Companionable Silence

In which Harry has an almost friendly conversation with a future dark lord. – friendship, implied time-travel, & slash if you swing that way and squint. oneshot. un-beta'd -

"...Tom?"

"Yes?"

Harry stares at the boy over his cup of coffee, the drink warm in his hands. He wonders if it is alright that the heat reminds him of home.

Of course he does not consider Privet Drive his home, nor this Hogwarts - he longs to be back in the Hogwarts of his own time, huddled in the Gryffindor dorms with Ron and Hermione. Not here, with an arrogant future dark lord who insists on antagonising Harry every chance he gets.

Harry is so enraptured by his thoughts he almost forgets to reply - at least until Tom gives him a pointed look and coughs, raising a sceptical eyebrow at him.

Harry can't bring himself to reprimand the other student.

So instead he settles with chuckling awkwardly (at what exactly he isn't sure) and blurting out the first thing that comes to mind.

"Why?"

It isn't exactly a profound question, Harry is sure, but it perhaps has more of an effect on the wizard before him than one would anticipate. Tom seems to ponder for a minute, meeting Harry's gaze wordlessly. His eyes are dark, and Harry can't help but think that if Tom were one to show emotions the shadows in his eyes would tell him something.

But Tom is not, and Harry sees nothing and perhaps it is better for the both of them.

"Because it is what I am expected to do."

Tom had the dignity to fake sorrow at the words, but the smirk that pulls at the side of his mouth is telling.

"That's bull and you know it."

He chuckles.

"Language, Mr Potter."

"Piss off, Tom."

Tom chuckles again, and Harry seethes in silence, glaring childishly at the Slytherin.

"Mature, Potter."

Harry does not reply, and Tom snorts.

Harry is filled with the inexplicable urge to punch the boy slouched in the chair across from him.

Tom is the only one who can irritate him so much with such few words.

"You're a horrible, horrible person."

"I know."

And as funny as Tom seems to find it Harry finds himself slightly sobered by the revelation. He prays Tom doesn't notice, though Harry has never been religious and doesn't plan to start soon.

Tom notices and Harry curses his skills of observance.

"You knew, Harry."

Harry is sure Tom is the only one who knows him so well that he can have entire conversations with the wizard without having to speak a word. Harry is not sure whether this is a good thing or not, but he has never been a deep thinker so he doesn't pay much heed to the thought that maybe he shouldn't have let himself get so close to the wizard when he was trying to stop a future dark lord and not become sort-of friends with him instead – and then he realises Tom is ignoring him.

Harry suspects he has gotten bored of Harry's constant zoning out, but he ploughs on nonetheless.

"Yes."

Tom looks at him and gestures for him to continue.

"But people can chan-"

"Don't pretend you don't know, Harry," Tom murmurs to him, and Harry is not sure if he is hearing things or if Tom sounds regretful, but decides he must be stupid when the boy raises his head slightly and grins toothily.

"Then don't pretend you're sorry," he replies coldly.

Because they both know exactly what they're talking about but neither wants to say it out loud.

"I'm not," Tom whispers, and Harry isn't sure what the wizard is feeling but his tone is cold as his mask is set in place and Harry can't bring himself to try and look past the emotionless facade because he knows what he'd going to see and he hates it.

"Fuck you."

Tom seems shocked for a moment but Harry thinks it's just a trick of the light because seconds later he is slurping away at his coffee again and seems perfectly content to disregard Harry's opinions.

"I don't swing that way," he replies, mocking and still sounding somehow full of himself at the same time and Harry is sure he has never blushed so hard before in his life, whether through embarrassment or anger because to be honest they're the same thing with Tom.

And then they sit, neither speaking a word, because they both know what they're doing is fucked up, and they both know what happens next but neither can bring themselves to care.

Harry is sort of sad, because in a different time and different place they could've been friends.

Instead they sit in companionable silence, while one ponders the inevitability of his situation and the other dreams of possibilities.

Harry clings to the faint thread of hope that maybe Tom can change.

Tom merely wonders whether his coffee needs more sugar, because he knows he can't.

A.N./ Because I wanted to explore Tom's character and oneshots don't require much effort.

Thinking of making a chaptered time-travel story, detailing the pair's sort-of friendship. Yes? No?

Critique?