the Gambler

The holidays were getting closer, and Harry's stomach writhed uncomfortably, like someone had put a live eel in it.Perhaps it had something to do with the relatively peaceful atmosphere of the semester, not that Harry hadn't had any fatal accidents, but that Voldemort's lack of movement seemed odd to him.As usual, he would face that snake-faced bastard once a year.

The morning owls came again, and they threw the latest Daily Prophet on the table, and Harry's copy still made it to Tom.Hermione looked back and forth between the two with strange eyes, but Harry didn't mean to explain. He knew that the sharp-eyed witch had discovered that the clothes in his robe belonged to the people around him. Changed the Slytherin green and silver color scheme to Gryffindor's gold and red, otherwise more people would have noticed.

"I can't believe it," Ron threw the latest newspaper on the table, "After a while of peace, Fudge is following you again."

"It's nothing new, the election hasn't passed yet." Harry said sullenly, turning his questioning eyes to Tom, "How is Professor Babling's ancient rune project going?"

Tom raised half an eyebrow, folded the newspaper under the plate, and gave Harry his undivided attention, who looked away uncomfortably under his intent gaze.He hasn't asked about the subject since the last small conflict, but it's almost done by then, isn't it?Harry played with the fork in his hand. Although he finally pushed the task to Tom, it was all his fault!

"Thank you very much for your concern, that's settled." Tom said calmly.

"You need to get involved!" Hermione raised her voice, and she entered her usual preaching mode again. The Gryffindors on the side all cast sympathetic glances at Harry, and even Ron stopped eating, his blue eyes Floating between friends and lovers, Harry suspected he was considering which side he should take, which was clearly a difficult decision, because in the end he chose not to see and continued to eat the pie.

"But I've done a lot!" Harry pouted, and he turned to look at Tom, which was half the truth.

Tom didn't look at Harry, he took out two simple silver rings from his pocket, only a vivid snake was carved on the outer wall, and he handed one of them to Harry.The boy took the ring and observed it carefully. He noticed that the snake's eyes were beautiful emeralds, and it swam around and made a hissing sound from time to time. If Harry hadn't seen many such weird things, Harry might have thrown the ring away. To Tom's face.He tilted his head and looked at Tom's one, which was the same style, but it was inlaid with rubies.

"What is this?" Harry asked suspiciously, completely oblivious to the hateful eyes of the Gryffindor girls.

But Tom obviously understood Harry's problem better than those witches. He pointed with his wand to the invisible notch on the side, which was magnified several times in an instant, and dense runes appeared in the air.It was by no means an easy job, considering the entire auditorium was focused, reverently.Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Professor Babbling also get up from the staff table and walk towards them.

"The ring you chose in the end?" Harry said in disbelief, thank you, he now realizes what the witches' strange eyes mean, this is really the worst carrier, is Tom going to let Harry and him wear the adult ring? Right ring in public?Merlin, he has no intention of adding fire to the already boiling scandal.

"This is more convenient." Tom shrugged nonchalantly. He put the ring on Harry's finger and looked up at the professor of magic literature. "We have to find a place to experiment. As a result, apparation and port keys are forbidden in the castle, I think it will be fine too." It makes a difference."

The witch nodded, and the three moved out of the castle against the suspicious eyes of the entire auditorium.Tom's work is perfect, the ring can only be controlled with Parseltongue, the moment he pronounces Harry's name, Tom disappears out of thin air, and the next second, the boy reappears in front of Harry.Professor Babling was quite satisfied with this, and Harry knew that he had easily met the requirements of the rune class.

Occlumency sessions with Tom are coming soon.Harry had been a little worried about the fact that the other party would know he was Voldemort, but the fact that Legilimency could only see memories and not thoughts made the boy a lot more relaxed.Maybe, maybe he could catch a glimpse of Tom's weakness by accident.Harry adjusted his mind and met Tom's expressionless face.

"How much do you know about Occlumency?" Tom asked coldly.

Harry knew that the other party had entered the state of teaching, and his heart was beating violently. He had no talent. Could it be that Tom, like Snape, gave up teaching after knowing that Harry was useless?Harry organized his words for a while before answering in a low voice: "Occlumency is a spell that prevents the mind from being invaded by outsiders. In order to resist the attack, you must first clear your mind, and then raise a barrier in your head?"

Tom nodded: "Which step have you done?"

"I can't build a barrier against it," said Harry despondently. "It's too hard."

"Think of it this way, if the secret you need to hide the most is put in a transparent glass ball, anyone who wants to know can understand the darkest corner of your heart just by touching it. In order to hide it well, you will put it where to put?"

"Where no one can reach."

"Then you want to hide it so that even the remotest corners can be found if someone tries to find it. How do you fortify it? Or just throw it in hundreds of identical glass spheres? Where is the place where you feel most at ease?"

Harry nodded. Tom's teaching methods were much more interesting than Snape's.

"Try to imagine a space in your mind that can be filled with glass balls, and seal up those useless memories, and bury the ones you want to hide most in the deepest part."

Harry closed his eyes, and for some reason, the image of the Room of Requirement appeared again in his head, densely packed with crystal balls, and Harry hid the most important ones on the highest shelf, yes, so that no one could touch them.

"are you ready?"

Tom's voice seemed to come through the water. Harry shook his head to stay awake. When he opened his eyes again, a huge impact hit him. He knew that Tom was using insanity, and the fragile barrier didn't work. Too much effect, those messy memories flashed through Harry's mind like a film, his kiss with Qiu, his surprise attack by Parkinson, his duel with Tom - the confrontation between him and Voldemort in the cemetery, the snake The bastard of the face pressed hard against the scar on his forehead, the blood blurred his eyes—

Seeing Voldemort bring Harry to his senses quickly, he had a hard time pushing Tom out of his head.Harry was panting heavily, Tom's face was very ugly, maybe it had something to do with seeing the kiss, Harry silently thought, Tom is a very possessive guy.

"open--"

"I have nothing to do with her," Harry said hastily, and Tom really cared. "In fact, we decided that the relationship of friends is enough, and there is no need to go deeper."

Harry's explanation seemed to put Tom in a better mood, and he motioned for the boy to do it again.

Tom seemed to take a little more effort this time, but it was still easy enough to get inside Harry's head.Encounters in the maze, underwater mermen, giant Hungarian hornets, rescuing Sirius from the tower, fighting off hordes of dementors near the Black Lake—

Harry pushed Tom out of his mind again.There was already a fine line of sweat on his forehead, and Tom's cheeks were only slightly flushed.

"Maybe you should try something else, put spells or guardian monsters in the room or something," Tom suggested.

"What did you put in your head?" Harry asked cautiously. He hoped that the question would not offend Tom. In fact, with Tom's arrogant personality, Harry thought that the other party might be happy to tell him. , the premise is that he believes that Harry still has no way to break through his own barrier.

Tom shrugged indifferently: "The curse of the reptile language, it is my last protective barrier."

"Speaking language?" Harry couldn't help repeating.

Tom made no secret of his pride: "It only belongs to the ancient language of Slytherin. I am his only descendant. No one can break my barrier."

But I can.Harry added silently in his heart, of course he would not tell the other party.He suddenly had a brilliant idea. The boy added several dementors above the Room of Requirement. It seemed that because of their appearance, the temperature of the whole room dropped a lot.Harry smiled, yes, he was pretty sure neither Tom nor Voldemort would have the Patronus Charm, they couldn't get through the barrier.

"This is the last time," said Tom quietly.

As soon as he finished speaking, a much stronger force pierced Harry's head than last time, and scattered the not yet fully formed dementors.This time it was much worse, and Harry could feel Tom's anger, so intense it almost suffocated him.Harry knew he couldn't think of anything worse than asking Tom to teach Occlumency, and the last thing he heard was the boy's angry voice before the spell was shot at him:

"Who is that snake-faced man? Who am I?"

In the silent Slytherin lounge, in a corner where the firelight could not shine, two boys confronted each other. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that one boy was struggling while the other stood by.The air here seemed to drop below freezing, making it difficult to even breathe.

Harry struggled, he was now firmly strapped to the armchair, and Tom was watching him with icy eyes.

"I saw you destroy my diary. Harry Potter, who are you? What's our relationship?" Tom took a step forward, his fingers gripping Harry's chin firmly.

"I don't know how the diary can communicate with people, but I did destroy it, and that's why I recognized you at the first sight." Harry said calmly, "Our relationship was very early. As I said, you are the deputy of the Dark Lord, and I am the fighter of the light side."

"You are a brilliant liar. If you hadn't noticed the complex emotions in your eyes, you would have fooled me." Tom took a step forward, completely eliminating the distance between the two, because of Harry's height, The other party could only look up at him, which naturally made Tom look into Harry's eyes more clearly.

Visible anger and disgust.

But no fear.

This may be the first time in so many years that Tom saw the fearless eyes when he showed strong suppression. He felt that his breath stopped. Harry's emerald seemed to have magical power, drawing him closer to each other.Tom put his hand over Harry's eyelids, and Harry flinched indistinctly, as though Harry had realized that this flinching response in his presence would only encourage him to keep going.It won't be long before Harry overcomes this neurotic reaction and truly grows into a powerful wizard who can stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

I want him.