A/N: Right, I am so sorry that it has taken so long, but as only five people reviewed (thanks by the way) I’m guessing that not many people mind, ne?

Some of you may have already read this chapter but the start has changed due to a gaping plot hole that was pointed out to me. You don't need to re-read it, but it might be a good idea.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

OOOOOO

They returned to Gringotts, got Tom’s key and vault number and left again. With quite a bit of swooping around glaring angrily at people on Harry’s part. As they emerged into the bright sunlight outside Harry glanced around slightly uncertainly. He grabbed Tom’s hand and pulled him into an alley, just off to the side of the bank.

“What-?”

“I need to run an errand and I hate apparating in front of people. Feels weird. Don’t know why so don’t ask me,” Harry said, clearly embarrassed and looking anywhere that wasn’t Tom.

Tom said nothing, instead opting to simply hold onto Harry’s hand and allow himself to be apparated. They appeared in a wide corridor, lined with a few doors, filled with happily flickering torches and every now and again a small paper bird swooped past and in through small holes, set high in the walls above the doors.

There was also, a witch. She sat beside the furthest door which was trimmed with gold, behind a heavy oak desk. And she was staring at them.

Harry instantly dropped Tom’s hand and strode off down the corridor towards the witch. Tom hurried to keep up with him

“Hello, Gladys,” Harry said “Is she in? Of course she is. Where else would she be? Is she free?”

Tom felt a small twinge of jealous that this random woman got treated nicer than he did, but pushed it aside, preferring to glare at her instead.

The witch opened and shut her mouth a few times before eventually nodding and pulling a speaking tube from beside her desk.

“Ma’am?... Yes. I know you said not to be disturbed but its Mr. Potter… He wants to see you… Yes, I’ll send him right in.”

She put the tube back “Go right in. She’s waiting.”

Harry nodded curtly and moved to the door. Tom instinctively followed but Harry stopped him with a palm on his chest.

“You don’t want to see this. It might get nasty.”

“I’ve seen you nasty,” Tom protested.

“Who says I was talking about me? Just wait here. I’ll stay near the door so it won’t hurt.”

Tom nodded unhappily and slouched against the wall beside the door and waited. And waited. And waited. And the pain started to build at the back of his head until it felt like he had hit it with a hammer. Repeatedly.

Eventually after what felt like an eternity the door opened. Even though he knew that ‘Gladys’ was watching he couldn’t help but fall against Harry, fingers searching for any bare skin. He heard Harry sigh and knew he’d been feeling it too. They leant on each other for a moment until the pain receded and hey were able to step apart.

“Bye Gladys,” Harry said and even though she was watching he took Tom’s hand and apparated them away.

They reappeared, not in a dark alley, but in a dark corner of the Leaky Cauldron. Tom slid down into one of the seats, grateful to take the weight of his legs.

“You took ages,” he complained as Harry slid silently into the seat opposite him. It was then that he noticed Harry looked a little stressed and decided to be nice. “Where were we?”

Harry didn’t reply, only held out a piece of paper for Tom to take. Tom scanned it for a few seconds before taking in what it said.

“A birth certificate! You got me a birth certificate. How the hell did you manage that? It looks so real.”

“That’s because it is real, well, it’s a real certificate, just fake details. And do we mind being a bit quieter. You’re giving me a headache.”

“This is real?” Tom asked wafting the certificate about a bit.

“Yeah, not much good having a fake one if I want you on Ministry records now, is it?”

“Why do I need to be on records?” Tom asked, feeling decidedly lost as to why Harry was being nice again all of a sudden.

“I’m only gonna say this once, okay,” Harry said leaning forward so he could talk to Tom easier “I don’t trust you. I don’t particularly like you. But I do see that Dumbledore has a point about letting you have a second go at the whole normal human being thing. And if you’re gonna live a normal life, it would be kind of useful if you actually exist.”

Tom sat for a few seconds, processing Harry’s words. Harry was doing something nice for him. For nice reasons. The world tipped oddly and for a few second he could have sworn he lost his grip on reality.

“It doesn’t mean I like you at all.”

And the world righted itself and reality returned.

Tom humphed in reply to the comment but rolled the certificate gently and slipped it inside a pocket. After a few seconds Harry gave a mildly embarrassed sounding cough and stood up.

“Right, let’s go home.”

Tom couldn’t for the life of him explain the happy little flip in his stomach at the word home.

OOOOOO

Tom was so angry that he felt like he was going to explode. Harry-I’m-A-Right-Git-Potter had been, well, a right git all morning. He’d started off being nice and then he’d switched back into a moping black cloud of depressing-ness. And Tom had no idea why. Tom gave a growl of frustration and kicked the pile of books at his feet over. He was sat on the edge of Harry’s desk as Harry scribbled away, marking papers, occasionally sending a glare in Tom’s direction.

Yesterday, they had returned from Gringotts in time for Harry to patrol the dungeon, checking for students up after hours. This had of course meant that Tom had had to come with him. They didn’t talk, only walked, but Tom didn’t mind. Being near Harry potter didn’t seem that bad anymore, once you got past his complete inability to communicate with other human beings.

They’d been patrolling until the early hours of the morning. By the time they’d finished they’d both been too tired to be embarrassed about sharing a bed and had both collapsed onto it, instantly falling asleep.

They were walking towards breakfast the next morning when they’d overheard a conversation a small group of girls were having near the entrance to the slytherin common rooms.

“…I heard they share a room. And Professor Potter’s room only has one bed.”

“I heard from Alice Longbottom that her dad had seen them together in Diagon Alley yesterday. Looking rather friendly.”

“I heard that they’re married but Potter’s using a love potion on him and he can’t be away from him for too long or it wears off.”

All the girls gasped in horror at the idea.

“Well… I think that they make a cute couple.”

All of the girls nodded in agreement.

Had had gone bright red in the face and given all the girls a detention for being disrespectful before storming off to his classroom saying that he had marking to do. Tom had, of course followed, unfortunately confirming all of the girls’ suspicions about them.

That had been nearly an hour ago and Harry hadn’t said a word to him since they got here. Tom sighed again and kicked over another of Harry’s neat stacks of books. After a few seconds he found that his boredom had not abated and started tapping the desk with his index finger, creating a rhythmic ticking noise. Harry seemed to twitch in annoyance but continued on with his marking. Determined to get a reaction, Tom increased the volume of his tapping, varying the rhythm to make it more annoying. It worked.

“Tom! Stop that! If you’re bored do something useful. Mark something. Tidy something. Practice your wand work. Anything but cease you’re infuriating actions. Merlin, you’re annoying!”

Tom stared at him for a few moments, shocked by the excessive response, before seeing that the corner of his lips twitching.

“Git,” he said, launching himself over the desk at Harry.

Harry’s eyes widened comically as they both crashed to the floor. Soon they were rolling around, trying to beat each other up. Their fighting wasn’t proper fighting, more an attempt to get out some of the frustration that the other incited inside them.

Harry landed a weak punch on Tom’s shoulder and Tom rolled away across the floor, laughing hard.

“You punch like a girl!” he howled, clutching his shoulder.

“That wasn’t a punch,” Harry defended, rolling across the floor towards Tom and pinning him down with an arm “If I punched you you’d know about it.”

“I don’t think so,” Tom said, poking Harry in the shoulder, still chuckling slightly “you couldn’t win a fight if you tried.”

“Humph. We’ll see about that,” said Harry.

And he started tickling.

“No. Argh! Harry. Stop! No. Don’t. I’m ticklish. Really ticklish. Please stop.”

The gentle knock on the door went unnoticed as Tom begged and Harry laughed. The gasp of shock and the loud crash, however, did not.

Harry pushed himself off Tom to see a second year girl stood in the doorway, books scattered at her feet, a look of absolute disbelief on her face.

“Err, it’s not what you think-” Tom started but Harry cut him off.

“Didn’t anyone tell you to knock first?”

The girl didn’t reply, only gave a squeak of terror and bolted from the room, leaving her books behind.

Harry gave a small sigh and moved to the door to pick up the books and stack them neatly on a shelf for one, if, she came back. Tom watched him, amused at his almost kind antics. Maybe he’s not a heartless bastard, he thought then laughed internally, yeah right.

“You do know that the whole school’s now going to think we’re sleeping together, if they didn’t already.”

Harry gave a non-committal hmm.

“Don’t you care?”

Harry hmm-ed again and returned to his marking as though nothing had happened. Tom sighed before moving to the door, ignoring the pain that was beginning to swirl around his head, and striding off down the corridor, determined to get as far away from Harry-bloody-Potter as was physically possibly. Pity for him that that turned out to be no more than about five yards.

He staggered against a wall, pressing his forehead against the cold rock, trying to ease the pain, determined that if either of them were to give in and find the other, it was going to be Harry.

OOOOOO

A/N: Ta da. What do we think? We’re moving slowly but surely towards the shower scene that was mentioned by BlueEyes white Dragon Sorcerer.

Review?