Does that satisfy you?
"Gryffindor?" Tom repeated, musing to himself.
"Er."
Harry's footsteps stuttered, then dashed to keep up. Somehow, the all-important question and distinction of students attending Hogwarts had not come up. Until, without thinking, Harry gave an offhanded comment specifically focused around the current state of Gryffindor Tower. In everything else discussed, houses did not rank high in terms of importance and something to focus on. By either.
Because Tom was intelligent and focused. Scarily so in switching up methods of attitude, straight forward demands, probing remarks, and logic smothered with charm. Some got to Harry. Others were easy enough for even Harry to spot. Or it wasn't difficult to resist the charm, praise, and politeness aimed at him anyway. The logic part? Well, that was more difficult to respond to and give an answer that measured up for Tom.
"Right. I was sorted into Gryffindor. Er, actually." Harry added slowly. It wasn't a fact he brought up, but with Tom being descended from Slytherin, it might help along any connection.
While Harry thought Tom would connect to a family connection, in how tied up to Slytherin's name Tom was and in knowing he searched everywhere for his family, it certainly was not going in the way Harry thought it would go. If it was Harry, well, Harry jumped at the chance of family or connection of family. After all, it had been pointed out at how quickly he had agreed on Sirius's offer of going home after only meeting the man. Harry thought he was independent, but Tom was far more so. Certainly there was renewed interest and studying of Harry after the discovery of family. But...distant? Reserved?
He shook his head and gave a small shrug of his shoulder toward Tom.
"The Sorting Hat did strongly consider and push for me to be sorted into Slytherin," Harry admitted.
The pair of dark brown eyes disappeared further in the darkness, blinking once, then returning their gaze forward. "That is not surprising."
Harry blinked. And tried to work out what Tom meant by that. There was both a sense of arrogance and it being a manner of fact statement. The silence as they walked by the light of moonlight and Harry's lit wand was getting to Harry. It was odd. In all the visits and days of that sectioned off area of the hospital wing, Tom was very talkative and pressing. It was fairly easy to take guesses at how Tom was taking things there. Well. Easier, Harry amended to himself. But this silence for the first time out of there ate at Harry, giving him a bit of boding feeling.
"I chose Gryffindor though. Because it was the house my parents were in."
Again, Harry was met with silence with his words.
Unnerving and unsettling. He frowned, glancing around in the dark of the castle. This was probably the worst idea he had yet. Sneaking Tom out of the sectioned off area and out of the hospital wing? Worst idea.
Harry watched Tom walking, keeping up, trying to catch any shift or showing of emotions as Tom took in the lingering battle damage.
There would be no alarm to Tom leaving this area. The chains around Tom's wrists were still in place, so it was not completely the worst idea. Or at least Harry told himself. A bit of freedom. A walk around Hogwarts to get out of being caged to one spot. It'd been one of the real big sticking points, one of the things Tom had been agitated about, becoming both charmingly logical and very defensive. Harry understood, had been stuck in the hospital wing himself enough times to understand that, but felt more time was needed. To make sure Tom was free of Voldemort's 'influence'. Which was both true and according to the story they'd come up with.
But then… The pointed snap referring to Harry as family was what really led to Harry doing this. Because all he could think of was how trapped he felt living in the Dursley household. Of never being normal enough for them. Of no matter what he did, it always felt like he was always wrong. Never fully part of them or the neighborhood or the school. Of the times he was punished for things outside of his control. Of being tossed under the stairs. Locked up in Dudley's second bedroom for days.
Tom couldn't change who he was and Harry had been doing the same as the Dursleys. It was not exactly the same. But similar enough that it horrified Harry. And suddenly understood why, or perhaps a reason, to Tom withdrawing and not wanting to fully connect with Harry, a supposed family member, like Harry had expected out of Tom.
So thus, Harry figured out a way to sneak Tom out for a while. A jailbreak. Taking note from what Sirius said of how they'd sometimes break Remus out of the hospital wing after a full moon.
"I chose Slytherin." Tom suddenly stated, startling Harry.
"Huh? Er, you." Harry tripped through his words and thoughts at the declaration. "You… You chose Slytherin? The hat wanted you, what?"
"It did not place much thought to Ravenclaw, more to Slytherin," Tom continued. "I did not value knowledge for knowledge's sake. Or place the right value to it."
Wide eyed, Harry kept up with Tom, who briefly paused in his stride to narrow his eyes at the remains of a blasted wall. The distaste barely registered with Harry, who'd already realized Tom was incensed over the state of the castle. He was too busy trying to wrap his head around the thought of the Sorting Hat giving Tom a choice, the Sorting Hat pushing for another house, that Tom had not been told Slytherin as soon as it touched his head like it did for Malfoy.
"The hat did strongly suggest…" And Tom sniffed disdainfully. "Gryffindor. I still fail to see why."
"G-Gryffindor?" Harry couldn't wrap his head around it. At all. Tom Riddle, a Gryffindor? "Why?"
"I chose Slytherin," Tom repeated. No explanation followed like there had been for Ravenclaw. "Does that satisfy you?"
"Satisfy me?"
"While you may have qualities of Slytherin, you have spent too much time among those in Gryffindor. It is obvious." Tom clarified, explaining with an upraised tilt to the chin. "In how you reacted to my not knowing your name. In how hopeful your first greeting was to me. In how you were nervous in saying why you were the first one there. In how you watch and memorize my every move. In how you came with me as I walked the castle. In how you have far more tendency in general to bring up the word of 'family'. Obvious. It is, after all, how I convinced you to break the rules."
Harry froze.
Tom smirked, his chin going up farther and his shoulders pulling back more. "See?"
"I… I kind of already knew that." Harry had been worried about pulling this off and focused on the connection of family. Tom had been rubbed the wrong way about being stuck and vulnerable. A focus on family connection and Tom trying to change feeling powerless. So it wasn't too hard to figure out of why that kind of attempt to change the situation happened. "That you were trying to use me in getting you out of there."
Tom's smirk grew.
"I am aware. Do keep up. This is why I was not surprised to find out you were 'strongly considered' for Slytherin. Besides the obvious. Chose Gryffindor."
Did Tom just snort at him? Harry stared. The momentary pause did not last long, barely a pause. A pause for Tom to snort under his breath at Harry?
"And your reasoning? Making it even clearer you were unaware of me at the time."
"Huh?"
Having a hard time following, Harry was trying to sort out what conclusions Tom had made from information given. Or gleamed. But was left frowning.
"Does that satisfy you?" Tom repeated. Somehow, Harry was surprised Tom was not growing any annoyance in repeating things. "For now in your desire in getting to know me?"
"I, uh." Harry fumbled with his words, which seemed to make Tom even more pleased by the looks of him. "I, yes. Yes, it does. For now."
"Good. Because now it is my turn." Tom's dark eyes slid across Harry's body, to the arm furthest away. The one lighting their way outside of the moonlight glinting in through the rubble. "Your wand is holly I notice. Tell me, what is the core?"
Automatically shifting his body, keeping his wand to the side and farther outward, Harry stared at Tom. Oh no. After giving a taste of freedom, Tom was angling and pushing for ridding himself of feeling powerless. That'd been something pressed upon, asked repeatedly in succession. Where is my wand?
And Harry had his… Worst idea after all! And right after Tom apparently and seemingly offered a piece of himself. Not due to warming up or reaching out to Harry in return of Harry's failed attempts while Tom had been stuck in that bed, but in using it against Harry! They weren't any closer, even with Harry stepping up from visits to sneaking Tom out to—
"Phoenix feather?"
"Y-yeah."
The surprised response stuttered out from Harry. He shifted a foot back. And yet, Tom did not make a move for the wand. Well, Harry was not going to drop his guard and next time he was going to think this out a bit more. Bring a lantern. Leave his wand elsewhere. Or at least not pull it out and use it. Walking around for a bit of freedom, sure. Tom had limits to what he could do in making any break for it. Harry could handle that. Keep the wand hidden on him, yeah, that was what Harry should have done.
Harry was an idiot. An utter moron. Using his wand and magic right in front of the man who had his magic bound and was powerless and was determined to change that. Harry was an idiot.
And yet, still, Tom did not make a move for Harry's wand the rest of their time walking the castle.
At their return to the sectioned off area to sneak Tom back before his disappearance was noticed, Tom cleared his throat. In the midst of leaving, Harry turned back. With only the faint light streaming from the cracked open door, Tom's pale features almost camouflaged him with the white sheet of the bed. Harry squinted, pushing his glasses up and allowing the door open a bit more to see Tom better. It did not help much.
"Yes?"
"I will see you tomorrow night, Harry."
Harry huffed, looking sideways at Tom. "To sneak you out again?" He asked dryly. And then shook his head. "I'll be back in the morning, yes. Good night."