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Lucius Malfoy caught sight of a messy black hair and sighed as he was abruptly made to turn into another hallway by Tom Riddle. His friend made it seem so casual, and his face was unreadable as always. But it was happening for a month now and Lucius was getting tired of being dragged by the arm mercilessly.
“I thought we were going to the library?” Lucius tried his best to look innocent as Tom looked at him.
“I forgot something.” Ah, even his excuses were getting weak. Tom never forgot anything. Lucius smirked as he watched the taller boy lead the way to where he supposedly forgot something. Tom could deny it all he wanted, but almost everyone in Hogwarts knew what was really happening.
Tom Riddle was avoiding Harry Potter.
And Harry Potter was avoiding Tom Riddle.
Although it was the hottest gossip in Hogwarts, it was common knowledge to feign ignorance when one of them blatantly ignored the other if they didn’t want to end up in the infirmary with an untraceable jinx. Of course Lucius knew that Tom was vicious with hexes but it was Potter who was truly brutal.
The sixth year Slytherin was incredibly brilliant as was he unnecessarily prideful. But Harry Potter always acted as though he had to prove something.
He was exactly like Tom Riddle.
Before the two pretended the other didn’t exist, they already couldn’t stand each other.
Tom Riddle, intellectual and unchallenged, reigned supreme in Slytherin and Hogwarts. He was constantly breaking records and breaking hearts, charming faculty and students alike, and silently gloating about being a half-blood yet doing better than his pureblood counterparts.
Then Harry Potter came.
Equally as bright and as charismatic, Harry wasted no time in advancing to intermediate classes in his first year.
Harry Potter and Tom Riddle took one long look at each other in advanced Potions and decided they hated each other. Both of them always had their hand in the air for every question a professor threw, and were always equally excelling in exams.
Harry Potter became frustrated with the fact that he couldn’t quite surpass Tom as easily as he did Hermione Granger, the smartest witch in his year. And Tom Riddle couldn’t stomach the fact that the boy was as prodigious as him in all things except Quidditch. Because Harry was better. In fact, he was the best in the school—the youngest seeker in Hogwarts history.
They were always just looking at each other murderously while silently competing to be the best.
Until they weren’t.
They had been obviously trying to contain their disdain for each for too long and it wasn’t until Harry was in their third year and Tom in his fourth that it all finally blew over.
Lucius couldn’t even believe the first time Tom Riddle had lost his cool and called out Harry Potter for his ‘lazily researched paper’. It was angriest Lucius had seen his friend, and the man barely had any facial expressions. Tom Riddle had scoffed—scoffed!—at Harry and blatantly pointed out the outdated research material Harry used.
Harry had rolled his eyes obnoxiously and spitefully asked if Tom remembered that third years weren’t allowed in certain parts of the library in which Tom’s only response was—
“Short,” he had snarled.
Everyone in the classroom had tried their best not to gasp at the insult. Even Professor Snape had not known how to react. Because even though Harry was notorious for being intelligent, athletic, and charismatic… he was also quite the shortest boy in all of Hogwarts.
Harry Potter’s eyes had widened in anger before he attacked with a series of hexes way too advanced for a third year towards Tom who had deflected them all quite easily while throwing a few spells of his own. Which in turn, of course, only made the Potter heir even angrier. And without warning, Harry launched all of his five-foot frame into Tom’s six.
A lot of people got injured that afternoon and the Slytherin house had almost lost all their house points. The Slytherins would be angry, if it weren’t for the fact that those points were also gained by the very people who lost them. And also because most of them were rather scared of the sadistic nature of their housemates’ hexes.
From that point onward, both of them were not content with just starting at each other with murder in their eyes but had started to utter a string of insults under their breaths every time they so much as saw each other.
Everyone had held their breaths in fear of a fight breaking between the two, but they never seemed to fight with hexes again. Although they both hated each other, they had the same sense of pride in garnering unprecedented points for their house and immediately regained all their lost house points in record time.
Tom could barely talk about anything other than Harry Potter and Lucius had to stop himself from rolling his eyes every time Tom looked at Lucius with a certain look, asking, ‘Can you believe this? Can you actually believe this?’ every time Harry did something brilliant.
It had gotten quite tiring, but of course Lucius never admitted that to Tom.
Which was why, during their sixth year and Harry’s fifth, Lucius—and almost all of Hogwarts, he would bet—had almost kissed Dumbledore, when the headmaster had thrown Harry and Tom into a school trip with a barely concealed ulterior motive of hoping they could finally get along. And if that was too much to ask for, maybe just be in the same room without trying to kill each other.
They were to represent Hogwarts in Durmstrang as the school’s top students in an interschool competition for a month. And Dumbledore, bless him, had known that if there was anything stronger than their hatred for each other, it was the desire to win, to be the best. He had hoped that perhaps outside competition would make the two work together.
He was right.
They had crushed the competition.
Lucius watched as Dumbledore smugly read the Daily Prophet where both boys were standing side by side with identical smirks. They were quite a pair, Lucius observed, standing so close to each other like that. Harry with his porcelain skin and luminous green eyes. Tom with his striking face and impossibly tall height. Harry did grow a little bit taller but so did Tom.
Lucius had hoped the two had worked out their differences, and perhaps, Lucius would never hear Tom talk about the Potter heir ever again.
Both of them stood next to Dumbledore as he congratulated them for bringing honor and glory to Hogwarts, and for the first time they didn’t seem to be uttering insults under their breath.
What was more peculiar was when Dumbledore finished his congratulatory speech, Tom had taken one step down the raised platform and stopped, angling his body lighty into Harry’s direction as if waiting for him to step down as well.
Lucius almost fell out of his seat as the Tom and Harry made their way into the Slytherin table together while talking. Amicably.
Dumbledore took that exact moment to begin the dinner and as food appeared at the table, everyone started eating and talking not noticing that Harry and Tom were actually engaged in conversation. Without trying to kill each other.
That must have been one hell of a trip.
Lucius watched as the two neared Potter’s crowd, both of them stopping slightly as if unsure. Tom casually stole a glace at Potter’s friends. It was then that Lucius realized that the two must be used to sitting with each other during their stay in Durmstrang and didn’t quite know what was going to happen now.
Tom murmured something at Potter and Potter nodded lightly, and Lucius saw something akin to disappointment in his face. He sat with his friends and Tom started to walk towards Lucius.
The Malfoy heir immediately looked down at his plate and started to eat, pretending not to have stared at the whole ordeal.
“Tom!” he greeted, acting surprised. “Welcome back.” The taller boy seemed to believe him and only nodded in reply.
Tom sat down and started eating quietly. He was only looking at the food and then at Lucius whenever the blonde said something, as though Tom was trying his best not to look in another direction… like where Potter was seated.
Thoroughly amused, Lucius prayed to the heavens that Tom would be especially forgiving tonight. “Why didn’t you ask him to sit with us?” Lucius asked casually.
Lucius swore Tom had choked on his food.
“We’re not friends.” Tom had answered abruptly, darkly. And he looked so angry that Lucius kept his mouth shut all throughout dinner.
The lying bastard.
Lucius caught Harry and Tom talking at a secluded part of the library. And instead of confronting Tom like he was supposed to, like a normal friend would do, he had stayed silent behind the bookshelves and tried to listen to their conversation.
But they evidently had some sort of charm around them because Lucius couldn’t hear a goddamn thing. Tom had always been so paranoid.
Lucius turned to Harry’s face instead knowing full well the boy revealed more in his facial expressions.
Harry looked like he was trying to convince Tom something and Riddle was only shaking his head. Harry looked exasperated and turned around and started walking away when Tom suddenly grabbed him by the arm and forced him to face Tom again. Tom murmured something and Harry smiled.
That night Potter actually sat with them at dinner. All of Hogwarts was trying not to blatantly stare at their table and the Slytherins closest to them were leaning into their direction, trying to hear anything from their circle.
Nosy bastards.
Lucius had rolled his eyes as if he didn’t do the exact same thing in the library earlier that day. But anyway, he was privy to the conversation now because Potter was casually sitting next to Tom as if they had been friends all their life and was actually trying to engage Lucius in conversation.
“The Malfoys are always so grand, aren’t they, Lucius?” he had asked with a little bit of tease in his eyes. “Father says you even have peacocks in your backyard.”
Lucius looked at Tom who was eating slowly at Harry’s side. His face was unreadable as always and he avoided looking at the blonde because Lucius knew that Tom damn well knew if he did, Lucius would wiggle his eyebrows and say embarrassing things like ‘Not friends, huh?’
Then he looked at the Potter heir and smiled widely. “We also have tigers, Harry,” and Harry choked on his food obviously not expecting that reply.
Harry grinned at him and said rather brazenly, “I like you, Lucius.”
Now it was Lucius’ turn to choke on his food as he tried not to blush. It was no wonder why so many witches pined after the younger Slytherin.
It was only after he coughed the food out of his system that he saw Harry was still laughing charmingly as Tom looked at the Potter heir with barely concealed anger in his eyes.
Months had passed and finally, after trying to decide between being weirded out and relieved, Hogwarts had finally accepted that Tom and Harry were now friends.
The Slytherins most especially were elated by this news knowing full well what this meant for their house points. Indeed, Potter and Riddle did not disappoint. Their friendship gaining even more points than when they were enemies.
They were inseparable.
Harry was always at Tom’s side with Lucius at his other. Now that the three of them were always together, Lucius heard even more than any other wizard or witch.
And the thing was, they barely even talked. Or Tom barely talked. Which was no surprise because Tom wasn’t a talker. It was always Harry who was talking and talking, and Lucius started to wonder if Tom became secretly annoyed sometimes. If he was, Tom didn’t say anything and didn’t betray anything in his face. But Lucius knew this for sure, Tom was always listening to whatever the Potter heir had to say.
Lucius also saw more, and if he dare say so, most than any wizard or witch.
It was the holidays and Lucius had returned early from his vacation while the two decided to stay in Hogwarts. There were only a few students in school, and even fewer faculty. Tom had been up first as usual, his plate already half-empty by the time Lucius sat with him.
Harry came a good hour later, yawning, and sleepily greeting Lucius and Tom. He sat by Tom, extended his arm, and casually started eating from Tom’s plate. He didn’t even bother filling up his own plate and Lucius didn’t even know why Tom’s was full again. But Tom, absently reading the Daily Prophet, let him. Even refilling the plate as the Potter heir ate more.
“Tom,” Harry whined groggily. And the reaction was immediate. Tom handed Harry his goblet without taking his eyes off the news. Harry took it happily, sipping loudly.
Lucius felt as though he had been watching something so private. He looked away and pretended to read the Daily Prophet as well.
But that was not the only time Lucius felt he was kind of like a, well, like a pervert if he was being honest.
The three of them were researching an assignment for their Transfigurations class in the library and Lucius left to look for a book he needed to properly end his essay. When he came back, he was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight that welcomed him and he didn’t exactly know why he did it, but he hid behind the bookshelves again.
It was quite a sight. Harry was leaning against the table facing Tom who was still on his chair. Harry was running his fingers through Tom’s hair as if there was something to fix. And then he was fiddling with the taller boy’s perfectly made necktie. And Tom, like in the great hall, had let Harry, choosing to keep his eyes on the book he was reading as the younger boy fussed.
Just what the two were doing when they thought nobody was looking made Lucius curious.
He decided to experiment at the Slytherin common room. It was still a few days before school started again and there were no other Slytherins except the three of them.
Lucius yawned louder than necessary and told them he was going to retire early, purposefully leaving his scarf as went to his room so he had an excuse to go back. He waited a good ten minutes before quietly making his way back into common room… right in time to see Harry climbing into Tom's lap.
“Harry,” was all Tom said. And Harry had giggled and shushed him. Tom rolled his eyes as he put his arms around Harry's waist to keep the boy from falling.
Well.
Lucius wasn’t sure what he was expecting and if he was being honest to himself, he was expecting them to be snogging in the first place.
But just to confirm his suspicions, he had continued his experiment for a few more days.
The next night Lucius found Harry laughing teasingly as he straddled Tom. Tom did not look happy but his arms found their way on Harry’s waist anyway.
Lucius had heard Tom hiss the words get off and Harry all but giggled and said something like wanting to fall asleep like that.
Teenagers, was all Lucius could think of as he walked back to his room.
By the third night, Lucius was already so sure that he would catch them half-naked and snogging.
But instead, Harry had been reading a book to Tom, while the older boy rested his head on Harry's lap. Harry’s free hand was gently caressing Tom’s hair.
Finally, classes started again and both were back to their best behavior.
Lucius would still see a few stolen touches here and there but they never seemed to say anything about it. And Lucius didn’t ask. In public, they acted very platonically. And Lucius thought to give them time to reveal their relationship to him in their own pace.
It was during a Quidditch match in their seventh year that Lucius found out that the two of the most brilliant students that has ever walked Hogwarts had no idea they were in love.
Lucius had been surprised that Tom was coming with him to the game but didn’t say anything. Lucius already knew why he was watching anyway.
Slytherin was playing today and Harry had been incredibly fast as always. They could barely make him out as he flew around the pitch trying to catch the snitch. Then Harry appeared out of nowhere, grinning at Lucius while waving enthusiastically and then abruptly froze as he saw Tom at the blonde’s side.
Then, Lucius couldn’t see Harry anymore. It was only after a few seconds that everybody had realized what had happened.
Harry Potter, for the first time in his entire Quidditch career, had fallen from his broom.
After his rather spectacular fall, Harry point-blank refused to see Tom.
But that didn’t matter because the older Slytherin was there anyway after speeding quite casually through the crowds, Lucius close behind him.
As they reached the infirmary, Harry, lying on his bed, took one look at them and turned his head to the blonde. Lucius had observed there was a flush in his cheeks. Harry had pointedly ignored Tom and instead greeted Lucius.
“Lucius,” the boy had said through gritted teeth. “Thank you for visiting me.”
“Ah, yes,” Lucius said slowly. “But it was actually Tom who—“
“Fool,” Tom had hissed at Harry before Lucius could finish talking. Lucius looked back and forth between the two, Harry finally looking at Tom and Tom looking so angry that Lucius unconsciously took a step back.
“You’re blaming me?” Harry said angrily. “You said you weren’t going, you bloody git!”
Tom didn’t say anything for a very long time. Which only seemed to make the younger Slytherin even angrier. He turned to Tom again and started pointing irately at him. “You came here to gloat, didn’t you?” Harry accused furiously. “Do it! Show that stupid smirk of yours and let’s get this over with!”
Tom still wasn’t talking. And Lucius didn’t know what to do.
Lucius swallowed and started to sweat. The magic in the air was suffocating. And the way the two wizards were staring at each other was violent.
Lucius decided that maybe he wasn’t needed there at all. This was obviously a private matter and they could discuss it better without him.
“Stay,” the Potter heir had said the moment Lucius turned to leave. There was something in his voice that made Lucius stop abruptly. Harry was looking at him, pleading and desperate.
“Leave,” was Tom’s clear order. And Lucius, knowing that look in Tom’s eyes, looked apologetically at Potter, and stepped out of the room at once.
Lucius sincerely hoped they forgot to put up silencing charms this time around.
And they did.
Lucius thanked his lucky stars as he casually leaned his back against the door, as if standing guard. He slowly rested his head against the wood and tried his best to concentrate on the voices he heard.
He could make out Tom hissing something like holding the broom with both hands all the time and Harry huffing incredulously. The sounds were still muffled though.
Pureblood manners be damned.
Lucius couldn’t help it. He already threw that out the window the moment he decided to stay and eavesdrop. After checking nobody was around to see him, Lucius turned towards the door and shamelessly pressed his ear against the door.
“—now you are injured.” It was Tom. He sounded angry.
“Because of you.” Harry hissed back.
Silence.
Then Tom spoke up slowly as if explaining to a child. “I happened to clear up my schedule, Harry,” he explained patiently. “And decided to drop by. It is not as much as a big deal as you make it out be.”
Harry was clearly having none of it. “You could have told me, Tom,” The Potter heir seethed. “You could have warned me beforehand.”
“Why?” Tom demanded.
There was silence.
Then suddenly a flurry of words. “Because you know how I get around you, Tom! Don’t act so ignorant! It doesn’t suit you! You know I get so flustered when you’re around, I can’t do anything right—“
“Why?” Tom demanded again.
Silence.
Then, with a voice so soft Lucius barely heard it, “Do you have to make me say it?” was Harry's soft question.
These fucking idiots.
Harry still sat with them during dinner. But the two barely talked. And Harry had stopped stealing food from Tom’s plate and was eating strictly from his own. They didn’t look at each other. And Lucius wanted to bang their heads together.
The air was so awkward Lucius had to pretend he was studying.
The trip back to the common room was even more awkward. Lucius had tried to converse with either one of them but their replies were clipped and short. When they reached the common room, Harry went straight into his room and Tom in his own.
By breakfast, Harry didn’t even bother to sit with them. And Tom didn’t glance at his direction.
And ever since then, Harry Potter had ignored Tom Riddle.
And Tom Riddle, just as prideful, ignored Harry Potter.
Lucius had hoped that they would somehow get over it soon. It has been a month now. But judging by the way Tom still harshly pulls the blonde every time they even saw a smidge of messy black hair, it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Lucius watched as Tom, who was a few steps in front of him, clenched his right hand. He was obviously affected by Harry’s sudden detachment. Harry had confessed to Tom in his own way in the infirmary, no matter how vague and how indirect, and Lucius would have thought that Tom would have taken the opportunity to show his reciprocation. But Tom didn’t say anything that day. At least Lucius didn’t hear anything no matter how hard he pressed his ear against the door.
Lucius had suspicions that Tom didn’t know how to handle feelings and hadn’t quite expected Harry to hint at their relationship out loud even though there was already some unspoken mutual understanding between them.
Lucius guessed that Harry and Tom were so abundant in brain smarts that God must have skimped on their emotional intelligence and both were just simply at loss at how to deal with something that didn’t require logic. So they dealt with it the best way they could—denial and avoidance.
For six years Lucius was forced to watch the two of them bicker like an old married couple and dance around their unresolved sexual tension… and now they were making him go through this?
He had invested too much of his life and youth on them and they were not going to get away with it.
Lucius decided it was finally time to confront Tom even if it meant getting hexed into the afterlife.
“I’m not doing this anymore, Tom,” Lucius said loudly, looking at the taller boy straight in the eye as they both stopped walking. “You either talk to him or I will.”
Tom’s expression became dark, but Lucius didn’t waver. “Tom,” Lucius said again seriously. “We’re almost graduating. This is our last year in Hogwarts. You might not see each other again. He obviously likes you and you like him too so please just fix—“
Tom ignored him and started walking away.
Lucius sighed and followed his friend. It was ridiculous. He knew Tom was prideful but for him to completely throw away his relationship with Potter just because he didn’t know how to deal with it? Merlin.
Lucius was about to confront his friend again when he realized they were actually going back to the library.
He saw Potter, with his back turned, talking to his friends. Nobody still seemed to realize that Tom was making his way to the Potter heir.
Lucius couldn’t believe that Tom was finally going to talk to the younger Slytherin. And in public no less, in front of his friends.
The blonde didn’t know he was that persuasive.
“Harry,” the older Slytherin called. Harry’s friends abruptly stopped talking and gawked at Tom. The Potter heir visibly tensed and was about to walk away when Tom grabbed him and made him face the taller boy. Suddenly every person surrounding them had turned silent, had stopped walking, and had stared rather shamelessly.
Harry turned red and Lucius honestly didn’t know if it was because of embarrassment or anger or both. “How dare you,” Harry said furiously. “You forget that I know more spells than you. I will hex you into obliv—“
“Harry,” Tom said again looking serious. "I'm sorry."
Everyone gasped. Tom Riddle? Apologizing? To Harry Potter? It was too much. Those three things should not be in the same sentence.
Harry’s eyes widened and he lifted his right hand and pushed Tom on the chest.
“You,” he seethed. “Will give me my moment! You have no idea how much courage it took me to say those words to you that I might as well have been sorted into Gryffindor! And for you to completely ignore me like I'm one of your common admirers, I should have known! I am the smartest wizard in Hogwarts but one look at your stupidly handsome face and I—oh my god!” Tom’s mouth had quirked a little as he was looked at the younger boy losing his temper. Harry reddened even more. “Why the fuck are you smiling, you fucking asshole, I will kill yo—“
Tom grabbed the smaller boy, pushed him flush against his chest, and kissed him.
Everyone gasped and there was a flutter of “bloody hells” across the hallway. Lucius didn’t blame them. It wasn't everyday that Tom Riddle was aggressively making out with Harry Potter outside the library. There was a lot of tongue involved and Lucius even heard the Potter heir whimper as his hands, which were formerly fisted on Tom’s robes, made their way desperately into his hair.
Then Tom pulled away, smirking. And Harry, blushing and looking thoroughly kissed, had whined in protest before his eyes widened in horror.
“Bastard,” Harry said while panting. “You think I’ll forgive you just because of that?”
Tom, still smirking, was about to say something but Harry spoke again, louder and clearer this time, making damn sure everyone in the hallway could hear him.
“You’ll have to fuck me first.”
Lucius almost fainted.
He had spent six—six—long years of his life with Tom and Harry and he wasn’t going to be bloody forced to watch this too.