A Guardians Welcome
The forest greeted Harry like an old friend, its thick canopy filtering the late afternoon sunlight into soft, golden patches. The air was cool, carrying the faint scent of moss and damp earth. With the diary tucked securely in his satchel, Harry made his way toward the house, his steps light but deliberate.
As he reached the clearing, he saw Teeth emerging from the shadows of the treeline, its towering, hunched frame moving with an unnerving silence. The eyeless creature tilted its head toward him, its sharp, serrated grin glinting in the fading light.
“Miss me?” Harry asked casually, his tone betraying none of the unease most people might feel in Teeth’s presence.
The monster responded with a subtle tilt of its head, the faint shift of its claws scraping against the ground. Harry smirked. “Good, because I brought company.”
From his bag, Harry retrieved the diary, flipping it open to a blank page. He quickly scrawled a message. Tom, we’re here. I want you to meet someone.
The ink sank into the page before Tom’s handwriting emerged. Meet someone? Who exactly?
“You’ll see,” Harry muttered, stepping aside as the ink on the page rippled and shifted, the figure of Tom Riddle rising from the diary in ghostly shades before solidifying into the image of a tall, pale boy with dark hair and sharp features.
Tom blinked, adjusting to his surroundings before his gaze landed on Teeth. His confident expression faltered immediately.
“What,” Tom began, his voice quieter than usual, “is that?”
Harry glanced back at Teeth, whose unnervingly long fingers twitched as it leaned forward, its wide mouth stretching into a smile that exposed jagged rows of teeth.
“This,” Harry said, gesturing to the towering creature, “is Teeth. My guardian.”
Tom froze, his eyes darting to Harry as if he hadn’t quite heard correctly. “Guardian?”
Harry nodded. “It’s been looking after me for a while now. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you. Probably.”
Teeth’s grin widened, and it took a slow, deliberate step closer to Tom, its head tilting at an almost unnatural angle as it studied him.
Tom, to his credit, held his ground, though his unease was palpable. “It… doesn’t have eyes.”
“No,” Harry agreed, watching as Teeth’s clawed hand brushed lightly against the diary in Tom’s hand, as if inspecting the object. “It doesn’t need them.”
Tom swallowed, his usual sharp wit momentarily dulled by the sheer wrongness of the creature in front of him. “How... did this happen?”
Harry shrugged. “Long story. Let’s just say it showed up when I needed it, and it’s been with me ever since. It’s not much for conversation, but it’s reliable.”
Teeth straightened slightly, its eyeless gaze never leaving Tom, as if sizing him up. Tom, for his part, was doing his best to mask his discomfort.
“I suppose I should be flattered you wanted me to meet it,” Tom said, his voice carefully measured.
Harry smirked. “Well, you’re staying with us now, so it’s only polite. Teeth doesn’t mind sharing the space, do you?”
The creature didn’t respond in any discernible way, but its sharp grin seemed to linger just a bit longer.
Tom hesitated before nodding stiffly. “Right. Lovely.”
Harry stowed the diary back in his satchel and motioned toward the house. “Come on, we should get settled. It’ll be a long summer, and we’ll need to figure out how this arrangement is going to work.”
Tom gave Teeth one last wary glance before following Harry toward the house, the weight of the creature’s silent presence pressing against his back.
As they disappeared into the shadowed doorway, Tom couldn’t help but wonder if this summer would prove to be more unsettling than any memory he had ever known.