The next morning Riddle woke up early as like usual and woke Tom up who, Riddle didn't know, always overslept. After the removal of the Fat Lady from their room it was Dumbledore who'd shout out of his portrait to wake him up but today Riddle had taken up that responsibility though he found out how difficult was it going to be. He usually didn't need saying anything twice as everything would happen at his only word but today he had called out to Tom ten times to no effect whatsoever. Tom still slept like a baby. He had suddenly been relieved of all worries and for the moment it showed on his relaxed face. As Riddle called out his name for the 11th time Tom finally woke up yawning loudly which was something Riddle hated immensely though he didn't mention it just at the moment.
As Tom looked at him he saw Riddle all dressed up ready to invigilate. He had worn his blue T-shirt and black jeans and looked exactly like him save the angry, annoyed eyes. Tom took out his pocket watch and looked at the time. It was 6 am. There was still an hour for the exam to begin. He stared at him for a minute then decided it didn't matter to him anymore anyhow. He was going to stay in his room, it wasn't his business anymore. not at least for a few days. But he decided that now he had awoken, he will not waste this time of his. He'll start practicing right after breakfast.
Ignoring Riddle who sat back down quietly on his side of the bed Tom got up to go for a shower. As soon as he was under the warm water flowing all over him, he felt fresh. Now, he looked clearly at the wounds that were left open. They were clear gashes over his skin which stung every time the water touched them or for that matter anything else. They had been stinging the entire night and Tom knew for the next few days until they healed completely, they'll keep stinging. Out of the shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and entered the room making straight for his wardrobe. As he entered Riddle stared at him. He had never wandered around in his room uncloaked. But he was more shocked to see the scars on Tom's torso. Riddle had always put himself before others. He had always felt he had the most beautiful body and had always protected it to be so but when he had harmed his brother he had never realized that he had taken that away from him and he had so easily forgotten everything and forgiven him for all he had done. He had snatched the beauty of his brother's body but he could never touch the beauty of his heart.
Tom put on his blue jeans and white shirt, combed his hair, took out his watch again and looked at the time. It was half an hour left for invigilation to begin.
"We need to practice before you leave." He turned to Riddle as he said it.
Riddle stood up. "I thought you were going to practice when you were alone?"
"I'm talking about you."
"Excuse me?"
Tom sighed. "You can't go out in the Castle speaking like you. Your words, your tone, your accent will make it quite apparent that it's you, not me. Harry can't know about what we've done."
Riddle stood silent for a moment thinking. Even if Harry did find out, he couldn't do anything about it now, why then should they go to as much trouble? "Potter cannot change what we've done. What does it matter if he finds out?"
Tom stared at him. "Harry will feel betrayed if nothing else. He trusted me with this responsibility and I transferred it to you without his consent. He'll never trust me with anything in future if he finds out."
"Apparently, he shouldn't have. Dumbledore said icily from his portrait as they both turned to look at him, taken aback. Last night when Tom had transferred his post to Riddle Dumbledore had not been in his portrait but at the moment he had caught them red handed.
"Confundus!
Before Tom had realized, Riddle had pulled out his wand and confounded Dumbledore who sat down back on his high chair looking about confused trying to figure out why he had been so angry a moment ago.
Tom stood gaping at Riddle. "That wasn't necessary. I could have explained.
"I did not want to. He answered. "And I will not alter my ways for Harry Potter." He answered Tom's request for acting like him. Riddle's reply was well expected by Tom but he had felt perhaps he could bend his principles just a little to help him. Riddle had never heard a more stupid thing before. If anything it was probably a good thing that Harry wouldn't trust him with anything. He would have all the time in the world then to rest and recover but Tom had felt more obliged to his duties than his health and if he expected anything of the sort from Riddle he was in for a big shock.
"Don't. Do it for me."
After many years of conflict and misunderstanding there stood the two brothers staring at each other. It was the first rightful thing that Tom had ever asked of his brother and not simply as a wizard and this time he did not want his expectations befallen.
Riddle just could not say yes although this time he wanted to but he simply couldn't modify himself for anyone. "I will not." He couldn't bring himself to say 'cannot' so he simply denied it. "The least I will do for you is to remain silent in presence of Potter." He added as he saw Tom's face falling.
Tom sighed. He had never dared ask of any of his rights on anyone since he had been betrayed by Roy because he feared the same would happen again. But after spending some time with Riddle he had come to the point where he had felt he could trust him even with his own life seeing as Riddle had not killed him when Tom had attacked him the other night. And now again he felt like he had no one to call his own and ask for his rights. He made a mental note to avoid anything of the sort in future.
"Alright." said Tom. "So, if you're ready, good luck!" Tom extended his hand to shake Riddle's. He knew Riddle hated him hugging people around.
"Pray be same for you." Riddle took it. He placed his wand in one of the drawers of the side table and left the room.
Harry woke up early in the morning. He had to attend to an important business today. He knew what he was going to do today had to happen someday, so he had decided to do it now rather than keep that shock for Tom for later. After what had happened last night Harry had seen one thing clearly and that was that this chaos wouldn't definitely end any time soon and even if it did, it was arise again in future because of someone Harry was going to meet today.
Harry had finally decided to look for Roy. He had to find him. The sooner he'll present him to court the better it will be as Latnok was looking for a reason to take the supervision of the Ministry's plan from Harry and Hermione and Harry couldn't let him do that. Harry dressed up. He went to his office desk and pulled open a drawer where he had kept a few valuables. He pulled out his Phoenix wand from inside it. Since, he had lost ownership of the Eldar Wand he had refrained from fully making use of the Phoenix Wand as he still had some hope of getting back ownership of the Eldar Wand. But right now he needed his magic to work to locate and ensure that Roy returned with him. But he didn't put the Eldar Wand in the drawer, he kept it inside his pocket along with the resurrection stone that he had found in the room with the Veil. He had decided to keep the Deathly Hallows united again, it was dangerous for them to be separated and strayed now when Voldemort's soul was prowling this earth again. The invisibility cloak was also stashed inside one of the pockets of his cloak. He might need it on the errand that was going to run and anyways with both Tom and Riddle here, its need had become eminent since both could see through their own disillusionment charms as well.
Harry left his office by 7 am as Riddle left his room to invigilate. Harry had no idea where Roy was but he had to begin somewhere. He still had his professional profile. He found one lead out of it. His London address was mentioned in there. Harry had decided to visit that place first of all although he had an inkling Roy wouldn't be there because if he had been Latnok's aurors would have found him there when they were on search for him. Before leaving Harry had left all responsibility to Padma, he knew Tom couldn't take care of any emergencies so he had not consulted him about it.
The moment he left the Hogwarts' grounds, Harry disapparated on the spot and apparated on a busy London street. The address he sought couldn't be on either side of the road because that entire area seemed commercial as it was lined with shops and cafes. Harry who had walked out of Hogwarts Grounds in a violet cloak covered himself in a disillusionment charm. He couldn't risk any muggles seeing him.
Invisible from both muggle and wizard eye Harry made for an alleyway between two large inns where a series of residential cottages lay, that could hardly be called facilitating. Harry had the address of Roy's cottage. He made straight for it. The cottage was, as expected, locked. Harry pulled out his phoenix wand. "Alohomora!" The lock clicked open. Harry went inside and shut the door. He looked around quietly. Roy couldn't be seen anywhere, not that Harry had to look carefully as it was one small room with a small fireplace, a table in the middle and a bed in a corner of the room and everything here seemed to be scattered with clothes, worn and cast away never to be washed again.
Harry looked around closely and realized that he was right. Perhaps, Roy had not come back here but if he hadn't why were his things scattered around the place. Something was out of place. Finally, making up his mind, Harry quietly turned around to leave. As he did so he felt something stir behind him, he thought he heard a little sigh, perhaps, a sigh of relief. He halted, then within a fraction of second turned around, pointed his wand under the round table and, "Petrificus Totalas!"
The body binding curse had worked well. Harry removed the disillusionment charm from over him and found him slouched under the table frozen. Harry removed his own disillusionment charm and pointed his wand at him again. "Reliefin!" As Roy's body relaxed, Harry snatched his wand from his hand. Roy, Harry could see, did not even have the nerve to get up. As his body relaxed he slumped himself against one of the table legs and sat staring at him with silent anguish. Harry had finally found him.
"You've come to arrest me." These were the first words he spoke and it sounded like it was days after he had spoken at all. His voice seemed heavy by grief or maybe because he had forgotten to drink any water at all. Harry seriously doubted it. By the looks of him, he even felt he hadn't eaten in days. He looked starved or maybe he didn't care about anything anymore.
Before answering Harry conjured a glass out of nowhere and filled it with clear, plain, water. He held out the glass to Roy who stared at him. The least he had expected from Harry was sympathy and here he was offering his empathy. "No, I haven't." replied Harry as Roy looked away. Harry put the glass down on the table. "I have come to help you."
Roy stood up at this. "No one can help me now." Harry could hear the anguish in his voice. "I've lost all that I had. I lost my father, I lost my brother, I lost my entire life. There's nothing more that I want than to avenge my father, my brother. And you can't help me with that."
"I cannot allow you to murder Malfoy and spend the rest of your life in Azkaban. You can be useful to me," said Harry looking at Roy who wasn't taking any interest in Harry's words. Harry had to get his attention and had to get him agreed to what he wanted. "And to Tom." he added knowing clearly that he had received a full gaze from Roy now.
He shook his head. "I can never be useful to him. I'm just not good enough for that. The least I can do is to kill the man who killed my father and suffer for my own mistakes in Azkaban for the rest of my life."
"Would that help Tom heal?"
"After what I did, nothing could help him heal."
"What good will your suffering do? You've ruined him, shattered him, your own suffering won't help him."
"I can't restore what I did."
"True, but punishing yourself will not restore it either."
"Don't think of my punishment. I deserve it."
"I am not thinking about it. I don't care about your punishments or your rewards. After what you've done, it doesn't matter to me whether you live or you don't. The only person I care about is Tom."
Roy looked at him, a searing pain piercing his heart. He suddenly felt more alone then he had been before Harry had arrived. If Rabastian would have lived, he would have cared if he lived or died, he would have thought of his rewards, his punishments. His eyes watered as this thought occurred to him.
Roy nodded. "I can't blame you for hating me but I truly can't help him."
"You can if you want to. You are right, you cannot restore what you did but living a life like hell in Azkaban won't wipe your slate clean. If you want peace, forgiveness, help Tom, the brother that has always loved you no matter how much I insisted against it."
Roy who desired to make his wrongs his rights wanted more than anything to say yes but the prospect of seeing the man he had betrayed once more was too much for him. He could never see Tom in the eye. He had betrayed him like Riddle. Tom had put himself in front of him like an open book, had let him read its pages and Roy had torn it apart mercilessly.
"Even if I wanted to I could not, not with aurors swarming around the place looking for me and then again what is it that I can do for him?"
"Spy."
"On whom?" asked Roy fearing what Harry was going to say next.
"Who do you think?"
"I will not surrender to him."
"Don't, just pretend to."
"I can't stand him for one second. When I see him I feel anger as I've never felt. And he will never believe me."
"Tom believed you."
"Tom was easy to invade."
"Is that what you think? He is much more difficult then he proved to be. You were able to penetrate him because you bent him emotionally. Malfoy would be easy enough to fool."
"I won't be able to stand him." Roy suddenly turned away from him. He felt angry now, he couldn't even stand hearing his name.
Harry turned him back to himself by his arm. "Will you not sacrifice your ego, your frustration for the brother that nearly killed himself for you?"
"Don't compel me to do it."
"I will as everything that happened was your fault. I am done asking you. Now, I am telling you. You will spy on Malfoy for me and pretend to him to spy on me for him, you will come to the court with me, justify your actions and help me save Tom, because if you don't do this on my word, the Wizengamot will make you do it and if in the process, Malfoy gets air of any of it none of this would be worth it and if he gets caught, he will tell all of the truth about Tom and Riddle resulting in nothing but the end of Tom's life. Latnok will arrest him for no reason but for being the son of the darkest wizard of the century. Remember Roy, remember your father, remember his nobility. He paid off his debt to me before he died but did you? You are indebted to Tom, if he hadn't saved you from me that day, I would have ruined your mind. You would have ended up at St. Mungoes for the rest of your life, a mad man without a purpose or clue in life of what you are supposed to do. It is time you paid off his debt."
Roy was staring at Harry with tears running down his face. Every word Harry had spoken was true. He just couldn't deny it. He closed his eyes, wiped his face, opened them and nodded. He had finally agreed to go with him.
Cricket
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