The Diadem part 1
Harry hummed from his place on the couch, his child a warm weight against his chest. She had dozed off not too long ago and he hadn’t the heart to move her, not when her grip was so tight and fear so real. He rubbed her back, one hand keeping at the soothing motion while the other flipped the pages of a book floating above his head. It was much easier than holding the book, especially when a child is involved. Thank the seven heavens for Hermione and her random- but very useful- spells.
He was currently studying up on potions. Severus Snape is a wonderful potions master, he doesn’t doubt that, but when it comes to teaching… he sucks. His true passion is creating not teaching and Harry can see the way that bitterness has bled through in the way he teaches and takes away points. Some people are just made like that, with something in their bones that itches to create in a wild flurry of genius and creativity. Sometimes people are made with molten gold flowing through their veins, willing to help and share everything good they have with others. One guides and the other leads. One walks with others while the other runs ahead. Severus leads which means he can’t teach because all he wants to do is create and when he can’t anger takes its place. He is also bitter, a young man who grew too old too fast.
Harry doesn’t begrudge him for getting together with Remus and Sirius. He’s happy for him, he really is, but Severus still hates him. There’s still a part of him that hates him because of his father. Their relationship hasn’t changed that, neither has it changed his opinion on Harry being a spoiled brat. As. If. Nobody likes to mention it, all three of them keep their opinions in that regard to their chest, preferring to keep the peace. He understands and is trying so hard not to resent them. They stay silent, always so fucking silent. Still each time he hears the potion master begin his angry mutterings he hopes that Remus or Sirius will say something. They never do. He’s not disappointed, not really; he learned as a child to expect disappointment and that train of thought has served him well throughout life. It still hurts though. (Harry loves deeply and it always hurts.)
Even when disappointment is expected it still hurts. That’s something he learned first with the Dursleys, second with the wizarding world, and it seems again now with Sirius and Remus. Then again he shouldn’t be too surprised, not when Sirius chose to run after Pettigrew instead of staying with him and Remus never tried to find him or save him. They left him then, it makes sense it would happen again. They might still be here but they’ve left him behind in many other ways.
Sirius had promised they’d be a family and like a naive child Harry had believed him. It was Tom Riddle all over again, being offered a chance of something good only for it to be taken away. He lied. Maybe he didn’t mean to but he did.
But there’s a reason he doesn’t stay with them very often. It’s the same reason he won’t take potions with Severus anymore. He won’t take abuse of any form in a safe place. His child will never spend the night there. They wouldn’t do anything different and Harry refuses to put Delphini in a situation like that. His child will never know any more tragedies or injustices from the wizarding world. She won’t be abandoned by him, never will her name be slaughtered by the press. Harry will tear the world down for this child, even if he’s only known her for a day. She’ll never be an orphan.
“Mama?” She stirred.
“Yeah baby?”
“I like this place.” Delphini sighed.
“Me too.” He rubbed her back.
With a content noise she snuggled deeper into his chest. “I can feel papa’s magic here too.”
“His what?” His pulse spiked. If he was anything like the 16 year old Tom Riddle something could probably be arranged. But if it were the monster he’d met in years previous they would have a problem. He won’t let Voldemort make an orphan out of his daughter.
“His magic is here.” She sat up, pouting at him. “Can’t you feel it?”
He sighed. “I’m not exactly looking for it.”
“Try mama, try.” Delphini shook his shoulders.
“Okay, okay.” He shook his head fondly and stood in the room. What did Tom Riddle’s magic feel like? It had been years, but he could never forget, not truly.
---
It was dark
“It’s safer in the dark, don’t you agree?” The boy purred, brown eyes flashing red.
He offered a wry smile. “It’s alway been, hasn’t it.”
“That’s what happens when you grow up like we did.”
“At least we always had the dark to hide in.” Harry laughed, heart breaking even as his eyes shown.
---
It was akin to old books.
“I didn’t know you liked to read this much.” The taller of the two rested his chin on the other’s head.
“I don’t read around other people much,” he confessed. “I like to read when no one is around. It’s a habit left from when I would get punished because I did better in school than Dudley.”
“You can always do your best with me.” He offered a small smile, something rare but treasured all the same. “Come on, I’ll show you the library here.”
---
It was a weapon, knives both sharp and dull.
“Be careful, you’ll cut yourself.”
He laughed, throwing his head back. “I’m already playing with fire, Tom. There’s not much this knife can do that hasn’t already happened.”
The real knife was Tom but neither voiced the thought out loud.
---
It was deep as the Black Lake.
“Have you ever gone swimming in the Black Lake before?” Harry asked, staring ahead unseeing.
“No.” He said after a moment. “The giant squid always freaked me out.”
“If you don’t bother it, it won’t bother you.” Harry grinned, shaking himself out of his thoughts.
---
It was deep and dark and dangerous.
“Sometimes I go swimming in the lake.” He whispered, pressing a clammy hand to the window separating him from the water visible from the Chamber.
“You shouldn’t be messing with things like that Harry.” Tom advised, pulling him away from the chill that lingered in his bones.
“I see people swimming there all the time.” He said wistfully, eyes lingering on the ocean life.
There were always people there, people off in the distance.
“But they never leave.”
“I’m not afraid of anything that could kill me.” Harry said, leveling his eyes at the other boy.
---
It was like entering a fairie ring, entrapment in the unseelie court.
“One day you’ll get lost,” Tom warned, hands gripping his shoulders tightly. “One day when you wander through places like that, places that mortal eyes shouldn’t see, something will steal you away. You’ll never leave.”
“I have spent a life being trapped. I cannot be kept so easily.”
“I never said you’d be trapped.” His hands clasped together.
“I know the rules of the fae Tom.” Harry laughed, something that came easily when he was with the other boy.
---
It was power.
“Then share them with me, darling.” He purred. “Together we can have power.”
“That was the first thing I learned as a child,” Harry laughed, dancing away in the dim light. “Never share your name. Names have power.”
“I know your name.”
“Do you?” He asked, something dark at the edge of his smile. “Always give a nick-name or no name at all.”
---
It was hungry.
“Do you know what a wendigo is Tom?” Harry asked with a sense of morbid curiosity.
“I’ve heard of them in stories, but I don’t believe them to be true.” He said flippantly.
“When people think of wendigo they often think of a giant monster they can see.” He flopped down on the ground, laying his head in Tom’s lap. “I think anyone can be a wendigo.”
“Why would you say that?” He ran a hand through tangled hair.
“Wendigos are always hungry, they are always starving.” Harry looked up at the older boy. “Aren’t we all starving?”
---
It was angry.
“Where do you feel your anger?”
“It’s a burn in my chest, one that spreads outward.” He tilted his head to the side. “What about you Harry?”
“I don’t really get angry. I just get sad.” He frowned. “I’ve always been sad, and I don’t think it’ll ever go away.”
“What a pair we make.” Tom laughed. “I’m always angry and you’re forever sad.”
“I suppose that’s the legacy our parents left us.”
---
It was built upon sacrifices.
“You’re going to kill her, Tom!” He cried, hands stained with blood that was not his own.
“It’s for you.” Tom reached for the younger boy, desperate to sooth the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. “I’m doing this so I can save you.”
He backed up, hair shaking wildly. “Not like this. Not like this.”
---
It manifested in broken promises.
“You promised you’d save me.” Harry cried hysterically.
How could he?
How could he?
“Harry-”
“You promised me the world.” He whispered, eyes wide even as his chest filled with ghosts.
He said nothing, face unchaning.
“You’re a fucking liar.” Harry hugged himself tightly, “How could you do this to me, to us?”
---
It was arrogant.
“You can’t stop me.” Tom bared his teeth.
“If you don’t let her go I’ll kill you.” He threatened. When he had killed once before, what was one time more? After all, he had already killed two manifestations of the boy he had grown to love.
Tom laughed. “You won’t.”
“You’re right.” He admitted, before his eyes set with determination. “But what if I die instead?”
---
It was a loveless.
“Don’t you dare.”
A knife, one gifted from Tom, slipped into his hand. “I’ve never been afraid of death Tom.”
“Harry. Don’t.”
His hands shook, chapped lips tilting upwards in a mimicracy of affection. “Let her go. If you don’t I’ll go away too.”
“Harry please, I don’t want to lose you.” Tom begged, rushing forward to the boy he had grown to care for.
“You already have.” He cried, pressing the sharp blade against his wrist. “Go before I do it.”
“Okay,” Tom whispered. “I’ll go.”
---
It was painful.
Harry collapsed, heart and knife dropping. The boy he had grown to love was gone. It was his fault, but it was necessary, no matter how much it hurt. All he could do was save Ginny and leave the diary behind. That way, no one could ever be caught unaware by Voldemort, not anymore.
---
Shaking himself from the bitterness of the past, Harry reached for a box hidden on a crowded shelf. It was small- made from wood- akin to a jewelry holder. There was a tiara- no- a diadem inside. It was beautiful, the frame was still a flawless silver as if no time had passed at all. Diamonds layered the wings of the eagle, small and simple in its elegance. In the center there was a blue sapphire, easily the most recognizable, which then linked to a smaller sapphire that no doubt would fall on the forehead.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” A voice beside him purred.
With a shallow breath in he turned around, wide eyes meeting hooded red ones.
He stalked forward, one hand cradling the green-eyed boy's face and the other setting the diadem into his messy hair.
What the fuck.
“Hello darling.”