:::

"Dennis, I know you've got money hidden under your bed," Tom was saying, in a low, calm voice. "Give it to me."

Dennis shook with fear. Even then, he was brave enough to shake his head 'no'. "I saved it up fair and square Riddle, and you don't get to take that from me."

Tom Riddle tutted. "Do you remember what happened to Billy Stubbs? Do you need me to remind you?"

Dennis went and withdrew six shillings from underneath the bed sheets. Tom's expression turned a complete one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. "There we go, that's a good boy," he smiled. "Is that cheese I see on your table?"

Dennis gave Tom three pieces out of six. "And some for my cat, as well." A shaky hand put one piece on the floor, where Harry was looking up at Tom with the most disapproving expression his cat face could express. Tom side-eyed Harry, and picked up the piece on the floor.

"Lightning! With me," Tom said, and walked off. Harry heaved one great sigh, and followed with his tail held up in the air.

'You didn't have to do that,' Harry hissed. 'That was cruel.'

"You're expensive to feed," Tom replied. "Would you rather starve?"

'I can go out and find other food,' Harry said. 'I can hunt mice and birds. Sarah, my first master, used to let me hunt the mice in her basement, and I killed those and brought them back for her. I'm sure I could find another person who would give me scraps like her—'

"I'm your master now," Tom said, clear and firm. "And you're not to go off the orphanage grounds. You're definitely not to go up to other people. What if the cat-catchers found you, Lightning? What if a carriage ran you over?"

'I survived fine before I met you, you know,' Harry said wryly. 'I do look both ways before crossing.'

Tom responded by scooping Harry up and rubbing his ears. Cheat, Harry thought, but he let Tom rub his head and carry him into his room. Tom fed him his piece of cheese from his fingers, and then gave him two of Tom's pieces as well.

'But what you just did to Dennis,' Harry said, purring belly-up on Tom's lap. 'It's not going to get you any friends.'

"Like I want to be friends with the rest of this trash," Tom replied, scratching Harry's stomach. Harry was cognizant enough to think 'that attitude sounds like trouble,' but he digressed.

"Your Hermione though, she sounds like a smart witch," Tom told him, lying down in his bed. "And Ron can't be awful if his chess ability is as great as you make it out to be. You sound as though you have the most amazing adventures – tell me how you defeated Professor Quirrel again."

Harry did. He recounted all of his adventures, starting from meeting Ron on the train to going across the lake in boats. He talked about meeting the giant squid and seeing the castle in the distance and Professor Snape's horrible early exam questions. He talked about how he met Hermione when the troll entered the girl's bathroom and how they put all the clues together to figure out what was guarding the Philosopher's stone.

Harry even talked about finally facing his arch-nemesis – the Dark Lord – who had been hidden on the back of Professor Quirrel's head, but never once did he name the Dark Lord. Tom would find out who he was eventually.

'It is the best bed-time story, isn't it?' Harry concluded. 'I can't wait until I see you at the Sorting. But don't be surprised when I tell you who I am – I look a bit different when I'm a boy.'

He waited for a reply, but when none came, Harry peeked up from underneath Tom's arm. Tom was already asleep.

:::

'I'm still a cat,' Harry said, surprised, when it came to the day they were to go onto the Hogwarts Express. 'Normally I turn into a boy on the day before!'

Tom wasn't concerned. "It's fine. I can carry you to King's Cross station in my backpack."

They had to make their way there through catching a series of buses and with a lot of hiking. Harry wasn't sure, but there was something very strange about the clothes that the people were wearing, and about the buses that they were catching. Harry hadn't really noticed before, because he'd lived with Sarah for most of his early childhood, and she'd been rich – he never left her manor house until one summer he came back and found it empty. After that, he'd gone straight to the orphanage.

It might just be the location though. Surrey buses were bound to be different to London buses. Maybe London had a particular sort of fashion that people liked to adhere to.

"I suppose you know how to get to platform 9 and ¾'s?" Tom asked, looking once more at his ticket. Harry jumped out of the backpack and stretched his legs.

'I'll walk with you there,' the cat said. 'Remember, it's easier if you run through the wall.'

They made it through the barrier, and Tom got his first look at the busy Wizarding station. There were many people rushing around – students moving their trunks on the train, prefects bossing people around, and parents who were dropping off their children, hugging them or waving goodbye to them through the train window.

'Well, there's the train,' Harry pointed with his tail. Tom picked Harry up again. 'Someone will run you over, otherwise.'

They stood in silence, looking up at the great monolith of the train.

"Do you want to get onto the Hogwarts Express?" Tom said, finally. "When does your magic turn you back into a boy?"

'When does my magic turn me 'into' a boy, not 'back into' a boy,' Harry corrected him. 'I don't know when it happens, it just does. You should get on first, I think. We're in different years; it'll give you a chance to make friends in your own year.'

"When will I see you?"

'I'm sure you'll see me again in a few hours. I'll try not to miss your sorting, that's very important.'

Tom made a non-committal sound.

'You'll be fine,' Harry said. 'You're brilliant, you're the one who ended up explaining all of the magical concepts to me.'

"Did I look like I needed reassurance," Tom asked softly.

Harry laughed, flailing about in Tom's arms. "Lightning! Would you stop that?" People were looking at him now, the boy who was talking to and trying to control his epileptic cat. He let Harry drop to the floor in disgust; Harry continued laughing and started rolling around on the concrete.

"Right. I'm going," Tom decided. "And you're not coming with me, until you're human again. Otherwise - everyone's going to think that I'm crazy before I even make it to Hogwarts!"

"You kind of are," Harry replied, in between bits of cat-laughter. "But it's been alright so far. I'll see you around Tom."

He watched as Tom stepped onto the train with his trunk and his backpack. When Tom disappeared from his line of sight, Harry climbed on top of a statue so that he could continue watching his master through the windows. He looked on as Tom found a seat amongst some other first years, thinking about how he met Hermione and Ron, and resolved to introduce the two of them to Tom as soon as possible.

You will get along so well with Hermione, Harry thought to himself. They were the smartest people Harry knew.

There were other people waiting at the station; parents, younger siblings that couldn't go to Hogwarts yet, friends and guardians and grandmoms and granddads.

Tom didn't have any of those people waiting for him. So there was no reason for him to look back out the window as the train was leaving, and wave goodbye.

He did that anyway.

:::

Harry fell asleep in an alley that night, bitterly disappointed that he would miss Tom's sorting afterall, and then woke up in the morning in Aunt Petunia's garden, as per usual. He noticed his pink fingers again and made for his cupboard, only for an alarm to be set off as soon as he touched the doorknob.

"What in the blazes," Harry yelled, hands going to his ears. There was a series of popping noises, and within the space of a minute, six wizards in a red uniform up and stupefied him on the spot.

That was the last he'd seen of Privet Drive that summer.

Harry was brought straight to Hogwarts. He asked if he'd missed the sorting, and Professor McGonagall said he had. Harry then asked her what house Tom had made it into, and Professor McGonagall asked 'Tom who?'

That was when he realised he didn't know Tom's last name. Last names weren't important for cats.

He couldn't find Tom. But between evading through all the Professors' questions on exactly where he had been all summer 'we had missing child posters for you!', and what exactly he had been doing 'we put your picture on the back of milk cartons!', Harry was also knee-deep in another mystery. He was forced to put the issue of Tom on the back-burner for now, but Harry wanted to make sure that when he came back as a cat next summer – he would have another adventure to amaze Tom with.

:::

The Chamber of Secrets debacle was interesting.

'Let me show you what happened fifty years ago,' Tom Riddle's diary said, and when it sucked him in, Harry's heart skipped a beat.

"Tom?" he yelled, looking at a face he hadn't seen in months. The face was a little older; his hair was neater, his cheekbones were sharper, and something about the quality of his eyes had changed – but Tom would've had to do a lot more before he was unrecognisable to Harry. "Merlin, is that you?"

The memory around him stopped and fizzled into white. "Do I know you," Tom Riddle asked.

Harry laughed. "We met last summer! Don't tell me you've forgotten me!" Harry pulled up his fringe and spun to show Tom the lightning scar. "Guess who," he teased.

"You," Tom said, shocked. "You're Lightning. Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived."

Harry gave him his best cat smile. "I told you I looked different as a boy."

When Tom still didn't say anything, Harry got worried.

"We went down to the river together. Don't you remember? You got me cheese, and I got you a bird, and you said it was disgusting and left it on Amy's bed. I felt bad I got you locked up in the attic and I stayed there with you the whole time."

There was still something wrong with this picture. Harry frowned. "You were eleven when I last saw you. Do you remember?"

Tom looked at him and touched his face.

"I do."

:::