"

Tom frowned at Harry's tone. "Well that's not what it's all about," he said. "There are other reasons too. But this was one of them. What's wrong, I thought you'd be happy?"