Time Travel pt. 2
Tom races out of the room and frantically begins searching the school, he needs to find Haddy, he needs answers on whether what Death said is true, can he really time travel? Tom wouldn’t be surprised if he could, but he needs to know whether Haddy can, and if so, can he tell Tom about the future. Tom starts piecing together all the clues, conversations and weird comments Haddy has made about the future, Tom could hit himself in frustration, yet again, he hadn’t believed Haddy about something he said just because it seemed outlandish, it’s the ‘Death is my Father’ thing all over again, when will Tom learn to trust his boy’s word. Tom promises himself, the next thing Haddy says, no matter how seemingly crazy or improbable, he will believe his boy, no matter what.
Tom finds Haddy on the Quidditch pitch, not doing anything normal, like you know, playing Quidditch, rather, Haddy was stood on the ground, grass in his knotty hair, mud on his cheek, trying to teach his pet snail how to do a roly-poly.
Above their heads, some of the younger members of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team were pointing and laughing at Haddy’s attempts. Those players were swiftly reprimanded by their older teammates, who, when they realised what their younger members were doing, had turned white in fear and when they noticed Tom had seen what had been done, some began trembling so hard their brooms were shaking. Tom gave each of the laughing boys a death glare, and a nod of respect to the team captain who had swiftly flown towards the cackling boys and punched each of them in the face. Over the past five years, Tom had made sure that no-one gets away with making fun of his Hufflepuff, it’s at the point now, that they police themselves, the older years preferring to punish their House members themselves than risk the hellfire Tom would rain down on them. Suffice to say, no one has said a mean thing to Haddy in years.
“Okay Beyoncé, just like I showed you, pretend you’re a fireman and stop, drop and roll…” Haddy does another roll on the ground before looking eagerly back at the snail, pouting disappointedly when the snail doesn’t copy the motion, merely sits there, chomping grass. Haddy isn’t discouraged for long, “No, you’re right, finish your mouthful first and then we’ll get back to practise.”
Despite the hurry Tom is in and his desperation for answers, he cannot help the fond chuckle that escapes his lips at the sight of his adorable boyfriend trying to teach a snail gymnastics, if literally anyone else did that, Tom would destroy them emotionally, if not socially, but when Haddy does it, Tom can’t help but find it cute.
“Hey Sweetheart, can I talk with you?” When Haddy hears Tom’s voice, he turns towards the Slytherin with a beaming grin.
“Sure thing Tommy!” Haddy turns momentarily back towards the snail, “Take five Beyoncé. What’s up Snugglemuffin?”
The few seconds it takes for Tom to process the nickname and the fact it was aimed at him, Haddy leaps into his arms, curling his own arms over Toms shoulders and squeezing the Seventh Years waist with his thick thighs, Tom shakes his head, he needs to focus, he came here with questions.
“I’ve been thinking about something you said the other day Sweetheart, something about how 2024 is your favourite year?”
Haddy nods and smiles.
“How do you know that Haddy? How do you know 2024 will be your favourite year?”
Haddy frowns in confusion, huffing a laugh as if Tom’s the one being strange, “Because I’ve been there silly, I must have gone back to rewatch the Biden-Trump throw down about six times, when Biden ripped of Trump’s toupee and the overgrown tangerine responds by upper-cutting the dentures right out of his gob, man, old people fights are the funniest.” Haddy looks of into space as if imagining this apparently legendary fight.
Tom was almost 100% certain anyway, but having it confirmed still almost brings him to his knees, “So it’s true, you and your father really do time travel?”
Haddy combs his fingers through the hair at the back of Tom’s head, smiling at him confusedly, “Why of course Tommy, there is so much to see in the universe, why would we restrict ourselves to just one time period. Me and Daddy believe that people who don’t time travel can be quite ignorant.” Haddy puts on a deep voice and starts waving his hands around, relying on the grip Tom has on his arse to keep his balanced, “’Oh it’s such a blessing to be alive at this time, there’s no better time to be alive than right now!’” Haddy’s voice returns to normal, “Really Sandra, cause you shit into a bucket and your husband just died of the plague, don’t be so elitist!”
Tom lets out a loud guffaw and spins Haddy in a circle, ignoring his boys scream of surprise and the fingers that dig into his shoulders to help Haddy keep his balance. Tom can barely feel anything right now, he is filled with awe, mind unable to comprehend anything after Haddy saying ‘why, of course’. His boy can time travel!
Tom drags Haddy into a toe-curling kiss, both of them ignoring the wolf whistling coming from the Ravenclaw team over their heads.
Finally, Tom breaks the kiss, neither of them moving more than a centimetre apart, so close Tom can still feel Haddy’s laboured breaths against his cheek.
Looking into his boys beautiful, glowing eyes and wondering how this perfect being with the secrets to the universe could ever belong to lonely orphan Tom Riddle, the Slytherin softly demands, “Tell me. Tell me about the future. Tell me about our future.”
Haddy laughs, the beautiful carefree laugh that sends shivers down Tom’s spine, “What dya wanna know handsome?”
Tom desperately tries to think of a question suitably momentous for this historic occasion. Tom contemplates the future constantly, but having someone in front of him, his boyfriend no less, someone who has an answer for every question Tom could ask, it’s overwhelming.
Finally, Tom decides on a question, “The muggle war… how does it end?”
Haddy sighs and continues playing with the hairs at the nape of Tom’s neck, “Nazis lose, Churchill’s the GOAT, America bombs stuff, plastic girl dolls fight with plastic boy dolls about the patriarchy, I dunno the rest, I skipped History class, the only reason I know that much is because I watched Oppenheimer.”
Tom is about to interject when Haddy scrunches his face up and continues, “Ignore the last one, wrong film.”
Haddy, obviously still riled up from the enthusiastic greeting Tom gave him, starts tugging at Tom’s tie, giggling and placing sweet, trailing kisses over the Slytherin’s face. Tom is trying to not let Haddy’s lips and shapely arse distract him from the very real, newly discovered, concept of time travel.
The breathy moan Haddy lets out at the involuntary squeeze of his arse, startles Tom’s upper brain into overriding his lower one, but just for safety’s sake, Tom hurriedly unwinds Haddy’s legs and places him on the ground.
“The bombs Haddy, do the muggles end up using them on wizards? Is there a Wizard-Muggle War? Do we win?”
Tom waits eagerly for his answers but Haddy just pouts up at him with kiss reddened lips. When Haddy realises Tom’s attention is fully on him again, he deepens his pout, looking up at Tom through his eyelashes. No man could focus on the secrets of the universe when a face like that pouts so beguilingly, and Tom needs to focus, almost without thinking, Tom uses his index finger to push that tempting lip back in. When Haddy realises what’s happening, he gasps in outrage and if he had been wearing any, Tom was sure Haddy would be clutching at his pearls.
“Did you ju-”
“The Wizard-Muggle War Haddy. Tell me about the war.”
At Tom’s earnest expression, Haddy’s emotions shift one-eighty again and he starts giggling, “There’s never a Wizard-Muggle War Tommy.”
Tom is utterly confused, a Wizard-Muggle War is what Tom has been preparing for since First Year, “There… isn’t?”
Haddy shakes his head and giggles again, “No, of course not Tommy. The muggles have bigger problems than a couple thousand wand-wavers wearing pointy hats.”
“They…do?”
Haddy rolls his eyes and nods as if what he just said makes complete sense, like wizards pose absolutely no risk to muggles what-so-ever. Tom huffs, “What could possibly be a bigger problem to the muggles than the existence of wixen, the knowledge that they are not the apex-predator they have believed themselves to be for millennia?!”
Tom usually doesn’t raise his voice around his boy, or question what he says, which is probably why Haddy raises an eyebrow in askance, folds his arms and sassily replies, “Uh, I dunno Tommy, try aliens!”
Tom blinks rapidly, looks around then back at Haddy and rests his hands on his waist, “You’ve lost me again. Aliens? Little green men, those aliens?”
Tom’s lips twitches at the corner, Haddy, seeing this, huffs and responds, “Make that 8ft tall, purple alien that wipes out over half the world’s population, wizard and muggle alike.”
Tom’s face freezes and his breath stutters, “…What?”
Haddy huffs again, as if the concept of a planet destroying extra-terrestrials should be common knowledge to Tom. The Hufflepuff takes of his cloak and places it on the ground before sitting on top of the garment, Haddy looks up at Tom expectantly and pats the cloak covered ground next to him. The Slytherin almost rejects the offer of sitting on the cold, hard ground but then he remembers. Aliens.
Once both of them were comfortable (as comfortable as possible sat outside in mid-autumn) Haddy turns so they face each other, taking Tom’s hand in his own, “I guess you could say the story starts in 2009, with a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist-”
For the next four hours, Tom was regaled with the most fantastical tale of Super Soldiers, Spies, Scientists, Secret Organisations and Aliens. It was simultaneously the most absurd thing Tom has ever heard, and yet the most riveting, it is also the longest Tom had gone without talking in years.
The sun had set over an hour ago, leading Tom to finally interrupt Haddy’s rant, something about the dictatorial nature of the monarchy in a place called Asgard, to cast a warming charm over them both.
“–and as the mourners stood there, rows and rows of grievers dressed in black, the arc reactor that had kept Iron Man alive for so long, was left to rest. Proof that Tony Stark had a heart.” Haddy wipes a lone tear from the corner of his eye.
Silence reigns for minutes as Tom tries to digest the information, he had been given over the last few hours, information that undoubtably will affect every decision Tom will make for the rest of his life. “Haddy that was… Muggles did all that? Muggles saved all of humanity, all of the universe?!”
Haddy’s head jerks upwards from where it had gravitated onto Tom’s shoulder halfway through his story. “Uh, yeah Tommy. Multiple times. Weren’t you listening, the Avengers were literally called Earth’s Protectors?”
Tom pulls Haddy’s head back to his shoulder and strokes his hair, “I know Sweetheart, I believe you, it’s just a lot to process, the muggles in your history seem to be much more remarkable than the muggles in mine.” If Tom hadn’t promised himself mere hours ago to start trusting Haddy’s word regardless of how improbable it might seem, Tom would be sceptical, but he’s already learnt that Time Travel is real and Death is a walking, talking entity, how much crazier is aliens and men in metal suits.
This all poses another issue entirely, Tom sighs, “So then, the muggles must live, if we are to survive, they must live. Even these all-powerful Avengers struggle to take down Thanos, a small change in the timeline could lead to the purple bastard winning and cataclysmically decimating the worlds wizarding population. No, we can’t risk it.”
Tom gets a manic look in his eyes and he stumbles to his feet, gesturing wildly around him before staring Haddy straight in the eyes, “Summon the Knights Haddy, it seems our goals are evolving yet again. If you can’t beat them, join them. I want you working with the Seventh Years, every night, you’re going to teach them how to blend in with the muggles, by the end of the decade I want one of my followers high up in every major government. When this threat arrives, wizards must be ready to lend our assistance. Humanity must unite!”
Tom distractedly starts walking away, still muttering to himself, listing all the things he must do to prepare for this catastrophic event eight years in the future.
Unseen by the distracted and frantic Slytherin, Haddy watches him go, a beatific smile on his face, “Don’t you just love giving people that new fandom feeling?”
Haddy looks towards Beyoncé, who had spent the last few hours decorating Haddy’s cloak with slime trails and devouring the Quidditch Pitch. “Is this how you felt when you made me watch Game of Thrones?”
Haddy waits expectantly for the snail to answer, “-Yeah you’re right, enough chit-chat, let’s get back to practise.” Haddy gracefully gets back to his feet, ready to restart teaching his snail gymnastics, “-and a five, six, seven, eight-”