TERRIBLE, BUT GREAT - CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SUMMARY:
“Harry Potter.” The cold burrowed into his flesh, the scent of cloying death and molding earth clogged his senses.
“The Boy Who Lived.”
A strange sense of loss and disappointment rose within him. That brilliant, yet cruel boy could’ve been so much more if he’d not stepped down this bloodied path.
Terrible, but great. He pitied this creature.
“Come to die.”
Harry Potter faced the flash of green light with the bravery of a Gryffindor and the broken heart of a Hufflepuff.
—
When Death gives Harry a third option, one that can save everyone he ever cared about, he takes it unflinchingly. Even when that means doing the impossible: falling in love with the enemy, Tom Riddle.
—
TWENTY-TWO EXCERPT:
“It’s not a sign of weakness, Tom.”
“It is—”
“It’s a sign of strength to admit you’ve done something wrong. Come on, I’m not weak, right? You’re not weak. That’s ridiculous. By apologizing to them, they’ll trust you even more. If you never admit that sometimes you get shit wrong, then what’re they supposed to do? How can they trust you when it really counts?”
“It’ll create further distrust in my abilities—”
“That’s not true at all,” said Harry, throwing his hands into the air in exasperation. “And, besides, what do you want? Loyalty? Or just minions?”
Loyalty?
“How dare you,” whispered Tom. “My knights are loyal.”
“Are you sure?”
Something pricked against Tom’s chest and his gaze fell to the floor. The spell he wove at the start of every meeting informed him of the emotional state of each person. It gave insight into whether or not they were lying as well. It was a powerful magical ritual, one that always impressed his knights. It only worked on a willing person - one who kneeled. The feeling that everyone had in his meetings, was this not loyalty?
“Tom.”
He looked up. His eyes widened. Harry stood in front of him, staring down at him with a powerful gaze.
“If you have to think about it, that’s not loyalty.”
“You don’t know them,” whispered Tom. “You’ve only been here for two months. How could you know anything about their loyalty?”
Pity. Those piercing eyes filled with pity. Tom’s lip curled, anger and fury rising in his chest, burning anew.
“Oh, Tom, you—”
Something snapped inside. Tom’s hand whipped out, grabbing Harry by the wrist, and jerked him forward. A soft gasp echoed in his ears.
The bed bounced.
Tom loomed over Harry, hands slammed beside his ears. Dark hair splayed against a moss green comforter. Glasses lay near Harry’s shoulder, leaving his eyes bare and vivid. They widened; lips parted and cheeks flushed darker.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
An Adam’s apple beneath tanned skin bobbed.
“Like what?” whispered Harry.
“With pity.”
But the pity returned to the light in those eyes. Harry made no movement to fight him or to escape.