Lesser Virtues, Greater Goals | Tomarry

Chapter 17: Sirius Black

They are sitting in the small kitchen table again.

Tom is browsing through another paper, having already eaten, while Harry is eating just now. Lentile soup. It's much better cooked than his aunt's, that's for certain.

"I... wanted to say something." Starts off Harry in a much hesitant manner, for he knows he may get disappointed.

"Well, go on then." Is the reply he gets.

"Okay, so... tomorrow is a special day."

Tom looks up from his newspaper to give him a curious little glance. "Is it?"

"Yes. You see, tomorrow is..."

"Elections? Sales?"

Harry swallows another spoonful before answering. "My birthday."

"Oh. Right. The 31st." Tom considers this for a moment before his mouth turns into the familiar little smirk.

Harry quickly picks up on the hint. "What?"

"Another coincidence. My birthday is on December 31st. We have exactly half a year difference, if we were to be born at the same year."

"And how many years difference do we have now? Fifty...?"

"Fifty four."

"Wow. That's... kind of crazy." Mutters the boy. "Are you sure-?"

"That I'm sixteen?" Offers Tom, voice taunting. "Yes. And the Voldemort you saw last year, he would be about... sixty five, if he aged normally."

"I hadn't thought about that." Murmurs Harry.

"Well, you have now. But there's no need to overthink it, if it makes you uncomfortable."

The boy nods briefly and doesn't comment on the new information.

"What do you wish for that day, Harry?" Says the older, in a casual enough voice. "I assume you must want something."

"Umm, I... I would like a cake."

"Well, duh." (Harry arches a brow at the language used.) "That is to be expected."

"Seriously?" The boy in glasses brightens up immediately. "You're buying me cake?"

A brow raised, this time from Tom. "I assume you haven't celebrated your birthdays properly before?"

Harry hunches his shoulders a bit. "No. Well, except for the birthday before my first year. Hagrid brought me cake. The letters were a little messy, but... it was the best cake I've ever tasted."

Tom's expression grows colder by hearing the boy mentioning another person he was obviously close to. He has to cut most of Harry's ties with people, if his plans are to work - except for the boy's Gryffindor pets, that would be too much. He would be devastated.

"How... considerate of him." Is what he says eventually.

Harry looks at him with his big eyes, hidden behind cheap black glasses, his even bigger heart, so full of innocence and love and things so unfamiliar to him and Tom wants to scream, wants to tear his own heart out and eat it. He doesn't share, ever. He cannot share the boy, be it with Black or his little friends or Dumbledore or anyone.

He tries to snap out of it, so he addresses the other matter that has been eating him away these past days.
"I've got... a surprise for you."

Harry glances away from the plate half full of lentile soup and adapts a narrowed eyed look. "Have you killed someone I know of? Cause if you did, you just give me more reasons to hate you."