Draco peeked around the corner as the three Slytherin boys entered the library. His hand flew up to his mouth as he gasped, seeing Potter pinned down to the desk with the Dark Lord on top of him. "He's sacrificing him or something!" He drew his wand up and shouted, "-Stupify-!" stunning the boy on top.

"Tom?" Harry cried, now fully pinned beneath the handsome boy's frame when they were merely snogging a moment before. "What's going on?"

Draco, Vincent and Gregory ran over to them, lifting the unconscious boy off of the Gryffindor. Draco helped Harry stand. "You alright?"

Harry gave him a nod. "I'm fine…what are you doing? Stop that. Put him down," he said, reaching out to stop the two larger boys from manhandling Tom.

"Oh no, he's charmed your memories so you'll protect him," Draco said, cringing. "Sorry about this, Potter, -Stupify- but I need to get my father back and I can't muck around with fixing your sad little broken mind right now." He pointed to the Gryffindor while he conjured up a bit of rope, tossing it to Crabbe while he stood over Tom. "Tie them both up. I'll make a portkey to Hogsmeade. We'll give them both to Granger in exchange for my father. You-Know-Who's never going to forgive us for kidnapping Potter away from him anyway, let's let the good guys deal with him."

Tom was watching Harry out of the corner of his eye trying to judge whether he was unhurt. It was hard to tell as he was slung over Crabbe's shoulder like a sack of potatoes while Harry was being carried over Goyle's. It was very dark outside, and Draco was walking between them hindering his already dim view of the boy of his dreams. This new sense of worry for him clouded any thoughts of escape or his own fate.

"There it is," Draco said, pointing. "They're in there."

As he moved, Tom caught sight of Harry once more. He was looking back at him. "Are you okay?" he asked him as quietly as possible.

"I'm hanging in there," Harry teased. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good. Potter, I just want you to know that this was the best thing that's ever happened to me and if I never see you again I'd rather be dead. They're probably going to kill me once we get delivered anyway. I need to say this before it's too late: I just want you to know before I die that I more than just fancy you…I truly, deeply love you."

Harry gasped. "Gods, Tom. I love you, too. I really do. I won't let them kill you, I-"

"Shut up, Potter," Draco said. He punched Goyle's arm. "They shouldn't be talking to each other. Why aren't they gagged?"

Goyle shrugged. "You didn't tell us to."

Draco sneered at him. "Why do I have to tell you to do every single detail? Why doesn't your brain work right?"

Again, Goyle shrugged at him. "Geez, I'm sorry. I'll do it now."

Draco shoved him forward. "No sense, we're here."

Hermione gasped, seeing the three dark silhouettes approaching the shack. "It looks like Draco Malfoy and his toadies! And they've got Harry! And they're carrying someone else, hmm." Lucius cringed, wanting to scream to Draco to run away but the girl's wand was poking him in the neck, daring him to make a sound. "Ron, go stun them. Do the ferret first!"

"They brought a ferret with them?" Lucius gawked at her. "Why would you stun a defenceless animal?"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Hermione warned him, giving his neck another rude poke.

As they approached the perimeter of the Shrieking Shack, Draco's eyes lit up the instant Ron walked through the door. "Oh, hey, Weasley, you're not going to believe who I've brought- wait!" he cried, before falling to the ground as a stunner spell smacked him in the chest.

Instantly, Lord Voldemort's bonds vanished. Without leaving Crabbe's shoulder, he threw his hand out and called Draco's wand.

Goyle dropped Harry on the ground as he struggled to defend himself but it was too late. He fell to the ground next to him, and the magical rope he'd tied Harry up with disappeared as well. Getting to his feet, Harry was yanked up with an arm around his neck. Tom was holding him and pointing his wand back at Ron. Crabbe was lying on the ground beside him.

"Let him go," Ron said, taking care to keep the taller boy in his sites. "We'll give you Malfoy for Harry, he's just inside here. We don't want any trouble, Death Eater."

"Ron, put your wand down, he won't hurt you." Harry looked back over his shoulder. "You won't hurt him, right? Changed man and all that, remember? This is your chance to prove yourself, Tom."

Voldemort ignored him, keeping his focus on Ron. "We'll do the swap right here out in the open. You send Malfoy out here and I'll let Potter go." And though his words sounded sincere his arm toughened around his captive.

Ron turned to leave but something about that boy standing behind Harry caught his attention. Blinking, he took a closer look at him. He shook his wand, recognising his likeness. "Hey, I know you. There's a shrine dedicated to you in the basement of Riddle House!" He hitched his thumb over his shoulder. "Is Malfoy your boyfriend or something? He's the one that built it."

Tom cupped his hand over his hostage's mouth before he could speak. Clearly, that ginger boy didn't know his true identity yet. "Send him out, please, preferably tonight. Got things to do and all that." Harry went stiff in his arms. He began making a great amount of huffing noises. "What?" he asked him, freeing him the moment Ron disappeared back inside the shack.

Harry glared at him over his shoulder. "You haven't changed a bit, have you? You're not letting me go."

Tom clapped his hand back over his mouth to shut him up. "Yes, I have changed and no, I'm not letting you go. We've been over this hundreds of times already. I'm never letting you go again- What?!" He pulled his hand away again feeling the other boy tense back up.

Harry's mouth dropped open. "I thought you meant figuratively speaking not that I'm going to be your personal Damsel-in-Distress for the rest of my life!"

"Shh, they're coming out." He pulled the prisoner back into his clutches as Ron, Hermione and Lucius stepped out onto the garden. He flicked his wand at them, beckoning them closer. "Nice and slow, now. Let him go and I'll give you Potter here in exchange."

"Hermione smirked at him. "That's not how it works, Lord Voldemort. You let Harry go first and I'll think about not murdering Malfoy and his pathetic son there."

Voldemort's eyebrows shot up. "Ooh, clever girl. You've figured everything out, have you? I can see that we're at a standoff."

"Standoff?" Ron shook his head. "No, we're at the Shrieking Shack."

Hermione made a sobbing noise in her throat. "Stop talking, Ron." She looked back at Voldemort. "You're far too evil to make it this easy. You have no plans on letting him go."

"You have no plans on letting him go, either." He pointed at Lucius, who was openly weeping at the sight of his master gracing him with his presence once more.

"I knew you'd come to rescue me, my Lord. This little Muggle born girl is so bossy, please take me home now."

Harry pulled Voldemort's hand away from his mouth to reason with everyone. "Look, I'm fine, he's not going to hurt me. As strange as it may sound," he said, pulling Tom's arm around him and nuzzling into his embrace, "we've fallen madly in love with each other. Let's everyone lower our wands and talk this out in proper fashion."

Not only did Hermione not lower her wand, her arm stiffened, her eyes bulged out and her mouth dropped open to scream as loud as she could at hearing Harry saying those horrible words and watching him snuggle with Lord Voldemort. "You foul demon! You've enthralled him with your Veela powers, too! How could you!?"

"Veela powers?" Tom and Harry said in unison, looking back at her in confusion.

She held up his birth records. "I've got proof right here. He is one quarter Veela, Harry. His powers were most likely destroyed when he tried to murder you when you were a baby and reactivated when he regained control of his old body. That's why everybody worships him and why you think you're in love with him."

Both boys gasped.

"That's not true!" Tom cried, feeling helpless and heartbroken.

"But…but why is everyone acting like love-sick fools around me, too?" Harry asked her, baffled.

Hermione looked to the side for a moment, then threw a finger up in the air. "Your scar!" she shouted. "Like being a Parselmouth, he transferred some Veela power to you through it."

"No…" Dejected, Harry slumped in Tom's arms, unwilling to keep his legs from buckling.

On the other side of the coin, Tom was furious. His arm anchored Harry to him as he scowled at the girl. "Thanks for destroying all of the trust he's put in me!" Feeling helpless, he tipped his head to Lucius but avoided his yearning gaze. "I'm really sorry about this, Lucius. Err, good luck," he said to the man the instant before he apparated away, taking Harry with him.

Lucius fell to his knees, betrayed and abandoned by the man of his dreams. Ron gave his shoulder a pat while Hermione got to work on levitating her three new prisoners into the depths of the Shrieking Shack. Lucius sobbed, leaning against his new friend's leg for comfort. Ron crouched down beside him, giving him a hug. "It's not your fault. Men are scum."

Lucius sniffled through a nod. "Ain't that the truth."

Harry opened his eyes and glanced around the dimly lit room he currently found himself in. The ceiling was so high it was hidden in shadow. He pushed himself up to rub the sleep from his eyes, positive he was just imagining things and he did not just wake up inside of the Chamber of Secrets. Still trouser-less and wearing Malfoy's pj top, he merely shrugged at Tom while gesturing to the skeleton of the basilisk he'd killed four years back. "Wow, didn't really think this through, did you? Not my first choice of places to take a walk down memory lane together while you're trying to convince me that you're a changed man."

Tom sighed. "I couldn't think of anywhere else to go where we wouldn't be interrupted."

Harry was still scanning the area in awe. "This place terrifies me. Like, it's one of my worst memories ever. You tried to murder me with a gigantic snake monster when I was a twelve year old child, Tom." He frantically pointed at the statue of Salazar Slytherin while staring at the other boy with huge eyes. "Right over there!"

"I'm sorry," he said, pouting. "It was this place or the Little Hangelton Graveyard or the Mudblood Relocation Camp we were setting up for when I took over the world, but I thought those two choices might offend you a little bit more than this place, so…"

"Gods, really?" Harry scooted away from the other boy as he plopped down beside him. "And to think I gave up my virginity to you. Stay over there."

"Oh, Merlin." Tom gaped back at him. "I'm not doing that anymore! I already told you I've changed."

Harry dropped his head to his chest, feeling quite defeated. "Fine, you've changed because you're part Veela and now I'm stuck with its power because of it. It seems to be a lot stronger than I recall Fleur's allure being, too. Like it's super charged or maybe it's because you're so powerful…People are going to be throwing themselves at us for the rest of our lives. We're stuck with each other. What are we going to do?"

"~We're going to deal with it.~" Tom looked down at Draco's wand, sighing. "~All I wanted to do was make you happy, but I'm a failure. I've ruined everything,~" he said sadly, feeling pathetic.

Harry, on the other hand, perked up with newfound interest. "Say that again," he whispered, swooning off balance.

Tom looked away from the snake sculpture he had been staring at. "Sorry, what?"

"~You were brooding with self-pity in Parseltongue. It sounded really hot.~" Harry was looking at the sculpture now.

"Ooh," Tom said, purring. He focused back on the sculpture while he scooted closer to Harry. "~You mean like this? This sounds hot?~"

Harry scooted closer to Tom. "~Yes, just like that. Very, very hot. I'm on fire.~"

"~I was just about to ask you if it was hot in here or was it just me.~" He leaned over Harry, easing him back against the ground.

"~Oh, it's definitely you,~" Harry said against Tom's lips as they pressed against his. "~But what if this is all about you being one quarter Veela?~"

Tom brushed the fringe away from the boy's eyes. "~Have you ever been around a Veela before, Harry?~"

"~Yeah, sure.~"

Tom kissed him very softly. "~Did it feel anything like this?~"

Goosebumps rose up over Harry's skin. He shivered, arching into Tom's embrace. "~No, not at all.~"

Tom smiled. "~Yeah, it's nothing like this.~" And although he could have stayed this way forever, in the arms of The-Boy-Who-Lived, something inside of him began to wane; a feeling of betrayal for someone he'd up and abandoned when he was so frightened and alone. "Hey…I, umm, I feel really bad about…"

"Yeah," Harry said back to him, smiling a regretful smile. "I understand. Let's put an end to this once and for all." He took Tom's hand as they both stood. They walked out of the Chamber of Secrets for the last time; sealing it behind them, never to return.

One Year Later

At the head of the class on the first day back to school for Harry and all of his fellow seventh year classmates, the returning teacher cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone settle down. Welcome back to Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts…Oh, Merlin help me, not again." He held his wand up and shot off a spray of dangerous sparks over his head. "Do I have your attention now? This is serious business, people, so I really need you all to stop that cat-calling and kissy noises you're doing. As you seventh year students can see, we have some returning alumni here getting yet another refresher course on their skills. They're still trying, although not as well as I'd hoped, to learn how to be civilised witches and wizards in a world we're still settling into; that being mixed with Muggle born equals."

Several of the older students in the back of the room groaned. Hermione tore from her dream-like state directed at her professor to glower at them. "You heard the man - equals, accept it and shut up!"

"I really don't need to be here. May I be excused?" asked Severus Snape.

Professor Whowhatshisname ignored him to tip his head to the girl. "Thank you, Ms Granger. Now where was I?"

Draco Malfoy threw his hand up in the air. "Didn't you say something about kissy lessons? I've already picked my partner, as you can see. Can we use that anti chamber back there behind you or what? I'm not doing this in front of an audience."

"Let me go, Malfoy!"

Crabbe blanched. "Don't start this up again, Draco, his owl attacks me whenever you do this to him!"

The professor rolled his eyes as he propped his fists on his hips. "Draco, please release Harry so he can return to his seat. We've been over this."

"Did he say 'kissy' because I heard killy, and I'm all up for that. Bring him back here, Draco- Oh yes, I forgot again, I promised not to say that anymore, my Lo… Professor."

"Wow, thank you, Lucius. You're getting much better at catching yourself before you strike. I'm very proud of you."

Lucius smiled brightly and tossed him a wink. "And I'm proud of you!"

The teacher cringed. "Okay, it's getting weird. Everyone take out your wands, please."

A chubby boy pointed to the back of the room, looking very worried. "Uh, I'm pretty sure now that that's Bellatrix Lestrange back there. She's, uh, she's looking at me again, Professor, just like she did all last year. Please do something about this."

"You mean Voldie's Lady? She's not going to do anything or stare at you anymore, isn't that right, Voldie's Lady? Not putting up with this again this year. Stop terrorising Mr Longbottom here before he realises it really is who he thinks you are and goes to the Ministry, okay?"

Voldie's Lady slammed one of her clawed hands onto the top of the desk. "I'm not gonna hurt him…much!"

The teacher smiled through his worried expression. "You're not going to hurt him at all. In fact, uh put your wand away, nice and slow, drop it, take your hand back…that's a good girl. Now get your fingernails unstuck and sit on your hands. Good, right. Tormwail, I'm putting you in charge of babysitting her. If she goes and does what I think she really wants to do I'm holding you responsible, understood?"

"That's not fair!"

The professor's jaw dropped wide open and slammed his fist on the desk for added drama. "Life isn't fair! Look at where I'm stuck working and who I'm stuck with trying to turn into better people to make up for all the horrible things we've done over the last fifty or so years. I'm doing my part, you do yours!"

"The teacher's eyes are literally glowing red right now!"

Harry swiped his hand across his throat in quick succession, signalling him to nix the anger. "Calm down, Professor. ~Take a deep breath, your evil is showing again.~"

"Oh, sorry." he cringed as he put a pair of sunglasses on.

The Chosen One thrummed his fingertips on his table. "Did you take the medication that I laid out for you this morning?"

The teacher began biting a hangnail. "I did…I think."

Harry gave off a look of chagrin. "Not good. We'll have to discuss this after class…preferably alone…in your chambers."

"Seriously? You're hitting on him in the classroom during class? What part of 'Veela' do you still not understand?"

Harry grinned. "You stare at him more than I do during class, Hermione. Nuff said."

"She does not!" Ron said, before looking at Hermione. "Do you?"

"Course not," Hermione replied while staring dreamily at the professor. "Just like you never stared at Romilda Vane last year."

"I ate chocolate spiked with her love potion, 'mione! You know that!"

"What about Lavender Brown? She spike your chocolate, too?"

Harry dropped his chin on a fist. "Not this again. Drop it, Hermione, you know he can't match wits with you."

"Uhh…Viktor Krum!" Ron spat back.

Hermione shook her head, her eyes never leaving the handsome teacher standing at the head of the class. "Shh, too late. I'm busy."

"So wait, who is this bloke again?" Ron asked her, pointing to the teacher. "He looks really familiar."

Hermione growled lowly and mouthed the words, "you owe me big time" to Harry before patting her boyfriend's hand. "He's nobody special. Just a man Professor Dumbledore is giving a second chance to, in order to right some of the wrongs he's done to the wizarding world. As much as I hate to admit it, I think he's doing a fine job so far."

Harry beamed- and then vanished.

The professor gasped and ran toward the exit. "Oh no you don't! Put him back, Goyle, I don't care if Lucius said his son could have him!"

Draco slumped in his chair. "But I always get what I want."

The flustered teacher escorted Harry back to his table while looking over his shoulder at the elder Malfoy.

Lucius gave him an impish grin. "Forgive me, force of habit."

Hermione gave Goyle a surprising nod. "That was good, I didn't catch you taking him this time. You're definitely improving."

"Thanks, Mudbl-mm'mione." Goyle looked around the room. Almost everyone was glaring back at him, except a select few of the older students in the back of the room. "Sorry. I'm still learning. Ask Draco, I have loads of brain problems." Draco gave her a sad nod in agreement.

Hermione shrugged. "Alright, I forgive you."

The teacher pulled his wand back out and magically locked the door. "Mr Snape, I did not give you permission to leave. You, of all people, need to learn to tolerate Muggle-borns and Half-Bloods. Sit!"

Throwing his wand in the air and dropping into his high-backed chair, the mystery teacher sighed as he scanned over the room until he landed on the most most beautiful vision ever to grace his eyes. Harry smiled at him and blew him a kiss, and everything in the world came together once more. Despite the loss of power, immortality, world domination and the riches that came with it, the former Dark Lord smiled back the most genuine smile, missing none of it. He had all he wanted now.

Through the dimly lit corridor on the seventh floor of Hogwarts Castle Harry gave Tom a healthy shove, prodding him on. "It's not silly. Think harder. Stop pretending like you didn't know this room existed, I know you better than that."

With a sigh, Tom paced in front of the wall thinking very hard about what Harry and he wanted to do that evening.

"Yes!" Harry shouted and pumped his fist, watching the door to the Room of Requirement appear before their eyes. He threw his back against it and took Tom by the hand to open it and pull the other boy inside with him. "Yeah, this'll work," he murmured, looking around the room. Low torchlight flickered on the walls. There were several sofas beneath them with a large furry rug, the size of the Prefects bath, resting in the middle. Harry nodded with approval. He fell back against one of the sofas, pulling Tom down on top of him in the process. "Come here, you." Soft music played in the background. The room itself smelled like thick strawberry foam. The temperature was set to 'perfect'. Harry draped his arms around Tom's neck to draw him in for a kiss. "You looked so pathetic during class, I just had to bring you here to cheer you up."

"Always the hero, aren't you?" Tom murmured as his eyes drifted closed. "Making things right seems to be your job."

"Not in this story," Harry corrected him as their lips brushed and parted. "You're the hero. My hero."

The door to the room opened and closed. Ron and Hermione staggered, lips pressed firmly together and arm in arm, inside. Tom and Harry gasped, their heads turned to the side to gape at them. Ron and Hermione were gaping back. "Oh, uhh…" Hermione said, shrugging. "Mind if we…" She looked over to an empty sofa then back at the boys with Bambi eyes.

Tom and Harry returned the gesture. "Sure, whatever."

All four resumed back into their snogging when the door opened and closed again and Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass stumbled inside, body parts wrapped around other body parts, with loads of kissing and squeaky noises filling the room. The other occupants broke from their snogging; everyone was looking at each other in stunned silence for a moment before the four of them already on a sofa pointed to another, unoccupied, piece of furniture.

The six inhabitants now drifted off into passion; hands sliding up skirts, fingers disappearing under waistbands. Little moans and mewls collided with the hypnotising music. None of them heard the door to the room open once more.

Crabbe and Goyle fell inside and wiggled about until they reached the furry rug. "Uh," Harry said, nudging Tom. Again, everyone in the room gawked at the new arrivals - until it didn't seem all that strange anymore. Every couple pressed their lips back together, back to business.

"Nope, I'm out," Tom said, pushing up from the sofa the moment the door opened again and Hagrid and Professor Sprout tumbled inside.

"Get back here." Harry yanked him down. "Ignore them, c'mon. I'm so hot right now."

"Fine," Tom said, melting back over the boy to press their lips together. "Maybe we should lock the- Oh, you've got to be kidding me…" he muttered, watching the blasted thing swing open again. Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald fell inside as one, not even bothering to look up to notice anyone else in the room.

Harry righted his face so that he could see only him again. The door knob jiggled at that moment and Tom tensed up and glared down at the boy beneath him. "Is this your idea of a sick joke? Are you angry with me or something?"

Hagrid was making the strangest noises, grunting so loudly hardly anyone noticed when Peter Pettigrew and Bellatrix Lestrange entered the room and tripped over the Headmaster and the former second-most-evil-wizard-in-the-world only to land solidly on top of Tom and Harry. "This could not possibly get any worse," Tom said, but Harry fretted at those words, seeing the door part again with the frame.

"Yeah, what you just said… Uh, eyes here, just focus on me. Nothing else exists. C'mon, you can do it." Harry tried his best to keep Tom from looking at the door, unfortunately…

Lucius stepped inside holding a pair of heart-patterned knickers up to his nose. He froze, eyes locked with Tom's, both men knowing damned well whose knickers those were that he was sniffing. "Get up," the ex-Dark Lord said under his breath, giving Harry a shove. "Move to the door right now, no stopping. Don't look him directly in the eye. Let's go."

Lucius dropped the pants and fell to his knees as Tom shoved Harry past him through the door. "Please forgive me, Master, I still can't help myself! You think I haven't tired? I'm in counselling, for Mordred's sake!"

"Oh, for me?" Having landed on the Headmaster's face, he held them up, grinning cheek to cheek as if he'd been given a warm pair of socks. He pecked his one-sided lover on the lips. "You shouldn't have!"

Grindelwald smile-cringed. "Yeah, I know, right? I'm so good to you…"

Slamming the door behind him, and only after pacing back and forth in front of it again to wish it away forever, Tom shoved Harry up against the wall.

Harry threw his hands up in defence. "For the record, the only part I planned involved Ron and Hermione, I swear to Merlin!"

Tom's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "I can tell when you lie to me, Harry. That's my thing."

"Okay, and Hagrid, but I didn't know he was bringing Professor Sprout!"

"What, was he just going to sit there and watch us?" Tom asked him, utterly disgusted. "What kind of twisted…no, don't answer that."

Harry rolled his eyes. "We were going to watch a movie, troll. It's not my fault the only thing on everyone's minds anymore is sex! You thought the room up, not me!"

With another brooding suspire, Tom nodded. "We do seem to have that effect on everyone, don't we?"

Harry winked at him. "We sure do, honey."

"Ooh," Tom said, purring in his throat. He stepped back in front of the wall and began to pace. "Let's give this one more try."

Harry stayed against the wall, ogling the gorgeous Heir of Slytherin as he roamed back and forth three times, causing a door to reappear. He pushed away, letting Tom take his hand and pull him inside. But as soon as he stepped in he tried to back out. "What the hell?"

Every form of tangible evil he could imagine filled up the room. In the very centre there was a gigantic frilly-pink four poster bed. Harry began to shake as Tom dragged him into the room. "Uh, there's a Dementor in the corner. Me and them don't mix well at all. Gonna faint…so cold…room's gone dark…fading fast…" He pulled his wand with a limp hand and wobbled it about, trying desperately to cast a Patronus before he passed out.

"Oh, give me a break!" Tom wrangled the boy into his arms and dropped him onto the mattress. "These are all just stuffed toys. I tried to think up a room no one else could come up with. Give me a little credit, please." As he spoke, the knob jiggled. He dashed across the room and slammed it back shut. His eyes were wild. "Most importantly, one with a lock on the door, that is!" He slid the bolt into place and dove back onto the bed to take the boy in his arms.

Harry was still fixed on the plush Dementor, unable to look away. "I think it moved, Tom," he whispered.

"Come here." Tom cupped his face in his hands; he was so beautiful, so innocent, so frightened. Riddle's mouth roved along his cheeks, kissing them rosy, bringing them to life. And Harry gave in to its ardour as it took the chill from his skin and the fear from his mind. Tom leaned over kissing those plush lips while he warmed his body with his own. His reverential touches brought tears to their eyes and sighs to their throats. All tension melted off through the heat of the kiss, so slow and purposeful. The yearning sensuality roared through their bloodstreams, even through the resounding sounds of pounding fists slamming against the door.

This was everything. There was no hiding, no more headaches. He was a true hero at last, something he never thought to be. And as all heroes do, he got the guy in the end.