It was 1 am by the time he had returned to the Dursleys'. It was always a challenge, sneaking out in the middle of the night, but he had practiced many times before - not to get into any mischief, of course; sometimes Harry just liked to watch the stars.
Looking up at the sky and knowing that those massive orbs of fire were so far away that he could barely see them - so far away that what he was seeing was thousands, maybe even millions of years old - reminded him that the universe was a big place, and he was only a tiny part of it. It was comforting in a way, and Harry found this sobering comfort to give him the strength he needed to get through the next day.
So Harry sneaked out often, but never got caught. Luckily, the downstairs floorboards weren't very squeaky, making the task doable, but still extraordinarily nerve-wracking.
Once Harry had returned to his cupboard, he allowed himself a deep sigh of relief, but wasted no time in withdrawing the mirror from his pocket.
"Tom? Tom? Are you there?"
"Always, Harry."
Harry grinned at that, his heart leaping at Tom's answer. "Now I can talk to you whenever I want."
"So long as you're not caught doing so."
Tom was looking out for him – the thought made Harry's smile grow even wider.
"Of course not!"
"Good boy. Now, on to business."
"Business?"
"Yes, business. We have much to do."
"We do?...like what?"
"I refuse to live in a cupboard."
Harry blinked. "But I live in a cupboard."
"Not for much longer."
Harry frowned. "Are we going to run away?" He wouldn't mind running away - it sounded like a grand adventure indeed - but he'd rather not have to sleep outside in late December.
Meanwhile, Tom sighed, clearly losing his patience. "No, Harry, your Aunt and Uncle are going to give us one of the bedrooms upstairs."
Harry's eyes eyes grew wide. "They'd never do that! They hate me!"
Tom stared at at him with crimson eyes that very clearly said, What, are you stupid?
"Think, Harry. Why do they hate you?"
"Well, apparently it's because I'm an ungrateful freak," Harry said earnestly.
"They fear you, Harry. They hate you because they fear the power you possess."
"Er...what power?"
"You know what I speak of, Harry."
He did. Harry was a freak, a freak that could do strange things, and that's what the Dursleys hated about him. "I don't understand how knowing this helps me."
"You need to use that power."
"To do what?"
"To break them."
Harry frowned. "I don't know how to break people. Can people break?"
"They'll break, Harry. They always break."
"Really?"
"You just need to apply pressure in all the right places."
...
"Tom, I need to talk to you."
"About what, Miss Anna?" he replied softly, his face carefully blank and seasoned with just a touch of confusion.
"Tom...Dennis and John have been saying things," the woman began uneasily.
"What kinds of things, Miss Anna?" He stared at her unblinkingly, secretly enjoying the way she squirmed under his gaze.
"They've been finding spiders in their beds, Tom, and Dennis has been having terrible nightmares."
"Oh?" Tom could not help the ghost of a smile that tugged on his lips.
"They believe it's you, Tom. They think you place spiders and ants in their beds and do things to them while they sleep. They insist. But that can't be the case, can it Tom?"
Tom looked up at her coyly."I did say I want my own room."
Miss Anna froze. "Tom, all you have to do is explain to me that you haven't done anything, and I'll tell Mrs. Cole you had nothing to do with it, that the boys were just playing games again."
"I want my own room, Miss Anna. I'm sure John and Denis will sleep fine...in a different room."
Miss Anna had grown pale. "Tom, you can't possibly-"
"I want my own room, Miss Anna," he said, his voice cold and firm.
Miss Anna sucked in a sharp breath, and stood slowly on tremoring legs. "Alright, Tom," she whispered. "I'll see to it that you have your own room."
Tom nodded curtly.
"Thank you!" said a soft voice – but of course it wasn't Tom; Harry was waking up.
.....
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