He smiled darkly..

"Obedecer" He intoned with satisfaction.

The brown eyes that were tight with tense and hopeful anticipation softened at once and lost a little of their vibrancy. Hermione smiled peacefully.
He looked down at her with a strange mix of satisfaction and disappointment. She had succumbed so easily..

"I think you should answer the door" he reminded her as he slowly withdrew from her, tucking her wand into his pocket.
She beamed at him as if he'd just offered the solution to all her problems
"Oh yes! The door! I forgot!" she told him, climbing up off the bed and adjusting her skirt. She moved quite contentedly to the open doorway and descended the stairs.
He followed her at a few paces distance. This spell required constant line of sight, although thankfully not eye contact.
Tom positioned himself in the shadow of the door as she reached for it, looking entirely pleased and distracted by some other thought.

She had no sooner parted the wood from the frame than the door was pushed in, shoving her back slightly. Tom kept his hand on the wand in his pocket, stepping out slightly, in order to maintain a visual link on the girl.
There was a tall slender boy shouldering his way into the room. He knew at once who it was by the unmistakeable shock of nearly white hair falling silkily to his shoulders.

"Where is he, Granger?" the Malfoy descendent growled, closing the door behind him quickly. Hermione frowned slightly. "Where is who?" she asked, confused.

"Draco Malfoy, I take it" Tom spoke quietly from behind him, Hermione's wand trained on the boy.

The blonde whirled and his eyes nearly popped out.
"Merlin's fucking balls!" he spat.

Tom shot him a disapproving look. Abraxas would never have expressed himself in such a coarse manner. It seemed that his associate's grandson was an ill mannered little cur – at least, he assumed this was his grandson, unless he'd had children very late in life – not the standard operating practice within Pure-blood society.

"What are you doing here, Draco?" Hermione managed, obviously having difficulty making sense of events around her now. This spell was less useful than the imperius due to that very factor – unless the caster was attending to the victim fully and directing both actions and words, they tended to stand around looking foolish and confused. The imperius was more convenient. One could give the subject the vague suggestion of how they might like to behave and they would order themselves with respect to the spirit of that idea. On the other hand – it was impossible to remove the stain of unforgiveables from a wand, whereas this spell could be wiped away when he was finished.

Draco turned and inspected Hermione more closely, his face breaking into a wide beatific smile after a few seconds.
"Oh... beautiful! This is just beautiful. The mudblood Granger under a compulsion curse. You let him take your wand, didn't you, Granger.. Severus always said there was nothing in your head but useless books!"
The blonde turned back to him and appraised him with more care. There was something...distinctly familiarin the boy's expression. He could see the way Abraxas would look at any development to see where profit might lie.
...And .. there was something else.. Something he had felt before, in the infirmary when the tall dour 'Severus' had been in the room.. something he hadn't quite been able to understand. He probed at the strange..tingle... in the back of his mind upon seeing the Blonde. The boy shivered suddenly and then looked uncertain before the emotion was wiped from his lean sharp face.

"Do you know who I am?" Tom enquired,

The boy' eyes widened.
"...I... I have an idea.
...Are you really ..Him.. How are you here? You look-..." he didn't finish the sentence.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Yes. I am aware of my present appearance. I am older than I look. How did you learn I was here?" he asked him curiously.

The calculating look in the pale grey eyes didn't fade for a moment.
"The weasel. – that is – Ronald Weasley. I don't know if you know him. He was banging on in the corridor down from Charms about the mudblood being in danger. Pansy - Pansy Parkinson, heard him mention that 'she was all alone with him in the head's quarters – and who knew what he might do.'
Since she was already put out that I no longer had access to a private room, she took the time to listen. She said it was something in the way he said it that made her curious.
Potty was trying to shut him up and then when the Weasel snapped and said something about Granger being 'shut up with 'you know who' – well.. she ran to come find me."

"...How can you be... him.?" The silvery eyes narrowed as Draco tilted his head, seeming to try to see.. or to imagine.. something. Probably his older self, Tom presumed.

If the boy had rushed here in this manner then it was more than likely that the Malfoys were still among his closest allies.

"What the fuck happened? How are you here..alive.. if you ARE him? Why are they keeping you here?"

The boy cautiously moved closer, examining him with sharp eyes and that incredulous half sneer.
He was much taller than Tom. The tingling feeling in his mind that he'd been examining grew as Draco came nearer. It was really rather pleasant, he decided.
Nevertheless – until he determined what was causing it, it was probably unwise to get too close.

"I would prefer it if you would remain where you are" he stated quietly. Draco stopped where he was immediately.

"My father said..." the boy hesitated and then seemed to change tack completely, suspicious and uneasy.
"How can I be certain of who you are? I don't recognise you. Admittedly you have something..about you.. but you look like a third year. Tell me-..." he seemed to struggle for something to ask. "Do..something that-.."

Tom sighed and flicked the wand in his hand casting Serpensortia. A long black viper was spat from his wandtip and landed on the floor between them both. Draco's eyes widened and he took a small step back.
Abraxas had done the same thing once. He had been quite...uneasy.. about snakes. Knowing that Tom mastered them had not ameliorated his fear in the slightest.

::Come to me:: he instructed the long black viper that was looking about and hissing agitatedly.

::Where am I?:: the snake demanded irritably before going on to berate him on the mouse it had just caught which would be stolen now.
He huffed impatiently. Typical. The one snake in the world who might backchat in this moment. He told it to come to him and it could return to its mouse. It obeyed then, slithering near and onto his arm when he half bent, extending it to it.

Draco looked uncertain.. "Potter can do that too.." he said indecisively.

Tom's eyes sharpened. What? The boy who loathed him.. who, he realised, Hermione had not told him anything about after all... That boy was a parselmouth? Was he his son?.. She had said he was the child of a pureblood and a mudblood. Unless she had lied..
He glanced at the confused witch standing wringing her hands anxiously and banished the snake once more

"I want to know more about this Harry Potter.." he informed the blonde wizard. "Hermione.. was not particularly forthcoming about him.

Draco sneered. "No.. Well she wouldn't be, would she. They're practically joined at the hip. She'd hardly tell you anything you might use against him."

Tom frowned. The way he said it, it seemed very much that this Harry Potter might be some kind of particular, rather than general enemy, in contrast to what the girl had suggested.

"Perhaps.. we might.. sit down and speak together..Draco.." he offered after moment. "I am certain that youcould be far more informative than the witch has been.

The blonde gave a curt nod. "Oh... I think I can.." he smirked.

He began to direct Hermione toward the sofa, but, changing his mind, altered her course toward the stairs to his room. He did not feel comfortable sitting so close to the fire and speaking to this boy with whom he was no doubt forbidden to have contact. Should Dumbledore arrive through the Floo there would be no disguising things. In his room, in contrast, there was no floo. Draco might escape through the bathroom into Hermione's room and then downstairs and out of the chambers.
Draco seemed in the first instance unsettled at the direction he had gestured him in, but followed the witch up the stairs. When he reached the top, he looked about possessively. It was clear that this had been, until recently, his room. He strode to the bed and tossed himself down against the pillows.

Tom stared for a moment.
Beyond the impudence of it.. the gall of the bastard to invite himself to such a thing, it did not escape him the way the long lean limbs were aesthetically pleasing in their arrogant splayed carelessness.
He caught the regal lift of the blonde head as Draco brushed his silky curtain of hair from his eyes.
Not as attractive as the green-eyed Harry.. but definitely a finer figure than the boy's ancestor had cut.
He observed him thoughtfully as he made the witch sit down on the end of the bed, much as she had been earlier.

Draco turned his nose up slightly. "Surely the vermin could sit on the floor. Don't tell me you would be content to sleep in the bed after it's been defiled by her?"

Tom looked over at the curly haired witch.
She was still irritatingly attractive, he noted.
It was infuriating.
In principle he agreed entirely with the arrogant blonde.. however ...when he'd lay over her.. straddling her.. when he'd felt her soft breasts against his arms.. it had felt quite enticing.

"Forget the witch. I'll scourgify the room later. Harry Potter. We may not have much time to speak. Tell me what I need to know, Draco" He moved forward to sit on the other end of the bed opposite the blonde, who watched him thoughtfully.

"Where do I even begin?.. What do you know about him?" he was asked.

Tom half shrugged.
"I know he despises me.. I think he might have tried to kill me when I first returned here, if it hadn't been for this witch." He gestured at Hermione in his peripheral vision. "I know.. nothing else about him really. Start from the beginning.. start from the most important point. Start somewhere... "

Draco took a breath. His silvery eyes drifted to the left and he sneered mildly at Hermione.
"Harry Potter...killed you.."

Tom blinked. He hadn't ever considered that he might have been killed.. All comments he'd heard thusfar had indicated that he was somewhere out there.. older...possibly despised.

"When he was a baby there was some prophesy that he was going to kill you.. I don't know exactly what it said – My father never managed to get his hands on it for you – but Severus-.."
Tom's eyes sharpened. Severus was the tall dark dour man who had seemed overly wary of him. Severus was the other person who had awakened this strange feeling in the back of his mind.
"-..had heard part of it somehow.. he brought the news to you that there was a prophesy that some child would be born at a certain time with the power to kill you."

Severus was... his..associate?
His servant?
A traitor then? A spy? But for whom?

Frowning, Tom queried "A child? How?"

Draco shrugged.
"Merlin only knows. But you obviously determined that you'd kill it first. You decided it was Potter and killed his parents and then tried to kill him-.."

Tom understood suddenly where the cold hate filled expression in the Avada green eyes had come from.

"-Something went wrong. Instead of killing him.. the spell killed you. Or.. or.. didn't kill you, obviously, since you came back.. but it did something. You vanished. There was no sign of you for more than a decade."

His horcruxes, Tom thought, relieved. Perhaps even his own imprisonment had assisted him to survive what might have otherwise killed him. It was.. almost.. worth it perhaps.

"Then.. when Potter came to Hogwarts.. there were some incidents.. It's hard to get information about it.. but something happened when we were all in first year. Something about you. Potter was in the infirmary.
Then..in second year..." Draco paused.
"My father.." he licked his lips slightly, uneasily. He had a pale pink pointed tongue. "My father.. had.. a certain.. book.. of yours.. When..he was unable to find any of the other objects he was looking for..and since Aunt Bella was in Azkaban-"
Tom understood the meaning, although who aunt Bella was supposed to be or why she was important was entirely lost on him – Draco's father had had a book.. probably much like the diary horcrux he had been trying to make. Harry had mentioned that in the infirmary. He'd recognised the idea of him being trapped in a diary.
"- he didn't have any other option but to use the book you'd left him... to try to bring you back."

Tom held his breath.

"It..failed." Draco finished, shifting his eyes away discomforted. "Potter destroyed it. He even gave it back to us afterward. There was a huge hole in it and it was bloodstained."

The shiver rippled through him beyond his control. That could have so easily been him. He wondered what it might be like to have been killed inside the diary. How would he have died?

"So..uh..some of your other servants arranged for a certain ritual. It was almost impossible to lay hands on Potter and he was needed for it somehow. They succeeded in the end and.. and you came back..
That was..almost three years ago.. "
The look on the boy's face clearly displayed his reticence to tell something further about that.

"What else?.. what went wrong?" he guessed.

Silver eyes flicked to him. "Nothing.. or.. I don't know. Maybe nothing. You look.. ...different.. than you do now. That's all.
Potter has been fighting you ever since. You duelled in the ministry of magic – it was in the papers."

Tom did not narrow his eyes at the boy.. he didn't show any sign at all of his discontent with the answer.
"Do you know where my other self is now?" he asked lightly.

"No!" Draco responded immediately.
"No.. no one does. You don't allow anyone to know that.

Turning his attention to Hermione, he tilted his head thoughtfully. Draco was withholding something important. He was in fact not being as informative as he had seemed to promise to be. This was unacceptable.

He concentrated and silently directed Hermione to remove her blouse.
The shocked gasp from the blonde at the girl's actions convinced him that Draco was sufficiently distracted. He released the spell he'd been holding, a petrificus variant.

Not even his eyes were capable of movement but Tom believed he could sense Draco's panic on some level. It was almost a scent in the air.

He rose from the bed and moved closer, summoning the boy's wand. It was a slender polished black construction. It felt quite light in his hand. He swished it experimentally. It produced a weak spray of silver motes in the air. The wand was without a doubt darker than Hermione's.
Absently it occurred to him that he had forgotten to stop the girl from undressing. He turned and paused, transfixed by the sight of the pretty witch sitting placidly in a dark purple lacy brassiere. She had folded her blouse and laid it to the side. Her breasts were not overly large but seemed to be nicely formed... not that he'd seen a great many in person, he conceded.
He allowed himself to drink in the sight for a few seconds before reminding himself of the matter at hand.
"Put it back on, Hermione" he instructed, turning back to the frozen Malfoy.

He wasn't entirely certain how well this next spell might fare. He hadn't had any opportunity to try it and while the texts had, in some instances, been quite detailed – allowing him to imagine the probable results – He was uncertain in casting it and concerned that he might not yet direct it well. He would need to practice in future. He glanced again pensively at the witch, buttoning her blouse up again. It would be useful to know more about her..and really – he had no other readily available options. She would suffice. He would try to find some time to practice on her, if he could.

Stepping closer still to Draco he registered that the tingle in his mind had spread to become almost a throbbing warmth. It seemed to be somehow connected to him..
Tom furrowed his brow. The sensation was..peculiar.
He transferred Hermione's wand to his other hand and moved until he was standing at the side of the bed, next to Draco before he dispelled the freezing charm. It was unnecessary to do so, and perhaps not entirely wise - after all the boy was safely incapacitated.. However for some reason he wanted to see Draco's aristocratic features twist and react to what he would do next. It would have taken something away from the experience to forgo it.
Draco flinched away in panic. "What.. what are you-" he started.

"Relax..." Tom soothed him quietly. "You understand.. I have to know what you know, Draco... I must see for myself."

This caused still more panic. The boy's entire body stiffened as if he was preparing to leap away and run.
"No.. don't!.. Give me my wand back.. I'll tell you whatever you want to know.."

Tom looked back at him calmly, projecting the quiet conviction that fighting would be futile.
"This may be.. uncomfortable.. for you, if you try to resist. But.. I will try to be...gentle.."
He brushed aside the silky blonde hair from the boy's forehead with the tip of Draco's wand, making the boy shiver. Draco was shaking his head slightly, wide eyed and mouthed again 'No!'
Tom half smiled, tilting his head.
"You are..quite attractive.. when you are afraid, Draco." He trailed the point of the other wand up the other boy's white shirt. Draco's jaw dropped slightly and his eyes widened to the size of saucers. He recovered with difficulty and shook his head again. "Don't.. please!" he moaned between gritted teeth.

"Legilimens" Tom intoned softly...

He hadn't been certain what to expect..and the sensation of flying forward at speed while the world blurred out around him came as a surprise.

He found himself drifting.. floating.. over a vast dark ocean. The water was almost black.. in the distance an orange sun hung low on the horizon. There was nothing but the quiet slapping of waves and a gentle breeze.
It was an aesthetically pleasing.. if featureless.. world.

"Stop occluding.." he whispered, and was unsure whether his words were conveyed to Draco. Nothing in the environment changed at all.

He had read about this. Gorley had written half a book on the art of occlusion. As defences went – he had advocated rich and complex environments rather than featureless plains such as deserts, skies, oceans – purely on the basis that increased depth could be used as a foil to trap the invading mind much like a maze, whereas a featureless plain was essentially the equivalent of a brick wall – its strength depended upon the strength of will of the occluding wizard, relative to the focus of the invader.
Tom applied himself to the 'brick wall' he'd been offered. Gorley's ideas on how best to defeat such constructions had been difficult to truly imagine. He had seemed to say, once or twice that the entire impression could be peeled away like a skin.. but then at other times he had suggested movement through the plane of the projection...and still other times, that a hole might be punched through the surface itself.

"Draco... what are you so concerned about hiding.." Tom murmured aloud.. "You claimed to be willing to provide me with information.. you sought me out..

He focused on the waves, imagining them as a curtain.. fine filliments.. It was not entirely easy to do so.. the environment was richly animated.. the waves seemed real.
Nevertheless – he certainly had a greater focus than Abraxas' uncouth descendent. He concentrated.. forcing his own impression to shift.. ignoring the information meeting his senses. The waves were a curtain.. a billowing waving curtain.
He parted it.

He felt a sensation like thrashing.. it was disembodied and ..strangely exciting. Like a slippery fish underwater. The sensation of Draco's panic in this place was delicious.

Black surrounded him for a time.. then, as if he had turned to look behind him, another facade slotted into place. This one appeared to be a garden. He recognised it. Malfoy Manor. He had visited this place before.
A second occluding layer.. Perhaps Abraxas' grandson was more capable than he appeared.

With detailed dimensional layers, Gorley had advised a different approach. There would be a core hidden somewhere within the illusion.. an anchor around which the entire world was built.
What would Draco choose as the most important piece of this world? Tom turned around in a slow circle.. Fountains.. strutting white peacocks in this distance.. ornamental rows of miniature fruit trees.. it was all..unimportant.

"Draco... let me in" he cajoled. "you are beginning to try my patience"
It was a lie. He found this little challenge even more entertaining than dismantling Hermione's wards had been. He rather hoped that Draco would have more hidden up his sleeve.
On the other hand.. he couldn't afford to spend all too long in this state. If someone came and interrupted him.. he was vulnerable at present as focused as he was.

He closed.. whatever the equivalent of his eyes were.. and turned in a slow circle, feeling for 'brightness'.. feeling for conflux of energy.. Shutting out the environment he set off in the direction that seemed thickest.
From the tightening tension all around him he assumed that he was approaching the key and Draco was panicking again.
"Almost there.." he whispered to the boy. "Do you have any more to offer?"

He felt the substrate around him shudder for a moment and then the tightness thickened.. solidified.. became as tar.. holding him.. slowing him.
Laughing in delight he twisted in the hardening shell.
"Draco.. are you trying to make yourself more attractive to me?..."
He probed the solid surface surrounding him and then pushed.. deforming it. He continued pushing until it dissipated, accompanied by a sense of the other boy's growing exhaustion.
Draco was not accustomed to sustained focus of this kind, apparently.

"No.. don't give up.. Show me what else you have..
...Draco - When I am finished with your mind I'm going to explore the rest of you.." he taunted him, with the mental equivalent of a smirk.

The resulting flash of fear and despair was sweet.

The entire texture of his surroundings shifted and folded and suddenly he found himself in the air. He could see Draco... He was flying on a broom. There were others in the air. He recognised the Quidditch pitch. The stands were empty. This was some kind of training session obviously. It seemed Draco was the Slytherin seeker.
Tom watched as he pushed his broom on, faster, darting and twisting through the air after the tiny gold flicker. The lean sleek body and narrowed wilful eyes were more suited to motion than they had been to rest.

But this was simply further occlusion.
This was not a useful memory – although it at least was a memory.

"Lord Voldemort" he prompted. The quidditch pitch shimmered for a moment and there was a sudden flash of cruel inhuman red eyes..with vertical pupils like a snake, before the blonde raced past on his broom after the snitch.
Tom hesitated uneasily..
Perhaps he would return to that after he'd looked at his other primary interest.

"Harry Potter" he hissed into the boy's mind.

FLASH
Draco extending his hand.. green eyes meeting grey.. a rejection. The green eyed boy moving away to stand next to a familiar looking red headed boy with narrowed blue eyes. Draco's Hurt..Resentment..Hate.
FLASH
A small green eyed boy with a dirty face in a crowded bookshop.. people flocking around him excitedly.. cameras.. Some foppish wizard pulling him over for a photo. Draco looks on dubiously from above. His irritation and resentment are stifling. He stalks downstairs. There is more than frustration.. a sense of purpose. His father wants him to do something... He delays and confronts the young Harry and then suddenly a man appears who can only be Draco's father. He dresses Draco down, to the latter's shame, and introduces himself to Harry. Lucius. His name is Lucius.. Draco is Abraxas grandson after all.
FLASH
A view across the Great Hall.. Harry Potter as Tom had last seen him, staring into the distance pensively, ignoring the nudge from his friends and the conversation around him. He is..apart.. from all the others. Among them but not one of them.
FLASH
A half naked form rocketing out of the Black lake and falling with a meaty thud onto a wooden platform, dripping, exhausted, gasping for air. Green eyes turn up, passing over silvery grey without pausing. Harry's younger body.. wet hair.. He is the hero again.. Draco's anger.. disappointment... relief.
FLASH
Another crash.. another sudden reappearance.. Bloodied..near unconscious.. gripping a large glowing trophy of some kind. Draco flicks away from this memory quickly
FLASH
Harry is sitting in an alcove of the stone bridge alone, looking out over the lake. His eyes are harder than they were.. closer to the boy that Tom met. Draco is nowhere in sight at first, but Tom locates him, disillusioned further down the bridge in another alcove. Abruptly Harry's face seems to crack and then he's burying his head in his hands and sobbing silently. His shoulders are wracked by the gasping silent roars of misery.

Tom tried to rebalance himself.. The feelings were..intense.. almost as if he were feeling them himself.. Very hard to view objectively. This was all so different than he'd imagined.. Not at all like reading a book..
He tried to focus. What had he wanted to know? Not everything about Harry Potter.. Not random memories.. Certainly not what appeared to be Draco's reluctant sulky fascination with and admiration of him.

"Harry Potter is a parselmouth" he nudged the mind lightly.

FLASH
Standing in the DADA duelling room.. Harry and Draco are duelling.. Tom recognises the wizard behind Draco. Severus. He is wearing an expression of horror. The foppish looking man with golden hair and overly ornate cape that he saw in the memory of the bookshop is standing to the side looking alarmed. A young Harry is speaking to a cobra on the floor between Draco and himself.
::Don't panic.. Just.. stay there.. Don't move.. No.. ignore them.. Don't .. you're frightening them.. Come back. Please leave him alone::
The snake is approaching a gormless looking student whose terrified suspicious gaze is darting between Harry and the snake. Draco's confusion is loud in his mind.. But also.. a dark eagerness. Draco is hoping that whatever Harry is saying will cause the student to be attacked by the snake. He is hoping that Harry might do something...other than act the perfect little noble Gryffindor..
FLASH
Harry is sitting in the library. Draco is in one of the Aisles pretending to read a book on Salazar Slytherin and watching him. Most of the students in the room are casting suspicious disapproving stares in Harry's direction. Draco is about to go over and provoke him but Harry gets up and gathers his books, leaving the Library.

Tom mused on the memories. They didn't add anything to the question of how Harry was able to speak Parseltongue. There had been a lot less response to the idea.. He gathered that Draco had not had a lot of opportunity to sample Harry speaking in Parseltongue.. although it seemed that he would have liked to gain more.
Tom wondered for a moment how it might have been for him if his own ability had become widely known.
He had always hidden it. It was something.. personal.. something he didn't want to share. It had been almost the first thing that had made him realise that he was different to the other children in the orphanage.. that he was special.
It seemed that Harry had not done very well after it became common knowledge that he shared traits with the greatest of the founders.

"Tom Riddle" he murmured curiously against Draco's mind.

FLASH
The towering form of Lucius Malfoy bristling in anger.. and perhaps fear, Tom debated. Draco clutching his hand to his chest and looking up, shocked and hurt; on the desk lay a familiar looking diary.
"Do not touch what does not belong to you, Draco!" He strides forward and snatches up the diary, tucking it into an pocket inside his robes.
"Did you open it? Did you...write in it?"
Draco shakes his head urgently.
"No father.. I was simply curious.. I didn't touch it." He is lying. He did touch it.. he turned it over and read the gold embossed name on the back. He had been about to open it when his father's stinging hex slashed over the back of his hand.
"Go to your room! I do not wish to find you playing in my study again, Draco."
FLASH
A familiar diary with a gaping bloody hole in it lay on his father's desk. Draco looked around surreptitiously before he left the room again.
FLASH
"Our Lord will return, Draco. You shall see. Very soon now he will be among us again. Never forget!" Lucius' proud satisfied face.
FLASH
Sitting in the large Manor library – Draco reading a text on potions. Lucius, sitting in a chair nearer the fire looking over with a thoughtful distant expression.
"Do you recall the book you found once in my study, Draco? The one I punished you for touching?..." Draco glances over with interest.

This was a frustrating means of acquiring information, Tom decided. It took too long. There was too much to know.. how could he find the things he needed amongst so much distraction?

"Lord Voldemort!" he demanded again.

FLASH
Red eyes. Terror. Draco is terrified. He is thinking that he is in over his head.. he does not want to be here.
An inhuman gestalt – white and towering and slender – his face looks snakelike. The creature is standing on a raised level, several stairs above..looking down. Draco is kneeling, unsure, afraid. All around.. figures in black cloaks.. ominous white masks covering their faces.
"My Lord, Please will you h..honour me.. with your mark?" Draco hisses between his teeth. He does not want whatever he is asking for.. This mark. The snakelike figure knows it too.

Oh Merlin.. it couldn't be! Tom pulled back out of the memory in horror. That could not be true. That ..thing... wasn't him.. it wasn't Lord Voldemort.
Draco had said that he looked different now..
It couldn't be him, though. That ...it wasn't even human!.. How? How did that happen?
The merciless malevolence in the alien red eyes...
With difficulty he struggled to call up the same memory again – watching it again in greater detail. When Draco pulled back his sleeve and the looming terrifying presence approached him.. stood over him..pressed an unmistakeably familiar wand to the boy's arm.. Tom thought he might be ill.
Draco's agony was bright and searing.. The cruel enjoyment on the monstrous serpentine face undeniable.
And.. somehow.. also his.. He had seen that same dark satisfaction on his own face before.. This was a twisted caricature of it.

This WAS what he has become. This WAS his other self.

Tom found he had no further appetite for this. He didn't wish to learn any more at present. With only momentary disorientation he withdrew from the other boy's mind.

The room settled back into place around him after a few seconds. Draco was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, panting. In another state of mind, Tom acknowledged that he might have found it..arousing... However at present..

He needed to think.

Originally, when he had realised that the blonde was in some form of contact with his other self, he had thought to send a message – perhaps warn himself that he was here.. or request assistance.. But in light of what he had seen, he wondered if he shouldn't think more carefully about that idea.
It could not be ignored that his other self had willingly sentenced him to decades of torment. Who was to say that he would not take it in his head now to use him in some ritual to reclaim his former appearance – assuming, that is, that his current appearance was not intentional – something which Tom could not even venture to assume. It was possible he'd done it on purpose.

"I need to borrow your wand" he told the blonde, causing the grey eyes to snap open in dismay.

"You can't! I need it!" Draco blurted, alarmed.

Tom half sighed. "I need it more. It will come to no harm. I am certain that you have some kind of replacement wand. A Malfoy is never unprepared..correct?"
Draco's face turned down in a miserable grimace.
"How long? If you get caught with it – they'll expel me, you know! Or worse.."

Tom reached out and, ignoring the sharp flinch from the other boy, brushed aside his hair again.
"I want you to visit me again tomorrow night, Draco" he said quietly. Silvery eyes flicked to his own and then away again.

"I have-..

"I don't care what other plans you might have had. I wish to see you again tomorrow night" he clarified in a reasonable tone.

"Should I ..
MayI.. send word to my father about you?" Draco ground out between his teeth.

Tom paused.
"Not yet."

Draco shifted uneasily, trying to pull himself up on the bed. Tom placed his hand on the older boy's chest to arrest the evasive movement.
He was warm under the white pressed shirt.
The touch stopped him in place and he looked up with another sharp alarmed expression, yet he made no move to push Tom's hand away.
"What...what do you want from me, then?" he demanded.

"Don't you know, Draco?" Tom asked with a very small smirk. "You seem..intelligent enough.. The expression on your face certainly suggests that you understand my interest.."

The blonde paled further, looking uncertain.
"But-.." he began, seeking to protest.

Tom waved the word away dismissively and allowed himself the slow exploration of the front of the other boy's body.. his fingers slid down the white shirt, catching on a button here or there. He could feel the hard warm corrugations of the lean muscle below.
If Harry was his sworn enemy.. his murderer.. then it was unlikely that he would be amenable to showing Tom the physical pleasures that he had forgone in his empty world... Draco.. on the other hand. Draco was quite attractive also and, it seemed, far easier to access. Draco would be perfectly suited to his experimentation.

Draco swallowed thickly and then seemed to glance at Hermione briefly before his silvery gaze returned to Tom's face, now populated with some variant of unhappy resignation.
"I.. If you want..that... M-my Lord. How can I refuse?"

Tom found his heart give a little happy quiver at the two glorious words he had never had the opportunity to hear fall from another's lips. It was fitting that they should come first from this boy.
He flicked Draco's wand lightly and the buttons on the crisp white shirt began to twist themselves one by one through their holes. Draco, obviously steeling himself, lay back down again and allowed it to happen without protest. Tom smiled wider.

"Does... she have to be here?" Draco asked with a plaintive expression after a moment.
Tom glanced over at the girl sitting entirely unruffled on the end of the bed.
He had quite forgotten about her.
No.. she didn't have to be here.. and he might lose track of the spell holding her if he became too distracted by the other boy. He strengthened it now, watching as her face became just a little duller.. more mindless. He ordered her to stand and then marched her into her own room, instructing her to prepare for bed.
Once again he watched thoughtfully as she undressed, irritated at himself for being capable of finding a mudblood attractive.
He sighed when she slipped the thin white cotton nightgown over her lovely naked form and, glancing behind, took two steps closer and ran his fingertips down the sides of her body over the gown. That was all. No more. It was bad enough that he'd allowed himself that. He had her slip into bed and then stupefied her without ceremony, placing her wand in her loose fingers. No doubt she would move to clench it later.

Returning to his own room he found that Draco had continued in the spirit of what he had demanded of him. He had removed his shirt.. shoes, socks.. He was standing beside the bed, unbuttoning his black trousers.

Tom paused in the doorway, fascinated.
The other boy was larger than himself. Probably physically stronger.
The submission and unhappy acceptance on his face was both satisfying and unsatisfying at once however.
He wanted to be desired.
After the way the mudblood had sneered as she reminded him over and over that he was a child.. he wanted a partner who looked upon him with lust.
Was it simply his body? If he were but a few years older, would Draco now be looking upon him with eager anticipation?
Perhaps the Malfoy heir was not naturally inclined toward those of the male persuasion at all.

He moved closer, while the other boy slowly lowered his fly and slipped the trousers off, baring black underwear like small clinging shorts before he slid those too down, letting them drop to the floor uncaring.
Tom tilted his head slightly. Draco was large..but not hard.
Tom himself was growing hard, however.
Perhaps.. it was sufficient.. this one time.. to make use of Draco without mutual pleasure.
Or perhaps.. perhaps he could persuade him..to feel attraction.

A black stain on the pale arm caught his eye.
The mark.
He had seen the boy .. he had felt the boy take it. But he had not seen the finished result.
Draco stood calmly as he approached him. His expression was very nearly wiped clean. Only the barest discomfort remained at the corners of his eyes and mouth.

"Show me your mark" he commanded softly, when he was close.
The boy was more than a head taller than him. It was disconcerting.

Draco offered his arm unhesitatingly. When Tom gripped it and turned it to better advantage in the light, Draco shivered.
Examining the image, it appeared to depict a snake issuing forth from the mouth of a skull. The serpent then twisted into a figure 8. The symbolism of infinity was not lost upon him.. he wondered what had possessed him to use a skull, however. Had it been something as simple as the wish to make the mark intimidating and masculine? Was there some other meaning he did not yet understand?
Curious, Tom brushed his hand through the air a few inches above the black image. He could..feel the heat of the mark through the air against the palm of his hand. The hot throbbing in his mind had escalated to the point where it was almost hypnotic. Without really thinking about what he was doing he lowered his hand and stroked along the flesh of the tattoo.

It was as if he had gripped a hot slippery eel somehow. The sensation in his mind changed at once and he felt something flare.. in him. Draco had gasped and was arching his back, gripping his upper arm as if to prevent himself from tearing it away from him.
And then Tom felt an answering flare against his hand. The mark was heating.
Draco whimpered very quietly and his eyes widened, flicking away.
"I.. you've called him... I have to go to him now... He'll... he'll punish me if I ignore the call."

Tom frowned. No. Draco had to go nowhere. He was not releasing him yet.
He attended to the mark again. If his other self could use it then surely there must be some way for him to...turn it off.. or something..
He trailed a fingertip down the image, ignoring the pained shiver of the other boy as he pulled and tugged at the feeling in the back of his mind.. the intangible throbbing that had erupted into a blare of energy.. he needed to still it to that dull throbbing again.

Eventually he managed it. It flared again a moment later as if in reaction and he did the same thing once again. After two more attempts the thing was quiescent once more
Draco calmed only barely however.
"It doesn't matter if it doesn't hurt now... he knows... He knows..something's happened. I'll still have to go to him..to you. The other you."

Tom frowned.
Yes. It was too late to pretend now. He would have to take up contact with the vicious-seeming creature that he had apparently become.
But not now.

"Lie down" he instructed quietly.

Draco seemed unsure whether this was more or less terrible than having to go and see Lord Voldemort. Tom had no doubt that this Pansy Parkinson girl who had told him of what she'd heard would be much hated for having brought about this night.
Nevertheless the boy retreated backward, gently reclaiming his arm and lowered himself to first sit.. and then.. hesitantly, to recline on the bed.

He was very pretty, Tom thought.

"Have you ever...done anything of this sort before?" he enquired softly. Draco's mouth tightened and he nodded once. Tom felt incongruous relief. He didn't want to possess Draco.. merely to use him..
"Good." He told him, and started on his own buttons.

When he had reached the point of removing his trousers, Draco spoke, uncertainly.
"How...is it .. that you're so young? Where did you come from..."

Tom glanced up and smiled fleetingly.
"Another book... much like the one your father possessed. This was the physical age I entered it. I am not fourteen, Draco. If the word child falls from your lips at any point.. I will sew them shut."

The other boy swallowed and nodded.
"Hadn't..crossed my mind" he lied.

Tom pushed down his trousers, and underwear with them. His cock was at half mast. It had flagged somewhat at the thought that this boy might, like Hermione, consider him a child.. might be repulsed at the thought of touching him. He ignored the worry and moved to climb onto the bed and straddle the larger boy.
The sensation of so much warm silky skin against his own most sensitive areas.. smooth against his thighs.. against his balls.. was wonderous He revelled in it.

"You may touch me" he prompted quietly.

Draco hesitated and then lifted his hands gingerly and traced his fingertips up Tom's thighs either side of his own hips.
Tom shivered at the sensation for which he had thusfar no parallel. No one had ever touched him there before.
He leaned forward over Draco and stroked a hand over the warm planes of his chest. He felt..good. It felt fantastic to touch him like this..
The fingers that had slid up his thighs were tracing up his sides slowly, as if Draco were tentatively exploring him, in much the same way as he was examining the body beneath him.

Curious, he leaned low and licked the centre of the boy's pale chest. Trailing his tongue up between the understated pectoral muscles. He felt Draco shiver in response and the large hands slid around to skate up his back.
He looked up at the surprised grey eyes, from his position crouching low against him and then moved to the right, till he could circle the boy's nipple with the tip of his tongue. Draco blinked.. and his lips parted a bare centimetre.
Tom wondered what he had imagined. Did he think that he was to be tortured?
He dipped lower till he could suck the tiny hardening bud gently. He heard Draco gasp softly and felt, below him, a faint twitch at the boy's groin. It seemed that Draco might be animated to enjoy this after all.

Nibbling the hard little nub he scratched his fingernails lightly down the other side of Draco's body, over his ribs. This caused a further, larger twitch below him and he began to find himself seated upon something hard. He released the nipple and kissed his way over to the other.. sucking and then nipping it more sharply, causing Draco to flinch lightly and grip him more enthusiastically with the hands that were tracing over his back.

He wasn't certain whether he wanted to kiss Draco..

Compromising for his mouth's apparent wish to be occupied on the pale flesh, while he made up his mind, he stretched himself higher, bringing his face nearer the other boy's.
The visibly shocked and perhaps even slightly pleasantly surprised, expression was gratifying. He nuzzled at Draco's chin and nudged his face lightly to the side to gain access to his slender throat. It was bared without struggle and he adjusted his own position until he could comfortably lie along Draco's length and bury his face in it.
He smelled of warm masculine skin.. and a faint..delicate cologne. It was enticing. He tasted..sweet... smooth..

When Tom licked a slick path up the straining tendon, he caught another soft gasp from Draco and the boy shifted beneath him, embracing him cautiously and pressing him harder against his own body.
He rewarded it with a trail of little teasing nibbles before stroking a hand under Draco's cheek and turning him to face the other direction that he might reach the other side of his neck too.
Draco was breathing faster, it seemed and his eyes were almost closed, grey orbs barely visible through his lashes.

Tom decided.
He did want to kiss him.. Why give his first kiss to a mudblood..when a Malfoy apparently wanted him? It would be better..

He moved up once again and leaned in close, brushing his lips lightly against the other boy's.. not kissing him.. simply experimenting with the sensation.
It tickled. He licked his lips. Then he licked Draco's lips..
The low groan that the boy made went straight to Tom's groin and then Draco had gripped him hard and crushed their lips together, forcing his tongue into his mouth. Tom reacted instinctively through the shock, accepting the tongue and widening his own mouth, imitating the gesture.
It was the most mindlessly arousing sensation he had ever experienced.
The boy's tongue was hot.. slippery.. rough.. slick.. moving and delving and Tom loved it.. He ground himself against the hard abdomen below.
One of Draco's hands slid down his back and hesitated over the curve of his arse. Tom was distracted by the mouth.. the tongue.. he didn't react until he felt the fingertip brush over him in a rather.. intimate.. place.

No. He would not be bottoming to this or any other boy! Not even if he was currently physically smaller!
He pulled back from the kiss and shot a fierce glare at the silvery dilated gaze.
Draco seemed to subside in mild pout and his hand moved away to grip the curve of Tom's arse as he leaned up, seeking his lips once again.
Satisfied with this, Tom moved back to tangle their tongues some more languidly.

When Draco broke off the kiss again and started to press soft sucking nibbles to his jaw and then his neck, he thought he might literally purr with pleasure any second. It was a struggle to control himself, to keep himself from clenching at the large body.
He was in this state of abject lust when the other boy carefully rolled them both on the bed till he was above him. Tom felt he should be rectifying the situation.. taking control back.. but then Draco was doing something wonderful to his neck while his fingers were moving over his body, stroking his skin.. plucking gently at his nipples..sliding lower..

He bucked helplessly when the large hand settled over his cock. Draco was able to enfold most of it in his large hand. Swallowing, he allowed it. His body was screaming that to make that sensation stop now would be utterly and completely WRONG. It NEEDED to continue..
He moved helplessly as he was manipulated into a quiet frenzy, feeling his own breath short. Draco squeezed him and stroked a few more times and then..shamefully.. he found he couldn't stop the bliss that rushed through him. He exploded in the other boy's hand, crying out softly against the lips that suddenly pressed to his own in a quiet smirk while Draco pumped him lightly, milking the last spurts from his cock.

In the aftermath he was mortified. He had come almost immediately.. he hadn't had the chance to do any of the things he'd wanted to do. Draco had seen how inexperienced he was!

Confirming this, the blonde whispered against his ear with a voice faintly dipped in arrogance "That was your first time.. wasn't it?"

He barely prevented himself from huffing angrily. It would be a childish reaction. Instead he collected himself and kissed the side of the smooth face, his arms loosely around the other boy's body.
"Yes... "
To his surprise the blonde nuzzled against him and then moved to kiss him again, more gently.
"I'm sorry.." he murmured against the corner of his mouth afterward. "If I'd have known.. maybe I'd have..

He shook his head. It didn't matter.. It was done and he'd enjoyed it greatly.
" I have been... imprisoned..since I was truly fourteen years old." He offered, knowing he was giving away vulnerabilities to someone who would know to make use of them.
"I..hadn't...considered this sort of thing important before it was no longer possible."

Draco seemed to sigh slightly.
"You know.. you're not at all..as I'd have expected.."

Tom thought again of the cruel red gaze and supposed that that might be the best compliment he might hope for from the boy.

When Draco started to kiss him again cautiously, Tom hesitated and then responded, uncertainly.
He still wanted him? He remembered that Draco himself had not yet come.. possibly he was still hoping to do so.
Not principally opposed to this, he allowed himself to be pulled back into the cloying drug of the other boy's lips, finding it was even easier to lose himself this time.
But this time, Draco didn't remain there, this time he started to kiss his way down Tom's body slowly.

It was, Tom learned, amazing.. to feel lips around his own nipple. It felt.. it felt... his mind wasn't working properly to dissect the sensation. Draco's hands were moving over him again, pulling his thighs gently.. coercing him to spread his body. The small prickle of fear he'd felt when the other boy's fingertip had earlier ghosted over the entrance to his arse returned, warning him against such acquiescence, but he suppressed it for the moment, allowing the liberties Draco was taking.

Merlin.. the feeling of the tongue licking down his abdomen. He was hard again and hoping that the blonde's ultimate destination was his member and not.. somewhat lower.
When Draco started to lick up the faint sticky rests of his climax, with no apparent distaste at all, Tom could not, by best will, prevent himself from moaning and gripping the blonde hair, urging him on. He couldn't be sure but he thought he heart a soft snort from the boy. It sounded amused.
Then all thought ceased because Draco had without warning sucked his entire length into his mouth and the delicious pull, the burning hot wet amazing suction, was too much to feel and think at the same time.
He groaned and bucked, pulling ineffectually at the other boy's head which resolutely refused to be dragged or adjusted in any way, but simply drove him mad with long slow sucks all the way down to his root. He cried out when the slippery tongue slid out and swiped over his balls. This was the best thing he had ever felt. He wanted to live in Draco's mouth.

Draco pulled away as he was nearing his climax again. Tom groaned in disappointment. "Don't stop!"

"I want you" Draco growled low and licked his shaft again. Tom shuddered in need.
"No.. Just.. this.." he managed.
Draco suckled on the head of his member again and then pulled back once more.
"You'll enjoy it.." he cajoled.

No. Tom didn't want that.. He didn't want to give up that much control to the blonde, even if what he was doing felt very good..
"No.. " he insisted. "Suck me again.."

Draco obliged and easily drove him to the edge of reason, till he was making little animal sounds helplessly, transfixed in the reeling of his own mind and the delight of the other boy's mouth.

"Please" Draco ground out. "I'll make it good."

Tom whined in frustration, trying to piece together his mind. What did the boy want!
"No, Draco. Stop asking. Let me come.." he mumbled, his head tossed.

Ignoring this command Draco took Tom's tight balls in his mouth, cradling them on his tongue and drooling down over them, letting the warm saliva drizzle down below. Tom gasped and sighed.
When the boy nudged him even wider and his tongue started to explore further down, it was a strange dangerous feeling that gripped him. A pleasure thickly striped with risk and fear. He wanted to struggle away but a slick hand suddenly took up his straining organ again and teased it slowly, carefully. It was so hard to resist.
He felt Draco's tongue slide through the crease of his arse.. slick over his entrance. He moaned and jerked away but Draco followed him and set to tracing circles around his rosette with the slippery muscle.

It did feel good.. it felt so good.. especially with that hand.. moving...stroking.. he knew he should stop him.. he needed to stop it now.. But at that moment Draco's tongue delved into him, squirming past his resistance.
He emitted a rather undignified squeak and arched his back helplessly. Draco's tongue moved slowly in and out, a reminder of the act that the older boy wished to engage in.

God. Merlin. Fuck. Someone... he couldn't help moving against it, pressing himself into it. No.. he had to stop...

Draco's hand squeezed him again.. stimulating him to the edge of distraction and then something else that was hard stroked at the circle of muscle around which the entire world seemed to be revolving right now.
For a moment his mazed mind panicked before he realised the anatomical impossibility of Draco's tongue and his groin touching his arse at the same time.
It was a finger.
the panic in his mind ramped up several notches. Draco hadn't penetrated him with it yet.. He was ...teasing him..
"Stop.." he moaned, quite unable to move himself to act against what was happening.
Draco responded only by redoubling the efforts of his tongue and hand. He started to suckle on the muscle of Tom's arse. He was.. nibbling.. it was.. too good. Tom couldn't persuade his body to move away..
Just a bit longer.. then he'd stop him..

Draco's mouth slipped away for only a second or two and Tom groaned in disappointment.
Then the finger was back.. probing at him. Around it, Draco's tongue flickered, slicking him further, tickling and probing.
When the finger slipped past the tongue and he felt it actually start to penetrate him, he did jerk and try to move away. The hand on his shaft sped slightly, tightening, holding him in place as if it were a handle.
Tom whined and wound his pelvis, trying to eject the finger that was slowly moving in and out.
"Stop, Draco.." he breathed, to no discernible effect.

"Shhh... just.. feel" Draco purred against his balls before he started to lick and wet them again, sucking them into his mouth.
The overstimulation was exquisite. The finger moving in him didn't feel such an intrusion with the hand pumping him and his balls in Draco's mouth. He shifted and moved helplessly, rocking his hips.

The second finger however.. changed that. It hurt!.. He yelped and tried to close his legs as it slowly wormed its way in next to the first.

He would stop him.. He would throw him across the bloody room in a second and then he would curse him bloody. Damn opportunistic Malfoy.
It would be so disappointing though, not to come.. Why couldn't Draco have just sucked him.. instead of ruining it..
And then the hand guided him back into Draco's mouth and he sighed in relief. thrusting lightly even as part of his mind protested and reminded him of how he needed to be tossing Draco across the room now.
The fingers in his arse moved slightly faster in time with Draco's sucking.. it felt like they were twisting and moving in him slickly, The sensations were... it was.. it was..good... He didn't want it to be.. But it felt good..
There was a pinching feeling as Draco seemed to part his fingers, but even that.. coupled with the tongue feathering up and down the length of his shaft... he moaned and rocked his hips faster..

"My cock.. will feel..better.. than this.." Draco murmured, pulling away from sucking him for only a moment.
Tom shook his head blindly and reached for the other boy's head, trying to pull him down on him again, trying to reach the point where he could come..

He cried out when Draco forced a third finger into his arse, pushing them more roughly now, twisting and splaying them against his tightness.
"I want to.. I.. I'm going to have you.." Draco growled before he managed to swallow Tom's entire member and fit his balls in too.
Tom yelped and held the other boy's head, trying to thrust up into his mouth, but Draco was sucking him in place, not moving up and down. The feeling was one of hot wet tension and need.. it didn't bring him closer to the point he desperately craved now.

"NO!" he hissed between his teeth. "Finish me.." he demanded.

In response Draco sucked up his length and withdrew completely, even the fingers moving inside him slid away. Then the larger boy was crawling up the length of Tom's body.
He blinked up at him in horror. Draco was nudging his thighs wider with his own knees and leaning down over him.

"Yes.." he growled and dropped down to roughly kiss him. "I'll.. finish you.." he murmured between hard sucking kisses. "I..want you.." he gritted out..

Tom felt his slick aching organ brush ineffectually against Draco's rock hard one bobbing above tightly. It didn't relieve him. His flaring panic grew.
Draco was moving above him as he kissed him, ...sliding.. ..slotting himself into place. His body felt much larger than Tom's own suddenly. He felt large hands slide down the outside of his thighs, gripping him, pulling him up and guiding him to wrap himself around the other boy's hips.

"Let me.." Draco groaned against his neck. "You'll like it.. I'll be careful..."
He felt a large hot mass prod at his arse lightly. Draco didn't wait for permission before he started to press forward. Tom clenched his eyes at the sudden pain..the invasion caused. Draco had already forced his head into him and apparently had no intention of stopping.

"I SAID NO! he yelled and flexed his wandless magic, flinging the boy away. He heard a cry of pain and a loud thud from the other side of the room as Draco crashed to the floor.

Tom sat up, wincing at the unfamiliar pain in his arse and glared at the blond, crumpled on the floor looking dazed.
The grey eyes flicked up at him in stunned terror. Obviously Draco had not realised that he mastered wandless magic. He had clearly thought that since Tom was not holding a wand, he would be the stronger.
And now.. it was plain to see the fear of imminent punishment dawning in the wide silver gaze.

"Get out." Tom spat at him, wandlessly flinging his clothes toward him.
"Return when you have spoken with my other self"

This instruction bleached the boy whiter than bone suddenly. Tom smirked darkly at the thought of what he might do to him if..when he learned what the idiotic boy had tried to do.
He frowned slightly, hesitating. If he sent the would-be-rapist to himself with the knowledge of what he'd done, it was possible that he might not return at all.
That would be counterproductive.
He did not know how many other marked individuals he might have in Hogwarts to use as messengers.
Still.. Draco would deserve it.

"I'm.. i'm sorry!" Draco was stuttering, climbing to his feet gingerly. "I.. shouldn't have.. But you were.. so.. so.."

Tom dismissed the panic filled apology with a wave.

"Dress. Leave. I will see you when you have a message for me from him."
He got off the bed and reached for his own trousers, dragging them on sans underwear and glaring in infuriated frustration at the blonde who was pulling on his clothes as quickly as humanly possible.
Assisting him to get the fuck out of his quarters even more quickly, Tom used his wand to cast the reverse divesto.
Draco was dressed again in seconds. He threw a wide eyed regretful glance back at him before he fled.

In the stillness of the room Tom cursed soundly.

Trust damned Abraxas' seed to ruin what was almost an eminently satisfying experience, by being greedy and demanding.
That was very nearly mandatory of all Malfoys. He should probably have expected it..
Still.. it was-..

He admitted it to himself.

He was disappointed. ..He felt..regret. He should have sent the boy away after he'd sampled his memories. Now he was left with a sour little taste inside.
And a sore arse.

He healed that first and looked behind him at the disarrayed covers on the bed from their movements.
Disappointing. Unsatisfying..

He felt ...
it was a strange cold empty feeling.. He hadn't felt it in so long.. he wasn't sure what it was exactly.

The thought bothered him while he went about finding a suitable hiding place for Draco's wand.

It played on his mind as he let himself into the bathroom and took a hot shower.

It was still irritating him when he walked idly into Hermione's room with his towel slung about his waist.

Almost without thinking, he pulled back the covers of her bed and slipped in beside her, easing up against her and wrapping his arms around her sleeping body – at least he pretended to himself that it was merely sleeping and not stupefied into stillness.

The feeling didn't go away.. but it felt slightly better.

He buried his face against the small firm breasts of the older girl and inhaled her soft peach scent – which somehow refused to betray any faint hint of mud or uncleanness to his senses.
It felt a little better to be close to her, than it had to be alone in his room.
He would leave before she woke, he decided. He would only stay a short while and enjoy her warmth..

He must have slept.

His mind tried to piece reality together again. There was ..a loud.. high pitched.. voice.. calling him a worm.. a disgusting little worm.. It sounded furious.
He couldn't move.
There was a wand at his throat.

He opened his eyes.

Beautiful..

The girl's eyes were bright and flaring with rage. She was sitting up in bed next to him looking like the wrath of the gods. Her soft brown hair was loose and bed-tousled around her face
She was so much prettier when she wasn't under a compulsion curse, he thought to himself, admiring her.
The wand at his throat dug in deeper.

"WHAT do you think you're bloody doing here?" she demanded. "NAKED! In my BED! HOW did you get in here?"
The brown eyes flashed with sudden vague memory and then brightened even more in fury. "WHAT DID YOU CAST ON ME? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

The wand moved away for only a moment as she cast Priori Incantatum before it was pressed against his artery even harder.

"I know that curse" she growled threateningly. "Tell me.. exactly.. what you did.. or I swear to God – I'm going to call Harry and encourage him to bloody finish you off!"