Title: Lightning and War
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairing: Harry/Tom Riddle, a few het and slash background pairings mentioned
Content Notes: Established relationship, angst, violence, dimension travel
Rating: R
Summary: Harry and Tom are pursuing Harry's cousin Jonquil Potter into Tom's dangerous, paranoia-ridden world. In addition to finding Jonquil, they need to deal with Dumbledore, Tom's associates, and dangerous fluctuations in Harry's magic. Sequel to Jonquils and Lightning.
Author's Notes: This story involves a lot of background that won't make much sense without having read the prequel. At the moment, I don't know how long this story will be or if it will be the last in the series.

Lightning and War

Chapter One—Through the Portal

"I still can't believe that Calliope would betray you that way."

Tom made sure that he was facing the other way as he got himself a second cup of tea. Dorea wouldn't take well to the way his eyes rolled. But seriously, it was the third time she had said that, and she knew as well as anyone how much Calliope had hated Harry for the tremendous sin of being alive when her stillborn son, with the same name, wasn't. Why did she have to keep remarking on it?

"Maybe I should have seen it coming."

Tom turned back around fast enough to almost spill his tea. This was the first time Harry had said anything like that. Mostly he sympathized with Dorea and nodded as though he wanted to soothe her.

"What do you mean, Harry?"

"Calliope didn't let up on her bitterness even after I'd been here six months." Harry leaned back in his chair, ankles crossed in front of him, and stared up at the ceiling. His mouth twitched now and then, as though he wanted to spit something out. Tom crossed the kitchen to be near him, resting his hand on his shoulder. Harry's face softened into a smile.

"And?"

Tom didn't glare at Dorea, because he also wanted to hear this, but he held still for a second before he nodded to Harry, telling him that he was all right. He sat down in the chair with his teacup again.

"That should have told me that the fantasy of the perfect family I had was only a fantasy." Harry's hands tightened around his own teacup. "I just—I hoped there were people here who would sympathize with me. My fantasies didn't include a cousin who hated me. I got enough of that back in my first world."

Tom dreamed for a moment of going through the portal to Harry's dimension and wreaking revenge on his Muggle relatives. It wouldn't happen, because Harry didn't want it to, but if he ever changed his mind, he only had to tell Tom.

"Most of the family loves you, Harry. You know that."

"But I was blind about it. I thought this dimension was a paradise. It wasn't." Harry swallowed most of his tea at a gulp and sat up. He looked almost recovered from the magical exhaustion that had consumed him yesterday, when he stabilized the portal to Tom's world. "I need to make sure that I'm seeing what's really there when we go after Jonquil."

Dorea swallowed, but Tom knew there was nothing in her mouth. "You don't have to. I should go myself. Or Celandine and Arthur should, as Jonquil's parents."

Harry shook his head. "I don't blame myself for it as much as I did, but Jonquil is gone partially because of me. I don't forsake my duties."

"I wish you wouldn't think of them as duties," Tom muttered to him.

"Yeah, I know, because you'd like me to give up on them and come back to fight your war with you."

"You wouldn't have to fight. Just come back with me."

"Are you coming back to us, Harry?"

Tom let Dorea have a little taste of his glare, and took pleasure in the way she recoiled. Harry rubbed his thumb gently along the side of Tom's hand and answered only, "I haven't decided. Calliope is family to you in a way that I'll never be. And assuming that Jonquil comes back with us, she might not be best pleased to have us here, either."

"I'll always love you, grand-nephew. I'll always want you here. And you haven't even met Rigel and Rose properly yet."

Tom wondered if Dorea noted the way that Harry's smile didn't reach his eyes. "I know, Great-Aunt. I'll keep it in mind." He drank the rest of his tea and glanced over at Tom. "Are you ready?"

"I know very well that you're not packed, Harry."

Harry blinked. "Yes, I am. I didn't bring that many clothes to this dimension, and only a few keepsakes. I have them in a trunk in my pocket already."

Tom's chest tightened. He had more possessions than could fit into a trunk, and he'd grown up the poor half-blood son of Merope Gaunt. He made a silent vow that someday, Harry would have all the possessions he could ever need or want, and Tom was going to give them to him.

His gaze briefly crossed Dorea's. She had the same look on her face. Tom held back the scowl that no one would have understood. He wanted to be the one to shower Harry with gifts and affection enough that he forgot all about his disappointing life before Tom, and the people who should have loved him, and hadn't.

Well, Harry would spend at least a few weeks with him in Tom's world, surely. Tom had enough time to convince him.

"Tell the others that I went to find Jonquil," Harry was saying to Dorea quietly. "I would appreciate it if you didn't tell them more than that, right now. God knows that the last thing we want is other Potters coming through the portal."

"Yes. What about Calliope, though?"

"I put a charm on her so she can't speak of anything that happened last night," Tom interrupted.

Harry turned to him, eyes narrowed. "I didn't ask you to do that, and frankly I wish you hadn't."

"You can wish it all you like," Tom told him. "It doesn't mean that I want her to tell anyone about portals, rituals that lessened your magic, or Dumbledore. I've also put a charm on that cocoon you wrapped him in so it can't be moved."

Harry nodded and said nothing while they spoke their farewells to Dorea and Harry hugged her. Only when they were outside the house and moving towards the portal did Harry ask out of the side of his mouth, "Really?"

"She betrayed you once already, and at the worst time. You could have been killed by her interruption of the ritual. I could have been killed in that duel if you hadn't joined in. I'm not going to leave her as a dagger to stab at our backs merely because that is what Dorea and the rest of your family would prefer."

Harry exhaled a cold cloud of breath that plumed up in front of them. "I don't think the rest of them would prefer it. And I know that Dorea thinks she should be punished."

"You don't?"

"You're right. She could have resulted in you being killed or seriously injured in that duel. I'm a little angry about that."

Tom smiled. He knew now what it meant when Harry's voice got low and his eyes flashed. "And yourself? Do you have a care for how she interrupted the ritual and how your sacrifice of your magic might have been for nothing?"

Harry's eyes darted to him, then away. "Yes, I'm angry about that. But it's never going to approach the same intensity that my being angry about her endangering someone else is. Don't ask for miracles, Tom. I can't be that angry about someone going after me. All right?"

Tom thought about saying something, and ended up shrugging. "Yes, very well. I'm going to consider it part of the price of loving you."

That got him a far more lovely smile, and then they fell into the easy strides they would need to get beyond the wards that surrounded Godric's Hollow and discouraged Apparition.

Harry studied the portal closely as they approached, ready to turn around and knock Tom away at the least sign of instability. But as far as he could tell, it was steady, a shimmering, round golden gate in the air. Tom had stretched an illusion over it that kept anyone else from noticing it or approaching it, similar to the one that guarded the cage of dreams Dumbledore was wrapped in.

Harry glanced sideways at Tom as they stood in front of it. "You made the illusion transparent to me, but no one else?"

"Of course I did. It was easy."

Harry smiled. Tom was forever going on and on about how wonderful and powerful Harry's magic was, but he was pretty damn special himself. To casually build an exception for a single person into a powerful illusion was…

"Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Because you're wonderful," Harry said, and leaned in to kiss him. Tom stopped and seemed as if he would be willing to raise an illusion over both of them so they could have sex right there on the grass. Harry pulled back and laughed a little. "Come on. We can have sex on the other side of the gate."

"In my own bed."

Harry nodded. "You're going home. You have to be excited, right?"

Tom made a face. "It's not exactly the way I envisioned returning when the oracle first told me that I would find the Potter I needed on the other side of the gate. But I wouldn't give you up now." His hand dropped down to the side and his fingers closed around Harry's, squeezing hard enough to belie his casual words.

Harry squeezed back, and stepped through the portal at the same moment as Tom did, his body turned a little sideways. He couldn't even say later whether that had been instinct or simply so that they could both fit through the gate at the same time and the narrowest point, even though Tom would question him incessantly about it later.

They were on the other side in seconds, on a wide stone floor that led up to walls with broken windows in them and a ceiling overhead that Harry realized, a moment later, was a starry sky. And in front of what looked like the doorway was a pair of dark robed figures who flung Stunners at them.

Harry whirled and shoved Tom to the ground, then dropped himself, rolling out of the way and then close enough to kick one of the dark figures in the groin in one fluid moment. The man gasped and dropped his wand. Harry kicked it into a corner and drew his own. A Cutting Curse sliced open the man's arm and disabled him neatly.

The other robed figure was still turning towards him. He had a deep hood, but Harry could see the underline of his jaw, and his mouth open in astonishment.

Harry Stunned him in response, and watched as he fell. He glanced at the man whose arm was bleeding, and cocked his head. "Is he one of yours, Tom? Sorry, if so, didn't mean to hurt him that badly." But he'd reacted, and although his magic was lesser than he had been—enough that Harry didn't want to try one of the more powerful spells he might once have cast without thought—his instincts and his mastery of simple spells was more than enough.

"Not mine," Tom said, although his voice was shaking a little. Harry turned to him in concern and found the cause. Tom's eyes were fixed on him and dilated in desire. "I see that sacrificing part of your magic to hold the portal didn't slow you down in the slightest."

Harry flushed even though that was ridiculous, with no one else around to see, and shook his head. "Well, I had some training in battle even before that." He stooped down and cast a healing spell on the first man's arm wound. He wondered if these were Unspeakables. He had no idea if the grey hooded cloaks were a common uniform from world to world, though.

Tom had already yanked back the hood on the second man Harry had felled. His mouth worked into a snarl. "These are Dumbledore's men."

"Think they've been waiting here since he went through?"

"It wouldn't surprise me." Tom turned the man a little to the side, and Harry blinked as he saw a mark on the left cheek, almost concealed by stubble. "This shows they belong to the Order of the Phoenix."

"He brands them on the face?"

"I don't know that it's a brand, but it is a magical mark. And yes, of course the face, Harry. Dumbledore says that it would be unethical to hide it and make someone guess whether they're facing a member of the Order or not."

Unethical. Harry stared at the small red rising phoenix on their enemy's face and shook his head. He had to be careful not to let his fondness for the Dumbledore from his own world mislead him. It seemed as though this man was entirely, rigidly different.

"I wonder…" Tom looked around. "I left some of mine to watch the gate, but they would have cleared out once they saw Dumbledore's Order start arriving. They might have left a certain surprise behind, though." He drew his wand and hissed softly in Parseltongue. "Find the bells."

A brilliant blue-silver serpent that Harry thought for a moment was Tom's Patronus manifested from the end of his wand, but it turned green and yellow as it wound through the air, and vanished through the broken door. A second later, the sound of faint bells came to them.

"They did leave the spell as a signal." Tom smiled and pocketed his wand. "They'll be along in a minute, now that they know I've rung them."

"Should I hang back and let you introduce me of your own accord? Or hide myself?"

Tom swiveled around to look at him. "Why would you do that?"

"Your people might be a little paranoid, especially if Dumbledore's men chased them away." Harry shook off the momentary strangeness of using the label he had once proudly claimed for himself to apply to someone else, and plowed on. "They might attack first if they see me."

"They can do that, and then you can show them how much stronger you are."

"Not anymore."

"Strength is measured by more than mere magical prowess."

Harry felt his eyebrows rising, but before he could call Tom out on that lie that wasn't what Tom believed, he heard the cracks of Apparition coming in. He moved in front of Tom, and felt Tom rest a hand on his shoulder for a second.

"If it's my people, then they should see me," Tom murmured into his ear. "And if it's not, then we should fight together, not with you throwing me out of the way all the time."

Harry felt himself flush. "Sorry," he muttered as he stepped restlessly back. "It's the protective instinct. Hard to keep it under control."

"I forgive you."

Harry rolled his eyes, and then turned and watched the broken door as the first of what looked like three or four wizards walked cautiously through it. The lead one wore a cloak with a hood, too, and Harry tensed automatically, but then the newcomer threw his hood back and rushed forwards. It was Abraxas Malfoy, who Harry had seen in a few of Tom's memories when he cast the Angelfire Curse.

"Gaunt," breathed Malfoy. "Here you are. When Dumbledore showed up and performed the blood sacrifice to go through the portal, we weren't sure if we would ever see you again." He blinked and stared at Harry. "Did you—did you find the one you went to seek, my lord?"

"I did," Tom said, crisply. "His name is Harry Potter." He glanced sideways at Harry, obviously waiting for him to go beyond that.

Harry dipped his head a little. "You must be Abraxas Malfoy," he said. "Tom showed me that you matter to him when he shared some of his memories with me."

He'd spoken in a way that he hoped was finely calculated to attract Malfoy's attention while not embarrassing or upsetting him. It seemed that he'd shocked him, instead. Malfoy's jaw dropped open, and he turned and whispered, "My lord? Memories?"

"Yes. Harry knows what's important about me, and what's important to me. We actually came back to this world so that I could help him accomplish a quest, and he could help me accomplish mine."

Harry frowned at him. Tom, you know that's not why we came here, he tried to say with his mind, but Tom wasn't looking him in the eye and thus couldn't be using Legilimency or hearing the thought. For the first time, Harry missed the Horcrux connection that used to tie him and his world's Voldemort together.

"I—see." Malfoy didn't look as though he understood at all, but said, "I know there was someone who came through the portal a few days ago, but I don't know who it was. Other than a few spying trips, Dumbledore's men have kept us away." He glanced at the unconscious Order of the Phoenix members on the ground. "I see that you disarmed them with no trouble, my lord."

"That was Harry," Tom said carelessly, and began to stride towards the broken door. "Do come on, Abraxas. I'm eager to get back and hear what Philip has to say."

Harry cringed a little under the wondering glance Abraxas directed at him. Because there wasn't just wonder in it, but wariness, and maybe jealousy, too.

Wonderful. Just great. The last thing I need is to become some sort of phenomenon in Tom's world as well.

And I am not helping him with his bloody war!