„Why are you so dead set on becoming the most powerful wizard?“ Harry asked suddenly, body turned half towards Tom.
The raven’s fingers traced the snake pattern on the wall almost absently, and Tom not invested so much time into learning to read the fleeting emotions crossing people’s faces, he would likely have missed the bitterness lurking behind those green orbs.
Tom narrowed his eyes, but he knew the expression was missing its usual bite.
That new boy was… strange, for a lack of better words. And the fact that even Dumbledore seemed to be unable to make sense of the exchange student unnerved Tom, despite the little flicker of vicious joy whenever he caught the old man casting frustrated glances at the raven.
“What do you think?” he chose to say at last. Feeling that to retaliate with another question was his safest bet at the moment.
Harry shrugged, head turning towards Tom ever so slightly. The hair covering his forehead swished to the left, revealing white, faint lines alike the shape of lightning striking across the sky.
When Tom blinked, they were gone.
“To be completely honest? I don’t know. I’d say bad life choices and an ego the size of Jupiter.“ A smirk. „Or screwed up childhood, maybe.” At the last sentence, Harry’s eyes flickered dangerously.
Tom only looked the other boy up and down, taking in the scrawny frame of the sixteen year old, silently contemplating the scar that was once again hidden by the black strands. It hadn’t looked like something that could be inflicted by tripping down the stairs.
“Takes one to know one, right?” He says evenly, watching the younger boy’s face closely as it shifted into something akin to shock before it was quickly covered up by a practiced mask of indifference.
“I’m afraid I do not know what you’re talking about.” Harry says, sidestepping Tom with one fluent motion before continuing down the hall towards the potions classroom. “Excuse me, I don’t want to be late for class.”
Tom watches the boy leave with a sinking sensation in his gut.
Sweet Salazar, had he been right?
— [Tomarry Time Travel Au + AAANGST]
