T
Water flooded the bathroom that Harry was in. It was a daily occurrence. He, in his first year didn’t talk to anybody and therefore made no friends. He couldn’t trust that they weren’t like Dudley’s friends. And they were probably gonna make fun of him. Today marked the first day of his 3rd year, last year a girl named Ginny had died or went missing in the girls bathroom. He didn’t know who she really was or what her personality was like, so he didn’t see it as a big problem. She did act weird when he saw her in the halls. About the flooding bathroom thing, Harry might have touched something in Mrs. Figgs house that may have had an angry ghost in it.
Harry used to be scared of the fire the ghost rose above his head when he was younger, but then the ghost learned that Harry couldn’t swim at all. Now whenever Harry was in any bathroom alone he would be submerged under the water and almost drown. Harry named the ghost, Tom. Mostly for the freakishly tidy hair that looked like cat fur. Though whenever Harry tried to beckon the ghost, it would pull him under. It was-Harry was pulled underneath the water again. Harry tried to expel the water from his lungs, but they just filled up more. Like sand flowing into the bottom part of an hourglass.
Nobody could hear Harry when they did this, and if somebody did they were really good at ignoring the screams of pain and drowning. It was night now, but in the dungeons it seemed like he was buried a thousand feet below the surface. Yeah he was in the dungeons, he was sorted into Slytherin in his first year, Dumbledore was very shocked of course seemed like that wasn’t in the plans. The Malfoy boy always tried to become Harry’s friend, and Harry kinda did wanna make friends with him he just didn’t know how to start. Harry always got scared when Malfoy’s hand popped into his canopy and almost always make him fall. Plus, Tom could use the boy as a tool to punctuate his fears. The thing that was holding Harry let him go, so that he could finally breathe. When he was at the top of the water he felt this really unsettling feeling like he had lost someone.
The water was draining and Harry saw Tom at the bottom looking at Harry directly not just at his person. Harry was again unsettled by this, but not the way being at the top of the water had made him feel. Harry was on his knees basically coughed out a lot of the water he had in his lungs. Harry thought in some sadistic way was that Tom was his only friend. Unwillingly of course, neither of them had signed up for this it had just happened.
Tom must really hate Harry. Tom walked towards Harry putting his semi-transparent hand on his shoulder. He had never done so before. Harry was on his knees choking on the water in his lungs. Tom lifted Harry’s torso up so, he could have easy access to just plunge his hand Harry’s skin and stop his heart completely. He didn’t do that, instead he put his hand on the upper-portion of Harry’s torso and all of the water that had been in Harry’s lungs were expelled immediately. It felt neutral it wasn’t good, nor bad. Harry looked at Tom as if he was his savior, which was slightly true?
Tom didn’t look Harry in the eyes he just picked Harry up, so Harry was on his feet. Harry went to leave, but Tom didn’t let him. Harry tried pulling away from Tom, but Tom pulled him back and closer then before. Tom now put Harry in a full snake hug, entrapping Harry completely in a hug. Harry almost screamed, because of how warm he was. He expected him to be as cold as the water he was put in.
It felt like nothing he had ever had. Like always having the same meal your whole life and then being granted a sweet. It just was surprising for Tom to ever do this. Harry’s eyes welt up like a bruising knee, painful but needed to heal. He started crying and hugged back, afraid to let go as if Tom would disappear the moment he let go. His tears flowed like the water that filled The Titanic’s hallways when it sunk, always flowing entrapping whoever was unlucky enough to be there to be trapped. Tom tried to pull back, but Harry didn’t let go. Harry was tired of everyone thinking he was the great hero that wasn’t bad in any way!
He knew about all of the things Voldemort did, Harry was never afraid to say his name. It was stupid to be afraid of a name. Some days Harry just wishes he could disappear completely to allow everyone to think of him as a normal person and not a savior. Harry had never done anything great, it was all luck. No magic even if it was in the Wizarding World. He was just another boy who was confused to be a savior. He knew he was a curse himself, it was his fault that his mother and father died, his fault that he was sorted into Slytherin, his fault that nobody wanted him, it was all his fault. HE JUST WANTED SOMEONE TO THINK OF HIM AS A NORMAL PERSON!
He just wanted someone to like him as a person. Nobody really thought about him, the real him. It made him angry. He wanted to cry until there was nothing else to ever cry about again. Tom looked at him as if he was real and not porclein or the chosen one. He wanted someone who understood. Somebody that knew the feeling of being thrown onto a high pedestal and never being able to get off it until it was too late. He felt like he was just thrown up there to be stared at and never to be touched.
Maybe everyone would have been better off with him dead or gone. Dumbledore always looked at him like he was wrong. They had only talked a couple of times and it was about his parents or something else that Harry knew nothing about, because of his poor eduaction of the Wizarding World. It made him not want to continue what everyone expected of him. He always was so close to crying all the time. The only thing that he got out of this whole wizarding thing is knowing how his parents died. OH, and the whole thing of being terrified that at any moment he could be killed!
Tom was stroking Harry’s back, Harry hadn’t noticed while he was in his little fit. Harry noticed that he was squeezing Tom really hard that he could almost see his hand clearly through Tom’s semi-transparent body. Harry tried to look at Tom’s face, but Tom pushed his hand to the back of Harry’s head, so he couldn’t. He probably was doing the same thing as Harry did moments before. Maybe it was something pent up, that had been there ever since he had died. About his own murderer or maybe suicide, Harry wouldn’t know. Harry loosened his grip a bit, so he wasn’t hurting Tom. Though since he was a ghost he bet 2 galleons that he didn’t feel how hard Harry was actually holding him.
Harry could actually feel tears sopping into his hair, they were traveling down Harry’s face. He didn’t know why he felt connected to Tom, but he felt like he understood whatever was going on in his head and that he could come to Harry at anytime. Maybe that’s why Tom tormented Harry it could just be a way to get rid of the pain that he felt. He wanted to help him, maybe like a ghost therapy. Harry chuckled in his head at that idea. Though it is what he wanted to do. To help Tom, and make him feel better and to never feel neglected again. Hell, Harry just realized that they hadn’t even talk to each other yet.
Then again, Harry didn’t wanna make Tom angry, by calling him the pet name he’d make him. Tom was still sobbing. He didn’t hear any whimpering, but he could still feel hot, salty tears running down from his hair and onto his face. It felt never ending for some reason. Tom did this for a long time, nor did Harry go out of his way to stop it. He did want to go to bed , but felt as though that his new friend’s feelings were more important. Tom had stopped rubbing Harry’s back a while ago, and was now tightening his grip on his waist. Harry knew that Tom hadn’t even asked to do any of this with Harry, but it seemed like he needed it.
Harry started humming a muggle song to ease the errie feeling he had when he was with Tom. It was an old song that he had no idea that he knew about, but it seemed like Tom, himself was easing up by the end of the song and it sounded as if he was mumbling the words that were with the song.
“did it all for you….” Tom mumbled along with Harry’s humming his voice was soothing to Harry, and it was funny, because he honestly thought it would have sounded like screaming. Not that would have been a good option, but it was odd. Tom let go of Harry and Harry did so as well. Harry shyly rubbed his neck as if the whole situiantion was awkward, which it was. Tom just stood there still as a statue rubbing his eyes for any tear residue. Harry was debating on asking the ghost what his name really was and asking if he wanted to sleep in the same bed as him. As all goes wrong in the echoed silence, Harry said,
“DO.. WAnt.. To nAme ME?” Harry said very stupidly, “Wait- no um I mean d-do you-,” Harry sighed and closed his eyes. Tom chuckled at Harry’s misfortune of saying that. Harry took a breath. Exhaled and then asked, “What is your name and would you like to sleep in the same bed as me?”
Tom chuckled a little more at the questions, and then answered them, “ Well Hadrin, my name is Tom, and are you sure? We just met,”Tom added quickly “I could kill you with no hesitation as I’ve showed before by almost drowning you completely,”
Harry did mark off the nickname as odd, and thought it was pretty funny that Harry was correct with the name Tom. He noticed that Tom even thought he was a danger to Harry, and yes he was Harry didn’t care.
“Well do you want to? Sleep in my bed with me?” Harry asked a little shy from the whole stuttering thing.
“Of course, now go. There’s a teacher thats about to check that everyone is in their beds I’ll join you after,” Tom said, honestly just dismissing Harry before they got caught.