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New Skin	By : magentasouth Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Tom Views: 12893 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I neither own nor profit from any part of the Harry Potter universe

Chapter List
- 1-Ch 1
- 2-Ch 2
- 3-Ch 3
- 4-Ch 4
- 5-Ch 5
- 6-Ch 6
- 7-Ch 7
- 8-Ch 8
- 9-Ch 9
- 10-Chapter 10
- 11-Ch 10.5
- 12-Chapter 10part 3
- 11
- 12
When Tom eventually awoke, it was with a slow, ponderous
heaviness that was entirely unlike his normal, borderline-feral alertness.� He came back to himself piecemeal � becoming
slowly aware of his limbs, and their orientation in space, lying on his left
side, languid with relaxation and curled around a warm silky form in front of
him.

�It�s just me.� an unfamiliar voice mumbled softly from just in front of his
face.�
�Harry� it added, almost as an afterthought.�

Tom struggled to assemble himself and respond to the new information
appropriately.� Some twinge in the back
of his mind was informing him that he, for some reason he couldn�t quite recall
at present, had no wish to be this close to the other person if it was indeed
�Harry� in his arms.�
His arms nevertheless ignored his better judgement
completely and tightened slightly around the other body.�

It felt good.� This warm, soft, silky
form fit perfectly into his embrace and felt...right.
Tom frowned at the strange direction of his own thoughts and,
with all too much reluctance, weakly withdrew and dragged himself to arm�s
distance.�

This action was met with no resistance by the unknown boy � possibly
�Harry�.� He did not speak again and Tom
had the impression that he was waiting to see what Tom himself did.��

It took a couple of minutes to steel himself against the will to forget
wondering about his unknown surroundings, curl deeper in the bed and sleep some
more � he was still so exhausted � but eventually his mind asserted itself over
his body and he forced his crusted eyelids to part, that he might assess the
situation more fully.�
Bright light assailed him. He frowned in confusion and
clenched his eyes closed again.�� They
hurt quite badly, for some reason.�
�Just stay calm, Tom, and let yourself adjust.� It�ll all come back to you.�

The frown on Tom�s face deepened.� In his
experience, whenever someone told him to remain calm, there was a definite and
justified reason for the alarm he might feel.
One thing he was quite confident about � one of the very
few islands in a sea of blurry abstraction � was that Tom was not how he was normally addressed.�

It was...an affront.. an insult to be referred to by that name.�

He wasn�t sure yet quite why that was the case but that hardly mattered.� This unknown..(warm..perfect..) person was
behaving offensively.

�Who did you say you were?��

�You�ll remember me in a few minutes.�
You�ve had a..a.. medical procedure of sorts and we�re in a recovery
room.� Just lie still and let your mind
build the connections naturally.�

�Why are..�� He wanted to ask � �if that
is so, why are you in bed with me?� I
doubt it is usual practice to recover in tandem!� Why was I holding you in that entirely
inappropriate manner?� Why in Salazar�s
name did I feel disinclined to let you go?! � why am I still tempted to draw you closer � what is WRONG with me?!!!�� but all questions became redundant in the
face of the argument �wait a little while and you will remember.��
�It is too bright in here.�
Lower the light� he directed instead.

�It�s only a couple of candles� came the soft reply.� �The light isn�t bright � it�s just your
eyes.� The pain will stop in a few
minutes.

Tom stilled again, filing away this new information - that
he had, according to this unknown boy, undergone some form of medical procedure
which had also affected his vision, causing him pain and oversensitivity to
light - and applied himself to slowly trying to blink away the fuzzy burning in
his vision in order to gain a better picture of the face that corresponded to
the soft unfamiliar voice of the boy lying in front of him.
When his eyesight swam into focus, it was more confusing
than clarifying.�
�Are you a Malfoy?� he asked without thinking, snatching
up a name that his memory spat out randomly.�
The slender and pale boy in front of him might have been in his mid
teens.� He had very short white blonde
hair � almost stubble - on his head.� At
first he had thought him bald.�� He also
had unusually large pale blue eyes with long girlish lashes and a wide mouth
with delicately shaped pillowy pink lips.��
Beyond the vaguest sense of resemblance, the boy was a
stranger to him.

There was just a hint of tension and concern to the set of the unfamiliar boy�s
mouth.�� Stay calm, Tom.� The quiet
voice murmured entreatingly, apparently ignoring his question.� �Just.. stay calm and remember everything
before you fly off the handle.� I can
explain!�

It was probably wise advice but he was finding it increasingly difficult to
calm himself.� Being able to see the
other boy hadn�t illuminated his situation any further � even the name that had
risen in his mind was an abstract thing.�
Something about the boy�s hair provoked it.. The colour reminded him of
something to do with that word.��
Malfoy.�
Another word rose up tentatively at the further prodding
of his memory.�
Abraxas.�
But, for no explicable reason, he thought that this boy
was not Abraxas.�

The sense of disorientation and ... and.. incorrectness
to everything was making him feel nauseous.
He didn�t feel well.�
Everything felt ...odd;� Like
shoes placed on the wrong feet.� His body
felt strange; this environment was alien.�
The boy - if he truly was who he claimed to be - was not
as he remembered;� or at least what
little he remembered that associated with the name �Harry� consisted of bright
green eyes behind obnoxious glasses and a messy mop of black hair.�

Irrespective what the boy claimed he would remember shortly, right now he felt
like he might be going mad.

�Do you remember running into Harry Potter in a bar in Sydney?�

Tom�s eyes darted slightly.� He could
feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.� The question was confusing.� Was the boy now saying that he was not this
Harry fellow?� The offensively muggle
name was even more familiar now � he was sure that he did know Harry Potter.� He
was increasingly confident that he disliked him.
Perhaps there had been some manner of accident and he had
forgotten what had happened to Harry and how he came to be in a bed with this
strange boy.�
He nodded curtly, purely to avoid admitting he hadn�t the
faintest idea what the other boy was talking about and looked away over the
other�s head, trying to make out more of the room that he found himself in.
It was small... plain; a simple box with a door.� There was little furniture and no decoration
at all.� He could be in a hospital or a
prison for all the humanity present in the room.� It was only fractionally softened by the
gentle yellow light of two fat white candles that were not set in any kind of
candelabra but placed standing on a very basic wooden table a few metres away
from the bed.

�Do you remember running to New Zealand?�
Do you remember Severus Snape?!��

This seemed to jar something within Tom.�
A young girl with ribbons in her hair and an off-putting preference for
the colour pink sprang up in his memory.��
Something was wrong with his mind.� That wasn�t right.�� He was almost certain that that wasn�t
right.� Severus...�

Severus was a boy.� A gangly youth with
hurt eyes like onxy stones.�� Wasn�t
he?!�
�I..� Yes.� He
muttered, deciding at the last second against telling the silver eyed boy that
he didn�t know exactly what he remembered right now.

�That�s good� The boy seemed relieved.�
�A little disorientation is normal in the aftermath while the new links
are still settling, but I was worried you might have some problems with your
recent memory.� There were.. � he
hesitated uneasily and the edge of his puffy bottom lip crept between his teeth
in an unconscious nervous gesture.� �that
is... some things were a bit unusual with the process.� It.. it didn�t turn out as expected.�

This was further disturbing information for Tom.� Severus had always been reliable in any
treatment he had been directed to carry out.
Just like that, the information about his potions master
slotted back into its familiar place with only a few minor questionmarks.�
�Is...was it-?..� he had been about to ask whether it was
one of Severus treatments and stopped; tried to rephrase to minimise the
evidence of his ignorance.

�Was it?� the other boy prompted.

There was no way around it.�
�What exactly has happened to me?!� Where is this place?!� he demanded in as
imperious a voice as he could manage while lying on his side in a soft bed,
facing a pretty adolescent boy that he inexplicably wanted to drag back into
his arms and simply hold.

The tightness at the corners of the other boy�s mouth became more pronounced
and he looked disappointed.
�Oh.� He said tonelessly and his eyes skidded down in
something approximating guilt.� �I..
ok.� So...more than just a little
disorientation then.� I.. I had hoped
that you would be-..��

He shook his head slightly.� �It doesn�t
matter.� Tom... everything is fine.� Everything is going to be just fine, ok?� If you stay calm, I�ll explain�

This information was more distressing than anything that had come before.� It was almost irrelevant now that this boy
was daring to call him Tom.� There had
been a process performed upon him.� The
process had apparently not succeeded
and now his mind.. perhaps also his physical body was damaged!��

How could he have allowed this to be done to himself?!� Why wasn�t Severus telling him this?!..
The knowledge trickled back into his awareness in a sour
little stream.� Severus.. Severus was dead..
This was followed immediately by the revelation of the
memory that Severus had already repaired
him.� He had been fully
restored!� His body was..
Persuaded thus into adrenalin fuelled motion, he
frantically began an examination of his own person.��

Hands.. yes.. quite human looking but ...incorrect.�� not his own hands.� These were... small..� Too small.

Darting a suspicious glance up at the boy in bed beside him he continued his
self-perusal.�

He placed his odd hands to his face and jerked them away again in shock.�

It was as if he were touching another person!��
His face...the lines that he
knew instinctively were not merely changed � they were gone!
Was he deformed?!�
The very angles of his bones were altered!� He had a pointed chin where his own had
always been angular.� His face was much
narrower than it should be and his cheekbones felt too sharp.

What exactly had been done to
him?!� Even when he had been obliged to
endure a reconstituted body perpetuated on blood and venom, he had retained his
own face...

...Most of his face, at least.

Another glance at the boy beside him, who was now watching him with a pained
anticipation, confirmed the presence of defined cheekbones...and a pointed
elfin chin.

Fingertips wandering further up his own head, Tom found soft velvety
stubble.� Neither waves of silky hair, as
he had always had in his own natural body, nor the scaled dome of his head in
the more reptilian resurrected form.. This stubble was new...��
He stroked his palm over it in confusion and increasingly
horrified suspicion before ripping away the blankets covering him and peering
through the overbright light down as his own body.
It was not at all
his own body!!� It was the body of some
other unknown person � no!� Not a person
� a youth!� It was the body of what could
only be a boy in his teens!�

In fact, as he pulled all the covers away entirely and kicked them off the bed
with the legs that were slender and somewhat effeminate, he discovered further
similarity between his own body and the boy with the silver eyes.��
Not merely similarity..
It was not his
own body.. it was the perfect reproduction of the body of the teenager with
whom he was currently lying.�
At that point he lost any composure he had been clinging
to, threw himself at the youth (who passively allowed himself to be pinned to
the bed, as if he were expecting such a reaction), and screamed into the thrice
damned calm silver eyes.�� What is
this?!�� EXPLAIN!�� AT ONCE!�
Who ARE you - you are certainly not Harry Potter!� Why...HOW..do
I suddenly find myself your twin?!!��
When no immediate response was forthcoming, he reached for
his magic..�
Nothing happened.
Startled and horrified he tried harder.� When nothing continued to happen, in
exasperation he released one wrist of the boy long enough to raise his fist
�You don�t need to do that� came the quick reply.� �I�ll tell you everything.� I was just.. just.. thinking about where to
begin�
Tom simmered slightly and returned his hand to its grip on
the limp wrist, which had not even attempted to move in its absence.
�What is wrong with my magic?!�
he demanded.�� Why can I not...�

Silver eyes studied him warily.
�Don�t worry.� It�s
not gone.� The blonde boy reassured him guardedly.� �It�s just temporary � a potion.� You�ll have it back tomorrow!� I thought you might react a bit... a
bit...hastily.�� You do tend to do
that.�� He hesitated and bit his lip
again uncertainly, as if unsure whether or not to say more.

�I.. I need to know how much you remember� he said finally.� �I don�t know where you are in your mind with
things.� Maybe you think its still 1996
and your death eaters are all somehow waiting outside the door or something.

This threw Tom again.�� It slipped from
his lips before he could stop himself. �...What year is it?�

The other boy swallowed.� �...It�s
February nineteenth, 2004.� Um...I don�t
know if you remember but in 1998 there was a coup within the Death Eaters, led
by Lucius Malfoy ��

�I know that!� Tom interrupted impatiently, although in truth the memory had
only replaced itself upon this reminder.�
Lucius.. the worm; the traitor.� And he had always been the most loyal.. the
most trusted of his servants.� With
horror, as the memory fully unfolded, Tom realised that he might have
unwittingly summoned aurors or perhaps even his own former servants, had he
successfully used his own magic upon the strange boy.��
It was still galling to have his magic simply ripped from him, purely for
expediency.�
Other questions were more important at present,
however.� Such as why ..and how.. did he come to be this boy�s
twin?!� He forcibly shunted the inner
mortification at his own near blunder to the side and focused upon the matter
at hand.�

�Where am I now?! Why did you say you were Harry Potter?!� Why do I-��

�I am me.. that is..Harry.� the other boy muttered �and if you remember the
coup � then maybe you remember that you were on the run � you were living as a
muggle when you found me.� Actually, we
both were � Neither of us could use our magic because of the tracking jinx that
Malfoy had the Ministry place on our magical signatures.�

�I recall Harry Potter.� I see no logical
explanation for how you could possibly be him.�
Get to the part where you explain what in Salazar�s name is-�

�I�m getting there.� Calm the fuck down,
Tom.� Trying to threaten me won�t change
anything now, alright?!�

Tom glared and waited for the brat, who was beginning to remind him just a
little of what he recalled of Harry Potter after all, to get to the point.

With a small sigh, the boy went on.�
�After the coup � when you fell and then Britain fell � not everything
fell with you.� Severus Snape faked his
own death and started a resistance movement,-�

Tom felt something inside him which had been tense loosen slightly.� Severus lived!� He had not shed a tear at the Potion Master�s
demise, and yet it soothed him in some strange way to learn that he had
survived; that he continued to snipe and issue dry insulting commentary
somewhere out there.� Severus was one of
the few wizards who managed to challenge him, and whose company he occasionally
enjoyed.

�� -I got out before Malfoy locked down
the borders.� Quite a few others did
too.�� The support isn�t overwhelming �
the majority in most nations seems to agree with the genocide and repression of
all non purebloods � even if they don�t come out and say as much � but there is
some support from outside and the resistance has a few hundred members
now.� That�s where we are right now.� It�s the main base.� I..-...I have a room here.� You�re safe.��

Tom frowned slightly with his unfamiliar features.� If that was true, then Severus certainly
hadn�t made his master a part of his resistance plans.� And Safe??!�
How could he possibly be safe in any base that welcomed Harry
Potter?!� That was illogical.� Although..�
If Potter held influence here - it was possible that the boy who lived
was showing him some form of misguided mercy.�
It would fit his impression of the foolish sot.� But Severus
certainly wasn�t one for the sentiment � if he was in command of this
�resistance� then he perhaps did not know that his former master was here.
That... or someone.. either Severus or Potter.. needed
something from him..

�- also managed to create a process that would change a witch or wizards�s
magical signature and allow them to hide themselves from magical detection,
even within ministry controlled space..� the boy was saying.� He frowned slightly and corrected
himself.� �Well.. not just their
signature..exactly.. More sort of their...everything.� Their whole appearance and aura
and...everything.�

This would be it then, Tom surmised, .�
This would be the �procedure� that had gone awry in his own.. and,
apparently Harry Potter�s case � though why he and the �Boy Who Should Have
Died� might be together in their plight was utterly beyond him.� Surely he would not have been so generous to
his mortal enemy.� That would be
imbecilic.

�How is it that you do not appear to be expecting me to kill you, if, indeed,
you are truly Potter?!

The boy stopped mid sentence � something about the complexity of the process �
and looked at him in a manner that seemed, once again, disappointed.
�Tom..� he started. �you need to-�

�Cease referring to me by that repulsive muggle name - and do not presume to
tell me what I have and have not to do, boy!�
Particularly if you intended
to tell me to calm myself agiain.� I am
already calmer that this absurd situation warrants.� You are to blame for the present fate of the British Wizarding World � it is you who brought us all to this by having
the impertinence to exist.� Without you
my first rise would have continued unimpeded and tens, perhaps hundred of
thousands in time - would have been better for it.

The boy sighed softly and went on, veering off onto a particularly bizarre and
unbelievable tangent.
�I was dancing in a male strip-bar and you came in.�� He rolled his eyes, pre-empting the natural
objection Tom had just been about to make to the improbability of such an
occurrence.� �I was and you did.� It�s just the way things happened.� You followed me home.. or I invited you home
and then, when you found out that I was a..a.. pet of some kind to Draco
Malfoy, you were going to leave.� Draco
came before you could though and you killed him.� You didn�t intend to take me with you when
you left but I kind of left you no choice.�

Startled at the unexpected faint ring of familiarity to the tall story, Tom
released his hold on the other boy�s wrists and sat back on his thighs,
frowning.
The blonde gingerly reclaimed control over his own arms
and massaged one wrist with the opposing hand.
�We were in New Zealand � that was where you had portkeyed
us to when you left � and I contacted Severus to come and get us because I
couldn�t think of a way to explain things to you without having you thinking me
mad and probably flying into a rage at me again.� Not that I didn�t enjoy your punishments-� the elfin boy offered a knowing smirk that
startled Tom and was perversely out of place upon his innocent features.�� ...-but there wasn�t enough time to �break
it to you slowly� with patience.� I...
thought having Severus in front of you would be the most humane way.. like
pulling off a plaster, you know?�

Tom waved him off from explaining the function of a muggle plaster.� He was not a child.�

�Why would you think to tell me at all?�
I cannot entirely convince myself that you are that selfless and
moronic.� What is it that you want from
me, Potter?!� Why would you share with me
a process intended to allow me to return to..��

He furrowed his brow in confused dismay before laughing softly.�

�No... really?�� It cannot be, can it?! �
you would have preferred me to win?!��
You find now that the wizarding world under my hand would have been
preferable to the unrestrained domination by the Pureblood aristocracy.��

He laughed full throat at the confirmation he read in the resentful eyes of the
boy beneath him.
�Harry Potter finally sees the error of his ways!� Oh.. how delightful.� Not quite worth all the suffering I was
obliged to go through to get to this point, but it pleases me that you are
capable of learning!�

The strange new �Harry� scowled.

�That�s not how it is!� ...Not
exactly.�� I.. I don�t want you in
control of the wizarding world any more than I want to let it stay as it
is.�� I just..� just...�

In much better spirits now, Tom tilted his head at the fumbling fool.� �Just?�

With a sigh and a shrug the boy conceded wearily
�I just didn�t think I�d be able to carry out every part
of the plan the way I was supposed to..�

I..� I didn�t think I could really do everything I needed to do.� I needed help... and then you suddenly came
along in the right moment and I thought...�

If anything Tom�s grin widened.� �You
needed someone who was prepared to do whatever was necessary and you thought
that the enemy of your enemy might become your...friend??�

The blush this provoked was immensely satisfying.
�Not.. not exactly.. but..�
well... It doesn�t matter now anyway.�
The plan is a wash.�� I didn�t
expect there to be any problems.� There
haven�t been problems since the first few skinners came through.�

Bothered once again, Tom focussed in on the only relevant part� - �What was
the plan and why, exactly, is it no longer viable?!� I take it that the intention was not that we
become identical twins..��

Harry - and Tom was almost ready to concede that it was indeed the brat himself
in a peculiar face - pulled an unhappy wry half smile.�
�No.� No.. this
wasn�t how we were supposed to come out!�
But everything was already screwed before we even went in.� There were some...unexpected problems with
Snape.� He..turned on me..that is.. us.�
He wasn�t supposed to even be able to but he did! ... I didn�t know that
you and he had any kind of past...er-� the boy looked abashed� �...well.. any kind of.. romantic involvement
or anything.�

I mean he�s Snape!!� Greasy-git and
bastard-extraordinaire.� It never really
occurred to me that you would do that with him.�� ...Or...or with anyone really.�

I guess.. I just thought you weren�t interested in sex.�

Or.. or maybe I never wanted to think that you�d-�� The boy trailed off, looking perturbed, and
then shook his head slightly as if to dispel a daft thought.
�I was prepared for him to be hateful and vicious and try
to kill you.. but..�

This line of thought was not promising.�
Tom wondered where this was going, and strangely found himself averse to
finding out.
��Once a traitor,
always a traitor, as they say� he interrupted briskly �What was the original plan, if you could manage to divert yourself
from this scintillating discussion of my supposed desires or lack thereof?� Tom
folded his arms and looked down at the boy as the latter squirmed slightly.
And blushed.�
The body that he... that they both wore was, objectively
seen, quite aesthetically pleasing, although he himself tended not to select
blonde male partners...�� If he was to
wear this appearance for any great length of time, he could at least be
grateful that he was not obliged to be hideous.�

Nevertheless � The boy was quite
aware of who was within this skin!�
Surely the thought of his enemy should be enough to sour the fairest
face?!
He raised an eyebrow and gestured for Harry to focus on
the question, the answer to which he was still awaiting.

Harry seemed to struggle to think his way back to the subject they had previously
been addressing.

�S-Sorry.. It�s maybe a side effect of the problems they had with the
process.� Short term memory problems now
and then..and...and.. er..some other less important stuff.�� I guess..��

The plan...� Harry sighed long sufferingly.�
�The plan doesn�t really matter anymore.�
We wanted to replace some of the top witches and wizards with our own
people to try to take back the reigns and steer things back to how they were,
without a lot of bloodshed..� I was going
to play Draco Malfoy �� Harry�s light
blue eyes darted up to meet his own with a faint anxiety in them.� �That�s Lucius� son.� You remember him, right?�
Tom actually couldn�t deny himself the uncouth roll of his
eyes and circling gesture for the boy to get on with it.�
�-Yeah � well, anyway, we had the samples needed to make
me into a carbon copy of him � but it all fell apart when I ran into
you..��

At this the blond boy grimaced slightly and avoided meeting Tom�s gaze.

�I.. I wanted-...� Doesn�t matter what I
wanted, I guess.� �The way it played out, you killed him and it
threw our timing off.� It all happened
too soon.� We weren�t ready to go ahead
with the next stages immediately.� So we
had to put someone in Draco�s place under polyjuice and then Snape lost his
mind and took off...and, what with everything that happened then, it all went
to hell and it just took too long.�

I found out when I woke up that our polyjuiced placeholder was discovered on
the second day of our skin generation.�
He...� we had to shut him down to
stop them from finding out too much.�

...Everything is ruined now.� All of the
plans are down the toilet.� We�ve had to
burn half our safehouses...

Lucius knows and he�s been tearing the world apart since then trying to find
out what really happened to his son.� He
knows there�s a resistance.� He thinks we
have Draco!��

Technically.. in a sense.. we do...��
Again the boy frowned slightly.� Tom elected to remain silent and wait this
time.
�When I ran into you, I thought it would be better if you played Draco.. I mean � yeah,
ok.� I know Draco pretty well but you know all about the purebloods and about
Lucius and... and.. about other
things..� the boy�s eyes darkened pensively �...But then Snape went rogue.�

...We found him.. Well, really, we never lost
him.. We had him marked with a tracking portkey but he went and crawled off
to hide behind anti-portkey wards in Nepal and we didn�t know he had a
partner.�� We couldn�t drag him out!� Not with promises or threats or...�
Harry looked as if he was occupying some internal
landscape of his memory.� Tom wisely
remained as still as he could and tried not to distract him.
�I was ready to go in there and drag him out by his balls
..and then.. he just came back by himself!�
Four days later and he just turned himself in, dragging his little
apprentice with him and demanded to see you!� Fucking git!�
Wearing some pretty pureblood boy�s skin and expecting to just be
ushered in to your room -probably to seduce you into staying with him like he
wanted, instead of coming with me like you said you were going to.��
The rancour displayed at this prospect was extremely
interesting, Tom decided.� In light of
the blush earlier, he was not entirely certain whether the boy was annoyed at
Severus� impudence, as any Master would be of his servant; annoyed at the
thought of Severus taking Tom himself away from a task that Harry thought he
needed him to perform for him; or whether he was perhaps annoyed at the thought
of Severus potentially seducing
him.�

He had made some odd comments on that topic earlier, hadn�t he?�

At the time Tom had still been putting his mind together � indeed the process
continued now, but he was almost certain that the boy had expressed some manner
of undue fascination with Tom�s own sexual proclivities and the possibility
that he had at some point in the past entertained a more intimate form of
servitude from Severus.
What exactly had happened between his enemy and himself that
such things would bother Harry so obviously?!�
He could suppose-... but that couldn't possibly...!

�Well.. that
wasn�t happening!� Snape went into the
box.� I didn�t even bother having him interrogated � it�s not as if anyone would get
anything out of him anyway.� If you couldn�t get him to reveal
information he wanted to keep hidden, I doubt anyone else will either�

Tom found himself mildly gratified at this passing
recognition of his own superiority.� He
added it as a microscopically small positive notch on the seemingly endless
black register of Potter�s debt to him..
�-Course he made a mistake bringing Calico back with
him.� His little red headed prat
apprentice went into an interrogation chamber instead and we squeezed the
details of the new skin process out of him.�

�Severus doesn�t
often make foolish mistakes.� Tom responded without thinking, and then cursed
himself for it..� The blink and refocus
of the light blue eyes upon him showed clearly that he had just derailed
Harry�s quite productive train of thought.�

Oh well... The harm was already done.�

�Almost never, in fact� he continued. �If he brought this apprentice back with
him, when you knew nothing of the fellow�s existence, then he meant for you to interrogate him.� What happened after that?�� Somewhere, there must be some advantage to
Severus in it...�

�I... I don�t know...� came the hesitant reply.�

�There�s... there�s nothing.� Snape was
still in the box this morning.� Herman
checked on him.� And Calico was in a
locked and warded cell within ten minutes of us coming out of the pod � that
is, finishing the medical process we needed him to perform.� It went wrong because I made him run us both
at once in one pod and it all got a bit out of control.� It�s all about wards and circumlocution
charms or circulocation or something.� I
don�t really understand it but something went wrong with the wards and our
samples mixed-�
�As fascinating as that new ice floe is, Harry � return,
if you would, to Severus.� Are you
certain that he has been incarcerated since his return?� Are you positive
that he is still restrained at present?�
There must have been some purpose to his placing himself in that
position.� Did his apprentice � Calico,
you said...� Tom paused, brow furrowing slightly..� �Calico... was he a redhead?�
�Yes.� And yes, he
was one of yours before the fall.� Came the distracted answer.� Tom had a sudden twinge of de ja vu and
wondered whether it was the product of the short term memory difficulties that
Harry had warned him of..
�I thought I recalled the name.� Did Calico,
attempt to vary any stage of the process as you had been given.. no.. wait
�damn!.. You are, as ever, a fool, Potter!� You took the contents of the process from
Calico himself, did you not?� Even had
you employed Veritaserum upon him, his answers would have remained
untrustworthy.� He was delivered to you
by Severus!� The contents of his mind may
be assumed to be that which Severus wished
you to possess.�
A pensive silence from the boy below was agreement and
self recrimination at once.
�We shall have to visit
dear Severus, in order to determine what he has done.�� It is likely that, even should I not have
myself been unconscious for the duration, and had I instead an understanding of
this 'conversion process' and a place from which to observe, I would still not have discerned whatever it was
the dratted man did.� He is infuriatingly
brilliant.�
�Infuriating is right..� was the soft, somewhat bitter,
response from the blonde boy lying beneath him.
Tom tilted his head, looking down at the deceptively
un-potter-like youth.
�Harry...�

Pale blue eyes turned from the wall that they had been glaring at irritably,
and rose, with guarded wariness to meet their mirror image.
�I am noticing a certain... how do I describe it?... a
certain disgruntlement to your
demeanour whenever you touch upon any point of intimate reference between
Severus and myself.� Could you enlighten
me as to the underlying motivation behind this bizarre behaviour?��
Harry startled visibly and mumbled a vague unintelligible
denial but something in his manner seemed off.� As if he were still elsewhere with his
thoughts.
Tom narrowed unfamiliar eyes speculatively.� Had he imagined it?� No.. surely not.�

But perhaps he lacked the context to interpret what he was seeing.� Was the boy perhaps involved with Severus in some way?!� Could that have provoked the reactions he had
displayed?
It occurred to him abruptly that he had been sitting, straddling the boy�s thighs for far too long.� There was no fathomable reason to remain as
he was.� He could have questioned the
quite cooperative boy from across the room.�

It was...oddly pleasant to touch Harry
in this body.�� Not.. a sexual kind of pleasure, he thought �
although that was certainly not an impossibility with such an attractive
creature- but...

In sudden dismay at the direction of his thoughts he swiftly removed himself
from atop the warm body.
Harry reacted at once with alarm, propping himself up on
his elbows and half leaning toward Tom �What?!�
What�s wrong?!�
The question was not one that Tom was about to answer.

Neither did he wish the boy to come any closer.
�How is it that you awoke before me?� he asked, largely to
detract from the panic he felt bubbling up inside.�

�It had felt comforting to touch Harry.�
Horrifyingly so.� And now, he
realised, it was proportionately disconcerting to relinquish that contact.� He felt cold
...even a little vulnerable.
The blonde boy on the other side of the bed seemed to be similarly affected.� He appeared unsettled and turned on his side
to face Tom, who now sat on the far side of the bed, against the wall.

It was freezing against his bare back, but that was perfectly fine.� Wonderful.�
Better a cold wall than the unnatural urge to drag his mortal enemy into
his arms and cuddle him like a security blanket.
He had never had a
security blanket.� They were something
that he had observed the matrons dispensing to certain other children.� Weak and fussing children.

And he had not thought of that in
several lifetimes.� How odd!
�I..woke yesterday morning� Harry admitted softly.� �I�m sorry.�
Herman woke me as soon as he thought the risk was low enough and I was
just about as disoriented as you were when you woke, only I had half a dozen
panicking people yelling into my face about Lucius Malfoy and Snape.� I thought I was still at Hogwarts and I had no idea who you were, in bed beside me.�
Luckily Herman didn�t tell me just then, although I think he was
tempted.� As soon as I was remembering
enough to work out what was going on and I understood who you were, I had
Herman lengthen your sleep a bit so that I could get some things sorted before
you woke up.�� I had to get myself
together to put out some fires.� Or start some, as the case happened to
be.� People were waiting on my call to
destroy or salvage likely compromised facilities.� There were a couple of pretty awful
situations where we had to...sacrifice.. a couple of our operatives because
Lucius had already gotten to them.�� I
just didn�t have enough strength in me to deal with you yelling at me from the
other side too.� I�m sorry.. �I really am.� It seemed the best option.� I hoped a bit of sleep would lessen your
confusion when you did wake up.�
It was
unfortunately understandable and Tom waged an internal debate on whether he
would have previously allowed so much tolerance toward his enemy.

Or.. former enemy?� Were they still enemies?
It was not natural
to feel this way.��
�Are... are you hungry?� Harry asked hopefully, as if he
were some manner of animal that might be coerced out of a corner by a rattling
feed bag.
�No.� he snapped.�
�I would like to sleep a little longer.�
Your presence is not
required.�
This provoked a much stronger display of unease from the
other boy.� Harry actually seemed to
compress himself inward, curling slightly as if he was attempting to reduce the
physical space he was taking up � or as if he was hunkering down.�

The thought that Tom would attempt to physically
remove him was laughable.� He had no
intention of touching him.

Lust was one thing.� Respect and even
affection another.. but need?! ��He refused to allow himself to foster this
improper attatchment.� It had the feel of
a budding addiction.� Did he wish Harry
Potter chained to his side for the foreseeable future.
Something in him actually bubbled and yammered in
agreement at the prospect.�

Tom shivered.
�I.. � Harry hesitated and seemed to be trying to rephrase
whatever he wanted to say to make it more palatable.
�I can�t leave you alone here.� It�s not safe� was the eventual tentative
attempt.
�Harry � go and...receive a briefing from your
servants..or...check on Severus.. �Go and
eat, �but go!� I wish to be alone.�
The small blonde boy curled slightly tighter.� �I won�t�
Last time I left when you told me to, it made everything a lot
worse.�� If I�d just ignored you then,
we�d probably both be in Malfoy Manor by now.
Tom gritted his unfamiliar teeth and growled under his
breath.�

�Tell me about that time then.� I cannot
recall any instance that would fit those conditions..�
The blue eyes of the other boy clenched and he sighed
heavily.� �Nevermind.� It doesn�t matter.� I�ll... I�ll leave if you really want me
to.�� He uncurled with slow visible
unwillingness and sat up, turning to sit on the edge of the bed, facing away
from Tom.� His head hung despondently.�

�I thought..� that is..I�d hoped...� he tapered off pathetically with
a small headshake.� Then reaching down to
the floor beside the bed he retrieved a pair of the muggle jean trousers and slipped them on quickly.�
The sight of the pretty, half bare form walking away from
him toward the door actually caused something inside Tom to hurt. �It was a dull, sickly ache in the pit of his
stomach� The words to call Harry back
were in his mouth, trying to burst out of him.��
The boy should come back and get back into bed and passively allow
himself to be clung to.
But the words did not
escape.� He bit them in with all his
strength.� He would not surrender to whatever this was.�
No doubt this was something to
do with Severus.�� Perhaps his servant
thought to secure Harry�s future safety by binding him in some uncomfortable
manner to his enemy.

No..� No, Severus would unlikely choose
to do that.� He berated himself inwardly
for the disarray of his own thoughts.� It
was difficult to concentrate and so much still felt blurred or unclear.
The soft click of the door behind Harry was like a death
knell.� Panic flared in Tom.� Blow
this!� He would not be discomforted in this manner, even if it
meant nearing Harry Potter in an unpleasantly tender manner
�Harry!�
He waited hopefully.�

Nothing.�� Had the
boy not heard?!� He must be on the other
side of the door.� He couldn�t have
gotten far yet.�
�HARRY??!!�

The boy did not re-emerge.�
He called again, hating himself but preferring to quell
the gnawing ache inside him.
It had no effect.�
The boy was gone.�� He had sent
him away out of pure wilfulness and now he had no idea when Harry would be
returning and no way of summoning him.

He could perhaps... go after him...

But the boy had said that others in his base had opposed his presence here.

Hadn't he?��

Tom wasn�t sure.� He vaguely recalled
something like it but it felt..fuzzy..��
Damn this!..� his mind was addled.� Damn this transformation.�� Damn Severus for whatever he had done to
cause ..this.

The ache had stopped worsening for the moment.�
No doubt, wherever Harry was, he had stopped moving away from Tom.��

It was endurable... Wretched and
unpleasant but endurable.
Tom moved away from the icy wall and crawled to the end of
the bed to retrieve the covers.� He
wrapped them around himself even though they did not truly warm him � not in
the way he needed.�

He curled up, feeling sufficiently hidden by the blanket to wrap his own arms
around himself in an empty embrace that did not still the ache, but was better
than nothing.
Turning his mind inward, he set about cleaning house.
At some point after his internal ordering, he must have
drifted back to sleep because he would surely have noticed the change at once,
had he been awake for it.�
He felt deliciously warm and comfortable once more.��
There was another body in front of him again, and it was
spooned with seemingly impossibly perfect fit against his own.� His arm was once again curled around the
other and his hand now lay gently pressed against a smooth, hairless, but
unmistakeably male chest. Another hand was laid over his own, as if ensuring
that he would not move away.�
Harry...� Harry had
returned.�� Relieved, Tom tilted his head
forward a couple of inches and laid his face against the back of the other
boy�s neck.

It was not a nuzzle.� He did not nuzzle or cuddle or snuggle.� It was just...curiosity.

Harry�s new body smelled of clean soap and something else that was sweet and
soft and slightly musky.� It was
extraordinarily pleasant.� He inhaled it
again with enjoyment and only barely caught himself from the soft kiss he had
been about to place on the base of the other�s neck
�Tom...� a voice soft with sleep murmured in something
between a purr and a whine.�
�Please...don�t-�
�Go back to sleep, Harry� he cut the boy off before he
could learn what exactly Harry wished him not to do.� He had no intention of releasing Harry to
move away from him again and he was not prepared to entertain any requests to
do so.�

No.. If this was the way it was to be now � then this was how it would be.� It hurt to allow Harry to venture too far
from him � ergo, Harry would not be doing that again.��

He would confront the issue of what had caused this effect later.� Perhaps it could be counteracted in some
way.�
Obviously that would be preferable.�
But in the interim.. this was not entirely awful either.�
He remembered now.

Or at least he remembered as much as whoever had obliviated him had left him to remember.��
He recalled the way Harry had thrown himself at him, almost from the first moment that they had
encountered each other in the middle of muggle infested nowhere, on the other
side of the world; Harry had told him that he had recognised him in the
audience in that bar; that he'd been dancing just for Tom that night. And then,
the boy�s excited enthusiasm when Tom had touched him...�

The morning in the backpackers that Harry had woken him so satisfyingly was
particularly clear in his memory now.� He
had been very content with Harry that morning.��
With the exception of some persistent fuzziness toward the
very end that had infuriated him when he had examined it, he remembered quite
well how Harry had come apart in his arms when he had taken him in the black
room that Severus had transfigured for them.
Of course... he also recalled the irritating ease with
which Harry had slipped off the veil of submissive supplication and revealed
himself as the conniving and capable leader of a fairly sophisticated
resistance movement.

But he rather suspected that Harry, given any encouragement, would default back
to his previous tactic of using deference and seduction to steer Tom in the
direction he preferred.
As tactics went, he preferred that to the steel that Harry
was evidently capable of producing when necessary.�
There would be punishment
eventually for the memory that was stolen from him � for Harry�s part in
cornering him in a place where he was made vulnerable;� for allowing his mind to be injured.

But even that misfortune could be
twisted to his own favour, he thought.�
He had decided to �remember� events prior to the
transformation only up to the point of that obiviation.� There was nothing to be gained in
acknowledging his discovery of Harry�s pathetic little ruse.�

No, it gave him far more options if they were both pretending that Harry was
obedient to him.� Clearly the boy
preferred that mode of manipulation.�

Undoubtedly, pushing him too far would force him to drop the act again, but, if
Tom was careful, this little habitual tactic of Harry�s could easily lose him
control of the movement..and the resources
he presently controlled.�
That being said.. there was no reason not to give in to
the inclinations of his body at present.�
He had every plausible excuse
to do so...

He allowed himself to gently press the small kiss to the base of Harry�s neck
that he had been wanting to place there since he woke.
The boy in his arms shifted slightly in his, no doubt
simulated, sleep and gave a contented mmm.
Tom tightened his arm around Harry ever so slightly and
let his head drop back down onto the pillow�
As disappointing as the failure of Harry's plan might be, from his own
perspective all was far from
lost.� Relative to his previous way of
life this could only be viewed as a success.�
He had Severus back from the dead, slipperier and more intriguing than
ever; he had Harry Potter at his beck and call and if he offered the child
another plan to infiltrate the powers in control of the British wizarding world
- something that aligned with Tom's own intentions anyway - then Harry would no
doubt begin to defer to him and offer himself as willing sacrifice once more;
would throw himself beneath Tom's lash if desired.� And most pleasing of all - when he woke,
whatever potion had been used upon him would have passed from his system and he
would be able to use magic again!� For
the first time in...too many years...he would be able to freely curse someone
when they irritated him!
It was with a smile that he closed his eyes, let the
tension slip from his limbs and gave himself over to sleep
- 11
- 12
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