Chapter 30
The next day at breakfast, Professor Snape handed the five boys an envelope. It had a fancy green wax sealing stamped with an extravagant symbol of a snake wrapped around a sword. It was all very fancy and Harry feared for a moment it was from Voldemort but then Blaise squealed and Harry let that thought go.
“Professor Riddle wants us to see him tonight for our first private lesson!”
“Oh joy.” Draco snarked. He and Harry had tried to get their parents to disagree to it for most of the post-game afternoon but the adults seemed more than thrilled to have excelling children.
That night, Harry stayed in Draco’s bed, it was for the childish reason that he was scared Riddle would get into their dorm and abduct him but thankfully Draco didn’t tease him about it. However, they were both very tired and Draco was taking it out on everyone.
Blaise quirked an eyebrow. “I thought you would be excited for this, you were gushing about the man a week ago.”
“Oh yes, I’m very excited Zabini-“ Draco spat. “I always just love doing extra classwork to add to my already massive load.”
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the dungeon this morning.” Goyle whispered under his breathe.
Harry was tempted to say that if Draco woke up on the other side of the dungeon then Harry woke up there with him but that felt a bit personal.
The girls didn’t seem to be jealous when they all showed them their letters, instead they laughed.
“Oh boys,” Tracey shook her head, “with exams coming up? You’re going to want to kill yourselves.”
“Make it quick.” Draco groaned, almost dropping his head into his porridge bowl.
“Think of the positives.” Pansy grinned. “You get more time with a tall, handsome, attractive man with a jaw so stubbled you just want him to give you a rash-“
“Fucking hell!” Crabbe screamed.
“That’s so disgusting.” cried Harry.
“Shut up!” Blaise covered his ears.
“I’m gonna throw up my muffin.” Goyle groaned.
Pansy only shrugged, looking very smug. “What? I have an older cousin with a very detailed diary.”
Draco looked very concerned. “I am very glad I can’t read your mind.”
“Oh wouldn’t you like to know.” Pansy winked.
“That’s literally what I just said-“
To Harry’s unfortunate luck, this one day seemed to go quicker than any other. On top of that, it had rained all night and all morning and the third year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had Herbology first period. All up their legs was thick mud that had somewhat dried in the warmth of the greenhouse but when they went to scrape it off it was still gooey underneath and got stuck in the crevices of their hands. Professor Snape gave them all homework because someone (*cough* Neville Longbottom) half wrote the one the professor submitted them for the weekend and Snape decided to punish everyone by giving them another essay to write before the next class. In the last periods they had Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry was scared Riddle would make their extra lessons public knowledge but he only told the boys he’d see them at 7:30 tonight then moved on with the lesson about vampires.
When it hit 7:20, they decided to travel up from the dungeons. Harry dressed himself in an overside hoody and jeans he knew could never be as sexualising as the cat costume from Halloween that would hopefully shoo the older professor away. Draco had the same idea except he would never wear a hoody but rather an expensive attire, designed to look both comfortable and like he was going to the Covent Garden all at once.
Riddle was in his classroom, as he had said, and opened the door with a large welcoming smile that made Harry’s scar sting slightly. The tables were all moved to the side of the room except for one long enough to fit five people.
“Were we meant to bring quills?” Blaise asked.
“No, no, no.” Riddle shook his hands. “Take a seat and I’ll get started.”
The blackboard had been wiped clean and Riddle magicked the chalk to start writing on its own. He stood silently in front of them, leering over the boys like a dark cloud ready to erupt at any moment. Riddle was holding his wand in a ready position and Harry felt they all could be cursed at any moment.
“What do you know of… dark magic?” The professor asked slowly, raising one eyebrow uncertainly.
Goyle slowly raised his hand, Riddle pointed his wand at him to talk and Goyle flinched. “Erm… it is a type of magic mainly used to cause harm. You know, like the unforgivables.”
“The Unforgivable Curses, perfect start.” Riddle smiled, looking far happier than the topic demanded. “Mr Malfoy, your father used these in the war, can you name one?”
“The Cruciatus Curse.” said Draco proudly.
“A description would be fitting, Mr Malfoy.”
“It’s a torture curse, sir.”
“Excellent answer, 30 points to Slytherin.” Riddle said.
“Is he allowed to do that?” Harry asked Blaise.
Blaise shrugged. “Dunno, but I’m not complaining.”
“Another, Mr Crabbe?” questioned Riddle.
“The Imperius Curse.” Crabbe practically bursted out. “It makes the victim perform any task they are asked to do by the caster.”
“Ahh yes, ‘the wonderful release of all responsibilities’, one journalist described. Marvellous work, Mr Crabbe, 30 points to Slytherin.”
Vincent Crabbe blushed and smiled so widely an adorable dimple appeared on his right cheek.
“Harry Potter,” said Riddle, looking straight into the boys soul, “do you know the name of the last Unforgivable Curse?”
Harry visibly shivered and felt the embarrassing urge to burst into tears all while his professor was beaming. His dorm mates would probably tease him if he did so he held them back.
“The Killing Curse, sir?” Harry asked it like a question.
“Exactly that.” Riddle satisfyingly nodded. “Do you know the pronunciation of this curse?”
“Avada Kadavra, sir.” Harry whispered.
Riddle charmed the chalk to write it down. “50 points to Slytherin! It will be much easier to teach you boys since you already know so much.”
Everyone cheered.
“Maybe he’s not so bad.” Draco shook with excitement to Harry.
Harry was speechless. “You were the one to tell me he was a- a”
“I’m not always right, Potter.”
“Then why does he make me feel so uncomfortable?” Harry whispered.
Draco looked guilty for a moment and patted Harry’s shoulder soothingly. “You still feel…”
Harry nodded.
“We’ll do some more research then, we won’t trust him till we fully understand his intentions.”
“Thanks, Draco.” Harry sighed in relief.
The blond smiled one last time then Riddle got their attention once more.
“Now does anyone know what wandlore is?”
Everyone raised their hand so quickly Riddle had trouble deciding who put theirs up first.
They finished their first class twenty minutes to midnight and Professor Riddle said any teacher that may meet them in the corridors can come to him if they start asking questions. Harry was actually calmer about his teacher after the lesson, feeling like it wasn’t all one big scheme to get him on his own until Riddle asked him to stay behind.
“It won’t take a moment.” He promised.
Draco looked worryingly at Harry but Harry just gestured for them to wait for him outside. Riddle didn’t start talking until his classroom door was fully shut then smiled once more at Harry.
“Now tell me, how are you, Harry?”
Harry blinked at the unpredictable question. “Um… alright. Yourself?”
“As perfectly content as a teacher can be, I’m sure your godfather has complained about his profession once or twice?”
“Professor Lupin, sir?”
Riddle nodded.
“I- I think he likes his job very much. Moon- Remus has told me he wanted to be a teacher since he was a student here.”
“It’s always admirable to see people living their childhood dreams. Particularly if they have a condition like your godfather's.”
Harry was taken aback. “I don’t think that’s any of your business, sir.”
Riddle raised an eyebrow. “And how would you know what my business is?”
“If you made me stay behind to berate my uncle then I’ll just leave-“
“All I’m referring to is,” Riddle said slowly and loudly, making Harry stop from opening the door, “is that we all had childhood dreams, yes? Do you remember yours?”
“I wanted to be a scientist.” said Harry stiffly, not sure where this conversation was going.
“Not a star quidditch player?” Riddle grinned.
Harry shrugged.
“Well when I was a child, do you know what I wanted to be?” Riddle perforated. Harry shook his head. “I wanted to dominate the world, how funny is that?”
“I don’t think that’s a very uncommon aspiration, sir.” Harry muttered.
Riddle smiled. “You’re a very kind boy, Harry Potter.”
“Thanks?”
Literally all Harry wanted to do was go back to his dorm and sleep until it was Summer again. Instead he was here, in this musty classroom with a creepy, good looking professor that wouldn’t stop asking him questions.
“It surprised me when I was first appointed here to see that the Boy Who Lived wasn’t a rich snob.” The older man chuckled. “It also surprised me very much to see that the Boy Who Lived was a Slytherin of all houses.”
Now Harry was very confused. “okay…?”
“But it also filled me with so much hope. Even after getting raised by your parents and living a noble life, you still managed to become a Slytherin.”
“Why would that fill you with hope?”
Riddle moved in closer so that only a meter was between them. “There was a prophecy, Harry Potter, about the life the fates had for you. I was one of the few who got to see it along with Albus Dumbledore before it was changed, for the event which guaranteed the beginning of the prophecy did not happen the way the fates predicted. You saved the world that night twelve years and saved many lives that would have been lost.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Harry gasped.
“It is because of these change in events that you are not a Gryffindor, that you are friends with the friends you have and have the family you are blessed with, it is because of these changes in our timeline that you will have more successes, that you are more interchangeable to the other side than if Dumbledore got to you first.” Riddle looked crazed but he didn’t stop, taking one step closer and closer. “The people who were going to die will not and the forces you were going to destroy will not be destroyed. Because of the changes in events, I am alive in this body and not a weak morsel of what I used to be.” By the end of it, he was nose to nose with Harry, both males breathing hard and fast, one from exhilaration and one from pure fear.
“Do you know who I am, Harry Potter?” Riddle whispered.
Harry didn’t trust his voice so he shook his head.
Riddle took three steps back and chuckled to himself. “You have much more to learn before you figure me out, for you will hate me when you do.”
“You can’t be worse than Voldemort, sir.” Harry replied bravely.
Riddle quirked his lip like he was very amused. “You’re not afraid to say his name, I see?”
“I’ve defeated him twice, I am not afraid to do it again.” said Harry, feeling he was saying it like a threat.
Riddle looked very amused now. “You may go, Mr Potter, I can hear your friends tapping impatiently on the ground from here.”
“Thank you, sir.” Harry bowed his head awkwardly.
“I expect to see you all here on Monday evening?”
A final wave and nod were Harry's last gestures before walking to the Slytherin Common Room with his friends.
And as Harry lay in bed, shuffling around in an uncomfortable tangle of cotton sheets, he remembered that Riddle never said if he was worse than Voldemort or not.
——
“In the name of Morgana, you five look exhausted.” Pansy exclaimed to them at breakfast.
“And you look like the queen of England yourself, Parkinson.” Harry snapped.
Pansy frowned. “Well Potter just snarked at me so now I’m worried.”
Blaise patted Harry’s shoulder. “We just had a late night, is all.”
“Doing what?” asked Tracey suspiciously.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Goyle blinked.
Tracy looked very put off after that.
At lunch Harry was still in his stale mood, not even feeling better when they were serving Lancashire hotpot with gravy. The girls were annoying him with their high pitch voices and never ending chatter so he chose to sit outside and aggressively stab into his potatoes.
“You good, mate?” Draco asked, sitting beside him against the tree.
Harry didn’t answer, just chewed and stared off into the distance in thought.
“Did that perv do something to you while we were outside?”
Harry shook his head.
Draco grunted. “I’ll tell my father about this and get the man fired along with Hagrid if I have too.”
Harry couldn’t help but feel warm about the sentiment.
“He’s a good teacher and all, and I learn so much in his classes…”
“But?” Draco urged.
“There’s just something wrong about him, I can’t name it now, but my gut feeling isn’t trusting it.”
“Your gut feeling?” Draco teased.
“Shut up.” Harry smiled, pushing his friends shoulder.
“Oh but I can’t shut up when your gut is telling you something, now can I?”
“Hey,” Harry said grinning, “my gut hasn’t failed me so far so it’s either Riddle is trying to kill me or something, or I’m just very very hungry.”
Draco burst out in laughter and threw his head back to lean it against the tree. Harry laughed with him, suddenly finding his problems a minimal task he could complete in the library.
That’s it.
The library.
“The library!” Harry gasped, standing up so fast he felt dizzy.
Draco frowned. “What?”
“The answer is in the library. Come on!”
“What?” repeated Draco dumbly, though he still followed.
Harry was too buzzed with excitement to answer and he didn’t stop walking till he was in the section of the library with books about prophecies and fates.
“Did you have a bad dream you wanted to unravel?” Draco joked.
“No, no.” Harry tutted, reading the context of book after book.
Draco whistled to himself for a few moments, tapping the spines of the books inquisitively.
“So… what book are we looking for exactly?”
“This one!” Harry breathed.
He had finally found a book. The Sweetest Changes in Time by Arnold Baleberry was an old leather book with a picture of a strawberry inside a fortune teller crystal ball Professor Trelawney had in her classroom on the cover. Harry flipped through until he found the page he wanted, the one about a changed destiny.
“It says here that ‘the future is not set in stone, instead it is a destiny the Fates created. Destiny is only a future scenario that can be changed at any moment, although one cannot fully change their fate, they can only postpone it’. What do you think that means?”
Draco blinked. “I’m going to need the context before I give any thoughts.”
“No, just-“ Harry sighed in frustration- “just tell me what you thought about the sentence at the top of your head.”
“I think I don’t care and thinking about what the future has planned for us is not doing anyone any good.” Draco rushed, crossing his arms defiantly.
Harry looked thoughtfully at the page again.
“Isn’t there a department in the ministry with prophecies? I remember my mother talking about it.”
“The department of mysteries, you mean?” Draco frowned. “It’s super secretive. Not even my father is allowed in there.”
“What if I told you I might have a prophecy in there?” said Harry seriously.
“Many people have prophecies, Harry.” Draco muttered.
“Riddle said something,” Harry confessed, “he said that a change of events twelve years ago was the reason I’m a Slytherin and have the friends I have, he also said something about him having his body instead of a… I think he said a morsel of what he used to be.”
“What?” Draco baffled.
“What I’m saying is that I have a prophecy and I think Riddle wants me to either find it or not… I’m not very clear.”
“So you want to go into the department of mysteries, a place only the Unspeakables can go into, find your prophecy and see what your life could have been like if something from your past hadn’t changed it?” Draco recollected.
“Exactly!” grinned Harry.
“And you’re doing all this for what?”
Harry shrugged. “Dunno. Riddle said something, I listened and now I’ve formulated a plan.”
“Didn’t we agree yesterday not to trust him till we have all the information we need to prove he isn’t a pervert?” Draco raised an eyebrow.
“I never said I trusted him.” Harry pointed out. “I just think he’s seen something about my past I need to see for myself.”
Harry closed the book and went to Madam Pince to borrow it. She had her usual untrusting scowl and pointed a bony finger at him and said that if he doesn’t return her book to the library in a week then she’ll dig his grave for him. Harry just nodded quickly and he and Draco left the library.
Afternoon classes had began and Harry remembered he and Draco had history to get too. On their way, Harry stopped the blond and stood close enough to whisper.
“I know how to get us in the department of mysteries.” He whispered.
“How?” Draco scowled. “It’s literally bloody impossible if you aren’t an Unspeakable or the Minister of Magic.”
Harry grinned at his friends fowl language. “I’m Harry Potter, Malfoy, I can get into anywhere.”
“No you can’t.” Draco snorted.
“I managed to get me and my father seats with the minister at the quidditch world up because all I did was lift my fringe and they started singing my name. I’m willing to use my name for this, Malfoy.” Harry whispered, going onto his toes so he was up in Draco’s face. He didn’t notice how close they were till Harry stopped talking and the small space between them was filled with their shaky breathes.
Looking over his friends face, Harry was pleased to see the pale boy had tiny freckles along his nose, not noticeable from afar but up really close they sprinkled lightly over the bridge of Draco’s nose and across his cheeks. Pretty, Harry thought.
“What did you just say?” Draco frowned again, taking a step back.
Harry was confused before he realised he might have said his thoughts aloud. He swallowed hard as a wave of dread washed over him. Blushing in embarrassment and wishing he had his invisibility cloak on him to cover up his entire existence, Harry was too mortified to even look the boy in the eyes.
He decided it was safer for him to not say anything so the boys remained silent.
Harry heard Draco cough roughly into his fisted hand before threading them through his platinum hair and ruffling it. It was all very pretty indeed but Harry knew it wouldn’t be in his favour to say the statement twice.
“I’ll- I’ll see you in history then.” Draco said after a while of awkwardly scuffing the stone floor with his expensive doc martins.
Harry nodded stiffly and watched as Draco walked proudly down the hall.
“Stupid idiot, stupid.” Harry groaned, pulling his hair.
He found comfort against the cold wall and slid down it slowly till his butt made a thunk on the ground. Leave it to the Chosen One to say something so silly, so gay, to his best friend then say nothing to make up for it. Draco might be repulsed in him right now! And worse of all, Harry had no idea why he said it in the first place. It was obviously true his best friend was more attractive than Adonis, it was obvious to anyone who looked at him, but that didn’t make it acceptable for Harry to call him pretty to his face. If it was Pansy or Tracey or even Millicent who did it then no one would bat an eye, but a boy calling another boy pretty? It seemed alright for his uncle Padfoot and Moony to do it, they complimented each other so naturally that Harry didn't think it was gross at all, no one should.
But the look of disgust on Draco’s face. The way he stepped back so quickly to put as much space between them as he could.
With his eyes closed, Harry clutched his library book close to his chest and leaned against the wall.
“Such an idiot.”