Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers and its affiliates. It does not belong to me.

Rating: M.

Chapter 1: The Betrayal

Harry found himself in a big dark room, whose interior nearly looked like the facsimile of the Great Hall. On the ceiling of the room, were several lighted candles, which floated with the help of magic; the black color of the sky could be seen, with stars sparkling. In the corridor, outside the door, a giant glass chandelier was placed, which gave of a brilliant light; some of its radiance even came inside the room Harry was in, currently; the room had taken on an appearance of being something ethereal, when the brightness of the glass chandelier contrasted with the dimness of the room.

Harry was virtually in the middle of the room, where people in attendance either admonished him or reprimanded him; some more harshly than others. That was to be expected, or so Harry thought, after he had confessed to what he had done.

"How could you do this to him, Harry? Huh! Tell me!" Hermione practically shouted, almost like Molly did when her husband, Arthur, had used muggle treatment when a snake bit him; she did not care that the other people were present.

But Hermione wasn't the only one who was incensed and furious with Harry.

Ron, Draco, Tom Riddle, Albus Dumbledore, McGonagall, Severus Snape, and everyone else present in the room were furious with Harry. Their eyes blazed and glowed with rage, with anger practically radiating from them.

"I am so disappointed in you, Harry; I had never, in my dreams, thought you'd do something like this," said Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, forlornly, looking as old as he really was.

Harry didn't say anything, except to look down at his feet, with tears running down his face. He felt that he deserved everything and more so. He had known what other people's reaction would be after he had told them the truth.

"You have basically betrayed Tom by what you did, and I doubt that he is going to forgive you easily. I know him quite well, almost like you do, Potter." Draco Malfoy, said the resident Slytherin severely. Draco was in the seventh year of his schooling at Hogwarts along with Tom Riddle and others. He had called Harry 'Potter,' instead of Harry.

Ron also wanted to bellow out something acerbic and scathing like Draco would normally say, "You self-conceited jerk! You stupid little…" but looking at Harry's face, his words stopped at his mouth. Instead he replied, "Hey mate, I really don't know what I want say except that…" He waited for a few seconds, and then he ended his speech by saying, "…you messed up big time, Harry." Ron, the second youngest of the Weasley children, was Harry's friend, who was also in the seventh year.

Others like Luna, Cho, Ginny, Zacharias, and Seamus looked at Harry with a mixture of sympathy and pity, whilst Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin, looked down right furious. "Never trust a Gryffindor, particularly a Potter at that," replied Snape scornfully, with sneer virtually radiating, "I knew that James's prodigy would be more like his father, a pure-blood arrogant bastard. Then cross this with his mudblood mother, Lily; the outcome: a half-blood cocky and self-conceited son, who thinks he knows the best."

"Severus!" said McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor, and Dumbledore at the same time, at the mention of the words mudblood and pureblood.

"Behave yourself, Severus!"

"But Headmaster, I- …" Professor Snape tried to say, however, Dumbledore leaving no room for arguing back, sternly retorted saying, "You are a Professor, Severus, so act like one! Name-calling a student, just because of a personal grudge, is not a professional behavior. Especially not, when you're present in front of the students and other teachers."

"My mother is not a mudblood…"Harry said inaudibly, but he was interrupted; this time by Tom himself.

"Your mother may not consider your mother to be a mudblood, but you, Harry, are much more of a lowlife than her. At least, she knew the meaning of the words honour, devotion, and faithfulness." Tom said unemotionally, with abhorrence and disgust dripping from his mouth with every word he spoke. He was trying very hard to not loose his control.

Those words stung profoundly in Harry's heart; Tom was his partner, mate, and without a doubt his best friend, "I'm sorry…" Harry tried to said remorsefully when…

SMACK!

Everyone present in the room heard the resounding noise of a slap; some of them were shocked, while others gasped. The entire school had known that Tom always kept to himself, never lashed out at others; after all, resorting to any form of violent behavior is not an attribute of a model student.

Harry had felt Tom's slap on his cheeks, which was scarlet red now.

Then Tom interjected him once more "You're sorry, or so you say… but you know what…" Tom had stopped for a few seconds before speaking. "… For once, I really hate you! For what you've done, Harry, I will never forgive you! I should've never trusted you."

In the beginning, Draco and the other Slytherins were not in good terms with Harry and his friends, as they belonged in Gryffindor House; and the saying went, particularly in Hogwarts' history, that Gryffindor and Slytherin were bitter adversaries. Although the Sorting Hat mentioned that they were the acquaintances, but as time passed their outlook on life perspectives changed. Moreover, they also had opposing views regarding muggle-born witches and wizards. All these changes in outlook not only led to hostility between Slytherin and Gryffindor, but also with other Houses against Slytherin.

Tom Riddle, the enigmatic and handsome Slytherin Head-Boy, didn't trust Harry particularly. Before their sixth year, they often fought with each other, just as much Harry, Hermione, and Ron fought with Malfoy, although their (Tom and Harry's) fight was never physical. Their clashing was more often about who knew much in the class, particularly regarding the Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions. But towards the end of sixth year, a contest was held in which opposing rivals were partnered up; but in their case all five of them were paired up: Tom, Harry, Draco, Hermione, and Ron. By the end of the competition, all of them had become virtually close friends.

"Potter," said, the transfiguration teacher, McGonagall furiously, "Everybody knows that you care a great deal about Tom. You professed your feelings and sentiments to him; yet, you have done this indulgence. How could you? You didn't protect Tom, by keeping quiet about the entire incident. Why didn't you tell him the first time it happened?"

"Professor McGonagall," said Ginny softly, "What Harry had faced is painful enough, without us criticizing him so severely." She was trying to defend Harry on her behalf; additionally, she was also trying calm to the charged atmosphere of the room.

"You'd say that, wouldn't you, Ginny. After all, it's not a secret, that you have a crush on him since your childhood days," said Pansy, Draco's ex-girlfriend viciously. "At least Draco was honest enough when he broke up with me. He didn't lie behind my back."

"Pansy, that's enough…" said Neville, Ginny's boyfriend. They all heard Harry whispering something, which was hard to discern.

"…But I never wanted to do it in the first place, Tom." Harry cried persistently.

Even after getting slapped, Harry still went near Tom, to ask for his forgiveness "Tom, please, I'm sorry. I thought…" but he couldn't say anything further than that.

"Shut up, Harry! Just shut up! I'm in no mood for listening anymore of your excuses or apologies." Said Tom. He looked at Harry deathly cold eyes and said in that same tone, "You're nothing but a whore! And I do not want anything to do with a slut!"

After saying this, Tom just went out of the room, without even glancing back at once at Harry; he did not look at Harry's tears, or at his remorse, in his anger. Soon others started to depart from the room as well, some mumbling incoherently, while others not bothering to hide their feelings.

"Two-timing infidel!" said someone.

"Unfaithful lover! I could never believe that you did this to Tom." Luna said and left the room.

Dumbledore and Snape were the last ones leaving the hall. While one had melancholy expression on his face, the other had irritation lining his visage. Everyone had his or her own emotions, thoughts and deliberation about the unpleasant incident.

When everyone had left the room, Harry broke down and started to cry inconsolably. No one was there for him. Why there would be? No one would forgive for his transgression. No one!

Suddenly a cold laughter echoed through the entire room, "You do remember what I said, Potter." The voice continued to cackle, reverberating throughout the room "No one will like you. They all will hate you, if you admit the truth. I said that, didn't I?" The voice stopped for a few seconds, as if it was contemplating something.

"It seems I was right, after all, my darling. You have said one-side of the story, and you've seen their reaction."

"I will not be intimidated by you. Do you understand?" Harry said between his sniffles, even though he looked shattered. "I will tell others about your involvement into it also. I-I-I… promise…"

"You'll tell the others about me," the voice snickered, "Do you think others will believe you, especially if you tell them about me. And even if they do believe, don't you think they'll hate you even more." Then the voice waited again.

"What did Tom call you? Ah, yes, he called you 'a whore!' and 'a slut!'" It said mockingly. "Do you think you can Tom's hate, my dear," the voice questioned, "Will you be able to take and share the pain and anger he will go through?" the voice virtually screeched because it had found Harry's Achilles' heel.

Then the cold voice went abruptly, as it had come, leaving Harry with his tears and loneliness for company.

But the words "Do you think you can take Tom's hate, my dear" kept echoing throughout Harry's mind.

Author notes: This is an AU story since Harry is not The-Boy-Who-Lived and Tom is not the Dark Lord. Additionally, I have tried making both Harry and Tom being in seventh years as the others. I have tried my best to keep the characters in character, but some times I think they went OOC. Flames will be accepted, if it comes with constructive criticism.

A beta-reader would be appreciated. Please contact me in my profile.

Question: Tell me should I continue with the story, or not?